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!

Saturday, January 28th

So another big event in my classroom was our holiday party! On our last day before vacation, I decided to throw my students a holiday party. After all of the hard work, they deserved a break...So here are some of the things we did!

Our party actually started the week before during their speech time. Our speech teacher helped the students make holiday cookies...we rolled them out, baked them and then decorated them! What an awesome activity for them!

In the middle of our holiday party, we had a surprise visitor! The students LOVED it! Our Santa brought a gift for each student...it was GREAT!

 The final activity that we do during our holiday party is to decorate edible Christmas trees! This are sugar cones, with frosting on them. Then we decorate our 'trees' with m and m's, skittles, sprinkles, rope candy...any kind of candy you can find! Students love this activity...and it is a great addition to our holiday movie! What an easy party for me to plan...

The Puppet Lady

Monday, January 23

Today, I am looking back a little bit earlier in the year. For this "look back" I want to talk about our experience with the Puppet Lady.

From October through December (2 times a week for 30 minutes) my students got the honor of having the Puppet Lady come to our school. Since our school is a Fine Arts Magnet, we get to do fun activities. One of the highlights is having an artist come to the classroom for a residency. This year, we had the Puppet Lady, Ellen Shultz, come to our classroom. To say my students loved her is an understatement. 

This picture shows the variety of puppets we made first. We got to make hand puppets, so the students could have something to take home. We learned from a few years ago, that they are more willing to let us keep puppets at school longer if they could take one home first. This puppet took us about 2 weeks to make. Each day, we added something new: the eyes, nose, ears and tongue were added. Then we practiced how to make our puppets "talk." 

I also used these puppets for a writing assignment for my higher students. Although I didn't take pictures, they had to describe their puppets in writing!

These are pictures of Ellen showing us the different steps of how to make our adapted marionette puppets that we eventually used for the show. We had to choose the head, mouth shape, cut out the foam for the face, choose the color of our puppet, put in the arms and hands, and choose the hair pieces. You can see our final puppets below!

Aren't we a cute set of puppets!

At the end of making our puppets, we put on a show for our parents and other students at the school! The students had so much fun...and although she has been gone, they are still asking for the Puppet Lady to come and visit! 

Tomorrow, I will talk about our Holiday Party....what fun we had before we went on vacation for almost 3 weeks!  =)

Until next time...

Sunday, January 22, 2012

So the third topic in getting to know me would have to be the reason why I started this blog: my classroom. The students that I have are awesome! And seeing everyone out there posting about their classroom, the chaos, the greatness that happens, I knew I could be a part of it...and every day, my students teach me something new...maybe...they will be able to teach you a thing or two too!

This year (well at this point anyway) I have a group of 15 students. A small class you say? Not in the world of Moderate to Severe special day class...another area that makes my classroom unique is that I am the only ungraded (1-6) class left in my district. Finding a happy medium to meet every one's physical, social, emotional and educational needs has been a struggle this year...as it is every year! 

I have 15 students: over half of my students are 1st or 2nd graders, two 3rd graders, one 4th grader, one 5th grader and one 6th grader. And when someone looks in my classroom, they will definitely see controlled chaos! It is how a special education teacher functions best...I think!

With all of that said: I can also say that this is one of the BEST group of kids that I have had. They definitely make me think! I am excited to share with you the projects that we have done...we had a fun Christmas party, the puppet lady came to spend time with my class, we completed our Snowmen at Night book (I will post pictures of their pages later this week) as well as we just finished our 100 day celebration! This week will be a look back at the beginning of the year so that I can catch you up! 

Until next time...

My family

January 18, 2012

Today I am going to talk about my family...since I know that they will show up more than once in this blog. It is nice to write about them after a good night  :)

I have been with my partner for over 10 years. We are raising two beautiful boys (Mr. NASCAR and PIRATE-I will call them!) Mr. NASCAR is a first grader in dual immersion-he is learning Spanish and English at school. Some days we wonder if that is a good idea, as he doesn't really like reading...but he is getting better! Mr. NASCAR loves race cars and racing. His favorite racer is Jimmie Johnson...and we watch NASCAR races EVERY weekend they are on!

PIRATE is in pre-school. He loves his school. PIRATE...is a pirate. We often say that most children dress up as pirates...but that he is a pirate that has to dress up as a little boy every day! That says a lot about his personality. 

Today was a good night! After coming home from work (I will describe that tomorrow), the boys played nicely. Currently, we are in a Superhero phase, so play time was all about Superheros! At least there was not a lot of fighting or screaming!

Until tomorrow...

January 17, 2012

So, I am new to this whole blogging thing, but as I have started doing more things with my students, I figured I could start a new blog! What a big step. As I get started, I will tell you a little bit about myself, my students and my family...as I am sure that they will all show up on this blog eventually!

Today, I will start about me! I am a special education teacher: specifically-a moderate/severe teacher in a special day class. I am originally from Minnesota, but settled in California, and have a feeling I will be here for the majority of the rest of my life. I love it here! I love being able to visit the snow in the mountains, but return to the warmth of my house...Before I became a teacher, I was a photographer for Olan Mills...probably my true passion! I have many funny stories about photographing small children that came into my studio, their parents, and the ups and downs of said job! Each one of those stories has helped me turn into the person that I am today.

I have my masters degree (just finished it actually...)and am very happy that it is finished. I can see myself returning to school one day to get my early childhood credential...but for now that will wait!

I love scrapbooking. Trying to find time to scrapbook and liking it are two totally different things. I love to read...I am more successful at finding time to read...especially now that I have a Kindle (and if you like to read, I would definitely suggest a Kindle)!

That is enough about me for today...off to get on the treadmill! Tomorrow you will hear about my family!