Read Across America Week

This week is Read Across America Week. Yesterday we dressed like our favorite book character(I forgot to take pictures :(. Today was buddy day. Therfore some of the 5th grade students came and read Dr. Seuss stories to the children. Tomorrow night is Family Reading Night. The families are invited to come to the Library to purchase gently used books. Thursday the children will get to go to Dr. Seuss' website and play some games. Friday is Dr. Seuss' birthday!

Birds

On Friday the Memphis Botantic Gardens came and talk to us about birds. We learned that humingbirds are the smallest bird and that their egg is the size of a jellybean. Then we learned that ostriches are the largest bird and we each had a chance to touch one of their eggs. Finally the children made a clothespin bird and went outside to bird watch.

Zoo Mural

Both 4Ks are in the process of making a huge zoo mural together. This is what we have so far. Hopefully it will be finished today.

Jobs!

This week our jobs were based around the zoo with the exeption of one relating to Valentine's Day. Here are pictures of each job.

Here the children measured a gorilla's hand, traced their own, cut it out and measured it. Then we compared who's hand was bigger.

At this job the children matched the broken hearts and documented the color and number.

Here the children curcled paper and glued it to a paper plate to make a lion's mask.

For the fourth job the children completed a listening sheet with me.

We had a fun week finishing up our jobs and I can't wait for some Dr. Seuss fun next week.

My Zoo animal is...

This week we have been talking about the zoo. After we read "Good Night Gorilla" I had the children complete a journal entry of their favorite zoo animals. They are SO cute that I had to share.

Happy Mardi Gras!!!

Today we talked about Mardi Gras and all the fun things that people do on this day. We discussed how in New Orleans they have a special carnival that is celebrated each year called Mardi Gras, also referred to as Fat Tuesday. People wear costumes, beads, and mask and celebrate with a big parade, special parties, and even a ball. We looked at pictures of floats, marching bands, listened to music, and took turns wearing Mardi Gras masks. Then we had a chance to make our own mask. At the end of the day the Girl Scouts are having a parade for the children, I can't wait!

Mardi Gras Mask. The children traced their hands and cut them out. We glued it all together and finshed them off with feathers and sequence.

Everyone taking a turn wearing a Mardi Gras Mask.

How Many Hearts Will Fit?

I LOVE pinterest and get tons of great ideas for the classroom.I found this cute printable and had to do it with the children. They all had fun guessing how many conversation hearts will fit in the heart. Most of the children guesses 3, 4, or 5, but I had a couple guess 10. It ended up that 12-14 hearts would fit. Of course the best part came at the end, they got to eat them.

Heart Elephants!

Wednesday the children made heart elephants. They came out adorable.

Jobs!

So it has been a busy week and I just realized that I have not posted any pictures about our jobs this week.

Chocolate Valentines Math- The children started out with 10 kisses and decided how many they would like to eat. Then we subtract to find out how many were left. I got the idea from HERE.

Heat Math Book- Here the children had to count the hearts, write the number, and color them the correct color. I got the idea from HERE.

Graphing- the children each got a baggie of candy heart. They graphed them then ate them. YUM!!!

Stack the Hearts- Here the children had to put letters in alphabetical order.

Valentine's Hat

Yesterday was so busy that I didn't have a chance to post about all of the fun we had. We had fun the moment we walked through the door.

These are the hats that we made in the morning for our party. I got the idea from HERE. This blog has other great hat ideas too.

For our party the children rotate to four different tables. The tables activities were decorating a sugar cookies, marble art, decorating a bag, and making a butterfly.

Marble Heart Painting

Cookies, yummmmm!!!

Heart Butterflies

Decorating Valentine's Bags

Valentine's Presents

I love Pinterest and found these adorable Valentine's present ideas for my children and Calen's teachers and friends.

I made Calen's teachers "bouquets". I filled the vase with Hersey kisses and taped Hersey bars and taffy on wood skewers for the flowers. I added a little note that said "Thanks for being SO sweet!"

For my children and Calen's friends I bought little shovels and put them in a bag with kisses and a note that says "I Dig You!".

Next Year!

One of my parents melted crayons and made the children adorable valentine's. She wrote on there "For "crayon" out loud, will you be my Valentine?" I have to remember this for next year.

Hall Song

This is the song that we sing every time that we leave the classroom.

Special Vistor

Today we had a special visitor come to end our week unit on Petting Zoo with Mr. R. I had my husband bring our goat, Snap. The children each had a turn petting and feeding her. It started to rain on us so we had to end early but the children loved being about to spend time with her.

When we came back I had the children watercolor a picture of Snap. Here are a few of their master pieces.

Rainbows

We made tear paper rainbows!!!

Biscuits and Butter

Today during snack we went to the cafeteria and cooked biscuits and made butter. We all had fun shaking whipping cream to make butter.

Roosters

This week we have been talking about petting zoos and the farm, so today we made roosters. The children used a pattern and traced their hands to make their roosters. They came out adorable. Here are some pictures below. I got the idea from HERE.

Ronald McDonald

Yesterday the Ronald McDonald House came and talked to the children about reading. Ronald did a fantastic job getting the children excited about reading and showing them how much fun it is to read. He danced, sang some songs, did a few magic tricks, read stories, and talked how to take care of books. The children had a great time!

Writing Center

I was so excited during centers today to see the children using the new word wall during writing center. Here is a picture of Jackson making his own word wall.  

Jobs for the week!

This week we are talking about the petting zoo with Mr. R. I love this week because on Thursday we will make biscuits and butter and on Friday Snap the goat comes to visit.

Today the children started their jobs. During carpet time we read a book on a petting zoo and we made patterns with animal sounds. Below are pictures of the jobs that we are doing this week.

Stand up animals.

Measuring farm animals. All the printables came from HERE.

Pig Shapes. Here the children have to color the shapes the correct color and then graph them. I am not sure where I printed the sheet from but found in on pinterest.

How far is it to the barn? I saw this HERE. At this job the children estimated how many cows it would take to get to the barn and then they glued to see how many it took.

New Word Wall

I decided this week that I wanted to redo my word wall. I saw a picture where a teacher squared out sections for each letter. I loved the way it looked and decided that it would make my word wall look SO much better and it really does.

Almost done!

DONE!!!

Here is a picture of the old word wall.
You can see in the pictures that I moved my listening center and put a bigger table for writing center.

Buddy Day

Today was buddy day, so the 5th grade teachers planned an adorable Valentine's craft for the children to do together. They used 4 hearts to make a mouse and then sang a song about love. The children had a fun time and enjoy spending time with the older children.

Valentine's Hearts

Today the children used empty paper towel holder to paint. I formed a heart on one end of the roll and taped it so it would not move. Then the children stamped hearts all over their papers. They came out adorable.