100th Day was SUPER!

We celebrated 100th day by dressing up as Super heroes! The kids looked so cute! We had a very full and fun day! 

Germs are EVERYWHERE!

We have been talking about hand washing and how germs are spread. Partly because it is in our health curriculum and partly because lately we have had a lot of sick kids in our class! So I came up with this cute idea! I showed my kids pictures of what microscopic germs actually look like. I found pictures on the internet and put the pictures up on the Smartboard. We talked about the different shapes of the germs and how they can make you feel. We also talked about the easiest way to get rid of them is to wash your hands with soap and water. Then I had the children draw and paint a germ and give it eyes and a mouth. They turned out so cute! Then I had them write about their germ and how it makes them feel. I think they look great and the kids put in such a great effort! I was proud of them! 

I love how every child interpreted the germ in a unique way! Each germ is different and some are so cute!  

I love the googley eyes on the red germ! LOL!

Writing for a purpose!

I love it when my students write for an authentic purpose! This is a photo of a poster 2 of my little girls created. They made the poster when one of them lost her little stuffed mouse. They asked me if they could work together at centre time in the art centre. When I saw what they had created I was so excited! Then they went and hung it up in the hallway, so others could see it and help to find the lost little stuffed mouse. So adorable!
BTW the mouse did "get found"!

Science ROCKS!

We LOVE science! This week we made LAVA lamps! It was super fun! Just listening to the squeals of delight when the children watched the "lava" rising up, was so wonderful! 

I love my little scientists! We have such fun discovering amazing things! 

Wonderful Winter Fun!

January is traditionally my favourite time in grade one! The children are much more focused and interested in learning. We are focusing on Jan Brett's story of "The Mitten". It is such a beautifully illustrated story! The children are writing little reports about each of the animals in the mitten. 

In Science, we created "Winter Wish" bottles! In the bottles, we placed water, glitter, beads, sparkly plastic stones, white plastic snow and baby oil. Then we hot glued the lid on the top and then covered the lid with blue duct tape. The children loved shaking the bottles and watching the oil and water separate and the glitter mixed into the bubbles! So wonderful to watch! 

Believe it or not, I have a pet hedgehog. Her name is Tumbleweed. She is very cute to look at, but has a great big attitude in a little body! She is very funny and stamps her little feet when she is mad. 

She is very hard to take photos of! 

My son gave me this wonderful stuff for Christmas (he was actually thinking of my students)

It was wonderful, my son and I played with it for 2 hours on Christmas day! 

It is called Kinetic Sand. 

My kids LOVE it! 

I made two centre activities with it. One is making words in the sand and the other is straight PLAY! 

(something that is often forgotten in grade one, but I believe children learn best through playing!) 

We have started estimating! I fill the jar with different things and the children place their best guess on a yellow sticky note and then we actually count the items together as a class group. The child with the closest guess, wins all the items in the jar. Some children choose to share the items with the entire class and other children choose to keep the items all for themselves! It is their choice and I do not force them to share. 

We have started working on winter centre activities that relate to vowels, syllables, rhyming, real words and silly words, beginning sounds, medial sounds and ending sounds. So many skills that my kids need to practise! They are working very hard on these activities and are making progress! 

I love how focused they all are! 

I found this wonderful little kit containing theraputty and snowman parts! It was called a Melting snowman kit! I choose a child to build the snowman each day and then over the course of the day, he "melts"! It is so amazing to first graders! 

February promises to be full of even MORE learning and fun! 

A few random holiday things...

Hello there,
I thought I would share a few holiday things that I worked on with my students through the month of December. 

One day in early December we had a terrible snowstorm, however school was not cancelled, just the busses were not running. After getting stuck twice on my way to the school, and having two nice gentlemen dig out my car, I finally arrived at school. Almost every teacher was late or could not make it in that day due to the snowstorm. Many families kept their children at home, but the children who were within walking distance of the school still came. I had a very small class that day (about 9 children), as did almost every teacher in the whole school. So, naturally I didn't want to teach anything new that day, so we had some indoor snowy fun! One activity that was a big hit was, we had an indoor snowball fight! The children LOVED it! 

We also made some decorations for our classroom Christmas tree. 

                The last two days of school before the Christmas break were very busy! 
We had a cookie decorating party with our grade two neighbours, then later on we had a Pudding Fondue party! So fun and delicious! 
Then in the afternoon, our entire school created graham cracker Gingerbread cookie houses! It was lots of yummy fun! What a sugar-y,
 delicious day! 

