Good Morning!
We hope everyone had such a fabulous week with their students that they cannot wait to get to school tomorrow. I know Anne and I did! This blog is just going to be a snapshot of some of those fabulous moments.
Monday morning, a boy who is really excited about the rocks we give away, decided to paint one for Anne and me. It says "Inspire." That really set our week off on a positive note! We are thrilled that he is inspired this year and has proven that many times already. He is a hard-working, positive, helpful, kind-hearted boy! What a leader.
In fact, he inspired some girls to paint their own rocks. They collected rocks outside and painted them during their recess time. We thought they were painting the rocks for themselves. How wrong we were! While painting, one of the girls asked if we would bring the kids together once she decided who should earn the rock she was painting. She wanted it to be a special time, kind of like Anne and I do when we are ready to present someone with a rock. The four other girls also want to eventually give their rocks away to kids in our classroom. We cannot believe the positive energy that is permeating throughout our room! As soon as the girls are finished painting, I will upload their pictures.
Our leadership portraits are complete, and we sent them home Friday with some very excited kids. They could not wait to get them home and show them to their families. We hope they display the clay creations some place prominent in their homes so they are reminded that they are leaders. Their writing communicates exactly how they are going to show their leadership this year. This project was inspired by an art teacher I found online. He had second graders create their own portraits out of clay.
We did our first science experiment of the year. This is an oldie but a goodie. Anne and I have not done this experiment for a few years. We forgot the excitement it provokes. We only did Part One...Tuesday we will begin Part Two. There are three parts with each one building on the other. We know that STEM is the buzz word in science, but we still want to teach the students how to think through the scientific method. If nothing else, it helps them activate their creative thinking and problem solving skills. The discussions that surrounded each part of this experiment were deep and insightful. Not to mention the energy and enthusiasm to participate in such a fun activity.
We used Steve Spangler's water cubes. After using four of our five senses to observe the cubes and record those observations, we asked the question, "What will happen to the cube if it is placed in distilled water over night?" The hypothesis were interesting.
We did make observations after about an hour. The cubes were doing some funky things. The kids went wild; simply wild over what they saw! But, that was nothing compared to their reactions when they took the cubes out of the water the following day. Take a look at our results.
Well, have a wonderful rest of your Sunday. We wish everyone positive vibes for the upcoming week.
Kim and Anne
