The One and Only Ivan Celebration

This week, we have a guest blogger ~ Miss Cote!

We had an exciting day today celebrating the end of our interactive read aloud The One and Only Ivan!  We kicked off our Ivan celebration with jungle yoga in the gym lead by Mrs. Williams.

Following jungle yoga we made some art projects using the same tools used by characters in the book.  In Mrs. Merten's room we used finger paints and markers to make our art creations.  We made melted crayon art and drawings with pencils in Mrs. Williams' room.  We mounted our four pieces of art onto a large piece of construction paper to make one larger piece of art.  In addition to the individual pieces each student made, we made a melted crayon art piece as a class.  Each student chose a crayon piece in their favorite color to add to the class art.

Following the creation of our art projects we took a count of our themed snacks with Mrs. Williams' class and created a line plot with the data.  Yogurt or chocolate raisins were most popular snack between the two classes.  We played a round of Win, Lose, or Draw with Ivan-themed words on the cards.  We solved some Ivan-themed math problems and watched an elephant camera from the San Diego Zoo.  We ended our day with a grade level movie.

From the Teacher's Desk
Many, many thanks to everyone for your support with this day!  If you sent in a zoo/jungle/circus snack, broken crayons, and/or finger paints and paper, thank you!  These celebration days are special for the children, and couldn't happen without your support.  

Below is a video about the "Real Ivan".  Have a wonderful vacation!
 ~ Mrs. Merten

Our Week In Review

We had a very busy week in room 24!  We have continued to read The One and Only Ivan, and we have been working on revising and editing our nonfiction writing.  We began to learn about measurement, too.  Our Southeast test was Friday, and we have our Wind and Clouds test scheduled for next week.

We had several fun activities this week:
Mrs. Silvia, our anthropologist in residence from the Haffenreffer Museum of Antthropology at Brown University, was here on Wednesday to talk about the Hopi Indians.

She shared many artifacts and images about these Native American Tribes.  We even had the opportunity to play and dance in a drum circle!

Mrs. Silvia also shared the book Home to Medicine Mountain by Chiori Santiago.  This is a story about two Native American boys and their lives in the United States.

We are grateful to the Kennedy PCC for funding this awesome program!

On Wednesday, we also had the opportunity to participate in another Mystery Skype. This time, we skyped with students from Wisconsin.  It was awesome! We did a great job asking our Yes/No questions, and adjusting our thinking after hearing the responses from our partners.

Friday was FREAKY FRIDAY!  Our class (and some of their siblings) enjoyed getting dressed up!

Mrs. Merten and Mrs. Williams were at a Reading Conference on Friday. After our lunch session, we got to meet Lauren Tarshis, author of the "I Survived..." series. We have a SIGNED copy of her book I Surivived the Great Chicago Fire, 1871!  Ms. Tarshis also read from her next book, about the Joplin Tornado. It was awesome!