Wow, I Have Been Absent!

Hi Friends,

I have been ignoring my blog and I need to get back to it. I just wanted to post that I realized this and I will begin posting more this week. I can't believe summer is already 1/2 over, where has the time gone??

World Read Aloud Day is Coming!

I love to read aloud to my students. They love to hear the stories as they imagine themselves in the book. As much as I like to read aloud I know there are classrooms out there that don't read aloud as much as they would like to.

Well guess what? World Read Aloud Day is on March 5th. Please click the link to read more about this amazing day in literacy! http://litworld.org/worldreadaloudday

I hope that everyone participates in this amazing day and spreads the love of reading!

Great Read aloud!

I have been reading the book "The Boy on the Wooden Box" with my class of 5th graders. I wasn't sure if I should read it, but I wanted to read them another genre and I thought a memoir would be a good choice. This book is about Leon Leyson who was the youngest Shindler List survivor from World War II.

I have to say my students love it! They have been completely engaged in the story, as have I. We are having some great conversations, and they are hearing first hand accounts of some of the suffering that occurred during that time. I am excited that they like it and the fact that we are able to have these rich and wonderful conversations.

If you haven't read this book, I would definitely put on your to read pile!!

Christmas Traditions Quilt

A few years ago I got the idea to make a Christmas Quilt of our Christmas traditions. I don't remember where I got the idea now, so I can't give credit. However, ever since then I have loved this idea. So 5th grade made a quilt of our Christmas traditions and hung them together to make a quilt.

To make you need two pieces of construction paper. You need one for the background color and one to make the foldable to put the traditions on the flaps. Following are the pictures of our final products!

Honoring Sandy Hook!

As educators, we remember and honor our fallen colleagues and their students from Sandy Hook School. We honor them in our classrooms in which we continue their dream of teaching children.  Join with teachers everywhere in committing random acts of kindness to show our love for Sandy Hook.

3D Printing Fun!

I got my 3D printer set up and running today, thanks to my amazing son Jacob! He came into my classroom today and set it all up and figured out how it worked. I'm so excited for the possibilities of what we can make in the classroom for this amazing machine by Makerbot!

Here are is a comb that Jacob made today. I will share more later as more is created! Woohoo!

Tye Pillows for Students

Well, it's been awhile since I posted. Things have been crazy at school and I've been busy. I decided that I would make Tye Pillows this year for my students since I have such a small class. Although, I don't have a big class I was dreading putting the pillows together, however today I got super lucky! My wonderful friend Amy and her awesome daughter Abbie came over and helped me. In what would have probably taken me HOURS to complete on my own we completed it in just over 2 hours working together!!

So the Type Pillows were made with a quarter of a yard of fabric.

Once you have the fabric cut in the size you need than you need to cut a square out of each corner of the fabric. Once that is done you need to cut strips of about 1 inch around all sides of the fabric.