A Quick Halloween Project

I wanted to do something new for Halloween this year. These simple pumpkin and ghost candle holders that I saw at a friend's house were the perfect thing.  Luckily, we have a closet filled with art supplies and recycled items so this morning I was able to grab 18 glass jars, white, orange and black tissue paper and white glue.  I cut the tissue paper into little squares and the kids used watered down glue to cover the jars with the tissue paper.  They then cut out the facial features from little squares of black tissue paper.  I can't wait to put battery operated candles in them tomorrow, turn off the lights and tell our "scary stories"  (we LOVE telling "In a dark, dark woods..." with very scary voices). 

Last year I blogged about more than a dozen wonderful halloween projects that we do at our school. Check out that post here.

Count and See

Last week I read the book Count and See by Tana Hoban to my little ones.  It is a very simple book that uses only black and white photos and numbers.  I have wanted to make a similar class book since I first saw Tana's book.  On Friday, we went out to our playground and then walked around the college campus where our school is located.  There was LOTS of counting as the kids pointed out things I could take pictures of for our book. I used my iphone to take the pictures and then used the free iphone  app A Beautiful Mess to make the photos black and white and to add numerals and text to the photos.  It was incredibly easy. I can't wait to share the resulting book with the kids.  I love it.  Here are a few pages:

I think we may have to share this book with the younger classes at our school.

My Parenting Philosophy in a Picture Book

        This week I read a book to my kiddos that I wrote as a class requirement when I was getting my Masters in Elementary Education.  My own kids were still in Elementary and early Middle School and the requirement was to write, illustrate and bind a children's book.  Since I am not much of an illustrator, I decided to use photographs.  Here is the book:

        When I read the book to kids we always talk about what they will let their kids do when they grow up.  Even my little ones understand the power that they will have and some get great joy from suggesting that they will let their kids stay up late or eat candy or play computer games.
        What I love about the book is that it actually pretty much summarizes my parenting philosophy.  With the exception of the line about not making my kids keep doing things they don't like (I have been known to say, "you owe it to your team to finish the season") I really do think that most of the sentiments are a good way to raise a child.
        For example, I think that children should be allowed to decide if they are going to wear their coat outside.  I always make my students bring their jackets outside but I let them take them off and put them on the bench if they don't want to wear them.  Sure I've seen kids take off their coats just because a friend doesn't wear a coat.  I've seen kids look cold.  I've also seen kids realize that they wanted to wear a coat even though their friend isn't wearing one.  I've never seen a kid freeze to death (well except my own coatless son who would almost freeze in the morning because his elementary teachers made him wear a coat, if he had one, at afternoon recess when it was much too hot for him).  Allowing a child to decide whether to wear his or her coat is a simple way to give them control of a decision that matters to them.  The downside risk is nothing (they will put on an available coat when they are really cold ;).

Thanks to my Blogging Buddies for these Great Ideas ...

     Last week was finally our first week of school. It was great!! I was thinking about posting some of the cool things we did and realized that almost all of the things I wanted to share came from ideas I found on other teachers' wonderful blogs.  So this post is really a thank you note to those teachers for being so generous and sharing their amazing ideas. Here goes...

     On Talk Like a Pirate Day, we had a wonderful Pirate Letter Hunt that  Sandi from Rubberboots and Elf Shoes created.  The kids had a so much fun running around, helping each other, and marking off the letters they found.  As one student said, "It's like every letter is a treasure!" Now that's music to a teacher's ears.:)

     I used Sandi's answer sheet and gave each child a clip board and a pencil  The Kindergarten class taped Amanda's free Shiver Me Letters around the playground. It was simple, fun and as Sandi pointed out, "the kids didn't even know they were learning."

Marking off letters (and talking about the alphabet!)

There was lots of movement...

and collaboration!

thought

Sandi was also the inspiration for my Chicka Chicka Boom Sensory Box.  I am committed to creating lots of different Sensory Boxes this year and I'm off to a great start.

The box included colored rice and pasta letters. plastic and wooden magnetic letters,  pompoms, dollar store coconuts and  a palm tree water bottle, rakes and brightly colored detergent caps for scooping and collecting.

The kids LOVED it!

        We also created a beautiful puzzle that was inspired by Tammy at Forever in First.  I thought her idea of a puzzle was a great way to begin talking about how our class was special because we are all part of the class. I began by going online and finding a universal puzzle piece on the Community Puzzle website.

I enlarged the piece and then made copies on card stock.  I had to make some modifications so that the edges of the puzzle would be straight.  I saw Tammy's idea before I went to bed and was able to get all the pieces copied and cut out before school the next morning.  

some of my traced pieces

Tammy had each child draw a picture on his or her puzzle piece.  I was worried that the pieces would be too small for a full portrait by my little ones so after numbering the back, I drew a chin on each piece.

The kids then did a wonderful job of making the piece their own.  I LOVE the portraits and how we all fit together!

