This may very well be the last post of this blog....who knows. Maybe it'll get a sappy end later this week. You never can tell.
Here's a brief overview of the VERY busy last week.
Monday (known as TODAY!): 12ish-3ish Field Day
The beginning of the day is normal like every other non-silly day.
There will be popiscles and ice cream. Good luck having the sugar rush gone!
Tuesday: 2pm 1-2 Red Carpet Awards Ceremony. Yes, come on and watch your child walk the Weems Red Carpet.
Wednesday: Try not to be sad, but there is nothing going on. I do believe however that there will be pizza for winning the boxtops competition for the school. That's right, five boys and two teachers beat everyone else! TAKE THAT probability!
Thursday: Our Dessert Soiree. I have an IEP for a student that is being identified at 1:15. So, I'm going to say, our festivities will be scheduled for....2:15ish. Everyone is invited to bring something. I'll apologize now for some of the pickiest eaters you will find in that classroom!
Friday: Half day of school. I will try not to cry AND to return your children. This will be tricky.
All week, please make sure to constantly check your child's bookbags and clean them out. As we clean the classroom, we'll be sending things home. Since I'm not (as of right now) teaching lower grades again for the foreseeable future, fun things and random odds and ends will be coming home with the boys as they love taking them home instead of throwing them out! Go figure.
Alright, hope everyone else enjoyed the great weather this weekend!
:-)
Monday, June 15, 2009
Friday, May 22, 2009
The 200th post
I apologize again for the huge gap in posting.
Swimming was a hoot of a great time. The boys (for the most part) were all fishes. They loved that their peer mentors came along. Everyone went under the water, blew bubbles with just their faces and tried floating for 30 seconds on their backs.
Things in the classroom have been chugging along. The end of the school year testing has been almost completed for our boys. I believe that everyone just has one more math benchmark to get through. Nothing terrible. Everyone made great progress on their DRA scores, PALS scores and the like. It was great to see their accomplishments!
The first two weeks of June, I'm going to be used for SOL testing so the boys will have a substitute teacher on and off as to not disrupt their schedules.
Hope everyone enjoys their Memorial Day weekend...and don't forget that our bring your parent to lunch day is today at 12:15!
Swimming was a hoot of a great time. The boys (for the most part) were all fishes. They loved that their peer mentors came along. Everyone went under the water, blew bubbles with just their faces and tried floating for 30 seconds on their backs.
Things in the classroom have been chugging along. The end of the school year testing has been almost completed for our boys. I believe that everyone just has one more math benchmark to get through. Nothing terrible. Everyone made great progress on their DRA scores, PALS scores and the like. It was great to see their accomplishments!
The first two weeks of June, I'm going to be used for SOL testing so the boys will have a substitute teacher on and off as to not disrupt their schedules.
Hope everyone enjoys their Memorial Day weekend...and don't forget that our bring your parent to lunch day is today at 12:15!
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Hi again
We're working on telling time in math. All first graders are responsible for being able to tell time to the hour and 1/2 hour on both digital and analog clocks. Second graders are responsible for telling time to the 1/4 hour. Please work on this skill at home.
With the beautiful spring weather of course comes allergies. If you are going to give your child an allergy medication of any kind, please make sure it doesn't make them drowsy. I have some friends who are falling asleep in class!
We are going to have our last field trip of the year in May. We'll be heading once again to the Freedom Center Swimming pool. Make sure those swim shorts are ready!
This week starts our spring testing season. I can't stress enough how important it is to have your child in bed early and eating a great breakfast. These scores follow them and are used to show their growth over the year.
We have been given a little patch of earth to work in for the spring and so the boys, Mrs. Rice, Mrs. Robertson, and I have been busy weeding at school once a week for a little while and planting a variety of seeds. We're excited to see what might start happening. In addition, we are getting ready to see our caterpillars turn into butterflies in our own butterfly garden in the classroom once again. Each boy has their own and have named them: Sunny, Carey, Gary, Blake, and George. Can you guess the name that your child came up with?
Remember, no school for students May 4th for it's a teacher work day :-)
Enjoy your week! And for those that need it, my home phone is back to being functional....for today at least.
