Thursday, September 25, 2014

Best quote of the day...

The kids and I were walking through the halls and I told my line leader (who was crying because he had bumped his head) to stop at the stop sign beside the picture.  The picture is a portrait of our school's founder.  Through tears my little line leader looks up at me and says, "Ms. Carter? Is that a picture of one of our presidents?"

: )

Monday, September 22, 2014

     I spent some time this evening putting our aquarium together.  The kids have kind of forgotten about it and stopped asking when the fish are arriving, but this will most definitely happen soon.  I've got to finish figuring out how to put the filter together and then we'll get some fish.  I'm hoping by next week that our class will finally have a class pet!

     It may have been a good thing (with no intentional reasoning on my part) that the aquarium has been in our room for a while without anything inside.  The kids were wanting to touch this continuously, but now the novelty has worn off.  I'm hoping they remember to just look once there is water and fish in the tank!

     During reading today, we read a story titled, Wolf!  We talked about real wolves and compared them to wolves in fantasy literature.  The kids remembered Little Red Riding Hood and the Three Little Pigs.  We got to watch a National Geographic Kids video about wolves (found here:  http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/gray-wolf/) and so the howling began.  It was like having a classroom filled with active coyotes.

     Before reading Wolf! we talked about farms and what could be found on a farm.  I showed the kids a picture of an orange tractor and I mentioned how my Dad would like that tractor.  


      I then heard a little side conversation that went like this:  

Child 1:  Wait, she has a Dad?

Child 2:  Of course she has a Dad.
(Yes, boys and girls.  Teachers are humans!)

Child 1:  Well, does she have a husband?
(Huh? Wait, where is this conversation going?)

Child 2:  Of course she does, she's old enough to be a grandma!
(Grandma? What?)

Child 3:  No she's not! She's only a teenager.
(Okay, someone this is not much better than "Grandma.")

Child 2:  No, she's not.

Child 3:  Yes, she is.  Aren't you a teenager, Ms. Carter?

Me:  Well, no not really.  I'm a lot older than a teenager.

Child 2:  See! She's not a teenager.  She's like 22!

Okay, I'll take that.  Whatever.  The conversation of age ALWAYS comes up with my students and I don't usually tell them how old I am.  The age range they guess is usually somewhere between 12 and 90.  It's funny to hear them discuss things about me.  

Okay, in this respect I do still feel like a teenager!

      It was a beautiful day outside for recess; not too hot and not too cold.  We also are doing better with our lunch routine so we got outside on time today.  That's big for us (well, for me!).  One of the boys in my class had a Batman jacket on today.  He put the hood on and then zipped up the jacket while we were outside.  He began running around saying,
"Hey, I'm Batman!" One of the little boys in another class heard him and began chasing him shouting, "Batman! It's Batman!" My little one ran up to me complaining that the other kid kept chasing him.  I said, "Well why don't you just take off the jacket so you're not Batman anymore?" 

Good idea, Ms. Carter

      As soon as my little guy took off the jacket, the kid in the other class began chasing him again.  Although this time, the other child shouted, "Bruce! Bruce! (as in Bruce Wayne - the alter ego of Batman" as he chased my little guy around the grass area.  


      We have been taking turns having recess on the grass, the blacktop and then the playground.  When we're on the grass, one of the kids favorite games is to look in the grates for frogs.  Oh what little things entertain young minds! Thankfully.  

Tomorrow is our Boosterthon assembly! Get ready to pledge!!!!!!

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Well, we're FINALLY back to a more normal schedule after doing Dibels/TRC for a few days.  We got to get back to our morning meetings, which the kids love because we sing songs and read new stories.  Ask your kids about Suki's Kimono! They really enjoyed reading this during our reading block this morning.  The story is about a 1st grade girl who decides to wear her kimono to school.  Her sisters think that she needs to "wear something cool" because someone will laugh at her.  Well, they're right.  The other kids DO laugh at Suki.  The end of the story is really adorable because Suki deals with the other kids' ridicule in an adorable way.


