Field Day Part II
What a beautiful (and cold) day! The Superheroes were pretty excited about field day. We worked all week on our special banner. Which promptly got torn in the windy breeze. Congratulations to Allie who got to silly string Coach Jody. The most exciting thing was winning the Hula Hoop Game and then having Mr. Obi announce it. ( I have it ALL on video!)
Construction Completed!
The gingerbread house is officially done!! Our pesky little elf came up with the idea to use pink border to make it look like icing. I have to say he was right! We had some leftover ornaments so we decided to hang them in the house to get that lovely cinnamon aroma just like what Hansel and Gretel must have smelled!
Glitterizing?!
The final stage in the process of making the cinnamon ornaments is to glitterize them! This was the fun part. The Superheroes came up with beautiful ways to make their ornament special.
Audience
I think everyone enjoyed the show! A HUGE thank you to Mrs. Bardin who made this all possible. She is amazing! I told several parents that all I did was line up the students from tallest to shortest. Mrs. Bardin did everything else!
Time for the Music Program
First picture shows how great we all look. Ready to perform.
The second pictures shows how we feel inside!!! So excited and nervous!
Holiday Party
We loved our holiday party! Thank you to Henry's mom and Julia's mom. The ornaments were fabulous and the ice cream delicious!! We used the leftover paint to create a painting party for the newly created, but still unfinished gingerbread house. Once the roof was up, Kiara was the first person to try it out. Looks like a good spot for reading!
Gingerbread Girls and Boys
If you build a gingerbread house, you will need gingerbread girls and boys to decorate it with.
Building a Gingerbread House
Once upon a time Mr. Johnson, our plant operator, gave us the inside of the paper towel box to use in our classroom. We used them during math workstations to sort objects and practice skip counting. (Ms. Patin came in to observe one time and was quite impressed!) The Superheroes decided to create more challenges in math workstations and did not need the cardboard anymore. We all discussed what could we build? Well, the day after reading Hansel and Gretel and making cinnamon ornaments - we decided to build a Gingerbread House! But how would we do it? The students gathered their materials, drew blueprints, and tried many different ways. In the end, we decided the boards should lay horizontally and be stacked on top of each other. I had the ingenious idea of using duck tape to stick it together. And the rest as they say is history...
Mapping Stories
This time instead of writing about the characters and the plot we actually mapped where our character went in the story. The students used three important parts of a map: compass, title, and map key to create a map of the story. Our first attempt did not work as well as expected. After reflecting about what the purpose of a map is the students realized that they needed to try again. The second mapping effort was amazing. We compared our first and second attempts and we were very proud of the effort thought, time and expertise we displayed. The map keys use symbols to represent places on the farm where Rosie walked. They were clear and easy to follow.
We realized that it was a circular map much like the stories we have been reading by Laura Numeroff. Love this transdisciplinary approach to learning in the classroom!
Gingerbread Ornaments
We were inspired by the story Hansel and Gretel to make our own gingerbread. This recipe is a little different because we used GLUE! We encountered many conundrums while making the mixture. As you can see it is a little messy. One student came up with the idea of using plastic wrap on the rolling pin and that solved the problem! Next, we had to wait for the the ornaments to dry. The smell was delicious and everyone who came into the room wanted to know if we were baking cookies! The last step was to add glitter and VIOLA... beautiful ornaments that smell good enough to eat!
Holidays around the World
We continued our inquiry of different holidays around the world and the symbols used. Today we used the map to find the country of Israel and discussed Hanukkah. We learned the story of the eight lights and how it is symbolized with the Menorah. The students are enjoying talking about the different cultures and traditions that each of us celebrate.
Student Led Conferences
The Superheroes are getting ready for student led conferences. They are reviewing their summative assessments so they will be prepared to talk about the units of inquiry completed. For this planner, we created a dramatization of what we know. The students worked in cooperative groups to write a script that showed what they know about the central idea and the three lines of inquiry. I created a QR code that will the parents to scan and watch the video!
SinterKlaas Dag!
This is a group of very excited Superheroes! Turns out that if you make a model of klompen (wooden shoes) Sinterklaas just might come and visit you. Of course, you must leave hay and carrots to feed his white horse. We are not sure how he made it here all the way from Spain, but we love the treats he left for us. Dank u Well, Sinterklaas!!
Symbols Around The World
Looking at symbols around the world is a great way to incorporate winter holidays. I began with my tradition which is Sinterklaas Dag. The students learned about how a different country and culture celebrate. This includes the foods we eat, the songs we sing, and the stories we read. We learned about the geography of the country and the land forms that exist. We found out that the Dutch must wear wooden shoes because it is so wet. (Because it is below sea level)
Our Classroom Economy
As we delved into our central idea about economic activities, The Superheroes decided that we should develop a classroom economy. After much discussion and debate - here's what we finally decided on. The first day the school store opened it was interesting to hear the students discussing what item to buy and what criteria they were using to make that decision.
World Market
The second group of Superheroes wrote a play about a world market selling
all different kinds of goods that required a variety of resources to make.
I turned the plays into QR Codes which you can scan and then watch on our I phone.
Please be sure to come to student led conferences in order to see The Superheroes in action!
The Pizza Place
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