Craft corner

I think it's now safe to show you.....

The children have been busy block printing cards in a sunny corner of our room.  I love what the
children are able to create with a simple piece of styrofoam and some ink.

Fulgurite

Can't go wrong with a fulgurite!















Every year, I gift the children with a mineral, rock, or fossil.  The idea is that by the time they leave our community, the children will have the beginnings of a class set...AND they will have acquired the itch to collect more.

This year, a good friend acquired a class set of fulgurites at the Houston Gem & Mineral Society Annual Show.  Fulgurites are formed when lightning hits the ground and melts and fuses sand together, leaving a rock impression of its path.

When they opened the gifts and we talked about what they were, one child exclaimed, "Awesome!  I can add this to my collection!"  Exactly!

Watch me grow

One of our winter traditions is daily observation and measurement of an amaryllis bulb as it grows.













These plants are amazing!  For a period of weeks, the stalk consistently grows at least 1 centimeter per day and sometimes grows as much as 3 centimeters!  We chart its growth on a line graph, and the children are always amazed to see how fast it grows.

Thanksgiving spirit

Baby, it's warm outside . . . but we celebrated Thanksgiving with hot apple cider anyway.  
















It's a Room 15 tradition for our third graders to convene to prepare hot apple cider for the class.  Into a big stockpot, the children pour three 64-ounce bottles of apple juice.  We then add a cinnamon stick, along with a sprinkle of peppercorns, cloves, and allspice.  This is the perfect opportunity for a little parts of the plant lesson on the spices (clove flowers, peppercorn berries, cinnamon bark, and allspice berries).

All morning, we enjoy the smell of spiced cider simmering on our little electric burner.















After lunch, we enjoy sipping hot cups of spiced apple cider while we read.  It's such a simple tradition but something our class really looks forward to.











There's a Book for That!
We love Molly's Pilgrim by Barbara Cohen.  It's a tender story of modern-day pilgrims who are still coming to the United States for religious freedom . . . and a beautiful reminder that we must appreciate, rather than ridicule, each other's differences.

Happy Halloween!

Every year around this time, something comes up that calls me away from school, leaving Ms. Frizzle to substitute in my place.
This post comes to you from Guest Author J.M., 1st grade, who was at school today to witness Ms. Frizzle's fabulous fashion choices.

Today is Halloween, and our substitute is Ms. Frizzle from The Magic School Bus.  It is so exciting!  Ms. Frizzle's hair is light orange and curly.  Her dress is black with dancing skeletons on it.  There's a lizard named Liz on her shoulder.  

Her earrings are white skeletons made out of clay.  








She has black shoes with bobblehead skeletons on them, and they jiggle their big fat heads when she walks.

It is very weird.  Maybe she came out of the T.V.


Editor's note:
I understand Ms. Frizzle even taught the children a skeleton song in Spanish today!

Overheard at school today:
"Boy, Ms. Frizzle looks a lot like Ms. S."
"She sure sounds a lot like Ms. S."
"But Ms. Frizzle doesn't wear glasses."
Overjoyed upon spying the skeleton shoes, "Oh! Those are perfect!"
"Ms. Frizzle, one day when we go to the Arboretum, can you wear a plant or animal dress and bring your Magic School Bus?"
One child whispered to another teacher, "I don't mean to be rude, but is that Ms. S's real hair? . . . Oh! Ms. Frizzle!"

Happy Mother's Day!

Little elves have been busy in Room 15, creating beautiful magnet gifts for the important women in their lives.












This is a great re-use project to do on the heels of Earth Day, but I didn't plan far enough in advance to collect enough Altoids tins without asking parents.  So I had to send out a last-minute e-mail plea (well, 2 weeks ahead).  A very generous friend worried that the children would not bring in enough tins and someone (or more than one someone) would be without.  So he purchased a case of Altoids at Costco. With those, along with what the children did bring in and the ones I found squirreled away in my "children's crafts" box, we had plenty!

I spent a Friday night visiting two Walmarts, a Jo-Ann, and a Michael's to gather the necessary supplies:
* Clear gel glue
* Glass marbles (One big bag from Walmart for ~$4.70 was more than enough for our class of 24!)
* Lovely printed craft papers (On sale at Jo-Ann)
* Magnets (This year, I sprang for the peel-and-stick dot magnets from Walmart)--4 for each student

To reduce waste, I cut the papers into 4x3" rectangles (to line and cover the tins) and inch-wide strips (to be cut into circles for the magnets).
The children selected their papers,

and began to cut and craft.

They were angelically peaceful, absorbed in their work!

The results are just gorgeous!  Every child is so very proud of the gift s/he created.

Leap for Joy!

One day last week after school, I checked my mailbox drawer in the office and discovered an exciting surprise peeking out.  Wow!  My friend Carolyn Leap had delivered a treat for Leap Day!  With the last name "Leap," Leap Day takes on special importance.  Personalized M&Ms are in order for a sweet celebration.  She had even organized the M&Ms into individual bags of equal mass!  We're so grateful that she shares this tradition with us--and that she's so scientific (she does work at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, after all)!

Of course, I wasn't satisfied with simply handing out M&Ms to eat. 

We'd have to do some work first!

First, the children sorted the M&Ms.  We had a couple of options: by color or by printed message.  We decided to sort based on the words printed on the M&Ms.

Next, the children used tally marks to record their sorts in a chart.

This data was then used to create a bar graph.

Tea for More than a Few

Preparations for Valentine's Day begin early around here.













We start by reviewing table manners:
* Pass serving dishes to the right.
* Do not reach across the table.
* Wait to begin until everyone is served.
* Place your napkin in your lap.
* Chew with your lips together.
* Enjoy quiet conversation.
* No "goofing around" or playing with food.
* Keep your elbows off the table.
* Use utensils for their intended purpose.
* Stay at the table until everyone is finished.
The children use lunch in the cafeteria to practice for a series of days.

Next, we get out the world map and have a lesson on tea growing regions, different tea traditions around the world, and the types of tea.

White tea--Only the newest tea leaves are picked with the white fuzz still on the leaves.

Green tea--fresh tea leaves are dried and rolled or ground into a powder for the Japanese Matcha.

Oxidized, fermented, and compressed Pu-Erh.  This tea is so compressed is requires a special tea needle!

Black tea

On the day of our tea, families send supplies: heavy cream, lemon curd, sugar cubes, scones, madeleines (a French tea cake), ginger snaps, and tulips.  The children then use a whisk to whip the cream, 

arrange the food beautifully on trays and in baskets, 

reorganize our desks and chairs into a long table, and set the table with flowers, teacups, plates, and napkins.

We brew four kinds of tea: a white blooming tea (always spectacular!), genmaicha (a green tea with roasted brown rice), oolong, and ginger peach black tea.  Finally, we sit down together to enjoy.