Newest Member of the 100 Club!

Today I initiated the first student from EPAA into the 100 Club! This first grader read and logged in 100 books at home. All the at-home reading she has done has helped her build and strengthen her reading skills, and I am incredibly proud of her. Congratulations, reading star!

Idea for the 100 Club! and for the lovely banner design lifted from yet another one of my favorite teaching blogs Bunting, Books, and Bainbridge. Banner printed at Vistaprint.

100th Day of School

I'm still having a hard time wrapping my brain around the fact that 100 days (101 as I type this) are now behind us. Where does time go? It's always this time of year when I start to panic as I look through my yearly plans with the realization that there is still so much more left for me to teach, and even more for the kids to learn. *sigh* Thankfully, at the close of each year I know that the kids are more than ready to take on the next grade level.

Anyhow . . . let's take a peek at how we celebrated our 100th day of school, shall we? It's been a tradition in my classroom to have kids wear 100 items to school on the 100th day. Each year I look forward to necklaces made of beads, paper clips, pasta, or cereal and t-shirts decorated with dots, stickers, or buttons. There are always creative surprises as well. This year was no exception! Here's a short video featuring some of the kids sharing what they wore. I even stepped up my technological skills up a notch and added still photos to the video though they are quite pixelated - will have to work on that. (Thank you iPhone apps for making my technological life uncomplicated.)



Here's another 100 day tradition in my classroom that the kids love and enjoy - creating self-portraits of themselves at 100 years old. We ended our day with this craftivity. Some of my favorites in this year's bunch are the Albert Einstein-ish eyebrows and mustaches, the bright red lipstick, and the little old lady hair buns. Too cute!

 Idea borrowed from one of my favorite bloggers over at Finally in First.

Superstars of the Week Talent

Since the start of school the school we have been featuring one student in our class each week as the Superstar of the Week. The kids are always excited to share and learn about each other during our Morning Meeting time. On Monday the featured Superstar shares a poster with the class that they have completed and decorated. On Tuesday the Superstar shares a favorite book that I read to the class. On Wednesday baby and family photos are shared. On Thursday the Superstar shares a talent. Here are two talents from a 1st grader and a 2nd grader that I thought you'd all enjoy!

Scientist of the Week #3

Scientist of the Week #2

Scientist of the Week #1

Happy 2013, everyone! I apologize for being M.I.A. over the past two months. The holidays kept me extremely busy at school and at home! I did quite a bit of entertaining over the holidays. One of my closest friends and her family came to visit during Thanksgiving. Then my whole family came to help us ring in the New Year. Having our dear friends and family really helped to ease the homesickness during our very first holidays away from the Chicagoland area. I promise to share photos of some of our holiday activities soon!

Can you believe we are halfway through the school year? Some of the kids are very excited. Others are terrified, particularly those moving out of my classroom into the third grade. There are always a few kids who experience separation anxiety at the end of the year, but I always tell them that they will do just fine because they've trained for 180 days to be third graders. And they really do just fine.

Anyhow . . . on to Scientist of the Week. We had our first demonstration in the classroom. The kids were very excited as was our first presenter. He did a teriffic job, as I know all of the kids will. Here's a video and a few pictures. Enjoy!






This is what the lemons looked like at the end of the school day.


Have a great week!