Sunday, November 13, 2016

Election, Mr. Garrabrant Visit, Friendship Feast Decorations, Etc.

Even though this week was a short one for the students, it was a very busy one!! We discussed the current election, had a visit from Mr. Garrabrant who discussed being an engineer, a visit from our Preschool Reading Buddies, began working on decorations for our friendship feast, and much more! Take a look below to see what we were up to. 

We worked on reading books for W & J in literacy lab and making our letter cards for the word wall for W & E. 
Since Tuesday was the election, the students worked on the writing prompt "If I were President of the United States, I would...". I really enjoyed hearing what they all responded with, if only we all had the heart and compassion of a Kindergartener!! Take a look at some of their different responses below. These papers will be going in their portfolios so you can save them as well.
We discussed what the election was and what it meant to vote. We read many books and watched lots of videos about this topic! The video below on the left is a video of kids explaining what voting meant to them and the video on the right was of the "celebrity" Kid President meeting President Obama. He got to visit the White House and ask questions about the President's job. 
Here you can see our voting booth for our class election. The students voted on their favorite food (pizza, hamburger, or macaroni & cheese), if we wanted Duck or Farmer Brown for President (from the book "Duck For President", and the current election candidates. 
My mom, Mrs. Boxley helped the students vote in our voting booth one at a time. They really enjoyed this and it was fun to see them taking part in this process. 
Here are the results from our classroom election. Their favorite food was a close call but Macaroni & Cheese won, they voted Duck for President from the story & Donald Trump for President.
My husband, Mr. Garrabrant is a mechanical engineer at AK Steel and came to talk to the students about what it means to be an engineer. He explained the Engineering Design Process and they learned that it is something they can use as well. They asked lots of good questions and learned a lot!
On Friday, our preschool reading buddies from Mrs. Vogt's class came to visit our classroom. The students shared their election writing prompt, stories that they have drawn, and our color white book with their reading buddy. Afterwards, we sang some songs with them.
We began working on our table runners as decoration for our Friendship Feast next week. The students split into 6 groups of four students. We decided on 3 different themes for groups to choose from for decorating: turkeys, trees, and friendship. Two groups were able to choose each theme. I can't wait to see what the different groups do with each theme. The first thing the groups did was get together to make a plan on how they wanted to decorate their table runner. Each team member gave their input and added something to the group's design. 
All of the table runners are turning out beautifully so far. We will continue to work on them next week! Take a look below for a sneak peak at some of our table runners so far. 
This group was working on showing the theme of friendship and was inspired by the handprint rainbow in the top picture and decided to make their own. 
On the right you can see their finished table runner. They included their handprint rainbow, clouds, pictures of themselves, and fingerprint hearts.
You can see the groups below working on the theme turkey (top picture) and friendship (bottom picture). 
They were inspired by the turkey in the bottom left and tried to make their own versions.
The students have been working very hard towards our whole class reward. Since we have 24 students in our class, the students have to earn 24 buckeyes and then we can have a reward as a class. They can earn a buckeye by receiving a compliment from another staff member in art, music, another special, or in the hallway for making good choices as a class. They can also earn a buckeye by receiving a compliment from me if they are making good choices, again as a class. We are only 7 buckeyes away from earning a reward so we discussed what they would like as their whole class reward. The students voted and it was very close but as soon as they have earned the last 7 buckeyes, we will be having a hot chocolate party.
They also earned their white book this week.
The students finished the yellow mosaic to add to our color documentation wall. 
Thanks for checking in to see what we have been up to. Check back next week to see what we are up on our busy week ahead! I hope to see you all at our Friendship Feast on Thursday, November 17th at 6:00 pm.

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