Reading Olympics

We had a fun competition during the month of February for our classroom Reading Olympics. We worked hard to read as many books as possible at school and at home. The kids (and parents) did a great job turning in their home readers every day. What a fun month! Each week I awarded the medals- gold, silver and bronze- for points earned that week. At the end, we had a party to celebrate everyone's success. Everyone is a WINNER!!

Here are pictures of the medal winners on the day of our party.

(some are not pictured)

Scientist of the Week

Harley was our scientist last week. She did a great job showing us that air takes up space!

 

 First she put a tissue into the bottom of a plastic cup. 

Then she turned the cup upside down and pushed it into the bowl of water. 

The cup with tissue inside was completely under water.

 

When she pulled the cup out, the tissue was still dry! How did it stay dry?

We tried it a few different ways to see what would happen. 

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

Thank you, Harley!

Book Characters

The last week in February was Literacy Week. The PTA had a lot of fun activities planned for the week. On Monday, we were encouraged to dress up like a book character. 

Here a few from our class looking really good!

Scientist of the Week

Andrew was our #1 Scientist this past week. The kids loved this one! They predicted it would fly, glide, spin, twirl, and/or drop to the ground. Each time he tried throwing one, it did a different thing.

Andrew wore the goggles to protect himself from these flying straws :) 

The kids wanted him to do it again and again.

That was so fun! Thanks, Andrew!

Scientist of the Week

 

What a cute scientist!

Zoey was our scientist the week of Valentine's. She did a whirling twirling experiment with a heart and a smiley face on different sides of a card. It was cool how our eyes took a picture of both when she turned it and we saw a smiling heart! It was perfect for Valentine's Day!

 

 Thank you, Zoey! Great job!

Valentine's Day

We had a fun Valentine's Day 

(and I actually remembered to take pictures)!

 

Here we are passing out Valentines.

You can see lots of balloons from the Valegrams.

  

  Everyone brought cute and original Valentine boxes.

  

Here we are opening and reading our Valentines.

  

 

After opening and reading our Valentine's Day cards, we had a yummy treat! 

Thank you everyone for your help in having such a special day.

Spelling Practice

I am so excited for this awesome website I found for practicing spelling. It is called Spelling City. I have added a link to it on the Links To . . . section of the blog.

All you have to do is "copy and paste" the whole list that I put on the blog each week, and paste it into the list section of Spelling City. (It only shows space for 5 words, but if you look underneath those 5 spaces, and click on "batch entry", you can paste the whole list at one time. It's fast and easy!)
Then have your child click on test me, teach me, or play a game to practice their spelling words. How fun and how easy is that? I hope you try it!

100th Day of School

I thought it would be fun to list 100 things we did to celebrate the 100th day of school, but for the sake of time, I'll narrow it down to 11. :)

     11 Fun Things We Did to Celebrate the 100th Day of School

1. Read a 100th Day of School book with our fourth grade buddies.
2. Counted 100 pennies.
3. Did 100 addition equations.
4. Ate the number 100 (stick pretzel & two Ritz).
5. Counted to 100 doing a maze.
6. Counted and ate 100 snacks.
7. Did 100 exercises (jumping jacks, hopping, touching toes, etc.)
8. Listened to "Henry Hooper's 100 Hiccups".
9. Sang and marched to a 100 Day song.
10. Made a mosaic picture with 100 squares.
11. Made a 100 Day crown with Mrs. Rogers.

Scientist of the Week #9

McKenzie was our scientist this week and she did a great job! Her experiment was about colors.

Set up and ready to go!

First she put a big dot of black washable marker onto a coffee filter. Then she dropped one or two drops of water onto it. We found out that the color black is made with other colors. In this case, it was mostly blue. But if you used a different marker, it may turn out differently.

Her second experiment, she dropped several different colors of food coloring into a glass of water. She then dipped in a folded coffee filter. It absorbed and separated the different colors. It was really neat!

Thanks, McKenzie, that was so cool!

Scientist of the Week #8

We had another fabulous science experiment this week done by our #1 Scientist, Scottie.


He poured vinegar into a flask (you could use a bottle), added baking soda into a balloon, and then attached the balloon to the top. When he tipped the balloon up, the baking soda spilled into the vinegar and it reacted. The reaction created a gas that filled up the balloon. Wow! Was it ever exciting.


One of the predictions was that the balloon would explode. The kids were pretty nervous as it got bigger and bigger. Good thing Scottie had the goggles on. Even he was scared it might explode!


After the balloon experiment, Scottie did the same thing, but didn't put the balloon on top. We got to watch a volcano erupt! It was fun. Good thing he only brought a small bottle of vinegar, because the kids wanted him to do it over and over, until it was all gone.

Thanks Scottie, (and his mom) for a fun experiment!