Lunch Organization

At my school, students sign up for one of two lunch choices in the morning.  It is my chickadees first thing to do in the morning, which also allows me to quickly note who is absent, by looking at whose lunch magnets are still on the tray.  On the first day of school, we make magnets.  Another post can be devoted to this, although they are really easy to make and all the students have to draw is put a picture and their name on a small round piece of paper.  This is what the sign up board looks like as students start arriving in the morning (although choice 2 seems to be missing today:-) 

This is the lunch magnet's home.  They start and end everyday here.  The blue box has all the lunch team supplies.

Inside the blue box: 
Lunch Count Paper:  The lunch team puts the lunch count paper out in the hall.  They count up choice 1 and choice 2, write it down, and send it to the office.  
Small Filing Box:  This is where all the lunch choices are.  At the beginning of each month, I check for new choices.  I print them on adhesive labels and stick them to a piece of bulletin board border.  After laminating the lunch choice, I put a small piece of magnet on the back.  I use the same border for the lunch choices as I do around the whole board.  

At the end of the day, the lunch team gets the choice box out, looks at the lunch menu, and puts them in the appropriate section of the lunch sign-up board.

How does lunch work at your schools?
Happy Wednesday,
 

Seeds for the Ground

We have begun Mother's Day Preparations!  Pinterest is a great place to store ideas for things like parent gifts and Mother's Day ideas.  One of the ideas I found a while ago was shaped seed planters, from Me and My Shadow.  First we split the 2nd grade into two groups.  One group worked on cards while the other made their seed shapes.


Group One's Activities:
Blend paper and water....strain...write name on paper towel...smush pulp into cookie cutter...remove cookie cutter...

Now we have to wait for them to dry and then we will be wrapping them up and attaching a set of planting directions and a card.

Group Two's Activities:
Cut out the word mom....draw a lovely picture of her....write about how much you love her....if time draw a picture of something she likes....

And today, I read this in an e-mail:

"An article you wrote in 2012 titled That Was Easy, MLK Jr., and Lots of Other News has earned your blog a nomination for a Fascination Award: 2012's Most Fascinating Elementary Teacher blog.

The comments posted in response to your post prove that your content not only inspires your audience, but it also creates discussion around your posts, both of which are requirements for the nomination of a Fascination award."

 

Voting starts on the 14th...but what a great way to start off Teacher Appreciation Week!

 Happy Monday,
 

Tooth Fairy Funness

My class is continuing our study of Wizard of Oz...but what I really want to share is what the 1st grade class across the hall did!  The first graders are studying dental health.  They have soaked an egg in coke, and sugar, and then watched the results.  The halls are going to be full of teeth experts by the end of the week.  Anyway the Tooth Fairy is an important part of learning about teeth.  Look at the bulletin board cuteness!




First they made adorable tooth fairies.  Skirts, for the girls, are made out of coffee filters.  And no outfit would be complete without the tooth belt buckle!

Angry?  Maybe she needs more teeth?

So sweet!

And now we know where are second set of teeth come from:-)

Sleeping dust....this fairy knows the sandman.

Disturbing.....

...

If I Had Ruby Slippers/Sneakers.....

 We started our mini-Wizard of Oz unit, from Abby@The Inspired Apple.  It is so fun, and I am always amazed by the amount of students who have never seen such a classic movie!I learned that many of them are not fans of musicals, unfortunately they have to endure my love of them:-)

This was the scene when we came into our classroom this morning.  Our animal friends were in shock from the scene!  (Hopefully none of them had anything to do with it.)









After we finished the movie, groups shared popcorn and discussed favorite parts, characters, scary parts, settings, etc.

 

Then we made ruby slippers or sneakers and thought of what we would do if we had our own pair.  We cut out a pattern for our shoes and used it to trace onto a red piece of paper.  (Practicing tracing and cutting is hard work for some of us, but go to practice.)

Finally we put all the pieces together and added red glitter.

Love the Nike Swoosh:-)  Also the long list of American Symbols his shoes would take him to see.

"I would tap my shoes three times so I wouls shrink.  I will go live in my Lego houses."

 

Happy Monday....3 more to go!
 

Our Class Has Heart and Currently February

Teaching With TLC had a simple and super cute heart art activity.  And she has a link to a video trailer for the book as well.

So we read the book My Heart is Like a Zoo and watched the trailer.  Then we used a lot of hearts and made an animal.  Finally we had to think of a sentence that used our animal and a descriptive word describing our animal.  SO cute and accessible for all my budding artists!

Checking out the arrangement.

Oh Boy 4th Grade is having her monthly "Currently" party.  I love seeing what everyone is currently up to!

Happy Wednesday,
Laurie

American Eagle....Could Have Been a Turkey

Pictorial Input Chat about American Eagle.

We learned about the American Eagle during our Symbol investigation this week.  My favorite fact (that I learned from the musical 1776) is that Benjamin Franklin wanted a turkey instead of the eagle for our national bird.  My chickadees found that to be pretty funny.  They wanted to know why someone would want a national symbol that you eat:-)   

Then we started making our eagles.  Friends helped us trace our feet and hands.
 

 

After we cut out our foot and our hands, we ripped white paper for the head and added a beak and feet.

Thank you Fun Handprint Art for the eagle idea.

Oopsey Daisy Blog has a tons of amazing units.  I am currently loving her U is for USA unit.  We used action cards to decide how we should transition from one place to another throughout our day.

Hilarious!

Happy Saturday,
Laurie