Hodgson Vo-Tech Comes to Wilbur!!

On February 28th at 9:00am students were surprised to have Hodgson Vocational Technical High School come to Wilbur Elementary to talk to them about dental hygiene since February is dental awareness month. The students were excited to get to meet high school students however I don't think they realized what they would actually be doing with them once the activities started. At 9am that morning students put on their name tags which were also dental bibs. Then we walked down to the cafeteria and split into two groups. From there students rotated around the cafeteria every five minutes to another station where they could do a different activity and learn new information! At one station students were able to sort pictures of food by if they were healthy foods or unhealthy foods.

At another station students could examine a model of a mouth and take teeth out to see if there was a cavity. Under some of the teeth there was some pretend 'blood' that the students thought was real! At another station students learned about the different kinds of teeth in their mouth.

 A different station provided students with an opportunity to better understand what plaque is and what it does to their teeth. At this center students used tooth brushes to paint the 'plaque' on paper teeth.

It seemed that through all eight stations the one students loved the most was where they used a disclosing solution on their teeth. This special solution allowed them to see the plaque on their teeth by turning it pink. This allowed children to see where they needed to to brush. Listerine makes an over the counter similar product called "Agent Blue" kids rinse after brushing and anywhere that appears blue, they have to go back and brush again. 

At the last station that students went to they used paper diagrams and model's of a mouth to practice how to floss their teeth. At the end of the entire presentation students were given a bag with some goodies in it such as tooth paste, a new tooth brush and some floss. We were all very appreciative for EVERYTHING the students and staff at Hodgson Vo-Tech did to make this special day happen!

What's Up In Math??

In math over the last couple of weeks we have been learning about shapes! To begin the unit we first did a shape hunt around the school. I posted pictures of a circle, rhombus, rectangle, square, triangle, star, heart, hexagon, and oval around the school's multipurpose room. Then students were assigned a partner. Together with their partner students had to find each hidden shape and check it off on their check list.

Later on in the week students practiced making shapes in shaving cream. Each day I tried to incorporate activities for each type of student learner such as multi-sensory, visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. We also listened to a shape song by Have Fun Teaching.

To complete the introduction to the new unit on shapes we made Angry Bird shapes.

We made shapes out of popsicle sticks that had Velcro on them

 

 We made shapes with rubber bands on a pegboard.

And we followed the directions on a glyph in order to make our own shape monster.

Dr. Seuss Day

To celebrate Read Across America month and Dr. Seuss's Birthday we did many activities related to the many works of Dr. Seuss.

The Lorax

For the story of The Lorax we tried to make our own truffla trees with food coloring and cotton balls. We first made predictions as to what would happen when we put the cotton balls into the food coloring. Then we tested our predictions by completing an experiment. It was great! The kids wore gloves and goggles throughout the experiment as we dyed the cotton balls. It was amazing to see the difference in the colors of the cotton balls the next day.

Horton Hatches the Egg

For Horton Hatches the Egg we talked about the difference between reality and fantasy. Many of the students knew that this story was a 'fantasy' story because as they put it "it did not follow the same rules as our world". One child pointed out that is an elephant actually did sit on an egg he would crush it and that in the story Horton the elephant didn't crush the egg. After reading the story students made elephant ear hats during center time and discussed the story with a partner.

The Cat in the Hat

When the students came in to class one day they were surprised to find that I had turned them into Thing 1 and Thing 2! It was an exciting time because it was a clue as to which Dr. Seuss book we would be reading that day. All the students were able to figure it out from this clue! We read the book of The Cat in the Hat on the ipad and used it's interactive features to learn new vocabulary words. After reading the story we watched the 1970's movie version of The Cat in the Cat. We then compared the book and the movie using a Venn Diagram. 

 

There's a Wocket in my Pocket

This story was by far one of the student's favorites! They were excited about how Dr. Seuss wrote this book because they were able to figure out which words rhymed! It was a great discussion book because it aloud us to talk about real words and nonsense words, reality and fantasy, and about how in writing authors get to use their imagination! As an add on activity to this book we made our own 'wockets in pockets' only with a twist. Students had to make up their own name for their creature. I was very proud to see how far each student's writing has come along!

Bartholomew and the Oobleck

On Dr. Seuss's birthday we read the story of Bartholomew and the Oobleck. Halfway through the story we stopped and answered some questions about what we thought oobleck was. We then came up with our own hypothesis as to what we thought the oobleck would feel like. Finally students got to explore! Some kids were grossed out by the green goo while others thought it was just cool! 

 Green Eggs and Ham

To finish off the week we got to taste test some green eggs and ham. It was almost a tie as to how many students liked it and how many did not. We also completed a writing activity where we got to egg ourselves in the face with a paper green egg! The kids thought this was the best part of the activity.

 

The End of Dr. Seuss Week

For Dr. Seuss day our door was decorated as The Lorax. I was dressed at the Red Fish from One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish! I also made the shirts for Two Fish (Mrs. Filliban the school nurse) and Blue Fish (Mrs. Williams in G1)! For each student to take home I made a chocolate 'green egg'. The kids liked them so much that many students ate them before going home that day. What a great week of fun literacy activities! As always more pictures of these fun activities are posted on our class photo page!