Read Aloud

I attempted to read this book last year but the students were not at a level to understand the text. This years students (voted to read this book) are doing much better. The is The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo. It's a wonderful book about learning how to love and care for others instead of being focused on yourself. I highly recommend it!

Playboy Anyone?

One of my students is very excited about library. He cannot wait to check out books and magazines.
When the librarian asked if there are any questions he raises his hand and with his excitement says, "Do we have any Playboy magazines?" At which point the librarian pauses and looks over, then smiles and responds with, "Do you mean (some-other-magazine-I-can't-remember-the-name-of)?" "YES!" He shouts.....
Hugh would be proud.....maybe...

Ahhh, kids

We are doing a math project called "The Important Thing About Number___."
One of my students has the number nine and he wrote, "The important thing about number 9 is that when I was 9 I got 'byceps'." Which made me laugh. Then another student said, "If you think that's funny then you'll really get a laugh out of this....Yesterday there were boys playing basketball and they took their shirts off! It was embarrassing."
I wonder how long until he's outside playing a sport and takes his shirt off.....

Big Bootie!

My wonderful brother taught me a new game to play...It's a little confusing to explain, but tons of fun to play.
One person is Big Bootie (BB). The person to the left of BB is #1, then #2 and so on until you get back to BB. Everyone says the chant and then BB says "Big Bootie # ___ (any number that is represented)" Then the # BB chose has to say their number and then the next person keeps it going. Watch this video or Read these directions

The chant goes
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Big Bootie Big Bootie Big Bootie. Oh yeah. Big Bootie. Big Bootie number _____"

I really don't know how to explain this well on paper (or screen), but the kids loved it. It took some time to learn, but the students got way into this. They were moving their entire bodies to the chant and having a blast.....this is going to be one fun filled year.....

Meeting Circle

Due to the Responsive Classroom training I went to this summer, I decided to try my morning circle with chairs this year (instead of sitting on the floor). This took a lot of modeling today and practice, but it went really well. I felt that the chairs had a more sophisticated feeling to them and that they helped students stay focused during our mini lessons. Also, moving the chairs around during the day gives students an opportunity to get up and move. I can tell that moving chairs will be something that we will have to use reminding language for, but overall I think this strategy may actually improve my teaching! WaHooo!

(so for those of you who haven't yet noticed, today was a really good first day)