With the beautiful spring weather of course comes allergies. If you are going to give your child an allergy medication of any kind, please make sure it doesn't make them drowsy. I have some friends who are falling asleep in class!
We are going to have our last field trip of the year in May. We'll be heading once again to the Freedom Center Swimming pool. Make sure those swim shorts are ready!
This week starts our spring testing season. I can't stress enough how important it is to have your child in bed early and eating a great breakfast. These scores follow them and are used to show their growth over the year.
We have been given a little patch of earth to work in for the spring and so the boys, Mrs. Rice, Mrs. Robertson, and I have been busy weeding at school once a week for a little while and planting a variety of seeds. We're excited to see what might start happening. In addition, we are getting ready to see our caterpillars turn into butterflies in our own butterfly garden in the classroom once again. Each boy has their own and have named them: Sunny, Carey, Gary, Blake, and George. Can you guess the name that your child came up with?
Remember, no school for students May 4th for it's a teacher work day :-)
Enjoy your week! And for those that need it, my home phone is back to being functional....for today at least.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
I am not ignoring you....
however, I won't be available for calling between Friday and sometime late next week probably. If you do need me, please email me and I can call you back.
We have a field trip on our first Thursday back from break. We're heading bowling and to Tony's again. It's going to be $8 per student. That will cover everything that they need.
Also, starting the Friday back from break, we will be missing Mrs. Robertson for three weeks. She is studying to become an ESOL teacher and is going to be helping our staff with their testing of our ESOL students. As a result, Mrs. Rice will be joining us. We are sad that Mrs. Robertson will be out but excited to welcome Mrs. Rice.
Hope everything is going well with break! We'll finally be moving into our house on Friday/Saturday/Sunday and couldn't be more excited!
We have a field trip on our first Thursday back from break. We're heading bowling and to Tony's again. It's going to be $8 per student. That will cover everything that they need.
Also, starting the Friday back from break, we will be missing Mrs. Robertson for three weeks. She is studying to become an ESOL teacher and is going to be helping our staff with their testing of our ESOL students. As a result, Mrs. Rice will be joining us. We are sad that Mrs. Robertson will be out but excited to welcome Mrs. Rice.
Hope everything is going well with break! We'll finally be moving into our house on Friday/Saturday/Sunday and couldn't be more excited!
Thursday, April 2, 2009
My class of SUPER HERO BOYS <3
Today is World Autism Day. This morning, before the boys got here, I went around and put labels on the faculty and staff. They have the ribbon on them and say Autism Awareness. The point was is for a day, instead of labeling our children, we should label ourselves in honor of them. We can often overlook what happens beyond "a label" no matter what it is.
In the belief that it is never too early to become a self-advocate, we talked about Autism as a class. I told the boys that Autism gives those special friends SUPER HERO abilities. Some of us have super sensitive hearing and can hear anything from far away as if it is through a mega-phone. That's an ability that not many others have.
Other friends have the SUPER HERO abilities to put things together and take them apart. They can figure things out and how to make things fit together perfectly and swiftly. That's an ability that not many others have.
Other friends have the SUPER HERO abilities to read, work with letters, sound things out and read well beyond their years and peers. They can find the beauty in the written language and devour books at a time and over and over again. That's an ability that not many others have.
I've watched these Super Hero boys grow exponentially over the past almost two years. They are more social, engage others more often, have become more tolerant of changes, more adventurous, and each day, can push anyone to their limits.
Sure, it's not all rainbows and miracles, but they are SUPER HERO boys. They can make anything better with a smile and some popcorn. They can make anything out of putty and blocks. Books can take on lives on their own and we can all be characters. Each one of them makes everyday full of endless possibilities and I thank you for sharing them with me, everyday.
In the belief that it is never too early to become a self-advocate, we talked about Autism as a class. I told the boys that Autism gives those special friends SUPER HERO abilities. Some of us have super sensitive hearing and can hear anything from far away as if it is through a mega-phone. That's an ability that not many others have.
Other friends have the SUPER HERO abilities to put things together and take them apart. They can figure things out and how to make things fit together perfectly and swiftly. That's an ability that not many others have.
