What Would You Do?

To squish or not to squish... that is the question.

Before Spring Break, we began our next unit about Insects. We began by learning about the characteristics that all insects have and then focused on ants specifically.

We read this super cute book called, Hey, Little Ant, about a boy and an ant bickering back and forth defending why the other should or shouldn’t squish the ant. It ends with the question, “What would you do?”

We brainstormed reasons supporting and defending the boy’s and ant’s arguments... Then each child took their own side and wrote an opinion piece supporting their idea.

Patrick wrote, “I think the boy should not step on the ant because they help feed the queen ant.”

Julia wrote, “I think the boy should not step on the ant because they are in nature.”

Waylon wrote, “I think the boy should step on the ant because it bit me!” I understand your opinion, Waylon! Ouch!!!

When we return from Spring Break, we will spend a week learning about ladybugs and then a week focusing on the life cycle of a butterfly. I hope you’re all enjoying your vacation!

Second Episode of News, News, News

Here is the second episode of Miss Holmes’ Friday Focus, News News News!

Icky, Icky, Insects... Or Are They?

Here are two great videos about insects that we have been playing in class.

This first one is VERY catchy and we LOVE it in Room 1!

You won’t believe the facts you’ll learn about ants in this video:

I’m starting to take down all of the community/transportation decorations in the classroom to make room for all of the insect decorations! I will post pictures soon :)

Letter K!

We only have 7 letters left in the alphabet! Woohoo!

Please use this song and picture of a poster in our classroom to help you come up with your mystery bag clues.

Charter School Conference Performance

A group of 4th and 5th graders performed at the California Charter Schools Conference (CCSA) for thousands of teachers and staff!

Check out their AMAZING performance!

Transportation Unit

We just concluded our Transportation Unit. We spent the last few weeks learning about different modes of transportation including planes, trains, cars, boats, and buses. For each kind of transportation, the students wrote in their transportation journals. Here are some snapshots of our last few weeks.

PLANES

The students wrote about planes in their journals...

We even made our own airplanes that are currently flying around Room 1!

TRAINS

Learning about trains takes me back to my childhood of going out to the Tehachapi loop and watching trains go by. I’d actually take out a clipboard and record how many locomotives there were, how many freight cars and would even track what time the train passed by at.

These “Trains Go” landscapes are gorgeous!

CARS
Beep beep!

The kids made their own cars and wrote where they car could go.

...Because what Kindergartner’s car doesn’t go to Disneyland to see Elsa?!

During our time learning about cars, I read this fun book about a very imaginative boy who dreams up his own car.... Complete with a pool and snack machine! So naturally, we had to journal about our own dream cars!

“My dream car would have a garden and a snack bar.”

“My dream car would have a candy machine and a pool.”

“My dream car would have a movie theater and a popcorn maker.”

We also wrote about cars in our journals: 

“We have a big car. Cars have engines. Cars have seat belts.”

A new addition this year and I LOVE it --- license plates! My mom at the AAA would be so proud!

BUSES

We listened to the nursery rhyme the wheels on the bus and made our own class book. You can’t read the next few bus pages --- you have to sing them!

(bunnies)

(turtles)

(coyotes)

Then we wrote facts about buses. 

“They are on the bus. Buses can go on electricity. Buses are yellow.”

“They are on the bus. Buses can pick up people. Buses have engines. Buses can be different colors.”

BOATS
Finally, we ended our unit with boats. I didn’t get a chance to take pictures, but the kids did some predicting of whether they thought objects would sink or float and they even made their own tin foil boats that held upwards of 50 pennies!

These directed draw sailboats came out BEAUTIFULLY! I am so impressed with their listening to directions and watercoloring skills.

"Where can the boat go? Boats can float. Boats were invented 1000 years ago.”

And last but certainly not least, we concluded our unit with the sharing of our transportation vehicle projects. Prepare for cuteness OVERLOAD!

And, of course, a silly one!

Community Map & Community Helpers

At the beginning of our unit. our classroom was lacking decorations and the giant black bulletin board was just beginning to have green squares put on it... A few days later, our room transformed and we added our own buildings, vehicles, traffic signals, vegetation to our community map and each child made a paper doll of themselves of what they want to be when they grow up. Enjoy these pictures!

Police station, museum, doctor’s office...

VONS, Disney store, Panda Express (complete with a drive-thru window), Veterinarian’s office, barn, skatepark, scientist lab, Aquarium....

... every community needs their own pink airport and a NASA building...

Target, MB2, Lazy Dog, and a firestation!

 

Racecars at MB2!

All of our Community Helpers

"Macy is a veterinarian. She makes animals feel better and she can help find the perfect animal.”

“Waylon is a farm. He can plant corn.”

Check out these sounding out!!!

“Dean is a paleontologist. He discovers dinosaur bones.”

“Carson is an astronaut. He flies to space.”

 And our finished project!!!