Fun with the States of Matter

It was all smiles and fun during our discovery learning on the states of matter. I purchased a unit by one of my favorite TPT sellers, Hope King. The rest was super easy. Students were give three different balloons. One with air, one with water, one filled with ice. They had to make observations and keep a log of what they noticed. Then they took their pencils and poked each balloon and made more observations. This was just the intro lesson, but the little scientists were sold. Their smiles say it all. Using balloons and water for science? What's not to love. Can't wait for the next lesson. When students leave with a smile, something great is happening.

Black History Month: Slavery Project Based Learning Part 1

We are well underway into our PBL (project based learning) unit on Slavery and Heroes. The big question we are researching is: Why would someone risk their life to save others? We started out collecting some schema that showed what we already knew about various related topics to our study. 

Students were given post-its and were asked to write down something they knew about slavery. I was surprised that some of my scholars had no idea what slavery was, but that was just fine, because we are going deep into the topic and they will learn a lot. Next, I asked them to write down one question they had about slavery. Students also wrote anything they knew about the underground railroad.

Later, we got into groups and created posters all about freedom. Students basically wrote down anything they could think of or knew about the topic. 

Next, students wrote what they would do for freedom and we made a giant anchor chart. 

Since many students didn't have any idea what slavery was, we watched this video on Youtube that showed how Africans were taken from their homes and shipped to other places to be sold. We also had a discussion about what slavery was like. I also told the students that whenever there is something awful happening, look for the helpers. There will always be helpers. Instead of focusing on negatives, focus on the good, pointing them to our essential question, Why would someone risk their life to save others?

The next day, I introduced a slave, named Henry, with the book, Henry's Freedom Box. If you don't know the story, rush out and get a copy of this amazing book! 




Henry endured incredible anguish during his time as a slave, being separated from his family, later marrying and having his children and own wife sold to another owner. He decided to leave his life of slavery behind. A free black man helped to mail him to freedom. My students were enthralled and had lots of comments and questions about this story. In fact, they were so into the book, they asked to get back to the book instead of having recess. 

After reading the book, we tried to see what it would be like to be mailed in a box. Students were excited to squeeze into the box and see for themselves what it must have been like when Henry hid in a box for 27 hours. 

We also just started literacy groups based on several different books. I have five groups and each group is reading/discussing a different book related to the underground railroad and slavery theme.

Students read the first section and created a graffiti wall of their learning. 

These are the books we are reading: 

Valentine's Day Boxes

Last year I had my scholars do these valentine's day boxes. This year, I had decided not to do them again, but my students remembered doing them last year (I keep my students for two years and have a combo 3/4 class). Some of them asked to do these again, so I let them. I love how the student's Valentine's day boxes turned out. Here's some of our favorites. 

Valentine's Day Conversations

This is a fun activity that I have done for a long time in my classroom. When Valentine's Day comes around, it's all about love and friendship. We use conversation heart candies to create stories or letters about love. I usually have the students do this on regular paper, but this year, I created a freebie to help make the writing more fun.

You can pick up a free copy here. Enjoy!

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

It's officially Martin Luther King Jr. day today. Of course, were relaxing at home and celebrating in our own way. Tomorrow, is a great day to celebrate at school. Last year, I used this cute little flap book (Here's a look at the first two pages) to help the students do their own research on this American icon. (The cover can be printed in color or black and white.)

This book can be paired up with any other book about MLK Jr. and is basically a place to house the student's research.

Some books suggestions for your students to use to investigate and research MLK Jr. would be:
 

Last year I used the printable book off of Readinga-z, a subscription site that we use at our school.

This is something easy to use at a center for reading time or as a whole class reading lesson. You can check it out over here.

Time Travel: Ancient Greece

This year, all of our classes, from sixth grade and down, are studying the Olympics. This past Monday, my class traveled back in time to ancient Greece to learn all about the culture and lifestyle of the Greeks back at the beginning of the Olympics.

Many students came dressed in chiton, or togas. We read about what a child's life would be like in Sparta and Athens, two of the main city/states of that time period. We were amazed that the boys in Sparta were sent away to train as soldiers at the age of seven!

We looked at a map of Greece and located these two important cities. Later in the morning, we enjoyed a Greek feast. We learned that only men were allowed at the feasts and that the women were required to eat in the kitchen. (The girls were allowed to join in on our feasts, though.) We also learned that the Greeks were very into cleanliness and they would wash and perfume their feet before the start of the feast. We heard about how some Greeks ate while reclining on pillows on the floor, so we tried that by spreading out some sheets on the floor and reclining while we sampled some Greek cuisine. We ate hummus and pita bread, Greek olives, feta cheese, grapes and other fruit that would have been available back then.

The Greeks were into plays and attending the theater. We chose parts and began studying for small plays that we will be sharing in the next few days.

We also tried out two fun games that the children played in ancient Greece. We were surprised to learn that they also played a game similar to modern basketball.

To close the day, we looked at the Greek alphabet and practiced writing the letters. We found that some letters were very similar to the ones we use in writing today, but some are very different. We also noticed that some students would not be able to even spell their names if they had to use the Greek alphabet.

We learned so much about Greece through discovery and hands-on learning. It was a great day.

Silberzweig Art

Our school is small enough that each teacher is required to teach their own art. I'm so glad for that because, even though I have very little art experience (as far as training goes), I love teaching it. I am always looking for something different and do not keep the same projects from year to year. Some I will keep, but I get bored if I keep them all. I also teach in a multi-grade classroom and keep the students for two years, so I have to wait at least two years before repeating a project. One of the projects we did this year was one I have done before. Another was a revamp and I created a twist on a previous project making it feel fresh for me. Today we had a completely new project that I stumbled upon. I love it. The colors are bright and bold. The lines are amazing. They end portraits turned out so funky and fun. They are perfect. I will admit that the students were not too excited about this project to begin with, but as we actually put our oil pastels to paper for the guided drawing part, excitement began to build and as they worked on their own to create interesting designs, they were definitely into it. 

This project was our take on portraits by Sandra Silberzweig. Her art is fun and unique, check it out. 

Anyway, I was completely thrilled by what the students created. Take a peek!