An Ocean of Octopi

This week is Earth Day. The Ocean is on our mind. Miss Naumann brought in a baby octopus and a tentacle to investigate. This is what we wrote about it:

"Today we got to touch and see a real octopus. (LS) It was awesome. (BA) It felt oily from the salad. (LB) We saw the meat. (SD) It smelled like fish. (BB) It felt all squishy and it was cool. (AA) The arms had little suction cups. (JC)

Although the octopus wasn't alive, we did the next best thing. We watched a video of God's amazing design in action. *We watch the videos but don't read the comments*

What can you do with no bones? An octopus is a master of escape.

If only we could convince all the girls to touch the octopus ;)

How was all of this made? Genesis 1:21

5...4...3...2...1...BLASTOFF!!!

Greetings earthlings, we have returned to planet Earth to update you on our learning. This week the class had some homework. We used satellite technology to view our homes from above. This was such a great way to introduce satellites and geography concepts.

We looked a space books in the reading castle. In other centers we planned out our Shuttle Crew, made a Spring art project, played the Shuttle Letter Game and read glow in the dark words.

If you have an MP3 player I would highly recommend the song "Rocketship Run" by Laurie Berkner.

St. Patrick's Day

What is 12 cups, 6 colors and took 5 days to make? Our rainbow Jello treat! Last week we started making our snack for today. Jello helped us with the concepts of liquids, solids, gases, and dissolving. The class also ate their math. Don't worry, it was a Lucky Charms math graph.

Our centers also had a Irish theme. Each child created a family crest, clapped syllables, alphabetized counties, played a word game on the Smartboard and sorted sheep. Did you know in Ireland they spray paint their sheep? Then when it's time to sheer, they can easily separate the sheep.

Igloo

We've been steadily collecting clean milk jugs since January. Our igloo has over 350 milk jugs! It is the best spot in the room to read a book. Thanks for cleaning out all the milk jugs.

Seuss

March 3rd was Theodore Geisel's birthday. Who? Oh, that's Dr. Seuss. The class did "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" math. They wrote about their favorite Seuss book, played a few rhyming games and played a Seuss board game. www.seussville.com has many fun games. Kohl's stores has Seuss books right now for $5 as part of their Kohl's Cares program.

In February we studied the presidents. Our class book "If I was President" gave us a chance to design campaign signs. We also talked about the responsibilities of being president. Matching the presidents to their number was a long but fun task.

We've been doing some detective work lately. One of the afternoon centers enables us to solve a mystery by looking at clues. We used magnifying glasses to inspect footprints.
The next picture shows our new platform. It is used to reach the top of the Smartboard and makes a cozy book nook. :) Thanks Mr. Biersack!
The final picture is math time. We used fish to help tell math stories.

January

During Bible time this week we built a tabernacle in our classroom. In the afternoon we finished up our snowed-out centers from last week. Our letter l box is filling up with lipstick and lollipops.