Walk to School Day, Mondrian prints, and Investigating Bean Plants

On Oct. 5th, our students participated in International Walk to School Day. Some of our students walked and some of our students cheered them on as they came into view. It was a beautiful day for walking.

We studied the artwork of Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) last week. Mondrian was a Dutch painter. Many of his paintings feature a white background with black grid lines and squares/rectangles of red, blue, yellow, and black. The students created artwork inspired by Mondrian using paper, markers, colored pencils, and crayons.

Two weeks ago, we planted bean seeds in ziploc bags. The bags allowed us to see the roots, stem, and leaves as the plants grew. The students did a great job recording their measurements and observations on their recording sheets.

Scratch Art and more

I didn't get any pictures of the finished artwork, but we made homemade scratch art paper and created scratch art pictures. The students first colored a piece of white paper with thick crayon shapes, stripes, and designs. Then the paper was painted with black tempera paint (with a drop or two of dishwashing liquid stirred in). After the paint dries, designs can be scratched onto the paper and the crayon will show through. The designs today were great! I can't believe I didn't take pictures of the finished products.

Last week the students wrote acrostic poems using their names. The poems are now hanging above their desks. Stop in and see them!

Wednesday will be International Walk to School Day. I hope the weather is nice for the morning walk. :)

Spelling words for "Allie's Basketball Dream"

1. tight

2. while

3. show

4. stone

5. bright

6. whole

7. window

8. time

9. follow

10. close

11. flight

12. tide

13. grow

14. broke

15. below

Yoga and spelling words

During this week's yoga lesson, Liz asked the students to think about things they might find during a walk in the woods. When they suggested an animal or plant, they got to choose what the yoga pose might look like for that object. They were very creative! We had howling wolves, hopping rabbits and frogs, tall trees (some blowing in the wind), crawling lizards, and more.

Spelling Words for "Nate the Great - San Francisco Detective"

1. easy

2. grade

3. meet

4. late

5. seat

6. saved

7. pail

8. these

9. reach

10. name

11. raise

12. leave

13. gain

14. theme

15. scream

Artwork to Enjoy (and the artists who created them)

Here are our three latest art projects (names have been smudged out).

Hopes and Dreams - The students thought about things they were good at last year and things they want to get better at this year. On their square, they wrote and illustrated one thing that they'd like to work on this year.

Autumn Leaf Prints - The kids applied paint to leaves and transferred the leaf to the paper.

Personality Portraits - The students found pictures and words in magazines that described them.

Classroom Happenings

Whew! Where are the days going? We have been so busy - working, learning, creating, and just having fun.

We have been busy writing. The kids finished their "All About Me" books and have been reading about each other in the completed books. We've also written (and guessed) "Who Am I?" riddles. If you get a chance, stop by our classroom to see the riddles. They are hanging outside our classroom.

"All About Me" books

"Who am I?" riddles

The kids are doing a terrific job academically. We have had daily work and tests in all of our subjects. The first science test proved to be a tough one. We have our second one tomorrow. To give us a little extra practice, we used the Knowledge Bowl quiz strips for a friendly science review competition.

Ready for the next question!

In our latest yoga lesson, Liz told the kids about an ancient Sanskrit mantra. The kids discussed how treating yourself with respect helps you treat others with respect. This fits right in with our classroom rules. The mantra is:

LOKAH SAMASTA SUKHINO BHAVANTU
May all beings everywhere be happy and free and may the thoughts, words and actions of my own life contribute in some way to that happiness and to that freedom for all.

Our spelling words for "Pepita Talks Twice" are:

1. slip

2. fish

3. pick

4. rocks

5. lunch

6. gift

7. thing

8. inch

9. truck

10. pond

11. from

12. jump

13. socks

14. dish

15. thump

First Week Happenings

We have been settling into our classroom routines and getting to know each other. The kids have done a great job! They have completed their summer fun pictures,

bus safety posters,

and learned a new math dice game.

They also had a yoga lesson. They did a great job trying out poses like "cat/cow" and "downward dog".

We look forward to having even more fun this week!

Here are the spelling words for this week's story - "Officer Buckle and Gloria".

1. sat

2. felt

3. last

4. send

5. next

6. best

7. went

8. hand

9. stand

10. past

11. grand

12. stamp

13. belt

14. lend

15. checked

Back to School 2011

This is it ... the last weekend of summer. It's hard to say goodbye to summer freedom and fun, but I'm so excited to start the new school year. I'm looking forward to meeting all of you - my new students - during First Day Conferences. See you there!