As you know we started off the week attending the Johnson County Fair.  Even though it was very hot, the kids had a great time.  The kids were split into three groups and each group went with an adult.  Thank you Liz and Laura for volunteering your time.  Each group had a scavenger hunt to find different animals at the fair and to ask questions of fair participants.  You should find the scavenger hunt in their folders.  

The America's Farmers/Monsanto trailer was air conditioned.  As much as I didn't want to go in, I was hot and so were the kids.  My group was doing a great job of listening as the America's Farmers tour guide did a good job of painting a picture of them as heros.  BJ was in my group and he read Omnivore's Dilemma last year.  Half way through the movie, he turned to me and said, "Wait.  Are these the bad guys?"  So, BJ and I helped the rest of the kids see the other side of the story in class on Tuesday.  It was a difficult concept to grasp without reading the book, but at least one student, Ella, was interested in reading Omnivore's Dilemma after we were done with our discussion!  I am more than happy to loan out the children's version of Omnivore's Dilemma to anyone who wants to read it.     

Also, this week we continued learning how to read maps.  I set up a mini-treasure hunt in our classroom before heading to the fair. Once there they used the fair maps during the scavenger hunt.  On Tuesday, the "bigs" set up a treasure hunt for the "tots" outside using a google map of our school grounds.  Map reading is very fun for kids and I believe it is a very important skill.  I am worried about this generation not undestanding maps due to our reliance on GPS systems. 

We had a couple of friends of mine that visited this week which was very fun for the kids.  Annie Stoessel is a gym teacher in Des Moines and she came on Tuesday with a garbage can full of PE toys.  The kids went crazy with the scooters, rubber chickens and bean bags.  She organized a few games for the kids to play which gave me ideas for the school year.  On Wednesday, Ashley Berggren spent the day with us.  She is a high school teacher in Chicago, but more importantly to the kids, she plays professional women's football for the Chicago Force.  After lunch she talked about her experience playing football and showed us clips from a few of her games.  It was fun for the kids to guess what her teammates did for their professions- teachers, police officers, fire fighters, and even a biologic anthropoligist!  She will be playing in the league championship August 4th at Heinz Field vs. San Diego.  Here is the website to find out more about the Chicago Force.  http://www.chicagoforcefootball.com/

Judd taught an art lesson on Thursday that combined the last two weeks of drawing (Statue of Liberty) and watercolor (watermelons).  To tie it into the fair, we drew and painted roosters.  I think everyone had fun creating the roosters beautiful tails.  Again, Judd was impressed with the students work and so was I.  

All the books the students are reading have some type of mystery or treasure theme.  I printed off a cool hand-drawn of a map and it became our treasure map.  We discussed map reading skills including reading a key and compass direction.  I would "hide" somewhere on the map and they had to determine my location.  They had so much fun that each student wanted to hide!  They each showed me their chosen hiding spot and I gave the clues to make it appropriate for the beginning readers.  I encourage you to do a similar activity with your son/daughter and allow them to give directional clues.  Next week we will have a map of our classroom and the school yard with clues left for them to find.  

We harvested cucumbers and carrots this week and used them to supplement snack time.  The kids wanted to make pickles from the cucumbers, so Ericka Lawler supplied us with the recipe and ingredients.  We made them on Wednesday and they will be ready to eat on Monday.  Ella loves pickles so she is going to bring in a pickle from home to do a taste test!   This week during Art class we used watercolors to paint watermelon! 

Judd brought in a few pictures from seed catalogs of all different types of watermelons.  We discussed how the rind can be varied and so can the inside color.  To show examples, Judd painted a few different melons with watercolors and also painted the cover of one of the seed catalogs.  It had 6 slices of watermelon on top of one another and each slice was different.  Then he showed us some cool watermelon carvings.  A few of the favorites were the ship, the pineapple and the Statue of Liberty.  Judd gave a bit of advice regarding using watercolors and then set the students free to paint.  Even though there were so many varieties of watermelon colors, almost everyone did the traditional green outside with a red interior.  Some students finished quickly while others were adding shadows and detail.  Judd offered advice, comments and specific praise to each student as he roamed the room.  To finish the art lesson, Judd said that he had a surprise for us.  We all went into the kitchen and learned that Judd had carved a shark out of a watermelon and put a few seals in the shark's mouth!  It was amazing and good to eat as well!  Another wonderful art lesson!

This weeks theme was The 4th of July and American symbols.  Each child chose an American symbol to color and put on the front of their folder.  The options were, the American flag, the Liberty Bell, the eagle, 4th of July and the Statue of Liberty.  Throughout the week they would be learning a little more about their symbol either through handwriting or research.  We had a class discussion about why we have the 4th of July and how America came to be.  
  
Judd worked with the kids for the first time on art.  Once we had a white sheet of paper and marker we practiced drawing curvy lines, straight lines, blobs, ovals, circles and dots.  It was a warm-up activity and an introduction to vocabulary.  Then we had an exercise in which the students draw different parts of the Statue of Liberty without knowing that's what they are doing.  This allows the artist to see that really any picture is just straight lines, curvy lines and blobs put together to make a picture.  Actually during the warm-up the students just followed Judd's directions of drawing ovals, circles, straight lines and curvy lines and the next thing they know is they drew a lion!  

After a snack, we started on the Statue of Liberty.  The students drew the head, then torch and then body.  This worked well for the youngest to the oldest.  The youngest children were able to do the face and then some lost interest.  Others were able to make it to the torch.  Most students completed the Statue and then colored it and added fireworks in the background.  We were very impressed with these statues and the students attention spans.  They worked super hard today.  
After art we played outside, ate our lunch and played some more.  They needed it!

To end the day we shared what we learned about our symbols while eating some more Kale chips.  Our last thing we did was head up to see Nora's mom, Mara Cole's art studio.  She rents a room at Cosgrove as well.  She had some of her work displayed and talked with us about her past work.  What beautiful paintings!