Summer Vacation...

Summer vacation has started in my house! My oldest son is done with school...he starts 2nd grade in the fall...and my little one has about 1 month left of preschool...and he starts kindergarten in the fall...Very hard for me to believe.


But here are some things that we are doing during our vacation...so far...

The first picture is from the Purple Easel, where the boys painted their own monkey. They take you step by step through the process! It was a lot of fun to paint with them. We will definitely be heading back there soon!

The second picture is my NEW Mazda5! We traded in the van for something a little smaller, but still has 3 rows! I LOVE IT!

I hope that we can manage to have more fun during our summer!

The End of a Year

So...our year ended last Wednesday! Pretty crazy to be out before Memorial Day, but it is true! My kids were pretty good the last couple of days of school, which is nice. I do have a big scratch on my arm...one of my students on my last day was pretty freaked out and screamed most of the morning. UGH! But that was the worst part of it! Although not much academics happened the last 3 days of school...My week looked something like this:


*Monday-talent show, movie, lunch, home. (we left at 1:00 each day).
*Tuesday-calendar, clean up, pass out work, movie, lunch, home.
*Wednesday-calendar, group writing about summer, movie (finish from Tuesday), picnic (the kids wanted a pizza party--they had pizza on their last day...perfect for ME), home.

Here is our group writing about summer. My students loved telling me what they wanted to do over the summer and what they liked about summer. They even talked me and my two assistants into participating.


With that being the last thing that we did, I spend Thursday and half of Friday taking down my room! The exciting news for me is that I am moving schools! I put in a transfer request, went through the QR (Qualification Review--an interview) and my transfer request was accepted! Which, for me, means two VERY important things. The first--I am going from an ungraded (1-6) to an upper grade (4-6) class. I am very excited about having only half of the ages that I am used to in my class. The second thing is that I am going from modified traditional to C track. C track runs July, get August off, then from September-November, get December off, then from January-March, get April off, and then May-June...I haven't been on a track for a few years, so I am excited to go back to a track school! 


I go back for teacher days July 2-3, and then kids come back on July 5th. I will post pictures as I get my room set up. The hard part for now...is waiting...the new teacher doesn't have to be out until 2 weeks before then! 


Wish me luck! I am very excited to start my new adventure. I have been teaching for almost 6 years, and all 6 years have been at the same school with the same administrator. It is definitely time for a change. 

Our Valentine Craft

Another old craft time! This craft is one of my favorites...and I actually took pictures of it this year. Each year, I do a different spin on this same craft...and this year my kids got to choose between two crafts. It is fun for them, because I always use their hands...Here are the steps!

First, have your student trace their hands with their fingers spread apart. Have your student  cut out around their hand.

Bend down the middle and ring finger and glue down. Place a heart on the  fingers. This is I LOVE YOU in sign language.

This is great for a single hand. Students love this! If you have a student that is great a cutting, they can do 3 hands. Each hand will have the first letter of the words I Love You! 

For three hands. The first hand bends down all of the fingers  but the pinky. The second finger bends down the three last fingers to make and L. The last hand bends down the three middle fingers to make the Y. Put hearts on all three hands to say I LOVE YOU!

I let all of my students choose their their color of their hearts and the color for their strings to make them a banner. 

And my parents loved them! It was a fun project for my students to make and then come home!

My kids LOVE....

SCIENCE! 


Since we work through the CAPA (California Alternative Performance Assessment) and the district's BASICS2 curriculum, science can be included throughout our year. We do science on Thursday (our minimum day). 


Usually, we continue with our rotations to complete our science activities, as it is easier to teach 4 in a small group, then 14 in a large group. But for this lesson, we did large group, and then the following week we did the worksheet. The students really seemed to like this activity.


Here are some pictures...

Here are the items that the students tested...a button, a paperclip, screw and a  shoelace.

Here are the items that go with the worksheet below...After we tested them to see if they sink or float.

The worksheet...Students circled the up arrow if the item floated, and the down arrow if it sunk to the bottom.

 Overall, a fun science activity. And a pretty easy one to have my kids do! Can't wait to try some more...

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!