Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade -- Concrete style!

Last week we learned about the history of the Macy's Parade. The first parade took place in 1924 with many of the Macy's employees. They dressed up and marched 6 miles with several animals from the Central Park Zoo! Ever since then, it's been a holiday tradition. The annual parade was put on hold from 1942-1944 because of WW2, but made a big comeback in 1945. Today thousands of people help make this event happen!

The students' assignment was to create their own balloon or float for our version of the Macy's Parade. They really let their creative juices flow!! I absolutely loved every single one of them!!

After lunch, we got to parade all through the school! Thank you to all the kindergarten teachers for letting us show off our hardwork.

 Who knows? Maybe we've started our own Thanksgiving tradition at Concrete! :)

November Birthdays

It's that time again... birthday celebration!! Today we celebrated Harry, Kellyanne, and Alex! We hope they have a wonderful birthday month!!

Harry's words : "I'm a birthday gantsta!"

A Huge Writing Project ... Complete!!

For the past three weeks we have been working on writing a story. First, we spent time listening to some examples of fairy tales and adventures. Then we used a graphic organizer to develop an idea for a story. We talked about how we have to have a bold beginning, mighty middle, and excellent ending. Next, we spent a few days on each section. We would write our sloppy copies in our journals, and then I would sit down and have a writing conference with each student. We worked together to fix some spelling and punctuation mistakes. Finally, the students wrote their final copies on their "fancy paper." The kids spent a lot of time and effort on these stories. I cannot wait to get them all posted for everyone to read. They are currently hanging in our hallway so if you'll be in the building, please come by and take a look. These are a few that I was able to get recorded today. Stay tuned for the rest next week!!

PS - I've said it before, but I'll say it again... your children are amazing. A true blessing each and every day.

Aidan C.

Angus F.

Baylee B.

Gabe F.

Julien F.

Lauren F.

Reagan R.

Testing

For the past few weeks, our mornings have been spent working hard on standardized tests. The kids worked SO hard. I know it's not easy to sit still that long and concentrate. They were all troopers though and did their absolute best work. I'm so very proud of them. I wanted to surprise them with a special treat to reward their hard work. Sooo....

We enjoyed a snack of Goldfish and Orange Crush!

My sweeties!

Native Americans

We began a new Social Studies unit on Native Americans. So far, we have talked about 2 Native American regions. The first region we learned about was the Coastal Native Americans. They were located in the very northwestern part of the United States. Since they were on the coast, they did a lot of fishing! They also built beautiful totem poles. Totem poles tell about the family's history and we discovered that the most important person goes on the bottom.

The kids had a chance to make their own totem poles. They had to come up with 2 other animals to add to them. We had a lot of fun figuring out what different animals symbolize.

This past week we learned about the desert Native Americans. They lived in the southwestern part of the United States. The weather was extremely hot where they lived. Rain was a good thing for them! They would have ceremonies where they would use rainsticks and perform rain dances. Of course, we just HAD to make our very own rainsticks!

We used paper towel tubes, wax paper, and rubberbands. Instead of the tubes, we put small pieces of tin foil and small beans. Finally, the students were able to decorate them.

The best part was when we actually got to use them! Some of us got a little carried away and beans went everywhere... BUT, it was definitely a lot of fun!!