The NEW Rug!!!

The kids have SO much more room. I had a bit of rearranging to do, but it was well worth the extra work. Everyone knows where they belong, there haven't been any stepped on fingers in a while, and I actually have a space to put my feet!! YAY, DonorsChoose!

YAY, Rug! 

Doesn't it look nice?! I am just so happy! Can you tell that I am REALLY happy?

Between the new rug and this new behavior chart: My classroom has been working like a fine tuned machine. I found this chart on a website. The name is eluding me right now, but I will post it as soon as I remember. I have a paperwork on it at school. LOVE IT!!!!

Did you know??

We have learning about animals and habitats for the past two weeks. The kids have been loving it. On Friday, the students created an animal they read about with colored paper. They have been writing "Did you know...?" sentences about the different animals they read about, so I attached the animal to their sentence paper and put it up on the bulletin board. They are going to be so happy to see it on Monday.

America Unit

We learned more about American Symbols this week. I bought the Unit from Deanna Jump's TPT store. The children really enjoyed it, and I was so impressed by their work. They really got into the drawing of the symbols, as well as the writing.

After reading a book about each symbol, we added facts to our tree map. Then, I would attempt to draw the symbol first, by looking at the different "shapes" I could see in it. I have been trying this a lot lately. I often have students who don't like to draw, or think that they don't draw well, and tend to avoid it as much as possible. When I model drawing, I break the image up into different shapes and use that as my "base picture". Then I add details to the drawing wherever needed (eyes, noses, beaks, what have you). The kids think I'm Picasso. I get all kinds of "ooohs" and "aaahs" as I make my attempt. Every now and again I'll be, heckled, as I like to call it. I have a few hecklers this year. Let me tell you, 6 and 7-year-olds are VERY observant! The second you mess something up, they are all over you. Huh, I wish they were that focused on the lesson!

Yesterday, we made paper eagles by tracing our hands and one foot. They had such a great time making them. They were all helping each other out by tracing hands and feet for each other. There was tons of giggling as feet were traced.

But I have to tell you one of the funniest things that happened...

I had made a model of the eagle earlier in the day and showed them what we were going to be doing after we finished the last page of the symbol book. As I went to sit down (eagle in hand) to explain "HOW" we would go about creating the eagle an antsy friend started babbling loudly, "An EAGLE? How are we supposed to make an EAGLE? I can't make an EAGLE. That's too hard. How can we do that???" Heh, considering it was close to the end of the day, and this was one of that student's umpteenth outburst, I turned to the child (eagle STILL in hand) and said in my most patient teacher voice, "Well, if you would let me sit down and speak, I will tell you all how to make the eagle; however, if you continue to yell out like that I am going to say "Clip Down" which will land you on Teacher's Choice, and my choice will be for you to sit out. Do you understand?" The student looked at me, and nodded yes. As I went to address the whole class, one of my other friends at the rug added, "Yeah, and the eagle's looking at you, too."

I almost lost it.

Life Cycle of a Frog

So, we have these little creatures in our classroom. Man, do they stink! The custodians HATE when we have frogs. Our night custodian keeps asking me how long the Frog Unit will last. Poor Guy.  The kids absolutely LOVE the frogs. I love that you get all the stages (minus the eggs) so that the kids can see them all at the same time. They change right in front of them. I have a Frog Observation Sheet that the kids fill out when they observe the frogs. Very cute.

They go from this...

to this...










then this...

Until, TA-DA... this

They are kind of cute, if you like smelly and slimey...

My new purchase!

My new favorite!!! I bought these boots on Etsy. I absolutely LOVE them!!!  YAY!! I wore them to work today and my feet are still feeling good! A+ to DAWN and her store - FeralPonyVintage... CHECK IT OUT!!!  http://www.etsy.com/shop/FeralPonyVintage

Ten Things I've Learned from Teaching

A BUNCH of the blogs that I follow are posting... The Ten Things I've Learned from Teaching. They call it a LINKY PARTY. I still have no idea what a Linky Party is or if you need an official invite; however, I have apparently decided to invite myself.


The Ten Things I Have Learned from Teaching

10. If a child has a scab from three weeks ago, they will still try to use it as an excuse to go to the nurse's office today.

9. Children eat pencils, erasers, and most of all glue sticks. Please feed your children before sending them in.

8. Be prepared to loose your ENTIRE class the second they see the first snowfall of the season outside.

7. It doesn't matter if you pre-number every other line for sentences. Most of the children will still start at number 1,  and where ever that sentence ends - write number 2, and so on. When they are done they will ask you what all those other numbers were for.

6. 0+0=   is a trick question to most 6-year-olds

5. The statement... "I don't get it."  I still don't get it.

4. Frogs are carnivores and WILL eat their tank mates should the opportunity arise.

3. Every child in your class will call you Mom, Mommy, or Mama at least once, and your heart will melt.

2. A first grader will write during the entire writing workshop if you let them use a felt tip pen.

1. I have the BEST job on the planet.

My Project was FUNDED!!

I am so excited!! I posted a project on Donors Choose a while ago, and I found out yesterday that it was compete! I would have posted yesterday, but I fell asleep while putting my 6-year-old to bed. I'm sure that doesn't happen to anyone else.  Now I will just have to figure out how to rearrange my room in order to fit the rug into my meeting area. Right now I have two medium sized areas, that don't really fit everyone comfortably. That should be an interesting undertaking. I can see the custodians hiding from me already... "No, not that way... Can you move my desk over there?  Nope, that didn't work... How about in this corner...