Top o' the Rigor To You

St. Patrick's Day always falls on our Spring Break :( , so we really do very limited activities for this holiday, unfortunately. Of course we do the requisite Leprechaun Traps:

She meant a piece of gold.

Looks a little Roadrunner inspired :)

Some other ideas:

1) A leprechaun over time-what are they like when they are young, what kind of jobs can they have when they grow up?

2) Perspective of the leprechaun's gold-how does it feel to live at the end of rainbow and be hidden all the time? Perspective of a shamrock, compare a 4-leaf clover to a regular one, does the 4-leaf clover feel a little more entitled?

3) Where do rainbows come from? (not exactly St. Patrick's Day, I know)-encourage them to come up with a creative reason for them. When we did this activity one of my students said it comes from crayon factory pollution, another said fairies paint them in the sky.

4) What 3 wishes would you ask for and why?

5) Design a new good luck charm.

6) What would a leprechaun's Facebook status updates look like? (yes, even my young kids know about FB).

They Really Are Learning!

I'm big on teaching vocabulary-especially with kids this young who will say everything is "nice" or "good"; I want to give them the tools to better describe things. I do a word of the day, but also read to them often and encourage them to ask what words mean when they don't know. Sometimes it surprises me when they use them back, and use them correctly. Here's how the conversation went on Friday:

Kid: Why can't you be our 1st Grade teacher?
Teacher: (diplomatically) Well, I don't think our principal will want to move people around again.
Kid: Well, why don't you just charm him?

It was one of those moments where you can't even stifle your giggle. And she used the word correctly! :)

They Can Be So Thoughtful!

I talk about my dog a lot with my students because she's my baby.

Here was what she looked like as a puppy with her wonky ears. She was a rescue, believe it or not.

Here she is pretty much all growed up-she'll be 3 years old next week.

 My screensaver at school is a picture of her and when we're watching a Brainpop clip or something and computer goes to sleep after 15 minutes, the kids say RUBY!!!-like she turned it off or something. I still have former students now in 2nd Grade who I see when I'm picking up my kids from lunch. Do they ask how I'm doing...no, it's how is Ruby doing?! I even got a Christmas card last year from a parent who wrote "hope you and Ruby have a great holiday"--so the parents even know who she is!

One of my kids brought this in last week for her birthday:

How thoughtful was that!  I know she was in the store and just thought of us. So sweet!

Now For the How

We wrote about why fireflies light up-now I wanted them to think about the how. They aren't plugged in to anything like a lamp. Scientists don't even know for sure the reason. But my students thought of a few....

Lightball, firework and red glow

They close their eyes

Magic, the sun, leprechauns and the moon. That should do it!

A little light bulb.

 

Mirror light like a yellow color

Fireflies Light Up Because....

I really try to find any opportunity to make my kids think about a topic. We read the Very Lonely Firefly by Eric Carle (love the surprise ending there-if your book is not worn out). And another book called Fireflies about a boy who catches a bunch of them and then decides to let them go because they need to be free.

My question to the students was "why does a firefly light up?". They wrote their answers and then fingerpainted a few insects with their thumbs.

"because they are called a firefly"-I'm surprised he didn't add a "helllllooooo" at the end of that sentence, I mean it's so obvious.

Awwww.

in the night they can see what's that noise.

because that's why they can show the city when it's night. When it's sunning they don't light up.

he wants to be free.

My favorite: because they can communicate and see and survive.

It can be a night light.

so they can see at night and so they can play.

So they can see where they are flying.

What Do Teachers Dream About?

We were reading a story and the kids were entering a competition. The teacher was very excited because they could go to the championships and the narrator, a kid, said "I never knew teachers had dreams too". So I thought it would be an interesting question to ask a bunch of Kindergartners--what do teachers dream about? The answers definitely made me giggle and some were certainly right on target-apparently I must talk a lot about my behaviorally challenged dog and wanting to go on vacation to Hawaii!

All A's and B's and no F's.

Ruby is the behaviorally-challenged dog.

Again, poor Ruby, quite a reputation she has. :)

We really do, don't we?

Could you imagine.....

about kids being nice and Popsicles--interesting.

Not sure where this one comes from-boyfriend and girlfriend and Abraham Lincoln--that's some dream!

Admittedly, maybe a little bit! :)

I don't even know what a shiny new car is. :)

(In a Homer Simpson voice.....sleeping....).

Okayyyyyyyy.

Going on vacation and some kids will listen to the teachers.

Yes, a little bit of that. I have certainly started to countdown a bit.

I love the compare contrast here-my hair even apparently got blonder in Hawaii!

A Very Hungry Scholar

We are beginning our unit on insects (one of my faves), so we read the required Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. We call our students "scholars"-that's a school-wide initiative this year. Scholars show up on time, do their best work, etc. Our goal is to always think like scholars.

So they wrote the "Very Hungry Scholar" and detailed a daily schedule of what topics they "devoured" like the caterpillar devoured his food. Then the last column was to show what they morphed into. I think this definitely reaches that sometimes elusive application level of an activity.

I love the examples of addition problems in the bubbles.

So ready for 1st Grade!

My future Diane Von Furstenberg.

I would learn about fleas, melting ice and animals. Become a learner.

I learned to walk like a scholar, eat, do my homework--all to become a teacher.