I drew a pencil line an inch from the right side and the top of a piece of poster board so that I could call each child up to add his or her piece to the puzzle.  I think it would have worked well but I ended up putting the puzzle together myself because we ran out of time.  I also ended up tracing around each piece with a colored marker (which added a little color to the edge of each piece) so it was clear it was a puzzle (I was afraid we might fit together a little too well and the puzzle effect would be lost:)

       In addition to Sandi and Tammy's ideas we also played with magic play dough.  I'm not sure where I first saw this idea but I've done it every year on the first day of school.

The homemade play dough is turning orange! (perhaps helped by the squirt of food coloring put into a finger-poke hole in each ball of play dough:) We all put our magic play dough together to make our first batch of play dough for the classroom.

So far the magic play dough has always changed color and has always correctly predicted an exciting and fun year.  I'm sure this year will be no different thanks, in part, to all my blogging buddies.  Thanks for sharing all your wonderful ideas!

Painted Rock Memory Holders

     I am on vacation at my family's lake house.  One of the kids' favorite activities each year is to paint rocks.  The beach is covered with nice flat rocks and the kids love collecting rocks and then sitting on the dock painting them (I like doing it too:).
      Last year the kids painted the entire alphabet for me (read about it here). They were played with all year long in my classroom.
        This year we decided to use the painted rocks as the base for photo holders.  We held a beautiful memorial service for my parents at the tiny chapel on the bluff and then family and friends came back to the cottage for lunch.  The day before the memorial service we were looking at pictures of my parents and decided that we wanted to put photos on the tables rather than create a poster.  We found large colorful plastic clips at the tiny stationary store in town and then hot glued them to the beautiful rocks that the kids painted.

Materials are simply rocks, paint, big clips and hot glue.

       Voila... perfect 2-sided picture holders for the tables.  We put 5 or 6 on each table around the flowers.  It was wonderful because the guests loved looking at the fun candid shots. It would also be a great decoration for a Thanksgiving table (maybe with fall colors and big gold paper clips). I like that the kids painted things my parents liked such as flowers, dogs and Cornell:).

      At our house, painting rocks almost always ends up involving some body painting.  This is my Mom with grandson Brandon (who is now 15 years old). It was one of her favorite pictures.

      Lots of guests asked if I make these photo holders in my classroom.  The answer was "not yet."  I am having my nieces and nephews collect rocks for me to bring home so we can do something similar in school  this year.

Organization Linky Party

This picture was taken before I made labels for all of the bins. The missing ABC books are out on the bookshelf ready for the first day of school.

        Last August I reorganized my classroom materials in two large metal cabinets.  For each unit I put all the sample projects, project templates, manipulatives, special small toys that relate to the unit (ie. mitten and little animals for retelling The Mitten), bulletin board materials and my notes about the unit in a plastic bin.  I then put all the books that I use for the unit in magazine holders near the bin. The books/bins are also organized according to our schedule.  So the top bin has back to school/apples, the next is fall, etc.  It worked beautifully.
          At the start of a new unit, I put the books out on our classroom book shelf and organized the materials in the bin for my use during the unit. Some units required a large bin (for example Winter/Snow) while others fit in a small bin.  I have 3 units that have so many books I had to keep the books in bins too (dinosaurs,  fairy tales and art). In past years I had kept the books in the boxes with the rest of the unit materials and others in bins according to genre.  This did not work nearly as well.   I love being able to easily see and find books and the magazine holders made that easy. When I reorganized last year, I donated a lot of books that I had collected for my former kindergarten class that didn't fit within any unit or qualify as a favorite.  I figured that other teachers would actually use them and my Pre-K'ers really do better with a more limited number of books that rotate frequently. The boxes on the top of the cabinet hold materials in general categories that don't fit within a unit such as ABC's or math materials.  I do have magazine holders for ABC books, number books, and a few other categories that don't fit within a unit.  The largest of these other categories is my pretty substantial collection of Mrs. Goff's Favorite Books (books that don't necessarily fit within a unit but that I love and will certainly be using during the year).
       This system is not without flaws.  Of course, I started the year with the cabinets very organized but also very full.  Because I'm a teacher :) I added new units throughout the year.  For example, we loved Pete the Cat so I needed to add  a new bin and magazine holder for my great Pete the Cat materials.   It worked okay last year because I could store some of the extra materials in our school storage room that has now been converted into a classroom.  I think I will have to bring home more of my extra "stuff" this year.
        I haven't been able to get into my classroom because it was used for a summer program through July and I am now about to go on vacation with my family.  However, I know that my materials are well organized and ready for me once I get there.
        I am joining Miss Kindergarten's Organization Linky Party.

