Looking for Leprechauns

We've been reading all about Ireland, St. Patrick's Day and leprechauns. Here are some of the books we've read and activities we have completed.

 

On Monday, we read "The Luckiest St. Patrick's Day Ever". After reading the story, we shared some our luckiest memories and wrote about them. We also completed some cute leprechauns to go along with our writing.

 

On Tuesday, we read "The Leprechaun's Gold" and completed another cute writing activity.

 

Finally, today we read "Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato". Here is a link to an online version of the story.

 

 

We also completed a sequencing activity where we retold the beginning, middle and end. Unfortunately, I did not get any photos of this.

 

We also started a little creative story writing assignment. Each of the students wrote about what they would do if they ever caught a leprechaun. We are going to take our "rough" story drafts into the computer lab tomorrow and complete a published version that we can print and display in the hallway. We're hoping that all this leprechaun themed writing and art work will attract some sneaky little leprechaun guests to come and visit us in our classroom before the end of the week. Guess we'll just have to wait and see!

 

In other news, we are just finishing up our gymnastics unit for P.E. The students rotated through a number of stations which included parallel bars, climbing apparatus, spring boards, ropes, and balance beams. Over the past two weeks, the students visited each station in a circuit-like rotation. I was very proud of each and everyone for following through with all safety measures and precautions. This has definitely been one of our favourite gym units to date.

 

 

 

Don't forget --- Friday is Emerald City Day!

Come dressed-up in your best green gear!!!!!

 

 

Liquids and Solids and Gas - OH MY!

If you read our last post, you would know that we just completed our informational writing unit. Our final drafts are complete, along with a cute craftivity, and are now on display in the hallway. Don't they look amazing!

 

Here is a close-up of one.

 

Lion and Tigers and Bears - OH MY!

 

Our new Language Arts theme is "Fairy Tales". We started reading "The Wizard of Oz" and we are absolutely loving it. This is the version we are using for our class read aloud times.

 

 

This story has provided a lot of opportunity for discussions about friendship. Today we took our discussions a bit further and practiced our conversation skills by learning appropriate ways to "join in" when we see a group of friends playing together or maybe even other students we may not know.

 

First, we learned, discussed and reviewed the steps needed to appropriately join in and play with others. We kept with the "Wizard of Oz" theme and called it...

 

 "Follow the Yellow Brick Road - Steps to Joining In".

 

 

Second, we discussed positive and appropriate ways we could respond and created a reference chart for future discussions.

 

 

 

Next, the students were partnered up and provided a scenario that would cause then to want to join in. Here are a few of our scenario cards.

 

 

Then, together in pairs, the students brainstormed a joining in statement along with a positive response on a conversation bubble activity page.

 

Last, the students role-played in front of their classmates, acting out each of their scenarios.

We will continue with our "Wizard of Oz" friendship theme tomorrow with some more writing activities that I will be sure to post.

 

Liquids and Solids and Gas - Oh My!

 

Oh My! was exactly what I was thinking when I decided to complete some messier experiments in matter this week. At first I was worried that the mess would be too much but the students were awesome and even though there were a few shrieks of excitement, it was well worth the end result.

 

On Monday we read a  Dr. Seuss story called "Bartholomew and the Oobleck". 

 

 

This story is about some ooey, gooey green goo that a king orders from his royal magicians. After reading the story, we made our very own oobleck. It was a sunny days so we decided to take the experiment outside and have a little more messy fun.

 

 

 

 

Today, we experimented with ways to blow-up a balloon using baking soda, vinegar, a small bottle and of course a balloon. We used our super scientist knowledge to form a hypothesis, complete the experiment and then discuss our observations. The look on their faces says it all.

 

 

 

 

We had so much fun, I will definitely be searching on Pinterest for some more fun experiments to try out before Spring Break!

 

Hope you enjoy your evening!

-Mrs. Singh