Holiday Party

Here are some pictures from our classroom Holiday Party. Hope you enjoy the video!

Click to play

Holiday Poems

We had a few minutes before our Holiday Party began, so we decided to record some of the kids' holiday poems. We've been focusing on free verse poetry, and the kids have created some incredible images with their poems. We hope you enjoy!

Click here to listen to our Holiday poems!

The Amazing Read

What would happen if everyone in Greenville county read the same book at the same time? The Greenville County Library System has chosen The Pleasure Was Mine as Greenville county’s first community-wide, one-book reading initiative: The Amazing Read. The initiative will encourage reading, connecting families and neighbors through literature, and increase awareness of Alzheimer’s disease. I think it’s a great idea! It’s the same concept I use in my classroom. We always share a chapter book read-aloud (our current one is Maniac Magee). It provides a shared experience for everyone in the class, giving us opportunity to discuss and talk together about the text. I encourage all you parents to pick up a copy of this book and read it!

If you get a copy of the book, leave a comment on this post and let us know how it's going. I'm currently (as of December 19th) halfway through the book, and I'm really enjoying it.

Golden Apple

Last week we were in the middle of playing a math game when Beth Brotherton from WYFF and a camera man came walking into our classroom! We were surprised, to say the least! It turns out one of my former students, Hannah, had nominated me for a Golden Apple Award. Beth and the camera man spent some time in the classroom - videotaping us playing our math game and even singing a song or two. The kids were incredibly excited - it was truly an unbelievable experience. The kids got LOTS of face time, so I'm hoping that each one of them will be on the news segment.

If you want to tune in, it will be shown on Channel 4 WYFF on December 27th. I think it airs at 5:00pm.

What Types of Objects Cause a Reflection?

This was the questions we persued in science last week. Students were given a variety of materials - aluminum foil, mirror, cloth, paperback book, wax paper, etc. They hypothosized if each type of material would cause a reflection. Students then tested the materials and recorded the results. After studying our results, we concluded that shiny, hard, and smooth surfaces cause a reflection. We went on to learn about the Law of Reflection, and we inferred how light waves react when striking various types of surfaces.

Anna checks her reflection in a sheet of aluminum foil.

Garvin checks his reflection on the back of a paperback book.

Community Calendar

To create a strong community of learners, we must get to know each other. One way we do this is with our community calendar. Each day, a student has a "piece" of the calendar. The student writes and draws something about him or herself. The student then shares his or her calendar piece with the class to begin our class meeting. Here is a picture of our completed November calendar. I always love the variety of colors and ideas that make up our calendar by the end of the month.