Wonderful Speaker

This weekend I had the opportunity to go hear a phenomenal speaker with several schools. It was a Saturday morning - hard to get teachers motivated on a Saturday just before Christmas break. We were all blown away. If you ever get the chance to hear Dr. Adolph Brown - GO!!! You will love it. There are video clips on his website. I bought one of his books to read and can't wait. I know my description will never be close to seeing him in person, but I promise he is worth the time. One thing that stands out is that if you can't picture all your students graduating college, then find a new job.

Our Christmas Wishes

Our school has a door decorating contest. I really don't care for them because it usually is what teacher spends the most time decorating, not showing off the what the students do. I came across this idea for a bulletin board at Caffeinated Teacher and decided to adapt it for our door. I had my K-2 students tell me what they wished they could give or do for someone else for Christmas. We had a discussion about people less fortunate than us, so most of them caught on. We made a small letter to Santa that folded into an envelope from here. Then my 3rd-5th graders wrote a longer wish explaining why they wished that. We put their stories inside a gift box to open and read. I thought it came out cute!

tag to encourage people to read our wishes

inside a letter

a box opened

Field Trip

Yesterday I went with kindergarten on a field trip to see Babes in Toyland. It was a pretty good trip and somehow I ended up with the most talkative kid ever as my seatmate on the bus! I'm not kidding, he talked or sang the entire way there and back! I heard about his dad's truck, his uncle's car, how his sister is white, but his other sister and him are white and black, last year they took food on a field trip, I've been there, I live there, and he sang the green, red, and blue songs for me! He also got very excited about a building and thought that should be our field trip. I turned to see, expecting a fire station or something but it was . . . a uniform cleaning building! Got to love the mind of a 5 year old!

Thanksgiving

Oh I love teaching about Thanksgiving - being thankful, pilgrims, Native Americans, and food! Some of my kids give interesting answers when we discuss what we learned. Did you know that the Pigwams came over on the Flower? Love it. Oh and the things we're thankful for! Here are a few from my older kids - helping anyone in help (need, maybe?), my frinds (exact spelling), my family for coming to my house, having the best parents, and my mom because she brought me to life (aww!). My younger ones had lots of ideas too - food, toys, no not my brother, trees, school, my dog, my bunny rabbit that we had to give away to someone that doesn't have any pets, not my baby sister, my hampster, grandma, my friends, my teacher, my fish, learning, my dog and my sister (in that order) and my favorite - Jesus. Happy Thanksgiving!

Great Book

I ordered a bunch of books from Scholastic the other day and noticed a new one by Audrey Penn (author of The Kissing Hand). I had to buy it. I noticed the title - Chester Raccoon and the Acorn Full of Memories. I figured it was some sort of fall book and didn't read the description. I was quite surprised when I started it and realized it was about Chester having a friend pass away. It was so sad; I was almost in tears walking down the hall (bad idea to read new books while walking around)! It was very well written though, and would be great for a class that lost a student. I would've loved to have it the year our school lost 3 kids from one family. I highly recommend this book - just read it alone the first time!

Hibernation

One of my 2nd graders needed to finish a quiz for his classroom teacher. I set him at a table and let him work. Here's one of his questions and his answer! It was all I could do not to laugh!

Love Is in the Air!

I started my day covering a 2nd grade class whose teacher had a doctor's appointment. While in there, I intercepted a note that a little boy was trying to pass!

I thought it was too cute to get upset over!

I worked with my kindergarten group who did much better than yesterday. When they were lining up, one little boy (with the same name as my hubby) looked up and said, "I love you!" Aww, he's a cutie! Look out JZ - you've got some competition, lol!