Like always, we had a VERY busy week! While we were continuing to research and learn about reptiles and amphibians, we began writing our non fiction books about our animals, it was spirit week and Mrs. Gore's class shared their learning from their space study with our class.
Monday was green day for spirit week so here are our friends in their green wear.
We forgot to get a class picture on team day representing their favorite teams but Mrs. Hall caught Mrs. George and I and took our picture!
Here are some of our friends wearing their favorite hats for hat day!
Wacky Day
Pajama Day (everyone's favorite!)
In art class this week we began a two week project of creating a picture of our animal we are studying and then creating a background where that animal camouflages and blends in. We started by using a real picture of the animal to help us draw it accurately on the paper. Our art teacher, Mrs. Pinto discussed with them how to look at the shapes in their animals body such as an oval for a frog's body. Then the students focused on drawing and coloring their animals. This coming week they will focus on adding a background to their picture that makes the animal camouflage into it.
This week I also went to pick up our reptile trunk from the Ohio Division of Wildlife. It had some really cool things in it and the kids were really excited about this! We looked at all of the turtle shells and how you could see the vertebrae. We also learned that the top part of the turtle shell is called the Carapace and the bottom part is called the plastron. The trunk also included frogs in different stages of their life cycle and the students had to put them in order.
It also included x-rays of different animals. There weren't just reptiles so it was cool for the kids to be able to compare what different reptile x-rays looked like and compare them to a mammal, amphibian, etc. Above I am holding an x-ray of a turtle and below there is one of a snake and crocodile eggs. There were also a couple skulls included in the trunk. The one above was an Alligator Snapping Turtle's skull. There was also a baby turtle and a snake's skull included.
The children were very fascinated with the tooth of an Alligator Snapping Turtle. They also enjoyed looking at snake skin that a snake had shed through molting. Below are some pictures of the different turtle shells that were included in the trunk as well.
The children have enjoyed exploring the trunk so far. We have been learning how to be careful with the materials and showing them respect so they do not get broken.
Hayden and Reiley were creating a habitat for many different reptiles and amphibians.
We were chosen as Chick-fil-A's class of the week so the cow came to visit. Each child was given a coupon and got to come up to give the cow a high five, handshake or a hug. They were all shy at first but they warmed up and really enjoyed saying hello to him!
We began an art project in our classroom this week as well. Again, we used the pictures of our animals to draw an accurate picture of them with crayon. Then some friends have started to paint their animal's habitat with watercolor paint. Here are a couple of friends who have finished theirs so far. We will finish the rest this week!
Mrs. Gore's class has just finished their space study and wanted to share their learning with us so we went down to their classroom to listen to their presentations. We learned a lot about the sun, the stars, the earth and the moon.
The sun group chose to create a book to share their knowledge with us.
The stars group came up with a cheer.
The earth group also chose a book.
The moon group chose an interactive presentation on the Promethean Board. Each presenter from the group asked the audience a question such as "How many phases does the moon have?" for the slide above. Then, after calling on a friend to answer, they erased the blue dot to reveal the answer (8).
They also shared a video with us that showed us the different phases of the moon, which was sped up to show us in just a few seconds.
They also created an earth, moon and sun out of paper mache.
We began writing our non-fiction books about our animals this week. We looked in books to find information about our animals to include in our books such as what they look like, what they eat, their habitats, their predators, interesting facts about them, etc. We will continue to work on these books next week and when we get back from spring break in order to get them ready for our open house.
Here are a couple good videos we watched last week I thought I would share! This one is about the life cycle of a frog: http://youtu.be/AMs3waaW75g. This one is about Metamorphosis, a tadpole changing into a frog. This guy is really silly and the kids enjoyed it! http://youtu.be/jR0EPHyo128.
Don't forget conferences are this week! Wednesday after school and all day Thursday (no school Thursday for students). We have no school on Friday! We hope to see you all there!
Mrs. Brittany Garrabrant
