Celebrity Story Saturday- This is the Stable

Merry Christmas! I hope that you and your family are having a wonderful day!

Today's Celebrity is reading a special story. Yesterday's story was a classic, this story is about the original Christmas. It is called This is the Stable.

Mrs. Blowe is our reader and she holds a special place in my heart. When I started at the Hills she was a first grade teacher. She has since been a Literacy Lead teacher (5th grade) and she is now serving two schools as a Literacy Consultant. Reading is her favorite!

I chose Mrs. Blowe especially for this day because she is someone I look to for guidance of all kinds, educational and spiritual. She is an inspiration for me and the other teachers at Clifton Hills and I always appreciate her help and support.

Click {HERE} to hear the story or watch it below.

Now as a special treat, another Holiday Classic. I personally feel that, if you're going to tell someone what Christmas is all about, it has to be told just like Linus!

Celebrity Story Saturday- The Night Before Christmas

A true Christmas classic for you today!

When I first started working at the Hills, I learned to never take things for granted. For example, I thought everyone knew this story. I mean, it's a classic for Heaven's sake!

Well, I was wrong. I chalk it up to their age, but my 6 year olds didn't know this story. So, when we read 'Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving, my students had no prior knowledge to make connections.

When we read The Night Before Christmas in class on Wednesday, my students did make a connection. It went like this, "Mrs. Delk, this story is just like 'Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving'!" You know what, a connection is a connection. I'm proud they remembered!

The reader for today has been one of my favorite teachers at the Hills for years. She was one of my second grade team members before she became a Lead Teacher, and now she is on the third grade team. (And no matter what grade she taught, she was always available to answer questions and help me out! See why she's a favorite?!)

Welcome to the Readers Club... Mrs. Wann! I have had Mrs. Wann on my list of readers for over a month now. I knew that I had to save her reading talents for just the right book. So, today I have her reading the classic holiday tale of The Night Before Christmas!

Click {HERE} to hear the story, or watch it below!

Celebrity Story Saturday- A Mouse Before Christmas

Our second Holiday Reader is.... Ms. Williams!

Ms. Williams is one of our third grade teachers, and is one of the New Teachers at the Hills. Ms. Williams is one of my new favorite people. I love her You're-Not-Going-To-Get-Me-Down attitude. My class tends to see her in the hallway as she is dropping her kids off for related arts, and there is always a smile on her face! 
I also love that she was another volunteer reader!
The story she is reading today is A Mouse Before Christmas.

Click {HERE} to hear the story, or watch it below!

Celebrity Story Saturday- Bear Stays Up

Welcome to a Holiday edition of Celebrity Story Saturday! In celebration of the Christmas season, we will have 4 stories that encompass the holiday spirit!

Our first Holiday Reader is none other than.....Ms. Beckett! Ms. Beckett is a member of the first grade team and is a valuable member of the CHES faculty. I know that I can always count on Ms. Beckett if I find myself in a bind. (which happens more than I'd like to admit!)
Ms. Beckett is fun and full of energy and her students love her.

Today's story is Bear Stays Up for Christmas.

Click {HERE} to hear the story, or watch it below

Be watching!

We have celebrity readers lined up for the rest of the week! Keep checking back for some wonderful stories!

Day 85- Christmas Miracle!

It all happened like this...

After the annual Christmas sing-along my class came back to the room and played Around the World with addition math facts. (Yesterday that game was all this soldier talked about!)

Well, after the game, we took a bathroom break because I didn't want anyone to have to leave during the Pie- Throwing that was happening at 9:30. When we came back into the room.... a CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!

On everyone's table was a stuffed animal! And, one of my students said that she saw an elf outside our room when we came back! It looks like Santa and his helpers came for a visit!

 So we took our new friends to the carpet to listen to the story The Night Before Christmas.

After the story we all went to the gym to watch teachers get pied! What brave souls!

Students in grades 3-5 paid $100 Cub Bucks for the chance to be picked to throw a pie. The rest of the students paid $50 to get to watch and it was awesome! Some of our students have great aim!

(Unfortunately, since I was the MC, I did not get to take pictures of the teachers with mess on their faces. I will try to get some of the pictures that other teachers took!)

The last person to get pied was a surprise, it was... Mr. Evans! He had to be dragged to the middle of the gym. The student , unfortunately, only hit his shoulder with the pie, so the fashionable Ms. Brewer had to help out. You'll remember Ms. Brewer from {THIS} post. Ms. Brewer's aim was much better, and the pie was all over his face.

After the Pie- Toss was lunch, and after lunch we went home!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good Break!

Day 84- Short week

In fact, this week is over half way over already! Today was a full school day and tomorrow is a half day. (Well, for students at least)

Since this week is little off, we didn't start anything new. In fact, we took our Topic10 math test today to make sure we ended this year with some closure. After the test, we did some fun math activities; i.e. we did math solve and color sheets.

 Addition on the front

Subtraction on the back

This took the kids until lunch to finish, they stayed focused and relatively quiet, and I got some more grades! I walked around while they were working and watched how they answered the questions. Some used their fingers, some used unifix cubes and counters, and some used the count-up method. It just goes to show that one method is not always the best for everyone!

