Mrs. Anderson's Show and Tell last Friday

My darling little twin grand daughters, Lyla and Olivia, came to school for a visit.

They were very charming and the students thought the girls were extremely funny.

Of course, they LOVED all of the ducks in the classroom...

who doesn't??

Red, Yellow, and Blue

I LOVE art. 

  I've dabbled in watercolors, acrylics, and oils.

I love coloring with oil pastels and have tried my hand at colored chalk. 

  I even married an artist.

But...all of these art experiences pale in comparison to children's art. 

My heart skips a beat as they discover the most basic and fundamental principle of art.

That is, that all colors are derived from just three colors...

red, yellow, and blue.

Here's Jon working on his color wheel.

To teach this principle, I love to take clay ("plasticine" for all you Canadians) in the primary colors.  Then, we take a small amount of red and a small amount of yellow.  Knead them together and VOILA!  Orange!

The surprise on the students' faces is priceless.

Then we repeat with yellow and blue=green 

then blue and red=purple.

A great activity.

Ethan, Gage, and Katja

working with the clay.

Zack, Melany, and Dallin making some green for their color wheels.

The finished product!

I'm not sure if this is a "color wheel"

or a "colon wheel"!  HA!

Once again, illustrating the power of proper letter formation.

What Time Is It?

It's 5:00 somewhere isn't it???

Oatmeal or Chocolate Chip?

I loved, loved, loved this Math activity.

So did the kids.

Part probability.

Part graphing.

Lots of counting.

Lots of FUN.

Teeny Tiny Tortilla Maker

Lizbeth brought a little wooden tortilla maker. 

It was from Mexico.

I fell in love with it and so did the class.

Lizbeth's mother prepared some tortilla dough and sent it with Lizbeth to school.

We made a little roll of dough and smashed it flat between two wooden blocks.

I had so much fun that I had to make two.

Too bad we didn't have a frying pan and some grated cheese!

Yum!

(Kyare, in pink, carefully hiding her show and tell behind her back.  The element

of surprise is a bonus when it comes to S and T.

She brought a cute little ballerina music box and her dance pictures.)

Toothless Wonder

Silver

As some of you know, I am a champion tooth puller.  I can't help it.  I was born with it.  I've been known to have "magic fingers" and can get a wiggly tooth out with no pain.  I have even had parents call me to see if they could bring their child with a loose tooth to my house on Christmas break to pull a tooth because their child would "only let Mrs. Anderson pull it".  They are very proud moments for me.

Mind you, I would NEVER pull a tooth that I wasn't absolutely certain would come out with a little flick of my finger.  Most of the time I have to tell the wiggly-toothed child to keep wiggling it a bit more.  When a child loses a tooth at school, it is a very special day.  He/she gets a special tooth shaped necklace to keep the treasured tooth safe.  You have never seen anything quite so cute as a child beaming a toothless grin after a freshly harvested tooth.  (Not counting the adorable child at the head of this post of course!)

So, today after lunch, I went into the classroom and Silver was in the room with Zack.  Silver had blood all over his mouth.  Zack insisted that I pull Silver's tooth.  Silver didn't look so sure.  I had him wash his mouth really well, then I gently but quickly popped that tooth right out.  I praised him for being so brave.  Zack said "I'll bet that didn't hurt as much as getting my wart burned off!

Anyway, we got him all taken care of.  A mere one hour later, he came running to me with more blood...another tooth was ready to pop out.  That was a first for me.  We pretty much repeated the same procedure for the second tooth.  As you can see, he is also missing his top two teeth.  So, FOUR teeth are missing on the top.  Two teeth in one day!  

Lucky Toothfairy.  Lucky Lucky Silver.

 

The two tiniest teeth I've ever seen.

Silver with my home-made blood stopper.

Notice he has TWO tooth necklaces.

We Have a Student Teacher!

Her name is Mrs. Debra Spencer.

She is from Washington.

She is a student at Brigham Young University.

