Kaleidoscope

                          

                                                 Solar System:                                    

      

We have started our unit on our solar system. We have had fun learning about the order of the planets and black holes. When we return from Christmas break we will make our solar system bracelets and learn about the phases of the moon. I am always impressed with how well the students retain what I tell them....they are like little sponges!!!!

This week in Kaleidoscope we watched a video about the history of Thanksgiving. We discussed the Mayflower, the duration of the voyage, and things we are thankful for. We talked about interesting facts, such as: turkey was not served on the first Thanksgiving, forks were not used (hadn't been invented yet), and it was celebrated about a year after the Pigrims landed on Plymouth. The 3rd and 4th grade classes wrote a sensory poem about Thanksgiving and all of the children are in the process of making a placemat.

Here are a few pictures of my trip to Haiti.  It was an amazing and heart breaking all wrapped up into one experience. The people from Haiti were the poorest, yet most thankful and God praising people I have ever had the honor of  interacting with.

                                                       Look at those beautiful smiles!

"The poor give us much more than we give them. They're such strong people, living day to day with no food. and they never curse, never complain. We don't have to give them pity or sympathy. We have so much to learn from them."
        --Mother Teresa

                                                                                                   

                                             Passing out breakfast. They all respond by saying,
                                                              "Thank you my God".

                                                                    

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                                              So grateful for a simple pair of white socks!

                                                         
                                                 
                                                                   

                              This lady kept saying "I love you" to us. She was so happy and thankful
                              to be getting her ration of food. The rations are distributed every 21 days
                              and consist of a couple scoops of pinto beans, corn, some oil, and 2 bars
                              of soap.

                                The clothes they wear has been donated. This beautiful girl looks like
                                she is wearing a flower girl or first communions dress.  The boys might have a                                     Hello Kitty backpack and pink tennis shoes. They were happy and didn't                                               complain, just grateful to have those small things.

Kaleidoscope

 Halloween Fun

In Kaleidoscope we have been following a Halloween theme. This week we have been talking about spiders. We have learned many interesting facts about spiders: They are not insects, they don't all spin webs, they can use their webs to travel hundreds of miles. We  plotted coordinates on a plane and connected the dots to make a spider. The kids were so proud of themselves that they had done middle school math!!! We are getting ready to discuss spider webs and make a spider web art project!

Creative Living

I have enjoyed this group of kids so much! They came to class eager and excited every day! I will miss them!

Creative LIving

Finishing up our bird houses

Kaleidoscope

 We wrote Halloween poems in Kaleidoscope. We also talked about the history of Halloween and the jack-o-lantern.