Winter Cultural Celebration 2018

A couple of years ago we had our first Cultural Celebration (which took the place of the traditional Winter/Christmas party) before we left for our Winter Break. It was SO MUCH FUN and based traditions that came from our class culture. We loved it!

This year we did it again, and again it was SO MUCH FUN! I think the thing I love the most about the way this celebration is planned, is that it all comes from the families in the class. Every class is different and special and so therefore so is every Cultural Celebration!

As I have done in previous years, I sent out a survey to families, and received many responses. :). This told me the direction of our gathering, building on the ideas for traditions and family favorites that they had shared with me in their answers.

After the Winter Sing-A-Long (which is definitely a tradition in our school culture), we all met in our room for some fun and togetherness!

Sing-a-Long Selfie with Avant and Mrs. Bearden 🙂

I am pretty sure that EVERY KIDDO had someone there to celebrate with them (we even had some siblings show up!), and even if they didn’t have their own family member, they had someone’s visitor, because we’re all one big happy first grade family!

In order to keep things low key, we offered several activities and had kids/families decide beforehand which one(s) they wanted to complete together. This was totally led by the kids, which I think added to the fun and originality of our party. Check out what we offered:

Making reindeer food: Did anyone besides me NOT know this was a thing? I don’t spend much time on Etsy or Pinterset, so maybe that’s why, but goodness–this was a hit! Getting ready for Rudolph and the others was high on almost everyone’s list!

Decorating sugar cookies: I mean, what says winter-party-fun more than cookies and icing? There were many different shapes, colors and as many sprinkles as you wanted, and goodness–kids could have probably stayed at this station FOREVER!

Stringing popcorn: Several families mentioned that they string popcorn every year for their Christmas tree. I haven’t done t for years, but I actually did this for several years early on in my marriage. IT was so much fun to watch families do it with their kids, although I’m not sure how much actually made it onto the string–MUCH of it just went right into bellies!! :). This station made me want to try it again at home, this time with my own kiddos!

Holiday Read Alouds: You know we HAD to include books in this celebration! Families shared their holiday/winter favorites, and I pulled many from our classroom library as well.

Gingerbread Playdoh:. I knew (because it was mentioned as a special love of many families) that I wanted to have something gingerbread related, but I wanted to make sure it wasn’t too cliche or too messy, or require too many materials. Ok, well, I may have lost on that last requirement, but Ms. Turken’s class has just made gingerbread PLAYDOH with their learning buddies the week before and that seemed like a SUPER idea for us to try, too. This one ended up being such a hit that it might have to become a regular holiday activity in our first grade room!

Our Cultural Celebration was just what I had hoped it would be, and everyone seemed like they enjoyed it so much! Enjoy some pictures of our winter fun!

What a great way to head into a relaxing Winter Break! 🙂

Veterans’ Day 2017

If you have been at Robinson for the last few years, you know that we do Veterans’ Day in a big way! This year was no different!

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Every year we have more special Veterans that come to celebrate with us–our gym is always bursting at the seams! (Thanks @docpainter for sharing this picture, and thanks for coming!)

There was a procession of all of our special guests (while we all sang a medley of the armed forces songs), the Roadrunner Choir sang the national anthem and kindergarten led us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

After that, each grade shared their specially prepared song, and everyone knocked our socks off!

Many smiles were smiled, laughs were laughed and tears were shed as we remembered the important sacrifices many, many people have done to enable us to live and learn in freedom. 🙂

And…because it’s my blog, I have to share a couple of pictures of my own first grader, and a special Veteran who came to celebrate with her!

Thank you, Dad (and Mom, too, who was taking the picture!) for your service! We appreciate and love you so much!! 🙂

Happy Veterans’ Day, everyone!

The BEAUTIFUL Skin We Live In!

Seems like I have been waiting FOREVER to share this post with you, but I wanted to wait until the final products were hung up before I finally wrote a about it. Man, it’s been hard!

If you have every visited my classroom, or if you have read this blog before, you hopefully know that diversity and community are two important parts of my classroom. I have done much over the last year to incorporate more diverse texts into my classroom (and life!), have celebrated cultures of our classroom families, and stressed with my kiddos how amazing it is that we are NOT all the same! Different is BEAUTIFUL!

I used some similar books from years past, because they are great and still worked to share that diversity, appreciation, celebration, inclusion message I wanted to send. Kids really enjoyed them. 🙂

I have done portraits many different ways over the years, but wanted to really focus on making them LOOK like us, especially the beautiful COLORS of us. It was a fun experiment to find just the right combination of paint to represent each kiddos’ face, and we had some great conversations about what we noticed, what we liked and what each color looked like.

