Spring!

I absolutely love these colors. 

The yellow and pink flowers pop with happy.

The bouquet is a cheerful reminder I teach really wonderful students and they have supportive families. Nothing says spring more than this pretty bouquet sitting on my desk. It is my favorite thing about today.  

Thank you all so very much for this unexpected gift.
I appreciate the kindness and sweet words.

School starts back on Tuesday, April 2. Be sure to plan some family fun over break! 

Celebrating 100 Lessons

Students have studied hard all year in Saxon Math and our recent MAP testing confirms we have grown! I am so proud of these kids. It is time to celebrate, so today's 100th lesson in math was center stage. 

My students were all kinds of excited. 

Here's a view of our day . . . 

Enter the World of Math

There was plenty of sillliness as students started the day with a tunnel walk.

Mosaic Art

A mosaic is an art form made with small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials. Individual pieces are called tesserae. The pieces fit together to form a design.  To celebrate our 100^th math lesson, the students were given one hundred 1-inch paper tiles and the task to create a mosaic person.

Fraction People

After the mosaics were created, students calculated the area and fractions that made their art piece a Math Mosaic.

  

Party Mix

Each student brought 100 pieces of a snack item. All ingredients spilled in one bowl to make a party mix. It was fun snack for a morning of munching

Click through the presentation to meet our Fraction People.

Thanks, Katie, over at I Want to Be a Super Teacher for sharing this activity on area and fraction math mosaics.

If I lived in a snow globe . . .

Here it is! 
My favorite writing activity this winter.

Writing and art go hand-in-hand in this integrated lesson designed to develop descriptive writing skills. Students were asked to imagine life in a snow globe and then describe it in a writing piece. 

What would they see? 

What would they feel? 

What would they hear?

Students created snowglobes to showcase their descriptive writing.  

Accelerated Reader

Today we celebrated AR™ readers. 

Truly, we have some beary good readers in Room 102.

Students will be participating in the Accelerated Reader (AR™) program again fourth quarter. Your student’s AR grade, which will be 10% of the overall reading grade, will be based on the percentage of his/her goal that has been met for the quarter.

Accelerated Reader helps all children become better readers. When children read books at an appropriate level, they experience success. Please continue to encourage your child to read at home so he/she finishes the year strong. 

MAP Tests

Limerick Leprechauns

St. Patrick’s Day 2013 will soon be upon us and Room 102 is beginning the season with limericks, a style of poetry popularized by Edward Lear in the 19th century. Limericks aren't Irish, but there is a Limerick county in Ireland where limericks gain fame. These nonsensensical poems are a fun way for students to celebrate the season.  

A clever song about how to write limericks, sung in limericks,  guides students through the steps of writing a great limerick.  Students went to computer lab to word process their original poems in Google Docs.            

   

Simple "how to" directions guide students through the fun of assembling their limerick leprechauns.

Teri over at  A Cupcake for the Teacher designed this clever leprechaun pattern. Woo Hoo for the seasonal fun and a big thanks sent to her.