Snowball Fight

On Thursday we had so much fun practicing Fundations. Wait for it....we had a snowball fight. How did we have a snowball fight you ask?
Mrs. Wanke gave each of us a piece of paper. Then she gave us a word to spell. We had to write the word on the piece of paper. after we wrote the word, we had to crumble the paper into a ball...a snowball!
When all of us had a snowball we had to stand in the ready position.
Lastly, Mrs. Wanke would say ready, aim, fire! We would throw the snowball across the room. We would then run to find a snowball, open it, and check to make sure the word was spelled correctly inside. Then start all over again with a new word.

 

Ready...

Aim...

Fire!

What a GREAT week back!

Pumpkin Jack

YUCK!

That is the only way to describe our observations of Pumpkin Jack on Day 70!

See for yourself.

We noticed an increase in the amount of water that is inside the container.  Keep in mind, before the pumpkins were placed into the container we only filled it with dirt.  We never added any water!

We noticed mud and a small amount of orange skin left.

We noticed that you could tell where the two pumpkins had been.

Reading Roller Coaster

This is one of our favorite reading activities!

To complete Reading Roller Coaster, you have to go through a variety of obstacles.  Before you can do each obstacle, you have to read a Trick Word.  If you read the word correctly, you get to go through the obstacle. If you read it wrong, you have to go back to the beginning.

If we read the word where correctly...

we got to crawl through the tunnel.

If we read the word there correctly...

we got to try and weave through the crabs without getting pinched.

If we read the word were correctly... 

we had to scoot across the floor like a seal.

If we knew the word they...  

we had to enter the sharks cave and whisper it into his ear.

If we read the word does correctly...  

we got to "harpoon" the whale.

We sure do LOVE Reading Roller Coaster...it is the best way to practice our Trick Words.

Until we meet again....on Tuesday!

I was so excited to see everyone on Monday, but I guess we will have to wait until Tuesday.  We have a fun Minute to Win It assembly scheduled for Tuesday morning.  I can't wait to see what challenges await us!  What a great way to kick start the second semester!
We will also be "toasting" in the new year with a fun art project!


I can't wait for everyone to check out the terrariums we built before break and Pumpkin Jack!  Some amazing changes have happened while we have been away.

We will also try the TickleMe plants again!


Can't wait to start 2014 will my Wonderful Whales!

Thank you for 2013.. Bring on 2014!

I can not believe that we are halfway through the year! Thank goodness I get these little darlings for a second year. One is just not enough.
I wanted to take a moment to thank all of you for supporting me and your child on our academic adventure. We can not do it without you! You play such a vital role in the success of your child.
Thank you for all the donations to our class, for helping your child read and study, and for communicating with me about your child and his/her needs.
I am so excited for 2014! My brain keeps thinking about all the fun we will have after break.

Top 10 Reasons I am excited for 2014!
10. Science bags will start to come home
9. I will begin to invite parent volunteers to help out in our room.
8. We will be hatching duck eggs.
7. Laura Ladybug is coming back!
6. We will try the Tickleme plants again. (No luck the first time.)
5. Field trips!
4. Fun science units with some awesome experiments.
3. The Bears will win the Super Bowl. Okay I had to get that in there...wishful thinking.
2. Minute to Win It assemble after break.
1. Watching each child develop, learn, and grow!

Wonderful Wednesday

The Gingerbread Man

Yesterday we read the story, Gingerbread Man, Loose in the School.

After reading the story, we made our own Gingerbread Man.

Today when we came into the classroom, our Gingerbread Man was gone and left us a note!

This is the note the Gingerbread Man left us.

We decided to make missing posters and hang them up around the school so we could find our missing Gingerbread Man!

While making our posters, we found another note from the Gingerbread Man. Inside this letter was a clue that told us that our Gingerbread Man was in the gym.  We decided that we were going to have to go and look for him!

Super excited to find our Gingerbread Man!

Clue 3, led us to the nurses office.

Clue 5, led us to the office.

Clue 6, led us to the cafeteria, where we found a letter with our Gingerbread Man and a plate of gingerbread cookies. 

We love cookies!

Yummy yummy cookies!

Laura Ladybug!

Today Laura Ladybug came to our room to help us with our addition story problems.  How could a ladybug help us with math you ask?   Well, Laura Ladybugs spots can come off and back on again.  She would use her spots to show us how to solve the problem. 

She brought with her some ladybug mats that we used to solve the problems with her.

We liked when Laura Ladybug came to visit.  It is amazing how much she looked and sounded like Mrs. Wanke.

T-shirts

Looking sooo cute in our Wonderful Whale T-shirts!

We will be wearing our shirts tomorrow at school. They will come home tomorrow!

Power Towers

Did you know that we are building cup towers that help us with our math facts?  Well it is true and we LOVE it!  Mrs. Wanke taught us a game called Power Towers.

First we read the fact on the side of the cup.

 Then, we say the answer check to see if we are right.

Lastly, if we are right we stack it.

 

We continue this until we have the whole tower built.  Eventually, Mrs. Wanke is going to time us to see if we can build the tower before the timer goes off. 

Mrs. Wanke has all kinds of different Power Towers.  Some Power Towers focus on +1, +2, doubles, and doubles +1 facts.  We think they are all fun!

Welcome Back!

We had a little bit of SNOW and some Pumpkin Jack to start our Monday off!

Today we played in the "SNOW!"  Mrs. Wanke gave us some story problems to solve and we had to write our thinking in the "snow."  Check out our pictures...we had SNOW much fun!

 

Later in the day we decided to check on Pumpkin Jack!

 

Mrs. Wanke opened the container!  Can you believe it? Can you say stinky and gross?