A Great Lesson Today!

Today I had a fabulous lesson with my class on impulse control! I wish I could say I thought of it, but Pinterest did (oh I love that site!!). I had a great "I Pick" lesson on choosing books, but after the day we were having, we needed to learn about self control!

I started out with me blowing bubbles in class. All of the kids stood up and went crazy popping the bubbles. The we stopped and talked about how much fun it was and everyone wanted to do it. Then I related it to how everyone wants to talk out, get up, make random noises.... and we need to control those things so we can all learn. I then challenged them to stay seated, but they could still pop the bubbles. It was like a game, 4 or 5 kids "got out" because they couldn't stay on their bottoms. We talked about it and played the game once again, this time everyone managed to do it! Then we upped the challenge and had the kids just watch the bubbles and see if one landed on their hand. Once again every one passed with flying colors. For our last demonstration, I challenged the kids to sit and focus on "Pete the Cat" while the bubbles just fell to the ground around them. Once again we all managed to control our impulses! We discussed how the bubbles were a distraction, but we could still focus. This was an amazing lesson I am sure I will refer back to over and over this year.

We Published out First eBook!

We are all published authors and illustrators! After reading "Mortimer's Book of What Ifs" and meeting the author Mandi Tillotson Williams, our class decided we could write a book too! We opened our imagination and became authors and illustrators! We invite you to download and enjoy our book. Let us know what you think!

(It is an ePub file and will need to be read on a device capable of reading an eBook. (iPad, iPod Touch, Nook, or other eReader. Your computer may not open it.) You can also download it or view it at epubbud.com

Author Visit Via Skype

We started the morning with an author's visit via Skype. Mandi Tillotson Williams, who has written and illustrated several fabulous children's stories, read a book to our class and answered questions from the students. She also described the process of writing and illustrating her books.

Her books are available on Amazon as a Paperback and/or ebook. They are written in rhyme and have wonderful lessons. My favorite is Henrietta Hexagon and the Triangles.

It is a touching story about Henrietta who feels like she doesn't belong because she is different. She later realizes being different makes her special. In addition to the many literature lessons taught, there are some great math tie-ins as well.

I plan to be busy posting and working this weekend , so look for more information soon! I have some great pictures to upload with all of our animal excitement !

We Have Ducklings!

We had 5 ducklings hatch on April 24, 2012.  They are doing well today and so cute to watch!  Check them out on the live Duck Cam!

There is still one little guy hatching (hopefully he will pull through!)  I will post more pictures later today!

Check out our Egg Cam! Live!!!!

We are getting ready for our little ducklings to hatch. Hopefully Sunday/Monday. I have set up a steaming web cam so you can watch too. There is not much going on now, but hopefully this weekend we will see something. Keep checking in!

Streaming video by Ustream

Back from Spring Break and an Egg Update!

Hello! We had a fabulous first day back from Spring Break! The kids were so excited to look inside out eggs. We could see the little guys moving. Tomorrow we will be writing in our observation journals about what we see going on.

Here a is a picture of what we observed today.

We are also beginning out science unit on Life Cycles of many different animals. Information came home today about a home project. The students enjoyed picking their animals and plants.

What's in the egg???

The Monday before we left for break Mr. Eric brought us eggs from a farm for our incubator. The only problem was he doesn't know what kind of animal laid the eggs? (wink, wink!) The students brainstormed a list of what animals come from eggs and which ones do not. Then they made predictions on what they think will hatch from our eggs. They predictions range from chicks, to ducks, to alligators or even a penguin! I was able to "candle" the eggs by shining a bright light on the eggs and see what is going on inside. It is amazing to watch them grow!

Day 4

Day 7

Day 10

We will keep you up to date on out eggs. Check back soon!