My school also had Field Day these past three days! I seriously don't know what I was thinking when I chose black shirts for our class color. This is also the first school that I have been at that the students/classes still compete against other students/classes for points. Not that they win anything other than bragging rights though. I was SO proud of my class....I must admit my expectations were not extremely high for a few reasons. First, I have what I call the Mod Podge class...because I was displaced and came to this school in September I received about 3 to 4 students from other classes...they still don't work as well together as a class that would have formed in August. Secondly my observations during recess have been that my class prefers to play tag or sit...so our athletic abilities have been minimal.
BUT I am happy to say that we won FIRST place OVERALL, scoring the most points they think have ever been scored. We placed 1st, 2nd, or 3rd in EVERY event. I think that was the first time we have actually worked well together, as a team. So despite the heat, sunburn, and exhaustion...overall, it was a great day!
Here is a picture of our banner...the theme was Go For the Gold. I must admit, not my finest work...and the theme was a little difficult to work with, but oh well.
As things begin to end, and get crazy (my EOY folder is huge)...I began reading the book Leon and the Champion Chip aloud to my students (great read aloud for 3rd...on level for 4th or 5th...great for starting 5th!)
The idea for this unit "sprouted" from a post during St. Patrick's Day! While blog stalking I vaguely remember seeing pictures of potatoes all dressed up...and thought, "how fun would that be at the end of the year". Well not thinking I didn't bookmark the blog...ugh! So I spent about a week scrolling through old blog posts for these pictures. When I finally found it, to my surprise, it was a lower grades project. I was a little bummed but because all these ideas were already flowing through my head, I decided to "kick the activities up a notch, and add my own". The pictures and cute activities were found at The Bubblegum Tree. Make sure you also check out the follow up pictures at this link.
Well as the wheels on my brain were turning...I decided to make this an entire unit. I found a "potato themed" book (Leon and the Champion Chip) to read...of which I am making unit plans and activities to go along with it, keep an eye out. We are measuring, weighing, estimating, and so on potatoes in Math...much like The Bubblegum Tree unit. We are also taste testing potato chips and graphing results in Math....goes along with the book. For writing, much similar to The Bubblegum Tree...we will be dressing up our potatoes and writing stories featuring them as characters.
I can't wait to share a few of the activities my kids have been doing with this book, so stay tuned for a lot of potato updates!!!!