Other friends have the SUPER HERO abilities to read, work with letters, sound things out and read well beyond their years and peers. They can find the beauty in the written language and devour books at a time and over and over again. That's an ability that not many others have.
I've watched these Super Hero boys grow exponentially over the past almost two years. They are more social, engage others more often, have become more tolerant of changes, more adventurous, and each day, can push anyone to their limits.
Sure, it's not all rainbows and miracles, but they are SUPER HERO boys. They can make anything better with a smile and some popcorn. They can make anything out of putty and blocks. Books can take on lives on their own and we can all be characters. Each one of them makes everyday full of endless possibilities and I thank you for sharing them with me, everyday.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
I've become awful at updating
Things are going well in our classroom.
We really enjoyed Mrs. Robertson's birthday this past week along with our field trip to House of Bounce. 1.5 hours of bouncing on inflatables was enjoyed by everyone!
We've been working hard on learning about measuring, using scales and balancing. We're next going into capacity so it should be interesting. In addition, we're going to start working on the addition of doubles, then the addition of doubles plus 1, plus 2, etc.
March 30th is McDonalds Night for the school if you're interested in planning for dinner on Monday. More info will go home on Monday about the location of the McDonalds and such.
I just wanted to give you a quick heads up that if you need to reach me over the next couple of weeks outside of school, email is best. We're in the process of moving (we should be closing toward the end of Spring Break) and so phone calls will be harder to answer as there are too many boxes to trip over to find a phone!
Our next field trip is the week we come back from spring break on Thursday. Bowling and Pizza. :-)
We really enjoyed Mrs. Robertson's birthday this past week along with our field trip to House of Bounce. 1.5 hours of bouncing on inflatables was enjoyed by everyone!
We've been working hard on learning about measuring, using scales and balancing. We're next going into capacity so it should be interesting. In addition, we're going to start working on the addition of doubles, then the addition of doubles plus 1, plus 2, etc.
March 30th is McDonalds Night for the school if you're interested in planning for dinner on Monday. More info will go home on Monday about the location of the McDonalds and such.
I just wanted to give you a quick heads up that if you need to reach me over the next couple of weeks outside of school, email is best. We're in the process of moving (we should be closing toward the end of Spring Break) and so phone calls will be harder to answer as there are too many boxes to trip over to find a phone!
Our next field trip is the week we come back from spring break on Thursday. Bowling and Pizza. :-)
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Two in one day, alert the media!
Well, huge news from our classroom!!!
Curious George wrote us a letter.
Some back story. We (as a class) have been a bit obsessed with Curious George since the book fair when the big guy himself (a teacher dressed as him) came to visit us. He gave Sunny a high-five and a hug (along with everyone else). Well, Sunny still talks about it to this day. We have a stuffed George doll from Kohls that is probably the most loved thing in our room. I finally decided that we needed to do something productive. During our writing time, we wrote to George. We asked him where he was, what he is doing, if he remembered giving us the high fives and hugs, etc. Well, he wrote back. It was HUGE news for our room.
Next up, we're writing to the Cat in the Hat.
If you are up and watching, tomorrow (2/25) on Good Morning America is talking about Adults with Autism. I just saw it on the commercial and have it set to DVR.
Sorry that you didn't come to reading night. Parents and kids alike LOVED it. Hope you will come next time.
Curious George wrote us a letter.
Some back story. We (as a class) have been a bit obsessed with Curious George since the book fair when the big guy himself (a teacher dressed as him) came to visit us. He gave Sunny a high-five and a hug (along with everyone else). Well, Sunny still talks about it to this day. We have a stuffed George doll from Kohls that is probably the most loved thing in our room. I finally decided that we needed to do something productive. During our writing time, we wrote to George. We asked him where he was, what he is doing, if he remembered giving us the high fives and hugs, etc. Well, he wrote back. It was HUGE news for our room.
Next up, we're writing to the Cat in the Hat.
If you are up and watching, tomorrow (2/25) on Good Morning America is talking about Adults with Autism. I just saw it on the commercial and have it set to DVR.
Sorry that you didn't come to reading night. Parents and kids alike LOVED it. Hope you will come next time.
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