Woohoo! Wahpah!

 It's SPRING BREAK!!!!

No, I'm not headed to Daytona (a la Joey in '81), but I am heading to Austin for my BACHELORETTE PARTY later this week! I cannot wait for some good food, awesome music, and fun with all my girls!

This past week was parent/teacher conference week. I felt much better about these Spring conferences, having had the experience of Fall conferences under my belt. I kept expecting the proverbial "other shoe" to drop, as each conference continued to go smoothly throughout the week. Fortunately, I finished my conferences on Thursday (and into Spring vacation) on a VERY positive note.

With eleven weeks of school left (yes, ELEVEN!), it is not surprising that our classroom supplies are dwindling. We've officially run out of blue paint and only have a couple of boxes of pencils left!!!  I organized our supplies at the beginning of the year so that at each table, there is a pencil box with 4-5 pencils (depending on how many kids sit at the table), a couple of pencil sharpeners, and two large erasers. Recently, children have been complaining that kids are taking pencils from other tables and putting them into their own tables' pencil boxes. This doesn't surprise me, as our class seems to constantly misplace pencils.

Color coding to the rescue!

 I put a strip of colored tape on the pencils. The colored tape corresponds with a table. If children find a pencil on the floor or somewhere else in the classroom, the colored tape will tell them what table's pencil box to return it to. Now, getting the kids to actually clean up is a whole other story....but hopefully this strategy will at least keep them from fighting over pencils!

NEWS ALERT: We have had a string of lunch thefts in my classroom!

At my school, children leave their lunches in their backpacks and get them out when it is time to eat. Recently, we have had THREE incidents where children are finding the lunches in their backpacks opened, with food stolen or even bitten into and put back! GROSS! Unfortunately, since the cubby room is out of teacher/student sight-lines (in a breakout room right before the entrance to the classroom), it is not really monitored for thieves!

I decided to buy a large plastic bin to place within plain sight (next to my desk), where kids now put their lunches every morning. It has been over a month since I instituted "The Lunch Box Box", and so far, no lunch tampering! YAY!

I am SO TIRED of asking "Who's is this?" when students return work with no names! I instituted a "No Name Work" folder that lives at the white board:

 When kids cannot find a worksheet that should have been returned to them, they now know where to check for it! Efficiency!

Finally, Spring colds are popping up everywhere it seems. A couple of weeks ago, I had my first sick day (spent sleeping, drinking tea, and sleeping...) I am very lucky, because since I have an assistant teacher, I never really have to worry about sub plans :) Still, it was so nice to get this lovely gift from my students when I came back to the classroom:

What teacher wouldn't love a "get well" apple?

Anyway, I am over my cold, and I am ready to enjoy my vacation! I hope that when we return from break April 1st, it will actually be Spring :) 

Strega Nona

My class is in the thick of our study of one of my favorite authors, Tomie Depaola! Although Tomie has written so many great books, in my opinion he is most well known for his Strega Nona stories.

For those of you who don't know the story (shame on you!), it is based upon another folktale called The Magic Porridge Pot. Tomie was inspired by this folktale, and reworked it with an Italian twist! The first thing we did as a class was read both stories. Then we created venn diagrams to compare the two stories.

In Strega Nona, we are introduced to the goofy, clumsy Big Anthony, who comes to help Strega Nona take care of her house. When Big Anthony sees Strega Nona cast a spell over the pasta pot, he cannot wait for her to leave so he can try to use it himself! In the story Strega Nona's Magic Lessons, Big Anthony gets himself into even MORE trouble because of his actions. I thought that this story would be a perfect way to reintroduce understanding cause and effect. I had the students complete a graphic organizer to highlight what the effects of Big Anthony's decisions are in the story.

