Red Ribbon Week

This past week was a whirlwind of activity and late nights. I was busy planning parent/teacher conferences as well as making sure I did all of the necessary activities involved in red ribbon week and also trying to think about planning ahead for November which is only a few short days away - AHHHH!!! Where has the time gone!

Red ribbon week was a ton of fun and I wish I would have taken more pictures but again - that takes time - and me actually remembering to do it. I did get a few though and we had a great week of assemblies, prizes, door decorations, dress-up days, poster contests and the book fair - whew!

I also would like to thank all of the parents for great conferences! I feel so blessed to work with such amazing children! They are the reason that I come to work every day and I LOVE it! At this point in the year I am beginning to understand how each child works, how they learn best, what they can and can't handle, etc. and now that I think I have a firm grip on this group of kids I can get my game face on and teach them properly! I enjoyed talking with each of you and look forward to the rest of this schoolyear.

So - apparently I only took 1 picture - on pajama day! We all felt so comfortable we had our reading lesson in the reading corner snuggling teddy bears and learning about ants!

Red Ribbon Week Day #2

Pajama Day! You have no idea how excited I am to go to school in my pjs tomorrow! Silly me did not get a picture of the kids today in all of their "redness" - it was pretty fun! We had a rockin assembly where the kids and teachers participated in rely races of some sort. I think the kids enjoyed it! AND we did get some learning in today - hurray! Success!

Red Ribbon Week

Don't forget to dress in all red tomorrow for red ribbon week. The class wearing the most read gets a prize at the assembly. I would LOVE it if Mrs. Franklin's class came out on top!

Spelling Lists

I am going to do my best to remember to post the spelling list for the upcoming week on Fridays. I know that for some of you it would be beneficial to have a few extra days practicing those spelling words. The five challenge words are for those students who received a note regarding a change in their spelling list.

Thanks and have a great weekend!

Nampa Smiles

We had a fun classroom visitor on Thursday afternoon - a representative from  Nampa Smiles dentist office that came to talk to the class about taking proper care of their teeth - my class did so well sitting quietly for 30 min. They were very alert and asked appropriate questions (you just never know :)) They got to meet Mr. Smiles himself and all received free toothbrushes, silly bands as well as a certificate to go get a free sealant for their teeth, or $25 off any dental procedure at Nampa Smiles.

The funny part about this visit is that I was quickly reminded how long a child's retention level is due to the recess bell ringing, the PTU's popcorn sale during recess and a classful of students coming back to the classroom with handfuls or Airheads and popcorn :) I just had to chuckle to myself and remind them to brush their teeth when they got home! Crazy kids!

recycling cans for a purpose!

So - we were reading a little social studies inquiry in our reading books one day and it said something about recycling soup cans for pencil holders. As we read this I got a brilliant idea - my students NEEDED something to put their pencils in due to constant digging through desks to get their pencils out every 5 min. and then 50% of the time them coming up with "I can't find mine". So - this was the solution to our problem and so we collected them and then decorated them for the Halloween season. They have actually worked quite well and have saved us some precious teaching minutes in the classroom.

Fairy Tales

Last week my class was studying fairy tales. We enjoyed reading "The Elves and the Shoemaker" and discussing the different components of a fairy tale. I have a love for fairy tales and grew up loving them so it was fun when I got to teach a lesson on them and have the students write their own fairy tale. I was impressed by their ability to grasp the concept so well and do well to construct one on their own. I'm going to share with you a few of the ones that I believed were well-written.
(I will spell the words correctly - even though some of these words were not spelled right - it's not quite as cute in type as it is in print).

Once upon a time there was a dragon and a princess. The princess lived in a castle. There was a prince who fought enemies. The also fought dragons. One day he went to the castle and fought the dragon. He went to the tower and he went to the bed and he saw the princess. He saved her and they lived happily ever after.
~ Halo Tabert

Once upon a time there was a fish in the sea who was very kind. And he was a king. So he wished upon a star. He said, "I wish that I was a wizard." And when he was asleep that night the elves came. They poked him in his head and the next morning he was a wizard. And he was very happy! Then one day he used a wand and it worked and he lived happily ever after.
~ Meleni Perez

Once upon a time there was a shoemaker, three elves and an evil witch. One day the elves went to the woods to see the witch. But when the witch opened the door she turned one of the elves into a frog. So the two elves and the little frog ran back to the village. When they got home one of the elves said, "I know what to do! The witch just needs a friend." So they asked the shoemaker to bake some cookies so that they could send them over to the witch. So they did. Then the witch and the elves became friends. And they lived happily ever after.
~Laura Forsgren

Once upon a time there was three little pirates. And they were mad because they didn't have any food. They sailed off to the shore and they found treasure and food. They pirates lived happily ever after.
~Luke Westrand

Once upon a time there was a princess and a horse. The princess heard footsteps in the woods. She was scared! And then out came a horse that was as purple as a sock and they made friends. Then they lived happily ever after.
~Anonymous

I LOVE reading what my kids write. I get a huge kick out of hearing the way that they put words together and how they construct stories. I hope to post many fun examples of their writing throughout the year.

picture spelling

This week for spelling practice in the classroom my students used their spelling words to trace a picture. They enjoyed drawing with their spelling words and didn't realize that they were writing each word like 10-12 times. It was great - and the pictures turned out really cute as well!