End of the Year Fun

We have 2 and a half days left with kids. This year has flown by!

I brought home a chrysalis over the long weekend. I expected to have a butterfly by Monday. Of course butterflies always come on their own schedule. My house was full of excitement as we were trying to get ready for school on Tuesday morning. I took the newly emerged butterfly to the day care with my kids. I left school a little early to release it for an audience on the playground.

 

The thing wouldn't fly away. I was scared that it was injured or dying, so I coaxed it onto the tree high above the kids' reach. Thankfully it flew away after a few minutes!

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Tuesday also meant a pizza/pool party for my SumDog champion first graders. Our students take swimming classes during PE, but they still love an extra free swim! My fourth graders were on a field trip so I got to sit poolside for a while.

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 My CHANGE Club students created a wrap up presentation using Google Drive at our last meeting of the year. I have not yet used shared presentations with my classes, so it was a good chance to try it out with some of my 4th and 5th graders. It was amazing to watch them work together in real time.

I really want to look at Google trainings and tests this summer. I have dabbled enough this year to be sold on the possibilities for using GAFE next year. I'm even looking at starting a PLC.

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 My 5th grade students made ceramic owls last week.  I actually loaded and turned on the kiln all by myself. I'll post a pictures after we paint them next week.

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 I was at the FCR STEM Conference this week. My last session of the day involved making this cool little thing.(Directions available here)

 

My sub sent my this picture today. I bought this building toy with some money from the PTO.

They LOVE it! It really makes me feel like I'm doing something right if my K and 4th grade students beg for the sub to send me a picture of their work!

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Enjoy your weekend!

Mostly May

I am loving my new blog design! Megan from A Bird in Hand Designs did an amazing job. She really captured the look I wanted. I would highly recommend her to anyone looking for a new look.

It has been so long since I blogged, I went through my phone last night an pulled off pictures of what we've been up to in the lab. My students are on a three day rotating schedule, so I see each class only 4 more times before the last day of school on June 4th. Crazy!

This post is a bit of a catch up. The pictures are mostly from May, with a little of April thrown in.

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I am responsible for this bulletin board. It is a beast. I still want to have every student get to take part in the design, so it takes me weeks! This one was put up before the Kindergarten Round Up. Each of my K-2 students drew a fish in pastels. The students got to select their shade of blue tempera paint. The sign hanging from the ceiling in front of the fish says, "We love our school!" Of course I had more fish than I needed, so they also swam down the hallway.

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Minecraft Club wrapped up at the end of April. At one of our last meetings I logged on to play. In exactly 2 seconds the screen flashed, "You died." I am seriously bad at video games. I do think that gaming in the classroom is a great tool though, so I am making an effort to learn. The staff member who helped me with the club brought in these cupcakes for our last meeting. Too cute!

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One of my favorite features of my STEAM Lab is that I have a working kiln in my room. I keep it covered by bright green curtains most of the time. For the big kindergarten Mother's Day Breakfast, the PTO asked if we could use the kiln. I had an art professor from the university help me. Even with guidance, it is a little unnerving to watch that thing get up to 1,800+ degrees. Cool, but scary!

The students made pinch pots that we decorated as lady bugs. (Inspiration came from this post.) There was not enough time to glaze them, so we used acrylic paint and a spray glaze. The students decorated the boxes like little gardens. For the cards, I embossed their thumb prints with red glitter powder before they added details with a marker.

For my first clay project in the STEAM Lab, I am happy with how it came out. I am going to apply for a grant for supplies so that I can do at least one clay project with each grade level next year. I've already started to plan my STEAM curriculum connections.

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The CHANGE Club gave me a mini grant to pay for new worms for my worm bin. I was also able to order coconut coir and gloves. The first bin was actually too full, so I found another that was empty outside the middle school building. My own kids came to school to help me transfer the worms. They thought it was the best thing ever!