My Wonderful Week in Canada

This post really has nothing to do with teaching (well almost nothing, I will mention two awesome teachers).  I just returned from a week in Canada and Seattle.  It was just about the perfect vacation and I want to put my pictures and thoughts together and don’t have a more appropriate forum.  My son Tad is spending the summer in British Columbia so I had to go see him (and a part of the world I've always wanted to see and two of my favorite bloggers). I made plans to fly in and out of Seattle (because I wanted to see more of Canada and Washington and because I hate flights that aren't  non-stop :).  My husband Ed couldn't spend as long so he flew in and out of Vancouver.  After arriving in Seattle on Friday, I drove up to Vancouver, checked into my hotel and then explored the city. It is beautiful ... especially Stanley Park where I walked on Saturday morning before picking Ed up at the airport.

I loved Stanley Park!

After retrieving Ed (whose journey to Vancouver was not nearly as pleasant as mine), we took a ferry over to Vancouver Island where Tad and his girlfriend Hannah are working at a Camp Hill Community called Glenora Farm.  Glenora Farm is a bio-dynamic and therapeutic farm where adults with developmental disabilities (called companions) live and work together with their caregivers (called co-workers).  For six days a week, both co-workers and companions work together at 2 workshops a day. The workshops include such things as gardening, cooking, wood cutting, weaving and felting as well as singing and dancing and learning about anthroposophy (Rudolf Steiner's theory that is behind the development of the Camp Hill communities).  It is really an impressive place. Here are a few of the pictures I took at the farm during our tour with Tad the first day we arrived:

Gate to the Gardens at Glenora Farms

The herb gardens

Tad has wood cutting workshop a couple times a week.

Inside one of the greenhouses.

The barn.

Tad and Ed returning an escaped baby goat to her mama.

Tad teaching us about herbs (another workshop he sometimes participates in is picking herbs for the salves and teas they make.

Tad's house which is called Helios.  There are 3 "small houses" like this where 2-3 companions live with co-workers and house parents and 1 "big house" with more companions and co-workers.

Tad making dinner for his house. 

The living room.

After our visit on Saturday afternoon,  Ed and I drove down to Sooke (which is on the tip of Vancouver Island, right on the ocean) and had a delicious dinner and then stayed at the Sooke Harbor House.  I would definitely recommend it if you are traveling to BC.

Salad with edible flowers...yum!

On Sunday we returned to the farm and since Tad had an extra day off, we went for a long hike, to a cafe for lunch and then to a beautiful beach.

We returned to the farm after dinner for a pot luck dessert party.  It was wonderful to see Tad with the companions who clearly loved his kind, gentle nature.  

On Monday, since both Tad and Hannah had the day off, we took a picnic lunch to the beautiful Lake Cowichan.  When we first found "our spot" we wondered what the circle of rocks in the shallow water could be.  Once we started unpacking our picnic we realized it was obviously a perfect cooler for our wine and soda.

Our wine cooler.

Truly spectacular!

Tad and Hannah are avid chess players so we of course had a chess set with us:)

After dinner, Ed and I left Duncan so I could drive him down to Victoria where he caught a seaplane on Tuesday morning as the first leg of his journey home.

The beautiful inner harbor in Victoria.

I then headed back towards Duncan (where the farm is) and met Sandi from Rubberboots and Elf Shoes and Barb from Grade ONEderful for a delicious lunch at Merridale Estate Cidery.  I was really excited to meet both women who are gifted teachers (and in the case of Barb, also a gifted blog designer) whose blogs inspire me to try new things and have certainly made me a better teacher.  I love both of their blogs because, instead of being a forum to promote a teachers pay teachers store,  their blogs offer very thoughtful reflections on what they are doing in their classrooms as well as wonderful suggestions about creative ways to teach.  Not surprisingly, they are kind and generous people in "real life" too. After lunch we walked around the apple orchard and then peeked into Sandi's trunk that was filled with sensory bin goodies.  I can't believe I didn't take a picture of them?!?

After lunch, I returned to the farm for dinner at Tad's house.  On Wednesday, I spent the day at the farm.  After the whole community met for their morning meeting (where that day's workshops are assigned and any issues discussed) I "helped" Hannah make lunch (her morning workshop). After that delicious lunch, I visited the felting workshop (so cool) and then headed back towards Victoria to get on a ferry to take me to Washington.

The bag I bought that was woven at the weavery. Tad is hopefully going to buy and bring home the felted mobile I fell in love with from the  Felting Workshop.

My last full day was spent in Seattle.  It's another beautiful city.

Pike Place Market was a riot of color.

I was really excited to see the Chihuly exhibit at Seattle Center because I keep seeing fun art projects on Pinterest that I could do with my class as part of a study of Chihuly's work.

As I said, a wonderful week. British Columbia is lovely. I think Tad's experience at Glenora Farm will have a lasting and meaningful effect on him.  I was, as always, very proud of the cool person he is. I was also pretty happy with my own independence as I made my way around a new area and I was thrilled to meet Sandi and Barbara.  Now, where should I head next?