government unit, plant growth and development, coordinate grids

Miss Clark, our student teacher, taught a unit on government. The students had to campaign for mayor of our classroom, register to vote, and vote for the class mayor. After elections, the class mayor(s) ran a town meeting to solve a town problem.

Our class with Miss Clark

"Who wants more recess?"  "I DO"    "Who wants more candy?"    "I DO".....too fun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The voting booth was made out of one of the student's parent's bath tub boxes.

After voting, the students proudly wore an "I voted" sticker.

All dressed up for his campaign speech! GO PSU!

Teaching Coordinate Grids and Ordered Pairs. Our field student, Miss Bertrand, taught a lesson on coordinate grids this week. She taught the students to walk across the grid and then up the grid to get a piece of candy they wanted on the grid.  (We wanted to go outside, but it has been raining SO MUCH in PA lately.)

 

Just a little treat I put together. The font cards came from www.letteringdelights.com

Plant Growth and Development

In Science, we are studying the life cycle of a plant as well as bees. We have been using our bees to pollinate the flowers.  

A Sneak Peak at our Plant Play: From Seed to Flower and Everything in 'Bee'tween

Last year, my witty husband (aka: my teacher's aide ;) helped me write a play about the life cycle of plants. The students helped create costumes and memorized lines. It was a huge hit last year. I decided to add to it this year and do it again. Tomorrow is our Grandparents' Day. It's a day when the grandparents all come to school to learn with us. We have a program in the morning and then spend the rest of the morning in our classroom completing activities. 

The play is called "From Seed to Flower....and everything in "bee"tween". I will post the lines and final pics of the costumes and stars when we are finished. :)

Here's a sneak peak at a few pictures....

2 of our little bees practicing their lines....

The flower and leaves are made out of cardboard. They have a strip of elastic taped to the back so that they stay on the students' heads and hands.

The narrators are gardeners!

Getting ready for his debut!

rehearsing lines....

Look for more updates soon! :)

 

Goodbye Miss Clark

Today was our student teacher, Miss Clark's last day. :( The students and I will surely miss her!

Miss Clark

The students all brought in a couple of their favorite books with a personalized message inside. We gave her a "teacher" bag with her name on it. Each child then gave Miss Clark the books and a card. Their comments and kindness really were tearjerkers!

 

To show her my appreciation, I gave her my ALL TIME favorite teacher book. It's called Mrs. Spitzer's Garden. It paints the picture of a teacher being a gardener, sowing seeds, taking care of the seeds, and helping beautiful flowers to sprout. I just love the message.

I then put together a little bag of treasures to go with the "gardening" theme.

 

Here are a few of the treasures inside....

Another cute book with a great message for student teachers. She also got the book "Last Day Blues". It's a cute end of the year book. I gave her "First Day Jitters" on the first day of her placement. These two books were written by the same author.

Her very own personalized clipboard.

Miss Clark magnets

A pretty little watch that I made for her :)

Best wishes Miss Clark! :)

A Hodge Podge of Updates!

So it's been forever since I've blogged! Here are some updates of what's happening in our classroom!

My classroom library has lots of books in it. So many chapter books that it was kind of overwhelming for the students to pick their "just right books". Instead they were spending so much time at the library as "fake readers". In an effort to make the task of selecting a book easier for the students, I decided to reorganize the library according to level. This was quite a task, but I had the help of my amazing student teacher!  Each book was labeled with an AR label (includes title of books, book level, book quiz number). We then used used a hole punch to make vinyl stickers of each color. The stickers were then put on the spine of each book according to their level.

Next....We just started our unit on plants. All of my bulletin boards are full so I don't have any room to post vocab words. I devised a plan for that..... I took a rectangular planter and put foam on the bottom. Next, I took stakes and glued them to little rectangular wood pieces. I also purchased a roll of dry erase paper and glued a piece on each wooden rectangle. (All supplies, besides the planter were purchased at Michaels.)

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream! The students in my class are well on their way to earning their ice cream party! Here are the ice cream sundaes they are building.

Next up, AR! This nine weeks, the students are working to meet their individual AR goals. When they meet the goal, they earn a cookie and drink. After their goal is met there are additional rewards. (I found that if they only have to meet their goal then they usually shut down after they achieve it. So we keep working as hard as we can the whole nine weeks.)

My TpT Bite into a Good Book Poster & Cookie Jars



Finally, these were too cute not to post. Way back in February I came across an AWESOME idea! (Forgive me please, I can't remember whose original idea it was...someone please tell me if you remember so that I can give her credit.) I love, love, loved this "When I'm 100" writing and picture idea. My students loved it too. Here are just a few of their creative ideas.  :)

Notice that the apron says "Born to Cook"!

I love the parted hair, eye brows, and missing teeth.