We were able to squeeze everything in today AND have our class party!

We read a story in math about how the ruler came about.  Ask your child about the argument the King and the Royal Carpenter got into about building Princess Funer a new stable for her new horse!

Everyone had fun eating pizza and watching Rio.  Elle’s mom even brought in her guitar and amp for the kids to play!  They had so much fun!

Remember, if you have a dog or cat that needs their shots, we are having a vet (an HFE student’s parent) come to the school tomorrow and is donating all the funds to our school library!  It’s from 2:30-5:00 (I think)  I will definitely be there with Jockamo!!!

We are so busy assessing this week, but we did have a little fun time in Math today with creating our own Land of Inch maps.  The kids had to place the King’s castle in the corner of their map and then follow directions on where to put other things on the map.  We practiced measuring lengths that were more than 12 inches and discussed strategies for how we do that if we only have an inch brick tool (like a ruler).  Once they finished, they created their own communities for the Land of Inch.  Check out the pics of the maps they created!

Also, we have our class party tomorrow!!!  I will be providing pizza and snacks for lunch.

Here’s a little snippet of the show!

Here are some pictures from our adventurous field trip to the arboretum! Thank you Elsa and Jennifer for helping chaperone!!!!

Have your children told you about the Land of Inch?  It’s where Princess Funer and the King came up with using inch bricks to use for standard measurement, and they stand 12 inch bricks tall… quite hilarious actually.  They seem to enjoy measuring based on this little story.  Today, we had to find the measurements that were in relation to the people from the Land of Inch’s clothing items that were around the classroom.  For example, Pim’s cloak is the same length as a craft stick, their castle was as tall as our desk, etc.  We used our inch brick measuring tool to measure things around the room, and the kids had a lot of fun doing it.  When and Anna and Nevaeh finished, they went around the room and created a chart of things they were measuring and want to continue for their free time tomorrow.  We will start using a ruler soon!  This is just a good introduction into getting to learn how to measure.

Here is Kaliyah, Micaiah, Esme’, and Elvin measuring things around the room.

And just so you guys know, I saw on facebook today that Matuto came out with an album today!!!!  You should go on itunes on to check it out!

I want to say thank you to those of you who could make it to LEAF!!!!  It was so much fun, and the kids were absolutely amazing.  I am one proud teacher.  Your children moved so many people in the audience- it was truly a beautiful moment.  I hope you all had as good of a time as I did.

Ze and Clay taught your children so much over the past few days.  I can’t wait for you to hear the music they learned to create!  One of the things that is really amazing about all of this is that they have to all learn to work as a team and listen to each other.  each one of them is a part of something huge that contributes to a beautiful sound.

At the end of our residency, the kids were running around enjoying the instruments one last time and Trumaine picked up the djembe and started playing so I just had to record it.  He is something else!!!!

Please read through that paper I sent home on Thursday.  We have to be there 2 hours before the performance which is at 12:00.  I asked everyone to arrive at Owen Middle School by 9:45 to make sure everyone can have enough time to sign in and get the shuttle together to the festival.  If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to call me.  I  put my cell at the bottom of the paper.

I told the kids towards the end of the day that I felt like I did not teach them anything today!  How horrible is that?  We had our spelling test with our different phonics groups, went and played music with Matuto, had reading buddies, finished up our mother’s day gifts to you all, ate snack, went back to the guys in Matuto to play music with all 3 2nd grade classes, had recess, lunch, show-n-tell, opera performance in the little theatre and then we performed our Bob Moog skit to the school!  Whew!!!  I do have to say it was fun!!!!  We need days like those sometimes.

Here is Kaliyah being fabulous with her Beyonce’ self in front of the whole school!

We had so much fun with our LEAF Schools and Streets residency with Matuto today!  I took some videos of what they were doing.  They sound SO awesome and it was only their 2nd day.  All three 2nd grade classes get a 45 minute session with them.  I wish the sound quality was a little better.  We have been playing in the little theatre, but you can hear us all over the school.

Also, I sent home another form to the students who had signed up to perform at LEAF on Saturday.  Please make sure you check that out in your child’s folder for directions and times.  I put my cell phone number on the paper so if you have any questions at all, please call me.

Have a great evening!

Sorry it has been a while since I last posted.  We have been doing so much in the classroom so please don’t worry about that!  I’ve been sick and then also was out of town till Monday.

Our LEAF residency artists came today and we had SO much fun!!  The guys from Matuto, Clay and Ze, kept the kids in beat with their train walking to a fun rhythm as they walked, sang and beat to a few drums.  This performance is going to be so amazing.  As we were walking back to our class, we passed Ms. Rabuck’s class as they were walking to go for their class, and all the kids were so excited to tell them how much fun they had and how they are going to have a blast!  I don’t know why I didn’t take any pics today… I will definitely get some pics and videos tomorrow.

We also had our mealworm experiment yesterday that they kids conducted.  They came up with their own questions for their experiment and I was so proud of all the kids who brought in the materials for their experiment.  There were some who forgot theirs, but we were able to make it all work by finding the materials in the classroom.

Here is Julian and River timing how long long it takes for their mealworm to get across their board.

Elvin, Jonah and Elle timed how long it took for their mealworm to walk across the yardstick.  They had fun trying to keep him on there!

Jack and Alana tested their mealworm on seeing if it liked Cheerios.

JeNaya and Jesus used apples and oatmeal to see what the mealworm liked better.  They found out that their mealworm liked to hide in the oatmeal but liked to eat the apples.