Happy Holidays!

We have another sing-a-long today. Then we're going to brunch.

I hope you all enjoyed the presents from the mentors for the boys. They were all really excited for everything, especially the pencils. Many exclaimed that it would be their new homework pencils. I was excited to hear that they were that excited for homework!

So, we've been talking about healthy food and junk food. Yesterday, when Wendy walked in with cupcakes for Patrick's birthday party he exclaimed "Mommy's here with the junk food!" So, I'm apologizing should this happen to anyone else over the holidays. I did stress with the boys that we can eat junk food and that it does taste good but we also have to eat our healthy food.

We got a lot of the things that we ordered with our budget. New bookcases that are quite sturdy. A new listening center on wheels, new stereo with headsets for everyone, new books on tape, and big book storage. All of our smaller things haven't come in yet, but we're waiting.

Oh wait, something did come in. We got our parachutes. Let's just say that for six feet of entertainment, this was amazing. Everyone wanted turns underneath it and we made wind. It was excellent times yesterday to play with this.

Remember, school reopens Wednesday January 2nd.

If I don't post later, I hope that each one of you has a healthy and happy holidays. Enjoy!

I forgot

On Friday, we'll be joining Ms. Spencer's classroom for a holiday brunch and learning about different family traditions and customs. Different people are bringing in different things to munch on (nothing huge since it's from 10-11 and lunch is just over an hour after that). If you're interested in either coming in to share a custom/tradition or sending anything in (it would be about ....well, probably 30 people...remember, nothing big) if you could just let me know, that'd be marvelous.

Again, sorry for the short notice.

Jingle Bells....Jingle Bells....Hey, where are the words?

We had a fantastic time at the school wide sing a long today! We read the words right off the screen and sang all these fantastic songs. Jingle Bells, must be santa, oh hanukah, and more! We were so well behaved and had a great time!

We've been doing a great job today.

Two of our friends, Patrick and Darius received awards today for sharing. There have been problems among all of our boys, especially regarding the trains that we have in our class. Today, Darius went up to Patrick and said "Patrick, can I please play with you and the trains?" and Patrick said "Sure!" and handed Darius three trains. Excellent work friends!

We gave all of our peer mentors ornaments for the holidays to thank them for everything. We hope that they have a great holiday break!

Tomorrow, don't forget to wear your favorite holiday colors!!!

Schedule for next week

Sorry for the late notice on this but we just got it after the kids got on the bus today....

Monday, Dec 17

Silly Socks Day

Tuesday, Dec 18

Holiday Hats Day

Wednesday, Dec 19

School-Wide Holiday Sing-A-Long @ 2 PM

Thursday, Dec 20

Wear you FAVORITE Holiday Colors!

Friday, Dec 21

Jeans on the bottom, Weems Colors on Top!

Early Dismissal Students: 1:30 PM


Holiday projects are done! They will be coming home next week!!!!!!!

Great day today. Outside recess and everything.

Enjoy your weekend!

Superstar Award

So, as most of you know, I spent the majority of the morning in meetings.

While most of the boys were good for some of the morning, only one did everything that was asked of him and listened at all times.

As a result, Mr. Grant, earned himself a certificate of excellence today for amazing superstar inclusion behavior. WAY TO GO!!!!!


His choice of prizes included choosing to watch "Charlie Brown Christmas" from all the new holiday movies in our room. All of his friends joined in to watch and enjoyed partaking in cherry flavored candy canes.

We hope to see more excellent behavior from everyone.

In addition, we tried to learn to spin dreidels today and everyone brought them home in their bookbags!

Tomorrow is Friday which means....ONE MORE WEEK UNTIL VACATION! :-)

12 days til Santa!!!

Monday

I created these really cute fliers about our trip on Wednesday and they are sitting by my desk in the classroom.

So, please send your child with 6 dollars on Wednesday for IHOP.

The field trip is 10-2.


We had a great day at school. Ms. Lunsford came back and we worked on our addresses and phone numbers some more in speech.

Interims go home tomorrow.

In the news today:

Patrick discovered his love of slinkys. It was a deep passion, and it only took him about 30 seconds to tangle it up. Good thing his peer mentor Chris is a champion of untangling slinkys!

Grant read the entire "No David" series to us today. He was able to tell us what David was doing wrong in each page and what he should have done instead.

David and Darius had a great day sharing and taking turns. This is a huge success, especially because they were sharing greatly preferred activities.

Luis managed to finish out his day well after a rough start.


***NOTE: If you're looking for books (on the cheap) for the holidays, check out scholastic.com and search for warehouse sale. There is a warehouse sale in Manassas this weekend. 1st, they are still looking for volunteers and pay ten dollars an hour in free books (if you're interested, just email me and I can give you the people's information). 2nd, it's scholastic and the prices are even cheaper than the fliers that I send home to you about their club sales. So, if you've got time on Thursday through, I believe Saturday at least, it's worth it! Since I've moved here, the closest one has been in Maryland, so it's worth it if you're looking for anything or nothing in particular. (They have adult books too!!!)

Two hour delay today. Although, I must admit, please don't rely on this blog to tell you the info.

Typically, the radio; tv; or the school division's website...not the school's website.

Stay warm.

Sickness travel.....

There is a bug going around our room. Headache, coughing, runny nose, some with high fever.

At home, please stress with your child the importance of coughing into their elbow and covering sneezes. Also, proper handwashing. We're trying but we can't do it all at school. We're trying to nip bugs quickly but with the small class and how close the kids like to be with one another, it's difficult.

Our day was okay. We started out with three, went up to four, went down to three and then I unfortunately went home ill. I'm trying to practice what I preach about going home when I'm sick. I plan on uping my own vitamin routine.

We're still talking about fruits and vegetables and talking about their importance in what we eat. In addition, we're talking about more and fewer, reviewing patterns, and numerical order. We're learning about winter holidays including Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Christmas around the world. So in case your child talks about putting out their shoes so that someone can put a treat in them or wants to spin a dreidel (they'll be bringing home their own next week), you'll understand where it's coming from.

Stay warm! (I will tell you that the boys LOVED seeing the snow today and they just thought that it was the best thing to watch).

Tuesday

We had a concert today! Some of our friends really got into it while others had a hard time sitting the entire time. That was okay though because they still remained respectful of those performing and those around them.

We read about vegetables today in our reading group. Each student then reported what their favorite vegetables were. They are as follows:
Patrick-potato
Luis-corn
David-chile pepper
Grant-broccoli
Darius-carrots

I thought that it was great that everyone chose something different.

In music, David, Patrick and Luis worked on keyboards while Darius and Grant got to paint and make great art projects in art today.

The wind is greatly picking up, please make sure your child is dressing for the weather, including hats, scarves and gloves/mittens. It's extremely important, especially if they want to go outside for recess!

Next Wednesday, we're heading to see Santa and IHOP. IHOP informed me that their most expensive meal plus a drink should be about 6 dollars a child.

Hope to see you there!

:-)

Friday

We started our holiday projects with a bang today! So far, I must admit, they do look beautiful!!!

Today was Hendrick's last day with us. Sad, but true.

Field trip is coming on 12/12 to the mall to see Santa and to IHOP. Want to come? Let me know.

We've been having trouble sharing in our class, please continue to work on this at home and make sure that it is enforced that your child shares, even if it is with you! It's an important skill that will serve them well.

Bring on December, we're ready!

Interims head home on the 11th of December. Our field trip is the 12th. And don't forget, early dismissal on the 21st!

Sorry for the lack of posts

I slept forever yesterday after school and the day before, I really had nothing to report.

Anyway, things are going quite well these days.

In math, we're working on the cost of more or fewer. It's difficult, especially using those vocabulary words, but we're working on it.

I'm going to send out a book order tomorrow. I apologize for it being late but apparently, they are throwing out our order forms. The only catch is, since I want to place it before the holidays, I need it back by the 7th. I know it's a short turn around time, but this way in case anyone wants any of the books as gifts, you'll have them with plenty of time. There are some great deals too! (Wendy, those books that you ordered should be here soon!)

Other than that, we're going to start working on our holiday projects. I told the kids not to tell you about them so that you can be surprised for the holidays. We're going to wrap them as well, so don't think about sneaking a peak!!!

Last day of November tomorrow already. Whew! Time is just flying along.

Alright, I'm off as I'm putting up my first Christmas tree ever!

Welcome back from Thanksgiving

We had a great day today. We began our split time so Mrs. Robertson went to Ms. Albert and then we switched and I headed to Ms. Spencer's class.

In Music we watched Raffi and we worked on a great project in art.

We celebrated David's birthday in school today since we missed it on Friday. We ate a great deal and we got great door tags and goodie bags. Thanks so much for coming in Gabrielle!

It was too wet for recess but we still had a lot of fun in the class.

can't wait to see what tomorrow brings. :-)

30 more days until Christmas (we started our in class countdown)

We had our adaptive PE evals today for those who were getting them. We should hear sometime but I left before they were done.

I'm home sick with a stomach bug and cold. I'm going to the doctor in an hour but chances are, I won't be at school tomorrow. I hope that you all have great Thanksgivings. I'm sorry that there will be no great Thanksgiving craft, but promise to send home even greater ones for the December Holidays.

There's no parent night tonight. I figured I should mention that even though there is PTO.

We had a good day today.

Tomorrow is our mini-thanksgiving feast.

if you want to help, they need people at 1:30. It may be too crazy for younger family members because it's all of kindergarten together. I really don't know much about it other than we're invited.

Thanksgiving thing on Tuesday

Robyn and I didn't circle anything or mark anything off on those sheets since we wanted to leave it open to what you thought your child might eat. Some of us are pickier than others and I wanted to make sure that everyone would definitely eat something. They will all have the opportunity to try everything.

