October in B4

I hope you enjoyed your October as much as we did!  We were very busy in room B4.  At the beginning of the month, the first graders had a great time visiting the dance museum.  I was so excited about this field trip, because as many of you know, dance is an important part in my life.  I am a dance teacher too!  One of their favorite parts of the trip was acting out the parts of Frozen.  While the dance teacher told the story and played the music, the students enjoyed "building a snowman," "dancing with streamers," ""driving" a toboggan, and taking part in many other creative movement activities.  Take a look!

After all the dancing, we got to tour the museum.  The students learned about many of the exhibits, costuming, and even local dance inspired art work.  We all enjoyed seeing the pictures of the pointe shoes that local artists created and installed throughout Saratoga.  The students got to stand in front of their favorite one and share their reasoning with the group. 

Our tour guide was excellent.  She was very knowledgeable and taught us so much!  She did a great job making the information kid friendly and easy to understand.  We liked spending time in the movie theater and watching dance movies and videos.  We especially loved the children's room, where we got to dress up, try on dance shoes, and show off all of our cool moves!  

Then it was time to go back to Pashley.  We missed Mrs. Olsen, Mrs. Clark, and all of our second grade friends!  But first... we had to take a selfie :) 

(Wasn't I lucky to be able to sit with 2 of my first grade friends?!)

In order to celebrate Christopher Columbus Day, we put our map skills to use.  We discussed where Columbus was from, where he hoped to go, and where he ended up instead.  We looked at a map that looked similar to what Columbus thought the world looked like, and then looked at a real map of what the world really looked like.  We were amazed that Columbus thought the world was flat! Then we made our own maps.  Mrs. and Mr. Olsen burned brown paper bags to make them look old fashioned (I heard their house still smells like a campfire.... thank you!!).  After the paint dried, the students labeled Spain and the "New World" that Columbus discovered and drew his path.  Then, the students pretended to be Columbus and wrote about their journey.  Many of them wrote about how the journey was very long, how they thought they were headed somewhere in Asia, and how they weren't very nice to the Native Americans when they arrived in America.  Take a look at the fabulous work below!

 

Finally, we hope everyone had as much fun on Halloween as we did!  One of our favorite parts of Halloween is the TREATS!  The kids got lots of treats from all their teachers and friends at school.  Mrs. Olsen, Mrs. Clark, and I gave the kids "Bugs and Kisses" (thanks to http://dixiedelights.blogspot.com/2013/10/bugs-kisses-halloween-treat-free.html for the printable)  We thought they came out pretty cute! We also had a great Halloween surprise one day.  We were quietly working on our daily math lesson and there was a loud knock on the door.  When we opened it up there was no one there.  BUT there was a lovely little bag on the floor.  After we picked it up and opened it we realized that we got BOO- ed!  There were candy corns inside that we got to eat at snack time.  Then, to carry on the excitement and tradition, we decided that we would BOO Miss Pick's class.  We hope she and the kindergarteners enjoyed the spooky rings and pumpkins and we gave them!  

We also really enjoyed the minion cupcakes and the Halloween cucumbers (even if they were meant to be in another classroom... oops!) 

On Halloween day we had a great time dressing in our costumes; even the teachers dressed up!  The first grade teachers were Super Teachers.  One of our parent helpers, who is a teacher at Charlton Heights was also dressed as a Super Teacher.  Twinning!  The second grade teachers were Bat Girls, which was perfect because it went right along with the bat unit that we did in October.  The students loved marching in the parade and taking part in their grade level specific activities.  The first graders did fun Halloween centers, while the second graders had their much anticipated "Pumpkin Day."

Thanks to all of our helpers and thanks for a great October!