Author visit!!!! The talented Chris Van Dusen, visited our school this week!  He was great with the kids! So engaging, creative and inspiring!  He related to the kids and even took the time to autograph every book for the kids!  Many of you may know him as the illustrator for the Mercy Watson series by Kate DiCamillo or perhaps his own Mr. Magee series.  He has also written and illustrated many other great books: If I Built A Car, The Circus Ship, Randy Riley's Really Big Hit and King Hugo's Huge Ego. To find out how to have Chris Van Dusen visit your school or just to learn more about him, visit his website: http://www.chrisvandusen.com/ 

 

Earth Day 2012

Click on the Earth Day 2012 link below to see our Earth Day video!

Earth Day 2012

Computer Lab

 
Sometimes it's the little things that count! I came back to the classroom to find this note laying on my desk.  One of my students used their free choice computer lab time to type me a note, using the information I had taught them about Microsoft Word.  She was so proud that she remembered how to insert an image into the note!

Kamishibai Stories (Paper Theater)

 

Kamishibai (Paper Theater) is a form of storytelling that originated in Japan and was most popular from the 1920's -1950.  The Kamishibai storyteller would ride into town on their bicycle, gather the children by banging two sticks together (as seen in the first image), sell homemade candy to make a bit of money, then tell a story using the Kamishibai theater attached to their bicycle.  These stories typically had a lesson to teach / moral. After learning about awesome form of writing / storytelling, we wrote these Kamishibai stories with our fourth grade writing buddies and illustrated all of the pictures to accompany the story.  This activity is always a favorite of my students and one they remember for many years. To learn more about Kamishibai visit http://www.kamishibai.com/

Read Across America!

For Read Across America Week, every student in our school will be creating posters of their favorite books! We will be hanging these around the school during the month of March to encourage literacy and the enjoyment of reading! These are a sampling of my students' posters!

Word Study Watercolors!

I was feeling like word study was getting a bit repetitive so last week I thought I would change it up a bit! The kids really enjoyed painting their spelling words! It also turned out to be a good spacial awareness lesson, trying to fit all of the painted words on the piece of paper!

Wonder Tubes

I found these I SPY Wonder Tubes at a local store a few weeks ago. My students really enjoy I SPY books so I thought these would be a fun addition to the classroom. Each tube is wrapped with a riddle of different items to find, similar to the books but in this case, the items are floating in the wonder tubes! I put these out at one of my centers and the kids loved them!

Versatile Blogger Award!

Wow! We've been so busy with our new puppy that it's been a few days since I've checked my email and what a great surprise it was when I saw that I had been awarded The Versatile Blogger award by four other bloggers!  A big thank you for the award to:

Sara- Smiling in Second Grade
Lori- La-La's Home Daycare
Erika- 2B Honey Bunch
Deb- Simply the Classroom

So for this award I have to share 7 things about myself and pass the award onto 15 other blogs!

1. If I weren't a teacher I would love to be an interior designer!

2. I volunteered with the Peace Corps- best experience of my life!

3. I hate the sound of people chewing / eating their food.

4. We just adopted a rescue puppy!

5. I love to travel!

6. I lived in Dijon, France- miss visiting all the vineyards.

7. The day I got married there was a hurricane! At least they say, a wet knot never comes undone!

15 deserving blogs: 

Ms. Kerri and her Krazy Kindergarten
First Impressions
Ms. Emily Snell
Step into 2nd Grade with Mrs. Lemons
My Life as a Fifth Grade Teacher
Funky First Grade Fun
Fifth Grade Fun- a "shore" thing!
Mrs. Jump's class
Ingles360
Yearn to Learn
Ms. Preppy
Teaching My Friends!
Runde's Room
Mrs. Patton's Patch
Doodle Bugs Teaching