President Barak Obama

One of my favorite activities that I look forward to

every year at this time is the Back to School speech given by our president

Barak Obama.

His speech was set for today at 1:30.

We made our arrangements to hook up to the live feed.  We even invited another

class to join in our get together.

Regardless of your political beliefs or affiliation,

I believe that there should be a certain amount of respect for the office of the 

President of the United States.

I have had my first graders watch this speech for the past two years.

It never disappoints.  

He always gives a great pep talk and helps the students to realize

that they can "do it".  They can have a great year.

That is why I take the time to watch the broadcast.

It is important.

So, imagine my surprise when, in front of 54 six-year-olds and one fellow teacher,

I realized (with a pit in my stomach) that I had failed

to note the detail that the 1:30 speech had already taken place...

remember how Washington DC is on the East Coast??

Oh boy!

I felt sort of foolish.  However, the children had no idea

because I thought quickly and showed them the 

2010 Back to School Speech!!

(Silly me!)


So...
What did we learn?


•  Do your best.
•  Work hard
•  Treat others the way you want to be treated.
•  Do your homework
•  Be kind
•  Never give up
•  Listen to your teacher
•  Ask for help when you need it


...and much more.


Ask your child what he/she remembers.  I think you will be pleasantly surprised.
I was.
And, I was proud of the class for the way they took it seriously
and listened with real intent.


We will write about it tomorrow.  Perhaps I'll share some of the pages here.
I'm sure you will be surprised as well.

A Favorite NAME Activity

   This is one of my favorite activities we do at the beginning of each school year as part of             our "names" unit.  Plus, when I combine it with snack time, it's a 

win-win-win for everyone.

First of all, 

everyone gets a nice little handful of twisted pretzels.

Then, everyone nibbles on the pretzels to form each letter of his/her name.

Fun AND a great learning experience!

This is WAAAAAYYYYY harder than it looks.  DO try it at home!

Take a look...

 JADON!

                                                    

                                                                  AVERIE and MADYSON

Luke, Leah, and Shannon!

Below...Jacob, Imani, Jadon (again), and Esher (again)

SHOW AND TELL

  SHOW AND TELL

We don't have a ton of time in class to get everything done each day.  Show and Tell takes a tremendous amount of time from our day 

BUT

to me, it's worth it.

It's worth it because the children learn how to use their presentation/oral skills.  And though it seems a bit "elementary" (ha) it really does take some practice.

This is why I dedicate some time for the children to practice their oral presentation skills.

My only rule is, the item(s) children bring must have meaning to them.

No Polly Pockets, no Match Cars, no Barbies.

They are awesome toys but here's the difference between those and a acceptable 

show and tell:

A Polly Pocket his/her mom had when she was a little girl.

A Match Car that was made with his/her parent or someone special.

A Barbie from Egypt!  (We just had that one actually)

I also require that the child prepare a little sentence or two about what they bring.

Does this sound obsessive?

It's not.

If we are taking time out of a packed daily schedule, I want to add a touch of 

educational benefit along with the fun. 

And THAT...is Show and Tell!

Here's Christopher with his bird.
Christopher was prepared with all of the things he wanted to say to the class.
Well done Christopher!

Lunch!

Our first day of school was a day full of new instruction and a lot to learn.

Even now, I look at all the things these children learn every day.

I need to remember that these students need

lots and LOTS of time for it to sink in.

(Now, almost four weeks later, they are still learning so many things)

Well, the first day of lunch went well.

We had to remember all of our lunch numbers, which was kind of hard

because it had been a WHOLE summer to forget them!

Let me praise our lunch ladies at Amelia Earhart Elementary.  

Our lunches are no where near the stereotypical school lunches.

They are actually delicious and healthy.

Yum.8255 9094 5558 4026

Picture 1:  Jadon and Ben waiting for milk
Picture 2: Jacob with his corn dog
Picture 3:  Ben, Neo, Esher..such good friends
Picture 4:  Luke!

(where are all the girls??)

WELCOME!  WELCOME!WELCOME!

Welcome to a great new year!

Our first meeting between teacher and students was on August 18, 2011.  It was 

Back to School Night

This was the evening where I fell in love with my new group of 26 

first graders.  What an adorable group of children.

From the moment each student arrived, I knew this was going to be a great group of

 children.

I was so wrapped up in meeting both students and parents

that I didn't get as many pictures as I had hoped.

(Perhaps if any of you parents have some more photos from the night, 

you could pass them along to me

Once children and parents arrived at our classroom, Rm. 6, they picked up a paper that contained a special Treasure Hunt of things to find in 

the classroom.  Children found their chairs, boxes, cubbies, 

a train, a squirt of hand sanitizer, a stop light, and then picked a book

to put by their chair ready to read on Monday morning, the first day of school.

But, before leaving, parents had to fill out all of these...

And this was not all of them!  So many things to sign up for.
I could tell by the "fighting" between parents to be the Room Mother, that I would have a fantastic group
of helpful parents.
And I absolutely do.

Like I said before, my photos are limited so just picture these children with YOUR child's

head on the body!  :)  :)  

Here is Esher and his absolutely adorable toothless smile.
That is one of my favorite things about first graders.

Look at this little sweetheart.  His name is Christopher.  We soon discovered
that Christopher has the longest name in the class.  ELEVEN letters!
Oh, and that's his mother there beside him.
If you look closely behind him, you will see another one of our
classroom friends  It's Leonardo!
(I finally got his name right.  For the first two days I was calling him Lorenzo!  So odd.  Sorry about that Leonardo!)

Just so you all will recognize them when you see them, here are the

other first grade teachers.

That's me on the left, Mrs. Bayless in the middle, and Mrs. Reimschussel on the right.

They are lovely ladies and outstanding teachers and it is

a privilege to work with them.

HERE'S TO A FANTASTIC NEW YEAR!

2011-2012