Valentines and Vomit

Wow, what a busy day! I have to say, my kids were GREAT!  One of the cutest things we made was a valentine mouse.

It would go well with Happy Valentine's Mouse

I made a packet out of Rachelle's awesome candy heart math activities for the kids to work on while others took their turn stuffing bags with their valentines.

Here are a few pics from our party:

Math bingo with Hershey kisses. Thanks Brooke!

Hot Potato with an adorable, heart-covered frog. {I thought of you, Heidi!}

We celebrated Chinese New Year, too!

And since I have a ladybug theme in my room, my cute room moms made this ladybug craft.

The day would have been perfect except I had one girl out sick (her mom said she was SO sad to stay home) and a boy vomit all over himself the hour BEFORE the party. He kept apologizing to me, poor thing. I felt SO bad for him. 

I can't believe it is only Monday. I still have benchmark exams and a field trip this week!

Gas Explosion

Nothing like starting science lab off with an gas explosion! Don't worry, it was only the soda and mentos experiment but it sure got the kids excited to learn about gasses today!

Of course the raisins in 7-up experiment is always a big hit.

We also let the kids put dry ice in water to see the CO2 being released.

Last, but not least, we talked about bubbles being gas surrounded by a thin layer of liquid so the kids went outside and blew bubbles with non-standard objects. Way cooler than regular bubble wands.

Me on the Map

We are in the middle of our map unit. The kids have a really hard time remembering which is the city, state, country, etc. Here is a visual project that might help from my awesome team member, Robi. First, I found our school on Google Earth and slowly zoomed out. Then we made this project.

Our School

 Our Street

 Our City

 Our State {I gave them pictures of the state flower and bird so they could draw one}

 Our Country

 Our Continent

 Our Planet {The templates were copied so the kids just cut and pasted.}

***Edited to add that I didn't share the templates because this idea was my friend Robi's not mine. However, after a zillion requests, we teamed up to put the directions for this project and the rest of our map unit into a 40 page packet. You can check it out {here.}

Tuesday's Teaching Tip

Do you make the most of your parent volunteers?
I have a sign by the door reminding them of possible tasks that often need doing.

I also have a bin by the door with projects to copy, laminate, etc. They have a sticky note with directions so they don't have to bother me. Yes, it takes a second to write down what you want but I barely ever make copies anymore and it saves SO much of my time not cutting and laminating!

There are many times a parent comes in, works for an hour silently, then waves  good-bye on the way out the door. I don't schedule parents at the same time. Have you ever shushed someone's talking and find out it was the parents?

Now I sound pretty mean but I also have parents scheduled at times to help with computer lab, art projects, science lab, etc where they can interact more with the kids.

On the other hand, I did have a parent washing my windows yesterday, so maybe I am mean. ;-)
{That sounds terrible but they were so dirty and we were putting artwork in them. Luckily it was a super cheery mom.}

Groundhogs have bathrooms?

I forgot to post about our groundhog activities! It was a little overshadowed {get it?  HA HA. oh my, I am turning into my mother} by being the same as 100th day for us.

We read a great book by Gail Gibbons and made this chart of our learning. I had a mom tell me she couldn't believe how many facts her son came home talking about. The kids favorite was the fact that groundhogs make bathrooms in their burrows. Gotta love potty talk.

 I love that some of the kids are using the word schema on their own!! :-)

Then we made our TLC groundhogs. I see a big improvement in my kids cutting skills and I know it is from these projects. You are welcome upper grade teachers.

If you liked my book club packets...

OK...I'm taking the plunge and putting the two book club packets I have made on TPT. Chalk Box is free and Snowboarding Superstar is $2. I really had no idea what to price it. If anyone has a rule of thumb on that I'd love to hear it. If you have downloaded it for free here I would REALLY{ {REALLY}} appreciate if you would go to TPT and leave me positive feedback. I am planning on making more of these packets soon. Here is my link at TPT.

Presidents' Day Making Words

You can download Presidents' Day Making Words here. I am hoping I see some contractions!

I use these as enrichment for early finishers. To encourage them I made a Word Wizards bulletin board where I put up their hard work. I record the total number of words they correctly made but I fold the paper so others can't copy their words. They love it when I announce, "Ooo...Sam has 12 already." Keeps the others motivated to try to fill their page. Notice 18 lines is not enough for Sam!