George Washington Comes to ELA

ELA had a special guest on this presidents day. George Washington!! He read a non-fiction book about his life, talked about why we have a president and rules. Our kiddos were so intrigued. Such a great experience!!

Harralson's Blogs

The 100th day of school is one of our favorite events of the school year
to celebrate in kindergarten.  We started our 100th day celebration with a
hershey kiss find.  Each child found a kiss that had a number on the
bottom of it and had to match it up to the correct number on the 100¹s
chart.  You can view our video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4E4-tiEJ44&feature=youtu.be
Not only did we make necklaces with 100 fruit loops but we also put
together puzzles of ourselves looking like we were 100 years old, built
towers out of 100 cups and wrote about what we would buy if we had $100.
These stories were hilarious:  one child wanted $100 worth of bananas, we
had a few motorcycles, a puppy, a cat, toys, necklaces, and a special time
with mom or dad.  They were well thought out and it was exciting to read
their step 1, step 2, and step 3 of how they would spend the money.
First grade visited us with their writing.  Their stories were lengthy and
really had so many details in each book.  I was amazed at their writing
and so were my students!  Finally, we ended our day wrapping up our ³Snowy
Day² unit by making snow out of hair conditioner and baking soda.
Here is the recipe if you would like it:
2 boxes of baking soda
3/4 cup of hair conditioner (any white kind)

Working Hard in Mrs. McCarty's 2nd Grade Classroom

Mrs. McCarty's class has been working extremely hard in class. If you don't believe me just check these pictures out.

Winter Grit Trip

We had 50 students earn a trip to the Edge IceCenter. These students worked hard and showed passion and perseverance in school and that hard work was rewarded.

Culver's, Valentine's Day, and the Moon

Culvers delivered delicious custard to all 1st grade students and teachers for Valentine's Day!
Mrs. Lusk's class graphed some delicious Valentine candy as part of their Valentine's Day festivities!
Mrs. Lusk's students used oreos to create the phases of the moon!

The Dream

I hope everyone had a chance to reflect on why we were off on Monday. If we want the world to be a better place, we have to do our part to make it better.
I am going to keep it real, 100 (whatever the cool term is now) with some things that really bother me.
1. Bullies- We can't sit around and let these people stop us from reaching our goals. Stand up to them and don't be scared of them. If you see someone being bullied and you choose not to do anything, you are just about as bad as the bully. The more people that say something to a bully the more powerful the message is.
2. Snitch- Why in the world is a person called a snitch when they are trying to make their surroundings better? If you see something illegal going down, whether you are an adult or a child you need to report it to the correct people. We need to get the corrupt people off the streets, so that we can have better neighborhoods. I'd rather have a snitch living next to me than someone that is breaking the law.
3. Lazy- I can't stand to see laziness. I have told many people about my blind grandfather that owned his own farm and worked on it until the day he died. If a blind man can milk cows, gather eggs and harvest  crops, people who are healthy and able to work should work.
4. DREAM and you can achieve- Martin Luther King, Jr. knew that a person had to do more than dream to make something happen. He knew a person had to work hard to make that dream a reality. He knew a person would have to get his or her hands dirty to make the dream come true. The saying should say DREAM, Bust your behind and then you will have a  chance to succeed. Nothing in this life is guaranteed, so you have to do more than just dream.
Let's all work together and make Dr. King's dream a reality by standing up to bullies, reporting illegal behavior and working hard to make dreams a reality.

Parents a fun writing activity that you can do with your family is to have each person in the family write down their dream. You can them develop a plan to make sure the dream is achieved. 

Harralson Blog

The last few weeks we have been learning the differences between day and
night.  On Friday, we learned all about the moon and created moons out of
flour and cocoa powder.  The students made asteroids and meteors out of
play dough and dropped them onto the moon to create craters.  We LOVE
science!  Here are a few videos to show you what we did:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzLBccWUU8A&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv0OrQbIaxY

The kids have really been using their reading strategies to read to self
and I¹m super impressed with their reading abilities!  I can only imagine
how excited you are when they read to you.  This week we used whisper
phones to really focus on expression, listening to our voice go up when we
see an exclamation point at the end of the sentence.