Five for Friday 4/18/14 Bear Unit

Happy Easter weekend everyone, that's right teachers summer break is just around the corner!! I'm enjoying my day off and have taken to cleaning out one of my storage areas in my classroom and I'm so happy that it looks sooo much better. Spring cleaning really helps me feel more organized and lessens my clean up efforts at the end of the school year. Linking up with Doodlebug for Five for Friday!

One

This week was all about bears! We are going on a field trip on Earth Day to go see Disneynature's Bears movie. It's been our tradition to watch each Disneynature movie when it comes out and usually I don't do a unit but with two four day weeks in a row I wouldn't be able to do language arts curriculum, not to mention all the spring fever and energy I'm getting with my peaches. So we learned all about grizzly bears while the older peaches learned about their favorite bear. I used three different units from TPT. Thanks to Elaine Swansey, I Love My Kinders, and Rachelle Smith; my peaches had a blast learning about grizzly bears.At the end of our studies I asked questions ,wrote down my kindergarteners responses, and helped my first graders phonetically sound out their answers. In the end, thanks to I Love My Kinders, they had very cute bear reports. Now we're all ready to go see Disneynature's Bears on Tuesday!

My favorite bear, my kinder definitely shows her personality

Two

We had our spring celebration on Thursday and I was in charge of a craft. So I took to Pinterest and found these cute sock bunnies. They were super easy to make and the peaches loved them. They were super creative with adding carrots, ribbon, braids and bringing their personality to the craft. 

Three

We also had an egg hunt and it was so fun to watch my little peaches look for eggs. It was even more exciting for them to watch the older peaches look for their eggs. They couldn't help but follow them around and ask if they needed help

Four

As I was cleaning out my classroom I decided to clean my little peaches cubbies and found a treasure of legos in one of their cubbies. I'm happy I got to clean my room before summer break hits. I wish I took some before pictures but you'll just have to trust that it was a hot mess. Here are the results:

Our incubator is all ready for the chicks we're hatching next month!

Five

 


We had a lovely visitor on Thursday, a gopher snake! I saw my first grader backing up from the playhouse area and thought he was running away from a bee. He quickly shouted he saw a snake and pointed it out to us. A swarm of peaches came over to gawk at the large snake. We had fun following him, from a safe distance, until he burrowed into the ground again.

That's it for now! One more bonus photo, me and my sisters during Easter YEARS ago.

Let the countdown to summer BEGIN!!

- Ms. Perry

Five for Friday 2-28-14

Shadows have been the big talk in my classroom for the past two months. We started a unit in Open Court with the same title and have been fascinated with them ever since. Do you know what it takes to make a shadow? My peaches sure do! They cannot get enough of playing with flashlights. Discovering their shadow is like seeing someone win the lotto and sadness crosses their faces when it's a rainy day and we're covered by the clouds shadow are all priceless!

One

Yesterday we brought up some of the questions they had and I wrote them at the top of this paper:

 Then each student drew a picture to answer their question. I loved their pictures because they show that they are understanding the concept and even my ELL student did a great job (her is the one with the sun):

So what are the three things you need to make a shadow, take a look at the fun anchor chart I made for them:

Two

After five years of just shoving things onto my shelf I took time on Tuesday to clean up and throw out many unwanted items. I forgot to take an after shot but it looks great!

 

 Three

Every Monday we have a fun and creative mom who volunteers with a food project for the peaches. Each year we enter a contest for Marin Farm Day. This year we decided to enter the photography contest. Yes the barn and animals, everything was made with food! She and the peaches did a great job! We're hoping to win some money for our school, wish us luck! 

Four

My peaches are in LOVE with this book by David LaRochelle. It's about a cow that takes a joy ride in the farmers car but the only word he uses is moo. This gives me the chance to show them how to read with expression plus hear lots of giggles from my peaches. This is one book I need to purchase because my peaches have been reading it on their own repeatedly. Check it out: 

  Five

Rainy day/art day. Below are my three kinders being silly in the rain that we need here in California.We also finished a Peter Max  inspired Statue of Liberty. I was inspired by we heart art and we started with a 12x18 piece of paper. I showed them examples of Peter Max work and how he uses vibrant colors and bold black colors to showcase the Statue of Liberty. After studying his techniques I passed out pallets of bright colors. Each peach had their own technique some used lines and others used swirls. We did our background last Friday and then today we used pictures of the Statue of Liberty to draw her. Many put her holding a torch and some were very detailed. One even reminded me of a dias de la muerte skeleton. I think they all turned out fabulously.

Lastly just a peek at what I have planned for next week, yes I want to read all these Dr. Seuss books and have my pinterest board to lead the way with fun crafts, worksheets and food ideas. I cannot wait! We've already read Horton Hears a Who, The Cat in the Hat, and The Foot Book.

Just a reminder from Dr. Seuss

 "Teeth are always in style"

-Ms. Perry's Peaches