Auntie Claus Preview and our Polar Express Day!

I wanted to give a sneak peek at our Auntie Claus unit that my friends, Michele and Elana (Lana) and I are finishing up for teacherspayteachers.  We are publishing it under the name jemworkstudio (using our initials, get it?!).

First, we read this wonderful book and stop partway through to make a prediction for our writing.

Then comes the writing and artwork.

Next, we generate a naughty and nice list.  How do we end up on the naughty list? How can we stay on the nice list?



Their answers were very interesting...



We write about staying on that nice list.

My sample.

It makes a great hall display or bulletin board.

 

 

 

In our unit, we have a Venn Diagram activity comparing and contrasting Auntie Claus to The Polar Express.  But first, we had Polar Express Day!

 All aboard!! After our principal, Mr. Bonner has read the story to us, we board the train in the library after our tickets are punched. We have the movie soundtrack CD playing as the children board.

 

Lana takes the children on the ride to the North Pole, narrating all that we are seeing on the way. Once we arrive at the North Pole, we have a special guest!

 

 

Everyone gets to sit with Santa and tell what they would like for Christmas,

IF they have stayed on the nice list...   :)

While the children are taking turns seeing Santa, they make bell necklaces at tables and color the Polar Express page I made using Scrappin Doodles. 
See my earlier post for your free copy!

While classes take turns coming to the library for their trip,
other classes are in the AV room watching the movie. It is an all day event!

Once they have made their necklaces, the children are served
 hot chocolate and a gingerbread man.

We couldn't pull this off without our wonderful parents or our
library staff, Mrs. Barnett and Mrs. Gatreux!

 

A fun, exciting day for all! 

 

Polar Express Checklist

Polar Express Ticket Freebie!!

I was informed that the ticket download I had from a previous post was no longer available..oh, no!!!  I just happened (seriously) to have my hard copy in my workbag to re-scan and upload onto Scribd. Wow!  Hopefully, it should download and print easily now, I'm sorry, Elizabeth!!  Let me know if anyone else has difficulty with this document and I can email it to you directly.  Happy Polar Express Day!

BTW, this is not an original document of mine and I honestly have no idea where it came from-my team has been using it for years.  If anyone knows of its origin, I will happily give credit. :)

Scan 0002

Polar Express Freebie!

Wow! I believe this is the longest I have gone between posts, I've missed you guys!! No excuse, just busy with the new little ones, family and life in general...amen, anyone?

Two of my teammates and I are working on some new units for all of you and will be making our big debut in the next week.  So look for a new post soon with a fun Christmas unit. Stay tuned...
Auntie Claus Cover
In the meantime, I thought I would offer a Polar Express freebie since our Polar Express Day is this Friday!! Have a wonderful week!


Polar Express Coloring Sheet

Matter does Matter!!

Matter Matters Lab Report Cover

Now that all the dust has settled and we have finished out another great school year, I wanted to catch up on some posts! This is a follow-up to my earlier post about matter when we began our Rubber Egg Experiment. Check it out here.

This is how the eggs looked after the weekend!  I think beginning any of these
experiments on a Friday and waiting for the results on a Monday just add to the excitement.
Look at the change in the egg!

Now it's time to examine our eggs and notice ALL the ways they have changed.
 They sure do LOOK different!

They definitely FEEL different!

Now it's time to record our results on our Lab Report...

The Rubber Egg Experiment Lab Report

We referred back to our hypotheses and decided which ones were correct and which ones were not.

We documented the changes in our eggs and the vinegar in the cup and answered the Big Question.

We went back and answered our more specific questions, also.

Now it's finally time to GENTLY pick up our eggs and feel for ourselves how they changed!

I loved the look on their faces as they held their eggs!

SO rubbery!!

I love their illustrations!

I wanted to include the lab reports that we used for the Snowflake Experiment from January.

Check out my post from last year on this experiment here.  

Snowflake Experiment Lab Report Updated

I saved this experiment for the last day of school. I know, crazy, but it WAS fun and something to look forward to! Don't be jealous of my smooth dance moves as I try to run BACKWARDS to keep from getting soaked!

This is so simple and I'm sure most all of you have heard, seen or performed this experiment for yourselves so I know I'm not sharing anything new but I wanted to tell you how I tied it in to our study on Matter.  The liquid (Diet Coke) has a gas already present (the carbonation). When the solid (the Mentos) meets with this liquid and gas, you get an IMMEDIATE result! Needless to say, the kids LOVE it.  Look how high the soda shoots up! I use three different 2 liter bottles of Diet Coke-less sticky when it sprays all over you :) -to see which bottle will spray the highest.  The kids vote on which bottle sprays the highest by clapping.  **I used Steve Spangler's Mentos tube made just for this experiment. So much easier to get those Mentos into the coke bottle and make a quick getaway!

We then go back to the room and complete a very quick lab report and then our Matter Matters! book is finished! Learning til the last second, people!! Fun, fun, fun!!
Mentos Lab Report