Teddy Bear Day

We had another great day today!  Teddy Bear Day.  Everyone brought a bear (or other favorite stuffed animal) and they got to carry them around all day.

 We started the day on the carpet, like we always do, but we were joined by the bears and got to watch them do the days of the week and months of the year songs.

 The bears stayed with me in the classroom while the kids went to PE. 

 After lunch, we had a parade through the school so everyone could see the bears.

 Then we just kept right on walking until we got to Pace Park.

 The bears had fun playing kickball and Frisbee and going down the slide.  Then when they were all tired and hungry, we sat down and fed the bears a snack. 

 And gave them a drink.

 On the way back to the school, I was hearing a lot of complaining about being tired so we took a nap.  We haven't done that since December.

Bears and kids were very quiet for a while.

Lots and Lots of Worms

I always have to provide a little extra incentive at the end of the year for the kids to keep making good choices so they can stay on "green".  So about a month ago, I pulled out the "good behavior jar".  The idea is for the class to be so well behaved that I will comment on what good behavior I am seeing and I will put a ball in the jar.  When the jar is full, we get an extra special day.

 The jar was filled on Friday, so today was our reward day and we celebrated with worms!

 We did worm math.  The kids got some green worms and some brown worms and wrote addition equations to find out how many worms they had in all.

 We did worm art. (with yarn)

 And then everyone got their very own worm to investigate.

 We learned that worms have no eyes or ears or bones.

 They have tiny bristles on their bellies that enable them to crawl.

You can tell the front end of a worm from the back end by watching them crawl.  The end that goes first is the front.
We had a worm snack with pudding, oreos, and gummi worms.

At the end of the day, all the kids put their worms in a baggie and took them home.  By this time, they had all named their worms and were thinking of keeping them as pets.  I did try to discourage that, but that decision is up to the parents.

Catching Up

 Wednesday, we took a trip to the Mayborn Planetarium in Killeen.  We got to watch a movie about the planets.  It was entertaining and informative.  We learned a little bit about each planet in our solar system.  We couldn't take pictures in the theater so the pictures above are of the kids waiting to go in.  It's a very cool experience.  It's almost like sitting outside and watching the stars from your backyard. 

 The most exciting part of field trips would have to be the bus ride.  I can't say it's my favorite part but the kids love it.

 We ate lunch at a park in Harker Heights and then had time to play a little.

Today we celebrated Cinco De Mayo.  We tried to use a little Spanish when we were speaking and then we had some pinatas in the afternoon for the kids to break open. The kids got to make their own pinatas and put a little candy in them.

We also started working on a special Mother's Day gift.  I can't tell you what it is, but I am covered in white dust.  Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Zoo Maps

 The kids did such a great job on the zoo maps.  I promised them that I would post all of the maps on the blog so everyone could see them. 

 I was proud of the way they worked together and even though they had disagreements, they learned about making compromises so that the work could get done.

 The day after we got back from the zoo, I had everyone choose their favorite animal and write about something they learned about that animal.

Thomas's Day

Thomas got to be the photographer on Friday. We had been to the zoo on Wednesday and the kids were still talking about all that they had seen. We spent almost the whole day Friday working in groups to plan and design a zoo. It was one of those projects that makes me question my sanity. My first direction was that everyone in the group had to agree about what animals went in their zoo and what the zoo would look like. It's not easy to get a group of 4 kids to agree on anything, much less a whole zoo. But we pressed on throughout the day and I was pleased with the results. So even though the room was a mess, many tears were shed, and I ended the day covered in green paint, I think I will do this again next year. Here's what Thomas had to say:

 The first thing we had to do was make a list of 10 animals to put in our zoo.  We had to agree.

 Next we had to make a plan for our zoo.  All the animals had to have a place to live and there had to be a path through the zoo.

 Mrs. Kyle printed pictures of the animals we choose.

 Then we had to draw the zoo on a big sheet of paper.

The best part was painting.

I'll post pictures of the finished product later.