Hooray for the 100th Day!

Hello Everyone!
Our awesome week was capped off by our 100th day celebration!!  Hooray for the 100th day!! We always celebrate in a big way, all day!  From morning work to math tubs to poetry to balloon launch, we are all about that century mark.  Here are a few pics from our day!

Writing the letters in our name 100 times!

math talk

room moms made a cute sign with a photo op!

Colorful 800 balloon launch. We are tracking locations where our balloons are found. Last year We had one found in the Bahamas! All the way from Texas??? WOW!

I was honored to release an orange, yellow and purple balloon. Orange for the grade level, a yellow for a sweet little first grader, and purple for a sweet second grader who are watching from above. My little angels!

A sweet ending to our fun day!

How many licks does it take to get to the tootsie roll center of a tootsie pop??? :)
The world may never know!!

For your own little lollipop lick printable, don't lick...click here!!


For a complete 100th day unit, click here!!

Hope you enjoyed your peek into our day! Stay tuned for more wonder!!
Joyfully!
Nancy

I Heart Inflectional Endings

Hello Everyone!
I am so sorry I haven't posted anything lately...battling a crazy cough and cold. I think I'm finally on the upward swing though! Yahoo!
Today we reviewed inflectional endings. During D-5 I combined our "wordwork" and "work on writing" into one hands on visual where kids were practicing inflectional endings, and creating a seasonal heart!  We brainstormed and charted things we loved and created a little poem about those things. We read the sentences to be sure the endings were in place and then wrote the poem around a heart shaped piece of scrapbook paper.  Here are a couple of pics.

If you have a heart for inflectional endings and need a quick printable, click here!

Hope you are all staying healthy!!

Stay tuned for more fun! Thanks for stopping by!!

Joyfully!

Nancy

Celebrating Imaginations and Inventiveness!

Hello Everyone!

Next week we will be finishing up our inventors unit in social studies, with a celebration of students' inventions and creations.  We will also celebrate imaginations by reading about two fiction characters and one historical figure who all happen to be girls! Meggie Moon by Elizabeth Baguley, Have Fun Mollie Lou Melon, by Patty Lovell, and Marvelous Mattie by Emily Arnold McCully are the three books we will focus on and I'm happy to share a quick little unit which emphasizes asking questions before, during and after reading to help with comprehension.  The unit also has a quick little venn to compare the three characters and a hands on visual for kids to show off their imagination and creativity.

 

The little unit is about 15 pages with lots of opportunity for writing and connecting. 

You can get it here. Just click! :)

If you missed the unit on inventors you can get it again!  Click here!!

I hope reading these selections will help kids to embrace creativity and to not give up on their ideas!! 

You Go, Kids!!! 

Can't wait to see your inventions!!

If you are a follower of this blog, stay tuned for pics of creativity in action!!

Joyfully!

Nancy 

Terrific Terrariums!

Hello Everyone!
Happy Friday!  I hope everyone is staying safe and warm!  Prayers lifted for those of you in the extreme deep freeze. Please take care! This weather has been crazy!!
We had a great week!  In science we've been studying the interdependence of living things.  We believe in a hands on approach to science, so of course we had to come up with a plan.  Our district suggest we either study aquariums or terrariums.  Well, we tried the aquarium thing last year and enjoyed it for a while, but when the adult fish stared eating the babies...oops, that circle of life- that interdependence- got a little sad for our firsties.
This year we decided to try the terrarium route.  We did some research and tah-dah!! We made terrariums with our kids today!! Here are a few pics! First we reviewed and created a little response chart as we learned about the interdependence of living things:

Then we began our lab.

Gather soil, rocks, 2 litre bottles, and plants

Cut tops off two 2 litre bottles

Pour a layer of rocks for drainage

Add a layer of soil

Add some plants, and water until moist

Put the second bottle bottom over the first to create a terrarium!

Place in a window

make observations

I put all the directions and explanations into a little unit. Here are some pics

Unit also has observation recording sheets and a fun little vocabulary word search.

If you are studying living things, you may want to try this.  You can get the unit by

Clicking HERE!!

I can't wait for the kids to see how the plants depend on each other for survival (without eating each other).  As a bonus, we will be able to see the water cycle in effect!! 

 Each class made one terrarium, but I also think it would be fun to have the kids each make a mini one using small clear water bottles. Hmmm. Maybe next year!! If you do try this activity, please let me know how it went.  What would you change, what worked better for you, etc.  I am always looking for improvements and clarifications!!

Have a fantastic weekend, friends!!

Thanks for stopping by to take a peek!!

Joyfully!

Nancy