Back To School 2014-2015

 

I am very excited about the first day of 2014-2015 school year on Tuesday, August 26th!

 

Since the beginning of August, I have been preparing for the arrival of this year's first grade class.  A few weeks ago, Mrs. Becerra and I went on our annual school supply shopping trip.  Our carts were filled with markers, crayons, supply boxes, pencils, erasers, folders, binders and notebooks.  Many people were curious about why we were buying 20+ of each item! 

I have been working in our classroom for the past few weeks organizing, decorating, and planning for the school year!  I have also been looking for even more ways to add polka dots (my favorite pattern) to the classroom decor.  

Here are a few of the new additions:

Polka Dot Daily 5 Cafe Bulletin Board:

Polka Dot Portable Word Wall: 

Polka Dot Wonder Wall:

I also replaced my old visual schedule cards, alphabet letters, and number line with new polka dot versions.

Throughout the next few days, I will be putting the finishing touches on the classroom so that it is ready for Tuesday.  I can't wait to meet my new students!

Sharing The Planet - Inquiry Into Habitats

This week, we completed our fifth IB Unit Of Inquiry - "Sharing The Planet".  The central idea of this unit was, "Living things survive only in environments that meet their needs."  

We completed our unit with a focus on five of Earth's major habitats - desert, polar, rainforest, ocean, and grassland.  

• In small groups, the students worked cooperatively to create paper murals to represent a habitat of their choice.  Together, they created the background (landforms, plants, scenery, etc.) of each environment.
• The students generated wonder questions about their chosen habitats.  Each child selected one of these wonder questions and wrote it on a cloud shape.  This was added to their habitat mural.
• Each student selected an animal from their chosen habitat that they would like to learn more about.  Individually, the students researched these animals to find out the basics, interesting facts, and (hopefully) the answers to their wonder questions.  
• The students took their research and compiled it into an animal reports as a way of presenting the information.
• Each child chose one fact from their research and wrote it in a speech bubble to accompany their animal on the mural.

Just in case you can't get up to school to see them in person, the habitat murals are pictured below:

The Polar Habitat

The Grassland Habitat

The Ocean Habitat

The Desert Habitat

The Rainforest Habitat

 

Inquiry Into Tophographical Maps

This week, we inquired into topographical maps - maps used to show the natural features (i.e. landforms) of a location.  We learned about a variety of different landforms - mountains, hills, plateaus, coasts, plains, deserts, valleys, forests, oceans, rivers, and lakes.  Each student used salt dough to create a topographical map depicting the landforms of their imaginary island countries.

We investigated topographical maps of the US and the world.

 We created topographical maps out of salt dough.

We painted our topographical maps according to our map keys.

 

More photos coming soon!

Happy Birthday Miss Rollins!

On Thursday, March 13th, I celebrated my birthday with the class.  Every year, my mom brings in fudgy chocolate cupcakes with pink sprinkles as a birthday treat for me to share with my students.  She also takes a class picture.  This was too cute not to post!

Surprise Field Trip To The Rainforest

Last week, we began our fourth IB Unit Of Inquiry, “Sharing The Planet”. 

The central idea of this unit is, "Living things survive only in environments that meet their needs.” 

On Monday, we kicked off our new unit with a surprise field trip toThe Rainforest at The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo.  As we explored this “habitat”, we were able to learn about the various plants and animals that are able to survive there. The rainforest is one of the five habitats (in addition to desert, ocean, grasslands, and polar) that we will inquire into throughout this unit.

Thank you to Amy Stark, Erika LoPresti, Rocio Moran, and Erin Zelin for chaperoning this field trip!