Holiday Door, Boats and Stone Fox

Our school holds a holiday door decorating contest every year. I might be a very competitive person when it comes to things like this, so we were shooting to win. Of course, we chose a Frozen themed door since it is quite the popular topic among most children. See below of our finished product. I drew and painted Elsa and Anna. Olaf is made out of toilet paper (which the students thought was quite weird you could create a snowman out of tp). I also used tulle around the door frame and have decided it is now going to be my border of choice. Super cute! Plus who doesn't love a little frill and glitter.

However, I am sad to say after getting a little insight into the voting results so far, it looks like when it comes to kids, using an iPad to take selfies is WAY cooler than Frozen (Have your Selfie a Merry Little Christmas). So my love goes out to Miss H. Way to go girl for being so creative! However, I am already planning my door for next year. :-)

 

 

In science, we are working on the 4Cs: communication, creativity, critical thinking and collaboration. We have just started to design and assemble our boats. The objective: Can you make a boat that floats and can hold the most weight? We have talked about what it might look like and what supplies you would need in order for things to float. The kids then had to answer trivia questions in order to earn their money. Next, they were able to purchase the supplies their group needed to get started. We have incorporated other skills along the way such as supply and demand (as the price of popsicle sticks went up when supplies were low) and bartering in order to sell their supplies back to earn back some money. We are very focused on the creative process and what it means to work on something, test it out and then reflect to make it better. As we progress through building, we will also be pulling in a little of the Engineering Design Process. So awesome! We are becoming intense, engaged learners.

 

 



Finally, in reading, we are finishing up Stone Fox. All I have to say is WOW! What an ending. Just ask your kids what they thought about Stone Fox. I can't wait for tomorrow when the kids will be writing what happens next. We had some pretty intense conversations at the end of the book and they were asking for a sequel. Amazing! I love seeing motivated students who are seeking more information.

Have a great night!

Mrs. Farkas

Thankful for You

 
 
 

For Thanksgiving, we did directed draw trees (again) to show what we are thankful for. I love how they turned out.

We also did a directed draw turkey. So cute!

You might be wondering why you have not seen any of this fantastic art come home. Well, remember the binder you sent to school at the beginning of the year? All these art projects, along with other projects, go into this binder to create a portfolio the kids get to bring home at the end of the year. So of all of the papers the kids bring home, I try and keep the "most memorable" ones already organized for you.

 

High School Day of Service

We were so lucky to get to participate in West Fargo High School's Day of Service. We had about 20 wonderful students come into our classroom and work with the kids. They read together and then completed an animal research summary project together. My students were SO excited to get to work with "big kids". We were so thankful for the opportunity.

Black Trees

I LOVE art! It is a passion of mine and love to teach it. I use it as an opportunity to bring out a child's creativeness as well as teaching them to give art a chance. We learn really fast to work through our mistakes and "make it work". We have really been loving directed draws. Here the students use a sharpie marker (so they can't erase) and follow me step by step. I show them what each line should look like without telling them what we are actually drawing. I go through each step of the drawing with them in this way. When we use our Sharpies they can't erase and make it look like mine. I also draw with a Sharpie so I can't erase (I'm somewhat of a perfectionist when it comes to art so this is a struggle for me at times).

Here is our version of Black Trees. I get some of my ideas from a wonderful art website, Deep Space Sparkle, and some ideas I get from all over the web and take bits and pieces and put them together into my own idea. If you have any questions feel free to ask.

What a month!

Where did November go? We have been SO busy. We wrapped up our community projects and returned to our full walk to read model. In writing, we are continuing to work on personal narratives but adding an exaggerated element to them. Some of us are also working on moving into fantasy writing. In math we are deep in multiplication. We are starting to build our multiplication strategies and are working on fact fluency.

We were so lucky to be able to attend The Jungle Book play put on by MSUM. A HUGE thank you needs to go out to our PTA for paying for our trip. We also watched the movie and we were able to compare and contrast the differences between the two. The kids loved the play but also loved getting to ride the bus with their friends. (more pictures are coming)

 

I have started to blog over and over in the past 2 weeks and keep getting overwhelmed so you will probably get a bunch of different posts over the next couple of days. Enjoy!