Pre-Winter Break Recap

Oh no! I was halfway through my post and then Blogger froze and none of this entry got saved! Guess I have to start over again...

Well, I admit. My poor blog has been neglected once again, and I have so much to share about the past two weeks! Rather than write one very loooooong post, I'm going to chunk it into two posts, one for each week. So, let's rewind!

WEEK BEFORE WINTER BREAK

So much to accomplish during that week before winter break! Nothing really in the academic realm besides Math so we spent the week doing centers and research for our next project, becoming an expert on something relating to the Prehistoric Era!

This one wanted to know everything about volcanoes. 

Practicing our antonyms!

Reading Scholastic News!

Making compound words!

We also spent the week creating and finishing our cards and gifts to our buddies and family.

Making cards for our kinder buddies. 

Some were trying their hand in making pop-up cards. 

2014 calendars for the family.

Also made lavender-scented sock snowmen as another family gift.

We also wrapped up the week with our winter party! The parents led the kids through some crafts and games (not pictured)...

Making mason jar snowglobes. 

Ta-da! 

Add a ribbon and give it a little shake and it's done!

 ...then we enjoyed some delicious and cute snacks while watching Mr. Popper's Penguins! Great movie! If you haven't seen it yet, I would definitely recommend it!

And that was the week before winter break. Left the school with a bundle of gifts filled with student love. After placing them all around my Charlie Brown Christmas Tree, I could barely see the tree!

Lastly, for those have you who wanted to know treat I made my co-workers this year...

"White Trash"!!

Got the recipe from a fellow blogger, Teaching with TLC.

Come back tomorrow for my recap on the first week of winter break! :D

Five for Friday - Conference Week

When are your parent-teacher conferences? Mine was this week which means minimum days ALL week followed by 5-6 conferences per day after school. Can I just say I'm EXHAUSTED???? But I have JUST enough energy for a Five for Friday post! (maybe?!)

We finished our whale presentations this week. Some more awesome artwork! :D

Sperm whale painting

Orca reserve

Sperm whale battling a giant squid

 We began our unit on informative writing in Writer's Workshop. Last week, we conducted a quick experiment and wrote a lab report (following Lucy Caulkins's Units of Study). This week we went back and revised our lab report by looking specifically at the "Procedures" page.

Wish I had examples of what the kids wrote but I definitely was not thinking of pictures for that with conferences happening!

 

Subtraction with regrouping! We started last week with just two-digit minus one-digit. This week we moved on to two-digit minus two-digit. Have you seen the subtraction poem on pinterest? I absolutely LOVE! Showed it to my kids and we even made hand motions for each line of the poem. Almost turned into a little dance! 

 

Unfortunately, we also had a little hiccup in our week. I was out for a day for a PD on this program we are doing with the San Francisco Opera (the class will be creating their own mini Aria!). While I was out, two of my students decided it was okay to go to the teacher's desk while the substitute wasn't looking and took back their loom bracelets that I had confiscated from them a while back. I wasn't there to see it. Unfortunately for them, there were a couple witnesses who reported it to me, which led to a not so good morning the following day. 

Journal entry for EVERYONE 

Apology letter from one of the culprits. Can't help but smile a little at the end.  

Besides preparing for parent conferences, I also finished addressing my holiday cards to my students (presents were wrapped during Thanksgiving break!). Writing personalized messages is too much work so this year I made sure the cards I designed through Vistaprint already had a message on them. 

Of course, I still can't NOT write anything so I just wrote a nice one-liner. :)

These kids are so spoiled. Not only do they get a book from their teacher as a gift, they also get a free book Scholastic coupon with their card. :)

I know I hit my five but I JUST have to share this one.


The best thing I love about math is that there are many ways to get to an answer. I definitely did not teach this way but SO awesome! :)

Have a wonderful weekend! Just one more week left for me! :D

Five for Friday!!

UPDATE: So, for some reason...blogger wasn't letting me upload pictures anymore. Which means my Friday post has now become a Saturday post....Sorry for those who stopped by earlier and probably wondering why the post was incomplete. Now it's not! :D

After a week of break, I can't believe this week went by so quickly! So much happened that I have plenty of things to share for Five for Friday this week! :)

Whale reports were due after Thanksgiving break and we began doing the presentations this week. The kids were required to create a piece of artwork to go with the report and some kids (and parents) went all out!

Bowhead whale painted on glass.

Sperm whale.

Some parents came in and did a guest presentation on Hannukah. We got to eat latkes and play the dreidel game with some gelt. Lots of fun!

The Marine Mammal Center drove their whale bus (van, really) over to our school and shared some great things about whales. The kids got to see some pretty cool stuff including bones, baleen, teeth, and even eyeballs!

Orca eyeball.

We went over the parts of a whale while dressing up a classmate in a whale costume!

Barnacles.

Baleen.

Whale skin and blubber.

Kids measuring themselves to see how the humpback whale's fluke is compared to them. 

All that walking around and touching things created quite a bit of static electricity for one of my young friends. 

That made my day. :)

We also created winter landscapes using tempera paint. Great success!

Since I ended up posting on a Saturday, I guess I might as well add this. Today was our school's winter bazaar. I've never been to it before so I thought I'd stop by this year, especially since I had some students with booths selling things. When I got there, I found one of my student's booth and saw him hiding in the corner. His mom told me business wasn't doing too well so I went and found him wandering around. I told him if he went back to his booth and gave me a good sales pitch, I would buy his stuff. Well I guess he did alright, since I ended up buying both of the items he was selling!

Reindeer soap (soap is inside the washcloth) and jingle bells. Ignore the mess behind!

Parent conferences next week! Wish me luck! :)