Also, if anyone wants to come, they could use help setting up at 1:30 and it will be at 2pm.


DON'T FORGET: EARLY DISMISSAL ON WEDNESDAY!!!!!!!

I do exist!

So, bowling was a smash hit! Everyone loves bowling. Bowling is great. Next time, Ms. Stern will be able to actually help. MUCH THANKS to Melanie and Tim for everything. We would have never succeeded at this field trip without you!!!!!

We finished almost a half of chapter of math today. The kids were just ON FIRE! We just went until they couldn't go any more. Of course, it helps that teaching patterns with kids who like to repeat you goes quite smoothly. We'll be working on patterning more. Color patterns (seems to be the hardest time for them to understand), shape patterns (easy) and then graphing. We seem to be okay with graphing, but they don't seem to understand the concepts of fewer and more. We're still working on it.

We did have issues with sharing today so we lost the train set for the day. It was a sad time.

One week until Thanksgiving!!!! YAY!!!!! (sorry, I can't wait for Thanksgiving...it's right in the middle of my favorite season....Halloween-New Years). Also, because I'll be putting up my first Christmas tree and decorating for the season. Oh yes, can not wait!!!

Wednesday

1. Thanks to those who came to our annual thanksgiving feast offered my food services. I know that the kids were excited to have you come in and eat lunch with them. Also know, you can always feel free to bring a lunch for yourself and eat with your child. Typically, we go to lunch at 12:20.
2. can't wait for bowling tomorrow!!!
3. We had a great afternoon with our peer mentors and painting with our friends. We're making a life-sized train set in our classroom for those pesky indoor recess days and because we're fascinated with boxes!

Thanks for returning the envelopes for the report cards. If you left anything in them, I put it back in the notebooks.

National Young Readers Day

We all were read stories today from special guests from all over who came to read for National Young Readers Day. It was a great time.

For our friends in Ms. Spencer's class, we also have a guidance lesson about sharing and playground safety and sharing on the playground. For those with Ms. Albert, they went to PE.

We had a great time in speech today talking about people and their parts.

We have a completed bulletin board about what everyone is thankful for.

The field trip is Thursday from 10-12. It's just one game of bowling. I need more chaperones. Please let me know if you can come. I've given up on crutches but I could still use some extra hands at the alley. Email me if you can come.

Just a heads up if you see me with crutches

I spent last night in the Emergency Room. I sprained my ankle and have a nice splint and crutches for the next couple of days to hobble around on. I tried walking today on it because it felt ever so much better, but I just got home (having ignored the doctors orders to stay off of it) and it's completely swollen. Good times.

So, I should be at work on Tuesday instead of in training because I can't exactly be training on movements when my movement is limited. Good times.

quick update

1. I really will have nothing to update about again until I'm back in the classroom on Wednesday.

2. Report cards and IEP updates go home on Tuesday.

3. Field trip on thursday the 15th. We're going bowling. I'll double check the time. I could use at least one more person to come.

If you have any questions about report cards or IEP goals and narratives, feel free to give me a call on Tuesday or later in the week.

Remember, I'm not there today or Tuesday (Today I'm in NY and Tuesday I'm at crisis training).

Enjoy your weekends!

Starting the Monday after Thanksgiving (the reason for waiting this long is due to the fact that Mrs. Robertson and myself are in and out a lot before then due to trainings and things and we don't want to have to figure out subbing situations) we will be changing our schedules.

Student-wise, everyone will stay where they are. Adult wise we'll start a two day rotation. Day 1, I will start with Darius and then an hour in, I'll go to Ms. Spencer's room. Mrs. Robertson will start in Ms. Albert's room and then after that hour, will go with Darius (when I go to Ms. Spencer).

Day 2, I'll go into Ms. Albert's room first and Robertson will stay with Darius and then we'll switch and Robertson will go to Ms. Spencer.



We may go to a four day cycle and so every four days I'll get to see both hours of the ELA block in all rooms, but we'll see.

This seems to be the best solution at the moment to help everyone. I hope that all of you are okay with this and know that we are trying to best to make sure that everyone is getting what they need and helping them in every way possible.

Report cards are finished. I'm in the processing of updating IEPs with goals and narratives. Everything goes home on Tuesday. Please sign and return the folders.

Now, officially, a LONG day

1. Just a lot of wiggles and apparently, too many new people too in terms of adults.
2. It was just a long day. I don't know if it was the weather or what, but it was just a very.long.day.
3. Hopefully the coat disaster of early this week is now okay. I hope.

Sorry I didn't circle what everyone ate on those sheets. I don't go to lunch and asking the kids what they ate, I get some very silly answers considering I do go through the line with them.

Chances are, there won't be an update again until Wednesday since I'm not in on Monday as I'll be at training and there is no school for students on Tuesday.

Don't forget to turn your clocks back this weekend. Otherwise, you'll be waiting a mighty long time for those buses on Monday!

Happy November!

Today was a GREAT day.

We got more peer mentors. We sent home those sheets that I talked about the parent night meeting.

Almost everyone is now entirely caught up from being out.

And now, I'm off to work on report cards.

We're working on the coat mix-up the other day. We had one student absent today who we think has one of them.

1. Happy Halloween.
2. Please label all jackets, coats, and even hats and gloves. We're getting into that season and unfortunately, our boys don't seem to be able to tell us which one of the jackets are theirs since we've been sending kids home with the wrong ones. If you don't label them, please don't be upset if we do. (i promise, i won't stitch on print orange or anything!)
3. Schedule for the next two weeks. Probably not what you want to hear (read) but unfortunately, this is how it is.
Starting November 5th:
Monday-Ms. Stern is out
Tuesday-no students
Wednesday-all here
Thursday-Mrs. Robertson out
Friday-Ms. Stern out
Monday-no students
Tuesday-Ms. Stern out
Wednesday-all here
Thursday-Mrs. Robertson out; field trip
Friday-all here
Monday, Tuesday, Early Dismissal Wednesday, THANKSGIVING BREAK!

All except the friday before Veteran's Day are due to trainings that we have no choice about given our positions in the building.

Report cards are coming home soon.

Thanks to everyone for everything you did for the Halloween festivities today. Pumpkins will go home tomorrow. We just plum ran out of time today to get it all done. But our scarecrow sure looks great!

We did it! Field trip #1 is COMPLETE and well, long but great. Everyone laughed (some cried) and we all have pumpkins!

A HUGE THANK YOU to:

Mr. Oshiki and his company for funding this trip. We truly appreciate it.
Mr. Oshiki, Mrs. Hobbs, and Mr. and Mrs. Welsh for spending the day with us and helping us have fun!
Cox Farms for granting us reduced rates for our adults and being generally awesome.
Blake for sharing his flashlight with friends in the morning.
Hayden for enjoying the hay as much as everyone else!


Everyone loved the trip. They were all pumped up for the "farm" this morning and couldn't wait to get there. Hendrick kept saying on the way out "bye farm. bye bye. bye farm. bye bye farm." Adorable.

We only lost one student for about a minute which I hear is considerably less than anyone else. Go team!

While I'm exhausted, I feel like I learned about more about the kids today and some of them, learned about themselves (especially when it comes to goats!)

Thanks again to everyone for making it possible. Our kids (and us) are so lucky to have families like all of you!

OKay, OKay!

A great day. We laughed, giggled and we actually learned!

There was inclusion (patrick and luis went to computer lab) and (grant, hendrick, and darius went to music).

We are almost finished with our halloween surprise. We counted, we built, we had a great day.

So, tomorrow. Be at school. 9am. Bring lunch.

Be ready for anything!

We're baaaaccccckkkk

Well, Mrs. Robertson and I should be back tomorrow. I'm still sniffly and she's completely mended according to her email but I'm coming back because I don't want the school calling me again.

Tomorrow we'll be finishing up our super secret halloween surprise. I can't tell you now but can inform you to check out everyone's bookbags on Wednesday night. Will it be a trick or treat....you'll never know until then!

Tuesday we'll spend the day at Cox Farms. Remember, bag lunches. Everything (including the bag) has to be able to be thrown out. No lunch boxes, glass bottles, or silverware that needs to be returned.

Wednesday, fun day of inclusion, speech, and then, halloween festivities! how fun!

We're also going to squeeze in time to make sure that everyone finishes their math tests and start on our next adventures!

Hope everyone comes back tomorrow!

Notes:

There will be no real update today because both Mrs. Robertson and myself are home. Needless to say, it should be an interesting day in that room. Oh, to be a fly.

There is a Halloween party tonight at the school from 6:30 to 8pm.

Don't forget, bag lunches are needed on Tuesday for our field trip. Chaperones need to be at the school by 9am.

Wednesday, Halloween Party, but NO COSTUMES (per administration).

Alright, I'm going back to bed. Have a good weekend.

MayDay!!!

Virusspread 2007 has now gotten all but one of us. Mrs. Robertson is sick as am I. There is a good chance that we'll both be out tomorrow.

A good day. Now, sleep.

Still spreading germs....

Today, only three friends came to school. We sure hope everyone is feeling better quickly because you're missing out on the fun!

Luis and Grant both finished their chapter in math and earned 100% on their test. Lefts, rights, insides, outsides, unders, overs, there sure was a lot!

Darius did great work with Mrs. Robertson for math today. Mrs. Cassarino came in and not only chatted with Darius for a while, but played with playdough and hung out with him. He sure was happy about that. Everyone chose a different activity for recess since it was raining. From the sound of it right now, we might have to do the same thing tomorrow!

And now, since I was a sub for bunco tonight (third time playing and second time winning!) I've got to get to bed.

