100th Day of School

Yesterday was our 100th Day of School.  We were sooo busy and had so much fun!  When the kids entered the room, they walked through 100 ribbons that I had tied to a poster that I made.  They loved it!!!

We started the day by writing 100 words.

You can get the freebie by going here....100th-Day-I-can-read-and-write-100-words-Freebie

After writing 100 words we read some books and did some fun activities from this packet...100th-Day-of-School-Worksheets-100-Days-of-School-40-pages from the Clever Classroom.  I didn't take too many pictures as I was walking through it with them. 

One of our favorite activities was building things with 100 Legos.  I put the students into groups of two and they had to make something out of 100 Legos.  Several of the groups used great teamwork to come up with something good and some had a difficult time with this as they had their own ideas and didn't want to work together.  The ones that worked together came up with some fun structures, the other kids learned that they didn't get very far and they didn't get a structure done.

We then had a chance to read some books about the 100th day of school.

When we came back from our specialist, we made 100 day crowns.   There were 10 strips on the crowns.  On each strip we drew 10 different things so in the end we had 100 pictures.

 

Each child was also given the number 100 written on a piece of paper.  They transformed them into a picture.  They came up with such cute ideas!!

Finally at the end of the day, each child was given an award saying that they are 100 days smarter!  It was such a fun day!

Five For Friday Linky Party...February 8th

I am super excited that Friday is finally here!  It's suppose to be almost 35 degrees tomorrow and I am loving it!  In Minnesota, this is fantastic weather.  I am also going to be going Ice Golfing tomorrow.  I am meeting some friends in the morning, eating some yummy breakfast food and heading to the pond...to ice golf...or maybe just be a spectator!  Here are 5 random things about this week.  You can join in and add your link here.... Doodlebugsteaching...Linky Party.

1.  I am so excited for the 100th day of school on Monday.  I have been preparing all week for it.  We are going to make these fun crowns.  Each strip will have 10 different things on them.  (10 stickers, 10 initials, 10 check marks, etc.)  Altogether there will be 100 things on the crown.

2.  Watching my 9 year old sleep is a favorite thing that I like to do each morning.  He is always so peaceful.  He is reminding me daily that they will not be young forever.  I cherish each moment.

3.   My 9 year old loves to read.  He just finished Harry Potter Book 5.  Being the book is huge and he finishes them so quickly, the teacher in me wonders if he comprehends them.  I asked him several questions and he got frustrated with me because I didn't understand what he was saying or who he was talking about.  He finally told me to read the books myself.

4.  I LOVE snow!  We are expected to get a lot of snow...not as much as the East Coast, but up to 9 inches.  I am secretly hoping the path shifts a little and we get the 15 inches that people just to the north of us will be getting.  I want my kiddos to experience their first school closing and see our school on the news.  We haven't had a school cancellation in years.  Even 2 years ago, when we got almost 2 feet of snow...we still had to go in.  It always snowed on a Friday or Saturday night and the plows had it cleaned up by Monday.  Our only potential school closing that fell on a Sunday....happened over President's Day weekend, so we didn't have school on Monday anyway.

5.  This week was a rough one for me.  5 years ago on February 7th, 2008, I had gone out to buy a pair of pajamas for Pajama Day at school the next day.  On the way home I noticed a car driving oddly behind me.  I pulled over to the side of the road and a man passed me (going almost 90 miles an hour in a 50 mile zone).  As he passed me, he slid and went over a median in the middle of the road.  He hit another man's car (Mark) head on and killed him. I went to Mark's car and held his hand and tried to talk to him to see if he was alive.  He was not.   The man who hit him was drunk...3 times the legal limit.  After all was said and done, I contacted his mom and told her who I was and that I was there with him...and that he didn't suffer.  Every year she called me and I called her.  We exchanged Christmas cards.  I tried to call her yesterday to let her know I was thinking of her.  Her number was disconnected.  I cried.  I think of them all the time.  I think of his son, Brandon who is the same age as my oldest son.  They were in the same grade when it happened.  I can't imagine a little child losing a parent.  So many weird things have happened since then.  I found out the accident happened by a student's house that I had 2 years ago in my class.  I also learned that the 911 dispatcher that took my call (all the calls coming in) is a friend of mine that I met last year, through another friend.  We have run 5k's together.  It's such a small world.  This incident has taught me to really hug my kids and tell them I love them every night and every day before I leave my house.  It could be any of us that has something tragic happen to us.   Mark's family will forever be in my heart.

Have a great weekend! 
Sara

Inferring

This week we starting talking about inferring in our classroom.  This is a pretty tough skill for some of the kids to grasp.  I started the week by using Abby's Mystery Box activity.  You can read about it here.  Mystery Box Activity.  We then discussed what making an inference is.  We have been looking at posters and listening to different sounds to see if we can figure out what is happening.  I will be using these posters for the rest of the week and we discuss using our schema to make inferences.

You can find these posters plus 20 more by clicking here...Inferring Posters

I hope you are all having a great week!
Sara

Chinese New Year

I am super excited that February is here! It's one of my favorite month's of the school year.  Aside from having a zillion things that we need to teach, it goes by super fast!  I love the 100th day of School, Valentine's Day, Groundhog's Day and teaching about our Presidents.  My kids get so excited when we spend a couple days talking about the Chinese New Year.  We always do so many fun activities during this time.  I start out the week by hanging lanterns and decorations in my classroom.  We make red lanterns and hang them from the ceiling. 

We start our morning meeting by passing around this fun wand.  The kids can only talk when they have him in their hands. 

 During our Math time, I put coins in these boxes.  The kids have to total up the coins and record them on a recording sheet.

I have lots of books in our reading center.  The Spirit of China book is always a favorite.  They look looking at the pictures.

I end our discussion by giving the kids a fortune cookie.  It's fun to read our messages.  This year the Chinese New Year starts on the 10th of February and it lasts for 15 days.  Being that the 11th is our 100th day of school, I will probably wait until next week to celebrate.

I just got done creating some Math and Literacy Centers that I will be using with my kiddos during this time.  Here are some pictures included in the packet.  You can get it by going to my Teachers Pay Teachers store or by clicking here.   Chinese-New-Year-Math-and-Literacy-Centers

 

Link up with Pam's ...Linky Party if you have other fun ideas to share.