Post Vacation Science & Earth Day

I hate to say it, but boy did this week feel long! May have been because we got back so late Sunday night from our honeymoon cruise (I know you feel sooo bad for me haha!) But I must say I'm happy it's Friday!

I'm linking up with Doodlebug's 5 for Friday on my first post in about 2 weeks...

As I'm sure you know, Earth Day was on Tuesday! It was supposed to rain during the day Tuesday (it didn't!) so our grade level took the kiddos out Monday and cleaned up the school grounds. Between the 3 classes we had 3-4 full garbage bags after only about 20-30 minutes of walking around the grounds. They were very proud of themselves! Unfortunately, I had my phone with me to take pictures, but completely forgot in my effort to make sure we all stayed together, whoops!

Continuing with the Earth Day theme, we spent a good hour on Tuesday dedicated to recycling. We watched the Earth Day brain pop video on conservation. It was actually the free video of the day so even if you aren't lucky enough to have a subscription in your school, next year I'm sure they will have a free Earth Day video again! I read a simple recycling book to them and then they partner read this year's Scholastic News magazine about Earth Day. This year it focused on trash getting into rivers and other water supplies. With the information they learned from the 3 sources, the kiddos made brochures about recycling. The brochures answered questions such as: Why should we recycle? Where does the trash go? What can be made with recycled material? etc.

 We've been working on letter writing, and have switched gears to persuasive letter writing. I took the opportunity of Earth Day falling the week we started persuasive letters to have the kiddos write a letter to our school convincing our community of students, teachers and staff to recycle. The kiddos did a fantastic job giving detailed reasons why it is important to recycle. 

I ended up combining our brochures and letters to create a "Can we persuade you to recycle?" display outside of our classroom.

 Our caterpillars arrived this week! Last year, first grade did caterpillars/butterflies and second grade did millipedes, pill bugs, moss and some other plants that we made terrariums out of. I must admit, I'm a little more excited about butterflies :) The kiddos went wild when they got to see their caterpillars for the first time yesterday. We had to have a talk about not naming them and not saying any certain cup is "theirs" since not all the caterpillars will make it to butterflies... which caused some sad little faces, but better than tears if someone's caterpillar named "Cattie" died!

I just can't end this post without a few honeymoon pictures. True it was 6 months after getting married, but it was worth every second of the wait. We went to Honduras, Belize and 2 ports in Mexico. Every port was beautiful and we couldn't have asked for a better week!

Going Deskless and Letters

As promised back in a mid-March Five for Friday link-up, here is my post about going deskless...

I am also linking up with Five for Friday today :)

I am also linking up with Friday Freebie. You'll find a letter writing freebie on number 3.

I've wanted to go deskless for a while. Last year, I felt my desk area took up too much space and this year it was my "dump off zone." I used to sit at my desk last year because every teacher had a desktop and my desktop was on my desk. This year, each teacher has a laptop (I have my personal laptop hooked up to everything because it's easier to have everything in one place) so I NEVER sit at my desk. My reading table is so much roomier, and after a couple months I even moved my comfy desk chair to my reading table.

Here is my desk before the year started. I didn't even have my beloved mac set up on the school network yet...

In a pretty small room, my desk just took up way too much space. So, after much reorganizing, and my new easel holding our meeting area supplies instead of my rolling drawers, going deskless was possible!

Here's what the area looks like now... I'm thinking I have lots of possibilities when I rearrange my room for next year!

Wondering what I did with all the stuff in and on my desk? Well the drawers in the background of the above picture as well as the drawers near my reading table pictured below. The drawers used to be by our meeting/rug area, but with my new easel I didn't need the drawers.

I also found that rearranging the closet in our coat room opened A LOT of space for the things I didn't use on a daily basis/extra supplies.

I am LOVING the deskless-ness of my room! The room feels more open and I don't miss the desk at all, I mean honestly, I NEVER sat at it. When I use my reading table, I just put my laptop on the back counter and boom, we have a reading table!

If you aren't a facebook follower, you probably didn't get to hear about the April Fool's prank one of my grade level partners pulled on me. We had our common planning time and he decided while going to drop something off, he'd stop in my room and hide my new and beloved easel in the teacher's room across the hall. Those third graders played it off SO well when I came around asking where the easel was (it was hidden in their coat closet!)

Sorry for the terrible quality, I was probably shaking with anger when I took it ;) Did I mention I reallllly don't like April Fool's Day!?

We started our letter unit in writing and we are reading Dear Mr. Henshaw in reading so we are all about letters! Here's a fun anchor chart I modeled off one I found somewhere in the world of pinterest.

Check out a letter writing freebie I created for one of my grade level partners here.

I downloaded the Daily 5 book to my iPad to read over April vacation while we're flying to our cruise launch destination! I couldn't help myself and read a couple chapters and am HOOKED... I might end up having to download the CAFE book for the flight because I'll be done with the Daily 5!

One of the teachers in my grade program brought in Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson for our weekly book review. I loved it so much I bought it at our book fair.

In the story, a new girl moves into a school and the main character and the other students are unkind to her because she is different than them. The girl then leaves to go to another school and the teacher demonstrates the "ripple effect" with a bucket of water and a stone, telling students that each kind thing we do ripples into the world. The main character then realized the missed opportunity in having not been kind to the new girl because she could never take the unkindness back.

This week we had conferences and I must admit I am very happy for it to be Friday. And in even better news, I get to meet my new niece tonight :)