Science and IPals!

Well, we are making a great effort to get back into the swing of things after so many days off!  This week two fun things happened to share with you!   First, we learned how to use thermometers!   We each had a personal thermometer to experiment with.  We read room temperature, held it between our hands to make the 'red stuff' go up, and put it in a cup of snow to make the 'red stuff' go down.   We learned about the cold zone, warm zone and hot zone and appropriate clothing to wear outside for each zone.  We have Weather Watchers Science journals to record our findings.   This journal will come home in the spring after we complete all of our lessons.

This week we also began working with the third graders from Mrs. Sikma's class with their IPads!  We will meet each Wednesday afternoon for 20-30 minutes.  We call our buddies 'IPals'.   The first graders will learn how to use educational Apps on the IPads with the help of a buddy.   You should have seen and heard the excitement in the air when I told them we would begin this week!

Partner Activity

     Today we did an activity that required the kids to listen to a non-fiction book about Winter and then work with a partner to complete a study guide about that book.   There are many skills involved in this activity, and not all of them are academic!  

     First, the children need to be good listeners the first time I read it aloud to the entire group.  Next, it is time to partner up the children.  This is never easy.  It does not work well to allow them to find their own partners.  Too often, someone is left out or is not daring enough to ask someone to work with him or her.  To alleviate this problem, I sometimes use our stick jar to pair up the children.  This is a random chance to determine partners.  That works for an easy game or fun activity, but is not always best for an activity like this one, so I chose partners.   One goal is to pair kids up with someone they do not always choose to play or work with on their own.  Another goal is to find a partner that is neither too advanced or behind the other partner's ability.  A third goal is to partner children with someone that will stay on task and not goof around, speed ahead or waste time.  One more goal (and maybe most importantly) is to learn to be gracious and kind, even if you do not necessarily care to work with the partner assigned to you!

     Once partners are assigned, each group takes a book to refer to and a study guide to fill out.   The guide is fairly simple, and even gives page numbers to find the answers.   The directions are to fill in the study guide with answers from the book rather than what we know from our own experiences.   This is a simple, yet effective way to teach the children to re-read material, search the text for answers, use the book to help you spell correctly and much more!

     The children did a great job with their study guides!   They are becoming more and more independent each week and are truly excited to be challenged in class!   Enjoy the pictures of them working hard with their partners today!

This is the non-fiction text we read today.

Brandon and Vera work well together.

Mackenzie and Elijah are searching the text for answers.

Abby and Jordyn don't even notice me taking their picture!

Mackenzie and Keaton get to use the 'Big Book' for their guide.

Koltin and Isaac need a little reminding to help each other
rather than work at their guide on their own.   They made some
adjustments and sat next to each other and worked as a team!

Miss Shelby works with Jaelene and Grayson on their
study guides in the lab!

Tommy and Ethan work well together.

Josie and Abbi know just what the right answer is!

Hailey (our newest student) and Olivia give me a smile
to show they are enjoying working together!


* Not pictured: Evan and Keegan - only because they were tucked away in between
a shelf, table and another group working together!   I could not get a good shot and
did not want to disturb their hard work!

Ethan

This is Ethan!   He is the student of the week this week.  Ethan's favorite color is GREEN.   He would love to visit Disney World someday soon.   Ethan's favorite television program is called Gold Rush.  When he grows up, Ethan would like to be an air traffic controller.  He has two dogs named Ace and Decoy.  Ethan's favorite book is "Monster Trucks".   His favorite sport is football, but he also likes soccer.  He favorite food to eat is apple pie.  Ethan thinks he is special because he is really good at sports, but the VERY BEST thing about Ethan is "God loves me!"

Math Wizards!

We have three math wizards in our class!   Congratulations to Tommy, Olivia and Abby V.  They have mastered their addition facts to 10 using Xtra Math!   We visit the Xtra Math website every morning at school.  Many children are making some fantastic gains memorizing their math facts this way.  These three students earned two certificates - one from the Xtra Math website, and one from school!   They are now working on their subtraction facts from 10.

Your child can be a math wizard too!   We practice our math facts in many ways at school.  We work on them during calendar, our math lessons, games and activities, and you help out at home when you practice flashcards with your child.

Many children transfer their math fact knowledge to other situations.  For example, during calendar time, we may have a math problem to solve.  The kids often will say, "I know that one because I have been working on it in Xtra Math!"   You can visit Xtra Math at home as well.  There is a link right on this blog (on the right side of the page).   Any 'Xtra' practice at home will help your child learn those math facts!   Have fun and keep watching the blog because many others are working very hard to earn their own certificates as well!

Tommy earned his certificates over Christmas break!
Olivia earned hers on Monday this week!

Abby earned her certificates on Tuesday this week!

Brainstormers!

Today we had a special assembly at school!  Because of The Michigan Humanities Council, we were awarded a grant to bring in the Brainstormers!   Our own Hamilton Elementary PTO also covered a portion of the cost to bring the show.

The Brainstormers put on a show to get the kids excited about creative writing.  They used ideas from the audience to make up stories on the spot.  They also invited volunteers right from the audience to help put on the play of the made up stories!   The kids loved it!   They learned that in order to create a story, all they have to do is... "Think it up... and Write it down!"   The Brainstormers also taught the kids about some basic 'free gifts' (story elements) to incorporate while they write creatively.   Those elements include characters, setting, activity, problem, solution and a title.  

Here's even more good news!   The Brainstormers will be retuning in March!  Hamilton Elementary students will get to work writing creative stories here at school and they will be sent to the troupe.  The Brainstormers will come back to school after they select some stories from our own students and put on plays using them.  

Enjoy the pictures from today and ask your child about our special assembly!   Thank you so much to the Michigan Humanities Council and our PTO for providing this special event for us!

Abbi

This is Abbi.   She is the student of the week for January 7-11.   Abbi's favorite color is YELLOW.   She would love to visit Disney again someday.   Abbi's favorite television show is called "Jake and the Neverland Pirates."  Someday when Abbi grows up, she would like to be an artist or a painter.  She has a dog named Jasper at home.  Abbi's favorite book is "The House On Pooh's Corner."  Her favorite sport is soccer and her favorite food is pizza!   Abbi feels she is special because God made her!  The very best thing about Abbi is that she LOVES her family!