16th day in the classroom

Today in Mrs. Almonds 4th grade class I took the students out to recess, it was the first beautiful day we have had in a really long time, so the students got to stay out a little longer than usual.  When we came back inside, Professor Scatterbrain was there to teach science.  The students are on their geology unit now, so they started science off by listing some properties of rocks on the chalkboard, and some things that geologists look at or do when they are studying rocks.  Professor Scatterbrain made some "mock rocks" for the students, and the students were able to use tools to measure the rocks circumference, diameter, depth, and weight.  They also drew pictures of their rocks and then finally they dissected their rocks and wrote the ingredients down.

In Mrs. Greenfield's 2nd grade class, the students were having a popcorn party that they won.  Mrs. Greenfield had the huge popcorn popper in their room and was working hard to pop the popcorn and then put it in bags while the students watched Dr. Seuss.  Tomorrow is Dr. Seuss day, so it was fun for the students to get to watch some Dr. Seuss movies that they have been reading.  I helped Mrs. G. pass out popcorn, then she cleaned up the machine and then went  and put it away while I stayed with the students.  The students enjoyed their movie and popcorn until it was time to go home.

15th day in the classroom

Yesterday in Mrs. Almond's class, she had me grade some math tests that the kids had taken, and then she had me take the students outside to recess.  When we came in it was time for science.  The students have worked on some science weather reports and were able to present the reports.

In Mrs. Greenfield's class the students took their timed math tests and the students who finished their sheet in 1 min. time got to get u and dance to music with Mrs. G. while the other students finished their sheets.  Then the students worked on their writing and then Mrs. G. started passing out take home papers and folders for the students to get ready to go home.  They sat on the rug and she read "Hatchet" to them until it was time to go.  

14th day in the Classroom

Today In Mrs. Almonds 4th grade classroom, the students were having their Valentine's party.  I sat at one of the center and helped the students make valentine cards to their parents.  First they outlined their hands and cut it out.  Then they folded down the middle finger and ring finger to say I love you in sign language.  Then they glued it to a big red hear that they cut out and then wrote the note.  The other 2 stations were cookie decorating of course, and then handing out their valentines for their classmates.

In Mrs. Greenfield's 2nd grade classroom- surprise, surprise, they were also having their Valentine's day party.  And of course they were also decorating big yummy heart cookies.  I sat at that table and helped them decorate cookies.  Boy do little kids ever love frosting and sprinkles, and what a mess.  There were three other centers.  In one center a parent was reading a book to the kids.  The third center was card decorating, and the last center was a word bingo game.  The students would cover up words that were called out with conversation hearts, and if they got bingo they would get a treat.

Mrs. Greenfield said something very interesting today, she told me that on day like today, holidays, she "unschools".   She said that the students are way to excited to learn new concepts so they just review all day.  She said that she does centers where every other center is fun and the other centers are review.

13th day in the classroom

Yesterday, Feb. 7th I went to Mrs. Almond's classroom at 1:30.  When I got there the Character Connection lady talking with the students.  She comes and talks to the students once a month about different topics like how to be a friend and anti bullying.
Mrs. Almond asked me to hang up some art in the hall that the students had painted.  Mrs. Almond has little clips that are stuck to the wall with velcro.  She uses those clips to hang the students artwork.  After I hung the artwork, Mrs. Almond asked me to help disinfect some pvc pipe telephone toys that the students use to talk through when they read.  When they talk through the toy, their voice travels straight to their ear which helps them hear how they pronounce their words.  After disinfecting toys, I took the students out to recess.  When we came in from recess, the students worked for a little while on their Valentine bags and then I headed over to Mrs. Greenfield's class.  In Mrs. Greenfield's, the students were working on their phonics while using their little whiteboards.  After that Mrs. G. shared some Flat Stanley's that the students had mailed out to different states and countries.  The students got a kick out of looking at pictures and hearing about the different places Flat Stanley had visited.  The students started cleaning up and handing out folders and then sat on the rug to read before it was time to go home.   

12th day in the classroom

Yesterday was a great day in Mrs. Almond's and Mrs. Greenfield's classrooms.  I arrived at Mrs. Almond's class at 1:30, like always, and Mrs. Almond had me take the students out to recess while she set up her science experiments.  During recess I discovered that children gravitate toward slippery ice, especially if you tell them to stay away from it.  After I saw two students run across the ice and biff it, I stood right by the ice and told the students to stay away.  I think they needed some salt to melt the ice.

When the students went in, Mrs. Almond had transformed into Professor Scatterbrain.  She had on a whit lab coat and protection goggles.  The students always love it when Pro. Scatterbrain comes to visit the classroom, she does a lot of fun experiments.  The class has been learning about air pressure, so Mrs. Almond did a couple of great experiments to help them understand air pressure better.  She talked about how the air is pressing down on us all the time, but we can't feel it because we are accustomed to it.  Then she pointed out that the higher up you go in elevation, the less the air pressure is.  She had 5 boy volunteers come up to the front of the class.  Next she had the first volunteer lay down on the floor and the second volunteer doggy pile on top of the first .  She said, "How are you feeling number 1?"  He said he was feeling a little squished, but that he was ok.  Then she had volunteer number 3 doggy pile next.  Number one was then feeling a little more squished, number 2 was feeling a little squished, number 3 felt just fine.  Number 4 was the next volunteer to pile on.  By this point number 1 could only grunt because he was so squished, number 2 wasn't feeling too great either, number 4 was a little squished, and number 4 felt great.  Number 5 was the last one to doggy pile on top.  Number 1 couldn't make it much longer because he was being so squished.  Number 2 was feeling pretty squished too, number 3 wasn't feeling great.  Number 4 wasn't too bad.  And like always, number 5 felt great because he was on top.  The classroom was having a blast, they were laughing so hard at poor number 1 and 2.  Mrs. Almond talked more about pressure at different altitudes.

Next Mrs. Almond did some more great experiments with a 2 liter coke bottle.  She punched 4 holes down the front of the bottle and then taped them up.  Then she filled the bottle with water and put the lid on.  She had the students predict what would happen if she took the tape off of the top hole.  Most of the class thought that water would come out of the hole, but they were wrong.  When she removed the tape, nothing happened.  Next, she had them predict what would happen if she took off the tape over the second hole.  A lot of the class thought nothing would happen this time since nothing happened the last time.  Of course this time water did come out.  She then took off the rest of the pieces of tape and the lower the hole was, the farther the stream would shoot because of the air pressure.  The students were so excited about this experiment.

Her next experiment was with a can of water.  She had a hole on the bottom with tape over it.  She put a balloon at the top of the can and then took the tape off the bottom of the can.  All the students got to watch as the balloon was being sucked into the can as the water poured out the bottom of the can.  She told them that they were seeing air pressure in action.  It was a pretty great science class and all the students loved it.

In Mrs. Greenfield's class the students were working on writing a sequel to a story.  They had to use their dictionaries to look up how to spell words that they did not know.  I walked around answering questions and helping them find words in their dictionary.  After writing, they worked on phonics.  I love the way that Mrs. Greenfield does phonics.  Each student has a white erase board and a white erase board marker and an eraser.  She gives them a few minutes to draw and play with their boards, after that they are expected to practice writing their phonics words.  They write the word and then mark all the rules that they have learned.  They always seem to love phonics.

During phonics they had a fire drill.  It was obvious that they have practiced a lot because they got right up and out the door so quickly.  When they came back in they didn't have time to finish their phonics lesson so they started getting ready to go.

I helped hand out papers and folders and then the students were ready to go home.