It's time for Five for Friday!
We have been so excited to watch our seeds sprout and begin to grow. My kiddos were amazed to see that you could indeed "grow" a seed without soil! Each day we observed, measured and recorded our observations in our science journals. We also kept an ongoing list of questions that came up. My little scientists loved reading to find out the answers to all the questions they had. (I sent them home this week before they started to grow mold... blech.)
This turned out to be one of the best projects we've done together as a class. I have been working soooo hard this year to build a sense of community and kindness in my classroom and this group has had a tough time with that. I gave them two pages with a box for every person in class. Their job was to come up with 4 or 5 words for each classmate - things they liked to do, character traits, etc. They all worked so hard thinking of just the right words for their friends. Today we drew self-portraits and I revealed each person's words. The smiles on their faces when they heard "their" words was priceless. Most were grinning from ear to ear! After sharing our words, we glued the words to or portraits and put them out for everyone who came in the classroom to see. Easy - simple- but very high impact.
That led into our "Ray of Sunshine" certificates. We had our positive behavior awards this afternoon. Four students in each grade level receive a certificate for doing an outstanding job this year showing one of our Husky expectations - respect, responsibility, honesty and safety. I got to thinking last night as I was typing the words for their portraits.... although we've had a rough road as a class with positive encouragement this year, a few of my kiddos really rocked that area - never a negative comment from them about anything - or anyone - ever this year. So I decided they needed to be recognized as well. The little pom-pom guy comes from our "jar of sunshine." Each time I hear someone make a positive comment, I added a "ray of sunshine" The ones we added were just plain yellow pom-poms, so I cutesified these a little. Instant hit!
I just could not resist taking a picture of this. We had indoor recess earlier this week and this sweetie created his own "computer" to research crocodiles. I love how creative kids can be! My kiddos prefer to draw and play checkers during recess rather than build with legos and blocks... go figure.
Ok, completely not school related... I am obsessed with Jamberry nails now. I've read how wonderful these were supposed to be so I decided to try them - and I am HOOKED. I have to tell you, they are so easy to put on. Hit them with the blow dryer, smooth them out with a cuticle thingie and file them off (I actually have been clipping the with nail clippers and they've been fine). I have the green lotus on my toes now and I'm going to change to the floral pattern next. Definitely worth a try!
Be sure to visit Doodlebugs and see what else has been going on this week. Only 7 more days for us - one is a field trip, one is field day and 2 are early dismissals... the end is in sight!
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