I've got my thinking cap on...

Last Friday, our principal declared it "Put Your Thinking Cap On" day. Kids wore hats to school, and when the principal came around to observe the learning taking place in the classrooms, the teachers signed Ms. Shaw's baseball hat. The kids thought that was way cool!

 

Nature Center

Our district is lucky enough to have the Kirby Creek Natural Science Education Center.  Every year, each class is able to go spend half a day, and work on activities that tie in with our curriculum.  The Nature Center just got a HUGE makeover, and it is AWESOME! We had so much fun!  We went on a nature walk and used our senses to record what we saw, heard, smelled, and touched.  (I tried to limit the touching! ;-) ) We observed a pond and they illustrated what they saw in the pond.  We explored a huge garden and went on a hunt for vegetables and flowers that started with each letter of the alphabet.  We also discussed the butterfly life cycle and made a paper plate craft to show the different stages of the life cycle.  Overall, beautiful weather, well behaved kids, awesome place, we learned a few things, and nobody fell in the pond! Success!

 

50s Fun

Oh my goodness! Yesterday was our 50th day of school and we celebrated 1950s style. So much fun! We even dressed like they did in the 50s! We counted to 50 by 1s, 2s, 5s, and 10s. We listed numbers greater than 50 and less than 50. My sweet teammate, Miss Martinez, made a PowerPoint to show the kids pictures of clothes and toys. We compared and contrasted how people lived in the 1950s to how we live today. The kids were shocked they didn't have cell phones, or color TV, or Wii! Here are a few pics of our wild and crazy, but educational day! ;-)

After we discussed the differences from the 50s to today, the students wrote a few sentences about what they learned! Super cute, huh?

After lunch, we enjoyed root beer floats! It was YUMMY!  Then, we graphed how many students liked their treat, and how many did not! Ice cream outside on a beautiful day? What's not to love?

 

 

In the afternoon, we had a sock hop! The kids loved dancing to 50s music!  We also showed clips of I Love Lucy so they could see what TV shows looked like in the 50s!

Just an FYI for teacher friends, I purchased Cara Carroll's unit: “Cruisin’ Through the 50 First Days of School”. All of our activities came from her unit.  I would highly recommend it!