The walls in this new room have afforded me the best place so far to display these masterpieces. They are high and smiling at us and we can see them from everywhere. I LOVE that you can see each kiddo’s personality in their portrait and even if they weren’t labeled we’d be able to tell who is who because they did such a FABULOUS job creating them. But most of all I love that they represent how beautifully and wonderfully made is each and every one of my Rm. 111 kiddos. 🙂

Our First Writing Celebration!

We have been working on getting our Writers’ Workshop set up, as well as learning about and writing Small Moments.

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We used the analogy of a watermelon and its seeds to help kiddos think about a BIG idea and the SMALL parts of that larger story. This picture was really helpful for kids to have a concrete idea of what I was talking about. After I drew my initial picture, writers tried their own watermelons. 🙂

Wednesday was the day we were finally ready to share our finished writing pieces. This was our first for the year, and so we did have to start with a few instructions on how it would go. I also tried something new this time (which, by the way, I SHOULD NOT have done on our first try at a writing celebration…oh well, lessons learned), and had kiddos do writing compliments on their iPads using eBackpack and the MarkIt tool. Writers circulated and read their friend’s stories, leaving kind words about what they noticed and what they liked.

Great job on your first celebration, Rm. 202 writers, and great job on your first stories! Way to start the year as writers! 🙂

Happy (Chinese) New Year!!

We did something this past week that has never happened in Rm. 202–or in any classroom I’ve taught in: celebrated Chinese New Year! Our friend Baron’s mom, Mrs. Eyrick, was born in Taiwan, and offered to come share some of their Chinese culture with us. It was perfect because we both got to see a little more about our friend and his family, and also, it fit in with our Social Studies unit right now. Match made in heaven!

She showed up a little early and got busy decorating with some traditional Chinese New Year symbols and colors. We learned that red and gold are important, as they stand for life and fortune. Mrs. Eyrick brought us a dragon, lanterns (realized I didn’t get any pictures of those! :(), some fish as well as decoration for our door and a big Happy New Year sign. So festive!

We sat down together on the rainbow rug and she told us all about the history of Chinese New Year, and how the Western Hemisphere (where we live) bases their calendar on the sun, and how the Eastern Hemisphere (where China is) bases their calendar on the moon (lunar) phases. She explained the Chinese Zodiac, and told us how friends in China celebrate this happy time.

She even brought us a treat! She shared traditional Chinese New Year “lucky” food–clementines–and gave each kiddo a lucky red envelope. It had real money inside!! We also got to enjoy some other Chinese tasty treats together.

What a great afternoon and a fabulous celebration! Thanks, Mrs. Eyrick, for coming to teach us about your culture. 🙂

Goodbye, Mr. Lacy!

One thing I mentioned that made our 100th Day both fun and busy was that we celebrated our custodian of 9 years, Mr. Lacy. He has been such a happy addition to our school, and it’s already weird to not see him pushing his tennis-ball-stick down the hall fixing the smudges off the tiles.

Since he was such an important fixture in our school, we had to figure out a meaningful way to send him off in style (I know I say “we” like I had something to do with it–I did not; my amazing students and their specials teachers did all the work and I just went to enjoy the assembly).

Ok, wait, I guess I did do something, but it was teeny–like suggest to my students what we should do as our part of the goodbye scrapbook. Then they got busy and did all the creative stuff with making their body and a speech bubble with wishes for him for retirement. Apparently it’s no secret that he used to be a boxer; many kiddos wished him time to do that again. 😊 Sorry–didn’t end up with a picture of the final product. Oops. Forgot to take one until after it was delivered. Imagine pages and pages of those cute little 2nd grade bodies.

Aside from that part, Mrs. Kesler worked with everyone in music to learn a song to sing to him.

The staff collected to treat him with something to do, too–a big ole smoker along with the supplies you need to make a barbecue feast. The PTO gave him a gift of a certificate for meat from his favorite butcher; he will be happy and well fed!

It’s funny how big a difference little things like a kind smile, a jolly laugh and a clean school can make. Lacy definitely showed he loved us in everything he did, and we will miss him!

Veterans’ Day 2015

Until just a few years ago, Veterans’ Day came and went at Robinson without much fanfare. I mean, yeah, we’d mention it to our classes, perhaps watch a video or read a book about why the day was special, but that was pretty much it. There was not a whole-school focus, an assembly or any other type of celebration. Then ( I believe the year Mrs. Kesler became our FABULOUS music teacher), that all changed and Veterans’ Day became one of the most special days on the calendar. 🙂 Remember last year?

