Et cetera

I cleaned out a couple [hundred - yikes!] photos off my phone the other evening. Here are some that I didn't have a chance to share.

These were from Career Day back in the fall.

A few turkey drawings from our Thanksgiving unit. The kids really enjoyed creating these!

February was Dental Health Month. The dad of one of our Kindergarten friends came and talked to us about being a dentist and about what we need to do to keep our teeth healthy.

5th graders and Ms. Morse came to say hello when they all dressed up for a social studies unit earlier this month.

Scientist of the Week 9

Scientist of the Week 10

Scientist of the Week 8

Mystery Reader

March is Read Across America month, and to help motivate reading in the 2nd graders we are having a few Mystery Readers come into our classroom to read some of their favorite stories.

Meet our first Mystery Reader of the month. She read The Very Hungry Catepillar, a book written by Eric Carle who was one of her favorite authors as a child. (The kids were very excited about this book choice since we had done an author study on Eric Carle a few months ago.) Our Mystery Reader is the mommy of one of our 2nd grade girls. She and her husband are former students of HAA! After our Mystery Reader finished sharing her book, she enjoyed having lunch with her 2nd grader.

For more information on Read Across America, check out the National Education Association's site HERE. Check out the Presidential Proclamation of Read Across America Day (it was March 2) HERE.

Green Friday

The 8th grade class hosted a fundraiser this past Friday. Students were allowed to dress out of uniform and wear green for a small fee of one dollar. All proceeds of this fundraiser goes towards the 8th graders' upcoming class trip to Washington D.C.

The class learned about the history of why people celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Many 2nd graders were surprised to find out that the holiday has a religious origin. (Thank you BrainPOP for the great history lesson!) We learned a little bit about Irish culture as well, and discovered that a number of children from our class have Irish heritage.

Since rainbows are commonly associated with St. Patrick's Day in more modern times, I had the kids use Skittles (after all, their marketing tagline is "Taste the Rainbow") to do data analysis during math class. They tallied, created bar graphs, made fractions, and even measured using the rainbow colored candy! For language arts we studied similes, and each child created a poem of similes using the colors of the rainbow. We most definitely had a colorful day, and I'm so happy the kids really enjoyed each of our activities!

The Rainbow math & literacy unit that we used is created by one of my favorite teachers, Lory Evans, and can be found HERE.

International Week

To end our first ever International Week at HAA we had many special activities! For our K-2 joint worship, our administrative principal, Dr. B., shared a story that I know the children will never forget. (I will definitely remember his story for the rest of my life!) For those who don't know, Dr. B. has lived and traveled extensively all over the world for the NAD Education department. We truly are fortunate to have his knowledge and expertise at our school!

Another special activity to celebrate International Week was a school-wide potluck. Student brought foods native to countries of where their ancestors are from. In addition, many students dressed up in clothing traditional to various countries around the word. We closed out the week with musical selections from China, Chile, and the Philippines. A special thanks to our very own Miss K. who worked hard to arrange the event for a very successful week! In addition, thank you to the parents who sent food to share and who also volunteered their time to help serve food. I'm looking forward to next year's International Week!

Read Across America with Dr. Seuss

This past Friday, students in K-2 kicked off Read Across America Day by having the Freshman class read to small mixed groups. It was only fitting that they read Dr. Seuss books. After all, it was his birthday on Friday and the Freshmen have been studying his work in their English class.