Students associated with the TRiO organization visited our class today to share their stories, read aloud to the children (they LOVED Queen Latifah's book Queen of the Scene), and then do an activity related to the lesson focus of self-confidence/self-esteem. Each student was encouraged to draw a picture of someone who believes in them, supports their dreams, and helps them stand tall. After the activity, each TRiO student shared his/her family story and talked about getting in to VCU and what college is like. Each TRiO student is the first member of his/her family to attend college, and each is majoring in something different: nursing, dentistry, business, and marketing communications. The children asked many questions about college and shared their dream jobs ranging from zoo keeper to bank owner to basketball player, and more.
As part of our word work during the week (the work the children do to help them more deeply learn their Word Study words) the children play a game called Spin N Spell with a partner. During the game, they are challenged to spell words aloud, use them in sentences, and share definitions. To start the game, they play rock/paper/scissors to decide who will be the first "spinner" and who will be the first "reader." The reader picks one of his/her partner’s word cards and reads the word aloud without showing it. The spinner spins the pointer and then performs the action. The reader checks the answer. If the answer is correct, the spinner scores the given number of points. The children take turns, and keep a tally of points. The winner is the child with the most points when the time is up or when all word cards have been used. The children enjoyed the Virginia Repertory Theatre performance of "Have You Filled a Bucket Today, the Musical" this afternoon. The story followed a boy at summer camp who meets the BFF (Bucket Filling Fairy) and begins a journey of learning how to be a better friend to all those around him. The children loved the performance and were reminded to be “Bucket Fillers” of kindness and not “Bucket Dippers.”
The children had fun seeing how far toy cars would travel as they zoomed down a ramp and across two different surfaces, the wood floor and the carpet. First, they each formed their own hypothesis (made a prediction) to answer the question will the toy car travel farther on the wooden floor or the rug? The children predicted that the cars would travel farther on the floor because the rug causes more friction with the car. With tape measures in hand, data recorded after four trials on each surface, their prediction proved to be true!
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AuthorMrs. Tappen and her CategoriesArchives
April 2017
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