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.

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

We celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday this week. What a fun day! We brought all of our Dr. Seuss books to read and share. We did fun pages and made a "Cat in the Hat" hat.

This happened to be the same day as our Reading Olympic party, so it was filled with fun. Many of the children said this was "The best day ever!" I love it when they say that! Luckily, we have had many of those this year, and I hope to have a several more.

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)