Don't forget (for those healthy ones out there) that there is a Great Halloween Party at Weems on Friday night. Flyers went home today (or will go home when you come back!)

COME BACK!!!!!!

Okay, well, the bug has officially hit. By 2 o'clock today there were five of us in the classroom, and three of us were adults!

Warning: There is a bug going around. Sore RED throat, swollen lymph nodes (according to Nurse Parker), high fevers, and more. Please please PLEASE keep your child home if they are sick. Not that I don't love them, but really, they are miserable at school when they aren't well. There really isn't anything that I hate more than seeing sick kids.

Hendrick had a great day until he went home ill. He worked hard in inclusion despite his cough, loved going to computer lab and learning about his letters on the keyboard, and played outside like a champ. We were sorry that he felt so miserable though by the time we came back in and quickly went down hill from there. Good thing mom came to the rescue!

Luis had a STELLAR day. He finished his work, made a beaver, helped Mrs. Robertson make a Halloween Picture Frame, worked on his letters, building his house in Speech and practicing his cutting skills and more! He listened, worked well, and is showing signs of being in love for the first time!

Darius worked hard with Mrs. Robertson in the early morning while Ms. Stern was at the doctor. (Ms. Stern is fine, she was having blood taken for her annual, albiet late, physical....she promises, she won't come to school with a fever either!) He wanted to take care of Ms. Stern when she came back and saw her bandage. He worked well in computer lab and had a great time climbing with everyone during recess. He did a great job constructing his house in speech and decorating his person to go inside.

Aldair spent his first official day in full-time inclusion and told me that he learned about the letter S. Unfortunately blog readers, you'll be reading less and less about Aldair as he works his way well into Ms. Spencer's room. He still does get to see us for about 10 minutes every afternoon along with our friend Tiffany who spends her entire day in Ms. Kessler's room.

The pumpkin patch is less than a week away! Be sure to get well in time for it!!! It'll be a GRAND time!

Tonight, our own Mrs. Robertson was honored by the MCPS School Board for being the first quarter winner of the PEAR award. We are truly honored to have her on our team and what she does for the boys in our room, along with the children of Weems on a daily basis is truly amazing and priceless. If ever you swing by Weems at recess, you really may see her swinging right alongside one of the boys on the swing saying "straight, bend, straight, bend". It's a great time! Congratulations Mrs. Robertson!!!!

Halloween

So, I didn't decide it until the last conference of today (thanks to Melanie and Travis!) that we're going to have a Halloween party on...well....Halloween.

Time: 2:15pm
Where: The classroom
So, umm....I have crafts. Melanie offered cupcakes. Anyone else want to bring something? Pretzels? Juice? Come, hang out, watch a halloween (I'm thinking great pumpkin) movie, help with a craft, and feel free to take your child home!

It'll be great. Who's in?

Also, we're set with chaperones for this field trip, I'll be back to ask for volunteers for November 15th to go bowling....you know you wanna come!

As promised

We've had some great moments recently.

1. Patrick and I have had amazing conversations together. His vocabulary is expanding, as is his comprehension. His imaginative play is also widening which is great! He's also been doing a great job in Ms. Albert's room!

2. Aldair is going to full-time in Ms. Spencer's room as of Tuesday. He's been using his "big boy" voice all the time, initiating conversations, and meeting his goals left and right. We wish him the best of luck ever and will still be riding the bus with him every morning and afternoon.

3. David has had a cold the past two days and we sure hope that he's on his way to a full recovery!

4. I was able to be with Luis as he was being tested for PALS. I have to say, he did a great job. I'm sure everyone else has, I just haven't received the results back but the general education teachers should be able to at least tell you some of the scores for the test when you see them on Monday.

5. Darius has been having success with word sorts and discussing books with me. He is great at predicting what will come next.

6. Hendrick has done an amazing job at adjusting to centers, sharing, and paying attention in a larger group setting. He really is trying his hardest to do his best on almost all occasions.

7. Grant has been having success in working 1:1 on harder concepts. He's been a great friend to the others in the classroom and has been starting to engage others on the playground.

All in all, some great times!

Keep watching

this space for an update this weekend.

I just got home from bunco and I'm whipped tonight.

I will update this weekend though.

Don't forget, no school for students on Monday.

1. Sorry I didn't blog yesterday. I have no excuse, so I won't offer one. If I did have an excuse, it might involve a panda, a red shoe, and a hair brush.

2. I have to say, for the most part, we had a great day. Some of us more than others, but still, we're going overall here.

3. Field trip permission slips went home and reminder labels about conferences were stuck on your kids. Please send back the permission slips. They are good for the year but I really need them back. Please come for your conference, especially if you have to sign the forms for evaluations of APE because then I won't have to continually call you to ask you to come in. Don't misunderstand, I'll still call.

4. Field trips:
October 30th: Cox farms. BRING BAG LUNCH! NOT OPTIONAL!!!! Sneakers and clothes that you don't mind getting dirty.
November 15th: Bowling at Bowl America on Mathis Ave.
December 12th: Santa and IHOP at Manassas Mall.

Tuesday night Mrs. Robertson will be honored at the School Board meeting on Tuesday Night for being voted as our "Pear" of the quarter.

Don't forget, 10/22=NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS!!!

Tuesday

Well, my lucky week that I get to see many of you again on Thursday for APE quick meetings. Then again on Monday. Good times.

Just remember, there is no school on Monday for students. It is a parent teacher conference day. That being said, if you have no daycare, don't stress about bringing the kids.

The meeting for the faculty was postponed again on the 23rd because we have a meeting with the head of HR. I'm just going to go ahead and make my own handout and give it to those teachers now instead of waiting.

Field trip permission slips will go home tomorrow!

All in all a good day. Lots of conversations, a great job cutting as we are making houses in speech, and tons of fun as usual at recess.

We are still working on the concepts of inside and outside. We understand going outside or inside the classroom, but inside a basket/bucket/bottle, etc....we're still lost. It'll come.

14 more days until our field trip!

Monday

New bookorders went home today!

We had our adaptive PE observation today and the school will be following up on it.

Parent night was a lot of fun! Melanie, thanks so much for the cookies! They were delicious! Hopefully next time everyone can make it!

We really did have a great day. Everyone was very talkative and wanting to have conversations today. On the way back to the room, Tiffany and Aldair asked each other how their day was.

Patrick and I had a conversation about the tooth fairy today since he also lost a tooth.

Grant and I talked about the weather and leaves today while we were outside.

Darius had a great day with Ms. Mansfield in her reading group and read a book all about playful puppies.

Hendrick told me a story today about riding the bus and watching out the window.

Luis had a great day participating in speech and reading.

We're working on the concept "inside and outside." Such as, this apple is inside the basket and the flower is outside of the vase. So far, it's been difficult but we're still going to work on it!

And we are ON for the field trip on October 30th to Cox Farms! We're so excited!!!

Marvelous day!

A great day. We watched Chicka Chicka Boom Boom on DVD. It was fantastic and is still running on a continuous loop in my head. We also read "Don't let the pigeon stay up late!" It was HYSTERICAL!

Some of us are working on the phrase "I don't know" to provide a more accurate answer to questions when we don't know instead of repeating the question again.

We are also practicing counting to 30 everyday 1:1.

Alright, I really need to go and pack since I'm leaving and have yet to pack a suitcase.

Enjoy your weekends and I'll see you all Monday night!

Shoeboxes needed

If you have shoeboxes that you don't need, can you send them in? We need them with lids. They will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks so much.

Wednesday

Congratulations Patrick for writing your name entirely by yourself today with no prompting. It's something that we hadn't seen since he always wants help with it but today, he just went right on with it. FANTASTIC!

Four of our friends, Grant, Aldair, Luis, and David earned a trip to the prize box today due to their stellar behavior on the playground. Our other friends seemed to have difficulty with not pushing, throwing sticks, or hitting. We talked about these things and we've agreed to play differently tomorrow to try to earn our chance.

Luis and David had a great conversation today during computer time that ended with Luis saying "David, good job friend!" It was nice to hear them talking to each other and getting along so well.

One book order did indeed make it home today. If I find the other packet of them, they'll go home tomorrow. If not, hopefully on Monday when I come back.

Starting Monday, all of our kindergartners will be receving PALS instruction in their inclusion classes. This is the way that it is done at Weems and so they will be participating in the program.

In speech today, we started to get ready to build our houses to help us learn our addresses, phone numbers, and more!

Also, I don't know if Mrs. Robertson will get a chance to post about it, but our friend Patrick has been really working hard on being able to swing on the playground by himself without needing pushing. Some of our other friends have been encouraging him along the way.

Aldair is getting ready for almost full day inclusion. In fact, besides lunch and speech, he's already there! Great work!

We're working hard on those IEP goals. Practice counting to 30, knowing all the letters of the ABCs (in and out of order) and their sounds.

Don't forget tonight (sorry for my late reminder) tonight is the Special Education Advisory Meeting at 7pm in the trailer behind Central Office for parents of students with special needs.

Also, I will update (sometime) tomorrow but then I'm out of town for the weekend.

Looking forward to seeing everyone on Monday night!

Enjoy!

Phew....

Well, okay!

1. If anyone is looking for a general practioner who is great with everyone and anyone ( I know that a friend of mine takes her child who has Autism to see him and I just saw him myself today), I can highly recommend Dr. Chambers in the Bull Run practice by the hospital. They take all different kinds of insurance (my friend has Kaiser and I have Anthem)....almost the entire staff of Weems goes there. Our school nurse's husband is also a doctor there. Anyway, he's my top pick of doctors ever, and I'm really picky about doctors!

