Currently September!

I am linking up with Farley for September Currently! I remember in August feeling like this one was going to be f.a.r away.  Nope. 

Before I start my currently, I just wanted to share one little quickie!  Yesterday as we went through McDonald's for my $1 large iced tea- I asked for a Braille menu that I could use for my Five Senses unit.  They gave me a breakfast and a lunch/dinner menu.  Actually, I had Jeff do my Mcdirty work and ask for them.  McDonald's has been SO gracious giving me things to use for my classroom. 

(The lunch/dinner one is double.)

I teach the five senses in spring, but I know some teachers like to introduce them in the fall- so I thought I would pass it on!  I use "Mr. Broom" to introduce all the senses- and we talk about Braille during our Sight and Touch lessons.  Here is my Five Senses Prezi and booklet that I use to go along with my unit.  This is one of my "touch" pages.

  

They gave me 20 mini French fry containers from the Happy Meals so I could make this sight word lesson. I thought I would tell everyone that I was McLovin' them!  :) 

OK- time for Currently...

Listening:   Emily is catching up on the Long Island Medium shows that she missed- I am thinking there must be a marathon because it has been going on for a while...and we are doing LOADS of laundry before she heads back! 

Loving: I am so thankful for today!  It was nice to have this Monday to finish up some things.  Yesterday we all got together at the Olive Garden with my sister's family and my parents to celebrate my dad's 80th birthday early.  It was wonderful to all be together! Then we went back to my parents' house for German chocolate cake, carrot cake, and ice cream with homemade caramel sauce.  YUM...   I am still full.

Thinking:  I have a to-do list to get busy on-but instead, here I am...  Currently... not doing my list.  Oh well!

Wanting-  I had so much fun doing things with Emily when she was home. We stayed busy. We will be traveling to LOTS of swim meets this fall. Ellie will be staying here some when her husband travels- so that will be lots of fun!  :)  Matt is commuting this year to a University not too far from our house- so I am VERY LUCKY to have my family so close.  I don't "want" for anything!

Needing:  I kind of LOVE having a clean house before we go on a vacation or before school starts.  Again- Currently- I am not cleaning.  oops.   Oh yeah, we have no food in the house either. That is on the schedule for tonight!  Groceries! 

For myself:  I need to start my day with my devotions- because it makes such a difference keeping me better focused!  I also need to make time at night to get on that treadmill.  I am always so glad when I do.  And finally, I am going to have my "looking forward" moments- little things that make the days happy and something fun on the weekend! 

Have a wonderful September!  :)

The Five Senses: Sense of Sight

Mr. Broom got his eyes today!

 

 

 

At first the children questioned his name- and thought it should be "Mrs. Broom," because of the lovely eyelashes.  That was a great conversation starter to explain that both boys and girls have eyelashes, eyebrows, and eyelids that help keep our eyes safe and help keep dirt out of our eyes. 

The children loved to make the connections that the nose hairs also help keep out dirt, which was really neat!

We read Look Here by Sally Hewitt.  This is a good introduction to the sense of sight.

 

 

 

We continued our lesson by talking about the names of the parts of the eye.  I have some good diagrams on my  Five Senses Prezi.

 

  The children did a turn and talk to teach these parts of the eye to a friend.  We learned that the iris is the colored part of the eye and the pupil is the dark part of the eye in the middle that lets light into the eye.  They took some time to study their friend's eye and see what color the iris was and to see the pupil.

 

Next, we talked about how the pupil gets bigger when it is darker, because it needs to let more light into the eye so we can see better. When it is light, the pupil is smaller. There are also pictures of this on the Prezi, just so we can see the difference of bigger and smaller pupils. 

 

 

 

 The partners stood up and looked right into each other's eyes.  The shades were pulled, so when I turned off the lights it was quite dark.  I told them to stare at each other's pupils when I turned on the lights to watch them get smaller.  They could still be doing this experiment right now if I let them. They just got such a kick out of this! 

 

 

 

Next, we read Take Another Look by Tana Hoban.  I have had this book forever, and the children really enjoy it.  It shows a very magnified piece of something and the children have to guess what it is.

 

 

Other times during the day, I bring up different Optical Illusions for the children to see- to see how our eyes see things differently sometimes.  I have yet another Optical Illusion Prezi that I use for this! (of course... haha- I love my Prezis!!!)

 



Our memory game is next!  I had ten items on a tray, covered with a towel.  As the children sat in a circle, I walked slowly around as they study the items quietly and try to remember what they see.  After all the children had seen the items, I covered the tray again and we tried to remember the items together and make a list.  I had a calculator, sunglasses, goggles, Fritos, a red necklace, a Ninja Turtle- anything different is fun for them. 

 

Since Mr. Broom is just seeing for the first time, we showed him how he would know if we were happy, sad, grouchy, scared, cold, tired, and mad- by making faces at him to show our emotions. This is another easy and fun favorite.  

 

We talked about how some people need glasses to be able to see better. Mr. Broom has some glasses to help him see better sometimes, too, of course.

 

 I always take out my contact lens to show them what they look like, too.  They love that.  :)

 

We  discussed what it means to be blind and not be able to see.  I have a beautiful real Braille book that I let the children look at and feel to show them how a blind person would read instead of looking at the words. 

 

We also talked about how deaf people actually use their eyes to help them "hear" and speak with sign language. 

 

In fact, after this lesson, one of my little boys came zooming back into the classroom after he went to the bathroom and said, "MRS. KISLOSKI! There is Braille all over the paper towels in the bathroom!"  Sure enough, he brought back one of those bumpy brown paper towels from the bathroom that looked and felt a little like Braille!

 

 

While we had a few minutes waiting for buses or before lunch, we also played I Spy- an all time favorite. 

 

One of my Literacy Centers was Look and Find  and I Spy books- always a hit!

 

Our final activity was writing and labeling our five favorite things to see in our Five Senses book.

 

   

Tomorrow, Mr. Broom will be getting his ears! 

 

Thank you for visiting!
Happy Teaching,

Carolyn