My student teacher, Mrs. Pollitt has been teaching the students about animal habitats.  She has done a wonderful job and the kids really understand what animals need to survive in their habitats.  As a culminating project Mrs. Pollitt asked the students to work with their families to create a Habitat Diorama.  They are fantastic and I wanted to share some pictures.

Say No to Bullying!

Today three girls from the Mason County High School FCCLA group came to our room to teach us about bullying.  They did a wonderful job!  Here are some of the things we learned:
Julia- "Don't be friends with bullies."
Wyatt- "If you are being bullied, or someone else is being bullied, go tell the teacher."
Izabella- "Whenever you see someone that is being bullied you should help them."
Abby- "If you think you have been bullied, go tell someone."
Isaac- " If you know someone is getting bullied, go tell someone even if they don't want you too."
Alexis- "Tell a grown-up if somebody is getting bullied."
Cameron- "When someone is bullying you- go tell the teacher, or they will keep bullying you."
Owen- "If you are being bullied, don't fight back with you hands.  Tell them to stop."
Karsen- "If you get bullied, tell the bully you don't want to be bullied anymore."
Lindsey- "Even if it is your friend that is the bully, you should tell your teacher."
Jaxson- "If you get punched, tell you teacher or someone you know."

We learned that you should stand up to bullies.  You should not fight back with your hands (physically), but you should let them know that bullying is wrong.

SHAPES, SHAPES, EVERYWHERE!!!

We have been learning about two- and three-dimensional composite shapes in math.  I love teaching about shapes, since shapes are all around us and the kids can really "see" the shapes.  This is a quick and easy activity that I do with my kids each year.  This activity is great because it helps the kids really understand what makes a three-dimensional shape and the attributes of the three-dimensional shapes.  The kids always love this.

I have a dream...

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream that everyone would learn to live and work together in a peaceful way. I want to know what your dream for our school would be.

Christmas Break

When you get back from Christmas/ Winter Break, some of the first questions that people always ask are, "How was your Christmas? What did you get? Did you do anything fun over the break?" I love hearing about all of the exciting experiences and gifts that everyone received.
One of my favorite gifts was the Santa Claus that my dad carved me.  He has made me one for the past thirteen years.  Each year my Santa has a theme and this year it was all about my new home.  My Santa is holding a picture frame and has a picture of my new house in it and there is a sold sign in the yard beside the Santa. (If I remember, I will try to upload a picture of it.)
I was able to visit with a lot of family and friends and that is always one of the best parts of my Christmas.
I would love to know about your favorite gift or your favorite part of Christmas break...
 

Our Trip to the Movies

As a reward for doing so well on our MAP tests, we took our students to see the Muppets movie.

Reindeer Food

To get ready for Christmas Eve we made Reindeer Food.  This food will guide the reindeers to my students' homes.  It is a very easy thing to make.  We used 1/2 cup of dry oats and a spoonful of red and green decorating sugar.  You could use any color of sugar that you have at you house.  The kids were excited about this.  They are going to sprinkle it outside on Christmas Eve.

Snowglobe Ornaments

We made snowlgobe ornaments for our parents.  We used a clear punch cup as the globe.  The base of our snowglobe was a circle traced out of cardstock.  We hot glued our favorite Christmas character and a Christmas Tree on the cardstock circle.  The kids then filled the cup with a little fake snow.  I put hotglue around the edge of the cardstock and placed it on the rim of the punch cup.  I then hotglued a string at the top of the cup to make an ornament hanger.  They turned out so cute!!!!!  I think that they will make great additions on the tree!

Our Christmas Traditions

Most of us have Christmas or holiday traditions.  I have many Christmas traditions, but the one that sticks out in my mind the most is my Santa Scavenger Hunt.  It happens on Christmas morning.  After we open our gifts and and stockings, Santa always leaves a note on the mantle for my sister and I.  This notes begins our Christmas Scavenger Hunt.  Santa always makes us go on a scavenger hunt to find our big gift.  He usually makes us go out in the cold snow during our hunt.  He leaves us riddles and notes at each location.  Finally after about 7 notes, we find our big gift.  Santa has been leaving us notes and having us do a scavenger hunt for as long as I remember.  Santa still has me go on my Santa Scavenger Hunt every Christmas morning, even at the age of 29!  I love my Christmas tradition and I would love to hear about yours.  Please share your Christmas or holiday tradition with me...

Reindeer Ornaments

We made some Christmas ornaments!  My students will be giving this Reindeer Ornament to their parents for Christmas (So parents, please don't spoil the surprise if you see this before you get your ornament) :).  

To make this ornament we took lightbulbs and wrapped them in masking tape.  I got the kids started on this this, then they took over.  The important this is to have the kids smooth down the tape every inch or so.  

Next, the kids painted their lightbulbs brown. 

The kids then traced their handprints on a piece of cardstock and cut them out.

I use a glue gun to glue on the nose, antlers (handprints) and ornament hangers.

For the eyes I used to peel n' stick eyes you can get at craft stores.

I think this turned out to be such a cute ornament.  This kids really enjoyed this!

We are learning to blog!

 The love of reading!  I am loving it!

During Christmas time, my school holds a hallway decorating contest.  This year my hallway chose "Tis the Season of Giving."  Each classroom in our hallway chose a charity or organization to pass on the gift of giving.  My classroom chose to help our school district's Backpack Program.  Each Friday, our Family Resource Center delivers bags of snacks to kids who don't have enough to eat over the weekend.  We wanted to teach our students that "giving is better than receiving," and the importance of thinking of others.  We have invited the entire school to take part in our hallway's theme and help out any of the organizations we chose.  The pictures don't reflect this, but our tubs are now over-flowing with donations.  The kids are really seeing that they are making a difference.  

The Christmas tree is made with my students handprints.  It took A LOT of handprints, but I wanted my door/ hallway to represent my students work, not my work.  In order to get the lights to stay up on the tree, I normally used hot glue.  I didn't have the time for that, so I found that ornament hangers worked just as well.

In the above photo, you can see blue sheets of paper.  This is where I display student work.  Here is an idea that I thought of this year...On the top of each paper the students' names are displayed on a gingerbread man or ornament.  Instead of changing the paper for each holiday, I laminated the paper and hot glued little clothespins to the paper.  I also put a velcro dot on each paper.  This allows me to change the name plates for each season very easily.

Because my kids were helping others by donating to the charities, I told them they were just like Santa's Elves.  Each child made an elf.  I got my elf template from another blog.  Remember- I am new to blogging, and I didn't write down the name of the blog.  When I find which blog this template came from, I will give it credit.  The one thing that I changed on my elves was the writing that each elf is holding.  My writing is about what that particular child did to help and how it made them feel.  

Each year I do a Christmas Countdown that begins the week after Thanksgiving.  Each day, one of Santa's helpers writes my students a note.  Each note gives them something extra.  I try to keep the extras as inexpensive as possible, and most of the time they are things that cost no money.  Some ideas include: a Christmas movie, Christmas songs during center time, 5 extra minutes of activity time, or to make a Christmas craft.  My kids look forward to this everyday.  It is very exciting!!!  I just love the holiday time!

Pass on the Gift of Giving

Doesn't giving someone a gift or helping someone out make you feel good?  I would like to hear about it.  Please respond by telling me about a time you gave a gift or helped someone out and how it made you feel.