BUBBLE GUM DAY – First Friday in February

BUBBLE GUM DAY

Celebrating Bubble Gum Day the first Friday of February every year doesn’t burst many people’s bubble. It’s a fun way to chew your favorite flavor of bubble gum, blow some spectacular bubbles and raise money, too.

Bubble Gum Day helps raise money for schools and the charities they support. Students donate 50 cents to be able to chew bubble gum in class on Bubble Gum Day.

Long before any substantial chewing gum formed bubbles, ancient human beings chewed bits of resin from trees. All around the world, people collected substances from the available trees and used them for dental care and general enjoyment.

It wasn’t until 1928 after decades of failure by those before him, and several of his own, that Walter Diemer created the first bubble producing gum. His employer, the Fleer Chewing Gum Company, marketed it as “Dubble Bubble”.

The largest bubble gum bubble ever blown was 50.8 centimeters (20 inches) in diamter. Chad Fell of Haleyville, Alabama blew the bubble with three pieces of Dubble Bubble on April 24, 2004 at Double Springs High School in Winston County, Alabama.

HOW TO OBSERVE #BubbleGumDay

Grab your quarters and bubble gum! It’s time to chew some gum, blow bubbles and raise some money for a good cause.

If your school doesn’t participate, encourage your school to set up a fundraiser. The funds can be donated to a local charity, new band costumes or foreign language emersion trip. Those are just a few ideas to get you started.

Use #BubbleGumDay to share on social media.

BUBBLE GUM DAY HISTORY

In 2006, Ruth Spiro, children’s author and mother, founded the celebration/fundraiser to create a fun way for children to participate in school fundraising.

Dates
7 February 2020
5 February 2021
4 February 2022
3 February 2023
2 February 2024
7 February 2025
6 February 2026
5 February 2027
4 February 2028
2 February 2029
1 February 2030

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1^st Grade:

No first grade this week due to kindergarten CogAt testing.

2^nd Grade:

This week, the children finished their prediction papers of how My Father’s Dragon ends. Most assumed that since the book is called My Father’s Dragon, the father is successful at freeing the dragon. We finished the story on Tuesday and discussed the ending. We then moved on to reviewing a story structure.



 I explained to them that the reason we learn the story structure is so that we can learn to write books ourselves. I displayed Freytag’s Pyramid and we discussed how we used the pyramid for the story A Pen Pal for Max. We then explored the structure of the chapter book My Father’s Dragon. I put the children into groups and had them draw a Freytag’s pyramid. I told them that they were only writing important events on Freytag’s Pyramid. We will discuss their work next week.

3^rd Grade:

The children finished up with their T-Chart about the two books, The Watcher by Jeanette Winter and Me…Jane by Patrick McDonnell. They decided that The Watcher told a more realistic story about Jane Goodall throughout her life. Me…Jane was more cartoon like, and didn’t go into as much details about her work, but focused more on her childhood.

 We then watched an interview with Patrick McDonnell, Jeanette Winter and Jane Goodall discussing their books. I passed out the biography of Anna Sewel. They needed to read over it and annotate as they went along. I then sent homework home with them due Monday February 10. They are to write a paragraph describing the difference between Jane Goodall and Anna Sewell. They will present their paragraph on Monday.

4^th Grade:  

This week, the girls worked on the last couple of pages of their mystery packets. They were so excited to get to the end. As they were getting done, they were calling out “I know who did it”. I told them to wait until everyone was done and to not yell out the answers. Finally, they got to yell out that it was the nephew who stole the will.  


We discussed the packet a bit more. They really loved doing the packet and asked if they could do another one. I had a couple mini logic mystery puzzles left for them to do. They were thrilled to complete them and find out if they had the correct answers. Next week, we will start the novel The Westing Game. The girls are very excited to begin!

What Are Zaccaro Packets?
 

I wanted to introduce Zaccaro packets to all of my math parents. These packets are being used across all grade levels. Our high ability program has started to incorporate these challenging worksheets throughout the curriculum. Some of you have heard me discuss the packets. For those of you new to them, the book is organized in chapters that cover many different math concepts such as sequences, problem-solving, money, percentages, algebraic thinking and much more. The packet allows us to instill a deeper level of mathematical understanding and thinking skills. Each chapter’s questions are broken down into four levels. You must pass one level to move on to the next. Each level increases with difficulty and you must master the previous level first to move onto the next level. First graders work on level one which is considered the easy level. Second graders work on level one and two which is somewhat challenging. Third and fourth graders are expected to complete all the levels. Level three is challenging and the last level is the Einstein level. I have the children work through them then we discuss the answers.

1^st Grade:

No first grade this week due to CogAt testing.

2^nd Grade:

We continued with our construction of 3-D shapes. The children were able to work together in groups. Each group needed to make a cube, rectangular prism, triangular prism, square pyramid, and triangular pyramid. We spent last week and this week completing this task. This proved to be very difficult for a few students.


 I explained to the children that this was not something that could get thrown together. I had the kiddos that completed their 3-D shapes help those that were having trouble.  Some had to take apart and put back together after I looked at them.

 To help the children having difficulties, I let them walk around to look at what the other children completed. Some of the children were like “oh yeah,” I finally get it”. We will take half of next week’s class to finish up making the shapes.

3^rd Grade:

This week in math I gave the students a math packet over arrow math. I gave them time to complete it and as a group we discussed the answers. I then gave them a 120’s chart and posted different problems for them to figure out. I gave them the opportunity to make up their own problem for the class to solve. 




They loved going up to the board to try and solve each other’s problems.  These children rock at arrow math, and I think they enjoy doing it! We had a bit of free time in between each worksheet, so I had them get to work on their Zaccaro packets. We will continue next week.

4^th Grade:

This week I handed out all of their tests for them to look over. I am very happy with the results! We spent a bit of time doing our Zaccaro packets. The children then started an Egyptian math mystery packet. They had to read over how to escape the Mummy’s Tomb. There were little steps to complete to be able to move on.  A few told me that they didn’t understand.  I asked them if they read through the packet yet.  I explained to them that this was somewhat difficult and that it was important to read the packet first before giving up. Next week we will start a new lesson.

Have a great weekend!