Field Day

Ahhh the great outdoors.

Thanks to the PTA, every grade level got to participate in a fun day of physical activities. We walked over to Ogden High and started with a game of shark and minnow:

Next, we played a little water balloon volley ball. Students paired up and held each end of a towel. Then, water balloons were tossed on each side. The goal was to catch the water balloon in a towel then toss it back over with the towel while not breaking the balloon. Some of us got a little bit wet in the process.

After that we headed over to do some bean bag tosses and tug-o-war. 

The last activity was the 50 meter dash.

They were quite tired at the end of it all and were happy to cool off with some popsicles.

It was a smile-filled, fun day.

Happy Campers

We've been doing a lot of learning around the theme of camping this week.

Activities include: 

• Have you ever gone camping? graphing activity
• Living and Non-living things camping themed sort and Venn-Diagram
•  Fishing for facts addition and subtraction activity
• Campfire story writing

 For the graphing activity I passed out a yes or no circle to each student based on whether they had gone camping or not and we graphed our responses onto a tent I made out of butcher paper:

The left side shows all the Yes responses and the right side shows the No responses.

We then graphed on a work sheet the results and answered questions such as: 

• How many students have gone camping?
• How many students have not gone camping?
• Has most of your class gone camping or not gone camping?
• How many more people have gone camping than not gone camping?
  (or vice versa based on the most popular choice)
• Have you gone camping?
• Do you like camping?

Later in the week we wrote campfire stories that covered many genres.We talked about fiction and non-fiction stories and after they were allowed to create any kind of story they wanted. It could be made up, real, scary, silly...anything! Once they edited and perfected their stories they each got a chance to share it around our classroom "campfire".

This camping theme got us in the mood for summer and all of the fun things that come along with it.

Goodbye, Mrs. Roundy

Today was bittersweet. 

The students got to sign their names onto the birds they made for our final project and also fill out a survey created by Mrs. Roundy. They had a lot of fun thinking back on each project and what they learned, but many of them were not so happy to say goodbye to Mrs. Roundy and our weekly art time. We all loved Mrs. Roundy very much. She is extremely creative, positive and kind. She does a great job of making learning fun and interesting, while fostering each student's creative abilities and not making them feel incapable or inferior. We will definitely miss the warmth and creativity she brought to our classroom each week. Thank you for all you have done Erinne!

Our class with Mrs. Roundy and our final project:

And of course we had to do a goofy one:

Mix and Match

We are nearing the end of our time with Mrs. Roundy and the ArtsBridge program.

This week the students are starting their final project. They get to create birds made out of different types of colored and printed paper. In the end, they will all add their bird to one large piece that will be framed and hung in the school for years to come.

Here's a sneak preview:

Tonight was also the family art night Mrs. Roundy, Jenn (mother of a student in our class) and I put on. To be honest Jenn did a ton of the work by creating several different art stations that students and their families could participate in...all for free! 

She rounded up all of the supplies, set up the time and resources and made it such a fun night! All of the teachers stayed to mingle and help out and members of the PTA were there to help set up and run each station. So many students and families showed up to enjoy this fun night. I wish I had pictures to show but I was too busy mingling and oohing and ahhing over all of the fun that I completely forgot. 

Big thanks to Jenn for all of her hard work, support and dedication, you rock!

Sketchy

Our final art project has to do with birds so this week Mrs. Roundy had the students sketch birds of their own. They learned that sketching means to use many light lines to create something. Since they aren't pressing very hard it makes it easier to erase the lines in the end. They sketched birds following Mrs. Roundy's step by step instructions of drawing simple shapes to create them. After they sketched the birds they took a permanent marker and outlined it, then took a special art eraser and erased the unwanted sketch lines.

 They turned out excellent!

Feeling the Love

It's teacher appreciation week and here at Polk the teachers are being treated oh so well!

Our PTA is absolutely fabulous and are making sure we feel the love and appreciation this week. Each day has a theme in which the students can participate in. 

On Tuesday it was bring in a piece of fruit for you teacher:

How awesome?!

Throughout the week I received school supplies, fruit, letters, flowers and even a car wash! Not to mention the catered hour lunch break, smoothies and smoothie gift card, TONS of copy paper, a faculty room stocked with treats and many, many hugs and smiles. I am so thankful for everyone who made this week special for all of us, we sure did feel the appreciation. We definitely couldn't do our jobs without help from you either :)

Here's some pictures of the bulletin board and other cute things we received:

 Happy Teacher Appreciation Week to all the teachers out there!

Festival of the Arts

Two of my first graders received awards for their art submissions to Festival of the Arts. I could not have been more proud of them. I was able to see one of them at the festival held at Union Station and snapped this adorable picture with him:

This little guy received FIRST PLACE out of all the other first graders in the district. His piece is truly amazing. You can tell he really took his time and thought through how he wanted it to turn out. He made this during Mrs. Roundy's art lesson on Joan Miro and his use of simple shapes and organic shapes. It captures a spooky moon-lit scene that shows quality and detailed creativity:

My other little gal also created her piece during the same lesson with Mrs. Roundy and got seventh place out of all the first graders in the district. Unfortunately I wasn't able to see her at the festival but her piece is displayed below. I love the mountain scene and quirky creatures she created:

Congratulations to these two, they deserve it!