Weekly Update

Happy Birthday, Mrs. Arola! We can't wait for the Art Walk!

We have a busy, busy week planned! As most of you probably know, tomorrow is the 2nd annual Sonoran Sky Art Walk! This event will be held at the school from 6:00pm - 8:00pm. Lots of student art work will be on display, there will be poetry readings in the library from poetry contest winners, a performance by the school band will be held in Thunderbird Hall, a dramatic bucket unveiling will occur  and lots more! Last year the Art Walk was tons of fun and I am sure this year will be even better! 

Every single student in the class played a role in creating this "cake".

The Scholastic Book Fair is at the school this week and will be open tomorrow evening during the Art Walk. We visited the Book Fair today as a class and students created wish lists to take home. We will be stopping by again on Wednesday afternoon. 

Speaking of Wednesday, it's Primary Fun Day! Students should dress for outdoor games and activities. Sneakers and hats are a must and everyone should come to school with a water bottle. Please apply sunblock prior to arrival at school.

My class along with Mrs. Woodard's class have been working on a top secret project for Mrs. Arola (our fabulous art teacher) the past few weeks and were very excited to surprise her with it at the end of the day today - her birthday! Mrs. Arola does a tremendous job coordinating the Art Walk and we were excited to present her with this special symbol of our appreciation (and wish her a happy birthday, of course!) Our special "cake" will be on display so be sure to check it out tomorrow evening.

She was surprised! 

Thank you to everyone who donated old magazines and catalogs!

Force and Motion

In Science this week we learned about force and motion. Yesterday we got some hands on experience by spinning tops and creating "Zoomers".

After creating a Zoomer we learned that there are different ways to initiate rotational motion and compared a spinning top to a spinning Zoomer. Key vocabulary in this unit includes vibration, rotate, rhythm, taut, tension and momentum. We will wrap up this fun Science Unit next week and will also learn about balance and gravity.

Wacky, Wild, Crazy Hair Day!

Looks prickly!

Hair was here, there and everywhere!

The bed-head bunch!

 This creative crew got colorful with their wacky hair!

Some students were a few inches taller with their new hair styles!

 We also had a very special classroom guest today! One of our pen-pals, from a 2nd grade class in Massachusetts stopped in for a visit! His school is on Spring Break this week and he and his family took a vacation to Surprise, Arizona.

We loved meeting a friend from across the country in person! 

He fit right in with our class, jumped on an iPad and started solving math problems. 

Thanks for the visit, Aiden! It was great to meet you!

Chroma Key

In the midst of all our test prep and state testing the last few weeks, we've also been learning about scriptwriting and movie production. We watched an episode of Word Girl and had a class discussion about superheroes. What makes a hero? What are characteristics of most superheroes? Do they all have a sidekick? Do they all have a secret identity? 

Students then cast themselves in the role of a superhero along the same lines as Word Girl. (She is actually a superheroine from the planet Lexicon. Her superpowers include flying at the speed of sound, bending steel, and an awesome vocabulary.) Students were allowed to give themselves super powers, but at least one of them had to be academically oriented. 

They had to complete several writing prompts and then cast themselves in an episode starring....their very own newly created superhero! Students came up with Math Man, The Historical Hero, S and P (Science and Physics), The Chemistry Creature and Super Speller just to name a few.
Then the real fun began. Students entered their script into a teleprompter app on an iPad and presented in front of a green screen. We learned about uploading the footage into iMovie, movie editing, creating a soundtrack using GarageBand, implementing the chroma key effect, adding text and creating opening and/or closing credits. Part of this integrated unit also included learning a little bit about using royalty free images and music. Incidentally, we produced our soundtracks with the newly released GarageBand iPad App  and it is incredible! I prefer the iPad app to the actual program. It's easy to use, lots of fun and students were able to create some excellent soundtracks. 
Click below to watch a little movie I created about this unit and to see some snippets of a few of the final projects. 

Testing Week

Testing week is here!

This week will be very different than all our other weeks so I wanted to give everyone an idea of what to expect.

First of all there will be NO HOMEWORK all week. Yes, you heard me right - no homework!

The desks have been rearranged for the week and students will be sitting in traditional rows. Any "helpful" posters on the wall that explain anything academically will be covered or taken down.

