What a Week it Was and Will Be!

So fall is starting to make me fall asleep! The weather is rainy but that doesn't stop all of the major events that have been wearing me out lately.  It's time for a quick recap...

Today were parent conferences and I will say that I enjoy meeting parents and telling them good things about their children.  The other half of that isn't always so good but I lean towards the positive.  I really am blessed with some great students and parents this year.  I only wish I could keep my face from getting so red...granted the heat was newly turned on in my room making it stuffy but who am I kidding?  I'm a red head so I'm meant to be red!

Talking about the heat brings me back to last week and a pretty crazy event...our Halloween Dance!  Most of the third grade was able to host a Halloween Dance including face paint, costume contests, lots of food and music!  It was fun and pretty memorable.  The face paint requests I had were perhaps the most amusing...bald eagles, dead relatives names across the forehead, American flags, "red, green, and blue devil" as some boy described it.  However, the heat that happened before the dance was probably more memorable...with my room full of students staying after school for the dance my AC overheated and started smoking.  The mean teacher that I am didn't believe the kids at first...poor babies!  But, there was no danger or any flames, but it did startle me.  The curse continued as 2 DVDs wouldn't work...spooky!

Following the dance was a fun field trip where I believe the curse was lifted.  The kids behaved really well and no one (including me) got lost in the corn maze we visited.  I did feel my blood pressure spike since we weren't on a real schedule.  The kids handled it better than I did!

Well, there are more events sure to come...stay tuned for details on the dreaded sugar filled Halloween Party and events that follow, which may include my own sugar coma...I'm as bad as the kids!  They really should require that holiday to be on a weekend.  Also, stay tuned for a writing and election unit I'm hoping to share!

 Pumpkin patches are fun!

One of my lovelies walking in the corn ;)

Fabulously Festive Fall Fun!

I am absolutely delighted that my favorite season is upon us!  Fall just matches my hair, my style, my mood, possibly my soul ;)  Even though I feel the pressure to meet all of the state and national standards in education...I just had to incorporate some fall fun into my lessons lately.

I started with a new (and literal) twist on poetry.  I found this lesson a couple of years ago here:  http://www2.crayola.com/lesson-plans/detail/falling-leaves-poetry-spinners-lesson-plan/

I wasn't sure how to implement it until I did a unit on poetry.  We focused mostly on sounds and did some easy acrostic poetry, but I let them write their favorite poem on one of these spinners; which I drew on construction paper beforehand.  I was surprised at how well they were able to cut in a continuous spiral without being confused!  It feels great when something actually goes right!  It might have been a little more educational if I had had them write their own poetry on it; but, that would be a good idea for 4th or 5th graders.  We definitely need to work on writing!

Also, check out www.shelsilverstein.com for some awesome links to Shel's poetry, which is my all time favorite!  We divided up his poems and performed them as reading groups...it was so fun!

Last but not least, here is a pic from our Fall Carnival.  We had a night full of western fun and the kids surprisingly loved the corn hole that I brought from home.  Corn hole is a fun and simple game that the middle schoolers (and middle aged men) get seriously competitive about.  I loved the view of the sun setting and the fresh air that night.  Stay tuned for more posts after my fall break!  I am hoping to upload a matrix containing a review of all of my favorite picture books...coming soon!

In the Mind of a Child...

Having the mindset of a child simply means to be curious, easily excited, and a little strange.  I feel like one of the main reasons I became a teacher is because I have the mind of a child!  Hopefully I am a little wiser, but who really knows?

The reason I was thinking of a curious mind is because I, along with my students, have been very curious and excited in these weeks leading up to fall break.  We were thrilled to get a Promethean Board then a laptop!

Here is one of the first accessories I bought for my new technology.   It happened to be the cutest and cheapest mouse at Walmart!

This little USB lamp makes me smile because one of my students said it reminded them of the lamp from Pixar!!

 

I tried to harness some of their curiosity by making main idea tables with the supporting details as legs. I got the template from www.brainpopjr.com.

So we also worked on identifying nouns by cutting them out of newspapers and one kid brought me this!  I had done such a good job at cutting out all of the stories about murder and mayhem, but didn't notice this little gem.  Hahaha...the mind of a child probably inspired this cartoon ;)