Catching Up!

I apologize for not updating the blog lately! We have been so busy with our many learning adventures! Luckily, I did have my camera in hand for much of the time and I was able to document some of the fun we've been having!

Addie B. holds one of the tolerant chickens at Shelburne Farms!

Addy O. rides a tractor!

Stephanie milks a cow.

Waiting for their turn at the farm!

Kate and Stephanie brush the sheep.

Dylan holds a chicken at the farm.

Anderson shares about his trip to Africa.

Addie B. and Kate work on their Samburu necklaces.

Blake shows off his finished necklace.

As we near the end of the school year, many children are nearing the 100 star mark. When they hit that, they earn an awesome t-shirt as a keepsake! Congratulations to Dylan, Ella O., and Blake! I am sure I will have many more of these to give out in the next several days!!!

May the Force Be With You!

We spent the last few weeks as scientists engaged in an exploration of force and motion. We started our unit by thinking about what we already knew about this topic and adding these ideas to our schema chart. Students had some interesting ideas to offer and certainly had some basic underlying understandings about the topic, but they seemed very excited to delve in and learn even more!

Throughout the unit, we read many books and did investigations and experiments, including a "Surface Safari" (to investigate how friction impacts the movement of different objects), an experiment to examine the force of gravity, many activities looking at the idea of "push" and "pull," as well as an experiment called "Does It Slide or Roll?"

Above, we investigated how much force Kate needs to use to push a bin when Haysen is in it and when it is empty.

Students explore how friction impacts the motion of an object.

Above, Addie and Haysen experiment with whether objects roll or slide. 

Below are some of the books that we read during our unit:

 

 

As a culminating activity for this unit, I invited families to work together to create a "Shoe Box Car" to enter into our class derby. The goal of the derby was for the Shoe Box Car to move a cardboard building block as far as possible. I asked students to consider all that they had learned about force and motion when designing and building their car. I was blown away by how many families participated in this activity and by the impressive cars that were built! Students really seemed to understand the concept that their car needed to have some weight to it (to create a bigger force and push the block further). Honestly, even though we didn't present trophies or awards to the winner, all of these kiddos came in first in my book! Thank you to all of you for supporting your child's learning at home with this activity. Based on the level of engagement and enthusiasm they all exhibited during this unit, my guess is that they will remember the learning and activities for a long while! 

 

Students are already asking when we can be scientists again! Their excitement and enthusiasm for learning is contagious!

Shoo Fly Quilt

We have been spending time during math learning about and using shapes in a variety of ways. This week, we explored with triangles and squares and created a beautiful paper quilt using our shapes.

We talked about what we noticed about our quilt with our math partners and then shared as a class. Here are some of the students' observations:

Wyatt: "The pattern is purple, yellow, purple, yellow."

Blake: "There are diagonal lines."

Stephanie: "One square has yellow on the outside, one has purple on the outside."

Addie B.: "The pattern goes across and up and down."

Jared: "There are 35 squares altogether."

Brendan: "There are 7 squares going across the top."

Anderson: "There's 5 rows of 7."

If you can, stop by our classroom to see this beautiful, mathematical quilt in person!

Other Exciting Happenings!

We did lots of other things during the month of February! Please enjoy these pictures of a few of these things!

BOTH of Lexi's grandmas were able to come be our Mystery Readers! How fun!

We had a Four Winds lesson about the importance of Air. Laura and Kristin came in and did a fabulous job teaching us about this. I am always impressed with how engaging the activities are for this hands-on science program!

Starting off with a little puppet show.

How many pumps of air to pop the caps off of the plastic containers?

Addie flies a plastic bag parachute.

Lexi tries out a plastic bag parachute!

Thanks to Laura and Kristin for another fun Four Winds lesson!

Dental Hygeine

February is Dental Health Month, and H.C.S. is lucky enough to have our very own "Tooth Tutor." Darcie is a dental hygienist who offers her time to teach students how to take care of their teeth. Check out the photos from her visit! 

Darcie demonstrates brushing using her giant toothbrush and model teeth.

Blake pretends his fingers are teeth as Darcie demonstrates proper flossing technique.

Dylan and Clement practice "flossing" their fingers.

Anderson and Brendan give flossing a try!

We even got to take home a new toothbrush and activity book! Thanks, Darcie!

Valentine's Day Fun!

Even though our Valentine's Day celebration was postponed due to a snow day, we still had great fun on Monday!

Thanks to everyone for sending in cereal boxes. We used them to make our valentine's mailboxes!
Everyone enjoyed giving and receiving special valentine's to their friends. I was super impressed with all of the candy-alternatives you came up with!

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 We did a number of fun activities to celebrate the day. We sorted and graphed paper conversation hearts, played games, and read a valentine book modeled after Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

Blake makes his conversation heart graph.

Stephanie, Jared, and Clement play CVC Word Bingo (Valentine edition!)

Coloring in the book "Valentine, Valentine, What Do You See?"

We ended the day with lots of yummy treats! Check out this spread! Thank you to everyone for sending in the delicious snacks for our party.