Even before the day came we were hard at work: writing letters of thank you to veterans, as well as creating the centerpiece place mats for the tables in the cafeteria for the reception.

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And pretty much since school started, too, kiddos have been working on the music for the assembly we hold yearly now to celebrate those who give/gave their very best to keep us safe and sound. While I would love to invite each and every one of you to experience what is now Veterans’ Day at our school, I only have a couple of short videos to share. It’s a taste at least, right? 🙂 Oh, and I HATE to admit this, but it always seems that my phone runs out of memory right in the middle of someone’s video I’m trying to record–yep, at just the WRONG moment–and this time it was during the girls’ song. 😦 (Since we split boys and girls for specials, our grade level had two songs). Hopefully you’ll get the idea. Again–super sorry I didn’t catch it all. 😦

Before 2nd grade started, Khalani got to represent our grade and read a special thank you poem for the veterans. Our theme was HEROES.

Then the boys sang their tribute:

Girls took their turn next:

I found two more pictures of how handsome and beautiful we look all dressed up:

Happy Veterans’ Day! How did you celebrate the special day? 🙂

3 Writing Celebrations in 1 Day!!

We have been working through the writing process, using seeds we’ve put in our Writers’ Notebooks.

Once we got to the end (which took WAY longer than I remembered it would!), we were ready to CELEBRATE with our friends! The best part about what we did was that we did it with more than one class! Mrs. Appelbaum’s class was finished with their pieces, too, so we got together.

As with many things, the way Mrs. Appelbaum did her writing celebration was a little different from me, so she taught me something new and it was super!! First, she shared with Rm. 202 kiddos the directions her class had come up with to share their work with a partner:

There was also a comment sheet she had come up with, where readers would give the writer feedback based on these starters: “Something I liked about your writing was…”; “Something I learned was…” and “Something I wonder now is….” I’ve done compliment sheets before, but they’ve always been completely open-ended. The structure of her sheet was helpful for those that needed ideas, but was also still open-ended enough for kids to make choices on how they’d respond.

From within minutes of when we started, the room was “a-buzz” with that fabulous sound of excitement, learning, and laughing as kiddos proudly shared the work they had done to create meaningful writing pieces.

This is a short video, but here’s what it sounded like:

While you can’t really get the same experience from seeing pictures of it as if you were there, I do think you can imagine the experience. Sometimes just seeing the pride and happiness on their faces is story enough!

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Ok, these next few will look really similar, but they’re from the 2nd go-round, where Mrs. Appelbaum’s friends came to hear our writing. We were excited to try out her “rules” and the compliment sheet on our work!

Jamiir leaves a compliment for Ja’Mia.

Thomas was excited about hearing Millie’s piece about the olden days.

Mrs. Appelbaum even joined in and listened to Jacob read his story called Mr. Zap.

Amber shared her non-fiction writing with Solis.

Tre’ listened to Baron read his non-fiction writing about his trip to Alaska.

Emily shared her story with Noah.

Khalani read his piece about a trip to Branson to Thomas.

Jamiir writes a thoughtful comment for Sara as she waits patiently.

Evan and J.D. discuss writing.

JKB shares his writing.

Mya and Ella Marie listen to EM’s story about Zelda and witch school.

Landen shared his story about “Landen and the Monkey” with Alex

Ava and Antoine work together.

Alexander comments on Nate’s writing piece about when Pacifique and Tresor came to visit Robinson.

Tyrin and Anthony listen respectfully.

Kaden comments on Amelia’s writing piece about her friend.

I don’t have pictures of the last share we did, but after we had practiced with the Appelbaum team, we invited our friends from Ms. Turken’s class (they’re first graders) to listen to our writing, too. This was the first time they had been to a writing celebration and we were hoping to teach them well about how it was supposed to work. You’d never have known they were newbies–they were writing rockstars and worked really hard to give us meaningful comments on our work! Hopefully we can share with them again when they’re finished their own writing pieces.

Whew! What an exciting day of celebrating our hard work, our meaningful writing ideas and our using grit and perseverance to share great stories! Way to go, Rm. 202 kids!

Together Again!

I’ll start with the only picture I took today:

Yep–it’s the same as the header on the blog now. It’s the snack we shared at our Back-To-School Park Party today. Looks yummy, right? And weird, I know, that I only took this one picture. And before I was even at the park! Goodness, Mrs. Bearden, you call yourself a blogger? They were just so busy running all around everywhere getting all hot and sweaty and having fun that I couldn’t get them all in the same frame for a pic. I know, I know, my sincerest apologies. 🙂

Today’s get-together was a little bittersweet, as we were not able to visit with everyone of our Rm. 202 friends. What a great opportunity, though, for those that were able to attend, to reconnect and remember how amazing is our community of learners! Oh, and to think about how LUCKY we are to be able to stay together for another year! We’ll be missing a few good friends, but have a few new ones joining us, and for sure we’re set for a FABULOUS year.

