Ski Season!!!

 

 Great times on the mountain!



Shapes in Spanish

 

Kindergartners have been learning the names of different shapes in Spanish this week. They had fun drawing pictures on whiteboards.  I told them what shape to draw in Spanish and how many of that shape to draw. Some students even added faces to their shapes!

Musicals

It was busy this week in music as we started gearing up for musicals! Selections are below:

Kindergarten- 3 Nanny Goats Gruff
1st grade- Lemonade!
2nd grade- Welcome to the Jungle
3rd grade- It's Saturday!
4th grade- A Kid's Life

More to follow!

Ink Splat Monster--Creative Problem Solving

 Our Artists were inspired by the artwork created by Stefan Bucher on his website, www.dailymonster.com. This site shows the artist creating "monsters," in real time, by placing a dot of ink on paper, blowing it through a straw, and adding a drawing around and into it with sharpies.
My students found the spontaneous nature of this type of art challenging (they couldn't plan or erase!) but ultimately satisfying and great fun.

StarFlyers Royal Jewel Rescue!

Students in first grade have been playing "StarFlyers Royal Jewel Rescue" the past two weeks.  Princess Popcorn has lost her jewels and it's up to the StarFlyers to find them all!  The StarFlyers have to travel to worlds like Hot Chocolopocus and the IceCube.  This computer game teaches them skills such as logic, spatial relationships, sequencing, and estimation.  Students often work together to help each other solve problems. 

2nd Grade's Whacky Contraptions!

This week Second Grade students were introduced to Crazy Machines. In this program, students get to turn cranks, rotate gears, pull levers, and use catapults or any objects to build crazy machines.  The program gives students the ability to create their own unique contraptions and solve more than 200 challenging puzzles. They can use a cool physics engine with air-pressure, electricity, gravity, and particle effects and experiment with gears, robots, explosives, and more in your own virtual lab. This was the first time we have used the program, so we started out in the Inventor's Laboratory solving his puzzles. For some students the problems proved a little tricky and they got a bit frustrated - but it was a great lesson in 'If at first you don't succeed, try again - but try something a little different'!

The Zoombinis need our help!

The Third Grade are journeying into a mind-bending puzzle-packed epic adventure. Not long ago, the Zoombinis enjoyed the good life. Tragically, they misplaced their trust in diabolical Bloats, who take over Zoombini Isle. The students job is to lead the Zoombinis on a dangerous quest to a new utopia. Developing their math and logic skills on the expedition across puzzle-packed terrain, each perilous puzzle they solve leads to another, more difficult challenge. Along the way, students are practicing their algebraic thinking, data analysis, graphing and mapping, logical reasoning, pattern finding, problem solving, statistical thinking, theory formulation and testing skills. Plus having some fun!

MS Tech - CAD Designers of the Future!

In Technology this week the students continue to hone their 3D drawing skills. They have ben set the challenge of creating a 3D scale model of the Technology Lab - partly because I would like to paint it over the summer and this is a great way to see what color would look good! The program we are using is Sketchup. I have emailed the students to tell them how to download the program at home - ask them to show you how it works. It is pretty cool, and it is free. Maybe they could help you with a decorating decision too! http://www.sketchup.com/intl/en/download/gsu.html

"Oh, I want to be in THAT number!!"

This week was packed full of MLK Jr. songs, in a variety of styles. 4th grade listened to a more formal song, while grades 2-4 did "Alabama, Mississippi" and "When the saints go marching in."

"Alabama, Mississippi" was special in that MLK helped create the song himself. Here, 3rd graders march and sing "When the saints," and when the lyrics for a number come up, I would hold up a number. Then students formed circles with that number of classmates in the circle, followed by a pat/clap pattern about MLK involving eighth and sixteenth notes. Generally we'd start off in 2s, 3s, 4s. It was fun to hold up the class number "13" and see the whole group get together, as pictured right. The game took teamwork and awareness, and it was great to see students' enjoyment.

We also managed to sneak in some performances this week. 2nd grade performed their MLK song/rhythmic chant in a surprise performance for their teachers, then at the MLK assembly. The piece was in rondo form (ABACA). It was a fantastic week for our 2nd graders!

3rd grade snuck in a surprise performance for Mrs. Anderson with "When the saints" and "Great Big House in New Orleans," in which they sung and played on the xylos. Bravo!

4th--Creating personal logo design

 Fun T-Shirt Design project with our AWESOME parent volunteers!

4th graders had so much fun creating personal logo stamps and made their own personalized shirts.

Thank you, Mrs. Hotes, Mrs. Schneider, Mrs. Connors and Mrs. Hawley.

K-4th PE

Happy upcoming Martin Luther King Jr. Day!  This week in PE we played a game of kickball in all of our classes.  We wanted to take it easy a little bit, since this was our first week of the ski program!  All of the students seemed to really enjoy themselves up on the mountain and I look forward to seeing their progress in the weeks to come.  Here below is a picture of some kindergarten students playing kickball, enjoy!

Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

In celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the students in library heard stories and discussed Dr. King's life and legacy.  The younger students heard I'm Like You, You're Like Me and All the Colors of the Earth.  They also viewed a Brain Pop in Technology about Dr. King.  Older students heard Singing for Dr. King, looked up facts about his life, and watched exerpts of his "I have a Dream" speech given in 1963.  We all discussed ways that we can help one another by doing good deeds and not judging others.

Dramamamusic!

 It was great to see the 4th graders perform their African songs at the Peace and Light festival. However, it was not their first performance of the year! Back in October, 4th graders had a 'surprise' performance for Mrs. Taylor and Mrs. Kim, in which they moved, sang, and played the xylophones. This week, 4th graders took a hard-earned free choice break in  music. Sometimes 'creative drama' ensues during musical free choice sessions, which is always fun to see! Bravo 4th grade!

K-4th PE

Welcome back to CHA! I hope everyone got some quality rest and relaxation during winter break. This week in PE we practiced our underhand volleyball serves at all grade levels. Our 2nd-4th graders even played a game of "Serving Up Baskets" in which students tried to serve the volleyball through the basketball hoop; challenging to say the least! Our students also got to play a new game called "Destroyer" this week, which saw one team on scooters trying to catch as many balls as they could from the other team trying to toss balls at them. Here we can see some of our 1st graders playing "Destroyer." Have a great weekend.

Clifford's Thinking Adventures

The Kindergarten students began playing a game called "Clifford's Thinking Adventures" in the Technology lab this week.  They were very excited to go on an adventure with Clifford on his birthday.  In true Clifford style, there are problems to be solved using math, listening, and reasoning skills.  Ask your child about playing the game!

Food Unit Review Game

Second graders played a review game of the food unit this week. They were split up into 2 teams, and were shown a flashcard. When one of the students knew what the food was in Spanish, then they could grab "el leon" and say what they word was in Spanish.

Second graders also started presenting their food skits this week!

Farm Animals in Spanish

This week, first grade students began learning the names of different farm animals in Spanish. They also learned an opposites song to assist them in describing what the animals are like. (example: fat, thin, big, small, tall, short, etc)

Second Grade Technology

Second grade students found our how much they know about simple and compound machines at the edheads website. Edheads is a not for profit organization that creates interactive resources to help students understand STEM concepts. You can see the activities at edheads.org