 

The third Strega Nona story I read to the class was Strega Nona: Her Story. This story is the prequel to Strega Nona. The kids loved seeing Strega Nona as a little girl and learning how she grew up to be the Strega Nona that they know from the original story. In this particular story, Tomie uses a lot of Italian words and phrases. I decided this would be the perfect opportunity for a foreign language lesson! 

We first created a list of the words we heard in the story:

Then, the kids got a mini-dictionary that they had to fill out. The students had a lot of fun combining the different words to create fun Italian phrases!

Since there is molto pasta in Strega Nona, I wanted to incorporate that somehow into a fun activity. I decided to try "pasta punctuation". I wrote out sentences from the story without any punctuation. With pieces of pasta (penne, macaroni, and shells), students had to place the pasta where there should be punctuation:

When they finished adding the pasta, they had to write down the sentence with punctuation on a sheet of paper:

 

This was a great way for students to think about quotations, apostrophes, and commas. Many students struggled with where to put the punctuation at the end of a quote. We talked about how if the character is saying STOP with excitement, the excitement is contained in the quote, so the end quotation marks should be after the exclamation point! 

To celebrate the end of this portion of the author study, our class put on a wonderful reader's theater of the original Strega Nona for our school's Friday assembly.  We worked hard creating fabulous sets and props for the show!

And of course, we needed the magic pasta pot:

The audience loved it, and the kids were so proud of themselves!

We will next be traveling from Italy (Tomie's father's side) to Ireland (Tomie's mother's side). Tomie has written some hilarious Irish folktales that I cannot wait to share! Slainte!

Cupcake Course

Okay, enough with this darn snow!

We now have to add on THREE days because we have gone over our snow day limit :(

We were supposed have Monday and Tuesday of President's Weekend off, but now we have to come in on Tuesday. I know I am going to be exhausted, because I am coming back late Monday night from what should be a GREAT hiking/spa trip to Utah with my mom and sister for their February birthdays.

We also lost a day at the end of our Spring break. Since I am coming back again late from another awesome trip to Austin for my BACHELORETTE PARTY (Yee-haw!!!) the night before we need to be back at school, I decided I needed to take a personal day the next day :)

We are off again today, no thanks to this stinky nor'easter, so they are taking away a professional development day in April that the kids originally had off.

The wind outside my window is CRAZY SCARY! But at least I get to watch Olympic figure skating live! I even made myself a delicious pancake breakfast!





 Speaking of cake, I have had the best time teaching my "Cupcake Mini Course"! At my school, students can sign up for mini-courses. Mini-courses are teacher-led classes that meet every Friday for an 8 week session. We have three mini-courses a year. It is a great way for kids from different grade levels to mix together and learn something they find interesting (some other mini-courses that teachers are leading include card games, cartooning, soccer, Italian, and sewing). I decided to introduce my love for baking/cake decorating in my mini-course!

The first thing I did was teach the kids how to use frosting bags/tips:

 

 I bake the cupcakes beforehand, so the kids have plenty of time to decorate! We also practiced rolling out fondant and making shapes.

Since I am from the DC area originally, I had to pay homage to Georgetown Cupcakes in my mini-course. When I first graduated from college in 2008, I worked in a small bakery during the start of the "Cupcake Craze". That was the same summer that the ladies from Georgetown Cupcake opened their first small shop on a side street in Georgetown. I remember stopping by the shop one stifling summer day after a coworker and I made a cake delivery in the neighborhood. We wanted to be so sneaky "checking out the competition", but we kind of blew our cover because we forgot to take off our chef's coats that had our bakery logo on it! Still, everyone in the store was super nice to us. Obviously, these ladies of GC really knew their stuff, with shops all over the country and lines lines lines galore! And of course, a reality show on TLC. I played an episode for the kids in my mini course to get inspired to create a cupcake scene. The "decorators" sketched out a few ideas and voted on their favorite.

Not surprising, a character from a popular cartoon movie was the winner:

Can you guess who this is? If you are not familiar, this is a minion, from the hilarious movie Dispicable Me, starring Steve Carell, who plays Gru, a super-villian turned loving dad :)

The kids learned how to mix colors and plan out which cupcake needed what color in order to make the minion.

