It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

When the Schaab Scholars returned from break, we were joined by two new important members of the Schaab Scholars, Star and Flake, our Kindness Elves.   Very similar to the popular, Elf on a Shelf, our Kindness Elves move nightly, and give us a note to give us kind acts to do on a daily basis.   In the morning, much of the fun is finding Star and Flake, then after lunch, Scholars are right up at the SMART Board looking for what our kindness activity will be for the day.     

We have participated in quite a few activities thanks to our kindness elves from listing polite words, smiling, creating cards for the Child Life Department at Lutheran General Hospital, creating cards for a young burn victim in New York, even surprising teachers and students with post it notes!   We have had a lot of fun with our elves, but more importantly, every has enjoyed spreading joy around our community!

All of the notes ready for student lockers!

Wouldn't it be great starting you day with this?

Last week, the Schaab Scholars took part in the Hour of Code.   Along with all of our 4th grade friends, we each completed the Code.org coding activities on Monday.   On Tuesday & Wednesday, we used our Math block to meet various learning Targets that can be supported by coding!   The students LOVED using Google's Made with Code projects.   I knew we had dancers, but many students shared the composing skills using blockly coding.  It was a great time had by all, and I'm going to continue to try to incorporate more coding activities into our curriculum.  My favorite part of the coding activities is the problem solving.   Many students had to have patience and persistence to get through their puzzles!

Hour of Code

Making a Yeti Dance!

More coding!

Another amazing activity we did last week was travel to Yellowstone Park with our Book Buddies!  As we are starting to study different regions, we were were able to ask questions about the area while chatting with the Park Ranger!   We learned a lot of different facts first hand and enjoyed our Skype session with the Park Ranger.   A lot of kids couldn't believe that we were traveling to Yellowstone without leaving the classroom.  This is just one of our first "virtual field trips" we will be taking and we can't wait for more!

#skypeathon

4th graders and 1st graders during #skypeathon

This week you may have heard is Polar Express week!  We are doing various activities in each subject area around the Polar Express.  With our crazy amount of Dojo points that we've earned since Thanksgiving, we will also be having a Polar Express Pajama Party on Friday afternoon, where we'll watch the Polar Express in our PJs after all of our fun Polar Express Activities.  Stay tuned for more information!!!