Computer and iPads

Many of you know me personally. I have been teaching for 10 years, loving it more every year. I have recently moved from Charlotte, NC to New York City. I have been fortunate enough to secure a job with a fabulous, cutting-edge school, but they do not provide laptops to their teachers, as most schools do. I am a very dedicated and dynamic teacher. I maintain a classroom blog (as you know) and a class web page, use interactive content in the classroom, and communicate with parents via email. I want to purchase a Mac Book Air and at least 1 iPad, both for classroom use. I have joined a site that provides free eBooks to educators, but I need an iPad (or 2) on which students can read the books. I know there are lots of quality educational apps, but I need the technology in order to access them. Please help me purchase the technology tools that will enable my students to learn even more, in a way that they enjoy. If you can help by contributing to my GoFundMe campaign, or at least forwarding my campaign information to your friends, I would be very grateful! Here's the link http://www.gofundme.com/ybn85v6c Thanks in advance!

Flowers Feed the Soul

I was overwhelmed by all the beautiful flowers I received this morning. I wanted to quickly get them into water, but I also wanted to stay on schedule so my "arrangement" of them leaves much to be desired, but they are beautiful just the same. Thank you all very much!

You child will definitely remember this week's Bible verse. We have enjoyed singing along to a video I found on YouTube. I added a new element today with the signs. See what you think.

Cloudy with a Chance Stories

Students have been working hard on using adjectives in their writing. I read Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs to them. They made me laugh because they said the book was nothing like the movie. I think they were shocked to learn that the book came out first! I told them they would be writing a three course meal story, based on the book, and asked students to brainstorm adjectives for food. As a pre-writing activity, I set out 12 different posters, labeled with the noun I wanted them to describe.

I set a timer for 5 minutes, and asked the students to go from poster to poster, adding an adjective in front of the noun. When time was up, I read their great descriptions and then reminded them to put an adjective in front of the food that would be falling out of the sky in their story. The Voice Thread video is a sampling of their unedited work. Parents, your students are anxiously awaiting your comments.

Going Buggy

Yesterday we read a play about bugs which provided lots of information about several insects and how they eat. The most interesting, or the ones that students remembered the most were (believe it or not) the housefly and the grasshopper. The housefly eats dead animals and animal droppings...eewww!.  The grasshopper spits brown liquid at enemies to make them back off. We learned that insects have 3 body sections: the head, thorax, and the abdomen. Today, we learned how butterflies "eat." Instead of eating, butterflies get their nourishment from drinking. They have a long, narrow tube in their mouth called a proboscis that acts as a straw. They drink nectar from flowers. I gave each student a cup (flower) with water (nectar) and they drank through their straw (proboscis). Students also designed their own bug and made a Playdough model of it. They also had the opportunity to build a super bug on a website and print their bug's "stats."

Catawba Science Center

We really enjoyed our field trip to the Catawba Science Center yesterday! Our first stop was in a science lab where we learned about matter. Matter is anything that takes up space and has weight (mass). Even air takes up space, as we could see by filling up a balloon. Students donned goggles as they conducted experiments such as making snow, which required adding tiny drops of rubbing alcohol to a mysterious liquid. They also filled a balloon with baking soda, stretched the balloon over a beaker of vinegar, shook the balloon, and watched what happened. There were squeals of delight as the balloon filled. Several students were able to tell us that the balloon was being filled by a gas produced by adding the baking soda to the vinegar!

Our next stop was the planetarium, where we watched a movie titled, "Zula Patrol: Under the Weather." It was an entertaining cartoon, but was extra special since we watched it on the planetarium ceiling. After the movie, we learned a little bit about stars and constellations. See if your child can remember the scientific name for the North Star.(It is Polaris.) We were able to take a brief tour of the aquarium before boarding the bus for the long ride back to school. We arrived back ten minutes before dismissal.

Spring Break Caterpillar-Sitting

The caterpillar babysitting job over Spring Break was a lot easier than expected since none of the ones I brought home lived! From what I've heard so far, it sounds like no one else's caterpillars lived, either. Not to worry--we still have time to order more caterpillars. I hope they came with a money back guarantee!

I haven't posted anything for a while, so I wanted to share some pictures from the Easter egg hunt. I also came across an interesting site that will keep your kids busy during the summer. It is called Smithsonian Quests. The site has 100 free self-directed, project-based activities for all ages. Students can earn badges while learning about subjects from art to outer space. Just click on this link to sign up http://shout.smithsonianquests.org The password for our class is vQWd73XuM.

Weekly Update

This week we are working on different versions of a Cinquain poem. What is a cinquain poem, you might ask. It is a poem with only 5 lines, but there are different ways to create one. Here's a link to show you some varieties with examples. http://hrsbstaff.ednet.ns.ca/davidc/6c_files/Poem%20pics/cinquaindescrip.htm Students wrote at least one poem today and shared it with the class. I will challenge them to try a different version tomorrow.

Pre-K through 3rd grade will be marching in the Palm Sunday Parade during Chapel on Wednesday. We have been asked to bring noise makers. If your child has a noisy toy, such as a kazoo, maraca, shaker, etc., they are welcome to bring it tomorrow so that I can see how many extra we will need on Wednesday.

In History today, we learned about India. We learned about the location, climate, population, religion, and a little bit about the caste system. If your child would like to learn more, I've provided some links on the right side of this page. 

It's about time for an update!

My math group started a geometry unit today. The students learned some terms that may have been unfamiliar before today. We learned about solid figures, flat surfaces, edges, faces, and vertices. We learned that some solid figures that roll have "flat surfaces" (the bottom of a cone and the top and bottom of a cylinder), and that solid figures that do not roll have flat surfaces called "faces" (rectangular prisms, pyramids, and cubes). Ask your child to look around the house for items that are shaped like  a cone, sphere, pyramid, cylinder, cube, or rectangular prism.

Your little history buffs have enjoyed learning about the Civil War, the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman, and Abraham Lincoln. See if they can tell you about the Emancipation Proclamation. They can tell you that the Underground Railroad isn't a railroad at all, and that it's not even underground. We watched a great video that showed Harriet Tubman, the modern "Moses", lead her people to safety. Ask your child why her nickname was Moses and why people called Abraham Lincoln "Honest Abe."

The Mariner Fun Run is coming up on Saturday, March 21st. I will be walking in it (not running) and I hope that many of you will be participating as well. It should be a fun day and hopefully the weather will cooperate. I'm sure your child has told you that there's a prize for the class with the highest percentage of participation, so don't forget to sign up! We're a competitive bunch! By the way, we won the contest for collecting the most loose change and will enjoy an ice cream cake celebration next Friday, March 13th!

Simple Machines

We are having lots of fun studying simple machines. There are so many things we use every day that I would have never considered simple or even complex machines. Did you know that a non-electric can opener is made up of 4 simple machines: a wedge (the cutting blade), a lever (the 2 handles you squeeze together), a wheel and axle (the handle that turns), and gears? Wow! I am so impressed by how quickly the second graders are picking up all this information!

Today we learned a little more about the pulley. Students worked in groups to lift miniature buckets off the ground using a pulley. Here are some pictures.