Elachee Nature Center

Slimy Skin and Dry Scales
Elachee Nature Center

Mrs. R had Elachee Nature Center come to school for a "field trip."
The naturalist brought all kinds of things for us to look at and touch.
She talked to us about the difference between amphibians and reptiles.
Two of my favorite animal groups!
She showed us three live animals: a toad, a corn snake, and a gopher tortoise.
We did not get to touch the toad but we did the other two.
Check out below:

She talked to us first.

But then we got a chance to touch it if we wanted to.

Cooper did not want to touch it but handled the snake being over his head really well.

We loved the snake.

And we had the chance to feel the scales of the gopher tortoise.

Meryck couldn't decide if he wanted to touch the tortoise but eventually he did.

After feeling the tortoise, she let us explore her table of goodies.

We really enjoyed Elachee Nature Center.
If you get a chance, visit the center in Gainesville. It is an amazing place.
Here is a link to their website:
http://www.elachee.org/

Happy New Year

We made party hats for our Funky Food Activity this week.

Jonathan is covering his hat.

Cooper and Henry are adding decorations.

Everyone worked hard.

They are all so intense. Sadie has lots of icing on her fingers.

The hats were very colorful.

K.J. and his party hat.

Juana and her party hat.

Before I would let them eat, we all counted down.
5-4-3-2-1 HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Christmas Pair and Share

"Eye to eye, knee to knee. Turn to a partner, one, two, three."
Everyone was so excited to tell each other about their Christmas break that we had to change partners several times. This is such a great activity because everyone has a chance to talk.

K. J. is describing a present to Luc.

Catherine is sharing with Isabella.

Christmas Celebration

We had a joyous time on our last day before Christmas vacation.
Thanks to all the families that provided snacks and goody bags.
Merry Christmas to all!

Sadie, Miguel, Jonathan, Mitchell, K.J., and Adan

Juana, Isabella, Luc's mom, Luc, and Desiray

Bradley, Josie, Catherine, Daelin, Arianah, and Aubrey

Cooper, Cooper's mom, Bella, Dustin, Dustin's grandmother, Meryck, and Henry

Isabella, her grandmother and Luc

Cooper and his mom

Our set of twins, Dustin and Desiray, with their grandmother

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Reindeer Cookies

For our Funky Food we made Reindeer Cookies.
We read the book Wild Christmas Reindeer by Jan Brett.
We had to make them fast, so I didn't get any other pictures.
It was also our pajama day. FUN!

Gingerbread Houses

We read some more Gingerbread Man books. This time is was Jan Brett's The Gingerbread Baby and Gingerbread Friends.

After reading Gingerbread Friends, we made our own Gingerbread houses. Here are Bella and Henry showing us the gingerbread house in the book. Thanks to Henry's family for providing the ingredients for this Funky Food Activity.

Luc and Desiray's houses

Cooper, Bella, and Dustin's houses

Aubrey, Josie, and Bradley's houses

Catherine, Daelin, and Arianah's houses

Miguel, Mitchell, and K.J.'s houses

Adan and Jonathan's houses

Isabella and Juana's houses

Can't Catch Me, I'm the Gingerbread Man

We have read a lot of Gingerbread Man stories. We made a chart of all the characters in each book we read. Then we could easily compare and contrast the different versions of the Gingerbread Man.

The biggest difference was The Cajun Gingerbread Boy with an alligator as the bad guy.
All the other stories we read had the fox in it.
And The Gingerbread Girl, well, it had a girl instead of a boy but I guess you figured that out!

After we read all those books, we made our own Gingerbread Men.
Here we are decorating our men.
Josie, Bradley, Catherine, Daelin, and Arianah

Luc, Jonathan, K.J., and Adan

Next, we took our decorated man to Mrs. Martin.
She put him in the oven and we watched him shrink and almost jump out of the oven.

Look how they changed.

We then got to take our new gingerbread man to make a necklace.
We could make a pattern or do whatever we wanted with the beads.
Bradley, Daelin, Jonathan, and Mitchell