Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Poetry

Last week concluded a writing unit on "informational texts."  Over the span of several weeks, each student wrote multiple "How to..." and "All About..." stories.  These were published and added to our classroom library.  It's refreshing to see them checking out each others books from our classroom library.  One of my main objectives for writing instruction is for the students to see themselves as authors and illustrators, mission accomplished!  The next unit for Writing Workshop is poetry, instead of referring to the students as writers they have transformed to poets.  All year long I've been reading poems to the students in Room 108.  Now it's time for us to write poems and I must confess that it's a lot harder than I had expected.  After reading through the Lucy Calkin's curriculum, I thought the students would need explicit modeling before being set loose to write a beautifully elaborate poem about a pencil sharpener, paper clip, or other classroom object.  For this reason, I'm pulling in the reins of "write whatever interests you most."  We're using published poems to inspire our own.  Here are poems about what the kids can do: 



    



















Here the students were inspired by Brod Bagert to write a Library Cheer: 























Do you have a favorite poet to share?  

Friday, May 18, 2012

Highlights of the Week

1. Celebrating 34 years of teaching with my friend and mentor as she retires.
2. Finishing my National Board exam, now just wait to find out the results in November.
3. Cheering for Girls on the Run/Track as they practiced a 5k.  Seeing my current students there to cheer their big sisters on!  
4. Students making up rules for Twister.
5. Passing the "Jim Basketball Jones" pencil from student to student.  Can I get an, "OH YEAH!?"
6. The ABC countdown for keeping the end of the year fun.

What was the highlight of your week?  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!



Friday, May 11, 2012

Mother's Day

Thank you to all the moms and special ladies in our lives who were able to come to Garvy today.  I hope you felt pampered and special.  Enjoy YOUR weekend!

Here's the video we made.  We all love our moms!

What are you all doing this weekend to celebrate Mother's Day?



Thursday, May 3, 2012

Money, Money, Money!

Over the years I've tried many different ways of teaching kids about coins and their values.  In my opinion, money is a hard concept because the coins are abstract; there is no rhyme or reason for the value of each coin. For an Earth Day activity this year I asked the children to bring in their old McDonald's toys that we would recycle.  Together we collected over 100 happy meal toys!  In class, each student has been earning coins for good behavior.  They've put their coins into a bank and count it at the end of each day.  Together we practiced counting it and used a program on the StarBoard as a visual reinforcement of the concept.  Yesterday the students were able to "buy" a new toy.  They were excited to choose a new toy and pay for it with money they earned.  I think it was a fun way to teach them about money and we will continue to shop for recycled toys throughout the year.

Here's a picture of the kids with their new toy!




















Have you tried the game at home called, "If you can count it, you can keep it?"  It's pretty simple.  You hand your child a small amount of coins to be added together.  If they correctly count the amount they can keep it (put in their bank).  If they don't correctly identify the coins/values then you keep it.      

Caterpillar Metamorphosis

A couple of weeks ago a cup of tiny caterpillars arrived to Garvy school.  The kids observed them through each stage of the metamorphosis process.  We watched the caterpillars eat and grow, spin a chrysalis, and then become butterflies.  Observing this process led to many discussions and excitement about having new class pets.  Yesterday we let them go in the Garvy garden.  The children anxiously watched as the butterflies quickly adapted to their new home in nature.  Below is a picture us observing the butterflies and their empty chrysalis shells.
 



































What did your child share with you about the butterflies?