Beware of the Blogger Ghost!

All I asked Tristan to do was tell a spooky story for our Halloween blog. Wow! This girl is amazing!

More photos to come of our party.....tomorrow......

The Fun Run at Amelia Earhart!

OH WHAT FUN!

Today was the annual "Fun Run" at Amelia Earhart Elementary.

Each year students collect pledges from parents, grandparents, and coworkers of

said parents and grandparents who sponsor their sweet

child in a 5K (approximately) run through the school fields and neighborhood.

For each $5.oo that is pledged, the student collecting the pledge receives a special

ticket. These tickets are then drawn from a gigantic cauldron (in keeping with the Halloween season of course) and lucky winners win all kinds of fabulous prizes.

So...everybody wins.

Runners have FUN.

Cheering fans have FUN.

Parents have FUN.

Prize winners have FUN.

Recipients of the fundraiser (all students) get to go on awesome fieldtrips with the money, and that is super FUN!!

See why it's called the "Fun Run"?

Enjoy the fun photos from the morning...there are several!

Getting ready for the start of the race.

Kyara, Melany, and Ashley.

Sooooooo, cute!

"Whew! That was tough!"

Jon and Ethan

"We're tired too!"

Daniela and Chloe

A happy group of runners.

L to R: Gage, Dallin, Kate, Bryant,

Kyara, and Eden

My AWESOME co-first grade-teachers.

Me, Mrs. Walton, and Mrs. Reimschussel

I LOVE this picture.

Me with Katya

It's a family affair.

Katja, Katja's mom, and Katja's little sister Chloe.

Cutest smile EVER!

Gabriel (oh, and that's Silver in the red shirt!)

Zack Attack!

Dallin pondering the fun run.

Mr. James

(Jame's mother did the run with us too.)

Darling little Brooklynn.

Ethan in his best "fake" running pose.

That's his mom and his little sister in the stroller.

This is a huge cooler full of decliciousness.

Icee's popcicles.

Our amazing PE teacher at the VERY busy first aid station.

Luckily this wasn't needed for anything serious.

Do you think she's having fun yet?

Some of our "cheering station".

Kate, Eden, Grandpa Cliff (our super foster grandparent), and Bryant.

And NOW for the extra, super,

FUN!

The exciting awards/prizes assembly.

Here we are waiting patiently for the prizes to be given out.

Are you ready???

This is pretty exciting news.

Our friend and fellow classmate

ETHAN

won this...

a genuine Nike football personally signed by

the entire BYU football game.

AND

this...

a brand new i-pod shuffle!

Can you believe it? He won twice!

It was awesome and very exciting and fun for our class.

He was such a great winner. And bless his generous little heart.

Here's why:

Ethan: Mrs. Anderson, I was noticing that we don't really have any balls or jump ropes, or any sports equipment for our class to take out to recess.

Me: Well, we have them, I just keep forgetting to put them out for everyone to use.

Ethan: I think I should put this football (yup, the signed one) in with that stuff so that everyone can play with it.

Me: [explaining the one-of-a-kind signed football he just won] No!

Ethan: Oh. Okay.

What a nice little boy.

The FUN RUN was a smashing success!

I can't wait for it again next year.

ps...can you find the 16 "fun" words in this post??

TEACHER DOWN!!!

This has NOT been a great week for me. Last Thursday (during Fall Break of all times) I came down with some kind of flu bug. NOT H1N1, but nasty just the same.

I missed Pajama Day (I love that day)

I missed the class field trip to the play Stellaluna.

Most of all...I've missed my darling first graders.

I can't live without them.

I am determined not to miss any more days.

I'll be back tomorrow...

I hope!

Monday is a Special Day

Hi my friends: I forgot to send home a note explaining about Red Ribbon Week activities. On Monday it is Pajama Day. Please allow your child to wear slippers, robes, and/or slippers to school that day. I know I will be wearing!

The Nino, the Pinto, and the Sanda Marina

Ahhhh Columbus Day in First Grade!  What a fun but kind of meaningless day.  Though everyone knows that the story about Columbus "discovering" America is a bit shady, teachers all across this country feel an obligation to recount the story of our favorite Italian.  And why not?  He makes a really great looking paper bag puppet!

Here, for your enjoyment, are two accounts of the whole Christopher Columbus story.

(Disclaimer:  The following may or may not be actual facts.)

                                                  

PS:

In case you are worried that this educator doesn't really know the names of the three ships...she does!

Fall Prints

Many teachers fear using paint in their classrooms.

Not me!

I love the challenge of a possible spill,

a smudge on new clothes,

tears when someone thinks she missed her turn,

someone licking his fingers,

or

an accidental step in a pile of orange paint.

(all of which have happened in my classroom over the years by the way!)

I welcome this because I believe that, in an educational world of testing and drilling, 

children need a creative outlet.

To tell you the truth,  making these apple prints was fun, easy, and super fast.

Then we used it as the border for our fall bulletin board.

The children loved it.  I loved it.

You should pop in to the school and check it out.

Dallin workin' the yellow.

James, Dallin, and Eden

printing away!

THANKS!

Thanks for the donuts Zack!

Friday Performance Day

Every Friday, we have "Performance Day" in the Lucky Duck classroom.  The children are encouraged to practice and memorize our weekly poem which they receive on Monday, to perform on Friday.  Usually, there are two or three students who are ready to perform.  

BUT...

this poem really got the kids going.  We had lots of fun with it and used different voices to perform.  The following four videos are just a sampling of the children who practiced and recited for us.

AWAY UP HIGH

Away up high in the apple tree.

Two red apples smiled at me.

I shook that tree as hard as I could.

Down came those apples and

Boy, were they GOOD!

Katja and Kate using their "mad" voices.           Gabriel and Silver using "normal" voices.

Ethan and Tristan using "opera" voices.

Lizbeth, Chloe, and Brooklynn using "sad" voices.

So cute.  Memorizing is a great and essential skill for children to acquire.