OMSI!

Here is a picture show of our whirlwind adventure to OMSI.

A trip to the Future

Hi Friends,

I thought I would get these up on Friday but who was I kidding?  With slide.com going under, trying to find a new way to share photos, a Thanksgiving food coma and wanting to spend as much time as possible with my family this post was doomed to a Sunday night.  Here are some of my photos from the L.A. Auto Show.  This is slowly becoming a family tradition for those of us who can get to Pasadena by Wednesday. My Grandpa and Dad love cars.  I wouldn't say I'm in the same boat but I enjoy seeing what's out there.

I hope this slideshow works for all of you.


We all had a blast.  It's really cool to see where car designers plan to go in the "future".  Everyone had an electric car.  It looks like designing your own car will be a popular feature from many companies soon too.  Designs are ranging from old boxy looks to new futuristic aerodynamic vehicles.  There were PHD students with their thesis projects on display.  They spent most of the day drawing cars, so mad I didn't get pictures.  One highlight was the Mario Cart cars.  I thought of you all when I saw those.  Kris was very excited to check out the Porsche section.  I loved the big trucks because I think they are silly.  I will never need a big truck...but someone else might!

The whole family was up late around the dinner table Wednesday evening talking about all that we saw.  My grandfather is always asking us to think about our experiences so the conversation went on and on, sound familiar?  Where do you think I got it?  See you all tomorrow.  Hope you are rested and excited to get back to work.

Traditions

Every year on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving I have a tradition in my classroom.  We spend the morning reading and enjoying a cup of hot chocolate.  We don't just read our regular books, I break out my "special" collection.  These are pop up books and "ology" books. (The link will take you to the cool interactive ologyworld website.  Since we spent so much time talking about Chiropterology the class already understands what ology means when added to the end of a word!)

Anyway, we make Turkey Hats, and talk about traditions in our families.  We don't have school on Wednesday this year, and we are going to OMSI tomorrow so today is my traditions day!  It is also a special day because my sister, Ms. Stephanie is here!  She comes every Thanksgiving week.  This year is particularly special because she spent the summer teaching Creative Dance with The Aspen Santa Fe Ballet Company's Dance School.  She is leading 4 different classes with all the 1-2 students today.  It is very exciting.

Here is our day in photos:

 We just read this one aloud Friday.  Such a silly story.  Everyone was so frustrated by this boy's choices.

 The Way of The Ninja

 Marcell the Shell with Shoes On: Things About Me

  Pirateology

 600 Black Spots

 Egyptology

 Wizardology

 The Chronicles of Harris Burdick an Autographed copy!  I couldn't help but purchase it at Powells yesterday.  I love Chris Van Allsburg.  I just added his author page to the author section of the blog.  So much fun.

 Deep inside the story... look at that concentration....

 ...and excitement!

Of course, Ms. Stephanie got some reading in too.

Then it was time for my tradition, Turkey Hats.  We talked about what everyone does every year.  Then wrote traditions on the backs of hats. 

 Happy Thanksgiving to you all.  I hope your traditions bring you as much joy as Turkey Hats did for Room 9.

Bat Habitats

Where do bats live?  Last week we made bat habitats.  First we painted.

Then it was time to let things dry and work on a bat word search.

This is hard!

But it's nothing we can't do together.

 Bats live in bat houses hanging on tree trunks.  Remember it must be at least 10 ft. off the ground.

 Bats under bridges.  This one is so good.

Bats in abandoned buildings, in trees, in caves...

 Bats in barns...

 Bats like abandoned mines...

 Here is a photo of Mrs. S's class across the hall...

 Quite the mural.

Here is another Mrs. S, different class, across the hall.  Their moon is huge!
So no you know.  Bats don't just fly out of caves as the sun sets, they have many different places they call home. 

Building Great Characters

Ever since I watched Marcell The Shell With Shoes On by Jenny Slate and Dean Fleischer-Camp I have been trying to find a way to show this video in class with an educational purpose.  Yesterday I was doing my monthly Powells bookstore child's department drool fest when I came upon this...

...that's right, it's now a picture book!!!!!!
We read it this morning to much acclaim and giggling.  This will serve as an example of a great character.  Marcell views life much differently than the rest of us.  It fascinating to think of all the possibilities.  Life as a shell, what would it be like?  What other characters could we create, large or small?  I am sure there will be many fun characters to read about in our writing.

Megachiroptera vs Microchiroptera

Sounds like a Japanese Godzilla movie doesn't it?
We learned today there are 2 types of bats:
"Megabats" and "Microbats"

 Our T-Chart tracking differences between these two fascinating types.

Everyone working really hard to get their learning into their Bat Learning Logs.

Student thoughts:
Today some of us moved to different math groups.  It was really fun!  We did fun math like animals and counting.
We had fun at Ms. N's.  We are all glad she is back.
We had fun at recess but it was too much raining.
We had a really fun time working on our books.
We were having fun to see the Person of the Week's poster.
Today we started Go Math!

In a word, today was FUN I guess.  I think it is time to brainstorm synonyms for fun

Following Directions

Press Here (no really, click on the title to see the book trailer), is a great book about imagination, following directions, and thinking about using books in a different way.  We were having so much fun writing our own versions that we were late for our special today.  OOOpps!

When books are finished we will post a few for you all to see.  They are very cool.

Here are a few pictures from sharing time:

 Following the author's directions...