Week 2 Coin Challenge Winners!

As winners of last week's PTO Coin Challenge fundraiser, we earned ourselves an extra recess.  Ms. Klipfel's class was the first grader winners so we decided to have recess together....in the snow...teachers played too....and it was the perfect day for it! There were snowball fights, snowmen and snow fort building, and snow angel making! My students loved pelting me with snowballs and tackling me!  I think we all needed this time to laugh, relax, and have fun together! Thank you parents for packing the children's snow gear and for donating coins for our school's fundraiser!

St. Patrick's Day

Students were given a STEM challenge last week to build a trap to catch a leprechaun.  Our first grade buddies in Ms. Teixeira's class joined us for an afternoon of engineering.

Students could either work by themselves or with a partner to come up with a plan, sketch a design, and use teamwork, creativity, and engineering skills to catch the little Irish man.  They loved this STEM activity!

We talked about what our traps would need:

*some type of entrance

*a clever way to lure him in

*a way to trap him

 First, they sketched their plans.

Then, they excitedly got right to work building, gluing, and taping!

Believe it or not, the Leprechaun came to Room 117 over the weekend!  He was the one who wrote the morning message.  He was the trickster who mixed up the numbers on the hundred chart. And he was the one who left glitter and footprints all around our room!

As children inspected their traps, their eyes widened with surprise that the little leprechaun had left golden nuggets and a pot of special leprechaun hats!

There was some skepticism of who the leprechaun really was, but I neither confirmed nor denied the accusations that I was behind the mischief.  I think we can all agree though that fun was had by all, including me.  I enjoyed seeing the students' creativity and teamwork!