Five for Friday: Christmas in Europe

Again, something I haven't done in forever, and almost didn't make it today!

This 5 for Friday is brought to you by my students!

This is their 5 for Friday about our recent Market Day - Christmas is Europe.

They are pretty excited, Doodle Bugs Teaching!

France

The students loved being the tour guides for France.  They welcomed all the other third grade classes and taught them about France.  I just took pictures! I loved seeing them stepping up and being wonderful teachers for their friends.  They each took a 20 minute session to be tour guides.

They loved the berets I found for them.  They thought that was amazing!

See this post for more of how we taught our friends.

Food

The food from all the different countries was a huge hit!

In France, we had Ratatouille, bread, cheeses and sparkling grape juice.

In Russia, we enjoyed pirozhki, beet chips, Russian tea cakes and Russian tea.

In Germany, chocolate was devoured.

In England, English tea and cupcakes were a hit.

In Spain, Spanish meatballs and a Spanish punch was served.

In Italy, salomi, panettone bread and cheese were inhaled.

                  

                  

FUN

We just had the best time going from country to country. We also enjoyed our "layovers" in the different rooms.  Our county librarian brought Christmas books that showed the different countries and cultures in Europe. The kids enjoyed her telling the stories.

Another layover found us in a room where we put together puzzles of the world.

We were joined by our superintendent of schools!

Some chose to spend the layover time coloring.

Learning about Europe

Each country was so unique.

We loved how Italy was set up like someone's house for us to visit.

In Russia, it was so cold because in Russia it is cold.  We also loved the art in Russia.

In Germany, we ate great chocolate.

In Spain, we learned some of the language from a university professor!

In England, we got crackers we could pop open and find candy! 

                 

                 

Friends

We had such a great time just being with our friends.

We taught them and they taught us.

It was a great way to spend time with our best friends.

                       

                       

What a great trip we had!

Check out #ECESEuropeanTour on Instagram and Twitter to see more.

Christmas in Europe: France

Many of you who follow my blog know our social studies standards have changed 

BIG TIME!

We have worked hard to try to get these standards to the students in many different ways this year.

We have changed so much of the way we teach including how we do our behavior system.

The students earn money each day and at the end of the 9 weeks we have a Market Day for them to spend their money they have earned.

This 9 weeks we crossed the ocean for Market Day and explored the continent of Europe.

The majority of the students' money was spent on buying their passports.

They had to fill out an application for the passport and send it off.

My class was worried because as of Wednesday morning our passports had not arrived and our flight was due to leave on Thursday morning.

They came in though with time to spare!

Mrs. Kim, our principal, bringing the special delivery package to us.

They were so excited the passports had arrived!

In the standards, the students are suppose to be able to locate and identify 6 countries in Europe.

They are also to know the history, geography, culture and government of these countries as well.

We have worked on most of these elements except the culture, so we thought Christmas would be a good time to get that in - as well as be a fun way to learn.  There are 6 third grade classes, so each of us drew a country.  

My class got France.

Now, it was up to us to learn as much as we could about the culture of France and then be able to teach our friends when they came to visit on Market Day.

You can see here some of the ways we prepared for our visitors.

The kids worked hard on getting the room ready as well as preparing themselves to be the tour guides on Market Day.

Here are some shots of the day in France as they taught their friends about France.

When the visitors came in, passports were checked and stamped to show they had visited France.

Then, they colored a French flag and glued it to their suitcase.

They also colored France on the map that was on their suitcase.

My students that were in charge of the art of France wanted us to have our own Louvre.

This was the perfect spot for it.

Each child made their own Mona Lisa.  Our visitors were able to use a QR code to show the real Mona Lisa exhibit at the Louvre.

We also studied Claude Monet who was from France.  We recreated his Water Lillies painting and, again, a QR code was used for the students to see the real painting.

For our food station, the students were able to purchase

Ratatouille - which they LOVED

baguettes

Muenster cheese

Brie cheese

Sparkling Grape Juice

The students that were in charge of the language did a cute job.

They found a website and created a QR code that would speak to the students in French.

They also had little French men with speech bubbles coming out of their mouths.

The top speech bubble would have a word in English and when you lifted it up, it would show you how to say the word in French.

The Eiffel Tower was the central focus of the room.

The kids loved this part of the room.

They would gather to have their picture taken, but the especially loved the QR code that allowed them to have a live camera feed on the Eiffel Tower.

It was super cool!

               

               

We were so blessed to have many parents and grandparents join us as well as members from our county's central office.

              It was a trip to remember!

Check out our #ECESEuropeanTour on Instagram and Twitter to see more.

Currently: January

Oh, I have not done this in so long!

I am going to make it my goal to do a better job with this in 2016.

