SLIME TIME!!!

Today the world in our Classroom was back to normal NO MORE TESTS!!! Yay!! It was so nice to get back to teaching the way I love to teach, hands-on and feet moving!
This morning we got back into are small group seating arrangements and our normal routine. After finishing our Math, Bible, and Phonics work we headed to Music as usual. But, when I picked the class up from Music instead of returning to the room we went straight up to the Science Lab. Let me just say, telling the kids we were going to the Science lab got almost the same reaction as telling them we were going to the swimming pool, they were slightly excited. Once we got settled in the lab I pulled out my sparkly slime and we discussed germs and how they travel on objects that we touch. Each student had time to squeeze and stretch the slime only to find that they now had some of those glitter "germs" on their hands EWWW! After our talk it was time to get BUSY!!

We started by finding partners and agreeing on a color for our finished slime. Then I gave each group a cup and a bucket. One partner's job was to mix the cup mixture and the other the bucket mixture.

Into the cups we put 1 cup of water and 1 teaspoon of Borax laundry detergent. This got mixed up and I added some food coloring of that group's choice.

In the bucket we put 1/2 cup of Elmer's glue, 1/2 cup of water this got mixed together and more food coloring was added (because we used white glue instead of the clear our colors came out very pastel looking even with all the food coloring I added).

 

The final step was to combine the two mixtures and watch what happened!

As we added the borax solution to the bucket clumps formed and we could see the separation of the solid(ish) and liquid. Then we mixed it up really well and drained off the extra water.

 

Then I gave them time to explore with the slime before dividing it up equally with their partner and sealing it in a ziploc bag to keep it "fresh".

The best part of this experiment was seeing how much fun they had. In fact I got bombarded with "Thank you Miss Bailey" and Jace even told me I should be a Science teacher because "You're really good at Science stuff!" 

It was the perfect way to end a draining week and I can't wait to do even more fun "Science stuff" with my sweethearts!

Before I end this post I want to give the parents a heads up about and upcoming event. May 4th is "Free Comic Book Day" I don't know if there are any comic shops up here but in Fairmont  there is a small shop called Comic Paradise Plus and when I stopped in last night Jon showed me some of the kids comics that will be available absolutely free (spoiler alert there are a TON) everything from Strawberry Shortcake, Sesame Street, My Little Pony, Tinkerbell, Smurfs, The Avengers (I think it may actually be called HULK SMASH), Archie, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and  many other ones I know I am forgetting as well as some I've never heard of. So if you have a reader who loves comics or maybe even a reader who isn't so big on the whole "book" thing be sure to check it out. 

Now as we sing every week in Kindergarten: "It's Friday, Friday God is great on Friday, and I'm looking forward to the weekend!" 

I hope everyone has a safe, fun, and restful weekend!

More water cycle fun!!!

 I found this really fun activity on Pinterest and I couldn't wait to do it with the kiddos! We took clear cups and filled them about half full of water. This was our "collection" part of the water cycle. Next we discussed how the collected water is warmed by the sun and turns to vapor (evaporation). That vapor then forms clouds (condensation), our clouds were made of shaving cream. Finally when the clouds get too full it rains (precipitation), we added a few drops of blue food coloring to the top of the clouds.
The kids really enjoyed this activity even with my slip up of making the clouds too fluffy at first (whoops).

We even got into a discussion about the different shades of blue that our water turned and deciding that the lighter shades meant the rain must have been a quick shower instead of a down pour.

 

This was a really fun way to spend our time after this morning's test. I really like having the kids do fun activities after having to sit for so long during the tests. The kids have been doing a terrific job with all the testing even though it is stressful for us all. I am so proud of how hard they are working. Tomorrow we'll be doing the Bible test and then we are finished!! I can't wait to have this behind us and get back to our normal schedule and engaging lessons. Until then we will keep leaning on Him to hold us up and carry us on.

 

HELLO SUNSHINE!!!

Last week the sun finally came out to play!!! We were so excited!

We went outside for a little "nature walk" in our courtyard area, while we were out there we looked for some things to add to our soda bottle terrariums. We had everything from rocks and sticks to little mini plants growing  at the edge of the trees. 

 

Last week we were learning about weather and we talked a lot about the water cycle, the terrariums worked perfectly with our discussions too. 

We are still working on subtraction in Math, last week we learned a new game called Subtraction Bridge it works exactly like "London Bridge" but we keep track of how many students we start and end each round with.

It was also nice to finally get back outside for recess. I think I enjoyed it as much as the kids did.

 

Now that I'm all caught up on last week here's what's new this week!

We have some more readers getting excited about reading to the class.

Jace, Jasa, and Timothy all read to us on Monday! It is so exciting to see them picking new, more challenging books to read. 

Today was the first day of our Standardized testing, we took on the hardest one first Reading and Language Arts. The kids were a little unsure about the whole testing process but they did an incredible job! I am so proud of them!!

 Tomorrow we tackle Mathematics and I know they are going to knock it out of the park again. They are hard workers and super smarties!

Keep praying for us this week as we finish our testing we know that He will guide us and give us everything we need to succeed this week. We can do nothing without Him.

 We are going to do some fun science projects this week too. It's been nice being able to spend more time on Science activities since we aren't doing our regular Math and Phonics curriculum this week.

Stay tuned for Sciencey stuff later this week!

Classroom Song of the week:

Song of the week for the teacher: