Track and Field Day

Students celebrated an end-of-the-year rite-of-passage by enjoying field day festivities yesterday!  Luckily the rain held off and the sun even peeked out for a bit. The Sixth Age students received bright orange t-shirts and played in a variety of outdoor games.  What a great way to end a terrific year!

The whole school gathered for a faculty and staff challenge in the morning.

6D started at the parachute (this was a crowd pleaser)

before heading over to "Oscar's Garbage Can",

and, later on in the morning, an accuracy toss.

Thank you to Mr. Porter and Miss Krebs for planning such a wonderful day!

Contractions

I found a fun activity for contractions on a teaching blog which my students seemed to gobble right up!  After watching a BrainPop video which outlined  contractions, students became doctors about to perform an operation.  Their "patients" were written on the board- many came with first and last names (such as I (first name) am (last name) or should (first name) not (last name)).  Each doctor chose a patient for their operation.  We discussed how during an operation the person being operated upon changes in some way after the surgery.  This, too, would happen to their patients. 

Students took the the patient's name and changed it into a contraction.  They used scissors to perform the surgery and bandaged up their patient before sending them into the recovery room.  Take a look!

We miss you, Charlie!

A student has been out sick and missed Track and Field Day today! We missed him terribly and wanted to send him our thoughts. We hope you feel better, Charlie! Best wishes on a speedy recovery!

Flat Stanley Arrives in Switzerland!

Flat Stanley and his friend, Flat James, arrived in Zurich safely last week.  Take a look at Mr. Gilbert's blog post for more information!

http://siszuerichgrade-2.blogspot.com/2012/05/flat-stanley-returns.html

CARNIVAL!

The 6D students have been learning about the continent of South America throughout the year.  To conclude this unit, the class performed in a Geography show.  Each class represented a different continent:
6A: Europe
6B: Australia
6C: Africa
and 6E: Asia

One famous festival in South America is Carnival.  The biggest carnival celebration in this part of the world occurs in Brazil.  Students' costumes were modeled after the vibrant colors and exciting patterns displayed in many carnival parades.

Below is a photo of two students modeling their costumes:

The class did a superb job of reciting their individual lines and singing their Portuguese song "Ciranda Cirandina" in front of a lower school audience this morning.

Kudos to my students and best of luck tomorrow in our second (and last) show in front of parents!

Venn Diagrams

The readers learned about venn diagrams last week and completed a fun partner activity. 

We used two student portraits to illustrate two different people on our diagram.  Each student's portrait was positioned in one portion of the large "hula hoop" circle, with the middle area of each circle overlapping. Students worked in pairs to define how these students were both alike and different.  These describing words were then placed in appropriate areas on the diagram.  

Students then completed a personal venn diagram between themselves and a partner, modeled after the one done together.

Utilizing tangible items, such as hoola hoops, readily aided the students in their understanding of this important reading tool.

Completed Mother's Day Portraits

The 6D students spent a ton of time over the past several weeks completing their self-portraits as Mother's Day gifts.  I am always amazed by how much the portraits really resemble the students. 

 What do you think?

Piggybanks

In celebration of our unit on money in math, the mathematicians made piggybanks!  It took several class periods to decoupage small tissue squares on drink bottles. Students also added corkscrew pipecleaner tails.

Later, googly eyes, peg legs and ears were added.  Don't they look adorable?

The slit in the lid is to hold coins and bills.  Happy saving!

(P.S. Thank you to Mr. DeLorbe for his help with this project.)

African Visitor

We had a special African visitor last week!  He was from the country of Nigeria.  He shared many important facts with us about Nigeria and even brought in some special instruments for the students to use.  Some girls were even allowed to dress up in special African costumes.  Take a look!