Week 34

Special Guest from Uinta County Conservation District teaching about caterpillars

Caterpillar craft/science project

Student caterpillars

Student enjoying ice cream party

Student enjoying ice cream party

Students enjoying ice cream party

Student playing with our science experiment called "Inside a Ball"

Students participating in science experiment of discovering inside a ball

Student birthday

This was another great week!  Students were very wound up this week, but we still managed to accomplish a lot.

Special Activities: This week there were a ton of special activities:

We got to attend a play called Footloose at the high school.  It was a really good cultural experience for many of my students who have never been to a play.  Mrs. Brumbaugh, the first grader’s music teacher, played an old waitress/restaurant owner on roller skates.  The kids absolutely loved that part of the play.

There was a special assembly at the middle school on Monday.  Students got to watch a performance of Nanda.  They are a gymnastics, dancing, and juggling group.  Students had a great time at that performance and learned a lot.

Another special activity was an ice cream party that a parent planned to help motivate students to do their best in rocket math.  Whenever they pass off a rocket math, they get another topping on their ice cream.  Students loved this activity, and it has helped many of them to be successful.  We’ll have one more ice cream party at the end of the year, and I’ve tweaked it a little bit to better motivate and reward students. 

Yet another special activity was an excellent presentation from the Uinta County Conservation District.  That is discussed below under science. 

Funny Stuff From Kids: It seems like students had me laughing all week, but I only jotted down one funny saying:  I like to bake from time to time, and I made cookies for the class one night.  When I handed them out, a student said, “You made these?  I thought only girls could cook.”

Social Studies: Due to all the special activities this week, we were not able to do social studies.  However, through attending assemblies students did learn a lot about culture and appropriate behavior for watching performances. 

Math: This week we reviewed math concepts that kids should already know.  Students also had to take a state-wide math test on the computers.  Overall they did extremely well, and I was very proud.

Project Read/Spelling: This week we focused on magic e (take says “take” not “tack”).  Students got it down fairly well, but I will keep reviewing it throughout the year to cement it more fully in their minds.        

Speedy Words and Rocket Math: Students are really cruising along.  I just want to say good job and thanks to parents and others who have helped students learn sight words and math facts.

AR: There are only three kids in our class that are still working to earn their Samurais.  Go first grade!

Writing: For writing we’ve been working on a class project about memories of first grade.  Eventually this will become a DVD for the class to enjoy about their memories of first grade. 

Science: For science this week we did two experiments:

A guest from the Uinta County Conservation District came to teach us about butterflies and caterpillars.  She made caterpillars with our class as an art/science project.  These are the caterpillars pictured above.  The caterpillars are filled with grass seed, and they will grow grass that looks like hair on them!

We also learned about how playground balls work.  We learned how they are filled up with air.  We also learned what happens if you leave them out in the cold.  Since I had one that got left in the cold and ruined, I showed it to them.  I encouraged them to not let that happen in second grade.  Then we made hypotheses about what the inside of a playground ball looks like.  We cut open the ruined ball to see what the inside looks like, and the students were very fascinated by it.