ABC Countdown

What better way to count down the last 26 days of the year than by using the alphabet to do a special activity each day until the last day of school?! It's hard to believe we are already at this time in the school year. We have had so much fun learning, I guess the saying is true - "Time flies when you're having fun!"

Take a look at what we have been up to so far...

A - Apple
Students decorated APPLES of APPRECIATION for teachers throughout the school. Many were given to the students' previous teachers. It warmed their hearts to receive notes from old students!

B - Beach Day
It was great to see everyone in their shades and some even in bathing suits!! I brought in Ann Catherine's sound machine, so we could relax to the calming sounds of ocean waves,  and I downloaded the Beach Boys' Greatest Hits to play throughout the day. This is one of my favorite days and I grew up near the beach and it always has its way of putting everyone in a good mood :) !

Beach Towels Make the Best Capes! 

 Playing in the "SAND" with our Beach Buckets

Having Fun with Beach Balls

Are we tan yet? 

Beach Babes

Mrs. Cox's Private Study Island

C - Creative Cats
Mrs. Smith (long term substitute for Mrs. Scott) and I joined forces on this one. We gave the students some free time with contraction paper, scissors, glue, crayons, colored pencils, and markers. They were given no guidelines other than they were allowed to have complete creative freedom! From paper airplanes to mothers' day cards, it's safe to say they were VERY creative!

D - Dance Party
Sometimes, you just need to let loose a little bit! Unfortunately, I was unable to get any pictures of this, as I was playing DJ, but I'm sure you can imagine it! From conga lines to kung fu, they definitely enjoyed "letting their hair down" for a few.

E - Experiment
To go along with our science unit on Life Cycles, we "planted" lima bean seeds in our own Ziplock bag terrariums and taped them to the window. So far we have had two beans sprout roots. I know we are all looking forward to see what has sprouted over the weekend!

F - Favorite Book
Students brought in their favorite books to share with the class and to spend some time reading during our designated DEAR: Drop Everything and Read time. It was great to see some new titles I had never seen before and to hear why they had each chosen their particular books.

G - Gum and Games
Mrs. Smith and I joined forces once again, as we handed out gum balls and gave the students a chance to play their boardgames while enjoying the beautiful weather (finally!).

H - Hat Day
It was a great day to wear your hat, as the bright sun continued to beat down on us during recess on Friday! Let's hope the nice weather is here to stay!!

We also had a special visitor on Friday. As we continued on with our life cycles unit, we discussed the importance of the word METAMORPHASIS  during the butterfly and frog life cycles. Mrs. Wright, student aid in Mrs. Smith's room, brought in her pet tree frog that she rescued from the halls of Henry Clay! The students enjoyed a quick visit with Senior Froggie!

Stay tuned for more updates as we continue on our ABC COUNTDOWN to the end of the year!! Only 18 more days!!

Mrs. Cox's Mini Economy

For the past two weeks we have been learning about money and economics in our math and social studies units. As a fun way to connect these two similar concepts together, I created a mini class economy in which students were able to earn play money for making good behavior choices. At the end of each day, students would get paid based upon what color card they ended their day on.

Thanks to the many donations from parents, we were able to have TWO school stores at the end of each week. Our store at the end of the first week was full of small, low-cost items. The bigger, higher priced items would be at the end of the second week. This led the students to great discussion and forced them to make economic decisions - spend now or save for later?

Take a look at the fun the students had shopping and playing clerk in Mrs. Cox's Corner Store!

WEEK ONE

Some chose to SHOP!

Others chose to SAVE!

WEEK TWO

Kalani - Working the Register

Again, many, many thanks for ALL of the donations for our store!! This experiment was a huge success and an even better learning experience for the students. Hopefully they will carry these lessons with them when they go to the real store.