How to Make the BEST Ice Cream Sundae!

It's no secret that Mrs. Johnston loves food of all kinds. So is it a surprise that one of our writing assignments was all about How to Make an Ice Cream Sundae?!

The students did a terrific job in writing their explanatory essays. They were also motivated because they knew what was coming at the end of the week...

...they got to put their writing into practice by building an actual Ice Cream Sundae all by themselves!

Yes, it was quite a happy day for all of us.

The best part was that IMPACT paid for it all since we won the fundraiser at The Melt!! The kids even got to put in a request for their own personal candy mix-ins (yes, I purchased 19 candies at the Dollar Tree! Um, who am I kidding...I purchased 20. One for myself...maybe that's why I had to go to the dentist).

Before I could stop Matthew, he had poured his entire bag of M&M's in his Sundae. Not feeling too good, buddy??

I was trying to catch Bryley when she was staying still, but that girl is in constant motion, even with her cast! That did not slow her down one bit :)

Language Arts can be SO delicious!

Aborigines Dot Painting

Every year, we get to do a couple of major art projects within the classroom (meaning, not during Arts Academy). This year, I chose to have the students do an Aborigines Dot Painting. Since we have been studying the American Indians in Social Studies, I thought it would be neat to study a similar kind of art from the Australian "First Nations" group. 

It took a lot of patience at first to keep the painted dots in line. It was also difficult to make each dot a consistent size.

They all persevered and did a terrific job!

Some chose the sea turtle while others chose to do a hand print or a lizard. 

We chose mostly "earth tones" for our colors which gave it an authentic feel.

Here are just a couple of finished samples. 

We are hoping to display all of them in our upcoming Open House in May. 

Aquarium of the Pacific

We had an amazing time at the Aquarium of the Pacific! I must admit to you that as we were walking from tank to tank, all I could think about was sushi. 

And of course, we marveled at the creativity of our God. How FUN He must have had thinking up of all of these quirky and beautiful creatures!

This sea lion was extremely friendly and not camera shy at all!

He continued to come back time and time again to say hello to the kids.

We loved the interactive places where we could roll up our sleeves and TOUCH the sea creatures!

The Elijah Fish and Richard Fish were my favorite. Such interesting features they had :)

I loved Mr. Fatlips Underbite.

Such cutie patooties! Thank you Mrs. Wong                                       for this pic and the pictures below...

We all had a wonderful time of learning together! (Even though it was pouring down rain and storming when we arrived:)) Thank you to our chaperones who spent the day with us.