March Madness!

This month is going to be absolutely action packed! I sure hope I can keep up with all the events and activities! 

Monday and Tuesday are World Math Day, which the students started gleefully competing in today, and will resume tomorrow.

Wednesday is Dr. Seuss' birthday. I've lined up Ben and Matt from KNIX and Matthew Blades from The Mix 96.9 to come in as celebrity readers. There will be a few other surprise readers throughout the day and other fun activities! We will also literally be Reading Across America, doing a Green Eggs and Ham reader's theater with our pen-pal class in Massachusetts via Skype.

Wednesday and Thursday are the very first World Spelling Day, (spanning multiple days due to time zones) which based on the reaction of the class, will surely be as big of a hit as World Math Day, which we have been participating in for years.

Friday is school photo day and it is the day our class photo will be taken. Order forms were sent home last week. Please return the form by Friday if you are interested in ordering the group picture.

This is only week one. March is going to be one wild ride!

Bowl of Chocolate Ellen Teb-BITS, Anyone?

Just a quick reminder that the cereal box book report is due Monday, February 28. The students and I have been communicating throughout the duration of this assignment and it sounds like everyone is in good shape. Students that finished early and presented last week all did a beautiful job!

Many students completed the Super Bonus Challenge this past week, and brought in amazing presidential presentations. So far we have seen a model of a Abe Lincoln's log cabin, an incredible president themed board game, a creative timeline on a scroll and several posters! We ran out of time for every student to present, but we will get to them all next week.

James and the Giant....Cabbage?

We had a fabulous time with our Third Grade Buddies this week, pretending we got swallowed up by enormous cabbages, similar to James in Roald Dahl's classic, James and the Giant Peach.

We had a discussion about the book and watched a very brief video clip of the movie. Then we substituted a giant cabbage for a giant peach and students worked with their buddies to write a story about their adventure living in a monstrous cabbage. Every student got to keep a cabbage plant to plant at home. Details about the this interesting cabbage program can be found here.
Happy gardening!

Cotton

As much as we tried, we could not cram all five Cs into the festivities on Monday. We were just too busy! Today we learned about cotton.

Students worked with a partner on an iPad researching cotton. They found interesting facts about cotton  including the origin of the word, how and where cotton plants grow and the history of the cotton gin.

Students then wrote the word "cotton" in large, block letters and glued cotton balls over the lines to form the word.

Once the word was clear, students copied their favorite cotton facts onto their paper.

Who would guess there is so much to learn about cotton, an important piece of Arizona's heritage?

Citrus

What would a celebration of Arizona's birthday be like without some fresh citrus to sample?

Thanks to our MANY generous donors, we had plenty of grapefruit, lemons and oranges to sample.

The taste test was optional, but those who participated were required to write about the differences in the citrus fruits.

Some students thought the lemons were much too sour! Almost everyone seemed to enjoy oranges and the grapefruit got mixed reviews.

Overall, it was lots of fun to learn about different variety of citrus grown right in some of our very own backyards! Thanks again to everyone who sent in fresh fruit!

Copper

We learned that pennies get dull over time because the copper in the pennies reacts with the air to form copper oxide. Pure copper metal is bright and shiny, but the oxide is dull and sometimes greenish.

We dipped our dull pennies in a mixture of salt and vinegar, and the acetic acid from the vinegar dissolved the copper oxide, making our pennies brighter and shinier!

The salt served as a catalyst and sped up the chemical reaction.

Mrs. Woodard's husband drilled holes in 40 pennies, so all of our students were able to create a penny necklace as a little souvenir from our copper lesson.

Happy 99th Birthday Arizona!

Tomorrow we will kick off our week with lots of Arizona themed festivities!

We will be checking on the weather and climate conditions all over the state, tasting and writing about citrus, learning about the cotton industry, while writing the word "cotton" using cotton balls, dissolving copper oxide from pennies and creating penny necklaces and reading about the difference between cattle and cows. 

The spelling list will be Arizona themed and we will also be solving some challenging math word problems involving The 5 Cs. Speaking of "The 5 Cs", I have been going crazy trying to figure out if the plural of C should include an apostrophe or not. My initial instinct said no apostrophe since the C is not showing possession nor is it a contraction. However, "Cs" looks strange and "C's" looks a bit more polished. All over the internet I keep finding it written as "The 5 C's" including on the Arizona Department of the State's webpage. I have been so frustrated trying to figure out which way is correct I emailed Ken Bennett's office asking why they include the apostrophe on their website and explaining why I think otherwise. From what I can tell, no apostrophe is needed because the C is plural and the only time to use an apostrophe with a capital letter is when the meaning would be unclear otherwise. For example if we were talking about As on a report card, depending on where the word As is used in the sentence, it could look like the word "as." If that is the case, the apostrophe should be used. But if it is clear, "The student earned two As and four Bs." then no apostrophe is needed. If I am missing something and there SHOULD be an apostrophe in "The 5 Cs", I would love to know! Shockingly, I have not heard back from the Secretary of State. ;) 

Anyway, I digress...

