Martin Luther King, Jr. New years and the 100th day of school OH MY!

After a two week birthday celebration it's back to blogging! We completed the Martin Luther King, Jr. bulletin board! I read "Martin's Big Words" to my students and we played a fun vocabulary game thanks to this MLK mini unit I found on teachers pay teachers. I had a student sit in a seat and showed the word to the other students and in turn they would act out the vocabulary word and the person seated would have to guess the word. After this fun game there wasn't much time left to  work on the art project. So throughout the next week I slowly collected a dove made from their foot and hands and their idea of what peace means. Some I have to say really got the concept while others took their own literal interpretation.

Martin's Big Words, great book for K-3rd to learn about him!

Another great picture book "I Have a Dream" and it comes with a CD of his original speech, but I think it's a little over a K-3rd grade level. Perfect for middle school  though!

Peace means to be friends with everyone. (K)

Peace means to have freedom of speech. (4th)

Peace means no one is attacking you. (2nd)

Peace means happiness. (3rd)

Peace means I like being a school with my friends. (K)

Peace means to have freedom and everyone should be respected! (5th)

The final result, still missing two but it looks great!

I found so many great picture books all on the civil rights movement and I can't wait to share them next month for Black History month. The next major holiday we will be celebrating is the Chinese New Year. We used to have a computer tech who would come in and give his personal accounts of how his family celebrated the day. To keep diversity in the classroom I like introducing my students to different cultures and celebrations. I read picture books that inform students about that culture and include an art project. This year I did my research on good Chinese New Year picture books and hit my local library in search of them. Luckily our bookmobile had a wide selection of picture books. Here's a picture of the ones I chose to use in my classroom:

The Runaway Wok, My First Chinese New Year, Paper Crafts for Chinese New Year...

Chinatown and Ruby's Wish

Their favorite one is "The Runaway Wok". On Thursday, I plan to make lion masks with the kids and cook some healthy fried rice. After making an example of the lion my kinders couldn't help but try it on and it looks AWESOME!!

RAWWRR!!

They loved seeing their picture after!

Last but not least, our 100th day of school is just around the corner!! On February 3rd we will be celebrating this milestone. This means that our school year is in the home stretch and more then half way over. Each year I try to change it up and because of TPT and Pinterest I have even more ideas of what I want to do with the kiddos!

Every year my husband and I blow up 100 balloons and they get a little free play with them in the morning

We also built these fun towers with 100 red cups!

The past few years I had students decorate shirts that say "I Survived 100 days of..." and their grade. They continue to wear them throughout the year.

We had fun keeping the balloons contained when we had to work. 

One 100th day freebie I found has nineteen pages of entertainment and I can't wait to use it in the classroom. If your looking for something quick and easy, this is it! So glad I found it so I can add it to our day!

Happy Tuesday!

Winter Break and Bulletin Boards

As a teacher I'm still not used to such a long month before pay day rolls around again. So, during my time off I work at a camp in the next town over. While other teachers were sleeping in and getting things ready for the new year, I was watching another bunch of kiddos and dealing with midday meltdowns. I worked at this camp over the summer; some of the kiddos recognized me and others had no clue who I was or how I already knew their name. The camp splits up by grade and I was with the middle grades in the morning (2nd-5th) and the younger grades (K-1st) in the afternoon. Since the camp was near Christmas and New Years I found lots of fun crafts and cooking projects on Pinterest to do with them. My favorite craft was making party hats and having apple cider floats, so yummy! Working at this camp gives me the a more realistic view of teaching. At my school, I only have to deal with eleven different personalities, learning abilities and styles but they all know my expectations plus I've been working with them for five years so I know exactly how to create a successful project. At the camp, I could have up to 15 different personalities who are willing to push my buttons and test the limits. This also means adhering to different learning styles and abilities. Something fun to me, like doing write the room Christmas edition, may not be fun to those whose motor skills aren't as high; it may be challenging. All in all I love working at this camp because I have fun,  create new memories and the experience prepares me for my more realistic future. Two weeks and two sleep-in weekends later I was finally able to get into my classroom and get work done. Besides lesson planning I was able to work on four bulletin boards in the classroom:

 Our Welcome Back for the students

 Perfect for all those questions about breakfast and lunch!

 After purchasing a mini unit on Teachers Pay Teachers I plan to use a craft to complete this board.

My absolute FAVORITE board I did. Can't wait to see all the little penguins up there after art on Thursday.

***Update: The cute penguins are from Just Wild About Teaching’s Playful Penguins craftivity and printables and can be found here: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Playful-Penguins-craftivity-and-printables--991033

One of the kiddos even added a candy cane to make them more festive!

Also in art today we made 2014 party hats and goals for 2014

The Applicious Teacher for her freebie New Year’s Resolution Tab Book that you can find here: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/New-Years-Resolution-Tab-Book-1037478

The new years hat is courtesy  of A Cupcake for the Teacher’s Happy New Year! Freebie and can be found here: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/happy-new-year-free-craftivity-1035207

 I loved reading what goals all the students had for themselves

All of these brilliant teachers gave my classroom a splash of 2014 fun!Go pick up their freebies and penguin unit, perfect for Winter!

As you can see, the life of the teacher continues even on our "breaks." My plans for this week include starting a unit study on shadows and Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Laissez le bon temps rouler! Let the good times roll!

Confessions of a Lower Grade Teacher

Just a little background about me and why I want to start blogging; I'm a lower grade teacher at a one room school house that has grades K-6 in one class. This unique experience gives me an insight into parenting since I see them grow up right in front of my eyes year after year. I have five years of teaching experience. My first two kindergartners (2009) are now fourth graders. I teach kindergarten, first, and second grade, yes three grades! This year I have an impressive five students, two first graders and three kindergartners. Last year boys dominated my class and this year is the year of the girls. These little ladies bring a different vibe into my room, I definitely get the good, the bad and the ugly on the daily and they're only five! The other two first graders are easy peasy lemon squeezy!! 

I love finding and making connections with ideas, crafts and worksheets I find on Pinterest and Teacherspayteachers.com. I find joy in bringing meaningful ideas into the classroom to make learning fun.  

To be honest with myself, I am on teacher blogs A LOT! I love going on their blog and seeing what they created in their classroom then recreating that same thing with a dash of my flavor in my classroom. It's nice to get these great ideas from other experienced teachers. I'm starting this blog to give other teachers ideas about what I include in my hectic day. In doing so I hope also to receive feedback from other teachers on what has been successful for them. I want to create a place where teachers share ideas on themes, special days, and just everyday interactions. My goal is to blog at least once a week about my experiences, attempts and successes.