Our hallway looked quite festive as we looked forward to Festival Week! We enjoyed seeing a Chinese dragon toy, especially after we read some books about China. We read this story, Liang and the Magic Paintbrush and then wrote about what we would do with one. We decorated fish kites to go with our writing. We also made Chinese flags, tear art pandas, and colorful dragons. In preparation for our food tasting feast, we used chopsticks to move pom pom balls from plate to plate. We practiced writing Chinese calligraphy with paint. We also made these cool lion masks! We left our shoes in the hallway and entered the classroom for our Food Tasting Event! Parade of Nations! We did a fun graphing activity by building original pictographs with items in the classroom. They were so creative! They sorted and recorded crayons, game pieces, magnets, types of coins, plastic and metal water bottles, and even animal groups! We've enjoyed watching the Kindergarten butterfly garden. We loved looking up to see a beautiful chrysalis. We should see butterflies soon! We've been checking the status of the baby eaglets in Decorah, Iowa. They are getting big! You can follow the live stream at: https://www.raptorresource.org/birdcams/decorah-eagles/
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We have been busy getting ready for the Multicultural Festival. We have done lots of China crafts! We used Chinese tangram puzzles to make different animals and shapes. The students were so passionate about saving the rainforests! They wanted to create posters to display in the hallway to create awareness. Some 5th graders later added some posters to theirs! Here are ours: Poem in Your Pocket Day created a lot of buzz about poetry. The students enjoyed sharing their poems and carrying them around that day. We love our partners at Spring Creek BBQ for hosting our spirit nights. Our class won for the most participation! Thank you for supporting Highlands! We are always busy! To end the week, we did a fun outside activity. The students gathered eggs and sorted the paper strips inside into animal groups. They had a great time! The first one below is a video. Rainforest research - listen to these fun facts! *** see post below to see how this came together!4/13/2019 We had such a fun week of discovery with our project-based learning unit on the Rainforest! We were always on the lookout for new things to learn! (they are holding their original hand-made binoculars) We started the week with making GOOD LUCK posters for our older friends taking the STAAR tests. We took them out to their pep rally and cheered them on. Principal Dow was a great cheerleader! We have spent the last 2 weeks studying the 6 main animal groups. We learned so much about them through books and videos. We also spent 2 weeks studying important people in history. We recorded information on some of the inventors and others that we studied. RAINFOREST CAMP! We started our camp week with learning all about the rainforest and why this ecosystem is important to the world. Each student chose an animal to research. They also enjoyed reading with all of the stuffed animals in the room. Zoology is the study of animals and their behavior. Zoologists may study a particular species or group of species, either in the wild or in captivity. Zoologists study animals and their interactions with ecosystems. They study their physical characteristics, diets, behaviors, and the impacts humans have on them. (environmentalscience.org) The students wrote research reports with information, and created beautiful paintings. This is #STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) in action! We invited a 5th grade class to listen to our research reports. They were very kind and interested! Each student reported one fun fact for our Rainforest video which you can view in the post above! It was a lot of work, but these young zoologists enjoyed the learning process...and what could matter more than that?
(feel free to write a comment below - no last names or emails necessary) We spent the week reading imaginative stories like Abiyoyo. The students created their own versions of what they believed he looked like. The students wrote some stories about imaginary friends and adventures and shared them with friends. We've been reading about inventors like Benjamin Franklin. We enjoyed using materials to try to recreate some of the things he envisioned - like bifocal glasses, swim flippers, the lightning rod, the first lending library, the Franklin stove, and more.
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AuthorI am a retired First Grade teacher in Texas. I have two children, two daughters-in-law, a grandson and granddaughter. Our beloved pup, Rocco, went to heaven this year. He was 15 years old. I've been married 37 years. I would love to hear from any former students! Archives
January 2021
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