Have a fabulous week and check back to see photos of some of the exciting activities we will be doing!

Invention Convention

What do you get when you mix a ton of trash...

....with lots of tape and string...

...and throw in brainstorming, creativity and  incredible imaginations?

Invention Convention, of course!

Click below to see a very brief presentation of what each team "invented".

Honored and Humbled

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU so much for all your support and all the letters that were sent to AAGT to nominate me for Teacher of the Year. The last couple weeks have been a whirlwind of excitement and activity.
I am very grateful to have a job teaching an exceptional group of students and lucky that I have such amazing, caring, supportive parents working with me as well. When I started teaching the self-contained class a few years ago I have to admit, I did not fully understand exactly what I was getting myself into. The K-2 s-c was a brand new position, and as far as I know there was not another such class (or one even similar) anywhere. Believe me, I looked!

After taking many gifted courses, going to lots of trainings, reading every book regarding gifted ed I could get my hands on and constantly scouring the internet for new resources, I learned a lot. After spending four years teaching profoundly gifted learners, I would never choose to go back to a more traditional classroom. I love creating lessons around the interests and needs of my students. I love watching the students take classroom projects to a level that actually astounds other teachers and classroom visitors. (A 7 year old did THAT? Are you SURE?)

I love working with children who are brimming with knowledge and excitement and are not only eager to learn, but are eager to teach me about their diverse interests. And believe me - they do! It's often mind blowing what can be learned from a 1st or 2nd grader. Did you know there is no such thing as a brontosaurus? Do you know that strawberries are not actually berries? Do you know how to quickly close every open app on an iPad? Do you know the history of the stock market? Do you know how to write using the Hindi alphabet? Did you know butterflies taste with their feet? Do you know how to speak Chinese?  These are just a few of the many things I have learned (okay, I am not yet fluent in the Hindi alphabet or speaking Chinese, but the kids are teaching me) over the past few years.

When planning lessons I try to put myself in the role of the student and think back to my own elementary school days. Like many of the s-c students I had a very hard time sitting still, got bored easily, enjoyed hands on activities and would have rather been reading a book under my desk than listening to a mind numbing lesson. Obviously not every single lesson can be a party and there are times when formal, written assessments are necessary. But I try to create a healthy balance so the students remain engaged, excited and enjoy learning. That is my goal. Sometimes it's a flop. But I strongly believe in learning from mistakes so when a lesson does not go nearly as I hoped I chalk it up to a learning experience and resolve to do something different and make improvements next time.
I love incorporating contests into the curriculum because the students love it. They get excited and will put far more time and effort into an essay knowing there is a slim chance to win a prize than they would if it were just an ordinary assignment. I love having the students wear "lab coats" (actually men's white dress shirts I bought at Goodwill) when we do science experiments because along with protecting their clothing it makes them feel like "real scientists." I love incorporating technology into the curriculum because it adds a whole new level of appeal to learning and it teaches the students real life skills - email, research, presentations, etc.  I love finding new and unusual ways to get my students excited about school and learning.

I intend to be a lifelong learner and relish learning new things and enjoying new experiences. I hope my students always maintain their zeal for learning and I can't wait to follow them them throughout their lives to see what incredible opportunities unfold for these brilliant, enthusiastic young people.
Thank you again for your letters, your support and for allowing me to spend a school year with your inspirational children. I have never felt more honored!

Many thanks to Mrs. Kolker, for creating this beautiful slide show!

Chinese New Year

Earlier this week we were very lucky to have one of the parents from our class to come in and teach us all about Chinese New Year. We learned about the Chinese Lunar Calendar vs. the Solar Calendar, the story of the Chinese Zodiac Race, why 2011 is the Year of the Rabbit and traditional Chinese New Year traditions, superstitions and celebrations.

Our guest speaker, Mrs. Chang, also brought us some fun hands-on crafts, lots of authentic artifacts from China and a goodie bag for each student. She showed us a video clip of the Traditional Chinese Lion Dance for the New Year and explained the symbolism, the martial arts and the dancing involved. It is safe to say everyone learned a lot and enjoyed this unique lesson!

The students were horrified when the next day (the first day of Chinese New Year) I came to school accidentally wearing black which according to Chinese culture, symbolizes bad luck! Luckily, I was able to quickly redeem myself because I had bright red polish (red is considered good luck) on my toes. Whew!