Polar Bear Perspective

Whew! It's been a long week already. Nothing like two 11-hour days in a row to make you feel old! :) I run several clubs and have regular meetings after school, so there aren't any days left for me to tutor at the end of the day. I've been coming in earlier and tutoring in the morning. It sounded like a good idea in my head. :)The kids love it! I'm sure it beats sitting around waiting in the cafeteria and they love the extra attention, but it's been a little exhausting. I'm sure I'll get used to it.

Continuing with our Arctic Unit, we have been talking about polar bears. We made polar bear puppets and to go along with it, we wrote from the perspective of a polar bear. After reading their answers, we did review which kind of bears hibernate! :)

It's hard to keep up wtih the kids! :)

 

Philosophy Contest

I came across this contest : http://www.philosophyslam.org/    on Terri's site: http://engagetheirminds.wordpress.com/ (where I find many of my ideas! :). Because I know some of my students are mini-philosophers-I thought this would be in our wheelhouse. The question they have to answer is---what has a greater impact on society, truth or beauty?

I thought it was really interesting, as I walked around the room conferencing with them. every single one of my students chose.....truth! I think right now, where they are, truth is more what they deal with day to day. I've always said, it's one of the resaons I love working with young kiddos (and dogs)--I truly believe they look at you and see your spirit. If you care about them, you are beautiful in their eyes!

How cool would it be to ask them the same question 10 years from now and see if their answers change! :)

Adapting Penguins

We have been learning about all kinds of arctic animals, but focusing on penguins this week. One of the things I like to ask them to do is to adapt a character/person/animal for another environment. I asked them to think about how penguins were made-black and white for a reason, waxy feathers for a reason, flippers. What if they were put in a different environment? How would they adapt? I actually assigned settings for them-desert, woods, rainforest, and even space (which was my favorite answer!). I was hoping they would focus beyond just the changes in color for camouflage purposes, but they are still getting the hang of this kind of exercise.

will eat asteroids. :) There really isn't much else to eat in space I guess! :)

                            Apparently we eat a disproportionate amount of beans in Texas, who knew? :)

                                      Instead of flippers it would wear sandals and instead of blubber it would
                                                          have sunscreen. :)

 

Creative Igloo Materials

We've been continuing our winter unit, although it doesn't really feel like winter here. Not to rub it in for those of you with frozen pipes and freezing temps--but it's supposed to be in the 70's today! :)

So we have to use videos and pictures to really get the feel of what winter is like in most places. We learned a little bit about the Inuit people and their customs. We also looked at lots of pics of igloos. I asked them to invent a new way to make an igloo. What materials could we use since we have no snow or ice. I love the variety of answers that they came up with:

 

                                                                Hershey Kisses

                                                                 cardboard

                                                                       fancy glass

sand

                                                              Icicles

big big sugarcubes

                                                                        books

                                                                   mud

Glass-Because animals that are coming just look inside but they are outside (we looked at the picture of the polar bear looking into the igloo).

One Little Word with Students

First of all, I wanted to start out by sharing this book. I go to the library every other weekend to check out books for my kiddos to read. I have many books in the classroom library, but they like the novelty of new stories and make a wish list each time for authors/titles they want me to look for. Whatever gets them excited about reading right? I found this book last weekend:

the author is: Herve Tullet. I was even playing with it in the library pressing the dots (even knowing they weren't connected to anything) and I knew my Little Dragons would love it. Each time they press a dot or blow on the dots, etc. it changes what's on the next page. We talk a lot about trying to encourage the kids to like reading, I think this is one example of a book that's just pure fun! :)

So I've been doing the One Little Word instead of a resolution for several years now. I put great thought into what word I choose and I do think about it throughout the year. I wanted to see what words my students would choose for themselves. Here's what they came up with:

                                              One of my athletes! :) Hustle as in sports.

                                              Tell my mom that I couldn't read and she really says to you need to read                                                a lot, ok? That's good for me.

Wearing fancy clothes thinking of amazing ideas instead of being a bump on a log. (I tell them they can't be a bump on a log in my class, that they have to participate).

                                               

My kids crack me up-he wanted to do one for his pet turtle! :)