Birds of Prey

The kids enjoyed seeing hawks, falcons, and owls from Shawvers Creek! They learned a lot and had fun in the process.

Our hallway bulletin board. The kiddos did a fantastic job!

Class Dojo

Plants – We Eat Every Part

We just started a new chapter in science! We are learning about plants. In between learning about things like photosynthesis and pollination, we are also learning about the different parts of plants. What better way to learn about them than to eat them!

Monday we ate some seeds. Would you like to know what kind? They were yellow, but after we applied some heat, they became white and fluffy! That’s right, we had some delicious popcorn. We were able to very clearly see the seed coats after we finished, because they fell to the bottom of the bowl.

Tuesday we had stems and leaves to drink. Sugar cane stems and tea leaves, that is. The students were super excited to be trying yet another part of plants.

Tomorrow we will be having roots for an afternoon snack. What do you suppose they will be? Ask your student if you’d like to find out!

Learning about the Senses

Last week we spent time learning about the 5 senses. On the day we talked about touch, we had lots of fun exploring a box full of different items and trying to decide what we had been touching. We realized how much we really rely on our other senses to help us!

Product Review – The Quietest Classroom Pencil Sharpener

As I have been reading various teaching blogs lately, I have been seeing reviews for this pencil sharpener popping up all over the blogosphere.

With it’s retro styling, it intrigued me, but what interested me even more was the fact that all these other teachers were amazed at how quietly and effectively it sharpens pencils. As a busy teacher, I am quite made constantly aware of the noisy pencil sharpening epidemic that plagues so many classrooms. I’ve tried the electric pencil sharpeners. They dull quickly and the motors burn out easily. I’ve tried letting students use their own personal sharpeners, but that ending up with a floor that looked like the bottom of a hamster cage. So, when Troy at Classroom Friendly Supplies offered to let me try one in my classroom, I jumped at the chance.

When I opened it, my students were in awe. When I showed them how it worked, they were super impressed. As they have used it over the last week or so, I have asked them what they think about it. They say things like, “It’s the best pencil sharpener ever!” or “I like it because it gets the pencils so sharp!” or “It is so quiet it doesn’t bother me when I’m trying to work.”

You can see a video below of the sharpener in action.

It truly is quiet. It has cut down a lot of noise in my classroom. The students love it. This teacher loves it! What more can I say? Check it out at Classroom Friendly Supplies.

 

*** I received this product from Troy at Classroom Friendly Supplies in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was received.

1st Day of School Activity

When students come through my doors on the first day of school, I want to be sure to give them a meaningful activity to do. This year, my idea came from here. After students put backpacks away, sharpened pencils, and did all the other things they needed to do to prepare for the day, they used the PostIt notes I had placed on their desks to answer the 6 questions from the pictures below. Later in the day, we discussed the questions, combined similar answers and a student scribe wrote the answers in a list on posters. I liked the answers and thought I would share them with you.

 

Poster #1 - What will you need to do to be successful this year?

     Be good

     Wear uniforms

     Study

     Work hard

     Listen

     Trust God

       

 

Poster #2 -  What will Mrs. Morford need to do to help you this year?

(A third grader wrote this one, and was rather uncertain about spelling.)

     Teach us

     Answer questions

     Set rules for us

 

 

 

Poster # 3 – Our classroom should be _______________ everyday.

     Quiet

     Neat

     Clean

     Good

     Fun

     Happy

     Obedient

 

 

 

Poster #4 – School is important because ______________.

(Every student answered this one with a variation of “we learn” so we discussed some more and put down a few more specifics)

    We learn about:

           reading

           behavior

           God

           math

 

Poster #5 – What do you hope to learn this year in 3rd or 4th grade?

      Math

      Art

      Multiplication

      Division

      Spelling

      Reading

      Science

     Poster #6 – What should kids in our class do to make our classroom run smoothly?

     Obey

     Listen

     Be kind

     Keep desks clean

     Write neatly

School Spirit Week: Twin Tuesday

Check out these great pictures from today's twin day!

 

 

 

 

Facts

Today we traded in our normal names for math facts. Each student was a different fact. It was challenging and fun. By the end of the day nearly every student had their facts memorized!

"DS" Day

The students saved up enough behavior stickers to earn a day when they were allowed to bring electronic games to school. They thoroughly enjoyed playing them when they were done with their work today!

100th Day

Thursday was the 100th day of school! I enjoy making this into a super special day full of fun (and learning) for my students. Here’s a peek into our day.

The students were greeted with this sign,

 

and a streamer curtain at the door. They walked into the classroom saying “Whoa!” and “Wow, what is this?”

(Pardon the blurry picture.)

Their faces were full of smiles, and that made this teacher’s heart very happy!

For one student, the day was even more special because he had earned enough stickers to trade in and use the teacher’s chair for the day!

 

In Bible class, we did sword drills, looking up verses that contained the word “hundred.” The student who found the most Scriptures got a prize.

Since it was a special day, we moved desks into groups after we were done with spelling pretests and Language.

Each student colored 1/4 of a poster with 100 puzzle pieces on it.

 

There were some very creative posters when the pieces were put together.

 

 

Although the students might have told you that we didn’t have math, they spent 1/2 hour estimating, adding, subtracting, using money, and learning about ordering from catalogs.  

Each student was given a school supply catalog, and told that they had $100 to spend. They had to buy at least three things, and their goal was to get as close to $100 as they could without going over.

One of my mathematicians was only $0.05 away and received a prize for his hard work! Several others were less than a quarter away.

Throughout the day, we did quite a few other fun activities. We did 100 exercises (20 jumping jacks, 10 jumping high fives, 10 stretches, etc.). The students guessed which of three bags of jelly beans had 100, and how many jelly beans were in the other two bags. Two students were only 1 jelly bean off in their guesses, so they each got a prize.

 

We ended the day with several 100 yard dashes.

One of the students commented that they were glad we had a whole day where they didn’t have to learn anything!

 

But it thrills my heart to know that not only did they learn quite a few things, but they also will have memories to last them for a long, long time!

Rocket Language

I very clearly remember 4th grade Language class. That was the year when we learned parts of speech and began to . . . diagram.

As a fourth grader, I hated diagramming. All the way through Jr. high and high school I hated it. However, when I got to college I found out that those endless many long lessons about diagramming and those many hours of practice paid off. Thanks in part to the in depth lessons diagramming had given me about parts of speech, I was able to test out of both Grammar and Composition I class in college.

So, when I became a teacher, I determined that my dear fourth graders would not have the same dislike for diagramming that I did. . . if I could help it, that is. So I sat down and brainstormed.

This is the first diagramming that 4th graders encounter after basic subject/verb diagrams. Do you remember these from your days in school? Don’t they kind of look like rockets to you? I thought they did!

 

This is what I came up with.

I start by talking about Clumsy Captain Conjunction (which we have talked about before as connecting words). The students already know what subjects and verbs are, so I teach them that if there is a captain for the subject, then it goes on a rocket, and the same with a verb. Of course, the captain is rather clumsy and smashes those subject/verbs right into a wall. . . but. . . the students absolutely love it. I let them practice with sentences by writing on the rockets with dry erase markers.

I throw in a countdown or two, and it makes my third graders super eager to get to “Rocket language” next year!

Stepping Into a New Year

Special thanks to Isaiah for drawing this beautiful knight for on our bulletin board!