On the personal side of things...

I decided to keep a sort of journal about all of the fun, sweet, entertaining, and wonderful things that happen in the classroom. If you would like to read about some of these stories, please follow my newly-created blog, "Memoirs of a Teacher" at teachermems.blogspot.com.

May Days

Warmer weather is finally here! Hope everyone is getting out and enjoying the beautiful weather!

Chick Days

We spent the week hatching chicks and learning about the life cycle of a chicken! We had a lot of fun learning all about chickens and getting the chance to play with them too! One of our science standards is to learn about animals and how animals help humans. Therefore, next week, we are going to talk about how chickens provide us with food. Enjoy your weekend!

A Frog's Life

We are learning about the frog's life cycle.  Right now, they are still eggs, but we will keep you updated on the process!

Stay tuned!!! :)

What makes a plant grow?

We have been learning about what plants need to grow, what their structures are, and what each structure's function is.  In doing so, we have been experimenting the effect of removing the essential needs of plants, like water, sunlight, and fresh air. We started with six plants and discussed the constants and variables with each pair of plants. 

Our plants that are receiving all three essential needs--water, air, and sunlight.  

Plant with no water, but receiving sunlight and fresh air.

Plant receiving sunlight and water, but no fresh air.

The following video shows some pictures of our class exploring the structures of plants.  

Alphabet Relay

Hello, family and friends!  

We have had Spring Fever the past few weeks, and we would love to share about all of the fun we have been having! I wanted to let you know about a fun activity we play called Alphabet Relay.  In this game, we have four groups of alphabet flash cards (color-coded) with extra vowels and frequently used consonants (like l, m, and s).  The students are separated into four groups, and the objective of the game is to be the first team to spell the word the teacher gives them.

Here are some pictures to help explain a little better...

This is a really fun activity if you would like to work on spelling words at home, and it is easy to make and cheap--just paper and pen/marker! If you want more information on it, please feel free to contact me!

~Ms. Brandt

Flat Stanley

Hi all!  I hope this finds you feeling very relaxed on this wintery spring break! ;) I know a lot of you were planning on traveling so I wish you all safe travels!  I wanted to remind you of our Flat Stanley project we will be starting on Monday, April 1st!

The following are the letters that were sent home on Friday, March 22 about Flat Stanley. 

Here is an example of what our "guests" could do with Flat Stanley.  We had Flat Stanley visit us from a school in Illinois earlier this year, and we showed Stanley all around our classroom.  He was involved in doing all sorts of activities.  We took pictures with Flat Stanley and mailed a letter back to the participating school informing the students about all of Stanley's adventures while he was with us at North! 

Writing "small moment" topics in our Tiny Topics Notebook.  After writing in the notebook, students can pick a topic to write about.  A small moment, or "tiny seed," story would be one small story within a big "watermelon" topic.  So, for example, a student could write a small moment story on going to grandma's house for dinner.  The BIG topic would everything she did in that weekend.  Students are encouraged to write "small moment" stories so they write one story with lots of descriptive details. 

Brainstorming "small moment" ideas.

Read to Someone 

Read to Self

Listening to our character book about being trustworthy. 

Playing "Make 10" with Dot Cards.

We really enjoyed having Flat Stanley tag along with us on our adventures, and we hope that our friends enjoy him as much as we did!

Happy Spring Break!

See you Monday!

~Ms. Brandt