Preparing for our poetry cafe and a busy week!

We had a busy week preparing for our Poetry Cafe with a lot of other things going on as well! We came back to school on Monday to all of our caterpillars in a chrysalis. The students were very excited to see them in their new stage. I am hoping they do not turn into butterflies over the weekend and that they will wait until next week so the kids can see it!  

 We worked on creating a map of our playground this week using ripped paper, tissue paper and pipe cleaners. We used the Google Earth picture of our playground as a reference in order to make it accurate.

 We took our map down to art class and worked on it during that time. Mrs. Pinto was very helpful in assisting us with this and we were able to get a lot done during this time! The students followed the outlines we made as well as our instructions of which color of ripped paper to glue in the correct section.

Once we had our ripped paper all glued down in the appropriate sections, we needed to add the details. Mrs. Pinto came to our classroom and helped us decide how to add the details to our map. We used tissue paper to make trees, pipe cleaners to make flower beds and outdoor learning benches, and paper to create the track, hopscotch, the climber and other details. 

After our map was finished we glued what we wanted to add to our playground in the place on the map where we want them to go. Next week we will prepare a presentation to convince Mrs. Hall why our ideas would be a great addition to our playground and why they should go where we put them. The other classes who are participating will do the same. Mrs. Hall will watch all of the presentations and decide what we will be adding to our playground so we need to be persuasive!

Here is our completed map with the objects we want to add in the correct position. We still need to make labels for our map so that others looking at our map can understand what everything is. I think it turned out really great!!

We added a new loose parts area to our playground. There are shells, tree cookies, pine cones, flower pots, and tree stumps available for the children to manipulate and use their creativity to create different things. They have been creating pizzas, cookies, clocks, and many more. The children have seemed to really enjoy this area!

 On Wednesday we had the High School National Honors Society students come to our classroom for their annual book drive. They read the story "If You Give a Cat a Cupcake" by Laura Numeroff. After their story, the had each student color their own cupcake.

 When they were finished coloring, they fed their cupcake to the cat.

 After they did so they got to choose one of the books the students brought with them to take home and keep. Our students were very excited that they were able to keep the books!

They enjoyed looking through their books and having the high schoolers read it to them.

 Finally, before the high schoolers left, they shared cupcakes that they had made with our class. The kids enjoyed the cupcakes and were very grateful to have the high school students come to our classroom!

Mrs. Atkin & Miss Hannigan's friends were nice enough to share their flower box with us. This week we planted 3 things in our garden. First we turned the soil and made sure we got out all of the weeds. 

 Then we dug rows and planted the seeds.

 We planted peas, spinach and broccoli. The students were amazed at how different the seeds looked.

 The students enjoyed being a part of this and they are already checking the box every day to see if they have sprouted yet! We used paint stir sticks to make labels and wrote the names of the vegetables we planted in our garden so our other friends know not to dig there. I forgot to get a picture of this so I will try to add one next week!

 We had a lot of preparation to do to get ready for our Poetry Cafe this week! We chose our favorite poems, rewrote them in our best handwriting, practiced reading our poems many times and created decorations for our room. In the picture above the students are coloring letters for our welcome sign. Check out the next post for more pictures from our Poetry Cafe!

 Mrs. Myers class also had their Poetry Cafe on Friday. They came to our classroom to listen to us practice reading our poems and then we went to their classroom to hear them practice as well. Here are some pictures from us visiting their classroom.

Thanks for stopping by. Check out the next post about our Poetry Cafe! 

Have a great week!

Mrs. Brittany Garrabrant