Five for Friday....July 18, 2014...Zoo theme Week

Annnnnnnd.....another week has flown by! ESY is officially completed.

There is one week until my daughter's wedding...


There are 2 and a half weeks (eek) until we officially return to school.

Who knows when we will close on our house, it's a mystery at this moment.

However! today it is time to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching, that is absolute and there is NO WAITING.

1.

This week we had a Zoo theme.

2.

Our read aloud books for the week....

3.

We began with "Wild thing" puppets made from paper bags and a variety of items.

The students never disappoint in being creative!

4.

We made a giraffe and Zebra using toilet paper tubes and free templates from Huggies.

5.

On the last day of school, we wrote our final message. At the beginning of summer school 5 weeks ago I wrote the messages from myself to the class. Gradually, the students volunteered statements to the message until on the last week they dictated the entire message. They did well. : )

Here's the last message...

That's it for this week!

Later,


Paula

Five for Friday....July 11, 2014.. Hermit the Crab

Happy Week-end! Linking with Doodle Bugs Teaching......

ONE

The weather was edgy all week, lots of rain but we managed to have recess every day! 

Sometimes I still can't believe that we live in this amazing place, I think to myself "I'm going to wake up and be in my bed in Oklahoma". I have mixed feelings about that, because if I lived there I could easily drive over to my Dad's or sister's houses!

TWO

We are in the house buying process, we were pre-qualified for a loan, BUT now that we are closing in on a house, there are more questions. I did a foolish thing also, I purchased an item on payments and now I need to explain it! I'm wishing someone had told me not to buy anything  until all of this was finished! I am feeling dumb......

THREE

Sea life was the continued theme this week. We read A House for Hermit  Crab by Eric Carle.

The crab art project really turned out cute! The most difficult part for the students was folding the strips.

FOUR

My daughter is getting married soon and the supplies are coming in.....

We are so excited!

FIVE

Here's our awesome bulletin board!

Next week is our last week of ESY (Extended School Year). Our final theme is "camping at the zoo". I have found some good stuff from the measured mom blog and huggies.com to get us through the week.

Later,

Paula

Rainbow Fish Story and Art Project

Another week has come and gone, it is time to link with Doodle Bugs Teaching!

I would like to thank Doodle Bugs for this opportunity to share my thoughts with more fellow teachers.

This week we are camping by the sea. We read the book, Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister.

Even though most of the students have heard this book before, they were excited to hear it again.

Next, I presented the accompanying art project.....

Having visuals to represent the steps of the project is very helpful, some children don't enjoy art projects and it gives them an idea when it will be finished. However, EVERYONE loves the glitter part of the project !

Students color the head, fins and tail of the fish.

They glue on the multi color scales (construction paper) and one silver foil scale.

Last, the fun part!

Of course I didn't get pictures of it. I used some cardboard trays (recycled from our lunch program) to contain the glitter. I  had two kids at a time...there is no need to tempt fate!

They put glue on the tail and fins of the fish, and sprinkled on the glitter.

I love how creative kids are, their fish are very unique!

Our bulletin board isn't complete yet, there were a few absent on Thursday. 

Happy 4th of July!

Paula

Camping classroom......the schedule.......checking in...and more!

Each student picked out a t-shirt and it was labeled with their name. 

They place their shirt in the tent as they come into the room.

I purchased this game in a camp unit by 1-2-3 Learning through Teacher Pay Teachers. This unit is awesome, lots of ideas and easy to assemble activities.

   

The clothespins make it more fun than the usual markers.

The preschool teacher down the hall had these cute pigs in the hall!

We will be camping by the sea for a couple of weeks. This theme is always fun! There will be more to share later,

Paula

2014 Camping Classroom...Stations

Our summer school theme is Camping! First, we are camping with dinosaurs. Kids love dinosaurs! I am linking with Doodle Bugs Teaching:

The students have a variety of objectives to work on so we are splitting into small groups and calling it the "Station Rotation". Note: This is my morning session, a MUCH smaller group compared to the afternoon session.

The chart helps the students be more independent, I ring the bell when it is time to switch. Initially I was going to use pictures to represent all the stations, but realized this would be much simpler! 

This chart is my guide, so I don't have to think so hard!

The stations are marked with matching construction paper.

Here are  the stations:

Blue

motor and sensory skills

The rug is from a thrift store and the pins are made from water bottles with gravel to weight them slightly.

I really really want a ball pit ! I think the kids would get a lot of good from it.

Red (the picnic table)

math skills and games

Green (the tree)

reading and writing skills

Yellow

free choice reading

There are still some bugs to work out of the system, but the first week went pretty well.

Later,

Paula

Five for Friday....June 20, 2014

Summer school is here!  Time to share with Doodle Bug's five for Friday link:

ONE

It was difficult to get back into the swing of things.

I returned to the camping theme because it was too much fun last summer! We will be camping with dinosaurs, by the seashore and if time...at the zoo.

TWO

We are house  hunting. It is exhausting, exciting and frustrating! We actually made an offer, but someone else jumped in and offered more. I can see there will be many ups and downs. Anyway! Alaska is a lovely place to wander around in......

I love the green!

THREE

We had a successful yard sale! 

FOUR

I repeated this art project. It is a simple, fun to break twigs, you can't use too much glue, and great scissor skill practice kind of project.

I changed up the campfire this year, a friend gave me this cool tin, we cut out a circle of flames, lined the sides and put real firewood in the middle.

FIVE

I changed my hair color! Instead of darkening it in a vain attempt to cover the gray, I lightened. It was a process, my hair was resistant, but the hair dresser was persistent and she got it done!

I'll be back in a few days to share more about our classroom set up and activities!

Later Gator!

Paula