DBOX Derby

Sorry the pictures are in reverse order! We have been using the DBOX for math in our classroom and not only have the kids been loving it, I have seen positive changes in their spacial awareness when it comes to writing and putting things away, as well as their ability to problem solve in other areas of math. We decided last week that we would have a DBOX derby where the kids would compete against each other putting together different preset "puzzles" and by Friday we would be down to 4 winners representing each desk group who would compete in the championship/ Here are our champions of the DBOX Derby! One champion did not want to be in the pictures. Xander was our 1st place winner!

The 4 champions were awarded medals and then set out to complete the "W" puzzle which they all thought at first was impossible. After about 7 minutes, I let the other kids help the champion from their group with the puzzle and shortly after that we had our winner! 2nd, 3rd, and 4th places all then happened within seconds of each other (once the kids were able to convince their brains that it was indeed possible to do the "W" puzzle!)

Throughout the week, all the kids competed and did an awesome job! It was a lot of fun!

St. Patrick's Day

A naughty leprechaun came to our class and messed up our room. He left us notes though leading us to his buried treasure!

We found the pot of gold hidden under the rainbow. It had directions in it that told everyone how t0 divide up the treasure!

Everyone had fun picking out their treasures!

We got to learn about the colors of the rainbow with Skittles! They were fun to glue on our paper and eat!

For math, we learned size words using shamrocks.

Our class mascot, Bun Bun, and our new puppy friend got in the St. Patrick's day spirit too!

A couple videos to show the excitement!

Slushies

We made apple juice slushies in cooking club and had a blast. The kids loved pouring in the ice and juice and watching it turn to "snow". They also loved the loud noise it made!

Compassion Play

At recess some students created a play that they then performed for everyone when we got back in class. I apologize for my poor recording quality (I need to invest into something that will actually let you hear the kids and not just "fuzz"!) The gist of the play is that a girl comes and asks a friend over for dinner. When the child says "yes", she pushes her down and says "fool." This happens a couple of times then finally one girl asks the others over to play and when they say yes, they skip off happy. When the bully comes back she asks if the group wants to come to her house for dinner and when they say yes, she pushes them all down and says "fool". Finally one friend has enough of it and goes and asks the bully if she wants to play and when the bully says yes, the friend pushes her down and says "Fool- now you know how it feels." Another friend feels bad for the bully and decides to just be nice to her and ask her to play. When the bully says yes, all the kids skip off together. The coolest part of the play is that each time they performed it or practiced it, the girls switched off roles so that no one had to be the bullies all the time!

Sight Word Game

One of our student's created a game. To play, all of the kids sit on the floor. Kelsey says, "GO" and everyone raises their hand. She then calls on someone to read the sight word that she is pointing to on her paper! The kids loved it and I was so impressed by how Kelsey organized the game so well and how everyone knew all of the sight words!

8th graders

For TCAP week, we had 2 "buddy" classes that we got to send notes and treats to to wish them good luck on the test. One of the classes was Mr. Ripko's 8th graders. We got to go to their class to deliver notes before they started testing, then they came to our class to bring thank you notes and play with the kids. They all got to play dress up together and everyone had a blast. One student even tried to go back with her new 8th grade "best friend!"