Rain Forest Research and a Class Update

My favorite science unit of the year is upon us:  Life Science - Habitats and Animals!!  The reason this is my favorite science unit is because kids seriously love animals.  They love to ask questions about them, read about them, write about them, and tell me all kinds of interesting (and sometimes gross) facts about them!  This week and last, we've spent most of our time studying the different animal habitats.  We have watched a few video clips about animals and their bodies, drawn animals in their habitats, sorted animal pictures by habitat, or land vs. water animals, etc.  Now comes the fun part!  We will start our Rain forest research!   Each student picks a different animal from the Rain forest to study, then we get going!  On Tuesday, each first grader watched a power point of tons of animals from the Rain forest.  They wrote down their favorites on a clipboard and then got to pick one to study!  Here's the list of animals we picked:

Rainforest Research 2016

Isabella - Leopard

Lillian - Ocelot

Jack - Jaguar

Draven - Gorilla

Paige - Flying Squirrel

Ethan - Cheetah

Max - Parrot

Bently - King Cobra

Heidi - Macaw

Dean - Sun Bear

Aunna - Morpho Butterfly

Cristian - Tarantula

Knox - Anaconda

Carolina - Capybara

Rhylee -  Sloth

Keigen - Boa Constrictor

Reagan - Tiger

Vicky - Anteater 

The kids were so excited to get started, that I ran to the school library (and our public library) to find books on their topics! -- Seriously, Draven told me it would take him a while to get out to recess because he was going "SLOW AS A SLOTH"! These kids... seriously crack me...up.   I was supposed to wait until next week  for the research, but I couldn't resist!  We started reading about animals today during readers workshop.  I just let them read about any Rain forest animal they wanted today, then they will start their research next week when we start our "Reading About Science" unit in reader's workshop (as soon as we finish character book clubs).  Part of our research will include reading about our animal, jotting about them, and also writing an "All About" nonfiction book on our animal!  It's seriously the best unit of the year! 

That's it for today! It's Friday - and I'm in desperate need of a ... B R E A K!  How many more days until summer?!!?  I lost track!

Here's some of our big news of the day!

• Knox is going to the Cardinals game tonight!
• Isabella, Knox, Vicky, Paige, Carolina, Jack, Ethan, Max, and Rhylee got a super special surprise from Mrs. Trauterman today since they were mentioned as super "big 3" with the sub yesterday! (Ask us about it).
• Keigen lost a tooth yesterday!
• Rhylee's seeing her dad tonight!
• Carolina got a new Baby Alive on Wednesday, and it poops (I died on that one)
• Mrs. Trauterman is eating pizza and drinking wine tonight. 

~ PEACE ~