Art and the Art Institute

Unfortunately, this year we were not able to attend the Art Institute of Chicago for a field trip, however, we brought the Art museum to us today with a video (courtesy of the First Grade teacher):

After the video, the students spent some time coloring Vincent Van Gogh's "Starry Night":

They used a template, and I projected the picture up on the Promethean Board.

Here's how they turned out:

Three Trees and God's plans

As we near Easter- and also First Communion- we have been focusing on many stories about Jesus' life. Today's story was The Tale of Three Trees.

We started off watching a video that tells a story of three trees with great plans to hold the world's greatest treasure, become a mighty sailing ship, and grow to be the tallest tree to point up to God. Each tree is chopped down... and it is not used for what it originally wanted... God had greater plans in mind. Watch the video to see what happens:

During the video, we stopped it a few times to have pair share discussions about the three trees, their dreams, and what happened. Afterwards, the students completed a graphic organizer with pictures and written responses. (There was even a word search for early finishers!)

Finally, we ended with a stand-up cross activity. They decorated their crosses to explain how they can show others the way to God.

Have a blessed remainder of Holy Week and a lovely Easter!

Reminders:

*No school Friday or Monday - Easter weekend
*First Communion - Saturday, April 26th - 10:00am (still waiting on news about practice!)

Posadas Pictures

I was flipping through photos on my computer when I realized that I did not post the photos I took from our school's celebration of the Posadas. Gracias a Senora Ronk for putting together two wonderful videos, one which featured the third graders acting out the Posadas story and the other which included interviews with various students about Christmas traditions.

We enjoyed delicious tamales before the videos. Afterwards, Mr. Morten played his guitar and led us in a few Christmas carols.

Here are some photos of the students enjoying their tamales:

Here's a little video clip I took of the Christmas carols:

I hope you are all enjoying a relaxing break.

*Please encourage your children to read every day and complete their reading logs!
*Remember to take your children to church on the weekends!

See you all on Monday, January 7th!

A Video and Some Photos

Happy Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe!

We celebrated this feast day with an all-school liturgy this morning. (Please note there is not a Mass on Friday, December 14th.) Later in the day, the students practiced sign language to a song called "Mary, Did You Know?" I filmed some volunteers, and you can see the video here:

http://youtu.be/sA_aqL7aEoQ

(Note the settings are private, so it is not available without the link. Feel free to share with your family and friends, but I did not want it on general youtube searches.)

I was so proud of (all of) them. I only taught them the signs on Monday, and this was only their third day of learning it.

We also had a lot of other things going on in the classroom today. Jessica brought her book and stuffed dog, Bell, who responded to the story as I read it aloud.

We also measured length in math using "feet." One ruler = 1 foot = 12 inches.

We checked the length of the snack Fruit by the Foot and discovered that it was over 3 feet long. (Why don't they call it "Fruit by the Feet?")





Plant Photos and Video

The second graders have been learning about the jobs that each plant part does. In our leaf rubbing adventure, we gathered leaves from the Plaza area outside and rubbed crayon on paper over them to see the veins.

Leaves make food!

In our celery experiment, we put celery stalks in water to see what the stem does besides support the plant. The colored water moved up to the leaves.

Stems move water and nutrients throughout the plant!

We have also been practicing our "Leaves, Flowers, Stems, and Roots" song. Here are a few photos and a video of the students in action. (They love singing and acting things out!)

Leaves

Flowers

Stems

and Roots!

A Great Big God

Here is a video of the 2nd graders singing and signing the words to "A Great Big God."