Aurasma bulletin board

I was in charge of the hallway bulletin board for October. It funny to only have one bulletin board that I get access to once in the year, but I don't have time for anything more.  I really had only  one writing sample that was good enough from the kids to use early in the month.  It's still so early in the year. 
We read Growing Up Where Jesus Lived, which is an abeka book leftover from the old series.  I shared last month bit about having a end of reading celebration where we dressed up in bible costumes and tasted foods like olives, sheep milk cheese and figs. 

The kids wrote lovely personal narratives from the point of view of a child growing up in Jesus's time.  They were really pretty good, some sharing about the food they ate, clothes they wore, chores they had to do, what they did for fun, how they celebrated holidays, etc.

So, the coolest thing though is adding Aurasma to make the bulletin board interactive.  I took video of five of the students reading their papers in their costumes.   Pictures of the kids in their costumes are linked through the app Aurasma so when you hold a mobile device over the pictures (while being logged into Aurasma), the video plays right over the picture as if the picture has come to life.  It's sort of Harry Potter.  I've been playing around with Aurasma since the summer.  The potential for use in the classroom is immense.  This is the first time I've used it for school, but I have other ideas for other projects.

Aurasma is a free app and after creating a quick and easy (and free) account, you can create your own auras and follow other creators.  It does take a bit of practice but after that it is easy to use. This board was up during parent conference and I  was excited to show it to the parents.

Bee helped me create the video.  It always funny to hear your own voice on video.

soccer time

 This little cutie from last year soccer is like all grown up.  Now he plays in the big league with real referees and everything. What a difference a year makes.

 

MIA, except I'm not

I've been missing in blog land, except I haven't.  I have to maintain a class website and blog now, which has taken the place of any blogging going on over here.  It's here.   It's through weebly.com, which is actually a really nice place to blog.

School is going well.  I basically love it.  I do.  But, some days I want to get in the car after school and drive as far away as I can.  But I don't.  The dog needs let out and homework done and lunches packed for the next day and papers need graded and a few parents need emailed and a form filled out for the speech therapist and a letter set out about parent conferences.  Lou probably has to get to soccer.   Someone would probably find me and bring me home anyway, only to find that the laundry and dishes are even more behind.   That's just been a few days.  Most days, It's manageable and I don't want to run away.  More or less.

Here are random pictures.  A mix of school and my own kids, which is how life is anyway.

We spent two weeks reading Growing Up Where Jesus Lived (Abeka)  and then had a little tasting day where we dressed up in bible costumes (some in their bath robes) and tasted sheep cheese, olives and figs. 

Here's a little friend leading calendar.  I really like the program we use for calendar, Every Day Counts, Calendar Math.

Here are two of my sweet boys doing some reading outside.  One was a little nervous of chiggers biting him when we read outside, so he wanted to sit on the cement steps.  The other boy didn't want him to be alone and went to read by him. 

Here are my kids.  We're back at rock climbing each week.  They are offering a weekly 'camp' and Bee and Lou are both learning a lot of advanced skills.  I'm worried they are going to want to climb real rocks someday.  Our facility takes trips all over for 'real' climbing.  I'm not ready for that.  That little blue dot in the photo above is Bee.  That wall is her goal wall.  She can't get up over that slant.  A few of the other kids can, but she just can't get it yet.

 
This was me the other day, stuck on a log.  I could see my house, I was almost home.  The neighbors were having a tree cut down.  There was this chunk in the road and I thought I could make it. I got stuck.  Four tree men quickly swooped in and saved the day.  As soon as I pulled away, I'm sure they had a good laugh about the stupid woman driver.  I think the barefoot man is the homeowner.  I'm pretty sure he nodded for me to go ahead and drive over the log.  He probably wanted to see if I was dumb enough to do it.  I texted this photo to my sister and said that I had run over a man.  She didn't buy it.
 

Bee and Lou are learning to grade papers.  Don't tell my students!  They take payment in chocolate chips.  It's a good deal all around.

We had some Japanese exchange students come an teach the third graders to make origami cranes.  Here's Bee and a few of my students showing off their cranes.  When we went back to class, we read Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes and had a really great student guided conversation about how she put her faith in the wrong thing.  The kids were quick to pick on her religious differences.

During a health chapter on sun safety, we did some work with sun sensitive paper.

I forgot how neat the paper was.  The kids agreed.

My sister told me about a program (Pongsat) where you can send ping pong balls filled with your choice of item to a group in California, who will then, for free, send them up into the edge of space.  They send the ping pong balls back and you can check on the contents to see if the conditions of space changed them in anyway.   We sent up some gravel from a science project we had been doing. We are still awaiting their return.

My kiddos have been bringing all sorts of critters to school.  Here's a skink.  

He's really pretty  cool, sort of a snake with legs. His favorite spot is behind your hair.

And a rabbit came. His name is Romeo.

And some bearded  dragons...

They are just babies.  I can't keep a class pet since my room is happily shared many evening each week by other groups.  I believe divorce care meets in there one evening and perhaps boy scouts another night.  Sunday school is there on Sunday morning.  I'm trying to be really flexible about it.

That looks like all the photos I have in my sitting in my open file.  If I haven't shared any of Lou's soccer pictures, I'll get those posted soon too.  It may be a month.  Who knows.

mama's back to work

 
I love my class.  I love it.  Look at this sweet little girl in my class reading her bible during daily five. 

I love being back at school with big kids. Love my school, love the staff, it's all great.  The grading and planning and all that is fine.  Standing at the copier for over an hour each Sunday afternoon kind of stinks, but I'm working through it.  (Check out this funny paper I graded the other day.)  Working full time is having it's challenges though. 
 

