Weeky Updates--Last Week

This was a very busy week in our classroom!

The first years have been learning about states of matter. Here are some pictures from our science lesson. The kids were VERY excited about making Carbon Dioxide with baking soda and vinegar and watching it blow up the balloon. This is a great visual about how gasses spread. We also talked about particles. I was in the middle of a very simple explanation of particles when one of the first years said, "Oh, are you talking about atoms?" (These kids surprise me every day.)

We started by looking at three balloons: one contained air, one contained water, and one contained ice. We opened up the balloons and kept an eye on the ice ball until it melted a few hours later.

Our carbon dioxide gas blew up the balloon. (And we had a near explosion.)

Showing particle spacing with Cheerios.

The third years are working on finishing up their fantasy pieces for the unit with the Grand Rapids Art Museum. They created beautiful collages in art class featuring their very own unique mixed-up animal (an animal that is a cross between two common animals), and they are now writing a story about them. The stories are proving to be very creative and interesting and will be displayed in our hallway when they are finished.

Because March is reading month, we are also keeping running records of the number of pages we read as a class during our Sustained Silent Reading time. We'll total it up at the end of the month for a grand total. Should be pretty impressive, as we're already at close to 10,000 pages read (picture book pages count). This has definitely built the excitement for reading in our classroom.

I hope to be better about updating this blog on a weekly basis. It has been hard to find the time, but I learned that whole-class computer lab time is a great opportunity for me to do this as the kids are becoming very independent with the computers.

I also plan to include "Kid-Funnies" every week when possible--this class is seriously so funny. Question for you. (Leave your answer as a comment.) Is it okay with you for me to put the names next to the kids quotes, or would you prefer I left it anonymous? Also, is it okay to caption photos with the students' names, or would you rather not have photo descriptions? (I don't think many people read this blog except for current parents, but I always want to be doing the right thing.) Thanks for your input!

I will give this week's update very soon. Have a sunny weekend!