A few updates. . .

So I have figured out that I am only able to blog/blogstalk during the wee hours of 2:30 and 5:00 a.m.  My school computer has been acting up when it comes to blogs, and of course from the moment I get home from school my attention, time, and energy are focused elsewhere!

Last week Sol insisted on wearing one of my vests.  Finally I decided to just let him wear it around the house!  Christian had on a gray one, but he was too busy flying through the air like a "superhero" to let me get a picture of him!

O.k. first things first.  So we had a fun little "reveal" party last weekend with family and friends.  I cut the cake first then we watched my 3D/4D sonogram dvd to check out our new addition.  

It's a BOY. . .and he wasn't one bit shy!  We're not sure about names yet, but we have a few in mind.  

If you haven't checked in at Kohl's in a while, they have a great new selection of books by.  

You can get more information here.

Last week we finished up our graphing unit, and I tried a few new things.  .  .

I dumped the m&m's into a baggie so that I could assess a few things without m&m's flying all over the room.  

I checked out sorting. . .

counting. . .

 and graphing. 

The students also had the chance to create their own pie graph. 

Here are a few pictures of some graphs/charts that the students worked on in small groups.  They surveyed the class, analyzed the information, and recorded it in the form of a bar graph, pie graph, or picture graph.

  

We read "Sam's Sandwich."  In this story Sam puts just about "everything" on a sandwich that he's making for his little sister.  Each student voted on their favorite kind of sandwich.

My class also worked really hard to write reports about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  I was so proud of all of the information that they learned and how sensitive they were in response to the class discussion and literature.

brown egg

white egg

inside they look just the same. . .

I love this TLC project.  You can find the instructions here.  It's a link on Little Giraffe's.

Have you ever taught a topic so much that you dreamt about it?  Well, we studied "rocks" and "soil" for about four weeks!  The reason we stayed on the subject so long is because we teach science and social studies every day.  So instead of going back and forth between the two of them, we spend about 20-30 minutes on both of them every day.  One of my teammates used to be part of a land judging contest so she is very very very knowledgeable about topsoil, clay, sand, silt, pebbles, and just about anything else that has to do with rocks!  I tried to keep it interesting for my kiddos. . .here are a few of my favorite activities.

Every day we shook this tennis ball container with cookies in it to show the process of "weathering" and "erosion."  I didn't do a good job of taking pictures along the way, but little by little we could see the transformation from "rocks" to "soil."

We made some snowman "sand" art pictures and brainstormed the *many uses of rocks!

And of course. . .after studying rocks and soil for all that time we deserved a treat, so we made dirt cups!  The class enjoyed eating them while watching "Magic School Bus Rocks and Rolls."  I wish I had a magic school bus!

That's all for now. . .happy teaching!  

I'm back. . .

and I've got a baby bump!

 Look how big my little guys have gotten!

These boys are hoping for a sister!

I am so so so so so sorry for the long lapse in blog posts.  I've had a whirlwind of a first semester, and I had to let a few things go.  I missed blogging and blog stalking so much. Thank you to all of my sweet blog friends and followers who checked in on me.   So here's the condensed version of why I have been missing in action for several months now. . .

I started the year off with 25 kiddos (I know some people teach 30+ kids, but that's a lot when you're used to teaching 18-20 little ones)!  After managing that for a bit, we hired an amazing 5th teacher to help us reduce the load, and she's amazing (Brandy we are SO glad you joined us. . .you're the perfect fit for our team)!

So after all of that was squared away and  I was finally getting acclimated with my new students and all of the craziness of the beginning of the school year Mr. Perry was really really sick.  We couldn't figure out if it was a virus, stomach bug, or some rare disease! It turned out that his appendix ruptured and he went about two weeks before any doctor was able to diagnose the situation properly.  It was very scary because if he had gone for much longer there could have been major long term effects.  There was a huge abscess around his appendix (7-8 inches), and it caused him to have really high fever and feel very weak.  So by the time they discovered it, he had to get this tube attached to his side so that the fluid could drain properly.  The tube drained for about three weeks. . .yikes!  About three weeks after that part of the recovery,  they finally removed the appendix (the part that was left).  About three weeks after the surgery (which was just before Thanksgiving) he was feeling 100% again.  So just about that time that we found out that number 3 was on the way, he was feeling terrible.  I was feeling exhaused with a capital "e," and I had to pick up a lot more slack at home with the boys.  I would come home from school, clean up, cook, work on a few things for school, and then crash!  I wanted to blog, but I couldn't muster up the energy.  Now that I'm in my second trimester, I have all of my energy back (or as much of it as I think I can possibly have), and I think I'm ready to blog again!

I will do my absolute best to get some fresh and fun ideas up here real soon.  I feel terrible that it has been months since I've posted any great ideas, freebies, or teacher tips.   I certainly hope to make it up! We have still be doing lots of wonderful activities and having tons of fun in my classroom, and maybe later I can post some pics (a walk down memory lane)!

Here are a few things we worked on today. . .

We made a little New Year's party hat with a blower and used it to graph what time we went to sleep on New Year's Eve (regular time, a little later than usual, a little after midnight, or late night owl).  Apparently most of my class was up well after midnight!

After I read this book, I gave the class an invitation to our "New Year's Bash."

This was our morning message today.  It's part of our calendar math.

We counted down at 2:59, and made "toasts" with apple juice!  The kids really loved saying "cheers" at the end.  It reminded me of when I introduced "bucket fillers" at the beginning of the year because all of the toasts were so sentimental and sweet.  I know this isn't much, but I promise I'll get some more posts here really soon!  If you like the "New Year's Toast" idea, click here for a freebie. 

It's good to be back!  I'll post a belly shot soon. . .Today I got to wear jeans and spirit wear so it didn't flatter the bump at all. . . tomorrow I'll get one of my teammates to snap a great side shot!