Pudding Fondue!

Cookie decorating with our gr. 2 neighbours

Candy houses! 

Yummy icing! 

The second last day of school also brought an important first milestone for one of my little boys! He had practised and practised and wanted to be the first person to read a story to the class group! He was so proud and excited to do it! I was so excited for him! He did a great job! 

The last day of school we had a popcorn pajama party and a movie with the entire school! We also had to say good bye to our classroom Elf on the Shelf, Jinglebella! She had to go back to the North Pole and give Santa her report on our behaviour. She left us a goodbye note in the Christmas tree. 

Happy Christmas to all! See you in 2014!

Thriteen in 13!

Hi there! 

This is the first time I have ever linked up with other Bloggers! Hopefully someone will read my posts! I am pretty new to this Blogging world, and I still have A LOT to learn, but so far it is fun! 

So here goes…

13. Favorite clothing….

I love yoga pants! Yoga pants are just so comfy. I have never actually done any yoga, but if I ever do, I am set because most of my pant wardrobe is made up of yoga pants! 

Namaste.

12. My favourite movie…

I love Despicable Me 2! Those Minions are just too cute! Usually I am not a big cartoon person, but this one is so filled with adult humour, I just like it! LOL! 

11. Favorite T.V. series…

I really like Grey's Anatomy. It is usually the only series I love to watch. I tend to be more of a channel surfer, watching here and watching there. I don't really go crazy for any particular series. Oh, I also like the Big Bang Theory. It's kinda cute. 

10. Favorite restaurant…

I am a big fan of eating out. Basically, I do not like to cook. I prefer to be served. I think I used to be extremely wealthily (in a former life) and I really liked it and haven't forgotten what it was like. Anyway, back to the restaurant thing…

I like Vietnamese food. I really like Pho. It is a beef rice noodle soup with bean sprouts and lime and some sort of brown sauce, (hoesin sauce??) anyway, it is yummy! 

I also like Tim Hortons for Honey Cruller doughnuts and a tea lattes! Yum! 

But, hey, you say eat out and I am there! 

9. Favorite New thing you have tried...

I read Conscious Discipline by Dr. Becky Bailey this past summer and decided to implement it in my classroom. I love it and it has made such a difference in how my children treat each other and the classroom. I have loved it so much, I signed up to go and take one of her summer institutes! So excited to go! 

8. Favorite gift…

My i-pad mini! I love, love, love it!!! It is so easy and fun to use! My hubby gave it to me. I always tell him it is the best gift he has ever given me, besides my diamond! 

7. Favorite thing you pinned…

I just can't pick! I love Pinterest and often think I need a pintervention! It's kinda like a magazine, you can go through pages and pages of stuff, just scrolling and scrolling. It's so fun! I love looking at all the amazing ideas! 

6. Fave Blog Post…

Hmmm…since I just started, I am not sure I have a favourite yet. 

5. Best Accomplishment…

Well, I can't really think of an accomplishment in 2013. If I could think of an accomplishment in my entire teaching career, I was thrilled to be nominated for an Excellence in Teaching award. It was even better when I won! Honestly was the icing on the cupcake! I never thought I would ever make it through all the elimination rounds, but I did! 

4. Favorite Picture… 

My basset hound is my baby! I swear I have taken more pictures of her than I have ever taken of anything! (including my son!) 

3. Fave Memory of 2013…

Renovating our basement and creating a beautiful new family room, bathroom and a HUGE crafty room for me!! I love my craft room! It is fabulous! I have a whole room to paint, craft, sew and try out lots of different art projects! Yay! I am still in the process of decorating it and making it my own. I decided to call it, Whispering Angel Art Studio. I even found a beautiful statue of an angel to place in the room. She's lovely. 

2. Goal for 2014…

I have been working on this for a while, but this coming year is THE year! I am going to lose the last 45 pounds! I have already lost 40 pounds. I feel better and I certainly love that I can wear smaller size clothes! 

1. One little word...

Love. 

I sign all the messages that I write to my little kids with love from, Mrs. D. 

My students always say, "I'm going to circle your favourite word, Mrs. D…love!" 

I feel very lucky to LOVE my job, LOVE my hubby, LOVE my son and LOVE my dog! 

I am pretty lucky. 

On to 2014!!