Here is a short video that we watched to develop background knowledge about Japan (where Suki if from):




In math today we talked about the equal sign, also known as =.  For the most part the kids seemed to be catching on, however the explanation of what we are ACTUALLY doing is a bit more challenging.  Hopefully we can help their understanding by using balances and number lines during math next week.

We also made a Yes/No graph in math today to answer the question, Did you go swimming this summer?
We found out that 3 kids in our class DID NOT go swimming this summer.

We had an AMAZING assembly today! The kids were treated to our character/discipline assembly this afternoon where they got to be an audience for high school cheerleaders and a drumline.  The drummers were VERY animated! I think the kids will remember this experience for a while.  The kids did a good job as well of listening closely and watching the speakers.

 










After the assembly, we came back to the room for a few minutes a played a marble math addition game found here:  http://www.abcya.com/addition.htm

Okay, so maybe I was a little too tired and short tempered.  Or maybe that just keeps me from giving too many chances.  : )
But we were doing a read aloud on Wednesday of My Mother is Ruining My Life for our family unit in social studies.

There is a point in the book where the mother gives the daughter the "Mom look."  I, jokingly, said, "Ms. Carter never looks like this, right?" And what do you know... a little voice popped up and said, "Oh yes, you do! You look like this, Ms. Carter..." 

And every little head nodded in agreement.  Okay, it made me laugh, but really? I guess the kids have noticed my "teacher look."  It's something we all do, but I do try to save it for only when absolutely necessary.

It make me think, though.  Even though I am tired and rushed most of the time, I don't want the kids to suffer because of my shortcomings.  I want them to remember how much they loved coming to school, not how mean their teacher was, although I really don't think that giving them the stern teacher face is exactly mean.  But it's those moments that make me adjust my attitude and check myself.  Because I would much rather my kiddos forget this:

And remember more of this:

Thank you, Pinterest:

This flowerpot is sitting in my windowsill behind my desk.  The one on Pinterest uses Pixie sticks for the stems and the kids can take their flower on their birthday.  But Pixie sticks and 1st graders? I think not.  Also, I don't want to give up my flowers because by the end of the year there would be not flowers and that just seems, well, sad.  

This is the dice addition activity I was talking about.  The kids did well with this other than the flying dice being strewn (accidentally) around the room.  The containers I mentioned are shown below.  Again, thank you Pinterest.  Now to just find some more at the Dollar Store...

Coming Soon To A Classroom Near You...

Just got these in the mail TODAY!

And what about these boys? It warms a first grade teacher's heart to see such enthusiasm for reading!

Me bag pictures
From 2nd week of school
: )

The kids had to bring in 3 items in a bag.  The kids used these items to describe themselves to their classmates.  

You know you're a teacher when you get excited about Staples/staples - both the thing AND the store!

Whew! It's been a busy couple of days! I've had my last weekend of shows of Peter Pan, which is a bittersweet change.  It was quite enjoyable and a wonderful experience! I haven't been able to play the piano for a few weeks, so I'll be glad to be able to get back to that now that I'm no longer a pirate!

But, wait for it...
Ahoy, it's Talk Like a Pirate Day this Friday!!
Will any pirates come swashbuckling through our classroom? 

From Friday:
On Friday we had some excitement in our classroom! The kids were singing "Let it Go" during our Fun Friday time when one of the kids walked up to me with a tooth in her hand.  
"Ms. Carter! Her tooth came out! And I helped her pull it! I just got a paper towel and yanked!"
: )

What is even funnier is I got all this on video.  : )
Hopefully I can get uploaded soon...

By the way...
We didn't do a spelling test on Friday.  It was a crazy day.  But we'll start with a spelling test on Friday, September 19.  

Have a happy Sunday!
See you tomorrow!
Love,
     Ms. Carter