Halloween Fun!! 10/30/09

Everyone had such fun dressing up today and participating in the costume parade. We also had a great time doing our dry ice experiments. Who was missing for the pictures?? If you can tell me you will get a treat!! (Remember... don't share your answer!)

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GT looks so cute in her purple witch costume! What spell is she casting?

BS is a super Seahawks football player!

JP is ready to cast her spells!

KN all dressed up for Halloween! (They told me what important character he is but I can't remember... if you come tell me... a treat for you!)


BL is ready to fight crime as Batman!!

What a pretty senorita AJ was!
Here is that mysterious skeleton again...AJ!

SH is ready for a karate challenge!

KG is such a cute diva!

MG looks like a true southern belle!

What spells will this mystical witch cast?? So cute, NE!

LM was a cute pirate!

QC was a scary vampire!

JC... or Batman!! Save us!!

Cowboy CC is ready to take a ride on his horse!

Wrestling fan MM was ready for halloween!

CA... another important character that I can't remember. Come remind me of who he was and you will get a treat! I'm thinking a Ninja but I'm not sure.

Halloween Fun!!

What a wonderful, busy and fun week we've had! It has been fun dressing up all week to help us think about being drug free. Then today we got to dress up in our Halloween costumes and have a parade for everyone to see our costumes. Get ready to look at about 30 pictures! I will have more to post tomorrow of each child in their costumes. I ran out of time tonight because it takes so long to post the pictures! While we were changing into our costumes, Mr. Terhune read some Halloween books to us. We love our volunteers... even when they have a bad hair day! (Just to see if my students are reading the blog... who was dressed up as a skeleton? Come tell me and you will get to pick from the treat box!)

While the children were getting dressed, Mrs. Ward slipped out and never returned! Instead, the substitute teacher, Miss Viola Swamp (from Miss Nelson is Missing), came in to be the teacher for the rest of the day! She was giving us a few warnings about the experiments she was going to help us with. First, we learned what dry ice is and that it is so cold that it can burn you. You must handle it with gloves!!

Second, you have to wear safety glasses during some of the experiments to protect your eyes! If you don't follow the directions, you will not be able to participate. Boy, does she look mean!


We started our experiments by touching the dry ice with a metal spoon and listening to it "scream." The ice is so cold that it vibrates against the spoon and makes the screaming noise.




Having fun with friends!

Aren't they cute!

Next, we put dry ice chunks in empty film canisters and as the ice subliminated into the air, it would pop the top of the canister! What fun that was! There were lids exploding everywhere... notice the safety goggles for this part of the experiment!

Ready to make the canister "blow!"

Waiting for them to pop.

When will they explode?? We had to change to another type of canister! You need to use the ones with the lids that fit down inside so they will seal tight. The ones with the lids that snap over the top let the gas escape without building up enough pressure to pop the top.

Waiting for the pop!!

I love this expression on KG's face!

Okay, this isn't working. We need the other kind of canister!

Waiting for the POP!

Still nothing!!

Waiting.......

Getting the other canisters out to try! Once they started popping, we forgot to take pictures!

Next, we made an exploding crystal ball. That was really cool! We didn't get a good picture of the crystal ball before it burst and spilled the fog on the table.

Here we are gathered around to watch the crystal ball.

We also made Boo Bubbles! It was fun to catch the bubbles and then watch them disappear in a poof of smoke! JP got one to stick to her chin!

If you wear gloves, the bubbles won't pop as soon as they touch your hands!

Waiting for it to pop!

This is sooooo much fun! I love the way NE's bubble seems to have a magical glow!

Catching bubbles from the bubble maker!

Double bubbles!

This is so cool!

Look at that concentration as CA tries to keep his bubble from bursting!

Math Time

This group was working so hard. I couldn't resist taking a picture of them all spread out! I love the way they get comfortable to work!

Isn't it great to grab a clipboard and work on the floor! Today this group is working on Fact Families. They learned that families are made up of three numbers and there are two addition problems and two subtraction problems. Way to go Tigers!

Reading in 1st Grade

In 1st Grade we love to read. We have reading for an hour and thirty minutes every day and we are busy doing reading related activities the whole time.

We meet in small groups and work on reading skills and strategies that will make us good readers. We practice doing what good readers do: decode new words using our decoding skills (sound out words), reread for understanding, read with expression, ask questions about the story, make predictions and connections with the book and many more things.

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We go to reading related centers to practice what we are learning. CC and AJ are practicing their spelling skills using letter stamps to spell the words, writing the words in rainbow colors, practicing them on the marker boards, etc.

MG and AJ are working with words... today they are working on word families using short e.

(Aren't their masks cute... they made them in MAC to remember to ban drugs!)

KN and GT are working on the computer to help them practice their reading skills.


LM is at the writing center writing about things we are reading about. She is writing directions about how to make her favorite sandwich.

BL is at the art center practicing reading his color words and
coloring the fall picture by the color key.

The children also love to go to the Reading Center where they can self select books to read and take Acclerated Reader tests to earn points. AJ and CC chose to move to this center after they finished at Spelling Center.




The children go to Mrs. Thompson each day for small group instruction as well as going to Mrs. Ward. This way they get reinforcement in all skills... reading, spelling, language and handwriting.
We have very busy mornings learning to be "top notch" readers!!