Catholic Schools Week

For Catholic Schools Week we celebrate our school and our catholic idenity. Each day our school has done something special to celebrate our love for God.

On Monday, students made shields that reflect their personal experience with Faith, Knowledge, and Service. Each student has their shield displayed in the hallways of the school.

On Tuesday, students made a special cross keychain as a gift to their parents and wrote personal letters to say thank you for sending them to school at Visitation Catholic STEM Academy.

On Wednesday, students created luminaries reflecting their Catholic values. We also had a special friends lunch day. Each student wrote an invitation to either their parents, grandparents, or a special friend. 

Each class is lighting up the hallway with Jesus' light.

Colton had his big brother from 4th grade and his dad join him for lunch.

Sawyer had his big brother come up for lunch.

Jaydon had his whole family come for lunch.

David invited his grandma and his brother from 3rd grade joined them.

Vy invited his 8th grade buddy for lunch.

On Friday we had student appreciation day. Each student recieved an ice cream sundae loaded with all the toppings they wanted. It was such a beautiful day that we decided to take our ice cream outside. We packed up and took our ice cream to the big toy and did our end of the day star reader. We all squished on the top of the big toy and enjoyed our sweet treat and sweet stories!

We also had a story teller come to school. She told stories with excitement, music, and movement. The students enjoyed her stories.

Can oil and water mix? Is toothpaste a soild or a liquid?

Today we did an experiment with two liquids. Our big question was....does oil and water mix? Over half of the class said yes they would because other liquids mix together. A few students said it would not mix.

We brought in a vase and filled it with oil. Then we dropped a bunch of colored ice cubes on top. As they started to melt, we saw little drops of the water move through the oil. As they fell to the bottom of the vase, they never mixed into the oil. Students were amazed that they didn't mix in. Once all the ice melted, we were able to see that oil stays on the top and water goes to the bottom. We reviewed the word dense as a class. Students remembered when they put different solids in water they would sink and that the solids were more dense. They quickly figured out that oil is less dense than water and water is more dense and that is why it sunk to the bottom. This was such a fun activity and the students enjoyed watching the water bubble to the bottom of the vase.

We did a second experiment with toothpaste. I asked them if toothpaste is a solid or a liquid. It was about half and half again. I asked them what happens when they put toothpaste on their toothbrush and what happens once we start brushing. Many students realized that toothpaste is both a solid and a liquid. We discussed things that hold shape are called a solid and things that hold the shape of what they are in are called liquids. We realized that somethings can be both and that some solids can change from liquid to solid and back to liquid.

12th Man Pride

Last week we were able to show our Seahawks pride by wearing our jerseys, t-shirts, or Seahawks colors to school. My students didn't all have Seahawks gear and one student in our class decided to dress his whole class in new gear. David came to school with 14 new Seahawks shirts! We were so grateful for his generosity and thoughtfulness. Each student wore their new shirts with pride and it felt good to be able to support our team as the 12th classroom! We are very excited to wear them again as the Seahawks play in the super bowl this weekend. Let's hope we get a RE-PETE!

 

Showing our BEAST-MODE

We even set up our desks as the number 12. So far, we love our new seating arrangement. The class wanted to know if we could keep them like this forever....I told them we will have to see.

MLK

Martin Luther King day is always one of my favorite days to celebrate. A have a few activities that I do every year to show equal rights and what Martin Luther King did for our country.

We started the lesson out by each student getting a stamp on their hand. I had a red stamp and a green stamp. The students with the red stamp had to sit in the back of the classroom in their desk and the red students got to sit on the carpet with me to hear the MLK story. The students with red stamps were sad that they couldn't sit with us as we read the story. About half way through the story when I started reading the part about the bus, I invited the red students to sit with us. We discussed how colored people were not treated fair and that it was not right that people were treated differently. We all put our hands together and discussed how we all have a different special color to our hands. I told them that God created each of us to be treated the same and that each of us has a beautiful color to our hands.

Once I finished the story we continued to talk about equal rights and how MLK along with many other supporters changed the world. We are not all able to go to school together and to do the same things.

Next, we discussed how important color is to us. Without having color it would be difficult to see everything black and white. Many students said it would be difficult to color a picture without many different colors. At this time, each student wrote about why it is important for them to have many different colors to drawing. Many said that wouldn't be able to color themselves without many colors, or they wouldn't be able to make a rainbow. We all decorated a color crayon and put our photos in the center of the crayon. We displayed our crayons and why colors are important to us in the hallway. Come by and check them out.

 Then, we discussed the dream that MLK had and how he was able to change the world to make it a better place. Each child in our class brainstormed one idea they dream for the world that would make it a better place. We wrote these and put them into a folder that opens up with a white hand and a colored hand to show that if we all dream together, we can make the world a better place.

Finally, we ended our MLK unit by looking at two different eggs. The class realized they were different because one was brown and the other was white. Once we cracked open the two eggs, they all said they were the same too. Even though we all look different on the outside, we are all the same on the inside.....a beauitful child of God!

What do we know about liquids and solids?

 Our current science unit is called liquids and solids. In this unit students explore what solids and liquids are. We started out by discussing the properties of solids. Students quickly caught on and were able to describe solids as hard, soft, round, rigid, sharp, etc.
We used solids to construct a tower. Students had to try and create the tallest tower using the same materials. We then discussed that some materials are better when building because of their properties. We learned that solids all come in different sizes. Students were challenged to sort different solids when they were mixed together. They found this very challenging. I introduced sorting screens to them and they quickly figured out how to sort the properly.

When we got back from our winter break, students were introduced to liquids. We discussed the different properties of liquids, viscous, opaque, colored, transparent, bubbly, foamy, etc. Students were able to compare and contrast different solids in bottles. We played go fish with liquid cards. Students had to look at the picture of the liquid and ask their partner for the liquid using the name of the property.

We explored liquids in water this week. Students put different solids in water and found that some sink and some float. I discussed with the the different reasons some might float and why some sink. They learned that some solids are more dense than the water and some are less dense.  First grade had the most fun with our liquids and water experiment. We put a vial of water into a ziploc bag with a solid in it and waited 24 hours to see what happened to the solid. Before we added the water in this experiment we made predictions of what would happen to each solid. The next day we looked at each ziploc and noticed that some got larger in size because they absorbed the water (rice and beans), some dissolved (candy and sugar), and some stayed the same (cloth and foil). At the end of the lesson, students were curious about the sugar. We created a second experiment with the sugar. We poured all four groups sugar water into a container. We set it by the window and we are going to wait until all the water evaporates to see if the sugar evaporates too or if it will be left in the container. Twelve students voted YES that the sugar will be left in the container and two students voted NO the sugar will evaporate with the water. We cannot wait to see what happens!