We will not be starting any new concepts this week. Tomorrow we will continue to review and will also spend some time talking about test-taking strategies and tips. This is the first big standardized test most (if not all) of the students have taken so I want to make sure they are adequately prepared. Already a few students have expressed how nervous and worried they are so I am going to talk about ways to stay calm and put their minds at ease.

Our testing days are Wednesday, Thursday and Friday is the make-up test day.  AIMS testing also begins this week so it is important for us to be quiet in the classroom, in the hallway and at lunch. Students will be expected to behave appropriately during SAT 10 testing and there will be little leeway for a student that decides to test the limits. We will discuss this thoroughly in class!

First grade students will not participate in SAT 10 and will be in another 1st grade classroom during the testing. Those students will bring a book and some writing materials. They can either read, draw or write quietly in the back of the room or they can participate in what the rest of the class is doing. I have spoken individually with those students already so they know what to expect.

Tips for home...
*Make sure your student gets a good night of sleep the nights before the tests.

*Make sure your student has a good, hearty breakfast that day. We will still be having our morning snack, so send a good one! Fruit, cheese, something with protein - all excellent choices!

*Get to school in plenty of time that day. This is not a good day to miss the bus or arrive at school late. If a student arrives after we have started the testing he or she will not be allowed in the classroom until we are finished and will have to make up the test on Friday with another teacher.

*If your student has a dentist, doctor, etc. appointment on testing days, please reschedule if possible! If a student is dismissed during the day, he or she will not be allowed back in the classroom that day and will have to make up the test on Friday.

*Keep the morning as smooth and stress free as possible.

I think that's everything! Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Have a super week!

The Reptile Man

 Wow, we had an amazing treat yesterday when The Reptile Man visited our classroom! He brought at least a dozen reptiles with him and he educated us about each one.

 Students were allowed to touch and interact with the reptiles after learning about them. The Reptile Man also kept his presentation lively and entertaining and had the students laughing almost all morning.

We learned about (and touched) a reticulated python, a bearded dragon, a rhinoceros iguana and a blue tongued skink, just to name a few. Thank you so much to the Gallie family for bringing this amazing experience to the classroom! It was incredibly memorable and an unbeatable science lesson.

I am always quick to tell anyone who will listen I love to claim the "credit" when a current or former student sees success. ;)

A former 1st and 2nd grade student of mine (and current SSES 4th grade self-contained student), Saaketh Narayan placed 3rd in the State Spelling Bee last week and became one of the competition's youngest finalists in recent history.

Many of my students know Saaketh from "Buddies" last year with Mrs. Woodard's class, or were actually in the same class as him when this class was still a K-2 combo.

Way to go, Saaketh! To read the newspaper article about this incredible achievement, click here.

Final WordMasters Meet

As most of you probably already figured out or heard from your children, we will be competing in the final WordMasters Challenge Meet of the school year this week, or early next. I am aiming for this Friday if we progress as planned. There is just one spelling list this week and it consists of words the students should become comfortable using in a sentence prior to Friday. Many of the words have multiple meanings and being aware of these will also be beneficial. Students are allowed to use a dictionary during the meet, but truly understanding the vocabulary tends to result in higher scores.

Our test prep is going smoothly and we are staying very busy in the classroom.

On morning announcements this morning they told us that The School Store will be open tomorrow during lunch.

Incidentally, I noticed this is my 100th blog post! Congratulations on making it through reading 100 posts! :)

Shamrock Farms

Better late than never, right? 

Although it seems like our field trip to Shamrock Farms was an eternity ago, it's actually been just a couple weeks. Things have been so busy I have fallen behind with blog posts! I will try to get back on top of posting when school resumes next week.

Anyway, despite being thousands of miles away (what the students told me) and having various bus challenges, Shamrock Farms was quite a bit of fun.

We got a tour of the farm, pet baby cows, learned all about how milk is produced for mass consumption, saw over 200 cows being milked at once and even got to simulate milking a cow. The students loved the playground where they were able to climb up a 20 foot milk bottle and then coast down a cottage cheese slide.

After lunch (served with milk of course) each student go to choose a tasty Shamrock Farms treat for dessert. Mmmm....!