Airplanes, bookworms, and plants

What I've been teaching:  Here are some of the fun things we did these past few weeks in the classroom.  I've had to get very creative with coming up with lessons for so many different subjects. It challenges me, trying to fit everything into one day.

This week we finished up the first two books of the year, which is really exciting.  The first day they were hesitant about reading so many books at once, and so was I.  They are rising to every expectation I place before them.  Monday I rewarded them with some book worms.

We started adding Science into the mix last week.  I briefly went over the Scientific Method.  We watched Mythbusters and learned how they use questioning, creating a hypothesis, and formulating an experiment in the real world.  We did a paper airplane experiment to show the different steps.

After watching a video and taking notes about how pollen becomes a seed, I had the boys write stories from the perspective of the pollen.  They had to use "I" to explain how they, as the pollen, traveled from the anther into the ovary.  The boys were SO excited to share their stories.  They fought over who got to share first.  Turning a concept in Science into a writing activity helped connect subjects in school.

I also had them teach each other about the different types of plants.  The jigsaw method helps students to take charge and have more ownership over teaching their classmates the information needed.

Each week I keep stretching myself and the boys.  I hope they are learning as much as I am.