Five for Friday: May 8th Linky Party

 

  

This video made me laugh so hard and I could really appreciate the message in it. I thought I would post this in honor of Mother's Day this weekend. I hope it puts a smile on your face too =)

 

Happy Mother's Day!

 

Into the ocean we went with our poetry unit.  We also read "There was an old lady who swallowed the sea" and "The story of fish & snail" before making our underwater portraits. Kids then wrote about how they would feel in the ocean.

 

We finally made it to the school walk-a-thon. The kids made these capes this week with our district logo. They each brought in an adult undershirt so we could spongepaint on a stencil and then cut them apart to be a cape. My teaching partner also got masks for them to wear as a surprise. I will post pics of the big event next week. The school raised over $14,000 in donations!

 

This was our Mother's Day craftivity. The kiddos used their fingerprints as the M&Ms and then we added a little writing prompt with a message for their moms. 

 

I am loving this weather!!I always tell my kids that it was the longest winter ever as soon as spring arrives. LOL! We have an awesome reservation by us where we can hike, walk, swim, etc. I think my husband snapped this first shot because you rarely ever see me sitting down. LOL! I can't wait to spend the summer days with my boys and do this often!

Have a fabulous weekend!!

Five for Friday!: May 1st Linky Party

 

It was a "bee"sy week in our classroom as we learned about these insects! We started the week out with our KWL anchor chart and then went on to read some of our non-fiction books from the library. The favorite by far was "The Magic School Bus: Inside a Beehive". The kiddos then made their very own bees out of construction paper and added the names of the body parts to make a diagram. They did a super job!

 

We also read some fictional stories and watched "The Magic School Bus" to watch The Frizz travel with the kids inside a bee hive. We used bubble wrapping to paint and apply onto paper to add some dimension to our honeycombs. We then showed representation of bees through 'can', 'have', and 'are'. I typed up their responses after our readings so that they could characterize the bees into the best categories. I love interactive projects =)

 

ODOB: One District One Book

 

One District, One Book, asks families to read a children’s novel as a community (everyone reading the same book, at the same time, over the course of a month).  All families, even those not very familiar with reading chapter books out loud, can discover and acquire the habit. One District, One Book is enabling. Ultimately, families will learn how to read books together on their own, independently.  You reach those families through your schools. That’s where your captive (and needy) audience awaits. But when each school – at your direction – agrees to adopt the program, they each still have the freedom to refine the program to suit their school, community, needs, capabilities, and resources.

 

My hubby surprised me with an early Mother's Day gift with the new sport iwatch. I have been looking for a Garmin to track my athletic activities and monitor my runs and he kept telling me to hold off. I wore this for a few days and it has to go back. I am already hyper and a bit OCD =) so when I worked out for 128 minutes (yes, over two hours) and it still told me at 9 pm that I had to burn more calories, I had to start vacuuming and doing laps around the house till I hit their desired number! You think I am joking but I am not. I am one of those people that will go for a speed walk with my husband only to return at 3.85 and have to walk down the street until I hit the exact 4.0 miles.  I am so serious. The watch is neat but you still need to have your phone on hand to sync with it. For instance, I went on a run but it couldn't map it because I didn't have my phone with me. I was under the impression that it worked solely on its own but it doesn't. I will still need to bring my phone with me on runs anyway to play my music so I will keep looking for the best athletic band that suits my needs. Any suggestions?

 

 

Our school has a walk-a-thon to help raise money for our PTO. It is the only fundraiser we do all year which is nice and the kids have a blast. Each grade level has a theme and Kindergarten is doing a superhero one this year. We asked parents to donate old t-shirts that were extra large on the kiddos. We sponge painted our district letter using a stencil and will cut around the shirt to transform into the cape. As a school, we walk over to our district track where all of the grades sit in the bleachers. Then they call each grade to walk two laps around the track to their theme music. There are prizes for EVERYTHING so the excitement continuously builds from the very first donation! We are excited to have this event next Friday and hoping for great weather. It is Ohio, though, so anything is possible =)

Have a great weekend!

Five for Friday: Earth Week in Domikiddos

 

This was definitely a science week for me and I was so proud of myself for doing so much of it! LOL! I have to admit that it is definitely my weakest link. We do TONS of writing, reading, and math but squeeze in the others when we can.  My own boys have been very difficult to get to be readers. I have tried everything under the sun to make it exciting. Seriously, we probably have hundreds and hundreds of books and periodicals. This book was the first one to grab their attention. I had forgotten about it until I was going through our book shelf at bedtime the other night. Then a light bulb went off! I could read this with my kiddos and hopefully get them excited about science. It was prime opportunity with Earth Day on Wednesday. We talked about being scientists and the meaning of a hypothesis before we began. I created a page where they would write their hypothesis before we did some research in helping write their facts. I was really impressed with the amount of thought they put into this activity. I intended to only show one or two but they were so darn cute! You can skip to number 2 if there is too much here. LOL!

 

Day 1: Why does the wind blow?

 

"I think the wind blows because we need air."

  

"I think the wind blows because I think God makes it."

 

 "I think the wind blows so we can fly kites."

 

"I think the wind blows to keep me warm." 

 

Day 2: Why does thunder come after lightning?

 

We were jammin' to Jack Johnson's "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" while we worked on many of our Earth day activities.  As a class, we generated lots of ideas of how we can promote choices to the environment around us. I gave each student a cheat sheet with many things related to earth to help guide their writing. After water coloring the earth, they attached it to their writing piece.

 

I have told you before how much I love to work out. It is an obsession, I will admit. I love CARDIO! I can run, do elliptical, and go to jazzercise in the morning before my eyes even open but I am HORRIBLE with strength training! I ice-skated for many years growing up and it really made my legs strong which is why I rocked those kick ball games as a kid. However, if you ask me to do a push up, forget it! I am a lover of amazon prime and saw this tower to help build your core come up as a daily deal and I just couldn't pass it up. I can do pull ups, push ups, drops, and abs all on one piece. I have been tackling it this past week and I am sore! My other thing I love is my workout clothes. Who doesn't love some sassy leggings to give them the energy they need? I had to laugh when I saw the two comics below. They both nail it for me!

 

 

Another activity related to the Earth this week was "Why is the sky blue?". The kids took the black atmosphere, added the circular world with their own green landforms.  We then added the rainbows to show the colors of the waves but also learned that the sky is blue because those are the waves we see the most of in our eyes!

 

 If you are a working mom with littles at home, you know that mornings are very hectic. I always have gotten the kids ready by myself in the morning and done pick up as well because my husband leaves early and travels far to work. I tell him that I feel like half my day is over after getting three kids ready and out the door to their places before I even get to work! I am usually chasing one or trying to get another dressed. I loved this particular morning when my lil guy was so fascinated with the mirror that I actually had time to blow dry my hair. LOL! I know these years will pass quickly so I try to embrace every moment =)

  

With that smile, we wish you a wonderful weekend!!