After lunch was recess, and thank goodness we went out! The day was gorgeous and the kids were getting antsy. Besides, the weather report is calling for rain later this week, so we need to take advantage of the sun as long as we can!

After lunch, we read The Teacher's Night Before Christmas. 

My students had these reactions:

"Mrs. Delk, this is a rhyming book!"

"Mrs. Delk, this is just like 'Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving book!"

"Mrs. Delk, does Santa really drive a bus?"

The fun part about the book, well, fun to me, was when my kids saw the illustrations. "Mrs. Delk! Those kids are bad!" I'm glad my students noticed! Thank goodness my students would never act in such a way. :)

To show off my students' sweetness, we made gifts for parents. Coupon books! I told my kids that when their parent used one of the coupons, they had to do what it said.

Cleaning up their room- without complaining
Doing homework- without having to be reminded

Setting the table- nice and neat!
Sleeping in late- I explained how important this is. My daughter wakes the house up every weekend at 7am. One of these days she will understand sleeping in.
Quiet drink- I explained that this didn't mean they they would make the coffee or tea for their parent, but if their parent sat down for a nice calming drink of tea or coffee, the student's job was to make sure to not break the peace and quiet with craziness.

Parents, make sure to use these coupons! Merry Christmas!

We had our Christmas party at the end of the day, but I didn't get any pictures, sorry 'bout that. It was also pajama day, but I didn't get those pictures either. I know, I'm horrible. I'll do better tomorrow!

** Tomorrow is a half day! Parents can begin picking up their students at 11:15 and buses will run at 11:30. Tomorrow is also the annual Christmas Sing-Along. It will start promptly at 8am with yours truly as the MC. Don't be late!

Celebrity Story Saturday 18

Hold on to your hats! We have another 2-for-1 Celebrity Story Saturday!

Our first reader is our youngest volunteer reader to date. She is an awesome helper whenever she visits the school and I was super excited when she said she would love to read for the blog! Welcome to the Celebrity Club... Little Evans! That's right! It's Mr. Evans' daughter! Being a Celebrity Reader runs in the family. :)

The best part about Little Evans reading? You can tell she is a teacher in the making! She knows how to hold the book teacher-style, with the illustrations showing.Take it away, Little Evans!

Click {HERE} to hear the story, or watch it below.

Our next reader is none other than... Mrs. Green! Mrs. Green is our Librarian and she is a wonderful reader! (It's part of the job description, you know.) Mrs. Green also jumped at the chance to read a story because she found a book that is just perfect! In fact, she is such a wonderful professional reader that she even found children to listen as she read the story. (Granted, they were hers, but what wonderful listeners they were!) Welcome to the Readers Club, Mrs. Green!

Click {HERE} to hear the story, or watch it below

Thank you, Readers!

Day 83- Math and Reminders

There were a lot of teachers out today. Unfortunately, the stomach bug and vicious cold are going around again, just in time for the holidays. That's one Christmas gift I would rather not receive! What that means for the rest of us is, since there are teachers out, and no subs were available, we had to split classes.

First grade split Ms. Beckett's class. (Ms. Beckett has been  trooper all week! She's battling a cold that will not go away, and she needed the rest!)

Well, with extra students in my class I didn't want to start a whole new lesson in math, and I didn't want my students to forget what they have learned already. There seemed to be only one solution. Math centers.

I had 5 centers going at one time- students were at each center for 8 minutes before rotating. Some of our math time was taken this morning as we prepared for our Kwanzaa Celebration, and we had to do our calendar time, so around 40 minutes was all we had time for.

Center #1- Making patterns. Students used the colored discs to create patterns, and they had to explain their pattern when I stopped at their table.

I had 2 students explain to me that their pattern was a 'counting by 2s' pattern. I noticed that pattern the most. I differentiated for some of my students by starting  pattern for them and asking them to finish it while explaining to me what they were looking for next.

Center #2- Money Dominoes. Students had to recognize pictorial and numerical representations of coins and match them. Basically, they had to match a picture of a coin with it's number amount. I had noticed that my students could sing our money songs by heart, but when it came to recognizing coins in 'real life', it was a different story. This game showed me who needs more help recognizing coins and who has it mastered.

Center #3- Top It. This is a game from our previous math adoption- Everyday Math. Students use  pack of number cards to compare numbers. It's like playing the game of 'war'. On the count of three, students turn over  card. The student with the biggest number card gets to keep the cards that were turned over. Students also play a variation of the game by flipping over cards and having to either add or subtract the numbers on the cards.

Center #4- Addition fact cards. Recently we have started playing the game 'Around the World' with our addition facts. In the game, two students stand and the teacher raises a math fact card. The first student to correctly give the answer gets to move on to the next student. The first student to make it all the way around the room and back to his or her seat wins! Well, my students look for any chance to practice their math facts so they can do better in the game, so I thought making it a center would be a great idea.

Center #5- Fact family dominoes. Because my students love dominoes. I have noticed that my students have gotten a lot better at recognizing related math facts since practicing their domino facts.

All for fun and fun for all!

**REMINDER** Monday is our Christmas party. It starts at 1:30. First grade is getting together as a group, so each class was assigned something to bring. Our class is to bring CHIPS.
Monday is also our Pajama day! Please make sure your student is wearing pajamas that are appropriate for the weather since we will be going outside if weather permits.

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