the end of room 32

I'm sad to see it go, but I am no longer in Room 32. I was asked to move classrooms this summer to be closer to my team. I am now in Room 22. At least it still works for my blog title! Another benefit is that I will be just across the hall from some of my favorite students!!!

Because of this, I am starting a new blog, just so it won't be confusing for parents this fall. Please come visit me there if you want to see "What's New in Room 22".

Dance Festival

We have had an awesome last week of school! I cannot believe how much fun we have fit into a few short days. Awards assembly, pool party, mini marathon, field day, dance festival, and more! These are memories to last a lifetime.

Here is a picture of the class after the dance festival. We were pretty hot and tired, but everyone looked so cute!

I am going to miss this class so much. They have been great and I am sad to see them go. I hope everyone has a great summer and we'll see you in the fall!

Spring Field Trip

We went on a really fun Spring field trip and learned about plants and animals.
Unfortunately, my camera battery died, so I didn't get any pictures. I am finally updating this post with pictures! Thank you to those who sent me some. These are great!

Teacher Appreciation

Thank you to everyone for making Teacher Appreciation a wonderful week! Of course, it's one of my favorite weeks of the year. By this time of the year, I think every teacher needs a boost. Teaching is a hard job, yet so rewarding. It makes it easier knowing that others appreciate all we do.

I had some wonderful room moms come in to decorate my door and cover the class so I could enjoy a wonderful breakfast served by the PTA. It was awesome! Thank you so much!!!

Look at this amazing door decoration!

Throughout the week, the children brought in all sorts of gifts: fruit, flowers, supplies, treats, notes and more. I sure felt loved and appreciated. Thank you, thank you, everyone!!

Walking Field Trip

We had a wonderful walking field trip to the train. We learned a lot and had fun as we rotated through four stations. We learned about the history of trains, rode on the train, played some games, and ate popsicles!

What an awesome, generous family to share so much with the community.

Measuring

We really learned a lot and had fun during our Measurement Unit. The kids loved using rulers and measuring things around the classroom. When we learned about weight, each child got to choose an item in the classroom to measure in grams. We found some pretty heavy things, that fit into the container on this scale .

Crazy Sock Day

Here are some CrAzY socks from the last week in April.

plants

We have been learning about plants. Today we planted a lima bean seed in our Little Sprout House. We can't wait to see what has happened when we return to school on Monday.

Scientist of the Week

James was our scientist this week. He did an experiment with "Invisible Ink".

This was a tricky one, and he had to do most of it at home. He showed us how he wrote on a white paper with lemon juice. It's invisible! The class made their predictions. Then, he showed us the one that is not invisible. Magic, right?
The instructions say to put it in the oven, but James' dad just held it over a burner, and that did the trick. I told the class, do not to try this experiment without a parent!

Look, you can now see the invisible ink!

Great job, James!

Spring Party

We had a fun Spring Party on Friday. The children were so excited!

We made bird feeders...

did an egg relay...

and did the cake walk for a treat.

Yum!

A big thank you goes to our room moms for all the time and effort they put into making this so much fun for the class.  Have a great Spring Break and we'll see you next week!

Scientist of the Week

Bekah was our scientist this past week. She did a really fun experiment with an egg we called, Sink or Float?

 Set up and ready to go!

First she put the egg into the water, and it sank to the bottom of the cup.

Then she added several scoops of salt and stirred it into the water.

Can you believe it? The egg floated in the salt water!

The kids had to take a look up close.

Thanks, Bekah, for a great experiment! 

This is a fun and easy one to try at home.

Crazy Hair Day

We had some pretty crazy hair-dos for Crazy Hair Day this week.
See if you can recognize any of these cute kids with their crazy hairstyles!

St. Patrick's Day

I had no idea how much the kids would get into St. Patrick's Day this year. We had two different leprechaun traps brought to school. The class was very disappointed that we were not able to catch one. Luckily, the leprechaun that got away did leave a note and some yummy shamrock cookies.

Here we are with the potato people we made the day before. Fun!

Reading Date with Mom

We had a fun morning reading with our moms last week. Thank you everyone for coming in to read with us!

Smart Board

We are one lucky classroom! Another teacher in the school wrote a grant and, with the help of the PTA, our school was able to get four SmartBoards. We were one of the lucky classrooms to get one. (The others are in 6th, 5th, and 3rd grade.)

What is a SmartBoard? It's an interactive white board that when hooked up to a computer acts basically like a large touch screen computer. It also comes with really cool software that we can use to teach and learn pretty much any subject. We use it a lot for math. The kids love it when we pull it out, usually in the afternoon. I have been keeping track of who gets a turn, because the kids always want it to be their turn. This way, they know it's fair and everyone's happy :)

In order for it to work, I have to have a multimedia projector hooked up to my computer to project what's on the computer screen onto the SmartBoard. The bad news is that we don't have enough projectors in the school, and I don't have one! I have been able to check one out from the District Media center for a few weeks at a time, but it sure would be nice to have one to keep.

Here are some pictures of us playing a spelling game on the Smart Board.