I Scream, You Scream, We all Scream for Ice Cream

We do so many special things everyday ... and I am always forgetting to have my camera ready! Today we made ice cream as part of our science unit, "Heat and Change." A lot of students got very cold hands handling the ice that froze the cream and made it into delicious dessert. We also had a special story teller come today that had many children up and dancing. Our class is "OUT OF CONTROL" wonderful with their AR reading quizzes. They ended the week at 92% proficient and read 255 books in one week! That keeps me popping a lot of popcorn because everyone who reached their weekly goal gets popcorn, and if they double it, they get a bottle of water to go with it! Last week 18 students made their goal and this week, 17 students made goal. The students are working hard to raise their reading level and increase their vocabulary. Working with them and feeling their energy is exhilarating!

Miss Crystal

Miss Crystal comes to help us every Tuesday and Thursday with our math groups. It is very special for us and very special for me because she is my niece. (My sister's daughter.) She will be with us for a few months until she heads off to live in El Salvador as a church missionary for 18 months. Crystal has helped us make models of arrays, Prime Factorization trees, and Factor Rainbows. The students enjoy the extra attention they get from her and she enjoys getting to know their sparky personalities!

Oral Reading

We are currently reading the book, Coraline by Neil Gaiman, as a class. Each student has their own copy of the book to follow along with. It is good to read Coraline because it is a level 5.1 book and our students will soon want to begin reading books at this level on their own. In the mean time, it is building our vocabulary and understanding. This book has most recently been made into a movie, parts of which we will watch when we finish the book sometime next week.

Estamos leyendo como clase el libro, Coraline por Neil Gaiman. Es un poco espantoso, y parece que esto es lo que le gusta a los estudiantes. Es importante leerlo porque esta escrito al nivel 5.1 y esta aumentando nuestro vocabulario e intendimiento. Parece que acaban de producir una pelicula acerca del libro. Vamos a ver varias partes de la pelicula en la semana entrante cuando terminamos el libro.

Los Cientificos

En las ciencias, hemos estado estudiando los cambios que pueden ocurrir con la temperatura. Aqui, en estas fotos, los cientificos jovenes estan investigando lo que pasa con objectos que pierden su calentura al congelarse.

Young Scientists

This week we began our study of Heat and Change. With our first investigation, the students heated up objects with a blow dryer to see what effect heat has on objects. We were glad that we didn't blow a fuse with so many blow dryers going at the same time. We had seven blow-dryers blowing, although one burnt out before we were done. Well, actually two burnt out before we were done. On Thursday, we put the objects in the refrigerator and freezer to see what happened when we took heat away.