Birthday Surprises!

Without a doubt, kids LOVE their birthdays, but they also REALLY enjoy celebrating ALL birthdays, including their teacher's. Today we had a little fun in room 207. They pulled off a planned surprise-----all 18 of them!!! Pretty impressive, I'd say..... While we were taking a restroom break, two sweet moms (Crystal Mills and Renda Coffman) slipped into our room and set up a table of treats. (My tiara is courtesy of Mrs. Leadford, who crowns all teachers on their special day.) They sang Happy Birthday to me in Arabic which seems to be the favorite class version this year.

Balloons, flowers, scrumptious scones and muffins, a gift to use for something special and other treats... all of appreciated so very much.
Thank you to all for your love and kindness. I am truly BLESSED!

Amazingly Novel NOVEL PRESENTATIONS

We have recently concluded our novel study. The boys read John's Story 1775 while the girls read Maria's Story 1773. Both stories provide a window into lives of children during the latter years of the eighteenth century. The students enjoy these novels immensely. For the boys, it is the thrill of war, weapons, plots and schemes. For the girls, it is discovering that Maria ,age 10, must learn to run a home so her widowed mother can keep the family afloat as she manages to publishing a local newspaper.

As a final activity, each student presented an area of personal interest to the class.
We had a "hanging fact" presentation......,
A diorama......,
a monologue.....,
a trifold presenting life as a girl in the 1770's,
a Magazine model,
a delectable sample of cranberry relish from Maria's kitchen,
Queen's cake,
power points ,

more diaromas,

the struggle for liberty unfolded,
key players in the pre-revolutionary times,
trades,

and even funeral etiquette for the day.
Wow! Their creativity soared and they displayed confidence in what they had learned. Well done!!!!

Book Buddies are the Best!

We had the best time with our first grade book buddies this past week. They are becoming such good readers and writers.



The first graders had just learned about writing a friendly letter so they put this into practice by giving our students a special Christmas note.


Proud writers!
Blessed receivers!
Merry Christmas, Book Buddies!

'Tis The Season To Give

Our room is aglow with Christmas. Excitement is in the air. We are turning our hearts towards Him so we can hear and anticipate. We want to bless others. Linwood Elementary is at the top our list.
We just assembled 70 sacks this week to give to second graders at this school in Oklahoma City.
We decorated our sacks with thought and care......
We collected our gently used stuffed animals and books from home......
We added some new items like pencils, crayons, notepads and erasers.......
We had pairs of gloves to keep hands warm as they walk to school this winter.
Addition and subtraction cards were added so they could work on their math facts too!!!
We colored little puzzles to put in ziploc bags and add to the sacks.
We made special cards that told the story of Christ's birth.
We took care in our cards to let the Linwood students know that God loves them very much.
We prayed and asked God to use our sacks in ways we could never imagine. We want to shine for Jesus this Christmas.
And, while we are on the topic of blessing, we are making some special gifts to bless our parents..... Shhhhh!!!! It is a secret but we can't wait until they are opened Dec. 25th.

Thank you, God, for making us instruments to bless others. May our hearts grow bigger and bigger so we can make this our lifestyle EVERY DAY of the year.

Conductors Needed!

Science is a favorite subject in our class. We work in groups to do our various experiments. Recently, we took time to explore conductors of electricity. We used a key, craft stick, button, foil, and penny and went to work to see which of these items completed the circuit. We made predictions and then tested each item on our circuit boards.


The key, penny, and aluminum foil were definitely the best conductors.

Shall We Dance?

After weeks of practice during our colonial unit we performed a minuet for our parents and guests. Dressed in our finery, we curtsied or bowed, as we began.......


We kept time and moved as one sweeping across the gym floor!

Our parents clapped to the beat and smiled from ear to ear.

We didn't miss a beat!






We danced our way back to the classroom to enjoy our fabulous feast.
We took great care to decorate our tables in true colonial fashion. Using fresh fruit, nuts, and pine cones, we designed a dellarobia. Symmetry was very important in colonial times, so our table decorations reflected that. The two groups each worked together to complete the finished product!
Lovely, isn't it?

We used manners appropriate to colonial times and enjoyed eating fabulous food provided by our parents.




Quite an array of food, isn't it? We definitely didn't go away hungry and we enjoyed every minute.

Great job, students and parents. Huzzah for Colonial Days 2011!