Goodbye Monnishaa

Today was Monnishaa's last day with us. We sent her off well with hugs and gifts. Don't forget to write us! 

St. Patrick's Day Design Challenge

St. Patrick's day was full of creative designing, writing, and leprechaun hunting!
We read a story about a tricky leprechaun that continuously outwits his captor! So of course we needed a design challenge to ...redesign a leprechaun trap! The challenging part was the children were designing for a friend, not themselves. They went through several stages of the design process to ensure their design met the needs of their friend!
Stage 1: Empathy- What are your user's needs and wants for a leprechaun trap?

Stage 2: Define: Write a statement to help you design a trap that clearly states what your user needs and why

Stage 3: Ideate: Sketch 4 ways to meet your user's needs

Stage 4: Gather Feedback: What worked for your user, what needs improving, what questions does your user have?

Stage 5: Iterate Based on User Feedback: Create one final sketch to meet your user's needs and wants

Stage 6: Prototype: Create a physical model of your solution. Make something that your partner can interact with

Stage 7: Reflect
 

The children shared their prototypes with each other and then we set them on display. Following the design thinking process, we wrote about our traps!

Herb Garden Complete!

Well, it has been over a month, maybe more, since our herb garden was born, painted, built, stapled, planted, and BROKEN! We have taken our time selecting the right soil and a more efficient way of planting that soil and last, the seeds! If you would like to review our process see the links below!
An Idea is Born
Painting
Building
Process Over Product
We are proud to announce the herb garden is complete!! Now we need to give it water, love, and sunlight! Let's hope we get some herbs for the kiddos!!

Change the World

Our school wide learning event, PIC, Partners in Conservation, begins in April. The behind the scenes work has been in progress for a while!!  Our class has offered to take ownership of the Change the World activity. Each year we collect coins for Rwanda and we have a kindergarten jug vs. a first grade jug! Our class will be preparing a short video segment to introduce this to the school. What better way than with a song and dance?!! We are using Bridgit Mendler's Disney song, "We Can Change the World" for inspiration.
http://video.disney.com/watch/we-can-change-the-world-bridgit-mendler-4bb39d6fcc1aca8833003b15

After watching the video a few times and singing along, I asked the children what we need to change our world. We made a list of ideas and then they broke into groups to brainstorm what each idea means and looks like in action! They shared their thoughts with the class and we followed up with the perfect book, If Kids Ran the World, by Leo and Diane Dillion. Stay tuned to see what they come up with for the video!

Math Games

Playing math games with our buddies is a great way to strengthen our addition and subtraction skills. Can you make your own subtraction equation on this game board? How many addends can you find on the addition board?

Swans, Seuss, and Stuffing!

Today we were busy with a variety of activities. We painted and feathered our swan masks, stuffed the last of our animal pillows, and celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday with Mr. Thomas' class!

Sight Word Scavenger Hunt

As we waited between stage rehearsals we explored the McCoy Center through a sight word scavenger hunt.  The children searched high and low for hidden words to add to their journals.

Rehearsals

We have some really cute pictures capturing our work at the McCoy this past Monday!

Sewing Fish

Who would have thought the first graders would learn to sew and I would learn to use a sewing machine?!?! We are spending the day at the McCoy rehearsing for our performance and learning to sew our own stuffed animals.