Hooray for Donors Choose!!

I am so excited! I have gotten two projects funded in the last week by Donors Choose! I got funding for some amazing picture books that I will use for my reading and writing mini lessons. Some of the books that I received are the following:

I can't wait to use these books!

Okay, so that wasn't the only project I got funded! The other project that I got funded was a MakerBot 3D printer! These printers cost over $2,000 and I was able to get an Almost Home funding match! I am beyond excited! This is what the printer looks like:

I will be able to use this in my classroom to support the Arts and Engineering standards in the classroom and so much more. I'm so excited to start making 3D objects like rocks and minerals, landforms, game pieces and so much more. The ideas are endless and I'm sure that my students and I will be able to explore so many different ways to enhance their learning in the classroom.

Thank you so much Donors Choose and MakerBot! We can't wait to learn more about this amazing tool!

Our Ecosystem Terrariums

Excitement!! Well that is an understatement! My class is beyond excited about our new Terrariums in our classroom. We have built new Ecosystems. Today they all received their Cockroach to go in it. Yes, I said Cockroach!! My kids love them and think they are the bomb!

Yesterday, we began creating our Ecosystems and the students were told they had to have a few mandatory things in their Terrariums. The mandatory items were: cockroach, plants, water, soil and some sort of light source. Then students were allowed to pick 6 optional items for them. They had choices such as: rocks, driftwood, shredded paper, sand, gravel, pool of water, shells, rotting wood, wood chips, moss and worms. Well needless to say everyone chose to have WORMS in their Ecosystems too. So, they began by working in trio's planning how they wanted to arrange their ecosystem and coming up with a plan as to what elements they wanted in it. It was so great to see my students working together! They worked hard to come up with their plans as to how they wanted their Ecosystems to look and feel. When they were putting them together yesterday, however, we didn't have our hissing COCKROACHES yet! With that being said they were pretty amazed with just their 3 worms too!

Today, we got the Cockroaches in and they put them into their new homes. Here is a picture of one of their Terrariums and you can see the Big 'Ol Cockroach on the left side of the tank!

This should be a fun time! I never thought I'd be saying I have a pet Cockroach in my room, but it's been pretty fun watching my students interact with one another and how happy these little things make them. We did have a scare today though...one of the Cockroaches was laying backside up in the pool of water and the kids were convinced that he had drowned himself. I had to remind them how hardy Cockroaches were. I also told them they are nocturnal animals and he was just taking a snooze! We pushed him a little and sure enough his little legs began to wiggle! Whew....we hadn't killed him!

Well I'm sure I'll be telling you more about our little friends soon!

Science Songs!

Okay so I have to give a shout out to a blog I've been following Science Notebooking! I was looking at past posts and I found a great link to a ton of science songs that will help students with science. The science songs are to help Mr. Parr's class learn about science in their 6th grade class. However, I know some of these songs will apply to my 5th grade class and I'm sure others. Check the link here, I'm sure you won't be disappointed! Science Rocks!