Book Pumpkin

The students did a great job decorating our class pumpkin to look like Gooney Bird Greene.  I think the details and props are my favorite part!

Animal Habitats

The students participated in a STEM project a few days ago.  They were asked to create a habitat for an unknown animal in their given shoe box.  They had to make sure their habitat had food, air, water, shelter, and space.  Here is what the groups came up with.

How does an oil spill affect an ocean habitat?

Today we conducted an experiment to see how an oil spill may affect ocean habitats.

We found that oil does a lot of damage to a habitat and animals are greatly affected.  Ask your child what they thought of the experiment and what we found.

Rekenreks

We did a STEM activity in math this week.  The students had to create a rekenrek with 2 rows of 10 beads each and it had to be 4x6 or smaller.  Unlike abucuses that are just rows of ten, rekenreks have rows of ten but each row has a divider that breaks it up by 5's.  Here are a few samples of what was created.

I loved seeing how each child thought it should look.  

We then used them to help us add using tens.  

Our Symbolic Monarch

We sent this Monarch along with a small gift a few weeks ago.  We can't wait to see what returns in the spring!

Field Day

Despite the unseasonably warm temperature,  field day was a huge success and the kids had a blast!

Monarch Ambassadors

Our class is going to participate in a Monarch Ambassador program with students in Mexico.  We will be sending them a few items that will help simulate the Monarch's journey to the Oyamel forest.  Here is one of the items we made.

Each child has a butterfly that represents them.  These little guys will soon make the 2,000 mile journey themselves.

Adios little friends!