We only have a few sessions left, so we are going to vote on an "original flavor" to bake together, and then decorate it on the last session! I am sad to end this mini-course, but excited for the next session, where I will be teaching TAP DANCING!!!

With that, I am going to get packing for my trip out west! I am ready to leave this cold, snowy east coast for a warmer, drier climate!

Author Study

Welp, we have officially used up all of our allotted snow days :(

But I did have a nice couple of extra days off on Tuesday and Wednesday last week :) Still, this week has felt EXTRA long because last week we only had 2 days of school!

When we actually got back, I was SO SO SO excited to start our author study! I always enjoy author studies. There are so many great children's book authors out there that have stood the test of time: Ezra Jack Keats, Patricia Polacco, Leo Lionni, and my personal favorite and star of this particular author study......

......TOMIE DEPAOLA! (click on the link for his AMAZING website!)

Since I was very small, I have loved his books. I remember when my mom brought me home The Art Lesson to read. I immediately fell in love with the story and with Tomie. I felt like we really connected. Like Tomie (known as Tommy in the story), I absolutely loved drawing and painting from a young age. In nursery school, my teachers even told my parents that they were concerned because I never wanted to leave the painting easel when we were directed to another activity!

I decided to begin our study with this book. From it we learn how Tomie became who he is today. We also learn about some members of his family: his mother, his father (the barber), his brother Joe, his Irish grandparents who own the grocery store, his cousins in art school, and his Italian grandmother, Nana Fall-River.

Because we have been practicing many skills of good readers, I decided to give them a worksheet to sequence the events of The Art Lesson. Of course, after they wrote the events of the story in sentences, they could draw pictures of each part (just like Tomie probably wanted to do in school!)

On the other side, kids had to put together a web of some of Tomie's feelings throughout the book. I reminded them to give examples from the book to describe why Tomie felt that way.

If they wrote he was disappointed, they had to give an example, such as: Tommy felt disappointed because he wasn't allowed to bring his birthday crayons to school.

 The next book we read to learn more about Tomie and his family was Nana Upstairs and Nana Downstairs. This book always gets me. It is a heartfelt story about Tomie's relationship with his Nana Fall-River and his Great-Grandmother. The story also brings up the subject of death and people living on in our memories. It really is wonderful.

I wanted the kids to have a dialogue about this story, since it does have a kind of serious subject. I had them respond to a few response questions that might illicit different ideas, such as:

Who do you think enjoyed Sunday visits more? Tommy or Nana Upstairs?
(Many kids said that they thought each enjoyed the time equally because they loved spending time together. Some kids said that Tommy enjoyed it more because he got candy. Other kids said Nana Upstairs enjoyed it the most because she loved Tommy's company) 

Why do you think Tommy thought Nana Upstairs was beautiful, even if his brother said she looked like a witch?
(A lot of kids said that Tommy thought Nana Upstairs was beautiful because he loved her. A couple of kids talked about how beauty is on the inside and that's what counts, and she was a nice grandma)

 We will finish learning about Tomie's family by reading the book Tom, about his relationship with his Irish grandfather. Tom seemed like such a fun grandpa! I can see why Tomie wanted to write about him! After we finish reading Tom, the kids will work on a web comparing Tomie's relationship with some of the other family members we read about this week!

Next week, it is on to one of Tomie's most memorable characters......

 

You got it! STREGA NONA!

Stay tuned, amici miei! There is much more Tomie dePaola fun coming up!

New Year, New Adventures!

Getting back into the swing of school can be hard after a nice, long break. Because I want to remain excited about teaching, it is important to me to keep things fresh, new and interesting in my classroom!

