Learning about Hanukkah

Today we learned all about Hanukkah and the many traditions that are involved with this celebration. The students made a menorah as their souvenir and potato latkes (potato pancakes) as a snack.

watching the latkes cook

Today we found Bo  taking a "bubble bath" in the sink!! He's one crazy elf!

making a menorah

The latkes were delicious!

Christmas Around the World

Yesterday we started our Christmas Around the World celebration. We started by making our suitcases. After learning about the customs and traditions of Americans, we enjoyed a candy cane and made a cinnamon ornament for our souvenir.  Here are a couple pictures.

We found Bo in our stocking today.

Meet Boqueque

Last week we were surprised to find a special gift in our classroom when we came to school. It was an elf. The elf also had a book with it. We read the book and did as it said - came up with a name. As a class we discussed and voted on names for our elf. We came up with Boqueque (Bo for short). Each night when we leave, Bo flies back to the North Pole to report about our day. When he returns he lands somewhere new. Bo has done some pretty crazy things. Here are just a few...

"snowball" fight with a Lego figure

Napping in the Kleenex box

Playing on the computer

On Friday we found Bo playing on the computer. When we turned the computer on for our lesson, we found a special surprise....check it out! (There are four different links.)

Elf Video 1

Elf Video 2

Elf Video 3

Elf Video 4

We're excited to see what our Elf does this week.

 

Toilet Paper? Really?

So you're probably wondering why I requested rolls of toilet paper..... well here it is!

This week we are learning about the planets of the Solar System as part of our reading story. To help us understand this difficult nonfiction text, we have been applying many different reading strategies. We've also incorporated a little Math to help us be able to visualze just how far each planet is from the sun.

Each group was in charge of a planet. The students had to count out the number of toilet paper squares their planet is from the sun. Next, they had to measure the distance (obviously scaled down) their planet was from the sun.  Here are a few pictures.

First we counted out the number of sheets of toilet paper we needed to equal our planet's distance from the sun.

Then we used a measuring tape to measure the length of toilet paper.

Some planets took A LOT of counting!

Neptune, the farthest planet from the sun, stretched the whole way across the gym!!!

Uranus is the 7th planet from the sun and still REALLY far away.

Saturn

Jupiter

Earth

Venus

Mercury...Although the distance looks really little, we learned that if you were traveling in a rocket that traveled 60,000 mph, it would take you 4 weeks to get from the sun to Mercury! WOW!! Knowing that, just think how far away Neptune is!

Our plant model we hung from the ceiling to help us visualize the planets as we read.

Happy Halloween

We had a happy Halloween! Thanks so much to the parents that helped and planned our party! :)