Mrs. Campagna's Class

A mind is like a parachute, it only works when open. -Frank Zappa

So Many Firsts!

           We had many firsts today!  We had our first Bank Day and our first Rock Star Party!  We also watched our first Newsdepth!  Whew! What a busy day!

In our classroom our Rock Star system is one of the many things that make our classroom special.  The students work very hard every day to be their best and think often about how they can go above and beyond, do more and try harder.  We have had so many Rock Stars already this month and it is only our first month!  We may even have the entire class at the Rock Star Party next month! Wow!  Here are some photos from today’s party to celebrate our September Rock Stars!  The theme was a cupcake decorating party 🙂

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Today was also our first Bank Day!  Bank Day happens once a month and this is a time for us to enter all of our information and money ; paychecks, fines, Bonus Bucks, and Rent, all into our Bank Books (ledgers). In our class the students learn how to budget and plan about saving and spending their money. They also practice multiple digit addition and subtraction while learning how to enter deposits and withdraws into their banking ledgers. We even learn how to write checks!! So many life lessons and we are only 8 and 9 years old!  See the photos below and a special thanks to all of the parent helpers for this Bank Day: Mrs. Laki, Mrs. Coughanour, Mr. and Mrs. Ellis, Mrs. Flynn, and Mrs. Prugar! We couldn’t have done it without you!

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Lastly, we watched our first Newsdepth. Newsdepth is a special news program for students.  They talk about all the current events in the world, our country and even in Ohio!  We learn about various professions, Science, Social Studies, Geography, Math and so much more from watching Newsdepth. Here is the link to this week’s show if you want to share it with your friends and family!  Don’t forget to find the link on the web page that says “Petting Zoo”  to see all the entertaining animal videos!

 

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Gummi Science Experiment

22742-Gummi-BearsWell it turns out that Gummi Bears are not only a tasty treat, but they also can be a fun topic for science experiments!  Last week, we completed our Gummi Bear Experiment.  We have been learning about some Science vocabulary such as hypothesis, data, variables, observation, experiment, and classifying.  We put those vocabulary words into action as we each created a hypothesis. We learned that a good hypothesis is a statement that can be tested with an experiment. We also learned that a strong hypothesis will follow the pattern  “If…….  then…… because…..”  such as “If I leave my Gummi Bears in water overnight then they will get smaller because the sugar will dissolve and disappear.”  We discussed in small groups our reasoning based on what we knew about gummis- that they are made of food coloring, gelatin and sugar .  We also based our hypotheses on our own background knowledge. 

We found that the Gummi Bears did in fact get bigger overnight . We also observed that the color changed.  How did the color change when we left the gummis in water overnight?

Was your hypothesis correct or not?

Check out the videos/photos  below to see the process.

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Decorating our Writing Journals

I had planned on writing a post about decorating our writing journals and am just now getting around to it! The students had an opportunity to decorate their writing journals after we had read “A House for Hermit Crab”. In the book, Hermit Crab moves around collecting pretty and special things to decorate his house with. Throughout the book he grows, but those things he collected are still special to him. At the end of the book, he outgrows his shell and has to move on and create a new one.

The students easily saw the connection between Hermit Crab’s shell and our writing journals. Throughout this year they will grow and grow and change. Their writing is a home for their writing as they grow, just as Hermit Crab’s shell is a home for him. The things that the students put on their writing journals are special to them, just as the things Hermit Crab collects are special to him. At the end of the year , the students will have grown leaps and bounds as writers and will eventually outgrow our classroom and be ready to move on (sob!). Take a look at the photos below to see the students at work!

p.s. If you click on the picture you can see it larger, in a new page.

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Perserverance

Today I am writing about perserverance. This is an important word that we use in our class all the time. This word means to follow through on something even if it is challenging or frustrating or taking a long time. One of our students really exemplified this today when she presented a project which she has been thinking about and talking about for almost three months! She has become interested in Anne Frank after reading a book about her and decided to create a presentation and poster about what she had read. Although many months had passed, Allie perservered and chose to finish her project which she could have easily just pushed aside. She did not give up and instead challenged herself to finish it to the end and even incorporated a Prezi! We have so many amazing students in our class and I could write about all of them on different days, but Allie inspired me to write this post. Here is photos of her project, and her Prezi is added below. Keep up the good work estudiantes asombrosos!

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