Valentine's Day

Funniest Box

Best school spirit- an adolescent hippo fully equip with braces!

Most creative

Best overall

These girls caught the love bug! They won for best Valentine's Day spirit

The whole gang with all of their wonderful boxes! Everyone put so much time and hard work into their boxes this year!

Even Oreo got a little Valentine's love :)

This absolutely made my Valentine's Day. What's inside? Cucumbers of course!

Technology Week

After many weeks we are finally back to blogging! I am pleased to announce that we have a blog team in place to fill you in on our classroom happenings on a weekly basis.

This week, we checked out the laptops from the library and got down to business in all three grade levels. The fifth graders are currently in the process of creating a wikispace on European Exploration. During my visit to the technology conference I learned of several highly effective web 2.0 tools for the students to use. I hyper-linked these tools to the wikispace so they would be readily available for the students. So far the kids have created mind maps, wordles, and even interactive maps! Our wiki is completely secured so if you are interested in visiting it, you will have to request an invitation. You may also email me! Check out the attached link https://exploringtheglobe.wikispaces.com/.

In fourth grade, the students began working with Storybird. This website allows the students to add multiple illustrations to a digital book and write their account of the pictures. The students were asked to write a narrative based on the illustrations of their choosing. I was blown away with their level of creativity! Check out the videos on fourth grade to see a snapshot of some of their stories.

Last but not least, the third graders worked with a partner to write for an expository prompt. This lesson was particularly fun because the students typed their essays instead of writing them! At the end of the week, the students moved from laptop to laptop editing their peers' papers making sure they were perfect. We finally realized how beneficial it was to edit others papers! This week the students will work to illustrate their stories so we can publish our book.

This will be my last week blogging. I am officially handing over the reigns to my blog team. Stay tuned to see what new things we'll be learning in the upcoming weeks.

Drug Free Week

Last week we celebrated red ribbon week. For one of our activities, we were asked to decorate our doors. The kids came were really excited about the slogan they came up with...

Our Tour of the United States

Last week we began our journey through the Northeast Region of the United States. The train tour began in Connecticut and ended in the home of Ben and Jerry's. To begin each lesson, the students had to buckle up and board their trains (or desks). While we were in the mountains of New Hampshire we realized that we had left our dearly beloved Oreo back in Tallahassee. Needless to say we had to return to the room to load Oreo onto the train (pictures to come)! Along the way we learned new facts about the states in the region. I am pleased to say that we can now distinguish between some of our states and cities... phew!


 This week headed down into the Southeast Region which is home to the sweet state of Florida. On our bus and riverboat tour, we have visited the Kentucky Derby, Mardi Gras, and the World of Coke.  Stay tuned to see where our next journey takes us.

High Tech/ High Touch In Class Field Trip

Instead of continuing with our science presentations, we took a break from the human body to learn about bacteria and fungi. We headed into Mrs. Stephens' room to work with her students in a group activity. Mr. Corbin, from High Tech/High Touch, walked us through the process of how to make bread using yeast. The students mixed vinegar and baking soda and observed the carbon dioxide being given off. After mixing all of the ingredents, the students got their hands dirty by kneading their dough. For tonight's homework, the students are to bake the dough at 350 degrees for 5-10 minutes.

Systems of the Body

Last week the class was divided into several groups of students. Each group was assigned a system of the body and was asked to research and share their findings with the rest of the class. We checked out net-books from the library and the students set off the work. By Friday, our first group was able to present on the Circulatory System. Within their PowerPoint, the students successfully hyper linked their slides to websites featuring movies and music. Our presentations will continue this week! Stay tuned to hear more!