Taking on Second

Cornucopia Farms, Field Trip!

WHEW! What a week! We had: just coming back from fall break, field trip week, Fall parties, Book Character Dress-up day, and to top it all off Halloween! I'm going to start off with our Field trip!

We loaded the bus to head to Cornucopia Farms. It is pumpkin patch that has wayyyy more than pumpkins! It it located between Scottsburg and Salem, Indiana. As soon as we arrived, we were greeted by the friendliest dogs! The kids were ushered into the barn to learn more about pumpkins. It was a cold morning, so this was the perfect start to the day. Miss Linda(owner) told us about different types of pumpkins, about bees, and gave us some farm safety tips. Then we headed to the animal barn!

There were goats, pigs, cows, and sheep. They were all kid friendly and the students were able to pet them all! It was so much fun. Then we split into groups to feed the calfs.

There was soooo much slobber coming out of the calf's mouth while he was eating! I'm so glad I didn't get it on my boots! The kids took turns feeding him, and after it was all gone, he was not too happy! They had a great hand washing station for us to wash after we were done with the animals. After that, we headed to the playground for a little break!

They have two super long slides, one tube and one metal. There is also a hay house to play around in! The kids looked like scarecrows after coming from there!

Cornucopia also has a place for duck races and to practice your cow milking skills.

We took a lunch break and by that time the weather had warmed up and the sun was shining! It was a beautiful day for an outdoors field trip! Then we headed to the pumpkin patch for the kids to pick out their very own pumpkin!

When we got back from our hay ride and getting our pumpkin, it was corn maze time! There were twelve jokes, farm facts, or Bible trivia for the kids to find. I had a group of 6... you know, the kind that HAVE to go with the teacher? It was interesting to say the least! They lead me and lead me around that maze from the top to the bottom! It was a lot of fun!

When we finally found our way out we played some more on the slides and in the hay house. It was such a great trip!

Fall goes well with Word Clouds

We have a big week at school this week! With a field trip Thursday and book character dress up and fall parties on Friday, we decided to take a break from the regular routine and mix it up a little! We have been reading

We read the story yesterday together and then listened to it on YouTube today. Then I had the kids make a list of words that were important as to why leaves change color. It could be adjectives describing the leaves or whatever they could find that they thought was important.

The rule was to list at least 20 words.

Then I showed the students Tagxedo! This is a word cloud maker. Go to the site, and hit create! It is sooo much fun!

The students typed in their words and hit submit on the side. They are able to change the shape and the colors of their word cloud!

They have everything from animals, to guitars, to Abraham Lincoln, which the kids thought was so funny!

I let them print in color which is a HUGE deal! I'm sure it would be a big deal for your kids too. This is the only thing I have ever let the kids print in color. We had such a good time working on them. Be sure to check out the site. It is so simple to use and a lot of fun!

The Primary Gal's Birthday Bash

It's Amanda's birthday and we are helping to celebrate! I have put a couple of my classroom favorites on sale for only a dollar!

The first one I chose was:

Click here to find it!

I love, love, and LOVE using commas in a series. I know, weird, right!? When students are writing, I want them to know about this very, super, and amazingly important grammatical skill! There are 20 task cards.

Students have a response sheet that doesn't make them write twenty sentences. There are five spots for them to create sentences. They just have to put the card number and then their sentence. This is great for groups or for a whole class activity.

The second activity I have on sale is...

There are ten task cards for students to work through. The QR code gives a short explanation and the answer. The sums or differences are no more than $1.00. There are also a couple two steppers! Last year I strung them on a clothes line and had students use them during groups.