"Who's that trippin' and trappin' over my bridge ? I say who, I say who?
Who's that trippin' and trappin' over my bridge? I say who?
Is it....YOU???"


 Thanks to the Rockin' Billy Goats app on the ipad we've been trippin' and trappin', rockin' and rappin' all week long. I highly recommend  this lively version of the story for all of you ipad owners.

I found a version of the terrific storyteller, Storyteller & Author Dianne de Las Casas, telling the tale to a group of kids. Watch this video to hear the story and learn the songs. I love the way the kids jump every time she shouts "Hoogedy boogedy woogedy troll!"


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HU_shtehmKY


The Scaretroll (and his 3 Billy Goats) moved to his new home at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens today. A BIG thanks to the awesome John and Jennifer O'Connell (parents of the equally awesome Jakob) for designing and building the frame (out of an old bicycle!) and delivering the finished product.  The students tore fabric strips and tied them around the frame. I got shot down on painting the goats--but honestly, they look pretty cool as is. Here's our fella...

and here are some close ups from Jennifer O. She couldn't resist adding a little extra hoogedy boogedy (with a dash of woogedy) to the face.

Make sure you get a chance to visit Mr. Troll at the gardens in October. Sounds like a good opportunity to get the classroom gang together for a weekend outing, doncha think?

We learned a fun new math game this week. An old favorite from my childhood:

It's been years since I played this one and I was excited to teach it to the kids, especially since Rack-o fits in nicely with our recent greater than/less than math activities.

Here's how you play (thanks to Wikipedia):

The deck consists of 60 cards, each containing a number from 1 to 60. Each player has a rack containing 10 slots to hold his cards.
A dealer will shuffle the cards and deal 10 random cards to each player. The players will take one card at a time, without looking at what number is on the card, and place it in the first available slot in their rack until the rack is full. For example, in slot 10 you might have 3, in slot 9 you might have 23, in slot 8 you might have 59.
Each player's goal is to replace cards that are not in ascending numerical order with cards that are. The cards need to be in order from lowest to highest, although they do not need to be consecutive. For example, if a 58 appears in slot 1, you know you have to replace it with a smaller number. This is where the strategic thinking comes in, as you must decide what numbers to discard and what numbers to keep. A player may not switch the numbers within his own rack; only numbers drawn from the deck or taken from the immediately previous player's discard can be used.
It is not necessary for numbers to be a certain number value or in consecutive order as long as they are in numerical order from lowest to highest. You are considered the winner if, for example, you get an order such as this: 1, 27, 31, 39, 43, 46, 50, 56, 59, 60, even though the jump from 1 to 27, for example, is large.
Each player, in their turn, will either draw a card from the remainder of the deck, or will take the card discarded by the previous player. He will then put that card into one of his own 10 slots and will then discard the card which he has replaced in that slot. To win, you must yell "Rack-O!" as soon as your 10 cards are in numerical order.
Confused?
Here are some winning Rack-o displays from our class:

The one where Aidan beat me...

The one where Annabella beat me

The one where Oliver beat me

Tani and Aidan celebrating the fact that...yep, you guessed it...they beat me.

So, Rack-o seems to not be my game anymore. I swear, I'm not letting these kids win. What gives?



Introducing...

Red Bow Tie and Black Bow Tie! 

 No, silly, tadpoles don't wear bow ties. Frogs, yes. Quite dapper, those amphibians.

But tadpoles???? Don't be ridiculous.

Tani just liked the sound of "Red Bow Tie", and so did the majority of the voting class members.  And since there are two, the other one just had to be named "Black Bow Tie". We are so excited about this addition to the class zoo! These see-through tadpoles (you can actually see their hearts beating) will morph into frogs over the next month or two.Test your child's knowledge on the life cycle of a frog by showing them these pictures. Can the remember what each stage is called? At which stage do they have gills? When do they develop lungs?

Ribbit.

"MOOOOOMMMMMMMMYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!"
At 4:30 this morning I am jolted out of my sleep to a bloodcurdling shriek from the hallway.  It's my 6 year old daughter, and she sounds like she's just seen a ghost. Or an intruder. I leap out of bed, full on adrenaline coursing through my body. My husband has already left for work, so I'm frantically searching in the for the first thing I can find to inflict maximum damage upon whoever, or whatever, is about to abduct my child. I grab a lamp in my left hand, the iron in my right. Like Chuck Norris, I kick the open the bedroom door and see my girl, sobbing uncontrollably at the foot of the stairs.
 "Lolly, what's wrong?"
 Is there someone waiting in the shadows? Did she fall down the stairs? Is she bleeding from her ears? What could cause her to scream like that at 4:30 in the morning?
She holds up an empty cup. I can barely understand her through her tears, "ISPILLEDMYWATER!"
"What, honey?"
"I came downstairs to get a drink and I *sob* spilled *sob* my *sob* WATERRRRRRRR!!!!!"
I carefully put down my weapons (before one of them becomes lodged in the side of her skull), take a REALLY deep breath, and sit down on the stairs.
"Lolly," I say, in my best teacher/mommy voice, "Do you think your reaction matches the size of the problem?"

Problem Scale

All day, every day we run up against problems. Most of them are small, or a "glitch" as we showed the kids on the "How Big is the Problem?" scale. Dropping your pencil, misspelling a word, having to wait your for your turn on a swing: small problems. Others seem a little bit more difficult; skinning your knee, getting in an argument with a friend, losing a favorite toy. Then, there are big problems: breaking a bone, getting bullied, a car accident. Sometimes a small problem can seem big depending on our mood, time of day, amount of sleep we've had (amount of coffee we've had...) Being able to reflect on the size of the problem is an important skill, and one that is really hard for some children (and too many adults) to master.

Below is our "Problems and Reactions" visual (the students called them "problem donuts"). Your reaction should match the size of the problem. Small problem=small reaction. When reaction and problem match, you are showing Expected Behavior.
Problem: I got up to go to the bathroom. When I returned, a classmate was in my seat.
Expected Reaction: "I don't know if you realize, but I was sitting in that seat. Can I have it back, please?"
When the size of the reaction is bigger than the problem, however, you are showing Unexpected Behavior.
Unexpected Reaction: Screaming "Hey! Get out of my seat now!" and pushing the other child.

See Glassman at the bottom? He shows up when you have a really big reaction to a not so big problem!

 We'll be practicing this skill all day, every day. Let me know if you want copies of these visuals to keep at home. I've got one on the fridge at my house, and you can believe I whipped that baby out this morning at 4:30. Spilling water? Small problem. Giving Mommy a coronary at 4:30 am because you spilled water? BIG PROBLEM.

 What are we watching?

If your child came home telling you about men in trees, they weren't lying.
When we got to school on Monday there was a bit of an emergency situation: a large branch was blocking the driveway. A kind neighbor helped up cut the branch--just in the nick of time for carpool.
The tree (pecan) was later pronounced dead, and on Tuesday was taken down. Wow, what a sight! We spent quite a long time watching this amazing process.

It's hard to tell, but there's a man with a chainsaw in that tree!

Several of the logs now adorn the playground. Not sure what we will use them for, but the children sure had fun playing on them, rolling them, and hopping from log to log!

What are we learning?

We're still digging on insects and arachnids. One of my favorite moments this week was when a spotted a child staring at his "Ant" art that we made last week. I was busy trying to refocus him on the task at hand, but he insisted on getting his ant (well, he actually made a termite). Finally, he said to me, "I have to have the termite. I've got to fix it!" When I asked what he needed to fix he said, "I only put 4 legs on it. But an insect has 6!" AHA!


Below are some scenes from a math puzzle:

We have been discussing the terms "greater than", "less than" and "equal", along with the symbols:< > =.


We gave the children a bag of plastic animals and a bag of plastic eggs.

 We posed the questions: Are there more animals than eggs? Are there more eggs than animals? Is there an equal number of animals and eggs?

 Here are some students practicing greater than and less than equations.

 Wanna know what the answer was?

Ask your child...

REMINDER: Next Friday is conference day. The students will be at school that day and I will have a substitute.

