18 Days Left...

We have 18 days left of school! It will be interesting for the next couple of weeks...the weather in So. Cal has been crazy--windy, rainy, sunny...my kids have no idea what to expect from day to day.

I also have a feeling that the next 2 or 3 Thursday will be REALLY hard for us! All year, we have had minimum days on Thursday (students go home at 1:00)...ALL YEAR! For the next 2 weeks, we have full day on Thursday! UGH! If my students make it, it will be a miracle. I am sure there will be lots of tears and screaming...but I have a plan...I have found some GREAT interactive white board games that I am introducing to them that they LOVE! And, when all else fails, we will be watching a movie on Thursday afternoon! Between those 2 activities, we should make it through Thursdays!

We have also started the countdown in my class. I have decided to use the magnetic numbers in my classroom to help with the countdown! The kids are excited! 

With all of that...I must figure out what to do for the last 18 days! There is always something more to be done, and more to finish, and take down...Hopefully we can make it! Here's to a great 18 days left of school...

An Activity from January...

In January, in the middle of winter, I read my students a wonderful book...Snowmen at Night. They loved it! I knew that would lead to a great project, that I keep each year (this is my second year doing this project) and bind into a class book.  Last year, I let them paint their snowmen and then decorate them. This year, they got to tear white paper and then decorate their snowman any way they wanted. The next week, we do a guided writing project where each student writes about their snowmen...I love what my students come up with! Here are some of the pictures.

The cover of the book that our class made.

 For me, the best part is watching my students be proud of their work. They did a great job making their snowmen, and writing their sentences. Each snowman was unique! 


It was a great project.


Looking ahead to next year (already), I purchased the book, Snowman All Year. It will be a great way to talk about seasons, and a fun book for my students to try to put together! I am excited to let my kids pick their favorite season and activity and put a snowman in the middle of it!

Our Egg Project...

I think they really enjoyed this project from a few weeks ago! I did every thing that I said I was going to do...plus some...and I remembered to take some pictures...so here it goes!

Here are two pictures that I took of the work that we did after we read each book...The Happy Egg and What's Inside? With our first book, The Happy Egg, one of my students was able to tell me the word hatched! We talked about what the bird could do inside the egg and outside of the egg. Of course, we had to provide actions to each of these actions...


In our second book, What's Inside?, we talked about the different animals that were listed in the book, finally arriving at the animal that was inside the egg...the goose (or gosling).

The third book that we read, Chickens Aren't the Only Ones, we talked about animals that lay eggs. I put the different animals that lay eggs on a sentence strip. Since then, I have put a picture on each sentence strip and now I need to laminate them and hole punch them and make them into a flip book for my students! They love it already! 


At the end of the day, we made our animals that came from an egg. The students started by making their eggs. Then I had found animals that came from eggs...and printed them out. I let the students choose (some like spiders, some like dinosaurs and some like fish!)...Here are some of their egg creations!

 I think they did pretty good overall making their animals from the egg! It was pretty easy to make the eggs and animals. And the students loved it!










What a busy week we had learning about animals that come from eggs!

Our first day back...was...

Monday April 2, 2012

I am very happy to report that my first day back after a two week vacation went very well! Sometimes it is hard to tell...but we made it through.

And in our good day, I have created another project for my students to work on. We will work our way through it this week. 

We started by reading a very cute book called Ed's Egg by David Bedford. The book is about a little chick that does not want to leave his egg. 

My students were excited because: 1) they know that Easter is on Sunday (it is on our calendar) and 2) Ed's Egg is blue with polkadots...obviously an Easter egg!

After reading this book, I told my students about a project that I saw somewhere...creating an egg that has an animal that hatches from an egg. So this will now turn into a week (if not two) project. We will read, write, list, compare, contrast...and finally make the art project. 

We will read (at least) 3  other books including: Chicken's Aren't the Only Ones, What's Inside? and the Happy Egg.

We will write about the different animals that we meet using sentence strips and other graphic organizers. 

We will list the variety of animals that hatch from an egg.

Hopefully, I will think to take pictures of all of these different activities so that I can document all of the work that my kiddo's do. I am excited to see how it all comes together! Wish me luck!

Back from Spring Break...what's next?

Sunday April 1, 2012

April Fool's Day! Ha! Didn't do anything for that...

Sorry I have been out of action. I have been on Spring break (2 weeks worth of Spring Break...) and didn't think about school once! That is nice to say because it doesn't happen very often! But today I had to get back into the swing of things...clothes are clean for the week, lesson plans are ready, and my mindset is almost there...but not quite!

This week, we are going to be working on getting back into the swing of things...because they have been on vacation for 2 weeks too! We will review rules, get into rotations, and hopefully have some fun! 

At the same time, we are also getting ready for testing...we have ONE week...next week...I lose 3 days of teaching to administer the CAPA....my kids will like it though--they get to play games, watch movies, go on the computer...whatever it takes. Then there is only 5 weeks left...just a short time before summer! I hope that we can make the most of it!

Thursday, March 15, 2012

It has been even longer since the last time. And it has been a busy month since my last post. Since our hundred day celebration, we celebrated the birthday of the best children's author EVER! My kids and I celebrated all week...each day I would read a story, and then we would complete an activity that went with the story. We made cats, hats, and many books. They made books with fish, books with apples, and books about their names! We were so busy, that I forgot to take pictures (of course). But it was still fun!

Since then, it has been the same old routine. Work, work, work. We go on vacation for two week starting next week--I am going on a cruise to the Mexico--a Disney cruise. I have told some of my students that I will take some pictures for them...of pirates, Mickey Mouse and maybe even some princesses. We will have to see!

100th Day of School

February 6th...

Sorry it has been awhile...report cards were due (UGH!) and then I got sick...but now I am back on my game.

A few weeks after returning from our vacation, we celebrated our 100th day of school! We have been counting up since the first day of school, and started counting down to the 100th day with about 4 weeks left...needless to say, my kids were VERY excited to celebrate...so all day I did an activity related to 100 days. I had to take out making the 100-day necklace (we did it the following week) because one of my assistants was not there that day...But here are some of the things that we did...

These are two of the 100-day collections that I got. I saw many different collections this year...stickers, straws, toys, noodles, crackers, pennies...it is great when my parents help participate to complete projects. With their 100 day project, my students complete a writing about their project. I take pictures, and then we post it in the classroom. In a few weeks, we will turn their 100-day writing into a book.

At another station, students were completing a 100-day book...

Students got to use stickers, daubbers, stamps...just about anything I could find in my classroom. 

While my assistant was at lunch, we had a great time...rolling to 100 and then creating a picture out of 100 foam shape pieces.

 

Our rolling and counting was a great activity. All of the students loved being able to help roll our way to 100! Maybe next year, I will add another dice...

Students loved this once. They got to choose any piece that they wanted and add it to the creation.  The only rule that I gave them was that the piece they added had to touch another piece. We think it looks like a train! Some of my older kids have asked to do this type of activity again...now I just leave out the pattern blocks for them.

At the end of the day...although I did not take pictures...we stamped our way to 100 (10 sets of 10 stamps) and we made 100 Day Hash. 

Overall, our 100 day celebration was a BIG success!