Five for Friday

I feel like the closer we get to the end of the school year, the more and more tired I am getting as each day progresses. Haha. Whats wrong with me??? Thank goodness Spring Break is coming in a week!

Now, off to Five for Friday...

We started a new unit in Math this week....TIME! I'm actually sort of excited to teach this to the kiddos. Had to do some review of first grade stuff first...

The students have been working really hard these last two weeks writing their own version of the Cinderella story. A more in-depth post about this will be coming soon. 

A production artist from the SF Opera came to visit our school to talk about set and prop design. She helped the kids brainstorm ideas for the set of our mini-opera. 

On her next visit after Spring Break we are going to be making the set! The kids are most definitely excited.

We had a field trip today to the UC Berkeley Botanical Gardens. It started off with some light rain, so the Gardens was kind enough to give everyone a poncho. The kids were broken into smaller groups and then off on the docent-led tour they went! 

The kids got to see carnivorous plants, try some cacao beans and milk chocolate, and taste agave syrup! They all had a blast. :)

The field trip was only half a day (we got back at lunch). We had learned about telling time to five minutes the day before. It only made sense to just do a fun activity that reinforces a concept taught after a field trip rather than a brand new lesson. Thank goodness for TpT because I found the PERFECT freebie to use as the fun activity!

The clocks were very easy to make. The product also comes with worksheets to go along with the clock. Perfect scaffolding! The kids really enjoyed this activity. I told them to take the clocks home to keep practicing at home. 

Warning: Mini-Rant

I haven't been in the teaching field for very long so aren't too familiar with the old math standards...but is anyone else finding some holes in the Common Core Math Standards? Don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem with the standards as a whole. I'm just finding the non-algebraic standards to be missing some sort of continuity across grade levels. For example...time is only a standard in first and second grade. In first, you learn about hour and half hour. In second, you are supposed to learn to tell time to the nearest five minute. In third grade, the time standard is gone. So...when are the kids supposed to learn to read a clock to the minute???? Maybe this is just a California Common Core thing? I have no idea. Anyone else seeing this too? (I also see this same issue with money. We only teach the kids up to one dollar? What about the dollar coin, five dollar bill, and twenty dollar bill??)

End Mini-Rant

EDIT:

So I don't know if it was just me or something, but I searched online for the Common Core standards (I have been using my phone app all this time), and time to the nearest minute has suddenly appeared in the third grade standard! I'm sure it didn't suddenly appear of course, but I swear it wasn't on my phone app when I checked. My colleague swears the same thing since we were both talking about this and looking at the standards only like a week or two ago. So interesting...

Well, that's the end of this entry! Time to go eat dinner! :D

Five for Friday...Sunday Style?

Oops, didn't get this post written in time for Friday but I guess Sunday will just have to do! :)

We did a zoom through unit on money this week. We spent the first trimester talking about coins during calendar time, which included coming up with different coin values to correspond with the number of days were had been in school. The fun part of actually focusing on money for our math unit was that we got to go past a dollar! That was very exciting for the kids. :)

 We had an all day field trip scheduled on Valentine's Day so our party got moved to Thursday instead. Thursday is usually one very busy day with weekly computer lab. I also needed to fit in a whole bunch of math stuff since we are starting a new unit next week. Unfortunately, that meant that there wasn't any time for Valentine centers, which is what I usually do for Valentine's Day. But at least I was able to find some time to make our valentine holders. Since we are the Outstanding Owls, it's only appropriate for our holders to be owls too! :)

Our Valentine's Party consisted of making a very cute craft, a love monster (pictured below)! We also played some games and enjoyed some delicious treats. My parents are the best with parties because they organize everything...craft, games, and food! :D

On Valentine's Day, we had a field trip to a nearby Science museum, the UC Berkeley's Lawrence Hall of Science. (They also provide the Science kits we use at school.) We watched a 3-D film, took a class on geology, and visited exhibits. 

observing different kinds of rocks

Going through stations to test rocks for different things.

Can this rock scratch glass?

Going over the answers!

Visiting the exhibits...the first favorite one among the class.

Second favorite....building with Keva planks!

Now I'm in Monterey with the boyfriend for the long weekend just to relax! Yesterday, we wandered around Fisherman's Wharf and downtown Monterey (I think). We had quite an eating adventure, a whole day of eating seafood. 

The plan for today is to go to the aquarium and maybe catch a movie too. Guess we will see what happens! :)

Five for Friday

What a crazy busy week it's been! This is probably the perfect week for Five for Friday. So much to share! :)

1. Monday was our class pajama party aka my birthday party. Of course we spent the day doing tons of birthday educational stuff. But we did manage to fit in a game of tape the candle on the cake. That brought lots of entertainment. :) (Read more about my birthday party in a previous post.)

2. On Tuesday during our Daily Five time, I called students to contribute to our class thank you gift to our beloved and awesome Art Docent. What did we make?? A thumbprint vase!!!

Is that adorable or what?? I turned all the thumbprints into monkeys since we are the Marvelous Monkeys. The paint I got said to let it air dry for 21 days so we had to make it now. I can't wait to give it to our Art docent. She is going to love it! :)

3. On Thursday, we went on my most anticipated field trip, to Maker Faire Education Day!!! For those of you who aren't familiar with the Maker Faire, it's an annually held worldwide event where "Makers" come together and exhibit their creations to the public. Education Day is a day for school groups to come and preview some of the exhibits as they are being set up for the actual weekend event. I really look forward to this field trip because it really gets the kids excited and inspires them to create, create, create! My favorite part of the field trip is always watching ArcAttack perform. The kids absolutely love watching lightning sing!

Smaller version of the tesla coil

Making fabric owls

Another creation we made, LED pinnies.

Life-Size Mouse Trap contraption!

Jeep with Lego walls

Light Up "Paint"

Re-creating light up "paint" back in the classroom.

If you haven't heard of Maker Faire already, I highly recommend you look it up! Maker Faire is held all over the world so it's very likely that it will be held somewhere near where you live. If you find one, see if they have an Education Day because it's totally worth it! I am going to the actual event this weekend with my family. Can't wait! :)

4. We are studying solids and liquids in Science right now. Our investigation topic right now is called "Bits and Pieces". The students were given small solids that come in large quantities (rice, mung beans, lima beans, pinto beans, cornmeal) to observe and explore. Our investigation with these solids this week involved separating the solids from each other using different size metal screens. The kids worked in partners to get them separated and actually did a really great job!

5. Our butterflies have all emerged from their chrysalises! We now officially have a butterfly garden. :) I'll admit, I was just as excited as the kids since I have never seen the life cycle of a butterfly in person before either. It was very cool watching the butterflies eat. One of my colleagues says it looks like some of them might be pairing and producing eggs. Not quite sure if that's what I really want...

Painted Lady...not Monarch!

You see the lovely flowers down there?
They were from the birthday bouquet I got from my students.
What wonderful timing!

Welp, that was my week. How was yours? Only four weeks left now. Out of those four, only one of them is a FULL week. 17 days of school left! I can do it! :)

P.S. Any advice for getting out of jury duty? I have been summoned to report on May 28 (day after Memorial Day). I can't postpone it since I've already deferred once. This is SUCH bad timing since I have a guest visiting and staying with me during that week. Plus, there will only be three weeks of school left then. I can't possibly leave my students!  Any suggestions for what I should do if I end up having to report? :)