That being said and out of the way, conferences are coming up. Do you have a time already? If you do and need reminding, just me let know.

I had the conversation yesterday and now I need to know as parents where it rates on your scale. Many of the goals in the IEPs of the boys talks about making them use eye contact to have a conversation. I argued yesterday that some times, you don't have to use eye contact to show that you are indeed paying attention. Most people that I know with some degree of Autism in fact don't look at whatever it is that is the focal point for most other people but can tell you exactly what you're talking about. I didn't know if eye contact is something that you expect from your children. Do they show you that they are listening without it?

I filled out the referrals for APE today. If you didn't hear about it, your child doesn't need it.

Try fitting the word "above" in at home. It's something that we're focusing on at school and it's quite a difficult word for them to understand because typically, it's not something that we use everyday.

We talked about Christopher Columbus today. I believe that it went over most of their heads. It was the end of the day (our first with our new schedule) and I tried teaching until almost 3 o'clock and they were fried.

Darius lost another tooth today! Two in two weeks! We can now see straight into his belly when he smiles!

During PE today (we're walking "to China" to help the homeless) Grant walked and ran the entire time. He was one of the only kindergarteners to do it. He stopped for a moment because it appeared that he walked funny on his ankle, but then he "shook it out" and kept right on going. I was so impressed that he kept his own pace no matter what other kids tried to get him to do. He did exactly what he was told to do by the teacher and he did it well!

We started our fire-education-week. In speech, we discussed what firefighters wear and what is on their truck. Then we added a new poem to our personal readers.

David, Patrick and Luis had a fantastic time in Ms. Albert's room today and just as they started to get fidgety, it was time for specials. A huge improvement from last week where they needed a break a half hour and sometimes forty five minutes beforehand!

We put the marble racer together again (and followed the directions this time instead of trying our own way) and had a great time with that as a class downtime.

Book orders should be going home, I'm hoping tomorrow if everyone shows up. I really do recommend them compared to Barnes and Noble which is where I was tonight. However, if you enjoy Barnes and Noble and have a membership card, there are great books in their kids bargain section with letters, numbers, colors, and more that have magic pictures. Also, in their main section of bargin there is another section of bargin books with holiday books for kids. I know, it's hard to think of the holidays when Halloween isn't even here, but they are there.

Should we have a Halloween party in the class? We haven't heard yet about the approval of the field trip which should be on the 30th. Then we'd have a party on the 31st. Is it too much? What are your thoughts?

Alright, I should go find my suitcase and contemplate packing....enjoy your night!

9-1-1

We're starting fire prevention teaching. In the song (on your cd) there is a song "firestation pete"....it talks about 9-1-1.

We will talk in our class about dialing 9-1-1 for an emergency but I'm asking that you do some teaching at home for this concept. The last thing that I want is for our boys to go and pick up the phone and dial and cause a ruckus. Believe me, I'm not a ruckus maker (usually).

So, go over why they might. To help you with this and your entire family, we'll be sending home a HUGE poster, thanks to Ms. Lunsford, all about safety and there is a place to put the numbers on them.

Just curious

As I was looking at the analytics of this blog, who is everyone who reads this? It's been read in 16 states so far! I can claim some of the NY readers (I think) but not all of them. I know that Grant's Grandparents and "favorite" aunt are reading from out west. You'd be happy to know that you are in second place in terms of readers with Virginia being in first. However, there is a huge group in PA, NY, Connecticut, Georgia and more!

It's impressive I must say. I'm half tempted to link it up to my other blogs (not that I really ever update those!) And I say link it up, I mean have my fiance do it...he's the one responsible for all my technology including building my websites (so far, I only have one but I'm out to conquer the web someday).

Okay, so that's my question today. Who are you? Is there something that you'd like to be reading here that I'm not posting? (My readers that I know are reading are also more than welcome to respond.)

Enjoy your day off tomorrow. I miss NY for the fact that they give their teachers the long weekend as well!

Our own Mrs. Robertson won the "Pear" award from Weems today. What it means is that she was nominated and voted by the faculty and staff as the IA who does a great deal for the Weems family. We all appreciate and know that we are the most fortunate to work with her.


Other than that excitement, it was a fairly non-descript day.

We had no Mrs. Robertson, Darius or Luis. Good times in inclusion for everyone. Music for Albert's class and Art for Ms. Spencer's students.

We worked on putting together marble racers in our class. Lunch and recess were pretty lovely. There was a lot of duck duck goose during recess and playing in dirt. Two distinct groups, but still exciting that everyone was with at least one other person playing.

In speech we talked about out a poem regarding our feet. Then we took our shoes and socks off and talked about different descriptors about our shoes.

Then, Ms. Stern had us PAINT WITH OUR FEET!!!!!! We painted leaves with our feet and then did something that we can't post here and used our hands to paint.

We took out our trains and marble racers again. We reviewed over, under, and on some more.

We're going to talk about fire safety next week and start talking about pumpkins!

Don't forget, NO SCHOOL FOR KIDS ON MONDAY!

Thursday

We moved the furniture around yesterday after work. Sorry for not posting last night...

We worked on over, under, and on today in math. Difficult but we had fun climbing on our desks and under them.

also, we played with trains today!

Some of us got really dirty playing at recess today. It really was hysterical and goes to show how much fun they are having!

Tomorrow we'll be finger painting so I hope you're feeling my excitement!

October 15th at 6pm. Parent night, bring a baby photo! We'll be talking about our roads to here...

Next Thursday after school I'll be leaving for NY for the weekend. If you need something, send an email.

Enjoy your Thursday.

Best bulletin board....

Robyn created a bulletin board with the boys pictures on pumpkins looking like jack-o-lanterns in a pumpkin patch!

We played football in speech today and spoke about top, middle, and bottom. The scarecrow that we had made was wearing a football helmet and when we threw, we were trying to identify if we hit him on the top, middle, or bottom.

Library for Spencer and Music for Albert today.

We explored magnets, did songs in the afternoon.

Still working on eye contact and looking at the people that you are speaking to.

We're doing a fantastic time in inclusion! I'm hearing great reports from everyone!

Tomorrow, we're starting math centers in the afternoon after speech. They will have 2:1 instruction from me, a small group of 3 with Robyn and then a choice activity independently. We're excited!

Next week is Fire Prevention Week.

Also, in terms of life skills, we're going to start out by remembering when our birthday is. After that, our phone number and then our address.

In terms of social skills, we're still working on greetings, closings, and eye contact.

Disney Sing Along Videos seem to be a great hit if you're looking for something new at home. They have different songs from different movies and the kids love to hear the songs and watch the characters dance.

Enjoy your Tuesday!

Happy October!

I'm under an allergy attack right now so I'm going to keep this brief.

We worked on eye contact again today. When talking with your child, please ask them "where are my eyes....talk to my eyes" It seems to be working. Hopefully, one day we won't have to ask.

We had music (spencer) and computer lab (albert) today.

In speech we worked on finishing our scarecrow.

WE ARE ON for our PARENT night. October 15th is the same night as the PTO meeting. The PTO meeting is at 7pm, would you prefer our time to be 6 or 6:30. I'm hoping that we can do a rotating thing of providing a light refreshment. Also, is there a particular topic that you'd like to talk about or focus on? Kids are welcome.

We talked about shapes today. We're going into unit four for math starting tomorrow because we're beyond where we need to be. (Gen Ed kindergarten is in unit 2).

Alright, the tissues and I have a date. Have a great night!

Finished the book

Okay, there are some things that I dog-earred.

1. Page 149.
"There was a study done in 2006 that showed the economic costs associated with autism were $35 billion a year. Treatment for a preschool child with autism typically cost over $50,000 a year. The New York Times has estimated that only 10 percent of afflicted children are getting those services, and as a nation, we're letting down twenty-five thousand more children every year.
Autism is not getting the financial support it needs. In 2005 the National Institutes of Health dedicated only .3 percent of its budget to autism. Though on 12/7 the Senate authorized $1 billion for autism research, autism is still very far behind in private funding. Leukemia affects one in every twenty-five thousand and has $310 million in private funding. Pediatric AIDS affects one in eight thousand and has $394 million in private funding. Autism affects one in hundred and fifty and has only $15 million in private funding."

2. Page 176
" Someone needs to figure out what the hell is going on, or we're going to have much bigger problems than global warming. In the seventies, it used to be one in ten thousand children were autistic. Now it's one in a hundred and fifty. What will it take for people the wake the hell up? One in five children will be autistic, and then what- we can't procreate anymore? ...."

Jenny also talks about the need to find the cause rather than the band-aid. If you constantly had heartburn, rather than taking the medication, you should find and change the cause. That is why she went with the diets. By changing what her son, Evan, ate, he was getting "opening the window."

I'm not a doctor, clearly. I don't advocate one way or another. It just makes me wonder as an educator about the causes of behavior because I'm charged with helping to fit the band-aid.

At the end of the book, she does go into what she's done. She lays out what she calls a "pamplet" which is worth looking at as well.

Alright, I feel like I've posted a lot about this.

Now, I should go and do my school work and research for the presentation at our next faculty meeting for other educators to learn about strategies to best help "my boys."

Jenny McCarthy's Book

I finally started reading it this morning at about 10:45. Two hours later and I have about 30 pages or so left.

I couldn't pull myself away from it except that I called and scheduled to finally have my hair cut at 1:15.

It talks a lot about the programs that she put her son in, specific doctors, and she swears by vaccines and diets (both wheat and dairy free). It also talks a great deal about how many families become destroyed by having a child identified with autism.

If you would like to borrow it, just let me know. I'll be done with it by around dinner time tonight because it's on my A-list of priorities for today.

