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

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.

Dad, You Rock! A Father's Day book to give!

Hello and Happy Teacher Appreciation Week! I just thought I would post this Father's Day writing activity early as many of you fellow teachers will be starting your summer breaks sooner than us. Please click on the picture below to check it out.

~Jeanine

Mother's Day in Lauren's Room and What a Week!

Hey Everyone!

All I can say is WHAT a week!!! Sooo busy!  My kiddos and I were busy preparing for our spring musical Go Fish which was showcased this past Wednesday.  There were lots of practices, decorations to be put up,  dress rehearsals, and last minute things that needed to be done.  The kids and I were so wiped Thursday morning after all was said and done.  We then quickly had to switch gears and get to work on our Mother's Day presents.  No time to waste!

This year my class wrote cute little mini-books about why their Mom is excellent.  We used the Mother's Day Mini-Book that Jeanine created and which can be found at our Teachers Pay Teachers store.  Let me tell you - these books turned out beautifully!  I just know that the moms will love them!

I also found a cute idea on Pinterest that I thought the kids would love to make for their moms.   The idea can be found here: http://funhandprintart.blogspot.ca/2011/05/handprint-fingerprint-flowerpot-with.html   

You must check out this blog - it has the cutest ideas for hand and footprint art.

Our mother's day gifts wouldn't be complete without a card.  We were lucky enough to have an origami specialist come into our classroom about a week ago.  She helped us create the beautiful origami hearts that you see in the above picture.  We used these hearts as the cards for our moms.

It sure was a busy week in our classroom!  I am looking forward to getting back into routine and our regular schedule this week!

Happy Mother's Day to all of the moms out there! 

Lauren

Mother's Day Mini Book

Happy Sunday everyone! I hope you have all had a restful and enjoyable weekend. It was beautiful here yesterday and it was so nice to be outside enjoying the sunny weather. Well, Mother's Day is just around the corner so I thought I would post something I have done in the past. I will be starting this with my class tomorrow as well. It's a super cute mini book for students to create for their moms for Mother's Day. Please click on the above preview to check it out!

-Jeanine