I tried my hardest to have everything NEW NEW NEW when we returned from break. I finished up our math unit and read aloud book, but did not have time for everyone to complete their Lenape legend stories to finish our Lenape study and writing unit. So, the first week back we pushed ourselves to finish up our amazing stories and create a watercolor portrait of our Lenape persona (a character that is living in Lenape times that is present in our legends).

To celebrate our success of completing this in-depth Social Studies unit and our beautiful writing, we had a publishing party for families on the first Wednesday back.

We hung up their portraits and legends around the room:

I created a sheet for parents and peers to write comments about their writing that were at each child's table spot:

Each child wrote their name and the title of their writing on the top two lines. Then, the left side has boxes labeled "reader's name(s)" where parents/peers can write their names down. On the right, there is a box for some comments! 

Of course, since it was a party, I was kind enough to provide yummy doughnut holes for the guests! YUM!

Now that our legend writing is complete, we are moving on into another writing topic: persuasive writing! I find this to be a very accessible writing style for kids, because they are always trying to prove their point as to why they should have/do/not do/get something!

We first brainstormed some ideas of where we might see persuasion. The kids came up with a great list, including advertisements, political campaigns, and petitions! Then, the kids thought about some things they would consider wanting to persuade others to agree with and had a debate!

The topics:

Each group had a chunk of time to come up with at least five points to support their opinion that would persuade someone on the other side to agree with them. Then, each side expressed one point. The other side could provide a counter-point. Then there was another round with the other side presenting their point, with the opposing side having the opportunity to give a counter-point!
PHEW!

Finally, we began our newest Social Studies unit, which I am really excited about! We will begin studying the Aztecs! As a Spanish major, I have always been interested in the cultures of Central/South America. There is such a rich cultural history in Mexico that started WAY before the Europeans colonized. There is also such a fantastic connection between the Aztecs and the Lenape, which I'm sure the kids will begin to notice as we dive deeper into our study!

The class has already come up with a list of things they'd like to know more about Mexico and the Aztecs:

And now, for some organization!

Many of the students in my class are great about packing up all of their things and remembering to take their homework home. Yet, there are still plenty who don't! To eliminate forgetfulness, I created a "dismissal checklist" so kids can make sure they have ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING they need before they go home. It may seem a little too detailed, but I think it doesn't hurt to make sure all of the bases are covered!  

Although I enjoyed my vacation, it feels pretty good to be back! Here's to a great first half of 2014! 

It's Time for Time Off!

Well, my lovely readers, I made it through the first part of the year at my new school, and it was A-MAH-ZING!

Yes, there were some stressful times, but overall I feel very lucky. Part of that has to do with my awesome assistant teacher! We both drink tea on the reg, so I wanted to give her a tea-themed gift for the holidays! I decided to make a tea-wreath:

 First, take a cardboard box and trace a circle (I used the rim of a mixing bowl) and use a box cutter to cut it out. Cut a smaller hole in the center of the larger circle.

Cover the cardboard in colored paper.        Hot glue clothespins and decorate!

               Pinch the gift recipient's favorite teas onto the clothespins! 

To celebrate the end of 2013 (and the holiday season), I felt it was fitting to throw my students a fabulous party! Of course, I couldn't just give them a party...

A month or so ago, one of my students asked me if the class could "earn" a party. I thought about it. And thought about it some more. At first, I thought maybe they could earn a party by making sure everyone returned their homework, or collecting compliments from other teachers. But then I thought, those are things they should just be plain DOING without needing a reward for it!

Finally, it hit me! I wanted to reinforce some sort of academic skill. Something that we are practicing A LOT this year in math is showing our work and explaining our thinking. So that brought me to:

THE MATH PARTY CHALLENGE!


Students have the opportunity to earn a total number of points by the end of the month. If they get to that number, at the end of the month: PARTY TIME!

We began by saying they needed to get 60 points by the end of December (right before break) to have a party. Two mornings a week, we set out a "Problem of the Day" for students to solve, making sure that they followed the points guidelines to get the maximum amount of points.