It doesn't really say much about what specifically they did because Jenny wasn't the one doing it but rather paying professionals. He was in a neuropsychiatric hospital for schooling, 1:1 teaching happened there (and here we're lucky if we can have 4:1 children:adults while there they had 1:1 student:teacher) and she paid for numerous doctors, B12 shots to boost immune systems, all the special diets, and he was going through seizures. However, it's honest, it talks about how you can sit down and take it or you can stand up and fight with your child.

What I really took away from it is turning off the mommy/daddy/family member/teacher instinct of knowing what a child wants and just giving it to them and rather, making them ask for it. Making them work for it no matter the cost. Jenny spoke a lot about it and said that it was worth it. And how giving wait time, she talks about asking her son a question, giving up on waiting a response from him figuring that it was never going to happen, and then getting one 45 minutes later because it took him that long to process the question being asked. That astounded me because I don't know of any teacher who provides 45 minute wait time for answers to questions and how when a child has a difference, that is how long it might take them. Being in the role that I'm in, I get to see a lot of teachers in various roles. Not even just at the school I'm in now but when I was still an IA back in NY. Some, have the same temperment no matter the child and the difference and expect question/answer to be that quick as you just read it. Others understand that we don't all process the same way. I know I don't process the same day to day. Ask me a question on a day that all 7 boys have had their own version of a fit and needed 1:1 redirection and if there is something going on in my personal life (or in my world, everything happens in threes) then I may not even realize someone is talking to me. In the world of these children, they hear every noise (the clicking of a clock, the leaky facet, the truck down the street for example) as if they were front row next to the speakers of an ACDC concert. Every little nuance of the light of the room that they are in makes them refocus. Every texture that they come into contact with needs to be explored and makes them feel a different way that they are constantly aware of. We take for granted how carpet feels against our feet and just go. Children who have differences like our boys, they can't. There are preferred textures, things, experiences. I see it daily in our room between oral fixations, preference over carpet/tiling, beanbag chairs/typical classroom chairs/rocking chairs. And no one is the same. 7 boys, 7 different preferences. 7 things that they work for. Stars, stickers, prizes, twizzlers, mints, praise, computer time, thomas the tank books, blue's clues, movie, 1:1 time, trips in the hall, all depending on the day and student.

I'll post more as I finish the book, but I should get moving because I have less than 20 minutes to get across town and I have yet to even brush my teeth today because of this book.

Finally Friday

Great day!

Grant got off the bus and came to me, looked straight into my eyes, and said "good morning Ms. Stern"

SCORE!


As of today, everyone was in inclusive settings.

GRAND SLAM!

We made a gluey scarecrow in speech by tracing shapes, glueing his pants with blue sparkle glue and then putting ripped up blue paper on the glue. If you want to work with your child on something, try ripping scrap paper. We ate a lot of apples today and then painted with apples. Basically we sliced up the apples with my new ikea slicer/corer and then painted with the slices and cores. Quite enjoyable. It also makes the apples themselves really interesting looking.

I hope everyone enjoys the cds that are in your child's backpack. They are one of the cds that we work with at school. I promise, number 15 will get your child jumping and jiving.

Everyone participated well in their enrichment rotations. (PE and Library)

Inclusive recess really is a great time. You'd all be amazed to hear your children screaming (including quiet Aldair!) and running with all the other kids. It's really great to watch.

October homework calendars on Monday!

Enjoy your weekend! I'm off to read the Jenny McCarthy book and create some math centers.

I didn't forget to post about today. I just got home and am leaving again to go learn how to play some game named bunco because some teachers needed a sub.

I will post later about today. I promise. It'll just be later than usual!

We bumped up inclusion today to include inclusive recess.

This means we are now up to 9am-11am inclusive instruction for language arts.
11am-11:45 inclusive enrichment rotation
12:20-12:50ish inclusive lunch
and 1pm-1:30 inclusive recess.

Three hours and 45 minutes of inclusion is WELL OVER what the IEPs outline, but they are being successful. We're social, learning, and making friends!

Tomorrow Darius starts in inclusion with Ms. Mansfield and then from 9-11, no one will be in our room because we'll all be out at our classes. I'm SO EXCITED!

We did have a little trouble today with keeping our hands to ourselves, but I think that we were able to address them.

I apologize for not giving out new enrichment rotations yet to those who need them with the new inclusion schedule, I'm not trying to avoid it, I just haven't received it yet to give to you. I've emailed and gone in person and I've been promised tomorrow. Thanks for your patience.

We had a special visitor in our class today. Blue, from Blue's Clues, travelled from the library to our classroom and all of our friends got a chance to visit with him (the stuffed animal) and to talk to him. We talked about his shirt (it's from chicka chicka boom boom), the way he dances, and we included him in our song time.

Speaking of songs, there will be a present for each of you and your families tomorrow in your child's backpack, please look for it. (I hopefully will remember to put it in as well!)

We're looking into buying a tent for our classroom. HOW FUN! I can't wait to be able to creatively address the needs of our students so that they can show us all that they are capable of.

Also, while I think about it, Kindergartener's don't receive interims for the first quarter. Please know that everyone is doing quite well.

With that, I'm off for tonight. I hope that everyone is doing well.

Exhausted, anyone?

Just so all of you know, any day without Mrs. Robertson is not as good. We sure hope that she feels better soon, along with David, because our day just wasn't the same at all!

Our transportation situation is more than great now! Everyone is getting to school around 8:40 and leaving right on time as well. A lot better than I can say for other buses!

Our new inclusion schedule with Ms. Albert's class was amazing! Ms. Spencer's class as always is fantastic as well. We really are lucky to have these two great teachers working with us along with Ms. Teller in Ms. Albert's room and Mrs. Dunavant in Ms. Spencer's room.

I handed in all the field trip forms today. If they are approved (and they should be) we'll be going to Cox Farms, Bowling and to Manassas Mall to see Santa and for IHOP! Hope you are ready to come and join the fun because we surely could use some help! The proposed dates are 10-9, 11-15, and 12-12 respectively. I need to wait to see if they'll be approved. especially the 10-9 with how close it is and that we need transportation to approve the date.

Our day honestly was quite silly which is what I told the boys. We pushed up inclusion time so it's now 9-11am and enrichment rotation is 11-11:45. We have choice time from 11:45-12:20 along with bathroom rotation. Lunchtime and recess follow. Then we had speech, a fire drill, and then we were spent! We had some pillow movie time, quiet time with Ms. Stern 1:1 to talk about things like our colors, shapes, and apples. Packed up and headed home.

For everyone, it was just an off day. To make sure everyone knows, there is strep and stomach bugs heading around school. Since we go everywhere, do everything, and all that, it may creep in home. For adults to build your immune system, there is something called airborne. I've not taken it and no one has tapped me to star in their commercial so I'm not getting paid to talk about them, however, I've met many adults who swear by it. It's not for children however. please also please avoid medicating your child with things like cough syrup BEFORE school. Really, if they take it, it might be worth keeping them home or sending them in late. All it does is make them groggy, mean, and tired. THen, I'm going to call you and say "hey, your child is acting different. is anything going on." I know that you all love talking to me on the phone, but i promise, i'll call anyway and would rather it be "hey, your child had a great day. i thought you should know about it."

And now, to admit defeat, i'm going to bed. yes, at 7:40. afterall, the last thing i really want to do is get sick.

I forgot again

I met with Mrs. Cassarino today and we "lunched."

We are ON for parent support groups. Is this something that you're interested in? Kids can come because it'll be in our classroom and they can play. But it's a safe place to come and bring your questions, frustrations and be with people who are there and have been there. I can invite people that you may be interested in talking with (no guarantees that they'll come) but I'm thinking like 5:30 or 6 on nights that there is already a PTO meeting. Tell me the topics that you want to talk about. Potty training ideas, meltdown approaches, sensory ideas.....anything. It's your chance to talk with each other, exchange ideas, and more!

Let me know if you're interested/not (I promise I won't be offended).

Okay, now I'm really gonna go clean.

Best.Day.EVER!

We got our budget. We can now go and buy the things to help our boys adapt, adjust and accommodate in their surroundings and fulfill their needs. I can't wait!

I started to plan field trips. I appreciate everyone's input and we're waiting back to hear from administration for Cox Farms and if that is approved we will be going to Cox farms (oct), bowling (nov) and manassas mall for santa and ihop in december. More second semester as we come along.

We've been much more daring and talkative. Everyone has been approaching people and chatting with them. It's so exciting to see Grant greet people in the hallway. David stop Ms. Fisher today and chatted with her. Everyone except Aldair and Hendrick had their vision and hearing tested today. Ms. Parker, our school nurse LOVED spending time with them. They all did a fantastic job and Ms. Parker said that our friends did better than some of her fourth graders! Funny story: When David was finished listening to the birds in the hearing machine, Ms. Parker put it away. David went up to the machine and said "my turn" so Ms. Parker let him press the button to hear the birds.

Aldair has been chatting with everyone all over and Mrs. Cassarino said that everytime she passes him in the hallway, he waves. Now she's gonna start make him use his big voice that we all know he has!

Darius has done a great job on all of his first grade testing which is great. He's been reading, singing along, and doing a fantastic first grade job during circle time. I couldn't be prouder!

Patrick got to spend time climbing with the second graders for recess today. He's also been approaching people and asking them questions. He really enjoys recess, the transformer book, and math carnival on the computer.

Hendrick loves to help whenever he can. He's taken over being chair helper and reminds friends to push their chairs in and put them up at the end of the day. He always reminds Ms. Stern to take the lunch cards and to pick Aldair up before we get to the cafeteria. The classroom just wouldn't be well managed without him around!

