Kind Kids, Valentine's Day, and Field Day

Throughout the month of February the class has been actively participating in acts of kindness at school and at home. We have a Kindness Jar that the kids have been filling with fuzzies each time I catch them being kind to one another. We also have a Kind Classmate box. When a student catches a classmate doing something kind, they write a ticket about it and put it in the box. At any given time I will randomly select a ticket. The student that was caught being kind and the student who wrote the ticket select a prize. (Prizes are given out very rarely in my classroom, so this has been quite a treat for the kids!) Each morning for two weeks, the kids were given a Daily Kindness Challenge. Activities included writing notes of appreciate to school staff members, smiling at everyone, giving compliments, and picking up litter. At home the children were given a Bingo Kindness Chart to complete with acts of kindness that the kids can do at home as well as for their neighbors and others in the community. One of my students completed all the activities on the Bingo Kindness Chart! She will be eating lunch with the teacher next week - an incentive I gave the class.

 The following are photos from our Valentine's Celebration and from our school's annual field day.

Not only did the class pass out Valentines for each other, an extremely generous parent put together
plastic containers full of Valentine goodies for each of the kids. Included were giant pencils,
stuffed animals, and the cutest little stuffed conversation hearts!

Some of my girls all decked out in pink, red, "love", and hearts!

Scientist of the Week 2015 | Elephant Toothpaste

Historian of the Week 2015 | Queen Elizabeth I

Scientist of the Week 2015 | Color Me Gone

Tea on the left. Tea with lemon on the right. The color of the tea changed.

Historian of the Week 2015 | Benjamin Franklin

Historian of the Week 2015 | Luwig van Beethoven

Groundhog Day Studies

The kids had a lot of fun making their Groundhog Day predictions on February 2. A majority of the class wanted winter to last six more weeks. (I can't blame them. We live in Florida after all. Hot and humid weather is not my favorite along with most of the class.) Earlier in the morning, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow out in Punxsautawney, Pennsylvania. We made groundhog puppets and took them outside. We saw groundhog shadows as well. Six more weeks of winter! Well, we hope so anyways.



Seeing our puppet groundhogs' shadows was a highlight of the day. Six more weeks of winter, we hope!

We learned that groundhogs eat leaves, berries, twigs, and branches.



We had a drawing lesson and learned how to draw this silly looking, sleepy groundhog.

Historian of the Week 2015 | Abraham Lincoln

Cutest Abraham Lincoln I've ever met!