Pet Rocks!

Whew! It has surely been a busy day-- well actually a busy week since my last post! We have been preparing and focusing on reteaching skills that students have not mastered at my school and I have even taken on another reading group since my little angels are almost done our reteaching skills :) 

Since they have worked in other districts, my school has decided to use focus walls in our classroom. So, my big task this weekend was trying to decide which wall this would be (I have no more wall space!) and how I was going to construct this focus wall! Today I finished most of it but the rest will have to wait until Wednesday when I can get back to Office Depot for printer ink-- I think I use more ink in a month than most people use in a year! 

Here are some pictures of the finished wall. One thing our principal has asked for is student work on the topic or skill for that week! This is certainly going to be a challenge to keep up with, but I am motivated at this point!

 

Speaking of motivated, I have finally finished another activity! These last few weeks we have studied the properties of rocks! So today, each student brought in a "pet rock" and we tested its hardness, checked for calcite, found out its streak, and looked at each rock closely under a magnifying glass! This kids had so much fun and I actually loved it too! I have included the student sheets, along with each of the center labels with directions here!

Looking at the texture of her rock!

Does your rock sink or float? 

Taking some rock measurements! 

I hope you find this activity helpful in your class! It works great as an assessment tool and the kids loved being able to bring their own pet rock to school!

Happy Teaching!

Ms.Winter