Kindness Snowman

Some of you may be doing Elf on the Shelf -- And more power to you on that! A teammate did it last year, and her class really enjoyed it. 

I personally wasn't that excited about all that went with Elf on the Shelf -- so after happening upon a couple blogs, I decided to do a Kindness Snowman. Well, I started with the Kindness Elf, but College Girl said she thought Kindness Snowman would be better. 

He's the cute little guy. So every day last week, I wrote a little note and taped it under his arm. Then they all tried to find him as soon as they came into the room. And somebody read the note -- and we tried to do what it said. 

We've done things like say Hi to someone; write a nice note to a teacher, compliment someone; pick up trash, etc.  So Thursday, they wrote me a note telling 3 reasons each one was proud of themselves. 

And Friday, this was the note from the Kindness Snowman:

"Shhh...It's a secret. Don't say a anything til the end of the day. Kindness Snowman"

My class got really quiet after my person read the note. Finally, one of my quiet little sweeties asked, "Does this mean we can't say anything until the end of the day?" I was almost busting out laughing, because, yes, that is what it says. But of course, the Kindness Snowman just meant please don't keep asking about the secret surprise. 

And at the end of the day, the Kindness Snowman sent home a packet of hot chocolate, after asking Mrs. Sanders to write a quick note back to each student about what they were proud of. 

Music

Our series has this wonderful story:

It is a story about a girl who can't find anyone who likes music as much as she does, but she keeps looking and looking. Of course, it has a happy ending! I think it's a good story for reminding kids to be their own selves, to persevere in finding people who like the things they like, and it's ok to be different. 

At the last minute on Thursday, I decided yes, we'd do it. So I told the kids we'd make instruments on Friday. I let them bring things, and a few did, but it was mostly me. I had a ton of toilet paper rolls from some other craft I hadn't actually done and I had a couple big peanut butter jars {empty, of course!}. When I got to school, I realized I didn't have anything to do the shaking - like dried beans or rice. So I found some old water bottle caps that I didn't use for whatever project I had been saving them for, and some buttons for - yes, another project I didn't do. Found some rubber bands, too. Got out my box of scrap pieces. And here's some of what we did:

And then they all played their instruments - it was definitely a beautiful noise! 

Stone Soup

I've got a teammate {love her to pieces!} who's always thinking of fun, creative, exciting ideas.

Like, "Let's do Stone Soup right before Thanksgiving!" Why not? 

So we got all the kids to bring a can of veggies or crackers or juice boxes -- yep, all of mine but 2 did. {I don't know if I'm considered mean, but I "make them work" if they don't bring. So those two boys helped me bring some stuff in from my car and put stuff out on desks. It was about 10 minutes of work during their recess.} 

Everyone got to "toss" their veggies in the crockpot. And look!!!

Oh my goodness... It almost wouldn't all fit in the crockpot!

So my kids broke down into about 4 groups --
I barely tried a bite; don't like it.
I picked out all the stuff I like and ate it and a ton of crackers.
I told Mrs. S. I liked it, but I left half a bowl and ate a ton of crackers.
I liked it and still ate a ton of crackers. 

I was happily surprised at how good it was. 

And since I figured the day was shot -- we played some math games and tried to do a Froot Loops math activity {which I didn't leave enough time for, so soon it became, "just eat your froot loops!}

Pretty good day for just before break. 

Happy Thanksgiving, friends. Hope it's just the type of break you need - whether that be peaceful and restful, or get bunches done, or reconnect with family and friends. 

Bricks

So the other day, we were doing some phonics in class. And I was making up dorky little songs to go with the words. And I said the word, "Brick." And proceeded to sing....
       She's a brick....
But of course I couldn't sing that song, so I just did a super job of ad libbing and said,
       She's a brick word.

And then one of my little sweeties raised her hand, and said her dad sings a song like that, but it goes,
       She's a brick house.

Yep, my little friend, you've got the real song there! Thanks for sharing. 

Math, again

Agh - I spent a lot of time last weekend on school stuff, then had something every night this last week while I tried to squeeze in some more school work, and spent my whole afternoon yesterday on school stuff -- in great hopes that I wouldn't need to today {Sunday} and that I wouldn't need to this next week. 

I was stuck on math. Blech, Blech, Blech. 

The really super, big, important thing in 2nd grade math is double digit addition and subtraction. As I was procrastinating, and continually running upstairs to tell my hubby about my procrastination, I finally realized why I was procrastinating so much. 

I hate our Math curriculum. 

{You may have gathered this from this post, and this post and this one and the biggie post.}

And I don't know where to go with this. My district tells me I have to use EngageNY. We have now been granted some leeway in how we teach it, but we still need to teach their concepts. I told my hubby that I use many of these strategies in my own head. But, he said, you first understood the basics -- ie, math facts {which the curriculum doesn't spend much time on, but I've been working on with my kids since the first of the year}; and place value, and yes, I even think the algorithm. Which may seem backwards to some, but once they get the algorithm, they can feel successful, and then they can branch out. Instead of branches running all over and saying, "I don't get it."

I got my planning done. I tried to decide what the important thing was in each lesson.But I'm thinking I need to see how far I can stick my toe out before I get into trouble. And I'm really not a troublemaker :)

Singing

I am going to do a blog post this weekend, I am, I am I am!

So here we go!

I feel like I've been a little more -- grumpy, maybe?? harsher than I'd like?? I'm not sure what. But not the way I like with my students.

So Friday, I tried singing little made up songs to them -- 
you know like --- {Singing} put your books up, put your books up, come on everybody
And other ridiculously dorky songs.

And after one particularly wonderful one, a little friend said, "Mrs. Sanders, that's a catchy tune!" 

Oh yes, my friends, I'm the catchy tune teacher! 

I'm laughing as I type this -- I can't even remember what I was singing. But apparently, I have at least one fan!

Book Order Hooray!

Got a Scholastic book order on Thursday. Love Scholastic book orders! I got over 20 free books - partly from some saved points, and partly from freebies because we had a big enough order, and partly because I got 2 coupons for $5 free books because of our September order. 

{Big Aside here -- If you aren't doing Scholastic Book orders, you ought to look into it. Scholastic keeps making it easier and easier for the teacher to input orders.}

While the kids were gone, I distributed the books -- just set them on the desks of those who ordered.  

This is what it looked like after I had passed out the books. 
Notice anything?
Yep, me too. 
That set of desks in the back, well, they are some of my higher readers -- and guess what? They all ordered books!
The set of desks in the front -- lower readers -- some very low and some average low. Notice the lack of books. 
I'm truly not saying this to condemn any parents, but it does make a difference what happens at home. {I know, I know... I'm preaching to the choir on this one!} 
As conferences are coming up this next week, I wish there was some way to share this with parents without hurting their feelings.