Christmas Celebration

We had a great time today enjoying our pizza party and passing out gifts to one another. We even had a visit from the administrators who brought me my 4th Christmas faculty ornament. I am so thankful to all of you who helped bring in items and offered your time and assistance to make this day a success for us. I hope all my students love their gifts from me and enjoy using them over the break. I wish you all a very blessed holiday season with your loved ones.

Skyping with WKHS

We were privileged to have the experience to Skype with some high school students on Thursday. Some dear friends of mine whose daughter is a Senior at WKHS asked our class if we would like them to share their FaceTime Stories with us. We were so impressed with all their writings and creations using their new i-pads! My 3rd graders were amazed at the fact that in high school they will be given their very own i-pad to use throughout the year. I am hoping we can have more experiences Skyping this year with our new high school friends, and maybe even our partnership school in Wyoming.

Polar Express and Candlelight Luncheon

We had a fun day on Wednesday dressing up in our pjs and watching The Polar Express! We drank hot chocolate and enjoyed some homemade goodies created by Julia C.'s family. :) They were delicious!

On Thursday, we all dressed up and enjoyed a special candlelight luncheon and several performances by CSE faculty.

No Taxation Without Representation

We've been learning about the taxes imposed by the King on the colonists. I wanted the students to understand how the colonists felt so I set up a little exercise involving the candy, Skittles. Each student was given a pack of Skittles and each time I imposed a new tax, if that tax applied to them, they had to pay me with some Skittles. For example, if you are the youngest child in your family, you owed me 4 Skittles. Of course you can imagine how quickly the students became enraged and upset over these new taxes in my classroom. :) By the end of the exercise the students were able to relate to the colonists so many years ago over their unfair taxes imposed by the King.

Creating Igneous Rocks

To show how igneous rocks are made we took chocolate chips and melted them. We then allowed them to cool and harden. Of course, the best part of the lesson was being able to eat our new creations!

Stocking Wishes

The students wrote about the top 3 gifts they are asking Santa for this year! The students also got to pick either to be an elf or reindeer and write diary entries from the perspective as an elf and a reindeer. They turned out very precious! :)

Making Metamorphic Rocks

To show how different rocks end up combining together to form one rock, due to heat and pressure, we used wheat and white bread. Students smashed the two breads together by pounding them with their hands.

Examining the properties of rocks!

The students looked at various rocks this week and was able to see how you can't just look at the color of a rock to identify it.