Glad to say, WE DID IT! The kids voted on a movie/pajama party. I decided that because it was right before break, I would pump up the party vibe:

Of course, I wore my PJ's and fun fuzzy socks!

We made hot chocolate with marshmallows and added mini candy cane stirrers!

 I love popcorn, but I wanted to give them something extra-fun to snack on during the movie, so I made Apple Cinnamon and Caramel Chocolate Chex mix.

I bet you are wondering what movie we watched? I'll give you a hint:



Yup. Elf. BEST HOLIDAY MOVIE EVER. And it's rated PG, so totally appropriate for the kiddos!

I am proud of my students for accomplishing this goal, and so much else, during these past months at school. I am looking forward to what lies ahead in the coming year...

But let's be in the moment. I am REALLY looking forward to a relaxing vacay! My fiance and I are spending a few days at an inn on Maryland's Eastern Shore, followed by visiting friends and family in D.C. and NYC.  

Have a relaxing winter break, everyone! Happy New Year, and see you all in 2014!!!!

It's A Marshmallow World!

It's our first SNOW DAY! My alarm went of this morning and I was sure I would have to drive my butt to school, that the weather forecast was a bust, but I checked my email and NO SCHOOL!

My first reaction:



Two minutes later, I was obviously back in bed :)

After (finally) getting up a good 3.5 hours later than I usually do, I looked out my window to this beautiful scene:

Before, when I lived in NYC, I never enjoyed the snow because a.) we never got any snow days in the city b.) the snow always got dirty and slushy in a matter of minutes and never looked nice c.) walking around in it was disgusting!

Here in PA, the snow looks (and stays) beautiful and allows me to sleep in! Score!

For those of you who know me well, you know that I love shopping at Anthropologie. Besides the fact that the clothes are adorable and unique, I love that when you walk into the store you immediately feel something. The geniuses there do an amazing job making the customer feel like they are somewhere else (a cabin in the woods, a French cafe, a Brazilian beach...) Part of how they do this is by their music selections. Typically, when I leave the store, there is some song I have never heard before in my head that I go home and download. 

I have very eclectic music tastes, and I love Spotify, because for $10 a month I can listen to essentially all the music I want. It really makes my ride to work and sessions at the gym more enjoyable! I recently discovered that Anthro has a station on Spotify with different mixes and playlists. I immediately clicked play on their "A Merry Making Playlist". Since I am Jewish, I always feel a tad left out during the Christmas season with respect to music, especially since Chanukah was so darn early this year (oh yeah, happy belated Thanksgivukkah to all!)

So I have been on a quest to find fun and festive winter songs that don't necessarily highlight Christmas. (Not that I don't LOVE Christmas decorations and many Christmas classics!)

...anyway, Anthro playlist to the rescue! I found so many gems on this station that make me feel warm and festive! There is a great mix of old and new music, but I was particularly happy to find this classic little ditty. It certainly brings out the kid in me and reminds me of how much fun playing in the snow is!

Now, what is a snow day without hot chocolate? It just shouldn't be allowed! Although the bagged mixes are convenient, I really think homemade is the way to go! And it really isn't that hard!

 You will need:

1/2 C granulated sugar

1/3 C unsweetened cocoa powder

4.5 C milk (I use almond milk but regular milk is fine)

1/2 tsp vanilla (or any flavoring you have--peppermint would be yummy!)

First, add all of the dry ingredients and 1/2 C of milk. Stir constantly over medium heat until it begins to boil:

 Then, lower heat to low and add remaining 4 cups of milk. Heat until just below boiling. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla or other flavoring.

Pour into a mug, add marshmallows and whipped cream, and enjoy!

I plan on spending the rest of the day in my PJ's watching movies (I DVR'd Home Alone and Christmas Vacation) and watching the snow fall outside :)

HAPPY SNOW DAY EVERYONE!!!!