Mystery Reader #6 and #7

Our 6th Mystery Reader was Mrs. Wilkins.

She read some fun Thanksgiving books and she brought some treats.

Some of the other girls wanted to join in on the picture taking.

Mr. Mieure was the 7th Mystery Reader, but he was the first dad to read to the class.

He read a very cute Christmas book that was given to him by a special friend. Books make the best presents!

If you didn't know, it is very important for children to see their dads or the male figure in their life reading. I have heard many times that boys become better readers if they see their dads read. Girls also love having those special daddy/daughter times. Don't worry moms, they learn a lot from reading with you as well.

Halloween Party 2011

The Halloween Party was so much fun. I want to thank all the parents that put together each station.

Here are all of us in the morning, when our costumes and make up were fresh.

Mrs. Blackner had the kids play pin the wart on the witch.

Hmm...she looks very familiar!

She also had the kids doing a broom hockey race.

Mrs. Barton was in charge of the treat.

They made cupcake spiders!

Mrs. Lunt had the kids decorate slap bracelets.

We decided that paper was necessary because the kids were coloring with markers.

Then the kids were put into groups, and they had a mummy making race.

Then we all enjoyed some donuts and drinks provided by Mrs. Varela and Mrs. Blevins.

It was a great day! The children were so excited about all of the costumes and activities.

Mystery Reader #4 and #5

Okay, so I'm about a month behind. I'll try to catch up in these next few posts.

Mrs. Blackner was our 4th Mystery Reader.

She brought some great Halloween books, which the kids loved.

Mr. Blackner and their little girl came to enjoy story time!

Miss Blackner sure loved having her family there.

Mrs. Varela was our 5th Mystery Reader.

She read The Gingerbread Man because it is her favorite book.

I don't think the kids cared that it wasn't Christmas time.

Little Miss Varela enjoyed watching and listening to her mom read to the class.

I'm sure you got to see your child's spider,

but I thought you would like to see more of our Silly Spiders.

Mystery Reader #3

Last Friday we had our 3rd Mystery Reader. Mrs. Willemin came to read the class some scary Halloween stories.

She even brought props, such as a flashlight and spider rings.

Like mother, like daughter!

Apple Day

Last week we learned about apples and Johnny Appleseed. We even got to do some art projects. They also got to eat some apples!

Did you know that there are stars inside of apples?

We made apple prints. The kids got to dip cut apples in paint and then put them on a paper. It made for some great artwork!

Mystery Reader #2

This is a week or so late, but Mrs. Barton was our 2nd Mystery Reader. The students enjoyed having her come and read to them.

She brought some of her sons favorite stories, and I know that the rest of the class loved them as well.

Thank you, Mrs. Barton! Little Barton loved having you read to our class.

Family Skate Night

I had been out of town with my husband, but thankfully we arrived in Provo right before Skate Night started. We only stayed for about 45 minutes, but it was fun to see some of my students there.

Some were rollerblading, (taking pictures: my shadow),

walking,

scooting,

and rollerskating.

The thing that they all had in common were the smiles that were on all of their faces! I'm glad I was able to make it!

Mystery Reader #1

Mrs. Blevins was our first Mystery Reader. The students loved trying to guess who was coming. By the time I gave the 5th clue, little Blevins was sure it was his mom!

He was so excited to have her share his favorite books with the class.

My class sure love story time! It was a good thing she brought 2 books. Books are so fascinating, and funny as well.

(They also seem to like making rabbit ears!)

Thanks for coming, Mrs. Blevins!

I wonder who our next Mystery Reader will be.....

The Color Wheel

Last week we learned about the color wheels. I first showed the class a painting done by Mrs. Anderson's husband. I asked the children to tell me the colors that he used. They told me green, orange, purple, brown, and yellow. I then told them that Mr. Anderson only used 3 colors: red, yellow, and blue. They were a bit confused, but then one child told us that he probably mixed some colors. This little boy was correct of course!

Then we got into doing the clay activity. I gave each child red, yellow, and blue clay. They also had a paper with the color wheel on it. They just had to add the clay. We put the primary colors on first. Then we talked about what colors we had to mix to make the other colors.

red + yellow = orange

red + blue = purple

blue + yellow = green

As you can tell in the pictures below, the kids loved doing this activity!

Hopefully their color wheels made it home in one piece! I'm sorry if their hands were a little dirtier than normal. The clay was hard to wash off!

1st Week of School

We have finished our first week of school! Hooray!!! It has been a fun, busy week. We have been reading stories, practicing our letters, writing in our journals, and just getting to know each other. There are 25 students in our class with 1 more starting on Monday. Our classroom is full with 26 little bodies walking around. I can tell that everyone is eager to learn and have fun.

I should let you know that we have a foster grandma in our classroom just in case you ever hear your child talk about Grandma. Grandma Anita is helping us every morning for a couple of hours. The students will be reading their sight words and books to her, and she will help them during centers. She also helps me with some cutting and glueing projects. We love having her in our class.

We won't be starting official homework until after SEPs, so just make sure you are reading with your children every night for at least 20 minutes. This means that you can read to them, help them to read, and have them read to you. This is the year that they will make big jumps in their reading ability, but I know that they will make even bigger jumps with help at home as well as at school. I also know that your children will love that time with you. I can still remember how it felt to have my mother read to me at night. It is treasured time!

This week we are back to full days. Please make sure that your child is getting plenty of sleep at night. These full days are going to wear them out! They will start going to specialties (P.E., music, library) on Monday. I know they are excited about that because they keep asking me when P.E. starts every day this past week.

I am loving your children already. They are so full of energy and ready to learn!!!

Buzz into First Grade!!!

Welcome to my first grade class. I'm excited for this new school year. We are going to do some fun and exciting things this year while we focus on reading, math, writing, social studies, science, and art. I'm looking forward to seeing all that each one of you will bring to the classroom.

If you haven't noticed yet, my classroom theme is bees and bugs. This is because my first name actually means honeybee. Bugs are also very hard workers. Have you ever seen how hard bees work to collect pollen and make honey. They are always very busy at work.

Ants also work hard together to form their anthills and create a great home for their colony. This is how I expect our class to be. We are all going to work hard together to learn and to create a great class colony. Each of you are an important part of our colony. We are going to learn so much from each other this year