Seasons and Nouns Mashup

We are learning about nouns and we are learning about seasons.  So why not put them together.  First, we watched School House Rocks, "A Noun is a Person, Place, of Thing."  Then we drew pictures of nouns that were matched to the seasons.  Then we made a chart organizing our seasons and our nouns.

Happy Friday,

Open House....aka The Dog and Pony Show

Home...oh so glad to be home.  And lots of good TV tonight, if I can stay awake.  Tonight was our Open House.  Here are some, phone quality, pictures from the evening.

This was in one of my co-teacher's rooms.  I love it.  A whole easel full of students working and learning.

And in another co-teacher's room, I found this on the wall.  Her class is Bee themed and I am loving the word "swarm" in this poster.

 Welcoming rooms are ready! 

Forms for parents to grab.

Our read alouds, we have read so far.

Boxes about us.  Our name, our favorites, things we are good at and need to get better at, and what our super power would be.

 Our schema book...an uncanny amount of kids into MineCraft????

Off to work on my newsletter. 
Happy Thursday,

RIP Canon PowerShot...You Will Be MIssed

Sad day for my camera.  After eight years of hard work, today, it was dropped and I don't think I can fix it.  Here are some of it last images...
I took some pictures of our book advertisement bunting.

And our Super Sized Reader collection.  Last year, we fed Reading Monsters with book titles.  This year, we are filling up our french fry containers with book title fries.

Then we came up with the nutritional information from reading a medium sized french fry title container.

Stamina...100g Smartness...3000g  Words in Head...5000g Knowledge..3000g

We read, The Best Place to Read and then drew pictures of our best place to read.

We also talked about what readers read and drew/labeled that.

And the last pictures the Canon took were how to be a better reader.

That is all for today...I am off to spend more time getting ready for Open House.
Happy Wednesday,

Oh Open House

Open House...or the "Dog and Pony" show as my friend likes to call it is this Thursday.  I do enjoy Open House.  I do not enjoy it this late into September.  Having it earlier, I don't feel like as much work needs to be up...the room is still in good shape...I don't know Chickadees well enough to answer very many academic/social type questions.  The last week of September...we have gotten quite a bit more accomplished.  I know the students a bit better and parents have lots of questions.  But none the less, it is coming and blogging is good time management right now:-) 

Last year's welcome sign!

And some of us need Brain Breaks, while others of us need naps.  This kiddo breaks my heart....if he isn't late, he comes to school exhausted.  He fell asleep doing his morning activity.  He was completely out...the rest of the class is singing/dancing to one one of our brain break songs!  And yet...I know exactly how he feels and wish I could go back to sleep after arriving at school so horribly early!  Then he woke up and finished his work as if he had never fallen asleep:-)

Happy Tuesday,

Distracted...

I had ever intention of posting something fatastically school related and then got distracted by my future husband.  So in celebration of the Emmy's and my love of Josh Groban....2012:

And from 2008:

That's all....no more videos.  I promise.  Tomrorow will be completely classroom relevant!

Happy Sunday,

Saturday Morning Videos

Happy Weekend Everyone! 
Saturday morning cartoons were the best when I was a kid.  Then I grew up and this morning, I watched videos.  Not sure what it is about Britain's got talent...but I get so sucked into watching clips on youtube.  Paul Pott's audition is my favorite.  I love love Simon Cowell's face!

And this is a 7 year old poet....so so cute!

And if you have not heard of Caine's Arcade, you must check it out!  A 9 year old creator of a cardboard arcade.  It has been around for a while, but a friend just showed me the "where is he now" It is inspiring kids everywhere!

Click the picture to watch the video.

Now there is even a cardboard challenge for kids imagine and create their own ideas!  And a foundation for inspiring imagination.

Click for chapter 2.

Happy Saturday,

Book Bunting

In case you aren't already aware...I love reading.  I love getting kids excited about reading.  I love books.  I have a whole pinterest board dedicated to phrases, quotes, and images about books.  I showed this pin board to my Chickadees today.

Then we talked about advertisements and slogans.  I gave them a banner piece and asked them to make a slogan or poster about reading.   There are not words for how shocked I was by what they came up with.  I few of them missed the point entirely...a few copied one from the above board...but the rest are so clever and original.  Here they are for your viewing pleasure:-)

McDonald's Inspiration

"Books Make Me Hungry."

Dinosaurs are walking out of the book.

Love the airplane book!

Now I just have to punch holes in the top, string them together, and hang them up!

Happy Friday!

Have a Laugh, Enjoy Some Birds, and Some Seasons

Laughing is one of my most favorite things and last night my roommate introduced me to the world of Justin Timberlake Does Things.  Pictures of J.T. doing normal things with captions that make them extraordinary.  For example,

Justin Timberlake makes his golf clubs kiss.

Cardboard Sliding...

This next part is for my friend Jenny, over at Owl Things First.  She is a fabulous teacher/blogger and she also LOVES birding.  Now she has another reason to visit Oregon....In Portland we have an elementary school with a  chimney.  Thousands of Swifts are migrating South, and on the way they stop to roost for the night in the chimney at Chapman elementary.  Apparently they have been returning to this chimney since 1980!  So people flock to the school grounds and neighboring park with picnics and wait to watch.  My friend even said that hawks show up and chase the swifts through the sky.  So cool..and kids entertain themselves by sliding down the hills on pieces of cardboard.  Click here for more info.  So cool and yet SO Portland:-)

Waiting...

They all go into the chimney...safe from weather....and falcons and hawks.

And finally a little bit from the classroom.  This week we started learning about seasons.  Just to start, I played a little bit of The Four Seasons, by Vivaldi.  While the music played we drew images that would be appropriate for each season.  They already know quite a bit, apparently.

Happy Thursday,