Friday, May 23, 2014

Our Good Choices "Frozen" Cupcake Party!


For our snack time today we celebrated all the good choices we have made in first grade . . . doing our homework, staying on task in the classroom, using our manners in the lunchroom, staying on the correct voice level, and following Crown Point's High Five while in the hallways! My *firsties* ROCK!!




I also surprised my kids by playing the Frozen soundtrack while we enjoyed our cupcakes . . . and I have to say, my FAVORITE party moment was getting to listen to my first graders sing all the songs . . . they stole my heart!! FYI - Demi Lovato hasn't got anything on my amazing *firsties*!!

Here is an audio file of Kearson's Crocodiles singing, "Let It Go" from Frozen . . .





Sunday, May 18, 2014

Can You Teach An Old Rabbit New Tricks?

The Crown Point Elementary Science Fair is starting this week . . . and my students had a blast with our class science project, "Can you teach an old rabbit new tricks?".

After deciding to use Bailey in our science project, we spent a week researching fun facts and common myths about rabbits. Next we brainstormed several possible experiments . . . and teaching Bailey to go through a maze without making any mistakes was the clear winner! Based on our research on rabbits, and what we knew about Bailey, we recorded how many tries each of us thought it would take Bailey to get through the maze without making any mistakes. 

Our results . . .

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Stretching Our Sentences


This week we will be starting our outlines for our narrative stories. . . and I have decided to kick this writing off with my *Stretch a Sentence* activity. FUN!

My kids have amazing imaginations, and tell me the craziest stories all day long. . . but when it comes to writing, the elaborate and very detailed story they told me in the morning about helping dad kill a snake BIGGER than me in the backyard, turns into, "I saw a snake." in their writing journals in the afternoon. BOO! So I plan on putting some *creative* writing in our narrative stories by stretching our five-word meaningful sentences into awesome sparkle-word sentences.

I put together a cute little *Stretch a Sentence* mini poster to review how adding who, is doing what, when, where, and why to a sentence can add SPARKLE to our narrative stories. Hopefully this activity will work, and the challenge to my first graders to stretch their sentences will be gladly accepted. . . the gauntlet has been thrown! :)

Click here to download this Stretch a Sentence activity from my TpT store




Friday, May 9, 2014

Teacher Appreciation Week

(the beautiful flowers I got form one of my first graders)

This year was my first time as a teacher during Teacher Appreciation Week... and what an swonderfully~smarvelous week it was!! I cannot thank my students and parents enough for all the lovely gifts and awesome hugs. I feel so blessed and appreciated... my cup runneth over!!

One of the most unique and amazing gifts I received was a necklace made in Haiti through the Apparent Project. The necklace is made entirely from recycled materials, and the Apparent Project is designed to provide creative employment for Haitian families that are at risk of relinquishing their children to orphanages or the streets. The recycled materials used to make the necklace are...

*55 Gallon Steel Drum ~ Artists flatten 55 gallon oil drums and use them as steel canvases to cut, pierce, and bend intricate art work.

*Cereal Box Beads ~ Cut into thin strips, the paper is then carefully rolled on bamboo skewers and varnished.

*Aluminum Cans ~ Recycled cans are die cut and hand stamped by our talented artists.

Here is a picture of the lovely necklace I got for Teacher Appreciation Week...


Click here for more information on the Apparent Project

I would also like to thank the amazing staff and PTA at Crown Point Elementary for all the treats and gifts they gave out this week... they all did an incredible job making sure that the teachers felt truly appreciated!! :)






Thank you for the "Thank you"!


Kearson's Crocodiles got some awesome thank you cards from Mr. Beckstrom's Brainiacs for being such a great FCAT Buddy class! YAY US! :)









Classroom Coupons!

One of my AHH-MAZING first graders chose the *wear a hat in class* classroom coupon after filling up her Good Choices punch card... and the picture was too adorable not to share! :)




Thursday, May 1, 2014

Today's Top Story


KEARSON'S CROCODILES ARE MAKING HEADLINES!

My most amazing first grade class is making headlines in the Mandarin Newsline May 2014 issue!! Crown Point Elementary did an article on reducing FCAT stress and anxiety . . . 

< pause for dramatic effect >

. . . featuring our class's FCAT Buddy support for Mr. Beckstrom's fifth grade class! WAY TO GO MS. KEARSON'S CLASS!!

If you do not receive the Mandarin Newline paper at your home, don't worry... you can download a digital copy of the article from the Mandarin Newsline website (I provided a link under the article picture).

Congratulations again to Mr. Beckstrom's class for all their hard work on the FCAT tests... and kudos to my AWESOME first graders for showing their Panther Pride and support for their FCAT Buddies!!

Click here to download a digital copy of the article in the Mandarin Newsline