Kind Hearted Souls

Every day that I have yard duty, I watch the kiddos kick countless balls over the fence. They always come running asking me to fetch it. And I do. However, sometimes I am too far away for their liking and they decide to take their chances another way...They begin shouting at anyone on the other side of that fence haha!

As I make my way over to save their ball, I watch as strangers go out of their way to help these caged school children. People walking their dogs or going for a run will cross the street to help. Those driving will put it in park and once I saw a woman reverse her sedan down the street. I am happy that there are more people who stop than those who keep driving. It reminds me that there are still more good people than bad :)

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Homework Party!!

Sometimes we forget to reward those who are hard workers. Of course their straight A report card is a bonus, but isn't it nice to get a treat once in a while just for being awesome?!?

This year we have had a homework party at the end of every month to reward those who have done all of their homework every night. In invite them to our classroom where they can eat picnic-style and watch the Smurfs!! (I love that cartoon) I usually give them a small treat like popcorn and we just hang out. I know they like it and I enjoy spoiling those who work hard for me :)

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California Poppys

Oh how I love gardening. Frankly, I suck at it, but I still love it. In social studies we are learning about CA becoming a state. I was going to have them grow strawberries or grapes (2 if our biggest crops) but you have no idea how hard it is to find seeds for fruits!! My lovely husband drove around with me all day on Saturday trying to find them... Crazy.
Anyway, we planted our state flower instead. The kids wrote all sorts of CA facts around the cup. Did you know our state fish is the golden trout?!? So, now we wait for the sprouts. I can't wait :D
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Who's on First

I love reading. no... I LOVE reading! I think it is so amazing how books open the world to us. How by reading a book, your mind opens to things you would've never thought of before.

We are currently reading The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. In it, there is a refernce to Abbott & Costello's Who's on First skit. So, I thought it woud be a great opportunity to show it to the kids. I looked it up on youtube and pressed play. It was hilarious! The kids were cracking up and yelling back at the characters. You would've thought that they had never seen comedians before haha.

When all was said and done, I think it was a very succesful lesson. If you haven't seen it, go youtube it right now!! :)

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A Rite of Passage

Back in October was the infamous CA mission project! Oh what fun! I got to bring in the report I wrote about my mission in 4th grade and got to see all of these beautiful projects.

I gave the class a choice of building a mission, writing a report, doing a powerpoint or anything else as long as they cleared it with me. 98% of the class ended up building missions so our room was FULL of awesome projects.

Notes for next year: be more clear on expections for actually building the mission (have them label it). Let them choose their own partners? Have everyone make a powerpoint for their presentation of the missions.

All in all, they were awesome!

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The Busiest Year EVER

I scoffed at the professors who said that during my first year of teaching I will not have time for anything else. They said and I quote, " You will  be just trying to keep your head above water." They warned that I would barely have time for creative and interesting lessons... that I probably wouldn't get to extra lessons about holidays and good citizenship lessons. Well, they were MOSTLY right.

I have done many creative lessons and have developed my own cirriculum, but haven't quite made it to the holidays and specific lessons about things like respect and being a good friend. Wait... I did do a St. Patricks Day lesson, but that was just last week!

What I HAVEN'T done is blog about my first year teaching like I should have. I write the blogs in my head, but that's all I have time for lately. However, that is to be remidied soon. Look for many catching-up blogs to come soon!

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Mrs. G.

Report Card Time!

All I have to say is thank goodness scarcasm doesn't translante into typed comments. This is hard!

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