Tuesday, January 28, 2014

100th Day!

Happy 100th Day!!! Even with an early dismissal due the impending doom of the Southern Snowpocalypse, we managed to have some 100th day fun before we left. Check out the cool shirts my kiddos made to wear today. Shout out to the parents who got involved and helped their kids make a great shirt! 19 out 21 is not too shabby! I even did my homework and made my own shirt! Check out the video at the bottom to see what your kids think 100 year old people do all day!






















Thursday, January 23, 2014

Penguin Research

As we speak my classroom is bustling with excitement. The students have been reading about penguins this week and are now working in collaborative groups to gather research about 4 different kinds of penguins. They brainstormed their own list of questions they wanted answers to and got to work using the kid friendly search engine, kidrex.org. Students will gather info and then choose their own form of assessment to show off their learning. They can choose any creative medium they want to present their information. Some will create posters, while others will use apps, and Web 2.0 tools. I cannot wait to see what they come up with. 21st century, project based learning at its finest.













Friday, January 17, 2014

Can A Bearded Dragon Ride A Jet Ski?

Our class pet, Spike, plays a crucial part in our daily learning. Yesterday he helped us to learn about fiction and non-fiction. Using their bodies as statues, students created tableaus (pictures with the body) to show their understanding of the meaning of the word fiction. Their task was to create a scene using their bodies to show something fiction that Spike does after we leave school. Prior to this they had to make up non-fiction tableaus. This was a great assessment tool for me as I could quickly see who understood the difference between the genres. This was arts integration at its finest. The kids had a blast and so did I!


Spike sings a song after we leave.


Spike rides a motorcycle after we leave.


Spike rides a bike after we leave.


Spike drives a jet ski after we leave.


Spike is a superhero when we leave.


Spike plays on the computer when we leave.

Here are some pics of each group with their guest teacher for the day! 
We love Spike!!







Thursday, January 16, 2014

Jef Lambdin- Artist In Residence


A perk of being an ABC School (Arts in Basic Curriculum) is that we have many interesting artist that visit our school to teach the students about their art. This week we have been very privileged to have Jef Labdin with us. Jef is a mime, and the kids have learned so much from him about the art of miming. Each day this week the kids have had an incredible opportunity learn about mimicry and the power of communicating without words. Here are a few pics from Thursday's class. Be sure to get your kids to show you some of their skills.