snow day? blogging? what do you think??

My facebook newsfeed is full of guesses about tomorrow morning - snow day or no snow day? I am going to have to say I think we'll have our winter vacation extended a day due to these crazy low temps expected, but nonetheless, parents rest assured, if my Pinterest newsfeed is any indication, your students will be experiencing some pretty awesome lessons once we do get back to school! haha! Yes, I do consider pinning ideas "planning" and my fellow teachers are hard at work on this long break! I just added some pins of my own to my "Stuff for School" pin-board (mostly they are links to other blog posts on here for my non-followers).  I think I'd really like to expand my use of this blog and try to get a bigger following of teachers out there... so I'm thinking about writing - really writing - not just posting pics of our craft projects. What do you all think? If you are reading this, PLEASE comment, like, or pass along to others so I can know if this would be something to consider ;)

Thanks so much!
Amanda

I had forgotten how fun watercolor painting can be! Here's a picture of what I think has been my little girl's favorite winter break activity!

Happy New Year!

That's really it, just wanted to say best of luck to all of you in 2014!
:)Amanda

as promised :)

Beginning December projects:

For these first two, we reviewed shapes and talked about "December" theme items that might come in the shape of a triangle. Then, we dyed popcorn by putting already popped popcorn in a baggy with a little bit of paint and shaking them up good! Once the pieces were glued down, we made our triangles into real pictures! Love this art project!

 

Next up: The Shape Snowman dancing in the falling snowflakes. A classic, but I love it every time!

 

 Today's quick afternoon reading lesson: There Was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Bell!

Coloring, cutting, sequencing, gluing, and labeling - whew!

 

Check back for more to come! 

:)Amanda

Happy Holidays!

I didn't get a chance to take pictures before our snow day on Friday, but here's one to hold you over until next week... I'm not really sure this picture should be forever available on the internet, but here goes! My kiddos have such a silly teacher :)

Photos to be taken/posted as soon as possible: Shape snowmen, Popcorn art, Free painting, Labeling work, and Snowy day Ten-Frames

Happy December everybody!
:)Amanda

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanks to all of you for following/reading my blog posts this year! I am really trying to update more often and add photos! I need to figure out that anonymity piece though (putting smiley faces on like stickers or blurring out faces - most of the time it ruins my pictures, so I'll work on finding a happy medium here). But anyway... you are appreciated just for reading my updates, my venting, my excitedness, my ramblings - so I am celebrating YOU this Thanksgiving! Thanks for having an interest in my classroom and my students!

I have had a really fun time celebrating Thanksgiving with my class this year - I am hoping I started a "Something I'm thankful for..." Show-and-Tell day because that was REALLY fun! Our students and paraeducators all participated and we saw some very cool things! I loved hearing some guesses after our initial "clues" were given - and a lot of times they were right! Thanks to everyone who participated for bringing in your cool items and sharing your stories of who gave it to you, who you share it with, and why you were thankful for it! The quote of the day, was from one student that said: "But the season is about giving, not getting. I'm thankful for my family and friends! Well, plus my snow globe!"

Happy Holidays, everybody!
:)Amanda

Lots to update!

I cannot believe how fast October flew by, and now we are already two weeks into November! I have not posted a new blog entry in a while, so I'm sorry about that - I think this is about the point I reached last year and just gave up - but I'm trying to get back into the habit... so here are a few things from the last month or so that I have been meaning to share!

What feels like months ago, we were working on letter Ff and 

made these super cute paper plate frogs! I love the long tongues!

 

Then, during ::Pumpkin Week:: we played a few rounds of pumpkin bowling before this happened!

 

 Yep, you read that right - pumpkin bowling!! We used toilet paper rolls for pins and a small pumpkin for a ball - taped a bowling lane onto our floor, stacked up the paper into a pyramid, and added up how many pins we each knocked over! I gotta say, I thought the math would be the most fun part, but watching the pumpkin explode was definitely the highlight!


Last but not least, I want to tell you all about this awesome article a fellow teacher brought to my attention and I have since passed on... for some reason I cannot rotate this photo, but google Contemporary Arts Center's newest exhibit for kids - "The Dinosaur says Moo" and check it out if you can!

I guess that's it for now - right now I'm planning letter J and K lessons, a lot of fun fall crafts and activities to go with some read-alouds and I'm REALLY looking forward to our show-and-tell something we are thankful for day on Monday, Nov. 25th!

Until next time :)

...been a couple weeks...

Well, we've continued letters A-F, we're on Gg now - fresh from Fall Break and ready to work! I am in love with these cute giraffes (for letter g) we made on Monday so I just had to share a few of them! Pinterest-inspired of course, but with the students' own little twists :)