We WON!

Hi everyone, I am just hopping on the blog to update you on some very important news...WE WON!  The month of November has been focused on collecting, clipping, and counting Box Tops.  Students have been stalking the bottom of Kleenex boxes, cereal boxes, Ziploc bags, and your kitchen cupboards looking for Box Tops.  Today the winner of the November Box Top Challenge was announced! Students were in music when the announcement started so, I briskly walked  ran to the music room just in case we were the winners.  As the announcement came and we heard our class had won, the screaming started!  (Sorry Ms. Purcell, to say the kids weren't focused on music would be an understatement.)  It was awesome to see the kids congratulating each other on a job well done.  What an awesome ending to the day!  Students will be munching on free popcorn tomorrow!  I am so proud of the kids.  They worked hard to collect their Box Tops and most importantly we helped our school!

A Visit from Redbird!

If you haven't heard, Redbird came to visit us with some of their critters.  Students were thrilled to see the different animals.  We got a chance to look at a scorpion, gecko, guinea pig, parrot, and tortoise.   Emma was chosen to be the guinea pig holder.  She took the guinea pig around the group for everyone to see.
She did a great job.


Then the gal let the parrot go.  Apparently, our gym is much too small for a parrot to fly around.  It made a loop around the gym and got a little too close to my head.  I never thought I was scared of birds, but having it come so close to my head made me a little nervous. I must have been too rattled after the bird went for my head, I didn't manage to snap a picture.  I am sure my friends (Ms. Green) and students would assure you that the parrot, named Rose, was not after me BUT I think she was!  

Well, the fun continued when they got out the 22 year old tortoise named Shirley.  Shirley got the chance to sit on different kids.  Here are a few pictures of the kids enjoying her.

 To top it all off, they made the teachers sit on the floor for Shirley to climb on.

We had a great time!  Thank you to Redbird for visiting our school!  I'll leave you with one last photo.  This is a combination of our class and Mrs. Allen's!  We have AWESOME students.

Yup, that's right...we're rappers!

We've been working hard to learn our basic addition and subtraction facts.  We have all sorts of tricks and strategies to help us!  Students have learned the strategy of counting up, make a ten, commutative property (flip-flop), make a model, and double up.  Here is a rap video showing our skills as rappers!  Some students have let the fame of being a rap star go to their head!  I heard some students tell staff, "I can't sign autographs right now."  Enjoy our video!  

What happened to October?

Sorry we have been missing in action for about a month.  We have been crazy busy in the classroom.  Not to mention, my boys have kept me hopping at home.  My step-son David has been playing JV Football for Beaverton.  I LOVE to watch him play and it sure does get exciting.  However, staying out at a football game on a school night really throws me for a loop.  What can I say?  I like routine.  Anyhow, here is a snapshot from the Gladwin Tribune (David is #30)

On top of football season, Henry had a birthday.  He turned 3.  So needless to say, we have been very busy driving all sorts of tractors and cars around the house.  His biggest excitement of the season has been hauling soy beans to the elevator with his dad.  He really loves a tractor ride, not to mention the popcorn he gets at the elevator.  Here is one of his birthday pictures (our daycare provider is a photographer.  How perfect is that?  I send the boys with their clothes and they come home with awesome pictures).  

 Of course Halloween kept us busy too.  What more can I say?  Monkeys seemed to be very fitting costumes for these two...

Enough about me and back to the classroom.  I really think I have an AWESOME class this year.  We have a lot of great kids, not to mention some really smarties.  We are having a great time learning together!  We been reading tons of books.  Daily 5 has been a great addition to our classroom.  It gives the students freedom to read books at their own levels.  

Through all my trial and error, I finally got our iMovie from the School Woods to load! Here is a movie with all our snapshots. 

***It is important to know all our videos and pictures are taken with our iPads.  We have two full-sized iPads that have been purchased through the St. Louis Technology Foundation.  The Technology Foundation will be doing their annual fundraiser on February 1st.