Here are some of the projects that our class has been working on. The students needed a lot more help with the reindeer project than I had thought they would, but their snowmen are coming out beautifully (I thought they'd need a lot of help with this one, and they didn't...go figure)! They are also working on I like books that are also counting books for presents for their families and they are all doing awesome on this project! Time has been flying by in our classroom!
The show must go on, but I have to say that some of the fine motor craft projects that I have started with the students have been a little stressful to get through without Bev's help. If you didn't know, Bev has been out this week. She was in a terrible accident over the weekend (she hit a moose on route 10 that totaled her van). She's okay, but in a lot of pain. She'll be back, but under the pressure of the upcoming holiday, I've been taking on some of the projects I want the students to get done, even though they're a little challenging to do without the extra help. The major problem with the arts and crafts projects is that I really never know what the students are going to work on independently, and what they're going to need extra help with. They always surprise me in this category. I guess it's just one of those things that make being flexible a necessity in this profession! We're getting things done, though, but it will certainly be nice to have Bev back!

Okay, I know it's been awhile since I've entered anything on this blog. My excuses include forgetting to take pictures while in the midst of our classroom days and the holidays. Never fear, though, I've been using the time I'd use to create new blogs to create fun things for the students to do for the holiday season that are educational as well. I can't imagine what this year would look like without the help of our paraeducator, Bev, and the support and help of my husband who cuts, pastes, and traces for me...bless his heart!
I'm hoping that you do look on this site, especially since I am trying to remember to start posting audiobloggers as well. For those of you who do, you'll find an audioblogger of the song the students will be singing for the holiday pageant.
The students have been working so hard on this project along with their normally scheduled projects, and I'm so very proud of them all! It's amazing how much we get done in a day!
Thank you all for remembering those very important outdoor clothes for your students as the days grow colder! The fresh air does them a world of good, and the warm clothes makes their outdoor time all that more enjoyable. I'll have pictures posted on here shortly. Take care of yourselves and each other!

Here are some of the cool activities that we did the week of October 31, 2005. The students matched numbers to sets of candy corn, and then as a class, we figured out how many candy corns each student had (55 each)!
The skeletons came out fabulous and I was truly amazed that the students were able to complete these skeletons in one sitting. In order to do this project, they had to cut out bones from two different pieces of paper. Each bone had atleast one number on it (most had two). The students then had to find other bones with the same numbers in order to piece their skeletons together (for example, one bone had the number 4, and so did another bone, so these two bones went together). There were some numbers (past the tens) that proved tricky, and the students needed some guidance and direction during this activity, but for the most part, students did this activity by themselves and it only took them about 45 minutes. Cutting alone often takes 20-30 minutes with pieces as small as the bones were, never mind having to match up numbers. Obviously, the project was a big hit with the kids, or they wouldn't have completed it!
I am amazed at what these kids are doing on a daily basis. They are learning things that I've only informally been teaching them as well as grasping some very difficult concepts, such as problem solving and graphing. We did our first Venn Diagram this week using apples, and the students loved the activity!
Our classroom Paraprofessional, Bev, surprised the class and I by cleaning out desks that were in storage and bringing them in. Now each student has their own desk and own place for their things. It's wonderful, and I'm really hoping to find the right seating arrangement for each student, for now that they're all friends, it is sometimes challenging to get them to listen to what I'm teaching (they'd much rather socialize sometimes, of course)! It's also really nice to have the desks because some of the students are accumulating a lot of papers since they often choose to use stencils and/or write during free choice time. It looks as though we will now be cleaning out desks during quiet times on Fridays (?)!

Here are a few of the sorting activities we worked on today. We also worked on number formation (0-3), and big and little "M"'s through tracing in shaving cream. We spent a lot of time creating kites (more than I had thought we would)...but the students really liked this activity, and since it really helped them with BOTH gross and fine motor skills, I went with it. We also put pages of our Firefighter books that we created in the proper order.

Today was a great day! We practiced having a firedrill. We created hippo puppets and all of the students did really well on these. We also worked on identifying ABB patterns, and had the word problem, "Leah had 8 acorns, Mark had 4. How many more acorns did Leah have than Mark?" The students did great on the counting and the process of figuring out how to solve this problem. We will start learning on the letter M on Friday. Please feel free to send in your pizz book goals whenever they are filled out.

We had a great Monday! We worked on the letter H some more and the students finished their phonics pages. We will be celebrating all of their hard work on Wednesday by creating Hippo puppets!

The students really worked well today on patterning projects and had a lot of fun creating and/or finishing patterns. The students helped me read Wildlife 1-2-3, and we also counted and put numbers in their proper order today.

We created a class story using some of our senses in science, and the students had a chance to guess what they heard for noises around our classroom.

In social studies I read a few books about firefighters and firestations, and the students started coloring a fire fighter book that they will be able to bring home with them.

The Yankee Candle Fundraisers are now over with. I hope you're enjoying these postings!

The class field trip to the fire station was a big hit, and to thank the firefighters and the women's auxiliary, the class created thank you pictures when we returned to the classroom.

We also worked on some motions in the afternoon (we used the songs I Like Peanut Butter and Rum, Sum, Sum). The thing I like best about using motion activities with the students is that it allows me to casually assess the ability of students to use deliberate motions. It also helps students to hone in on their ability to use good listening and following directions skills. The best part? The students really love to sing and move!

We started working on estimation in math today. Estimation is a tricky concept and I'm hoping that students will come to understand it more in the days to come.

I am excited about this blog, and hope you all are, too. The one thing I ask is that you don't use it as a personal chat room and/or posting board for others. I have primarily set this up to help me with some of my professional goals this year, and need to keep it as simple as possible. However, I do encourage and embrace all of your comments, and will try to respond in a timely manner. Please call or write in the parent/teacher journals for any concerns and/or pressing matters, though, as I'm still not sure of how much time I'll be able to devote to this site over the course of the upcoming months.

I am hoping to start posting classroom pictures to keep everyone current on what's going on during our school days, and will be posting some audio clips of songs we're working on in the near future as well.

Here are some links that I use when I'm planning lessons. There are some great activities on here that you might like to try at home. If you come across other websites that you think might be useful for me, please share!
http://www.learnnc.org
http://www.edhelper.com