Alabama History Diamantes

This week we began learning about our state to prepare for our year long investigation of the state of Alabama!

We began by creating a Diamanté Poem about Alabama. 

I gave each student an outline to follow in making their poem and we headed off to the computer lab to find the answers. 

Line 1:  The name of our state

Line 2:  Two animals that are native to our state

Line 3:  Three cities in Alabama

Line 4:  Four agricultural products of Akabama

Line 5:  Three birds in Alabama

Line 6:  The state insect and the state bird

Line 7:  Fill in the blank:  Alabama is known as the _______ state. 

Once they had collected all of their information they transferred it onto a per-made diamanté diamond template. 

Then, they cute it out and glued it onto construction paper. 

Finally, they trimmed the construction paper leaving only a small border/outline. 

Now they are displayed in the hall for everyone to read!

Save Fred!

We are preparing to begin our first science unit of the year. Before we begin our unit we must first learn the scientific method and know exactly how to set up our science notebooks. 

Friday we took some time to learn about the scientific method. 

We began by creating a flip book with each of the components we will be using in our notebook entries. 

Then, we conducted our first investigation, Save Fred. 

Fred is a worm whose boat capsized. Fred does not know how to swim and his life preserver is stuck under the boat. 

The students had to save Fred (a gummy worm) by using only 4 paper clips. They could not touch Fred with their hands, and if Fred fell overboard 3 times then he was dead :(. 

To save Fred students had to retrieve his life preserver from underneath the boat and put it around him. 

They had a BLAST with this activity!

Ships & Sailors

This week we are beginning each day with an ice breaker activity.  This morning's activity was called Ships & Sailors.  This game created community in our classroom and made us immediately become comfortable with one another because no one wanted to have to exit the game.

I began by yelling the commands of, "Ships!" and "Sailors!"  Each time I said ships the students would run to the left and each time I said sailors they would run to the right.  While they were running back and forth I would yell other commands at them.

This command was Mess Table.  Mess table required 4 people to get together and pretend to be eating. You group had to have 4 members, no more and no less.  If you were not a part of a group then you were out.

 Another command was Sea Sick.  When I called sea sick each student individually began acting like they were sick.  They walked around "sick" until I yelled, "Pepto Bismal!"  If they followed any other commands that were given following the sea sick command, before they were cleared with the Pepto Bismal command, then they were out!

 4 Men Pointing North is another command.  This command, of course, required 4 members.  They gathered together in a circle and pointed up.

Man Overboard required 2 group members.  One member would get down on one knee while the other placed their hand on their partner's shoulder and began looking out over the seas to locate the man overboard.

 Crows Nest was a 3 person command.  Students would turn their backs to one another and link arms together.  Not in a group of three?  You're out!

Commands not pictured:  Hit the Deck!  3 Men Rowing!  and Captain's Coming!

When Hit the Deck is commanded students must immediately hit the ground!

3 Men Rowing, students get in groups of 3 and pretend to be rowing a boat.

Captain's Coming, students stand at attention until At Ease is called.  If they follow any commands prior to the at ease command then they are out!

They absolutely LOVED the game and did not care who their group members were as long as they got to continue playing!  They ran, sweated, and got plenty of exercise all while begging to play again and again!

Name Maps

Tuesday morning each student began working on a name map.  This is the first piece of work that will make its way to the hallway so that others in the building can learn about us.

Each name map includes the students name surrounded by pictures of things they enjoy.

 Bakarri and Micavela worked hard at making their name maps perfect!

 Reagan completed her name map and began working on an All About Me book that she did not have the chance to complete Monday morning.

Our First Day of Fourth Grade

As I said in the e-mail I sent out, this was the fastest first day in the history of my career!  I will say that even though it was a fast day I can still confidently say that I have the sweetest fourth grade class in the entire Decatur City School District.

This morning I met the students in the Little Theatre to walk them down to the classroom.  When they entered they unpacked, placed their backpack on the back of their chair, and began working on the back to school packet on their desk.

While they worked on their first day of school packet I took care of first day of school house keeping business in the classroom.  I think the packet was probably more fun :).

