Halloran Happenings: December 2013

Virtual Field Trip: Yellowstone National Park

One of our small group activities is Sleuth Reading. We read closely like investigators to learn how to analyze difficult text. One of our texts was on the wild life at Yellowstone National Park. I even got to share about my trip to Yellowstone many years ago and told a funny story about a great big Buffalo encounter- ramming into its reflection outside my hotel window. The students were completely absorbed and wanted to know more, much more. So we took some time later in the day to do some of our own research. We decided to take a virtual field trip!! We went to the Yellowstone National Park web site to do some further investigations. We covered map skills of the Park's location and layout. We investigated different animals and the different habitats within the park. We also learned about the different land forms- some very unique to only Yellowstone National Park. Students were most curious to learn about geysers, including Old Faithful. What they are, how they work, and how Old Faithful got it's name. There was even a live web cam on the famous geyser. We had it on our big screen the rest of the afternoon while we completed some other work just hoping to see it erupt. It was getting close to time to go home with no activity to be seen. As we were beginning to pack up to leave the students started screaming with excitement!!!!! THERE SHE BLOWS!!! With no time to spare we were able to see Old Faithful erupt live right in our classroom, well sort of! :) The students were thrilled and as a teacher it was a great moment!! Sometimes the best learning experiences happen outside of the lesson plan and I am thankful the students were able to see this. Maybe one day they will get to see it in person. :)

Fall Frolic

Students were rewarded for their great behavior with a PBIS Fall Frolic. They enjoyed an afternoon of face painting, pumpkin bowling, scarecrow stuffing, donut eating, apple tossing, hay riding and harvest snacking. Thank you to the PBIS Team for all the planning and preparing and all the parents who helped. And special thanks to Lucy Piller (Landon's Mom) for the pictures as Mrs. Halloran was busy face painting :) The students had a great, sunny afternoon together.

$$ Savings and Loan $$

Savings and loan is a fun learning strategy that gets the kids up and moving and interacting together. The idea is to write down a few ideas of your own on a given topic. Then to partner up together and get one idea from a friend that you didn't already have-"savings" and "loan" a new idea to your friend. At the end of the activity after matching up with several partners, each student has a much bigger "knowledge account". Mrs. Halloran gives them just a couple of minutes to write a list of words on the topic from their schema-what they already know. Next they turn their paper over to add their new ideas. We like to jam out a little while we move around- when the music stops its time to find a new partner to share ideas. This is a high yield strategy that reinforces ideas and concepts because they are interacting with peers in a fun way! We have a great time doing this in many different content areas.

They started using each other's backs for surfaces- I thought this was pretty clever :)

Invention Expo 2013

The students began researching scientists for their science notebooks. I had no idea they would get so interested in this topic. So I let them put their own excitement and creativity to work. We decided to have an invention Expo. Students had to create their own original work and keep record of their ideas, design and process. They had to come up with something new make an improvement of something that would help make their daily lives better. I was absolutely BLOWN AWAY with the things that came into the classroom the morning they were due. We invited our Third Grade Buddy Class, Mrs. Donaldson's HAART Class to come "judge" and ask students questions about their work. Part of the assignment was to be able to present their work to a panel and be able to answer questions. They did a fantastic job doing so to the Third Graders. I was SO PROUD of them!!!!