The awesome John O'Connell, Jakob's Dad, is putting together a frame for our scaretroll!! The drop off deadline is a week from next Tuesday. I need 2 things from y'all:

1. A volunteer to take the troll to the Botanical Gardens either that Monday or Tuesday.
2. Some old clothes of yours or your child's to dress our fella in!

Thanks!!

Oh, yeah, folks, it's FRIDAY! And do you know what that means?
It's time to dance. Salsa? Swing? Nah, those are more Saturday type of dances. And don't try to teach me how to Dougie or bring back any old school Running Man.
Today, my friends, we are gonna dance like we have ants in our pants. 

Here's Eric Herman to show you how:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYWycl8vR5c

 Once you shake 'em out of your pants, ask your child about ants. What type of animal is an ant (insect, mammal, reptile, amphibian)? What characteristics makes an ant an insect? What are the body parts of an ant?

Ant art:

    

Here's a thinking, science, and art activity rolled into one. The students learned the parts of an ant: head, thorax, abdomen, antennae, eyes. We gave them a bag with foam balls (painted the day before in ant colors...did you know there are actually purple ants?), toothpicks, coffee straws, and googly eyes. The instructions were simple: Use these items and glue to make an ant. Some students welcomed this challenge and spent quite a while experimenting with their materials before figuring it out. Others took cues from their neighbors, watching carefully and patiently. Some needed extra teacher assistance and a few engine breaks, but everyone finished the project with a cool ant!

Ant reading and writing:

We read the book "Hey, Little Ant" by Phillip M. Hoose, in which a tiny ant pleads for mercy when a boy threatens to squish him. This book challenges the reader to step into the shoes, er, claws of a tiny ant.

After reading the story, we asked the students: Now that you have heard the ant's point of view, would you still squish it? 
Here is what they wrote:

"I would choose to not squish it because what has the ant done to me?"
"I would not kill the ant because I want it to live with its family. I would not want to be killed because my family would miss me."
"It depends. Some days I would. Some days I would not. The day I would not kill the ant is because it would leave one less ant to protect the queen. I don't know why I would kill an ant."
"I would squish it because I will make it die in two seconds."
"I would not squish an ant because it is good for nature when you do not squish an ant."
"I would squish an ant because my mom thinks they're gross."
"I would not squish an ant because its nature. I love nature."





Unfortunately, ants were not the only unwanted pests to join us in the room this week.
The beast below has been spotted, lurking under bridges, waiting for juicy goats to cross.

    You may have heard his name: El Chupacabra

He stars in the story "The Three Cabritos" by Eric Kimmel, which also features 3 musical goats who are looking to spend an evening jamming at a Mexican fiesta. It's not an easy task crossing the bridge over the Rio Grande, however, for the nasty Chupacabra lives underneath. The Chupacabra is a legendary creature in Mexico and Puerto Rico, famous for sucking the blood out of livestock. Chupar "is "to suck" and cabra "goat". The kids (your human ones, not the cabritos) had a blast acting this one out and were fascinated to hear tales of mythical this animal vampire. Or is it mythical...???

Side note:  After reading this book at home, my 9 year old son wants me to make sure that everyone knows that the Chupacabra is not real ("However, Mommy, I still believe Bigfoot is real") He insisted that I share this with you:

 http://news.discovery.com/animals/chupacabra-mystery-solved.html

Well, darn it, if that doesn't take all of the creepy fun out of it. Go on, let your goats roam free.



Conferences are on Friday, September 21. These  informal meetings are a good this time for me to let you know how your child is doing in class, as well as set goals for the year and answer any questions you have.

Here is the schedule. If you need to switch times, please contact the family you wish to switch with...but don't forget to let me know when you're coming in!

9:00 Aidan

9:30 Tani

10:00  Paul

10:30 Oliver

11:00 Bo

11:30 Annabella

12:00 Jakob


One last item:

It's time to start on our scarecrow (scaretroll? scarechupacabra?). I was thinking that it would be easy to find on local hardware stores, it being almost fall and all, but I sure am having a tough time getting my hands on a bale of the scratchy stuff. So, if anyone would like to donate some to the cause, we'd really appreciate it.

Have a great weekend!