 
 This was our recent grocery trip.  Don't tell anyone!  Look at all that processed stuff!  I'm using the crock pot a lot, but there are some days that we have rock climbing or soccer after school and we aren't getting home until late and need to have something to grab.  The kids love it.  I'm embarrassed.

 
The poor pool got neglected and I let the chlorine run empty for too many days.  Green came and took over.   I was actually trying to take a photo of the spider in the middle of the picture.

In other news...

We had a dental health lesson that required an egg in vinegar.  This jar was full of vinegar when I went to bed.  I set it in my school bag so I wouldn't forget it.  This is what it looked like in the morning.  All that vinegar was in my school bag and on my stacks of freshly graded papers. The house may smell for weeks.

 
 There were a few larger items that we had been talking about  wanting, a few floor pillows, a big  bucket for our recess equipment, a  carpet for our reading area, etc.  The poor recess boy was struggling to carry it all in his arms and had asked for a big bucket.   I hadn't asked anyone for them and  didn't think we'd get them until I put  them on my personal Christmas list  and sent my family shopping.  The first Friday before I left for the night,  an  old friend came by and dropped off those exact items (and a few extras!)  that  she had cleaned out of her classroom years ago when she taught and had  them  sitting around at her house.  She  said she just felt like  she should bring them all over to my classroom. God  blesses us in all  kinds of ways!  The kids were amazed the next Monday.  When I told them how it happened, they said it was a school supply miracle!  We had a lovely discussion about how God knows our needs even before we ask.  

 
I'm finally using the 'show what you know' board and it's been fun.  It's a nice quick way to make an assessment.  I put 2-3 questions up on the board and they answer them and add their note to the board.  It's also quick to tell who hasn't turned in their work.  I have some kiddos who do their work and then loose their page on the way to turn it in. 

me and the gym

So there is this machine at the gym that I'm maxing out on at 30 pounds.  Seriously though, it goes up to 305!  That's either saying something about me or really saying something about them!

a few other school items

Here are a few other school related pictures.  Just cleaning out some picture files while I have a minute.  I mentioned the other day that I share my classroom with just about every community group possible so I have a lot of restrictions.  One side is pretty plain.  I actually had to move those black science boxes since this picture because... well, I was told to. 

 

I can decorate the back wall.  On Sundays, the desk and all my stuff gets pushed against this wall.  The library folds up and the stuff on top of it gets moved.  It's a lesson in flexibility.  I learned today, our first Monday back, that I'm going to have to allow extra time on Monday morning for setting back up.  It was a bit chaotic this morning. 

 I have cute little  kites that will go on the AR kite wall. 

 
This is the front of the room (and Lou).  I can leave up the two big yellow bulletin boards, but everything else has to get put away in a closet or shoved against the wall.  I've already abandoned the clip chart for class dojo.  I'll talk about that another day.

Here's the back wall.  The calendar stuff stays up, but everything else has to go on the weekend.  The chair was a garage sale find and has replaced the need for taking the rocker into school.  I had to rub the wood down with coconut oil and remake the cloth parts, but it was an easy fix for a $2 chair.   We use calendar math and it changes each month what items are on the board.  Some items are staples, but most change out.

My sister picked these book boxes up for me at IKEA.  The kiddos decorated them and they are storing their books for daily five and AR time.  The back to school pennants were a fun little sheet from TPT.  Now the clips are holding unfinished kid work.



I wrote on facebook last week that the thing that's changed the most in the 6 ish years that I've been out of the elementary classroom is technology.  Here's my desk.  I'm running the document camera through my desktop to show on the projector.  I've got my ipad running class dojo and I was using my phone moments before this to enter lunch count and email back a parent.  I don't even have a smart board yet, one thing at a time.

I made up this 'show what you know' board this summer.  I intend to have the kids write a short answer on a post-it-note and use this as an 'exit ticket'. I have had it in my plan to use for two days now though and didn't get to it. 

 
 This was a first day of school gift from one of my students.  It was full of markers and pens, etc.  Cute idea!

 
Bee's teacher gave the kids these bags with this poem...

filled with these items.  Cute.

Our new to this year checklist system is in place for the mornings.  Bee and I leave the house at 6:45am,  so our morning has to be pretty smooth.  We wake Lou up a few minutes before and daddy gets him to school at 7:30.  The boys are using this to make sure nothing gets forgotten too

I like not having to nag.

It took till the third day of school for me to get my act together and get a little something for my teammates.  I had planned to do this and then it turned out we only had slightly mushy apples until the third day of school.  That was just my first sign that working full time was going to be an adjustment. 

 

 
Back to my sweet little 3rd graders.  One of the girls asked me if she could keep a bible at her desk.  They don't really fit in there well and I keep them on a shelf, but she insisted and here she is reading away.  Also, one day I had on some soft music and they were working and just singing along.  They know all the words to the songs on our Christian station.  Gonna love this class!

I already miss my old preschool crew, but  love my new co workers!

First day-

 
Bee's off to 3rd grade. For her birthday she asked for the Vera lunch bag and messenger bag- she's too trendy for us!

 
Lou's off to first grade.  He also had to have a messenger bag and was happy to use one of daddy's. 

 
I'm off to 3rd grade too.  It's my favorite grade to teach! 

(It sort of looks like I'm pushing Lou out of the picture.  It was probably the opposite.)

 
These cute girls are my team mates in the world of third grade.  The one in pants is Bee's teacher.  She loves her!  Her classroom is super beautiful, I'll try to get some pictures.

Ok, so first day and these kiddos are awesome.  It's probably too early to call it, but I think this is going to be a great year.