Day of Pink!

Hi Everyone!!!

It feels so good to be back!  Seriously, long time no blog :(.  On another note, tomorrow our school is celebrating the Red Cross Day of Pink.  If you have never heard of this day please read the excerpt following this blog post.  In response to the Day of Pink I wanted to create a bulletin board that celebrated what makes us special.  I used the book The Best Part of Me by Wendy Ewald as a springboard for a writing activity.  Students were asked to choose their favourite part about themselves - it could be absolutely whatever they wanted.  They then had to write about it.  Check out their sweet work below.

 

It`s a quick post tonight!  I am off to paint my nails pink to go all out for Day of Pink tomorrow.  I can't wait to see the whole school in their Day of Pink 2013 shirts!  It is going to be a fantastic day full of meaningful activities.

 

   

 

 

 

I will be back soon, I promise!  I am going to document my poetry writing adventures with my students on here very soon.

Lauren :)

Red Cross Day of Pink

April 10, 2013

 

Wear the Shirt. Be the Difference.

The Canadian Red Cross Day of Pink is an initiative that provides students, staff and the larger community with the opportunity to discuss the impact of bullying and to learn how they can use their power to help create a safe and respectful school environment. On April 10, 2013, students, staff and community members wear pink shirts in solidarity to show that they are taking a stand against bullying.

How did it get started?
It started in 2007 when two high school students in Nova Scotia took a stand against bullying in their school. The students asked all of their peers to wear pink to school after they heard a male classmate had been bullied for wearing a pink shirt. To continue the momentum, the Canadian Red Cross Day of Pink campaign brings together schools and communities to wear the shirt and stand together against bullying.

Father's Day, Nate the Great, and a Grade Change!

Hey Everyone!

Sorry for the lack of posts lately.  These past few weeks have been CRAZY for both Jeanine and I!! On the to do list (amongst other things) was report card writing, Father's Day and a field trip outside of the city to an old pioneer village!  Needless to say the end of the year is so, so, so, so busy!  But we have two weeks left and we most definitely will be back more regularly once summer holidays begin.  I am especially excited for holidays so I can start creating things for my new class.  I received some really exciting news about my upcoming class composition for next year.  I am doing a grade change!  I will be teaching a grade 1/2 class next year!  I am oh so excited to learn a new curriculum and get to know a whole new age range of students.  This also allows me to create many different things for my new group of students!  Another bonus is that Jeanine remains my half time teaching partner!!!

Father's Day seemed to come really fast this year.  My class completed "Dad You Rock" mini-books for their fathers.  I just love reading and hearing about all of the cute little things they love about their dads.  We also made a tree hand print piece of art.  An idea I must credit back to Pinterest:(http://cleanandscentsible.blogspot.ca/2011/06/fathers-day-gifts.html?m=1).

Over the past few weeks we have been working with a specialist in my division analyzing, discussing and writing Nate the Great inspired mysteries.  We have had a lot of fun reading as many Nate the Great books as we could get our hands on.  With the help of my divisional specialist, we went through the Regie Routman writing process for writing these stories.  Let me tell you the stories turned out fantastic.  Even my most reluctant writers achieved great success!  Below is a picture of a few of our favorite Nate the Great characters that two of my students drew for the specialist that came into our classroom.

Have a great week everyone!  Hooray for two weeks until summer holidays!!!

Lauren

My Teacher is Missing Activity!

Happy Monday everyone! This past Friday I was fortunate enough to take my personal day and spend the morning as the co-teacher in nursery school with my 4 year old daughter and then as a volunteer in the afternoon in my 7 year old daughter’s grade one classroom. It was so nice to spend the day with both my girls in their classrooms!

I decided to leave an activity for my sub that I had seen a while back on the wonderful First Grade Parade and also on Pinterest.  I have seen a variety of great ways to respond to the book Miss Nelson is Missing and decided to create something fun and engaging for my students to do while I was away. 

Click here for My Teacher is Missing Freebie. See below for some samples I got to read upon returning to school today.
~Wishing you all a great week!
   Jeanine

Mother's Day and Birdhouse Ads!

As Lauren already mentioned, last week was a bit of a whirlwind! I am thankful that things have slowed down this week and we are back to our usual classroom routines. For Mother's Day, my class also created the mini My Mom is Excellent books that I posted on TPT. We also painted frames that held photos I had taken of my students on the playground. The frames looked super cute and sparkly when completed. During our Monday morning meeting, my students were excited to tell all about their mom's responses and reactions to their presents! I have included a couple of pictures of some finished books.

Last week we also did one of my favourite Spring activities for our bulletin board. I THINK I got the idea, years ago, from a Mailbox Magazine. My class LOVED this activity and had tons of fun creating their little masterpieces. We made birdhouses out of a variety of construction and coloured paper. (I supplied a variety of tracers for the kids to chose from.) My students got very creative and added lots of little details and features. Next, we looked at apartment/house ads on the internet to see how ads are written. Then my students had to get busy creating their own ads for their birdhouses. Next, we typed up the ads during our next scheduled computer time. Check out some of our adorable birdhouses and ads.