The Day the Boss of the Boss Came to Teach Our Class

Today was a special day. We had a very special guest come and teach our class.

At first some special team members came to our class.  They set up laptops and websites for our special guest.

It left us wondering, what will we be doing?

Then the Boss of the Boss, Dr. Tinney our school district's superintendent and CEO, arrived.  At the time, we didn't know what he was going to do with us, but we quickly found out.

We gathered around the carpet in "rainbow" shape and listened closely.  He brought a special instrument called a Makey Makey.  We had never seen one before.

At first he demonstrated how it worked. He taught us about the special parts on the tool and how it worked with a computer.  We watched and listened very carefully.

Then he did a demonstration with one of our classmates. 

Our classmate was playing the bongo drums with some crazy things like spoons, and money. Then he played a piano with BANANAS!  Yes, bananas. Then it was time for us to give it a try on our own while Dr. Tinney worked with all of us in small groups.

Along the way we had some troubles but we didn't give up and found ways to make the tool work.  We played with bongo drums, and a piano, and some of us even played pac man with the Makey Makey.  As you can see from all the photos above we were so involved with learning and exploring that when it was time to meet back at the carpet we were sad.  Dr. Tinney was a great teacher!

He ended his visit by having us share what we learned by playing with the Makey Makeys .  He thanked us for letting him teach our class too, which made Ms. Lirenman smile because it was such a pleasure for her to watch her class be taught by someone else.   We realize that we were very lucky to have him spend part of the morning with us and even more fortunate that he left us some gifts so we can play with Makey Makeys again real soon.  It was a really great day

Have you ever had the Boss of the Boss come and teach your class?

Paper Airplanes

Guess what? During choice literacy time some of our boys secretly wrote a book together about paper airplanes. Are you interested in learning about paper airplanes? If so check out this book!

Guess the Rule

In math we have been looking at 2D shapes and 3D solids. We have been sorting our shapes by attributes.  Can you guess some of the sorting rules that could go with these two shape sorts?

Solids Sort 1

Solids Sort Two

Can you guess our rule(s)?

Student Led Conferences

Early last week we met as a class to discuss what we wanted to share with our families later that week.  Ms. L listened to our requests and took notes eventually sorting our requests into things around our classroom and things on our iPads.  We then invited our families in for Friday afternoon.

Friday before our families came we pretended to be a "parent" for a classmate to let our classmates practice the process of sharing their work.  Here are some photos of us practicing.

Finally the time came for our parents to arrive and we began showing them what we've learned.

Our parents and younger brothers and sisters were pretty proud of what we had to show them.  We surprised many of them as well with how much we have learned this year.

Have you ever held student-led conferences?

Hey Little Ant

A few weeks back Ms. L read us the story Hey Little Ant by Phillip and Hannah Hoose.  At the end of the story, we had to decide if the ant should live or if they boy should squish him.  We had to give two reasons why.  Here are some of our responses.  If you're never read the book we think you should too, then tell us what you think the boy should do.

Jobs in Our Community

We have been working hard to co create a book about jobs in our community. The book is finally ready! Enjoy...

Creating with Straws and Connectors

This week some of us got together to create with our straws and connectors. This is what we created...

What have you created with straws and connectors?