Things Are Going Downhill Fast!

The week began with an exciting check of our leprechaun trap on Monday morning!  The kids found that he had left them a note and some green and gold jelly beans!  He had gotten caught in our snare, but slipped out, leaving only his green bowtie behind!  Here the kids are deciphering the note, signed "Bruno".  

We took advantage of all of those jelly beans to practice counting large numbers by groups of ten.

We began our new unit on magnets and electricity with an exploration of magnets and lightbulbs.  Who doesn't love to play with magnets?!  This sparked a lot of curiosity and many many questions, which we wrote down and will endeavor to answer!

We had another wonderful art class with Mrs. Shauna Lee, continuing our study of color mixing.  The kids mixed colors of paint to create a rainbow row of cute birdies!

We had the BEST time EVER this month with our Book Buddies!  On Friday we read books about snow and then headed to Airport Hill for a morning of sledding and hot cocoa!  Our buddies were so great, hauling sleds up the hill for the kinders, and holding them in the sleds.  They are just AWESOME!  We love our 5th Grade Book Buddies!

On Thursday the kids had a substitute, while I attended a conference on how to teach Math in a Cultural Context.  On Friday, we got to play with some of the math concepts I had learned about, and had guest teachers, Ms. Bonnie Dompierre, Ms. Sara Talus, and Jerry Lipka and Barbara Adams from UAF come into our class.  We explored finding the center point, and halves and fourths using the symmetry of our bodies, string, and paper strips.  The kids made some GREAT discoveries about fractions and symmetry, through hands-on explorations.  They had fun sharing their discoveries with other members of the class.  It was amazing to watch them discover a deeper understanding of math on their own, and put these understandings into words.  We can't wait to continue our explorations and see where they will take us!  

On a sad (for us) note, we had to say good-bye to our classmate Nolan Roslansky, who is off to begin another adventure with his family moving to Minnesota.  We sent him off with a song, lots of heart-felt cards, and a great big group hug.  We will miss you Nolan!

We have also been faithfully practicing for Battle of the Books, which is now scheduled for March 30th.  I will keep you posted on details as I get them!  

Luck O' the Irish to Ya!

Love these congruent shapes on the geoboard!

We had a great time with Ms. Shauna Lee in art class learning about washes and silhouettes.  They made some beautiful winter scenes... but we got so busy I forgot to take pictures of the final products!

We also did an art/writing project in class based on Dr. Seuss's book, My Many Colored Days.  We got nice and messy creating art work based on feelings inspired by color!  The kinders created some really great writing to go along with their artwork, on display in the hallway.

Leprechaun mania began in earnest on Monday.  The kids wrote "I feel lucky when..." stories and made little lucky leprechauns!  Once again it was fun to see how they each added a unique touch to their creations!

We made rainbow cookies on Friday, to use for bait in our leprechaun trap (with a few extra for us to eat. 👍 ) 

We worked on color mixing.  It was fun to discover how to make the rainbow colors from primary colors with dough!  

"Look!  It's turning GREEN!"

The kids earned another party, so we got out the bouncy house and celebrated St. Patrick's Day!  They did a guided drawing of a leprechaun, ate rainbow cookies, and BOUNCED!

To end the week, we set up a trap for our friendly neighborhood leprechaun. 

Ms. Amy helped the girls write a very polite note to ask if the leprechaun could "please give us some of his gold.  Thank you."  We'll just have to wait and see if we catch one!!!

Have a happy and very lucky Spring Break!