Schoolhouse Rock vol. 59: Happy Birthday to the Teacher

Posted on February 20, 2013 by Laura

My kids made me a birthday book, and it is the cutest.

Thanks Jill for making that with them! You are the best!

The prompt was: “If I could give you any present in the world, I would give you a…”

and these are some of their responses:

A party
donut cake
A package of sweet tarts
A heart and a cake
rainbow fish
chocolate candy
a bike
a mailbox
a new pompom because one is lost
a blue dog who is also red
more homework for you to give us, so we can learn
a baby dragon
a big jewel
my heart
a blueberry chocolate cake
a strawberry cake
a sucker where you put it on your finger like a ring
a puppy!
new shoes
new shoes and a new dress
toys, candy and presents and hearts and candy
a big strawberry cake
a heart
a bunny
an x-box and x-box live so she can play games with me
chihuahuas – a mom and a baby
candy

This picture of my birthday party looks surprisingly similar to my actual birthday party…

birthday

Schoolhouse Rock vol. 58: Bucket Lists

Posted on February 19, 2013 by Laura

Today was the 100th day of school. I actually branched out and tried new things. Good job, self!

First off, I googled image searched, “100 year old people” and I made a powerpoint to show kids what they will look like when they are 100 years old. They were really taken aback by how “crumpled” the people’s faces were. They were devastated when I told them that is how their faces would look one day as well.

Here are some of their predictions for what they will look like:

They are going to be some creepy looking old people…

I decided that in addition to making a picture of what we will look like at 100 years of age, we should probably make a class bucket list of the things we would like to accomplish in life before we turn 1oo and our faces “are all crumpled.”

So, in no particular order, here are our goals, dreams, and future aspirations which we hope to accomplish before we are 100 years old:

be a mailman
be a cop
play baseball for the MN Twins
be a superhero
watch ninja turtles
see the Avengers
Be a white angel
graduate from high school
go to college
play for the Timberwolves
learn how to do karate
become a mouse
get a pet cat
be a zookeeper
learn how to learn in here
learn how to be grown up
learn how to be a military man
learn how to count to 60
be a store man
be a mermaid (somehow this shows up in everything we do in kindergarten)
go to lots of places with my family
be a king and a princess… if that makes sense…
be a football player
open a bakery
learn how to wrestle

Well kids, I hope that your dreams come true. Please report back to me in 50 years and let me know of your progress in becoming a mouse.

Schoolhouse Rock vol. 57: Love Is…

Posted on February 12, 2013 by Laura

One of my favorite things in kindergarten is hearing kids’ thoughts on love when Valentine’s Day comes around. Photo on 2013-02-12 at 16.14 #2

The following is their answers to the question:

What is Love?

Photo on 2013-02-12 at 16.14 #3

Love is:

I love my parents.
Hugging people. And when they are sick you can give them hot coffee.
Sharing valentines.
Give a hug.
When you give valentines to someone you love.
Hearts and a present.
All about your heart. Your heart is like Valentine’s Day because it gives joy to people.
Sharing.
When I hug my cousin.
That you love your mom.
It’s like you hug your mom.
I love my mom. I hug her.
When you love someone you give them a present.
I give candy to mom.
It means I love my mom. When she is sick and goes to the doctor I bring her balloons and flowers and a note.
I’m not sure if you can see their crowns, but I’m pretty sure this family is royalty.
If you hug someone.
I give valentines to my mom. She sleeps and I put it in her drawer.
giving hugs.
My sister hugs me.
My family.
Loving people. I love my mom and my sisters. I don’t have a dad.
Telling your brother that I love him.
About loving your mom and your dad.
Friendship.
friendship on a beach? friendship in jail?
Where you love your family.

And… this year’s winning response:

Love is about giving people a heart and hugging dad and mom and you can probably shovel for your dad so he can rest if he is too old to work.

Schoolhouse Rock vol. 56

Posted on February 6, 2013 by Laura

I confess this to you in part shame that it is already February and in part pride that I finally made it happen.

I took my kids to the school library (I’d call it a media center, but it is pretty media-less) for the first time this week.

I know. I know!

My own mother is an elementary school media specialist. You’d think she’d have trained me better 😉

Mom, I tried to read Stella Luella’s Runaway Book before we went, but it looks like Stella Luella ran away from me, just like her book ran away from her – I climbed on counters and reached above shelves and looked through all sorts of book bins, but it was nowhere to be found. Oh the irony.

But… we finally went to the library!! No longer am I depriving my students of the meager literary offerings in our school media center. The kids were so excited to be going. One little boy’s face had the biggest smile of pure joy all the way down the hall.

My favorite moment is when one child opened up the book and pointed to the pocket on the inside, asking, what it was. I of course responded that “back in the Days of Yore, when I was a little girl and there were no computers we used cards in those pockets to check out books.”

I love that kindergartners don’t question it, they just say, “Ok!” and move on with life.

In efforts to redeem my lame teacher status, I put up this sweet reading tent in my classroom. Because that is definitely something you should introduce to your class on a week that they are already a little crazy… photo (8)

And finally, in other news, a little girl included this on a note she wrote me in the writing center. image (3) Upon further investigation, I decided that perhaps it might be trying to say, “I heart butterfingers” but what I definitely initially read was, “I heart butter.” Which if you know me is hilarious. Because I hate butter* so so much. Even more than I hate malted milk balls… which is a lot.