Who, me? Wait, What?!?

Great title right? ;) No this is not a post on questioning strategies; that was my response when I found out that I was my school's Teacher of the Year this year!! I am still in shock and total disbelief!

I feel so honored and privileged to even work at such a great school with the most amazing group of teachers! The fact that they voted for me as teacher of the year is completely unreal! I am on cloud 9! I didn't even know I had won until other teachers stared popping in my room and calling me to say congratulations! When I finally got around to checking my e-mail at lunch, I saw this:

 The best part about all of this has to be the amount of love I have been getting from co-workers (both past and present), friends, and family today as  they have found out. I think for all teachers, many days go by when you feel discouraged and unappreciated. After a very long couple of weeks, today has been such a blessing! I hope that all teachers get to feel this amazing amount of love and support at some point. 

Now time to stop blogging and start working on my official teacher of the year essay and documents for the district! :) 

Hip Hip Hooray for the 100th Day!

This week we celebrated 100 days of school! Here are a few of the 100th day activities that did during our fun filled celebration.

Before the big day arrived, I sent home a letter asking families to decorate a t-shirt for students' to wear using 100 objects. I was very impressed with how creative many of the shirts were! Here is one of my little cuties modeling her 100th day shirt in front of our classroom door decor!

The students were all very excited to see this banner with "streamers" hanging from the door. Many asked if we could keep it up for the rest of the year! (Sorry guys, not happening!) This shirt, where they used 100 objects to create a cat, has to be one of my favorites!

Some of my co-workers and I even got in on the t-shirt making fun! Here is us in our Pintrest inspired tally mark shirts:

Before we started on our workstations, we read this cute little poem I found on Pinterest:

Before we counted the letters, I asked students to predict how many letters were in the rhyme. To my surprise, nobody guessed 100! After we counted, they were all amazed that there were 100 letters - just like we had been in school 100 days! What are the odds? ;) 

For our 100 days workstations, we made necklaces using 100 beads:

I usually do the fruit loop necklaces but these beads are inexpensive (and I don't have to watch them eating their necklace all day) so I decided to go with the beads. The kids LOVED making these and many came back to school Friday wearing their 100th day necklace again! Definitely doing this again next year! 

We made trail mix using 100 yummy items:

We built structures using 100 blocks (which I completely forgot to take a picture of) and tried to make a tower using 100 cups. Some students made a long wall, others tried to make a tall tower. I was surprised at how much the kids LOVED this cup stacking activity! 

Then there were these crazy hats, which were my personal favorite thing the kiddos made that day! They took 10 strips of paper and punched 10 holes in each using our "fancy hole punches" to make 100 holes. I love this activity because all that hole punching helps with fine motor, not to mention the kids look pretty darn cute! :)

We also attempted making these adorable "100 gum ball" machines that I have seen all over Pinterest. Not everyone actually made 100 dots but I figure, they counted to 100 about 20 times that day so if they didn't make this one little crafty all the way to 100, I am going to have to let it slide :) 

Fairy Tale Science

Over the past few weeks, we have been reading many different fairy tales such The 3 Little Pigs, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Goldie Locks and the 3 Bears. When I found this experiment on Pinterest, I could not wait to try it with my class! 

In the story Goldie Locks and the 3 Bears, Papa Bear's porridge in the largest container was too hot, Mama Bears's porridge in the medium size container was too cold, and Baby Bears's porridge in the small container was just right (some where in between the other two temperatures). We decided to be "Mythbusters" and see if that's how the three bowls would actually cool down after about 15 minutes.

We used 3 different size glass bowls and water instead of porridge, although next time, I think I want to make oatmeal in the crockpot first thing in the morning and use that as the material we are testing is more like the story.

In the end, the largest bowl was the hottest, and the smallest bowl was the coolest. 

I even found a video on Discovery Education that is really meant for older grades but it explains all of the science behind why each container cools down at that rate. Even though the scientific principals were a little over the kids heads, I think it is good for them to hear. After watching the video (which you can find here) we discussed what we saw and I put the science behind the experiment in more "pre-k friendly" terms.

We also did a fun Jack and the Beanstalk science activity that was inspired by an activity I found here. 

The students planted their beans and created their own little castles for the beans to grow up towards. I wish I had taken more pictures because all of their little castles looked so cute and different! I wouldn't have even taken any pictures if Mrs. Lawton (shout out!) hadn't reminded me to take at least one during dismissal! 

This activity is great because not only did we talk about plants and their basic needs, but we were also able to discuss fact and fiction. We made a list of what happened to the magic beans in the story (they grew overnight, they reached  all the way to the sky) and what we predict will happen with our real beans. One kid asked why I didn't just get them magic beans, so I told him I couldn't because I didn't have a cow to trade them for! He was just like, "Oh yeah, okay." Haha man I love my kids!

I can't wait for our classroom beanstalk to grow so we can make more observations and finish comparing and contrasting our fact vs. fiction beanstalks!