Peek at our...Month

This was a crazy week Month!  There was no school on Monday (Columbus Day).  On Tuesday, the local fire department was there all morning.  They did a 45 minute fire-safety presentation and then K-2nd grade classes went outside to check out the fire trucks.  The kids got to sit in the back of a truck and go in the ladder.  They LOVED it.  

After the fire safety assembly, the students wrote thank you letters that we put together into a book: 

*Morning Work*

I hate doing morning work.  Most of my students eat breakfast at school which takes up a good chunk of time and then nobody finishes their work at the same time.  It's also another piece of paper that I have to differentiate and go over and either grade or send home.  I've decided to do sensory tubs each morning instead.  Later in the year, I'll add math manipulatives.  The kids love rice bins but I have a student with Prader Willi (he is always hungry but has a very slow metabolism so he may eat the rice if he isn't watched carefully).  I looked up a way to color the rice so it looks less like food.  

The end result looks like sprinkles (especially all mixed up) so my goal of making it look not like food didn't work so well BUT we used vinegar to dye the rice and I made everyone smell it so they would think it's not something to eat.  

To make it, you will need rice, noodles, or corn (not pictured), white vinegar, food coloring, and ziplock bags. 

 I let the students measure 1 cup of rice or noodles and pour it into a bag.  I poured 2 tablespoons of vinegar into a small cup and let the students add food coloring.  Pour the colored vinegar into the bag, seal it, and let the kids squish it all together.   

We laid it out on lunch room trays to dry.  I left the rice in opened bags and just flipped them occasionally.  The noodles I took out of the bags because they don't absorb all of the liquid like the rice does.  

I mixed all the rice together and added magnetic letters and numbers to it.  I added Halloween erasers to the noodles.  The kids like finding the different objects in the bins but their favorite sensory activity is playdough. The corn is soaking this weekend, we will see what it looks like on Monday!  Now I'm off to prepare for Sandy!!