Book Character Day 2015

Book Character Day is one of my favorite days of the whole school year. Book Character Day lets me combine my love of books and dressing up! This year we invited Mrs. Joseph's 3&4 class to join in on the fun.

For this year's Book Character Day I dressed up as Wenda, the sister of Waldo, from the book Where's Waldo?

I was introduced to this book series many years ago while I was in middle school. My little sister collected the books. Waldo books are a grown up version of I Spy books. I introduced the books to my kids this year, and they love the books as much as I do!

Below is a picture of me with my two boys who also dressed up for Book Character Day. The one on the left is Hiccup, the Viking hero from the How to Train Your Dragon book series. The one on the right is Scaredy Squirrel from the book series Scaredy Squirrel. It was my first time to sew a costume together, so that made this Book Character Day even more exciting for me!

Here is a video of the students dressed up as their chosen book character. Each student was required to complete a character analysis of their character. They described what their character looked like on the outside and also described their character's insides - personality traits and/or feelings experienced in the book. Students also made a connection with their character and shared how they were alike.



One of our friends was sick at home on Book Character Day so we FaceTimed with her and she was able to present her book character to the class. She even answered some questions. Modern technology is awesome!

Amelia Bedelia, David from the Bible, Ramona the Pest, and Pinkalicious

Layla the Cotton Fairy, Scaredy Squirrel, Ms. Frizzle, Nancy Drew

Skippyjon Jones, Joash the Boy King, Jesus, Alice in Wonderland

President Obama and Junie B. Jones

Scientist of the Week 2015

Here is a look at the last of our Scientist of the Week Experiments. Enjoy!

Fight a Fire

Forming Gas

Pencil and Bag Magic

The plastic bag with five pencils poking through and no water leaked out!

Historian of the Week 2015

Here are the remainder of our Historian of the Week presentations.

Margaret Nash

Hatshepsut - Egyptian Pharoah

Neil Armstrong

Scientist of the Week 2015 | Exothermic Exercise

Career Day 2015

Thank you to Mrs. Joseph who planned our Career Day for grades 1-4 this year! The students came to school dressed up as a career they are interested in having when they grow up. In our classroom, each child presented their career, told why they are interested in the job, and shared three facts about the job. Some of the jobs the students presented included the following: nurse, veterinarian, architect, police officer, fire fighter, Navy soldier, teacher, author, and ballerina.

Mrs. Joseph arranged for our local fire fighters and paramedics to come and tell us all about their jobs. They even brought a fire truck and an ambulance along with them! All the students were allowed to sit in the ambulance. A limousine driver also came and took our 1-4 students for a drive around the parking lot. The kids had a blast even though he was barely going miles an hour! It was the first limo ride for a majority of the kids. Thank you, Mrs. Joseph, for a wonderful Career Day experience!

April Fools Day

I'm not much of a prankster, but I have some really cute school pranks that I thought I'd try on the kids this school year. In the morning I told the kids we were going to go outside to look for a special bird called a Lirpaloof that migrates to our area during the days around April 1st. I got the idea and the handout HERE on the blog Sunny Days in Second Grade. I told the class that a Lirpaloof loves to eat carrots and we'd hold out carrots (we made them out of contruction paper since I forgot the real carrots at home) and sing "Lirpaloof" to help us find the elusive bird. The kids were so excited, and they did such a great job singing "Lirpaloof" (check out the video below).

 

I had the hardest time keeping a straight face! After several kids said they had spotted a Lirpaloof in one of our playground trees, I brought them inside and asked them to help me spell Lirpaloof backwards. It took a little bit, but finally one of the kids had a light bulb moment and figured out that the Lirpaloof was a prank.

  After some laughter, I told the kids that I was sorry if any of them felt bad and that I would make it up to them after recess with treats that I brought. I told them I brought brown Es, but of course they all thought I said brownies. It took awhile for them to get it, but when they all finally did we all had a good laugh. Since they were all such great sports, I passed out brownies (the real thing!) for all the kids to enjoy.

Scientist of the Week 2015 | Underwater Volcano

Scientist of the Week 2015 | Blobs in a Bottle



Historian of the Week 2015 | Mark Twain

This was an exciting Historian of the Week presentation! This is the first time a Historian of the Week brought in an actor to play the part of the famous person. Some of our even asked if our special guest really was Mark Twain. Do you see a resemblance?

Scientist of the Week 2015 | See a Sunset

Historian of the Week 2015 | Pocahontas

Scientist of the Week 2015 | How to Make an Egg Float

Coco, Our Classroom Mascot

Coco has been part of my classroom since the very first year that I started teaching in 1999. The summer before that school year started, I had been shopping at Barnes & Noble and found a book called "Missing: One Stuffed Rabbit" written by Maryann Cocca-Leffler. I knew I had to not only purchase the book, but I also had to have a Coco in my own classroom. I found the perfect Coco at Build-a-Bear. I decided I would go all out. At the start of the school year I planned to read the book to my 2nd graders, introduce Coco, and have each of my students take Coco home for a weekend along with a bag full of clothes and accessories (thank you Build-a-Bear for having so many options) as well as his journal. Coco was a huge hit, and fifteen school years later he remains one of the most popular special activities in my classroom. To this day, many former students including some who are now college graduates, doctors in training, and even married (!!!) tell me how much they loved Coco.

When students take Coco home, they are expected to write each day in the Coco's journal in his perspective. He usually writes about what he does, and occasionally he'll share what he sees, hears, feels, and even tastes! When Coco returns to school after the weekend, the student who took him home reads his journal to the class.

Here are some photos of Coco from this school year.


Coco turned 15 years old in August! Some of the kids made him birthday cards. We even sang "Happy Birthday" to him.
(Click on the video below.) In this photograph are the following: his original Build-a-Bear birth certificate from 1999, the book that inspired it all (sadly, it is now out of print), and his journal.

Coco with his host student at our annual Bike-a-thon.

Coco on vacation in St. Augustine.

 

Coco attending church, dressed up in his tuxedo suit.

A student reading Coco's journal to the class.

Students with Coco and his journal.

Each year students buy Coco clothes and/or accessories to add to his collection. Last year one of friends purchased Coco camouflage underwear and a black suit/tuxedo to wear to church. This year this sweet friend purchased Coco a superhero shirt complete with cape! Thank you friends for your generosity.

Memory Texts

Here are a few of the memory texts that we have learned this year. I have found that using actions as well as songs really help the children memorize Bible verses and more! We even have songs that we sing during math to help them memorize things such as days of the week, months of the year, time, and money!






The video below was taken last school year. We learned it this year and performed it the day before Thanksgiving break during whole-school assembly, but I forgot to take a video.

Historian of the Week 2015 | Rosa Parks

Historian of the Week 2015 | Betsy Ross

Scientist of the Week 2015 | Dancing Colors

Historian of the Week 2015 | Plastic Milk

Scientist of the Week 2015 | Elephant Toothpaste

Historian of the Week 2015 | Queen Elizabeth I