Planting the Seeds

Reading the directions

All of the girls were very concentrated

Ms. Sonya was very helpful

Here is the station with all of the materials needed

The soil

Gathering the materials

Helping!

On task!

Following directions!

A few months ago I attended a training on Science called Laser I3 from the Smithsonian.It was very interesting and I learned a lot.They provided all of the materials needed to do some science projects with the class. Last week and this week the children had the first  few lessons on plant growth. We did a few experiments and we planted some seeds. It was a big task for all of us, just to set up the planting station with all of the materials and then making sure everyone got what they needed. I'm so glad that Sonya Hernandez "Gabriella's Mom" and Mr. Railsback were there to help us. There are so many steps involved in the process and you all know that "children are children", so you have to supervise closely that all of them were following directions step by step. We also had to create an automatic watering system, so that the little plants would have enough water without us checking every time. After a few accidents and some spills, everything went fine. It was a success and now the little seeds are sprouting and growing. The children have to keep up with their plants and they have to measure the growth daily. They have to observe and measure the plants daily and then record the growth of the plants on a graph. It's a lot of work and it requires a lot of patience! But it is a lot of Fun!
I will keep you all posted with the new pictures of the plants growing!

World Geography Class Projects

 Holland project and brought gouda cheese!

Ireland Project

Delicious treat from Ireland

Costa Rica Project

Presentation on Greece was Stellar!

With his Grandparents

With Mom

Research on England

With her Parents

With Mom

Bolivia Project

Presentation about Mexico

Reading to mom

Great job on Romania

Presentation on Grenland

 Project on Canada was simply Amazing!

Presentation on Cuba and brought some Conga Music!

He did great too!

Mr. Raisback helping!

Great Presentation!

We had some pizza from Italy!

With his dad.

 Presentation on Germany

Presentation on Columbia

Beautiful girl brought us Croissants from France, yummy!

These couple of weeks have been very busy for my students and I. The children did finish their Geography projects and did their oral presentations. I think that when children start doing oral presentations early they develop confidence and later on presenting in front of lots of people won't be a problem. They all were great! The third graders did research in Europe countries, the second graders did it in South America countries and the first graders did their research in North American countries. They had to come up with very interesting facts, such as the location of their country, the population, the religion, the flag, important events in history, traditions and celebrations, landmarks, plants and animals, bodies of water etc. They did an excellent job! Parents and family were invited to the presentations and many of them were very kind to bring a special treat for the class from the country they represented, it was very nice! I want to share their success with all of you! I feel very fortunate to have these beautiful children in my class and to contribute to their education.

Day of the Dead and Haloween

The Day of the Dead Celebration!

Decorated Calaveras and Symmetry Pumpkins

Papel Picado

This is the Memory Box I made to honor for my father "Ernesto.
 My Dad was the best Father I could ever asked for.  I miss him a lot!

 Memory Box

 Grandparents Memories!

"Three Generations" Memory Box

I added some sugar skulls "Calaveras"

 "Uncle Tony" Memory Box

honoring  Grandpa with this cute  baby picture!

Pink Memory Box

A beautiful one to honor her Grandpa!

       r "Abueltito Octavio"

Time definitely flies! I can't believe its already January!! I apologize for abandoning my blog. You have no idea, but with all of these HISD and TEA requirements.... I'm going nuts! I've been so busy lately at school that I hadn't get a chance to post for a while. I took some pictures of the kiddos working on a project for The Day of the Dead back in November and I want to share them with you all. The Day of the Dead or Dia de los Muertos in Spanish is a traditional celebration in Mexico and other South and Central America Countries that started hundreds of years ago to honor the deceased family members and friends. Just a few years ago this tradition crossed the border and is now celebrated here in the USA as well. It's a very fun and colorful celebration that brings out the Mexican Folklore. The children in my class stayed one afternoon after school to work on their memory box project which is something similar to a small altar. We had a lot of fun making the tissue paper flowers and the calaveras. We also made papel picado wich is like cutting shapes on very thin paper. Well too much talking..... let's see some pictures now!