When I Grow Up...

        With our focus this week on caterpillars growing up to become butterflies, it was quite fitting that Career Day fell during this week, too. All the students wrote about what they wanted to be when they grew up. Get ready for  picture overload.  There were so many good ones - I had to share. (There are plenty more good ones not pictured, by the way).

Is that not the sweetest?

Both McKenzie and Harper want to be gymnastics teachers.

Ben wants to be a firefighter who saves houses.

Ryleigh wants to sing on the Las Vegas stage!

Alexus said, "I want to be a designer because I like fashion."
 

That same day, we heard from some special guest speakers who shared what they did for a living. In the morning class, the kids learned from my sister, Lydia Moore, (who has also substitute taught for me a few days) about drafting. She passed around blueprints she had made and explained how she draws houses and floorplans from a "bird's perspective."

PS, contrary to popular belief, she is the older sister.  By four and a half years....

 Next, the students went to Mrs. Perkins classroom and heard from firefighter, Tim.

These four boys had all written that they wanted to be firefighters, too.

     The afternoon class got to hear from two different guests.  First, they heard from someone who works for the US Department of Agriculture, Wildlife division. He brought lots of animal pelts with him.

Mackenzie was quite fond of them.

        And then, the most exciting part of the whole day (students and teachers alike): a visit from a pet store owner and some of his furry (and slithery) friends.  Many of the animals were let loose for the children to follow around, touch, and hold.  (He did put away that giant lizard thing, however, when he saw me perched upon a table). I learned that Mrs. Taylor and the PM kids are much braver than I am.

      As for the rest of the week, as I mentioned, our theme was the life cycle of butterflies.  We did some "cloze sentences" this week for our anchor chart.  Cloze sentences are "fill in the blank" sentences. Since this week we learned about -ing, the missing word always had that word ending.  By the end of the week, we had recorded the entire life cycle, and on Friday, we cut each sentence into three parts.  The students had to find their partners to reconstruct the sentences so they made sense.

 

 

     The butterfly theme was seen throughout a few of our centers this week. Here is a short video of centers in action. (Miss Hisel managed the reading groups this week, as it was her "solo" week).



  In math games, the students played "Build a Butterfly" by rolling the dice, adding them up and covering that number with the matching shape.  (This is just like our Build a Turkey game we played in November).  This was a great review for addition and shapes. It also exposed them to a new concept, symmetry.

      In the writing center, they used a magnifying glass to read teeny tiny sight words written on a butterfly. (We have done "Snowflake Words, Turkey Words, Flower Words, and Baseball Words in the past). When they finished, they could color the butterfly in a way that showed symmetry.

     The students did their first word searches in the word work center this week. But in order to know what words they were looking for, they had to use the word slider. I wasn't sure how it would go: if it would be too hard, too boring, too easy.  Turned out, they LOVED them. It really kept their interest and the level was just right (all the words went from left to right only). 







    Our Fun Friday art project was coffee filter butterflies. The students used markers to color the coffee fiilter, then they sprayed them with water which allows the ink to spread and blend together in cool, tie-dye-like ways. 


     Then, just for fun, the students wrote about what one item they would take with them inside the cocoon if they were a caterpillar. 

Ava would take a tv and a bed.



    

 

      I'll leave you with pictures from our Citizenship Award recipients; Cooper Shaddix from the AM class, and Tesla Hall from the PM class. 

 

     Funny thing is, Cooper's two older brothers (one in 1st grade, the other in 2nd - and both former students of mine) also received the citizenship award from their teachers!