Grant has been all over! We went into the nurse's office to have our vision and hearing tested and then ran some errands. We've been working on greeting with eye contact a great deal.

Luis loves going to the listening center and spending time right next to Ms. Stern. We've been working a great deal on listening and following the rules.

Alright, I have to go and clean and fill out paperwork.

Enjoy your night!

Again, I forgot.

David today was in the hall with Mrs. Robertson. On his way back to the classroom, he saw Mrs. Cassarino who asked him how he was today. David's response was "Fine. And you?"

FANTASTIC RESPONSE FRIEND!!!!!!!

Absolutely worth stickers. (-:


We continued our tag-fest outside and I must say, it doesn't get any less funny as the days go on.

Does anyone else need another weekend?

I do.

Today went well. I chatted with Darius about his train filled weekend with Thomas and Grant about the baseball game. Grant got all shy but later in the day when we were talking to Ms. Lunsford, he announced that he took the train!

We had Library (Grant, Aldair, Hendrick and Darius) and Art (Luis, Patrick and David).

Note: No one likes Pasta Primavera. I promise, they don't like the school version of it so if you think you're child will eat it, I promise, they won't. However, those who ordered hotdogs were happy.

Tomorrow, if Ms. Stern motivates herself tonight and goes to the store to buy them, we'll be painting with apples. In addition, we'll be doing the song of "there was an old woman who swallowed a fly."

Today, we hung out with Dora, did an obstacle course in speech that went with the Berenstain Bears book that we read.

PTO meeting tonight if you're interested and the fundraisers went home today.

Let me know if you need anything. (-:

Meetings galore

Today's meeting after school is with Ms. Burnett and Tony Lodovico with the rest of the special education staff. I'll be learning about testing for those students who aren't considered to be SOL students (the boys are considered to be SOL students).

Tomorrow during lunch I'm scheduled to meet with Mrs. Cassarino regarding inclusion.

And now, I should stop procrastinating and go to work. I had planned to be there at 7am and couldn't pull myself out of bed until 45 minutes after I sent the original alarm clock. Story of my life.

two things i already forgot to post about

1. I was able to transfer Oprah from DVR to tape. I know that Patrick's family wanted to watch it. If you're also interested, just send me an email and I'll circulate the tape around.

2. I bought the book about Jenny McCarthy and her son. If I should A. learn anything useful or B. you'd like to borrow it when I'm done, just let me know!

I should mention though, I'm in the middle of a book right now so it might not be for another week depending on the time I can spend reading.

(-:

Fantastic Friday

We started out only 6 strong since our friend David was home ill. We hope that he gets better quickly because our friends surely noticed many times that he wasn't here!

We danced, sang, talked about the calendar and had a fire drill all before 9:30 this morning!!!

Ms. Stern showed our friends one of her leap-pads and we read a spider man story and same of the games. Ms. Stern read "How do dinosaurs get well soon?" We talked about the importance of listening.

Most of our friends went to music class (Hendrick, Grant, Darius and Aldair) while Luis, Patrick and Ms. Stern played candyland.

We hung out, played in the classroom, read and colored until we were ready for lunch.

During recess, Ms. Stern learned all about Patrick's "sack the quarterback" and Ms. Stern wound up in the bottom of a massive pile up when everyone joined in. It was hysterical and no one could stop laughing!

During speech, we played "hide the scarecrow," learned a new scarecrow song, and heard a story about scarecrows.

After speech, we had some time with Blue's Clues and Ms. Stern had to take care of something and Mrs. Robertson was finishing up hanging up the months of the year on the wall for us. Once we were all back together, we danced the afternoon away! We freeze danced, did the chicken dance, YMCA, and then played twister! A great time!

Buses were here early and away everyone went!

Enjoy your weekend friends!

A long, long, long, day

And yet, it was no longer than any other in real time.

Today was just a day....

We did have some highlites, Grant went to engage David in morning songs and they danced together for a bit.

EVERYONE excelled in sorting and we've already completed the assessment for it. I was so excited to see that we could ace this!

We worked on our cutting skills by cutting into playdough.

Mrs. Robertson had these great independent games with file folders and everyone worked on pairing capital letters with lowercase, numbers with pictures of corresponding items.

We needed some reminders that it's okay to play tag but not okay to push people or "tag" them if they aren't playing.

Thanks for everyone for sending in jackets for the windy weather! It sure is appreciated during recess.

Enjoy your night! (-:

Sorting

We're going to be working on sorting in math. Big/little, colors, shapes, two legs and four legs, etc. Want more practice at home? Breads/fruits, morning things/nighttime things, mommy/daddy, etc. Everything can be made into a sorting activity.

Back to school night was great fun. I'm working on field trip set-ups. Also, on parent forums. I don't know if the same night as PTO will work/won't work. The logistics of it all. Do parents even still want it? I know it is nice to know that you're not alone. Share what has/hasn't worked for you and your adventure. Would you be interested in having each other's phone numbers or email addresses so that you could talk to each other? I should set up a poll on here.

We started characterland today. I'm not sure that they fully understand it, but we'll get there.

Today in speech, some of our friends earned an amazing amount of stickers for doing the roll that Ms. Lunsford was trying to teach us.

Everyone had a great day. They really did today. I learned of some new quirks that our friends have but nothing terrible.

Again, the game of tag continued. We had some parallel play between Grant and Darius on the climbing mountain. David being the line leader is fantastic because no matter where in the school we are coming back from, he knows where our classroom is.

Alright, I'd update more, and I'm sorry for all the new readers out in Indiana, Illinois, Connecticut, New York, California, Idaho, Utah, and every other place who didn't get to come to back to school night, but I'm beat!

More tomorrow because I go to pick up Mike from the airport.

I completely forgot!!!

During recess (now yesterday as it is Wednesday), the boys played a hysterical game of tag. All of them were running all over the playground chasing each other, tagging someone else, and then running some more. They were shouting, laughing and giggling so hard that it was contagious!

Again, on tv

Oprah had Jenny McCarthy on, whose son was diagnosed with Autism and claims that all these diets and such are "curing" Autism. She claims that a good diet will help do it. She said that within two weeks her son's language doubled. She said that it won't work for everyone but it might work.

She claims that video modeling is huge. She says that play therapy is key to help kids how to "properly" play with toys.

I can't help but wondering if she didn't have all the money in the world, would she be able to claim all of these things.

She follows the vaccination rule of "I vaccinated my baby and something happened."

The center for disease control states that the vast majority of research doesn't support the vaccinations but rather that they save lives.

Now they (Holly something or other came on as well and Jenny) claim that there is a period of time that you can cure your child and put them on the road to recovery.

Now Holly is talking about how the "women" do what they have to do but it's the men who have a hard time because it's "the men and their boys."

Holly's son was kicked out of the school and they told her that her son was "unteachable."

Even Holly said that getting her son tested and found him to be "allergic to wheat."

They talk about the "mommy instinct" and how doctors may have not listened but they knew.

It was Holly Robinson.

Well, Oprah is over. I'm interested to hear what all of you have to say. Do you agree/disagree with the diets, vaccines, etc. Do dads take this harder than moms? Do you believe that autism can be cured?


Sorry, I know that this is off topic, but every once in a while, a show hits me and I need to know from people who are there. I hope that's okay.

(also, I saved this on my dvr and I can ask Mike while he is here to make a copy of it if anyone didn't see it and is interested....I think I also have an episode of Oprah from over the summer all about Autism as well).

I get distracted by tv

I update this on my couch on my laptop watching DVR'ed tv that is almost a year old because that's how behind I am (except on the shows that I deem to be must see!)

Anyway, we have life size posters of our friends in our classroom. We have one more to get finished tomorrow. They crack me up. Next update to them, speech bubbles! They're quite cute. Ms. Lunsford started us and Mrs. Robertson and Ms. Stern finished them up today except for one.

Darius and Ms. Stern got to play candyland today while everyone else was out of the room. Grant, Aldair and Hendrick stayed in Ms. Spencer's room for an extended time today and did so many activities about apples. Luis completed at 63 piece puzzle almost entirely by himself! David and Patrick enjoyed themselves in music class today.

Pizza wheels was the choice of the day for lunch.

We read stories, danced our dances and sang our songs (cd will be sent home so you can have them at home too....I warn you though, they are addicting and easily get stuck in your head....trust me, I've embarassed many people by dancing and singing in the car to these songs), headed off to inclusion. After specials, we did some painting, coloring, and decorating.

We've been on an expedition to take pictures of our VIPs in our school. Have you seen those pictures that have Kermit the frog randomly someplace in the photo of great places? Well, our pictures randomly have people posed with our boys. It's great! We're expanding it daily to include more people that we see and interact with.

I'm going to work on field trips. Stay tuned for more information.

Ellen just announced that September is crepe month at Ihop....I should go eat dinner before I actually consider this as an option.

Can't wait to see everyone tomorrow! Great times to be had....All encore rotation teachers should be in attendance so you can go and meet with them as well (after all, there's only so much that I can really tell you that you don't know already!)

Character land.....<3

Trees, mud, mountains, duck pond, smiley face ending! Rainbow pieces with pictures....<3 <3 <3

"Ms. Stern, you're home"

I was late to school today and that is what I was greeted with when I walked in at 9:30. How refreshing!

We had our pictures and our friends had to say "pickles!" Fantastically funny!

We painted today (it's washable if clothes are wearing paint....we tried to be clean about it!). We will continue tomorrow on our way to making our own color and shape posters.

Speech started today. We drew Darius and colored him in. Tomorrow, we'll draw another friend...this was hysterically funny!

We had some other issues today that will be addressed ASAP. Until then, we're switching some things up and adapting as we go. Smooth sailing for us, just learning as we go.

