Playing to Learn!

First of all, congratulations to Jocelynn Erickson for achieving Elementary Student of the Month!  Jocelynn was recognized in front of the whole school for her hard work and terrific attitude at school!  Way to go, Jocelynn!

This week as I was looking through the photos I realized just how much we PLAYED!  They say that "kids learn through play"... and I believe that is definitely true!  So, I'd like to show you some of the ways that we played to learn this week! 

In the classroom we studied the sense of sound by making pencil box guitars and taking a slo-mo video to watch how the rubberbands created vibrations!  We also played a sound matching game with easter eggs full of different materials.  The students had to find their "sound match".  They had a great time!

Music class fit in perfectly with our science this week!  Ms. Fastenau showed the kids how to make some "found" instruments using wine glasses and straws to create vibrations!

Continuing our study of senses, we asked, "What wold it be like to try to read if you were blind?"  We tried it out by reading the braille outside of our classroom, and all agreed it would be VERY difficult!  

We finished up our science unit on senses with the sense of touch.  Here the kids are playing Mystery Bag... trying to guess what is in the bag only using their sense of touch.  We also did some Word Work and came up with a huge list of adjectives describing touch, and used those words to help the rest of the class guess what was in the bag!

In reading and social studies this week we learned about how friends play together and follow social rules to get along.  We also read about games around the world!  Then we had game centers in reading to practice playing nicely, taking turns, and following rules.  

We also played BINGO with our Popcorn Words!  Here the kids are making their own BINGO boards by writing down the words they feel are lucky!

On Tuesday our whole class got to go to the District Cross Country Race in Tanacross.  Everyone had a blast!  The kids all finished a half mile race.  Highlights of the day also included playing on different equipment at the Tanacross School playground, like the merry-go-round, and getting temporary tattoos from the State Troopers who attended the event!

The kids also did some beautiful art this week!  They made stained glass-looking leaves, and very cute dot-stamper pictures of ants.

Have a great week!  And don't forget to PLAY!