I will admit I got VERY overwhelmed with the whole new teacher blogger world I discovered this summer.

When school began, I had to prioritize some things again and this just fell to the wayside.

I have missed seeing what others are up to and what they are doing in their classrooms and lives.

I was glad to see I had not missed this month's Currently hosted by

Oh, Boy 4th Grade!

Here is my Currently for the month of January!

Listening: I am a HUGE college football fan and this is the best time of the year for that.  My team played (and DOMINATED) last night.  ROLL TIDE ROLL! However, I am still up for any football game, so I am listening to the Grandaddy of them all - the Rose Bowl.  I really don't care who wins this one - although I do like that McCaffery kid from Stanford.

Loving: I am loving just being at home at this time of year.  I love being able to really do whatever I want to do just because I simple can.  It has been just what I needed to recharge my batteries for this next semester.

Thinking: I go back for staff development on Monday and kids come back on Tuesday.  I really need to at least look at what I am going to be doing.  I have spent a little time (when kids were asleep) working on school things.  I have taken the data from our last iReady testing and made individualized plans for each child to work on during their independent time.  Now, I need to make sure I have all the supplies and task cards they need in order to complete the individual tasks.  This tasks seems to be very daunting.

Wanting: Not wanting to sound redundant, I really am wanting a little more time at home.  This past semester was exhausting.  I really can't put my finger on why it was.  It just was.  I could really use some more time.

Needing: I am needing to really stop relaxing and get things ready for school.  

One Little Word: New - a little word with so much meaning behind it.  Clean... Begin again... Fresh... Pure...  I need to remember that I get this word not just at the beginning of a year but at the beginning of each day.

What does January have you Currently doing?

Taking a Trip to FRANCE

We are so excited about the next Market Day we have coming up this week.  We have been working hard on researching the culture of France.

What is culture? Culture is the music, food, language, holidays, art and every day life of a certain place.

We used this padlet to help us research the culture of France.

Created with Padlet

So, what have we learned about France?

Using the TIDE method, write a paragraph giving information about France's culture.

Remember TIDE:

T - introduce the topic

ID - important details

E - end

Animal Adaptations

We have spent numerous weeks learning about animals and how they adapt to their environments.  We specifically looked at 3 of these adaptations - 

camouflage, hibernation and migration.

It is your time now to tell me all you know about one of these adaptations.

So, describe a way an animal can adapt to their environment.

Remember to use TIDE.

T - introduce the topic

ID - important details

E - end

Book Challenge #10 & #11

Dear Students,

    I finally finished it!  For the past umteen forever weeks, I have been trying to read Dork Diaries #3 Tales of a Not-So-Talented Pop Star.  Thanks, Lilly, for recommending this book to me.  I will admit that I really did not want to read this book at first.  This is probably the reason I had a hard time getting into it and getting it done.  However, I did enjoy it.  I liked the book because I really do believe it gives you a good look into how kids feel during the middle school/junior high years.  Most kids are very concerned about keeping their friends and keeping secrets that may effect how others feel about them.  I also loved how it was written in a journal.  I would encourage all of you to keep a journal.  You don't have to write in it every day, but when things happen to you, write them down in the book.  It is super fun to look and read it later on in life.  Thank you, Lilly!  I am try to read another one of these soon, but I have other challenges to get to!

     Thanks to Aaron the next book I picked up was Magic Tree House #46: Dogs in the Dead of Night.  I will admit I have enjoyed reading these Magic Tree House books that have come out later.  I use to read them to LB and Carter, but these later ones have come out since then.  When I first saw this, I thought it might take place in Alaska or somewhere like that.  I was shocked about how wrong I was because it takes place in the Alps.  I thought that was awesome since we are studying Europe right now.  I also loved the history with Napoleon coming in as a supporting character. Who would love to know more about him?  My favorite part was the dogs!  I think Saint Bernards are SUPER cute.  I don't want one living in my house, but I think they are precious!  I loved learning more about these dogs and how important they were to the people in the Alps.  I may have to read the Fact Tracker book that goes along with this one now! It was a great read, Aaron!

     What is up next?  Thanks for all the suggestions! I have enjoyed them!

Your teacher,

Mrs. Becky

A Look at the Aboriginal Culture

The Aborigines were Australia's first inhabitants.

They were a group of people who were nomadic, hunter-gatherers living

in the Outback.

They believed the land belonged to all living creatures - 

humans, plants and animals.

The Aboriginal culture believed in the mythical time of Dreamtime. 

This was the time when the ancient spirits created the world we live in,

and the world they cherish.

Analyze these pictures of the Aboriginal culture.

STUDENTS:  Explain how the Aborigines lived showing the land was an important part of their lives.

Remember to use TIDE to help you explain.

T - introduce the topic

ID - important details

E - end