At 8:30 they learned where they would place their back pack each day and how to make a lunch choice in their new classroom.  My bet is they enter the room and take care of unpacking, placing their back packs in the hallway, and making a lunch choice like fourth grade pros tomorrow morning!

At 8:45 we began an M & M get to know you activity.  

Each M & M colored represented a topic.  Reds were their favorite TV show or movie, Orange was something they like about school, Yellow represents hobbies, Green is books/authors/series they enjoy reading, Blue is words that describe them, and Brown represents places they like to visit.  

They sorted their M&Ms and began making their lists because each M&M they had of each color was one item they had to list in that category.  At 9:00 we began sharing our interests.  Many of us learned of others in the room that share many of our same interests,

At 9:30 we began setting up our S.O.A.R. Binders.  Each student received their S.O.A.R. Binder Cover and a few pieces of the Procedures Manual for our classroom.  We began working our way through the pieces of the Procedures Manual that we needed to line up, travel down the hallway, use the bathroom, and function appropriately in PE.  Once we finished reviewing those pieces of our manual it was time for PE, so off we went!

After PE we stopped by the bathroom and then made our way to the cafeteria so that we could review lunch procedures prior to the cafeteria filling up.  All of these little procedure reviews took up valuable classroom time, but by taking the time to review the procedures in detail now we should save time later.

We returned to the classroom to discuss being nut-free this year and why we needed to make that accommodation.  After answering a few questions it was time for lunch!

Following lunch we reviewed 2 other pieces of our procedures manual, reviewed our newsletter and behavior log, and received a first day of school snack.

We snapped a few first day of school group shots and then it was time to begin packing up :(.

Students completed their Behavior Log and then met me in the hallway for individual first day of school photographs.

Their day ended in S.T.E.M. with Mrs. Davis and Drama with Mrs. Knox.

I hope your child's first day was great!  I know mine was, it was just entirely too quick.

Rockin' in Room 27

This week I have worked and worked and worked and worked.  Many teachers have spent many late nights at the school trying to make everything perfect as we begin a new school year.  It never fails though, we are all running around frantically on student orientation day regardless of the amount of hours we have worked prior to that day.

Today was student orientation day and yes, I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off.  Alyssa Borden, one of my students from last year and Kathleen Borden's daughter, helped me tremendously the past two days.  She was there to cut laminated material, hand me items while I was on a ladder so that I didn't have to climb up and down, scrape velcro from desks, place name tags, staple and pass out packets, run errands, and simply do anything I needed her to.  She was AMAZING.  She and I put last minute touches on my classroom and got orientation packets ready just in the nick of time.

After losing 2 students at 2:00 this afternoon and gaining another student at 4:00, frantically making a wish-list, and running last minute copies, everything was finally in place when 6:00 rolled around.  I met many wonderful students and their extremely supportive parents.  I had a chance to share with them about my passion for reading and my love for their children.  As orientation wrapped up I made my way through the classroom and chatted with individual families.  Each parent was so eager to be involved and was genuinely concerned with their child being challenged to be the best they can be each day.  I cannot wait for Monday to get here and for the chance to spend the next 180 school days with this precious group of kids.  My heart is so full :)

Gearing Up To Return

 Each year I decorate my room and say I will not redo it the following year. However, there is just something about beginning a new school year, coupled with Pinterest, that makes me want to redo my room Every. Single. Year.  So...here is what I walked into at the end of July.

It was a BIG mess because we have to clean our rooms out, completely, before we leave for summer vacation. It's always overwhelming when I walk back in for the first time so it typically takes a few trips before I get in a good working groove. 

When I left for the beach on August 2nd this is what I had accomplished. 

I am not finished with my room but I got enough accomplished so that I cou,d leave town until school starts back and not return in a full panic. I painted the front wall and a tree on the side wall, redid bulletin boards, rearranged, mod podged my filing cabinet, & made several new decor items. I have several things left to do when I return like:  hang clips from the ceiling, fill up wall space, decorate my back cabinets, and create a writing center. 

Also, these lovelys are being mailed out tomorrow. Will one arrive at your house???

Be sure to follow my classroom on Instagram, @LSroom27 for the latest pictures and updates!