Class Self Portraits

We finished our self-portraits today.  Every other year, I have used water color to do self-portraits. This year, we used colored pencils....so much better:-) 
First we watched a youtube video....because my kids listen better when someone else says it:-)

We drew with pencil and then traced with sharpie (on top of an art folder of course) Art folders are brilliant....simply a file folder.  Anytime we do art we put it under our work....keeps glue, marker, oil pastel off of the table tops.  And sometimes, if we aren't to the messy part of art, it helps keep all our materials together.

Ready to color with colored pencil.

Next we chose ONE color and color the background.  Use the same color, but press harder and add a line/shape pattern to the background.

During the summer, I read an amazing blog post about making frames.  So I pulled that up again and had my chickadees cut the inside of the frame out and edge the border.  (I traced the lines for where they would cut the middle out.)  You must check out and follow Create Share Teach. Her classes portraits look great also.  Then yesterday Cara posted about her self-portraits and I loved the little addition of white to the frame, so my chickadees could choose to put some white around their frame.

 Finally, we glued the frame to our portrait.  So fun!

All done.  Tomorrow, we are going to add adjectives that describe us to each of the sides.

Love the missing tooth!

Now off to Junior High group!
Happy Wednesday,

How Are You Smart?

How We are Smart Board

Miss Trayers over at Not Just Child's Play had a lovely post about multiple intelligences a few weeks ago.  She used How We are Smart to introduce the kinds of smart.  I got the book from the library a couple of days ago and we have been reading smart by smart.  Then we thought about how we might learn best. 

I printed a page that had a simple graphic for each of the "smarts."  (Just did a google image search for one.) 

Then we started thinking about what one best fit us and how we would show that.

"I am picture smart because I make pictures to show my ideas."

"I am music smart because I am good at music."

"I am picture smart because I love drawing.  I can use drawing for math and tell stories."

"I am picture smart because I like inventing things."

"I am math smart because I can do subtraction, plus, mulitplication, and division..."it goes on:-)

I didn't give a lot of direction for what they did to show how they were smart.  I did have mine finished and I wrote going around the edge, in a circle.  So some kids copied that and others just wrote somewhere on the page.  I found their thoughts fascinating.  They probably don't completely get the whole multiple intelligence thing, but maybe the grasped a piece:-)

I am music smart....I would like to be body smart, so I could do what the amazing people on So You Think You Can Dance do!  What smart are you?

Happy Tuesday,

Fire Drills...Loathing. Unadulterated Loathing....

Fire drills are the worst thing ever!  (Even though they are practical and necessary!)  My kids think it is an extra recess.  After assuring that everyone is out of the building, I need a recording that repeats, "Face away from the building"...."Now is not a good time for picking flowers."..."Walking feet"...
No amount of bribery rewarding or practicing works.  But like Pollyanna, I will be GLAD that nothing truly is on fire and it was a beautiful day to practice.

On another note...I LOVE my blog makeover.  It makes me smile (unlike fire drills) and my chickadees finally finished a bunch of projects and got them up on the walls.

Bulletin Board Titled:  Chickadees by the Numbers and the Books

We glued our Important Numbers to one side.  The other side is a picture of us reading.  We colored, just the book.  (We were imitating Mo Willems.)  And added a speech bubble for the prompt, "Reading Makes Me Feel _____________ because _________________."  (Imitating a Todd Parr book.)

"Reading makes me feel awesome because it makes me go places."

"Reading makes me feel excited because it is fun.  You can use your imagination."

"Reading makes me feel somewhere else because it there's a book about Japan, I feel like I am in Japan."

"Reading makes me feel good because it inspires me to read more books."

"Reading makes me feel outstanding and excited because it's good for my brain."

Slowly, adding what we are reading to the board.

We all colored the first initial of our names.

Happy Monday,

Before and After Something Good

Barb has finished my blog makeover and I LOVE it!
Here is the before....

And the after...

The whole process is fascinating.  Barb is so clever and creative....Chickadee Jubilee has gone from drab to fab! Check out her classroom blog, Grade Onederful and her design blog, Ruby Slippers Blog Designs.

I am linking up with Rowdy in First, who is having a Tell Me Something Good Party.  Such a fun linky idea--like playing the Pollyanna Game.

Something Good From School-
Love all of my 35-2nd and 3rd graders.  This week we are finally ready to start switching them up for math.  Math is so much easier to teach when everyone is approximately at the same level of learning.  I am teach the stragglers....this is my favorite group to teach.  I was never behind in math, it just didn't come easily and I would rather have had my head in a book.  So empathizing with these stragglers is easier for me.

Something Else Good From School-
I love my teaching team.  There are five of us all working with 2/3 blends and it is so much fun.  Seeing how we are all different is quite fascinating and I think stretches us as teachers.


Something Good From Home-I think we successfully located the yellow jacket nest.  I talked my brother into spraying hornet/wasp stuff into the siding and I am thinking GOOD thoughts about the outcome because there is no way I am going out there to check!

Got good stuff to share?  Join the party.  If everything is looking down, searching for the good has got to put a bit of a positive spin on your day.  Some motivation....a couple of them are from Pinterest and a couple of them are from Owl Things First.

soure

source

My Love-Hate Relationship with Saturday...or Why I Need 3 Day Weekends

Let me tell you about Saturdays....I get up at 4am for a Bible Study Leader's Meeting that meets at 5:30.  Because if you want to get a large group of women together, what possible conflict could there be at 5:30am?  (Besides sleeping, of course!)  Everyone else attends the study on Monday evenings...a much more appropriate time to be awake.  So I get back home around 8 and return to bed for the rest of the sleep that needs to be recouped from the week.  Binge sleeping is what I like to call it.  Which means that around 11 I get up and start the day.  The next time I look at the clock, it is 8pm.  How is this happening?  Seriously who is stealing my Saturdays?  Sunday mornings are spent at church...although I do not have to get up quite as early.  Then the afternoon is reserved for lesson planning and getting ready for the week.  Clearly I need an extra day in my weekend!

On the other hand, Saturday is full of blogging time.  Here are some fabulous posts I have been catching up on:
Click the pic to check it out-
First Grade Wow:  A great post about good readers....and a freebie at the end.  SO cute.

Peacocks and Penguins:  A whole bunch of good stuff and some giveaways...but what I LOVED was an anchor chart about reasons readers have for abandoning a book...and she uses duct tape to make them fancy.

Classroom Fun: A fun back to school post using The Kissing Hand.

The Teaching Thief:  All about read to self and stamina.  Love using Michael Phelps to talk about stamina. 

Today, however, I am having reading withdrawals.  So I going to sit on my porch with my quilt, coffee, and a book.  Option paralysis about which one to start, though....

Happy Saturday,

For those of you interested in an amazing study of Genesis....go to www.bsfinternational.org. I am freely endorsing Bible Study Fellowship....wonderful people and a wonderful study.  It is international and non-denominational....you can travel and visit classes in other countries who are studying the same lesson that you would be if you were still at home.   And they have children's programs so you can work together as a family too!
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Funny Friday

Start your Friday with laughting.  Saw them last night and am still laughing!

You think you've soaked in all of the awkwardness...and then you realize she has a goat on her lap.

laptop privacy sweater

Happy Friday,