Dr. Seuss Week - Kick off!

We took part in National Read to Me Day on Friday to kick off Dr. Seuss Week and I am PROUD to say that over 200 of the passed AR tests came from my 5th graders! WOO HOO!

We literally read all day long. I know this may seem a little crazy, but there were SO many powerful moments taking place! Kids were talking about the books they were reading to one another, hitting their MONTHLY goals in one day, and proudly volunteering to read to the class.

We also had some adult volunteers come in to the class to read including my brother, Dustin and good friend, Macky. 

 

We also had a very special visitor from our local news station come read to us at the end of the day! Tim Irr, is a news anchor who generously donated his time to our class. It was SUCH a treat! He even stayed to sign autographs afterward. 

 

 

 

Our day could not have been any more fun! 

Next week we will REALLY kick Dr. Seuss Week in to FULL gear! Our book is The Foot Book! 

 

 Check back later on in the week for more Dr. Seuss updates!

Meanwhile... in 5th Grade

I thought I would be a super blogger during student teaching and blog about EVERY awesome lesson I taught... FAIL. 

We have been doing SO many fun things in the 5th grade over the past month, but I've only managed to take pictures of a few, so here's a short overview of some things we've been doing in Science!

Two weeks ago we learned about topographic maps, so on Friday the students designed their own mountains, created their own topographic maps from different layers, and then created a model from their maps out of Play Dough! I graded their maps using a rubric in which they had to label the peak and base of the mountain, show a steep side and a sloping side, and make sure the contour interval remained the same from one line to the next.

 The students got to tour to all of the groups and compare each model to its map!

The following week lead in to erosion, weathering, and deposition. We did some killer experiments using the FOSS Landforms kit for 5th and 6th grade and on Friday we broke in to pairs and each duo was either given the process of erosion, weathering, or deposition. I gave each team the task of simulating their process using whatever resources were available within the classroom and outside on the playground. My kids seriously BLEW MY MIND. Every pair came up with a different way to simulate their process, which was not what I expected. 

This team had the process of erosion, so they used water to pick up the material (grass blades) on the riverbank (Play Dough) and carried it away. FABULOUS.

Play Dough seemed to keep making an appearance in science, but it's such a fun resource and CHEAP!

I've learning to LOVE science. It always use to intimidate me so much, but you can be so hands on with it it's hard not to love! 

I hope you all are having a wonderful week so far! 

Goodnight and God Bless!

High Five for Friday

I haven't done a H54F post in so long, but I had a moment to breath, so here we go! 

I'm linking up with Lauren! 

This week has been jammed packed full of thing that deserve a high five! 

 1. VALENTINE'S DAY AS A STUDENT TEACHER.

Valentine's Day is like amped up by a billion when you're an elementary teacher because you have like 20 Valentines! It was so much fun, and we all color coordinated! 

 2. SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS. 

This week we've been learning about weathering, erosion, and deposition and today we wrapped up our unit by created simulations of one of the three processes. Each pair was assigned a process and to be honest, I wasn't sure how it would turn out. The kids did AWESOME! They blew me away with their creativity and how much they retained! They really learned something!! :) 

Dare I say that Science may be one of my favorite things to teach at the moment???!?!? 

(Simulation of erosion)

3. SWEET VALENTINE'S SURPRISES.

Because my love and I couldn't be together on Valentine's Day, we decided to just wait until I go visit him in a couple weeks to celebrate, so I was completely shocked when I received this sweet card in the mail. I'll have you all know that inside he wrote that out of all of his Valentines this year, I was top 5! 

Eat your hearts out! Haha.

4. CUTE VALENTINE'S DATES.

Um. This picture says it all. I had the CUTEST Valentine's date of ALL time! Watching him was such a blessing and such a pick me up when I was feeling so exhausted. It's amazing how God can work even through a sweet, baby boy! 

5. MOTHER/DAUGHTER DATES

The day has come!! My mother and I are DIE HARD Nicholas Sparks fans. DIE HARD. So, we have had this date for months now! This is our Twilight. This is our Superbowl. This is GIRLS NIGHT! 

Here we come!!!

Have a blessed weekend, all!