Mrs. Delgado's Class Blog

Communities Change

mrsdelgado — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 17:18:40 +0000

As part of our study of communities, the children have learned about how and why communities change over time. We have learned that communities may grow larger or smaller or that communities may make changes to improve the quality of life for their citizens. Ms. Fisher and I sent the children out into the community with their families to discover for themselves some changes that are happening in our community. The projects that rolled in were simply amazing! Thank you to our wonderful families for supporting this extension of our learning. Please enjoy a few of the projects that the children completed!

Bregon made this video of a new office building being constructed. He noted that this building will bring jobs to our community, which is a good improvement!

Henry illustrates the importance of maintaining safe roads as part of a great community:

Cole learned about renovations being made to the University of Michigan Law School:

Here is a slide show of some other presentations from our class:

Community change projects from Laura Delgado

Designing a Community

mrsdelgado — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 13:07:47 +0000

We have been learning quite a bit about communities as of late. The children worked in teams to create their own community. They had to make several decisions as a team. First, they had to make improvements to the existing community, then they had to decide which types of homes and businesses needed to be located in their community. Here are some pictures of some of the groups making their presentations. They were quite excited!

Symbolic Monarch Butterfly Update

mrsdelgado — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 19:48:50 +0000

In the fall, our class sent a “symbolic” paper monarch butterfly to school children in Mexico. Recently we found out which class received our special ambassador! Sixth grade students at Amado Nervo Elementary School in Ocampo, Michoacan, Mexico are taking care of our paper butterflies for the winter. What an exciting way to share our learning with students in another country! Butterflies from all over the United States and Canada were delivered to various schools in Mexico. Amado Nervo School received butterflies from Ohio, Kentucky, Idaho, Florida, Ontario and more! Check out this link to read more information about our Ambassadorship with the Journey North program.

Journey North Symbolic Monarch

Here are some pictures of our butterfly and the students who received them! Can you find our butterfly in the picture? (I wasn’t able to find it, but I know it’s there. If you see it, please let us know!)

Happy Valentine’s Day!

mrsdelgado — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 21:42:29 +0000

We had a wonderful Valentine’s Day! Thank you for supporting the Secret Pals and the Party. Both were enjoyed greatly by our second graders (and their teachers)! I hope you enjoy this short video of our day!!!
We LOVE our families!!!!!

A Special Vistor!

mrsdelgado — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 02:36:04 +0000

Today we had a very special visitor to our classroom! Former mayor of Ann Arbor, Ingrid Sheldon, stopped by to talk to the students about what it’s like to be a mayor of a community. Mrs. Sheldon is a special friend of our classroom as a Rotarian Reading volunteer. She comes once a week to read with some of the students in our class. Today, however, we were able to learn more about Mrs. Sheldon and what exactly it means to run a special community like Ann Arbor. This tied in nicely with our current social studies unit, My Community. We are learning that a community is a place where people live, work, play and solve problems. Mrs. Sheldon was able to address all of those roles as she talked about what it was like to be a mayor. Thank you for visiting, Mrs. Sheldon!

A visit from former mayor of Ann Arbor, Ingrid Sheldon!

The children asked wonderful questions. Here are some things we learned:

Mrs. Sheldon went to school in a one-room schoolhouse through seventh grade, when she started going to Tappan School.
Mrs. Sheldon started her political career in Ann Arbor as a 2nd ward council member before being elected mayor.
Mrs. Sheldon was mayor of Ann Arbor from 1993-2000. That’s four terms!
As mayor, Mrs. Sheldon worked a lot of hours. She approved contracts, presided over meetings and helped the city in many ways.
One thing that Mrs. Sheldon really enjoyed doing as mayor was helping different groups of people connect to make life better in the community. Once, she helped some landowners connect with Habitat for Humanity to build the first HFH houses in the city.
As mayor, Mrs. Sheldon worked long hours, even though the job is technically a volunteer position. She worked a second job as a bookkeeper during her terms as mayor.
Mrs. Sheldon remains very active in the community. She loves to work in the schools with children (lucky us!) as well as being a member of the Rotary Club.

We are Thankful!

mrsdelgado — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 21:43:15 +0000

Today we created some beautiful turkey artwork to share with our families. They are created with oil pastels and watercolor. Around the frame are listed things the children are thankful for. Please enjoy the slideshow and THANK YOU to all of the wonderful parents that make this community such a great place to learn!!!

Butterfly Art and Poetry

mrsdelgado — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 21:35:06 +0000

The children worked hard to create these beautiful oil pastel butterfly pictures in the classroom. We wrote accompanying acrostic poems and they are beautiful! Please enjoy this selection of art and poetry.

Halloween 2012

mrsdelgado — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 21:32:03 +0000

Please enjoy these photo highlights from our Halloween Party and Parade!

Halloween 2012 on PhotoPeach

The Monarchs are Here!

mrsdelgado — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 20:15:12 +0000

The monarch excitement continues in our classroom as most of the butterflies have emerged from their chrysalises. The children were able to witness this amazing process many times. The joy and excitement of the children has been nothing short of thrilling for all of us! Ask your children to tell you about the process a monarch goes through upon emerging from it’s pupa form. At first the abdomen of the butterfly is very fat and full of fluid. The wings are tiny and crumpled. Within a short amount of time, however, the butterfly pumps the fluid into its wings and is ready to fly. Sadly, one of our butterflies, Cutie, emerged during the night and fell to the bottom of the cage before her wings were formed. She is unable to fly, but the children are taking very good care of her. We hope you enjoy this slideshow of our experiences!

Monarch Mania

mrsdelgado — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 01:54:45 +0000

Our classroom is buzzing with excitement these days. Our monarch caterpillars are babies no longer. This afternoon, three of them formed a chrysalis! We were able to watch the actual process twice. (One transformed while we were at recess.) As you can imagine, we are all so very excited. The children are learning first hand about the life cycle of a butterfly. We have been monitoring their growth and they have certainly gotten big. They have grown from a mere 2-4 mm in length to a whopping 45 mm in about 10 days! We are hosting 19 monarch caterpillars in our classroom, so more excitement is bound to come. For now, please enjoy the photos!

Monarch Mania on PhotoPeach