Make Way For Anderson's Ducklings: 2009

26 December 2009

Patiently awaiting...

for a video to match these pictures:

Somebody? Anybody?

(hoping everyone is having a wonderful Christmas)

15 December 2009

A Little Blast From the Past (well, TWO actually!)

One of my very favorite things in the whole wide world is having students from classes I've previously taught drop by my classroom. I had these two darling girls in my first grade class two years ago. Man, I miss these girls. They are twins. They made my life so rich when I got to spend 6 1/2 hours with them every day.

Yesterday I pulled Emily's top front tooth. I'm not sure how many of her teeth I've pulled but I know it's a substantial amount. I LOVE these two. I'm jealous of their third grade teacher! Maybe I'll have to teach fourth grade next year!

Well, little Emily got some new glasses. I asked her if I could try them on. When I did, I realized that I probably need glasses because I could see perfectly! We took the opportunity to be a little silly and try on those glasses.

See how cute they are?? Plus, they are super smart. I expect all of my little ducklings this year to come back and visit me when the year is through!

Mrs. Anderson wearing Emily's little glasses with toothless Emily.

Mrs. Anderson with Emily wearing her perfectly sized glasses.

I need some glasses like these...only bigger.

Mrs. Anderson with beautiful Lizzy...no glasses but still darling.

Crazy Mrs. Anderson with Lizzy in Emily's perfectly sized glasses.

I love these two little gals.

10 December 2009

'Tis The Season...

...for donating to the local food bank.

All week long, the children have been bringing their cans, toilet paper

laundry detergent, peanut butter, baby food, Kool-aide, and more

to donate to the Utah County food bank.

Today, we decided to haul it down the hallway and put

it in one of the 15 barrels our school is trying to fill.

We divided up all the items so that each child carried 2-3 items to put in the barrel...very impressive!

We still have one more day (tomorrow) to donate.

Take a look at the canned fun!

Principal Cox came out of his office to check on all the "raucous" going on in the hall.

He was VERY impressed.

Thank you, parents, for sending your donations.

Your children will be better citizens for it.

04 December 2009

10 Degrees

03 December 2009

Dear Utah Valley University:

I would just like to thank you for bringing your wild, raucous, outrageous, crazy, fun, (did I say "wild"?), and highly entertaining assembly to our school this morning. The kids learned a ton from the No Greater Hero message. Some valuable information was received by our entire school about drug awareness. For this I am very, very thankful.

However, an assembly of this magnitude at 9:45 in the morning was more than these little bodies could handle. The rest of the day was SHOT! I cannot do a backflip, stand on someone else's shoulders, nor sing like Maria Carey. For this, I am not so thankful.

I still love you though. Get ready. Because in about 12 years, some of these little first graders will be sitting in your classes! You're welcome.

With admiration,

Mrs. Anderson who happens to look forward to your assembly every year and loves the Wolverine mascot

23 November 2009

Box Tops Make Me Happy

I cannot let another blog go by without talking about Box tops. People think I'm crazy. Maybe I am. I do know that I'm crazy about Box tops! For those who aren't familiar with Box Tops, it is a wonderful program that helps schools raise money for projects, field trips, supplies, etc. In our school, the earnings from the Box Tops go directly to the classroom that collects them.

Though it doesn't seem like much, each Box Top is worth 10 cents. It adds up. Our class set a goal to collect 1000 Box Tops by May. Well, guess what? We are almost there!! Already! We keep track of each Box Top on our whiteboard. (See below)

So, as of November 23, 2009, we have 921!! We will reach our goal by CHRISTMAS!! It is so much fun to see the children squeal with delight as they count tallies (one of our first grade curriculum standards) getting closer to 1000.

We had a class meeting and adjusted our goal. We want to add another 1000 Box tops by May. Do you think we can do it?? I do. I've even set up a Facebook group so that all my friends from around the United States can send us their Box tops. With each envelope full of Box tops, I show the class which state they came from. One of the students said "I bet we could get a Box Top from every state!" Hmmmmm.....

So...that is NOW our goal. We'd love to get envelopes from every state. If you have friends and family around the country, please have them collect their Boxtops for us. Even sending one would count.

Here's our list of states so far:

• Georgia

• New York

• Texas

• Utah

• Illinois

Here is a pile that Kaysen brought in today.

42!!!

Wow! He's been saving for a long time...thanks Kaysen's grandma!

(I really can't believe that I did an entire post about Box Tops!

Can you see how passionate our class is about reaching our goal?)

17 November 2009

Rap A Tap Tap...What's Your Passion?

On Monday, I read this book to the class. It has become one of my very favorites. If you haven't seen it or read it, you ought to. It is a lovely book about Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. He was one of America's most talented tap dancers. He was amazing. As the book says, "He made art with his feet".

The class really took to this story. We read it again and again. One student even checked it out of the school library! We found out that dance was Bojangle's PASSION. Then talked about what our passions were. WOW! Our class has a lot of interesting passions. Football. Singing. Dancing. Joking. Riding bikes. Quilting (that was mine!)

I thought it would be fun to show the students what Bill Robinson looked like and how talented he was. I found the following two video clips. The children were MESMERIZED. I watched pure joy in their faces. Their comments made me proud of them for recognizing talent such as Bill possessed and for gathering so much information from this little biography.

Here is a short video of a performance he did with Miss Shirley Temple:

And...this one is my favorite. I would be winded after the second time over the steps. Take some time to talk to your first grader about these videos. I hope they give you an earful of information.

16 November 2009

First Grade Logic

Today's math lesson was all about doubles. We made a chart:

We painted dots and folded them in half to make a double:

After teaching my AMAZING lesson about making a double, one sweet little thinker came to me so excited saying: "Hey, if you fold a clock in half you can get two lunches!"

Ummm.....yummy!

This is why I teach first grade.

13 November 2009

Stellaluna

A few weeks ago, our class took a field trip to the Scera Theatre in Orem, Utah. We attended the play "Stellaluna". I was deathly ill that day and wasn't able to be there. The children were in capable hands with our student teacher, Mrs. Spencer as well as one of our favorite subs, Mrs. Heil. I was so sad that I couldn't be there but I heard it was amazing. Once again, Mr. Blanchard took care of the pictures for us.

OH...and the hair? It was wacky hair day at Amelia Earhart Elementary.

11 November 2009

Veteran's Day!

We had a wonderful Veteran's Day assembly today. Children who had a relative who was a veteran was invited to attend. Each student read a nice introduction about his/her guest. Then, cards and letters were delivered.