simple research

The children have had the opportunity to read about many careers. Today they narrowed it down to 1 career they would like to know more about. We started our research by reading for information.

Math-a-Letics

Today we had a special visitor from the curriculum department here in HISD. Carolyn White observed our classroom during our math rotations and had a fabulous time. The children considered her a "celebrity" because she is one of the characters we've seen on Math-a-letics, a math program seen on HISD Instructional Media Television. She was impressed with our class and how well they worked independently. Well done!

student-led conferences 2

Our conference day was very successful...almost 100% !!! Thank you for taking the time to come after school and making that happen! The children did a fabulous job. I saw confident leaders being knowledgeable, reflective risk-takers as they went through their agendas with pride and ease! Well done!

Bag Project

Our class participated in the Earth Day Groceries Project. It is an easy, cost-free environmental awareness project that teams up youth and grocers across the United States to spread the message of Earth Day! We borrowed paper grocery bags from a local grocery store and the kids decorated the bags with environmental messages about reuse, recycling, wildlife, etc. We returned the bags to Whole Foods today, and on Earth Day, April 22, customers will receive their groceries— along with the message that kids around Houston created about their wishes for the environment— in the decorated bags! Be sure to visit Whole Foods on Earth Day!

Ozone theater

Today we had another exciting visitor...from Ozone Theater. We learned all about air pollution through an interactive theatrical game and hands-on activities. The production was interesting as well as informative...I think they learned a lot about what causes air pollution and how it affects our health. Be forewarned...the kids may ask you to walk to school instead of drive!!!

Boy Scouts

A Boy Scout leader come speak to our class about the joys of Scouting. Be on the lookout for a flier in this weeks red folder telling of a informational meeting on Thursday at 6:30PM.

Where We Live

We built houses and apartments out of milk cartons today to represent where we live. The kids LOVED creating these! Next week we will build a community with these houses and the places from our community we built earlier in the week from paper bags. It will be awesome!

career dolls

Well done! I love the career dolls that came back to school this week! We will be using these next week to make a visual aid to go along with our presentations.

Junior Achievement

Mr. Tran is our assigned Junior Achievement representative this year. He works with computers at Pricewaterhouse downtown and will be volunteering his time in our class once a week for half an hour for 5 weeks. Today he introduced himself and talked about how everyone has a job within their own community. Fits PERFECTLY with our current planner!

boys vs. girls

Sometimes it is painful to see the difference between boys and girls...even at this age!

Can you guess which is the boys and which is the girls? :-)

Community Places

Today we brainstormed different places within our community. We randomly drew a destination and was challenged to create it with only construction paper and a paper bag... each child putting their own twist into their creation. They did an AWESOME job! Tomorrow we will build our houses and apartments!

new planner

If you haven't noticed...we are starting a new planner, "How We Organize Ourselves." It's gonna be a short one! Our central idea is people with different jobs work together to organize a community. We will inquire into different types of jobs, goods and services and the interdependent nature of jobs in a community.

Fact Triangles

Today we cut out a set of 36 "fact triangles" in class to practice and review addition/subtraction facts at home. Fact triangles are a "new and improved" version of the old-fashioned flashcards we all remember from our own childhood days! The 3 numbers on the cards helps your child understand the relationship within their own "fact family."

student-led conferences 2

It's that time of year again...our second student-led conference is scheduled for Wednesday, April 15th. Last week sign-up time slips were sent home in the Tuesday folders. I appreciate getting back so many in a timely manner. If you have misplaced yours, there is also a sign-up sheet outside our classroom. You can also email me your selected time. We have 3-3:30 and 4-4:30 open...I will try to go to my own daughter's conference in between our two scheduled times.

Career Project

If you read this blog regularly, it's your lucky day! Your reward is having a couple of days advance notice on a small project for next week! (They are due Thursday, April 9th). Spread the word...

1. Choose a career - Be specific. (i.e. What kind of doctor?, What kind of teacher, What kind of scientist?)
2. Research - Find your facts by looking on the Internet, reading a book, or by giving an interview.
3. Decorate your “person” according to the career you chose.
4. Write - 5 solid facts (not opinions) telling about your chosen career in complete sentences. I will be looking for sentences that make sense, are capitalized/punctuated and written neatly with no spelling errors.
5. We will use these facts/decorated dolls to make a visual aide next week for our presentations on April 17th. Be prepared…there will be a question & answer session afterwards about your chosen career.

clues!

Today we read clues to figure out what is done at different places within our community. Some were tricky and some could fit in multiple places which lead to a very interesting discussion! Many had no idea what really goes on at a bank! Who knew?

Machine Work

The kids had a great time with Mrs. Norris taking apart their machines. Ask your child what they found. They were looking for pulleys, levers, wheels, axles, and inclined planes. BEWARE: they may want to do this at home, too! Look around...chances are that you have something to take apart! :-)

Well Done

It was nice to see so many of you support Science Fair Night.

Arboretum Field Trip

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

A great time was had by all! Thank you for all the help and support!

volunteer anyone?

Would anyone LIKE to wash/fold our field trip bandanas? We will be needing them again in a couple of weeks. They are a huge help to me! Thanks in advance!