Playing With Apples!

What fun! Today we read a story about finding a star inside of an apple. It's like magic! We made a small book about apples, ate apples, drew apples, and made apple prints. Watch for additional blog posts about what else we do with apples at school.

I love these children!

My Two Favorite Pictures From Last Week

There is nothing better than losing a tooth.

No...wait...actually, there is.

It's losing a tooth AT SCHOOL!

Here is Chloe with her treasured tooth necklace with HER tooth inside!

I can't stop looking at this picture!

He is just so adorable.

Here's Alan bearing gifts.

I would love him even if he weren't holding an entire 12 pack for me!

(Alan is now sporting some mighty handsome glasses!)

The Wheels On The Bus Go Round and Round...

Mr. Bus Driver Man

One of the necessary evils of school...Bus Saftey Presentation. I do realize how very important it is to relay the message of what is expected when the children ride the bus. HOWEVER...bus drivers are not teachers and do not have basic child development training. This stuff went WAYYYYY over their heads. Eyes glassed over as the bus driver said things like "Stay at least 50 feet away from the bus" "This bus weighs more than two tons" "This is a confined space where people must stay seated at all times with no strolling up and down the aisleway"...I could almost see the words flying over the children's heads.

We did learn (most likely through osmosis) how to behave on the bus. But, mostly, I think the students just had a lot of fun pretending to be evacuation the bus.

At least they all looked cute doing it!!

The sweet little faces of Zoe, Cloe, and Rory.
Such good listeners.

There's Emma, Anthony, and Rebeca on the back seat
behind
Marley, Brieanna, and Dylan's knees!

Just look at those faces!
So adorable.

This picture is just for YOU Rachel!

And, doesn't Alan look so cute with his eyes peeping over the top of the seat?

I PROMISE I'm Not Bribing Your Children!

I have the most amazingly "aware" children in my class this year. They listen to everything I say. They notice their surroundings. I don't think I've had a group of children who have had so many little ones pay attention like this one. I love it! When we ran low on pencils I simply said "I can't believe we are already out of pencils! You are such good writers that you're using up all the writing utensils!" Next thing I knew...the very next day, in walks a student with a pack of pencils to donate to our diminishing class supply.

See what I mean?

I'm guessing that everyone knows of my Diet Coke love. Last year when the Coke machine stockers arrived at school, one of the first graders yelled "Look Mrs. Anderson, your truck is here!" I loved it. Probably too much. I can't help it.

Last week I was tickled pink to be greeted by not one, not two, not three, but FOUR mornings with a Diet Coke. It totally made my day! I love these children! One mother told me that she has to check her daughter's backpack every morning as her Diet Cokes have come up missing from her refrigerator!! Soooooory! :)

So, to all of you who brought me the wonderful treats last week...thank you! I think I'm in love with these 19 darling first graders!

Aurora brought two cans one morning.

One can was nicely chilled!

Heston showed up with a fountain drink.

When I told him how much I appreciated it he truly made

this statement:

So cute.

And, finally, how could I NOT have a good day

after these two beauties from Casey and Zoe.

Thank you! Thank you! And remember...I am NOT bribing the children. They are just super darling and generous. I love you all.

My Little Writers

My favorite thing to read in all the world is my students' journals! It's true! The writing is open and honest. The pictures are awesome and with the picture's help I can always (usually?) tell exactly what was written. I encourage the little ones to "guess and go" when writing in their journals. It is so important for them to get those fun ideas down on paper without worry about how to spell it correctly...we'll get to that later. But, for now, just WRITE!

I tell them I have "magic teacher eyes" that can read anything they write. I think I may have been given a gift to do so because, I sometimes amaze myself! Over the years I have read some pretty amazing journal entries. Every year I am every bit as excited over the things they say and how much their writing improves. That's one reason I love my job so very much!

There is always that first journal entry where a student writes about his/her teacher.

This is Aurora. This was her entry about me.

I encourage the students to ask me a question for me to answer right in the book.

My answer was: Green Eggs and Ham

Now, look closely at my outfit Aurora drew in her picture!

Now look at what I was wearing that day:

Pretty good job eh?

This is Emma working very hard on her picture.

So cute!

Alex did a fantastic job!

Alan drew the cutest ant. The ant was yelling "get out!"

This is Janey.

She really WAS writing.

This was her writer's thinking time! :)

That was a very LONG (but fun!) week!

I love these sticks!

These little faces announce who is helping with

which jobs.

We have the very best, most supportive parents in the land!!

I had to clean out our huge PE Equipment drawer to fit

all of our classroom donated items.

Thank you!

And, as you can see, they even added to our Box Top collection!

We received a new addition to our class this week...

This is Grandma Eliza. She is a volunteer from The United Way

Foster Grandparent Program.

We love her already!

She speaks Spanish and has a beautiful English accent. She will be in charge

of reading all of the Take Home books with the children.

She is very good at making sure that I don't make any mistakes.

Mistakes like trying to tell the class that it was the 10th month when we changed

our calendars to September.

"Um...Teacher...are you sure it isn't the 9th month?"

Thank you Grandma Eliza!

And, finally, just to prove how exhausted we were...

Take a look at this "POWER NAP!"

(we do whatever works!)

Look at how peaceful Casey and Brieanna look!

But, I think that Dylan might be having a funny dream. :)

Cutie Chloe

Tayla even looks adorable while she "naps".

Bryan was the most convincing!

What an awesome, long, fun, new, crazy, amazing week!

We loved it.