School's Out for Summer

Have fun and stay safe!!!

14 School Days Left!

WOW! This year has flown by!!!

We have been very busy the past few weeks. We had a Taco Party for Cinco de Mayo, made special presents for our moms, and most recently went on a community trip to Orland Mall for lunch.

Here's some snapshots from our project on

April 29th: Making Recycled Paper

First we cut up paper from the recycling bin into small pieces.

Then we put the paper into the blender and added water and blended it up!

Here's what it looked like before we pressed it!

Once the mixture of paper and water was ready, everyone took some and pressed all the water out over a section of window screen.

Once we pressed out most of the water, we sprinkled a mix of wildflower seeds on it.  Now we can recycle our paper and use it to plant beautiful flowers!

Have a "Hoppy" Spring Weekend!!!

There is no school Friday, April 22nd and Monday, April 25th!

Going Green with our Earth Day Terrariums!

This afternoon we did our part to go green and made our own terrariums using recycled bottles.  This was such a fun project and we got to get our hands dirty!

Shannon putting soil into the bottom half.

Lorenzo picking out what he would like to plant.

Terrence planting his seeds.

Amaya misting it with water.

Anthony and Lorenzo putting their terrariums in a sunny spot. With this weather... it was hard to find.

Thanks to my Dad and sister Gina for donating the bottles and soil! :)

Spring Baskets with Ms. Kempke's Speech Group!

Today Ms. Kempke planned a fun activity for speech group! From start to finish everyone has a deliciously good time!

Here's all the fun below...

Ms Kempke helping us go green with all the coconut and frosting! :)

Amaya spreading the frosting base for her basket.

Shannon putting the eggs in his basket.

Anthony enjoying the finished product!

Ms. Kempke, thanks for such a fun and delicious treat!

Earth Day Art

Yesterday we did an art activity after learning about what items can be recycled. Using coffee filters, markers, and a spray bottle we made a very beautiful planet Earth!

Amaya coloring her planet. Hers was the view from the top!

Anthony spraying the coffee filter to make the colors run together.

The finished product!

After out art project, we learned what items and materials are recyclable.

Lorenzo and Anthony with cardboard recyclables!

Amaya recycling!



This Week We're Learning About...

Earth Day!

We started learning about how to reduce, reuse, and recycle today. The rest of the week we will be talking about different ways we can help take care of our planet. We will also be talking about African cats and how their habitat is in need of some rescuing. On Tuesday, April 26th, we will be going on an all school field trip to see Disneynature's African Cats.

Cubs and Sox Day at Kerkstra!

ROOT, ROOT, ROOT FOR THE CUBBIES!!!!!

Although they are White Sox fans, I still love them dearly!

Mobile Dentist is here!

Yesterday afternoon everyone practiced and got tested on their dental health knowledge and tooth brushing technique!

For the past two weeks we have been working on our dental health unit, so today we were very excited when the mobile dentist finally came!!!

Lorenzo was so excited and did such a great job! The dentist from the Mobile Dentist was so kind and great with all our students!!!

Speech Group with Ms Kempke! 4/13/11

On Wednesday this week Ms. Kempke's speech group was all about a healthy smile! First everyone made a self portrait. I couldn't believe all the creativity! To complete their booklet on a healthy smile, they read through the book as a group all the while practicing their requesting as they asked for different colors to color in the pages.

Everyone loved when Ms. Kempke brought out the giant set of teeth! She showed everyone how to practice flossing. You wouldn't believe what came out from in between those teeth!

Everyone also took a turn practicing brushing while also practicing their prepositions. They brushed on top, on the bottom, in the back, in the front, and all over!

After all the practice and reading they made a delicious treat!

Check out all the apple smiles!

All the fun ingredients!

Amaya and Anthony

Lorenzo thought it was delicious!

What makes our teeth happy and healthy?

Yesterday we talked about eating healthy foods! To test our knowledge of healthy foods everyone took turns picking a magazine clipping of a picture of food. Once they picked their food they had to sort it depending on whether it makes our teeth happy or sad.

Check out the fun below!

Lorenzo debating whether to chose a healthy food or sugary treat!

Amaya knows vegetables make your teeth happy!!!



"Eggs"-perimenting with Dental Health (Continued!)

    Yesterday we concluded our "eggs"-periment! Everyone was so surprised to see the results! Before we emptied the liquids from the cup we made some predictions! Would the eggs change color? What color would they change? Which one would change the most?

After our discussion we continued with our observations...

Here is Lorenzo comparing the egg before and after it was sitting in coke!

Amaya checking out the egg that was left in juice overnight.



Shannon taking note of the change.

 After we were done making observations we wrote them down!

After we collected all our data we talked about what we learned from this experiment-

brush your teeth!!!

"Eggs"-perimenting with Dental Health

Today we picked up right where we left off last week and continued learning about dental health.  We read a story about brushing and flossing and reviewed all our new vocabulary.  Then we practiced what to do with a toothbrush and toothpaste.

Lorenzo got right to it!

   Now that we know all there about how to brush our teeth, we then talked about how often to do it and why we do it.  To further demonstrate the reasons why we need to brush our teeth, we began an "eggs"-periment today.  We took two eggs and placed them in clear cups. Then we talked about how the egg shell is similar to our tooth enamel. We then poured pop in one cup and orange juice in another. We are going to let the eggs sit in the drinks over night and check on them tomorrow. We'll talk about what happens when you don't brush your teeth and the changes we observe between the two eggs.

Check out my scientists below:

Amaya with the pop.

Here's Anthony with the juice!

April is National Poetry Month!

     Did you know that the month of April is National Poetry Month? Today we learned all about different types of poetry and words that rhyme. One type of poem in particular we learned about was the acrostic poem. In an acrostic poem each line describes the topic word. We then made our own acrostic poems and used our names as the topic!

Lorenzo pointing out the acrostic poem.

Anthony hard at work cutting out the letters of his name.

Terrence putting the letters of his name in order.

Lorenzo showing off his finished product!



Dental Health in Speech Group (Updated with Pictures!)

     We have been learning all about how to take good care of our teeth. We've also talked about how brushing and flossing isn't always enough and that we need to eat healthy foods.  Ms. Kempke planned a fun speech group that taught the students about chosing healthy foods for snacks while practicing requesting and forming complete sentences. Check out all the fun!

Fruit Kabobs!

 

Amaya and Shannon slicing and dicing!

 

Diego taking all the fruity smells!

To help with requesting, they used a picture communication board.

 

Lorenzo making his kabobs!

 

Everyone enjoyed their delicious and healthy snack!