One thing I love about family reunions like these is the ease everyone feels as they come and can just hang out with old friends! It’s so different from how we all remember feeling last summer—how when I came to do home visits and our kiddos were waiting patiently (and nervously), looking out the window to meet their new teacher? Even with the most confident kiddos there was still some uncertainty–will I like my teacher?; Will I have friends? What will 1st grade be like? This year? SO DIFFERENT IN SO MANY GOOD WAYS!

Here’s what I love about looping (for those of you who were looking for a list. 🙂 ):

1) Like I mentioned before, the beginning of the year has a familiarity that is different than with a new class. Looping brings a chance to reconnect with “old” friends and pick up where you left off. All that “getting-to-know-you” that we did last year will come in so handy now as we look back on fond memories and look forward to making new ones.

2) We can jump right back in where we left off! Instead of spending the first 6 weeks of school learning about new procedures, routines and friends, we can get started with learning about new curriculum, sharing new books and making new connections! Think of all the extra time we will have!

3) Like the last one, we can jump right back in on class projects and activities we left in May. Since I knew that we would be together again, there were several things we left “undone” on purpose, knowing that we’d be able to come right back to them in August. What a gift–wish every year could be like that!

4) Everyone already knows and trusts each other! Yes, we are different people than when we left for the summer (some of us are OLD and 8 now!), but we all have a base and strong foundation from which to continue building as we get to know our friends (and even me!) better. We can build on what we know about each other from last year and add to it! There will even be ways to get to know some friends in ways that weren’t possible last year for whatever reason; another year gives us more time and space to really “get” each other as learners and as people!

5) We get to build on common experiences. I always love how many times in the 2nd year of a looping situation you hear me (or a friend) saying, “Remember when we….?” I can’t promise that I will keep track of that tally, but it will happen, and I will probably find a way to document it. I might have to say I’m most excited about breaking our own record for number of Read Alouds that we added to the timeline. I think we added 20, which beat my class from 2012-2013, which read 17 together. So here’s your challenge, Rm. 202–21 or more!

6) I know I already mentioned time in #2, but there is SO MUCH TIME that I can save as a teacher with trying to figure out where everybody is as a learner. Again, some things will have changed and kiddos will have grown over the summer, but it’s so great to walk in on Day 1 and KNOW the readers in my class (I’m excited to fill book boxes and get readers ready for another great year!), to KNOW what they can do as writers (and then plan for how we’ll do even more AMAZING things), to KNOW the mathematicians in my room and be able to listen as I attend trainings with a little bit different angle than some others (I can already plan specifically for what I know my kiddos can do and what they might need more time on), to KNOW how adept they are with using technology and how willing they will be to continue to go with me and try new things. I know what they know about science and social studies, as well as what we’re interested in knowing more about–I can use this as I plan our year! It’s so simple, but is such a WEALTH of knowledge that most teachers (including me last year) don’t get for many more months down the road. I can tweak things that didn’t quite work and continue those that did. See? The gift of time came up again!

7) I hope I don’t speak out of turn when I mention that another thing I love about looping is that trust that is already built with parents. While I’m sure that not everyone agreed with everything I did or how we did it (thanks for being nice about it, though, friends!), I think I can confidently say that you know that I care about our kids and want just what you want–for your kiddo to feel loved, to belong and to learn something new every day. I love working on a team with families, and am excited each day to see what new things are brought to the table. I hope I do you proud as I continue to work to inspire our learners to find their best selves and work to heights they hadn’t even realized they could reach. I am so lucky to get to work with this AMAZING group of kiddos every day and SO APPRECIATE that you share your 2nd grader with me. 🙂

WOW. I didn’t know that was going to come out of a picture-of-fruit-and-we-missed-you post, but it did and now I’m feeling even more excited and energized for our year together. Here’s to making 2015-16 the best yet!

Will you help me out with something, please? I would love to make this blog a more interactive place this year, and so would you please leave me a reply to this question–What are you most excited about for our year together? What is your child thinking about getting back to work with their Rm. 202 friends? What else are you thinking? 🙂

THANK YOU and HERE WE GO!!

20somethingkids and 1kookyteacher

Starting a 3rd Grade Journey

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