Kiah and Q Bear

Kiah got to take Q Bear home this week.  Here's what she had to say about their time together:

2017 Q Bear Sample Post

Starting later this month, each student will get a chance to take our class bear, Q Bear, home for a night.  After each student takes him home, he/she get to write a blog post about their time together.  Q Bear came home with me this weekend, and I wrote a blog post all about it:

When Q Bear and I got home, we went for a walk.  Then we relaxed on the couch.  We decided to watch a little bit of TV.

After that, Q Bear and I made dinner.  We made minestrone soup in the crock pot.  Q Bear really liked stirring the soup.

After dinner Q Bear helped me do some laundry.  He wanted to go for a swim in the washing machine, but I wouldn't let him.

After doing laundry, Q Bear and I decided to do some reading before bed.  It was very relaxing.

Finally it was time for bed.  Q Bear and I had a great day together!

A busy month

It's been a busy month!  We started our community unit, which means we've had lots of family members come in to class to talk about their careers.  Golden's family presented about making baked goods.

Firefighters from station 34 taught us about fire safety.  They even let us sit in the fire engine!

Mr. Chris talked to us about teaching science and showed us some cool tricks with dry ice and soapy water.

Officer Homme presented about being a CHP officer and even brought his K-9 unit Alan.

 Kiernan's mom spoke about being a project manager and showed us how to call coworkers in an office.

Royce's dad talked about being a carpenter and helped us make a class sign out of concrete.

Thank you so much to all of our career month presenters so far!  We're having a blast learning about community helpers!

The end of another unit!

We finished our fall unit today!  Over the past 5 weeks, we've learned all about fall, deciduous trees, pumpkins, and spiders.  Here's some of the things we learned:

Parker - Spiders are helpful.
Kiah - Some spiders are hairy.
Royce - Spiders spin webs.
Zanae - Spiders have 8 eyes.
Jaya - Spiders are not insects.
Abigayle - Spiders are not insects and they have a cephlothorax.
Lucca - Pumpkins have fibrous strands and spiders have spinnerets.
Zachary - Spiders are helpful.
Austin - Spiders have 8 eyes.
Mihir - Spiders have pedipalps.
Gursimrat - Pumpkins are orange.
Peter - Most spiders have 6 spinnerets.
Jaxton - They can spin webs.
Victoria - Some spiders eat other different spiders.
Ethan B. - Pumpkins have seeds.
Kylie - Spiders are not insects.
Alex - Spiders have 8 legs.
Golden - You can harvest pumpkins.
Jacob - Spiders are not insects.
Kiernan - Tarantulas can be pets.
Ethan P. - Spiders are not insects.
Scarlett - Spiders have 8 legs.

Next week we'll start our community unit!

STEAM challenge - Spider webs

This week we did another STEAM challenge.  We worked in groups of four to build a web from a hanger and dental floss that could support our "spider."

First, we worked individually to make a plan.

Then we got into our groups, discussed our plans, and agreed on one design.

After that, it was time to build!

Our spider webs turned out great, and they all held our "spider!"

Pumpkin STEAM Challenge

Yesterday we finished our second STEAm challenge of the year.  We worked in pairs to build boats out of foil to keep "pumpkins" (marshmallow peeps) afloat.

We planned our designs individually and then met in pairs to agree on a design.  Some teams even got to practice using rock/paper/scissors to choose a design.

After agreeing on a design, we worked together to build our boats.

Every team's boat looked unique, and they all kept our pumpkins dry!

Farm Animals

Today is the last day of our farm unit, and boy have we learned a lot!  Here are some things that we learned about farms over the past five weeks:

Jaxton and Kiah - A chick is yellow and fluffy.
Jaya and Scarlett - Pigs can run.
Austin and Royce - Goats have horns.
Ethan P. and Kiernan - Horses can run very fast.
Bailey and Mia - Pigs roll over in mud so they can cool off.
Jacob and Parker - Not all barns are red.
Gursimrat and Victoria - Pigs have noses so they can smell.
Zachary and Ethan B. - Horses have eyes.
Peter and Abigayle - Cows can produce milk.
Zanae and Alex - Pigs can roll in mud.
Lucca and Kylie - Sheep give us wool.
Mihir and Golden - Horses can be white and black and they have ears and can smell.

Thanks to Lucca for coming up with the title of this blog post!