THE GIRL WHO WORE TOO MUCH - A THAILAND FOLKTALE 

We traveled the globe to Thailand this week. As I read our book we learned about a girl named Aree that is given all the clothes and jewels she wants. Aree and her friends hear of a dance and Aree can't decide what to wear. She puts on all her beautiful dresses only to find that she can't walk because the dresses are too heavy. She misses the dance and learns to be happy with less. We learned that true beauty does not come from our clothes but from our heart.

I Peter 3 : 3-4 

It is not fancy hair, gold jewelry, or fine clothes that should make you beautiful.

No, your beauty should come from inside you -- the beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit. That beauty will never disappear, and it is worth very much to God.

HOW DO PEOPLE MAKE CLOTHES? 

This week we learned that people sew material together to make clothes. I had the children use lacing boards as they pretended to sew. As the children use the lacing boards they are improving their bilateral coordination and visual perception skills.

5th GRADE LIVING HISTORY LESSON 

We took a trip to the St. James Colonial Fair this week. The fair went right along with our clothing unit. This was a great way for the children to see what type of clothing people wore in the past. The class visited a farm, blacksmith shop and a general store. As the children went by each booth they listened to the older children describe what life was like during colonial times. Thank you Mrs. Jordan and the 5th grade for a great trip!

HOW DO WE TAKE CARE OF OUR CLOTHES? 

This week we learned that our clothes need to be taken care of and when they are dirty we need to wash them. Our letter of the week fit right in with this lesson. Letter D is for DETERGENT!! Our focus question on Monday was - Which soap will make more bubbles: liquid, power or bar soap? The class used liquid detergent, powdered detergent and a large bar of soap to find out which one would give us more bubbles. After we determined that our powder and liquid made the same amount of bubbles it was time to wash clothes. The sensory bin was the place to be this week!

HAS ANYONE SEEN GOLDILOCKS? 

This story is a hit with the class. After I read the book we took turns sitting in a large, medium and small chair. Everyone was shocked to find out that Goldilocks ate all of baby bear's porridge. We decided to try some porridge ( cream of wheat ) and see if we liked it. Almost everyone liked it!

ORDER BY SIZE- HAND WRITING WITHOUT TEARS 

Young children practice spatial reasoning by ordering objects from largest to smallest. I gave the children bears to put into groups by size. After the bears were grouped by size the children had to tell me which group had the most bears. As your child places objects in order by size they are being prepared for more complex math skills.

"INTELLIGENCE PLUS CHARACTER -THAT IS THE GOAL OF TRUE EDUCATION" 

Today your child learned a little about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The children may be too young to fully understand everything Dr. King represented, but we as human beings are never too young to show love and compassion for each other.

HEAVY OR LIGHT?

The class used a parachute to find out if a heavy ball or a light ball would fly higher in our classroom. The children had a blast with this activity ! The ball unit had us jumping for joy!

JUST LIKE JOSH GIBSON

One of our books from the ball unit was about a baseball player. After we read the book it was time for us to PLAY BALL!

WALK A LETTER

The children loved walking on letters on the classroom floor. As the children walked on a letter their ability to remember and recall was enhanced.

THE TRUE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS

The children acted out the birth of Jesus during our dramatic play time. As the children pretend to be bible characters they are learning the true meaning of Christmas.

CHRISTMAS PARTY

The children were surprised to see Santa in our classroom. The Christmas party was full of joy and surprises. I hope everyone has a MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Mrs . Diane

The children participated in a living history activity this week. We discussed the voyage of the pilgrims to the New World and their hardships upon their arrival. As the children pretended they let their imaginations soar.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.

We started our new unit on trees and this class is branching out! The class took a nature walk to find out what type of trees we have on our campus. We loved the nature trail and we could not wait to see the different types of trees that are in our woods.

What food comes from trees?

One of the highlights of this unit is examining food that comes from trees. Each child was asked to bring a food to school that comes from a tree. The children loved watching me cut open the fruit they brought and they enjoyed tasting it. Apples were our favorite fruit and I was glad because one of our activities from this unit had this class making applesauce. The children measured and compared ingredients to make the applesauce. As we followed the recipe the children learned that print has meaning. I was thrilled that almost all the children loved it!

Story Problems and Connecting numerals with quanities

We pretended to be insects that live in trees for our math story problems. The children had to work out simple addition problems as they traveled to or flew away from a tree.

I used acorns from one of our trees to help the class understand that numbers have meaning. Each child had to look at number five and count out the corresponding amount of acorns.

Positional Words

The class had a blast as they pretended to be bumble bees. They had to fly around the room and touch something higher or lower than they were.

Special Visitor

A special thank you to Mr. Lee for bringing six trees to school for the children to examine. Mr. Lee owns Evergreen Designs. The children were amazed to see the different types of trees. We discussed the characteristics of each tree. The class was thrilled to learn that some trees produce fruit and some trees produce nuts.

Community Service Project

Our community service project was a great success. A special thank you to everyone that brought food for HARVEST TEXARKANA. St. James has a history of wonderful community service. Every year each grade picks a project and we do our best to help the community.

LETTER T

Letter T is for Tree. We used sticks from our playground to make letters. As the children form the letters they are enhancing their letter recognition skills. Stay tuned to see what happens next. The tree unit is one of my favorites!

Mrs. Diane