Alright, as much as I enjoy blogging, it's bedtime for teacher.

Don't forget, Back to School Night, 7pm, Wednesday night. Get there early to get parking!

I'll be there, Robyn will be there, will you be there? Good times, had by all!

(-:

A Fantastic Day!

Today, on all accounts, was a fantastic day!

We set up our schedules for OT and Speech beginning next week. Speech will be everyday except for Thursday from 1:30-2pm. OT will be on Wednesday in the middle of the day.

EVERYONE had a great day. The buses showed up, we headed in. Mrs. Cassarino and Ms. Niles came in to teach us about the golden rule (We're gonna teach our friends, the way they want to be treated). We headed to inclusion, specials were Art and Library today. (cruz-art and spencer-library)

Lunch was hotdogs, everyone headed out for recess (it was a little rainy after a bit). We all had computer time and went on our picture mission to take pictures with us and some of the best people in our school who help us! By the time we were done with that and our wrap up meeting for the week, it was time to get our backpacks and head to our buses! There were actually regular buses that showed up after our friends left for the day!

Picture Day-MONDAY!
Back to school night-Wednesday! (7pm)


Oh, if you don't own one, a magnadoodle would be a great thing for your child. We used them today and they loved them! I recommend the ones from target (when they go on sale, the large ones are around 10 dollars) and have a drawer with shapes and a writing instrument. A fantastic tool for OT, writing, spelling, drawing and more!

Enjoy your weekend! (-:

Great Day

It's late and it'll be brief.

Great day. Bus 43 was there about 8:47ish and Bus 51 got a little lost but made it to school. They couldn't find a street and now know. The director of transportation waiting for Bus 43 with me.

Inclusion was great in every area. We eat lunch with our friend Tommy from Pre-school and his class! Ms. Teller loves hanging out with us!

We talked about our colors today and will be painting tomorrow our shapes and colors combined.

Please make sure to clean out the notebooks with notes and things that can stay at home. I'd hate for the boys to have to carry around more than they have to.

More probably on Saturday. Email if you need anything! (-:

More Inclusion!

Fantastic news on all fronts!

1. I remembered the second rule that I couldn't yesterday. It is "We will use our walking feet while inside of the school." No, we aren't that cool where we can pull off our walking feet and put on our running feet like robots and have spares, but we are learning about where and when we run. As soon as we walk down the steps outside, we run to the playground. No exceptions (except Ms. Stern and Mrs. Robertson) Even David said today "Can I run to the playground?" They have to walk all day so I fully support running as much as possible outside. Boys will be boys.

2. As the title states, we are starting our second phase of inclusion tomorrow. Our boys will be sitting with inclusion classes during lunch. It serves two purposes. A) We can work on our appropriate social skills in a great environment. B) Ms. Stern and Mrs. Robertson get to now have their own lunch times apart from children for 20 minutes (at different times, so that one of us is always there)

3. We have two buses starting tomorrow!!! No more late start for us. We're all going to be on board starting at approximately 8:45 which is huge. We can do the pledge of allegiance together, moment of silence and hear all of the announcements. WAHOO!!! Thanks to all of you who helped to make this happen for our kids!

4. We walked in the hallway quietly today while we were on a "Blue's Clues Mission" (read: walking to the recess door). I seriously contemplated putting the blue pawprints around the school to help us, but then I figured that we'd get too excited in the hallway when we find them.

5. We started counting the days of school today. We are using buses on our door (it seemed appropriate!). They are yellow, blue or red depending on the day. Red is for our five days. Blue is for our days that end in zero. Yellow is for every other day. So, we're working on counting, identifying groups of fives and tens.

6. DTK-Teach.com is a website that was given to be today. If ever you're looking for activities to do at home, it's given me some great ideas.

7. Mrs. Robertson has almost finished characterland and I have to be honest, it's amazing. I'm in awe of her talents and I can't wait for the kids to start being able to move their pieces towards the happy rainbow at the end. I promise, we'll post pictures soon. The player pieces look like the pieces in the game of sorry with their pictures on the bottom. They are precious!

8. Grant became the co-teacher of PE today. He helped to lead the stretching for the class. He also made new hair for himself using playdough today. I packed the camera so I don't have to miss another opportunity to take pictures of it!

9. Darius outran everyone that was in PE. Anytime Ms. West had a question, she informed me that Darius was right on top with the answer. Impressive!

10. Aldair made a new friend today in Ms. Spencer's room. We initiated conversations on his own and is showing great progress in his self-confidence.

11. Luis found that school spaghetti and spaghetti at home are not the same. We were able to adapt though and eat other things. He had a great day writing his letters, reading, and sorting objects.

12. Hendrick was a great helper today going and helping to deliver letters. He's also been a great friend to those who need a hug. He's been inviting others to play with him and to read when we go into the class library.

13. David is working on his puzzles of 25 pieces even though it's challenging for him. He loves going to Ms. Cruz's room and requests the Freeze Dance at all opportunities. He got to go on the computer today to do some sorting in math carnival and aced it!

14. Patrick is our line leader and loves being able to do everything associated with it including opening the door, turning the lights on when we come back and holding Ms. Stern's hand. He was very patient today when waiting for his other friends to finish their math so that we could go to playdough and sat at his desk informing us that "I'll wait" and didn't fuss. He's taken to hiding in the pillows as a choice when in the library and today announced "Houston, we have a problem" when other friends wanted to use the pillows. We talked about it and agreed that we could share.


All in all, a fantastic Wednesday! yes, I don't want parents to think that there are no mishaps. We did have some upset children at points as we do almost everyday, but Mrs. Robertson and myself address them as they arise and make parents contact as appropriate when needed.


Reminders:

Picture day: Monday. Remember to smile!
Back to School Night: Wednesday, 7pm. Room 77 as well as inclusion teachers!
Starting tomorrow: phone contact will be limited as my parents will be here but I'm still accessible if you need me (probably severely limited on Friday as I'll be in Woodbridge until late) Email is best until Sunday. In addition, next week Thursday-Sunday I won't be phoning and such as much either as my Fiance (I'm still confused on how I'm supposed to spell it and how he's supposed to spell it but regardless) Mike will be here for his birthday. I might even take him to DC (I've not been there in almost 10 years and I've lived her for over a year now!). Email is best.

Disclaimer regarding photos: I won't post photos of children on this blog. It's not in anyone's best interest in terms of privacy laws and the like. However, I'm more than willing to email what I take of your child to you if you'd like. Just let me know by email! (-:

Tuesday, 9/11/07

We created our classroom rules today. They are three-fold.

1. We will raise our hand when we want to talk (this is mostly enforced in the morning, inclusion, and specials). In the afternoon, it's not really an atmosphere set up for hand raising.

2. We will show respect by keeping our bodies to ourselves, taking turns, sharing, etc.

3. I'm completely blanking. I apologize as I know most of you read this to see what we do everyday. I'll be sure to update this and properly fill it in.

We followed our calendar routine, sang songs, and talked about the rainy weather. Imagine how silly it was that Ms. Stern thought that the picture of the snowy bear was the rainy bear. Thank goodness for such smart friends who could help me figure it out!

We all got turns at the computer today playing either Math Carnival or with Clifford the Big Red Dog.

Darius, Aldair, Grant and Luis went to art today and met Mrs. Brannon. We had fun learning about the art room and participating in getting to know Mrs. Brannon.

Patrick, David and Hendrick headed to library to hear all about our brand new library and meet with Mrs. Kirkland.

We started our book math curriculum today versus getting to know our math manipulatives. Today for our kindergarten friends we completed our first math worksheet on 1:1 correspondance and What Doesn't Belong? Any at home practice, especially with what doesn't belong would be great. Try taking one pair of socks and another sock without a match or something else. Ask your child what doesn't have a match?

Chicken Nuggets and Corn Dogs for lunch today!

We had inside recess today due to the rain on and off and wet recess equipment. Let's hope for better weather tomorrow.

Tomorrow we go back to ER-1 on our schedules.

Picture Day, Monday September 17th (our picture time is 11:50am)
Back to School Night, Wednesday September 19th at 7pm.


Starting tomorrow, we're adding a new element to our calendar time. We're going to start counting the days that we've been in school. We've been working on our counting until 20 and now we're going to continue to add on one more to our count everyday until the end in June!

Characterland is almost entirely complete! It looks fantastic on our board and we're going to talk to our friends about how to earn spaces.

Speaking of rewards and incentives, many of our friends got to visit the prize box today because of stellar behavior for the first six days. Those who didn't get to go today will have a chance tomorrow hopefully!

Enjoy your night! (-:

Scheduled outage at 11pm PDT

Good thing that I'm updating now!

Week two started off well.

We did puzzles (we are almost all masters of the realm of 25 pieces!)

We did out calendar routine (still no snow....ask your child if it is snowing outside, you'll get the best laugh out of them!)

By this time, it was time for our songs and then inclusion time. For our friends in Ms. Spencer's inclusion class, while today was an "off" day for enrichment rotation, they went to the math lab. What a fantastic time playing with shapes.

We followed all three rules in the lunch room today, have become masters of how to get our lunch trays to the table.

We played on the big playground, some of us were learning how to swing (up and down are the key words we are using for learning how to pump our legs) We don't allow climbing up the slides as it can be dangerous if no one is watching as they come down.

Once back in the classroom, we read, colored, and chose classroom jobs. The following jobs are for this week:

Patrick: Line Leader
David: Line Caboose
Grant: Chair Helper
Luis: Trash Picker-Upper
Hendrick: Library Cleaner
Aldair: Special Helper
Darius: Animal Checker

These roles will rotate and change as the year goes on. We talked about responsibilities, the fact that we all have to do our jobs so that our class can be great....