She's left-handed.

She loves the children.

She remembers everything that I forget.

And,

most AMAZING thing of all...

She has a three week old baby girl, Josephine, at home!

My Love/Hate Relationship With Show and Tell

Today was the first day of Show and Tell.  I both love and hate Show and Tell at the same time.  I love it because of the chance to hear what my students have to say about the things they love.  To see how their oral language is developing.  I love it because, if a Show and Tell is great, I catch a little glimpse into a child's life.  

I hate it because...it takes so much time.  Time is limited these days in a classroom.  There are lessons to learn.  Tests to take.  You know, the boring stuff that makes kids dislike coming to school.  Unfortunately, that is what is becoming of education.  Teach.  Test.  Teach.  Test.  No time for this.  No time for that.  Take away the "extra" stuff (usually the fun stuff) to make room for the test.  ( Hopefully, you know me well enough to know that this is totally tongue in cheek...if you don't, it was.)

Before today, I would have said that I hate Show and Tell because of the mundane items the children bring.  A crystal.  A bouncy ball.  A lego.  A doll.  As I sat today and listened to my students tell about their items, it occurred to me that what may be mundane to me is a treasure to them.  I saw the light.  It was worth the time.  It was exciting for me to hear what they each had to say and the questions that the other students formulated and then articulated.

I take it back...I love Show and Tell!

                                             

Here is Tristan showing her dog, Sebastian.

Listen to the brilliant way they are house training the puppy.

Ethan brought a cicada that he found while he was in Texas.

Not only did he bring the bug, he had a bug book to go with it as well

as a picture of him with his uncle, and a live cicada.

Dallin won this medal for running a whole mile when he was in Idaho.

The bouncy ball of which I speak!

Chloe got this ball from her grandma's treasure box.

See!  I told you I was wrong.

One last picture of Tristen and Sebastian.

Writing Names With a Twist!

On Friday we looked a little bit like a chipmunks.

We used small twisted pretzels to fashion out our names.

It was a blast. 

Try it sometime.

If you make a mistake...you get to eat it and try again.

Giggles all around!

Amaia

Zack

Silver

("chomp, chomp, chomp")

Dallin

Eden

If we could all be a friend like Chloe...

...the world would be a better place.

Our very newest student, Daniela, joined our class last week.  It has been hard (as you can imagine) for her to be in a brand new class.  To be the "new kid".  There have been tears.  Many, many tears.  Her parents are very supportive and have helped her by walking her into the class each morning.  However, there are still tears.  I feel so badly when she cries.  One day she cried from morning until the afternoon.  All of the children were very concerned.

No matter what I said or did, she still cried.

"Teacher?  I'm scared."

or

"Teacher?  I'm shy."

or

"Teacher?  My tummy hurts."

or

  (and this was my favorite)

"Teacher?  Why do my eyes keep opening and shutting and opening and shutting?"

I didn't know how to help her.  I gave her hugs and encouragement but still, the tears would flow and she was just so sad when her daddy left her in class.

So, this morning, after the principal, her dad and myself finished our morning pep talk, Daniela was fighting back the tears once again.  I had another student, Chloe, who's grandma (my sister from another mother :)  ) works at my school, who was sitting in the class library waiting for the morning bell to ring.  I said, "Daniela, why don't you sit in the reading corner with Chloe and read for a minute until the bell rings?"

Then that blessed little Chloe, slid over as far as she could on one of my lawn chairs in the corner and said "Daniela, come and share this chair with me."

Wow!

That made all the difference.  Not one more tear was shed the rest of the day.

Thank you Chloe.  Thanks for being a good friend.  Thanks for solving my problem.

Most of all...

thanks for teaching ME how to be a good friend.

I love you and I love Daniela.

We'll see if your magic works 

tomorrow.

Chloe (left) and Daniela (right)

When clothing becomes facial hair...

"Hey look at my beard!"

Katja got a big kick out of this new invention.

Cutie!