It's been too long.. IM BACK!

I know, I know.. it has been quite a while since I have posted.  I have just been so busy with the kids that when I get home, I am exhausted.  Well, I'm back and will begin to update more frequently.  Here is what has been going on in the Zakar's.

Last Friday, we celebrated the 100th day of school.  YIPPEE!!! All the kids had to bring in a collection of 100 things and sort them by 5's, 2's, or 10's.  As I am sure you can guess, most of them sorted by 10's.  We talked about why so many kids decided to do it this way and we came to the conclusion that sorting by 10's and counting by 10's is the fastest way.  I wish I had pictures to show all of the great 100's day clothing that came in, but of course, I forgot my camera on this day!  So, I will explain some of the great ideas.  I had one friend with 100 angry birds made of red pompoms glued on his shirt.  Another friend had 100 googly eyes, and a bunch of the kids wrote their numbers up to 100 on their t-shirt.  I have to say, my 100's day piece of clothing was awesome.  Since we have done a lot of talking about juicy words in school, I decided to write 100 Juicy Words That Describe My Students. I used some awesome words, and they were not all positive.  How could I leave out IMPULSIVE, ROWDY, LOUD, RAMBUNCTIOUS, SILLY? What do you think? Creative?

During the day we had some hundred day activities that the kids could choose from.  Some chose to write 100 words they know how to spell and some wrote a 100's Day Newspaper Article.  All in all it was a fabulous day.

This week, we talked about how we are 101 days smarter.  We even did a brain check to see how big they have gotten.  All the kids agreed their brains have grown a ton!  Reader's Theater is a fantastic way to practice fluency and I know from last year, my kids LOVE putting on plays.  So right now we are all in a play.  There are 4 plays.  These are the scripts from each play.  Everyone has a part and they have been practicing, practicing, practicing.  They have even designed their own masks and have made some props to use.  We will be putting these plays on within the next week.  I will be video taping these plays and posting it for families to view!  I am sure they will do a fabulous job!

Last week the Secret Math Agents began giving us mini math missions to complete in the morning.  The kids are asked to complete a math problem and then they have to put it in the Math Agents Mailbox.  These math mini missions help keep our brains fresh.  Here are some examples of what they have left us.  Just today we started a brand new unit in math.  This is the first unit in the second half of the math program.  The kids were very excited today as they got their new math journals.  One friend even wanted me to email the agents to thank them for bringing a new journal!

More Free Math!!

Here is my latest and greatest. Use what you want.  If you would like permission to edit these, I am not sure how to do that. The google doc is a pdf.   If you know how to make it editable, let me know!
Click on the picture to bring you to my google docs page!  Enjoy!

Our Adventures at the Boston Children's Museum

To go or not to go, that was the question.  As of Wednesday, the meteorologist called for a snowy mix right during the morning commute.  Of course, we planned our field trip for the one day of Winter, so far, where snow was expected.  So a decision had to be made.  To go or not to go... Well, as a team we decided that if there was any sort of delay, we would reschedule the trip.  If there was no delay, we would venture to Boston no matter what.  Rewind to this morning at 8:00.  No delay!  Yes snow!  Driving to Shrewsbury from Westboro, it was evident the snow was way worse as we moved West.  As I arrived at school, I knew it was going to be a hectic morning.  After all was said and done, name tags were placed, groups were formed, and the bus was loaded, we were on our way.  The worst part of the trip was getting to the Mass Pike.  Once we hit that, we were in the clear.  The snow turned to rain and we were right on time!  The bus dropped us off and after a short walk in the rain to get there, we had arrived.  FEW!!

The reason we decided to take our one and only field trip to the Children's Museum was because they have an exhibit called "Balls and Tracks".  Fortunately for us, our Trimester 2 Science unit is Balance and Motion.  PERFECT FIT!!!  So, the package included a 1 hour hands on class that let us explore with tracks and balls.  The children were the engineers and they were given three challenges. For the first challenge,  they worked in groups to try and form a track that would make a marble go the fastest it can go.  Our second challenge was to make the ball roll the slowest possible.  The children talked about how in order to make things move, you need a force.  The children were asked, "When something goes up in the air, what force makes it come back down?"  Our new student, Svahbu, answered proudly, "Gravity"!  He was absolutely correct. They also learned that in order to make the marbles go up a hill, they need momentum.  So is the force that makes things go down and momentum is the force that helps things go up.  Our third challenge was to create a ramp that allowed the ball to go up a hill.  This took some figuring out, but the kids really rose to the occasion and had a great time creating these ramps.  Here are some pictures of each group working together to beat the challenge. 

After our workshop, the kids were aloud to spend about an hour and a half exploring the rest of the Museum.  Some of the favorite exhibits were; The Japan House, The Jungle Gym, The Art Studio, and the Bubble Room.  Over all, despite the rocky start with the weather, they had such a blast!  Here are some more pics from their explorations around the museum.

Thank you to all the parents who were able to come with us to the Museum.  I hope everyone had a great time.  I know the kids did.  When we got back to school, I had the kids show me one thing they learned at the Museum.  They could sketch, write me a letter, or explain with just words.  They could choose the way they wanted to show me their learning!  The field trip was a huge success.