five for friday may 5, 2017

I can't believe how time flies.  Well, I'm back, as they say...
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 Mother's Day flowers
I ask the students what does their moms do.  
Well, "your moms do a lot for you." so wouldn't the best gift would be that YOU help mom.  
They love it. (Of course they want to please.)  
This is my all time favorite.

Pick a flower

And you will see

The job you will pick

This week for me.

Love,

 I make a preprinted flowerpot that needs to be cut, folded and glued ONLY on the sides.  Explain that the flowers need to be able to slide in.  I used to have the students make their own flowers such as tulips, daisy always showing an example.  But their flowers were usually too small.  Then I thought,  USE your hands.. I like these much better.
You can write any kind of kid 'job' they are willing to do.

I think I need to make the poem a little smaller so they can decorate around it so it doesn't cover up the flower pot as much.

I believe in student process (experience) over product.  They can do this themselves and it looks pretty nice.

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Another easy project for mom:   Print a poem and paint the student's hand, print and color details for a stem and leaves.
I'm all in for easy.

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We ordered our butterfly larvae and we are so excited to watch the caterpillars grow every day.  It is a great incentive to use softer voices so we won't scare them from growing!
We have a journal that we record our observations.  Great science project and meaningful learning new vocabulary.


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Love Denise Fleming's IN THE TALL, TALL GRASS for a writing project and cutting fringed grass we can draw picture of what we saw.  It is a fun way to example the Life Skill of curiosity.
I still find magazine pictures useful.

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To show a purpose for writing and reading, I decided one day to not talk ---REALLY!  I hung a dry erase board around my neck and wrote my words.  Their work was continued from the day before.  I used a lot of hand gestures appropriate for my five year olds.  (I did talk with adults in school but not in front of the class.)  As far as the students understood, I couldn't talk.   I have had a few sore throats and hoarse voice but made it through the day and many children thought I had a bad sore throat.
Finally at the end of the day, I wrote on the message board:

The following day I explained the difference between that I DID NOT verses I can and will not talk.  Some children really thought about it.
It was a fun challenge for all of us.

17 more student days for me!  Where did this school year go?