8 more days of school left!

I decided to extend the unit of telling time another week. We played many games and fun things to practice this skill. I turn a lot of my lessons, activities, and math centers into games to engage the kids in their learning. For the next 2 weeks, we will work on addition and subtracting for math. Please work on adding and subtracting over the summer so the children don’t lose their number fluency skills!!!

We have been doing a lot of bilingual buddy work lately. That is why their work going home has two different colors on them. I feel like it's very important for the kids to work together because they get the opportunity to talk to build their vocabulary and it also gives them the opportunity to be "the teacher" and teach their partners.

On Friday, 5^th grade dissected squids in the butterfly garden. I took the class over there so we could observe the squid. I warned them that the smell wasn’t going to be so pleasant and that it’s not going to smell the roses before we went. Some kids held their noses the whole time but they did have fun looking at the squid. 

We have been learning about whales this past week and collecting informational facts about different whales. We brainstormed as a class on an anchor chart what whales eat, what they can do, what they have, and different types of whales. On Friday, we showed off our writing skills IN VIETNAMESE through a research whale paper. I was soooo impressed from the papers I read. I guided the kids through the paper but some took initiative to write their own paper using the anchor chart! I am one proud teacher! To see how much Vietnamese and writing skills the kids have learned in one school year. Check out our writing in front of the class when you get the chance! Look at how cute our little whales turned out! I didn’t get the chance to do this with Mrs. Skalaban’s class yet because we had JA on Friday so we didn’t switch, but we will get the chance to try to catch up this upcoming Tuesday.

In Mrs. Skalaban’s class last week, the students read “The Rainbow Fish” and filled out boxes about the story including story elements like problem, solution, and characters.. They assembled their rainbow fish and it turned out really cute! It even has one blinged out, glitter scale.

Next week is going to be a crazy week full of events. 3^rd grade rocket launch, super hero field day, 1^st grade health rotation…

Can’t believe we finished our last full week of school. Only 2 more 4 day weeks and it’s sweet, sweet summa time! Hope everyone has a great and safe Memorial weekend!

14 more days of school left!

Although it is hard to see the guppies, we have upgraded our plastic fish bowl to a glass vase.  I plan on selling the guppies in bead store at the end of the year. The kids will be able to buy the guppies with their beads and take them home to keep forever!

We returned our white tree frog this past Wednesday to the AISD science center. That was our last classroom pet for the year L The kids really enjoyed having a class pet throughout the year. Animals are definitely a high interest to the kids. They looooved learning about animals in science. We will continue learning about animals by doing researches on different ones.

In science buddies last week, the kids planted seeds in a bag and in cups. It only took a couple of days for the plants to start sprouting.

We had our Spring book fair this past week. The “Under the Sea” theme was really cute. Throughout the week, the kids had opportunities to visit the book fair to purchase books. These books will be great summer reads. Please make sure you are working with your child throughout the summer so they do not fall behind going into 2nd grade.

Monday was popcorn day! Mrs. Skalaban popped popcorn with the kids and they did a foldable using their 5 senses along with writing activities using exciting, descriptive words.

This week in science, we worked on learning different habitats and the different animals who live in those habitats.

We continued learning about telling time this week. I will be extending this unit out to one more week. The kids love doing these interactive activities. In their science journals and math journals, you will see many interactive foldables we have done through the year.

14 more days of school!

We have many fun events planned for the last week of May. Science buddies, field day, first grade health rotation….

I will be out this Friday—May 22^nd, at a graduation. 

Fun in May

What an exhausting week!!! I can’t believe we have less than a month left of the school year. I look at the calendar and this is the beginning of when it will get super busy with events. This month we will have 4^th grade talent show, 3^rd grade rocket launch, Rita’s ice every other Friday, CATCH night, book fair, multiple family nights, the end-of-the-year picnic, and the list goes on!

We continued practicing on reading a clock and telling the time from both digital and analog clocks. We have worked on time to the hour, time to the half hour, and a quarter past and a quarter till. It would be fun to challenge the kids at home and ask them to tell you the time looking at analog clocks. The kids are getting better every time we practice in the class. We will be continuing the time unit for one more week.

The kiddos had a lot of fun with the fun May calendar this week. Here are some activities we had this week! Thank you to the parents who signed up and brought in something for the class!

 Also, thank you to those who brought in special gifts for me in honor of teacher appreciation week!!! I loved each and every present I received. The gifts just kept coming in as the weeks passed but I didn’t get to take a picture of each one. I am such a lucky teacher always getting spoiled!

Welcome May!

This week we learned how to tell time to the hour and to the half hour. We will continue to practice reading a clock for the next two week.

In science, we worked on finishing up our mini habitats book and discussed about the difference between different habitats.

We squeezed in health by reading books about skeletons and assembled a skeleton out of q-tips. They also wrote skeleton facts with Mrs. McClung on Thursday since I was not here. A lot of papers had very good facts. It’s amazing to see how much these kids have improved throughout the year. Not only is it very important to read daily but it is also important to practice writing daily.

On Wednesday, we had science buddies with our 5^th grade buddies. The kids planted seeds in a cup with their buddies and also placed seeds in a wet paper towel and put it in a galloon ziplock. I have the cups placed up by the window and hung up the bags with our plants on the window. The kids will be so sad when science buddies is over. We have one more in May.

For the month of May, the children have a May Fun Calendar in their folders. Feel free to participate as many days as possible. What fun, fun, fun!