Best Christmas Class Present Ever!

One of my families gave our class with this wonderful Christmas gift that has was on our classroom wishlist. In all the years I have been teaching, I have been incredibly blessed and so grateful for the generosity of my classroom parents. The kids just loved, loved, loved looking at some very "interesting" slides - samples of a dog's skeletal muscle, cardiac muscle, and esophagus!!! As a teacher with a science background, I have to admit that I have probably been more excited about this microscope than my kids are!

2014 Scientist of the Week #2

An experiment exploring static electricity . . .

This week's scientist used a balloon, a scarf, and static electricity
 to make these paper people and pets jump and dance around!



After he made his paper people and pets jump and dance,
our Scientist of the Week demonstrated that static electricity affects hair as well.

2014 Historian of the Week #1 :: Frida Kahlo

This is my first year having a Historian of the Week in the classroom. Our first historian did a fantastic job teaching us about the artist Frida Kahlo. I have to admit, her unibrow was my favorite part of the report!

2014 Scientist of the Week #1

We had our first Scientist of the Week experiment this week. Since our 2nd graders did participated in Scientist of the Week experiments last year, they are experts at these presentations as you'll see by the video down below of this week's super scientist.

This week's experiment was the perfect way to introduce the class to the art of mixing colors.
Hooray for cross-curricular activities!

Long Vowel Teams

As part of our long vowel studies, we learned all about long vowel teams.

Found this poem on Pinterest (via Learning with Mrs. Parker's teacher blog HERE) and made it into an anchor chart. The kids brainstormed words that fit each of the long vowel teams. Down below are videos that I used to introduce the kids to long vowel teams.

Silent e

I'm happy to report that our 1st grade kids have really gotten a hang of long vowels with silent e. Our lessons were also great review for the 2nd graders. The class especially enjoyed watching the learning videos which I included down below as well as some of the activities we did and poems we read in class. (Click on the images below to access free printables for each of the activities and poems.)