I had a successful vermicomposting  program set up a few years ago. Fingers cross, it looks like I am on track again. I hope to have each grade level take a turn next year caring for the worms. There is so much potential there! Decomposition, mass of their food, life cycle, and so many other STEAM links.

This morning during my planning period I put up new signs around the worm farm. I'll post pictures of that soon. It looks as cure as worms can look now.

 

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The caterpillars are back on the outside my house. My daughter was terribly concerned that the lizards would eat them. We have not had a successful chrysalis in a long time. I agreed to bring them into school to "save" them.

I picked up some milkweed from Home Depot. I'd planned to move the caterpillars into a small habitat before they formed a chrysalis, but I misjudged the time. Instead I ordered a larger habitat from Amazon and put the whole plant in it. I brought in a total of 6 caterpillars from home. Two of them didn't make it, but 4 more have hatched. Thankfully my students haven't been paying much attention to the numbers. They are more concerned about when the butterfly will emerge from the chrysalis. I am afraid the first one will be over the weekend. We shall see!

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Enjoy your weekend!

Five for…err…Sunday

I started working on this post on Friday, but it didn’t happen. One of my husband’s sisters flew in from Ireland Friday night, so we’ve been busy enjoying time with Auntie June.

So, I’m going to be one of those people who link up for Five for Friday on a Sunday. Better late than never, huh?

1

I mentioned in my last post that I had my formal observation this week. I get nervous for observations at the best of time, but the film crew did add to the nerves!

I created a Root Word Safari for my class as a culminating activity to our Reading Olympians study. We used animal fact cards to find, define, and substitute multisyllabic words containing Greek and Latin roots. For the final (observed) lesson each student created their own animal card for a creature they created and described using multisyllabic words containing Greek and Latin roots.

The observation went really well! Most are still putting the finishing touches on their animal cards, but I will add the activity to my TpT store soon.

In the meantime, I have lots planned for the safari clip art I bought this week!

2

This week my daughter discovered caterpillars in our neighbor’s yard. I had just mentioned to a friend that I was thinking about buying a butterfly kit for her. The friend sent me home with one that same day that she wasn’t using. 

We took in three of the caterpillars. Internet research showed that they are monarchs. I’ve never taught in a grade that does life cycles, so I am a butterfly newbie. 

Friday we came home from school to find this:

By now we have three pupa. We were on our way to the beach yesterday when we saw one of the butterflies in the neighbor’s yard coming out of the chrysalis. It was drying its wings when we left and then flew away right as we got home. My three year old daughter was so excited! She cannot wait for our three caterpillars to become butterflies!

3

When my grandmother passed away a few years back, one of the things I ended up with was a straw dispenser. I had it in my classroom holding straws for experiments and such. This week I found a new use.

So far it is working great! The dull pencils go in the cup point down and the sharp pencils go in the straw dispenser.

4

Friday afternoon I told myself that I was going to do my weekly newsletter, plan, grade papers, and make copies before going home. I knew it was lofty, but I somehow managed to get it all done!

I’m choosing to focus on that and not the fact that I just got an e-mail saying that I sent home my progress reports with third quarter grades instead of fourth quarter. Oops! You win some, you lose some!

5

Auntie June is in town so we took the kids to the beach on Saturday morning. The kids love when their Irish family come to visit! My husband’s parents and 5 siblings all live in Ireland. We love spending time with them and doing “Florida” things while they are in town!

The Irishman and I had not had a night out since November. Auntie June babysat last night and Auntie Chris sent us a little something to help fund our night out. (The Irishman and I were both sick when Auntie Christina was here in February) We started car shopping, went to a movie, and had dinner out. We love our kids, but it was a real treat to have some time to ourselves!

I have an award ceremony on Tuesday night, so we get TWO nights out this week. As an added bonus, Auntie June is a teacher in Ireland, so we can talk teacher stuff, too.

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Enjoy the rest of your weekend!