In regards to transportation, the bus has been consistently coming to the school at 9:15am. Ms. Burnett said that she'll be talking to the director of transportation about this and seeing what can be done to remedy this situation.

More to come, probably tomorrow night.(-:

Houston, we've completed week one of our mission

Week one over with. I must admit, I'm exhausted. I know Robyn is exhausted as well. However, I must say, we had a HUGE day today.

1. We ACED our first fire drill. We lined up, followed Ms. Stern, and were almost entirely quiet the whole time! Patrick told us that the whole school was going to blow up, so we had to remind our friends that it was only practice and nothing was actually on fire.

2. We played with playdough when Ms. Stern had a meeting. At first, we did a great job. It did become messier as we continued and Ms. Stern came back to a very colorful, but fun, room.

3. We had calendar time today. While it was hard, we tried to turn it around. Guess what, we got x's to sit on now so that we can remember where we should be. Ms. Stern is thinking about using chairs so that we can remember that we have to sit instead of sprawl all over!

4. Ms. Lunsford helped us write a poem about our color words. Purple is Barney, Blue is a shirt (almost everyone was wearing blue today!), Yellow is a school bus, and more. Ms. Stern's memory sure is fading that she can't remember all of it.

5. Ms. Smith came in to watch us when we were cutting, coloring and writing. She said that she is going to be with us a lot and help us to learn to ace those things before you know it!

6. Ms. Stern talked with some of us about not giving our parents a hard time about doing our homework. She said that it's not a good idea to be mean and whiny. Some of us were wondering how she found out what we do at home!

7. One of our friends tried to use our electric pencil sharpener to help his crayons. It was a learning experience for all of us!

8. Mrs. Robertson went to PE with Hendrick, Patrick and David today. Everyone said that they had so much fun running up and down and all around the brand new gym!

9. Mrs. Robertson has been working so hard on creating what we are going to be calling "CharacterLand." We're going to be learning about it soon, but think Candyland but on a bulletin board. We're going to learn about being good citizens, making great choices, and earning chances to move our "players piece" to the finish line. There are going to be obstacles and friends to meet along the way like Respect Rhino, Trustworthy Tiger, and more. Ms. Stern is really excited for the pieces that look like sorry pieces with each players pictures on it!

10. Invite your family to view the blog and keep up on our adventures. While I will never post photos, know that we are taking plenty and will be glad to share them with you individually through email! (Mrs. Robertson got a great shot of all the boys together in the lounging area yesterday...it's already my desktop photo!)


**Picture day will be on September 17th. Please look for more information when it gets sent home.

I believe that back to school night is September 19th. Please come, Mrs. Robertson and I will make it a great time. We already see a great deal of each other, so adding other fun people to the mix will be good for us!

All of our friends picked their very own desks today and put their names on it. We had so much fun at them. Almost all of us can find our names located around the room and we can help those who can't! How much fun!

Mrs. Cassarino came and sat with us during lunch today. Hendrick and Patrick loved her so much that they wanted to go with her when she had to leave. Grant greeted her and showed her all of his cookies and banana! David bought lunch for the first time and while at first he wasn't quite sure about this fish that he ordered, he grew to be fond of it!

Aldair got to spend some more time with Ms. Spencer today in the afternoon. He made a beautiful garden picture to take home. He was a little scared to go in by himself, but when Ms. Stern came to pick him up, he wasn't sure he was ready to leave!

Luis and Darius learned a great deal in computers. Darius waited so patiently when Ms. Stern realized that she forgot to bring his lunch and Mrs. Robertson went back to get it. Luis read Hop on Pop to Ms. Stern when they got some 1:1 time together and chose to do some puzzles as a choice activity that his friends hadn't had time to finish the other day.

Tiffany spent almost the entire week in Ms. Kessler's room and did a great job. Way to go!

Next week, we're going to get class jobs, begin with a social skills program Ms. Stern is working on, and begin speech and occupational therapy. It's going to be a HUGE second week so I hope everyone rests up this weekend! I know I will!!!

Also, beginning next Thursday through Saturday, I may be harder to get a hold of by phone at home. My parents will be visiting and we'll be doing things like picking out a wedding dress and wandering around Manassas together. Email is probably best although if you leave messages on my voicemail, I will respond!

Enjoy your weekend!

It's Friday!

Yesterday went well. Grilled cheese for lunch, birthday party for Weems, cube counting, independent reading, and yet more inclusion!

Today, we're having an afternoon OT observation for the class, continue on our reading crusade about being in school, keep on practicing being able to walk as a class in the hallway and more!

I don't know about all of you, but ever since school began, I've had absolutely no problem being able to fall asleep at night. Last night, I went to bed at 8:30, before all the reported bed times in the class!

Day 2

Tomorrow, Weems turns 30! We're celebrating by learning the hand-jive in the gymnasium with all of kindergarten through second grade. It sure will be noisy, but we'll still enjoy ourselves, I'm sure!

Today, we became the only kindergarteners (along with our first grade friend) to use the other playgrounds. WE LOVED climbing all over everything. Miss Stern even climbed with us in her sandals!

We read, colored, worked on our grips of pencils/crayons, went to inclusion, specials, and more today!

There were these delicious apple turnovers for lunch today and I'll tell you, they were a HUGE HIT!

Calendar time was so much fun. Almost all of our friends were able to say that yesterday was Tuesday and tomorrow will be Thursday. We decided that it wasn't snowing and rather, the weather today was hot and sunny. We were happy about that because we could go outside for recess. Some of our friends don't like to talk about the season still being summer because they don't like some summer activities (namely swimming) so we quickly kept going.

Mrs. Walsh, our permanent substitute came in to read a Thomas the Tank story to us. Mrs. Robertson did an activity with numbers and cards and read us a story before our song time. It was great to be able to be with so many friends, and our inclusion teachers. We are the celebrities of the building!

I do know that they are trying to do something in regards to the bus situation. I don't know what it is, but I know that something should be happening. Think of how I feel, I'm standing outside Weems beginning at 8:30 every morning waiting for all my friends to come to school. Today, our friends arrived at 9:15. It'll get better, it's only day 2.

Let me know if there is anything that I can assist with or that you want to read here! (-:

First day....take them two at a time!

Our first day went fairly well. There were some glitches, nothing major, and everyone appeared to enjoy themselves.

We started out with puzzles, did some singing, toured the school (ran all over Ms. West's new gym! and explored every aisle of Mrs. Kirkland's new library!), went to enrichments, met all our new friends, ate lunch, read some stories together, went to recess, played with math manipulatives, and watched a movie together.

Today, we're starting our full day routine of calendar, inclusion in our classes, double recess (we're going to split up the 20 minutes and have two different recesses a day at two different playgrounds!), and more!

Alright, I should probably get to work if we're going to do all of this. Hope everyone is enjoying themselves. Feel free to leave comments or email me if there is something in particular you'd like to know about in regards to the day.

(-:

ps. as soon as we start writing about our days together as a class, I'll update this journal with the messages that we create together in a separate post each day so you can know specifically what is going on each day in the eyes of your child.

It's 3am, I sure hope you are sleeping

I woke up wanting to re-work the inclusion schedule. Yes, at 3am. I sit here yawning and knowing better than to be up this early on my first day and yet, if I stayed "asleep" I would have just been thinking about it in bed rather than being able to do something about it.

Today I have planned a great deal of "play" time in different areas of the classroom. We're going to take a school tour, figure out the best time for us to have recess as a class, and get to know our environment. We'll read "First Day Jitters" and probably one other book from the book bin about school. In addition, we'll explore our math manipulatives and will start in our inclusion rooms. We don't want to wait until tomorrow that which we can start today!

Enrichment rotations (which I'm still unclear if we start today or tomorrow) are typed up and list everyone. I couldn't decide if that was a good idea or bad idea, but for this case, I figured it would be okay.

I will say that my personal goal for the year for the overall class is to be included and accepted. When choosing a place for the students, other teachers now look at this as an opportunity for themselves and their students to work with the students in my class. I'm working with our inclusion teachers to help their class understand more about our friends on their own level. I've studied this area known as disability awareness, given presentations about it during my master's program, and have built up a rather substantial library geared for children and families regarding children with differences. Are all of us (including myself) nervous about this? Of course we are. Just as I imagine the parents of my students are everytime someone comes near their child fearing that they might do something to embarass their parents. I'd like to think that we'll work together, parents and educators, to ease everyone's nerves, to strive to surpass obstacles, achieve what was once thought to be impossible, and provide ourselves a community that truly accepts, accommodates, and welcomes diversity and everything that we each have to offer, especially that of our students.

Twas the night before school

I have already had one night of sleeplessness (last night) and predict another for tonight.

I feel like there is so much going on. We have four different schedules with eight different children. Not impossible, just challenging for only two adults.

I finished all the BEE Books and realized that I forgot to type up the enrichment rotation schedule for parents so I should go and finish that.

The classroom is for the most part unpacked. I say for the most part because there are still boxes around, but for now, we have everything we need.

I hope that all of you out in blog land sleep well tonight, and if you have as many jitters as I do about tomorrow, post something for me to read!

(I should note, this is not new for me....every since I can remember, I've never been able to sleep the night before school starts)

After I finish typing up the Enrichment Rotation, I may come back and post more. You never can tell!

A new princess

In addition to "my boys" as they have affectionately been dubbed, we welcome a young girl into our class.

Glad that I have extra of everything. Just need to go and get a couple of other things now that would be appropriate for her.

Moved everything into the classroom today and I must say, we have a great deal of unpacking to do....but that, is another day.