"Where has the time gone, Ms. Carlberg?!"

I am asking myself the same question!(And you probably are also, in regards to no posts for 2 weeks!) The last month of school has absolutely flown by and now, here we are with only 5 days left. I have been documenting many of the exciting things we have been doing, even if I have been extremely slow in posting them. As of right now, Google isn't allowing me to upload pictures (let's be honest here, it's probably something I'm doing...) so I'll give you an update about our activities and then when I can solve the picture issue, I'll post the pictures.

Track and Field day was scorching hot and a riot to be a part of! The kids get so serious about the events and are really doing their absolute everything to win. They jumped hurdles, did the long jump, jumped rope, ran relays and races, threw softballs, and so much more. When they came back into our classroom the last 30 minutes of the day was spent drinking water and laying on the carpet. They really worked their hardest!

We spent a morning at Kordiak Park exploring and searching for signs of spring. We saw a mother goose with her goslings (We had a long discussion about staying far away from those geese...they can be mean!), a next, turtles, and birds. We saw all kinds of different plants blooming and even saw some poop. Can you guess, of all those things, which the kids thought was the most fascinating?

Cookie Day was one of our favorite days in May. Obviously, I think it's because we got to eat many cookies...but I think also because our entire day was focused around cookies! We played games, read books, and even made our own cookie books.

The Minnesota Zoo field trip was absolutely exceptional! It was 96 degrees and sunny that day so we came armed with sunscreen and water. The animals were completely lethargic and hardly as interesting as the water that was bubbling up from the playground area. We got soaking wet, then dried off, then got soaking wet, and dried off again. Either way, we had a great day!

The Children's Theater was equally as wonderful! Pippi Longstocking is a wild, loud, musical, colorful explosion of giggles and humor. Pippi is a loud, silly girl who is always outsmarting adults...the kids were completely engaged in the play for the entire 2 hours it ran. It was heart warming to listen to the giggle of our kiddos and listen to them respond to the play. For example, at one point two clumsy burglars were sneaking into Pippi's house and so the kids were shouting, completely wholeheartedly I might add, "LOOK OUT PIPPI!"

We are enjoying the last couple days of school and are even being put to work organizing tools, cleaning up our working spaces, and taking down the posters we've made all year. Only 5 days left!

More pictures to follow asap, I promise!

"This is the worst day ever...my ice cream isn't creamy, it's salty... wait, that's the just the ice, ooops!"

Ice Cream Day is one of my favorite days of the entire year. It's messy, chaotic, loud, and crazy, and absolutely delicious. To make our ice cream we put whole milk, sugar, and vanilla in a small plastic bag. Then, we put that small plastic bag in a gallon Ziploc bag filled with ice and rock salt. Then, we shake, toss, roll, and do whatever we can to mix the milk and turn it to ice cream. It's a cold, sloppy process as the ice melts and the ice cream is made. But, the end result is absolutely wonderful! What's not to like right? Milk, sugar, and vanilla! Check us out!

We put gloves on our hands to keep them warm while we
shook our bags.

Our gloves became soaked, so Wesley resorted
to using his socks! Genius!

Connor apparently has hands of steel; that's a cold bag!

Nekon used his sleeves...genius!

Abby would slide the bag down the table and Kasey would catch it
and then send it back. What a smart way to not have to touch the
cold bag. Genius!

This was after Josiah ate a salt covered ice cube
and shrieked the above quote. The ice cream tasted
much better!

"Heyyyy! Silly socks rhymes with billy blocks!"

We have been working on rhyming this year...can you tell by the above title? Seriously people, these kids are getting so incredibly smart, independent, and proactive! I'm not implying that they were not before, but they have grown so much this year and it's showing! I can't believe there are only 21 days of this year left!

We have been learning about geometry in math these past two weeks. We explored 2-D shapes and then moved on to 3-D shapes such as: sphere (pronounced by the kiddos "spear"), rectangular prism, cylinder, cone, cube, and triangular prism). We observed each shape, listed it's characteristics, and then thought about where we see that shape in our lives. When I asked about sphere's this is what one kiddo replied: "Ms. Carlberg!! When your baby grows, your belly will be a giant sphere!" Now, I AM NOT pregnant, rather a teacher next door is, so all of the kids just think everyone is pregnant. That made me laugh to the point of tears. After exploring shapes we learned about polygons and can now determine what is and what is not a polygon. Here we are sorting some potential polygons:

We are thoroughly enjoying Everyday in May is Special! One of our favorite days was Silly Sock day in which we did everything based around socks. Our morning meeting had a greeting, sharing, and activity with socks, we learned songs about them, and we made our own silly socks on paper (and, I might add, we smelled them too! Man our room was stinky that day!) Each student was given a pair of socks and decorated them as they pleased. Then, they had to use adjectives to describe them. Here are a few:

In addition to silly sock day, we also celebrated May Day by making baskets to secretly put on the desks of 5th graders. We decorated baskets and flowers, and then glued Hershey's kisses in the middle.



Stay tuned for more pictures of our Everyday in May celebration! This Thursday, we are making our own ice cream and it's going to be a blast!