Sit where you need to sit

I am a firm believer that some kids have a hard time sitting at their desk to work. In my classroom we do sit at our desks but not all of the time. Even when we are at our desks you will see some students sitting and others standing. Then there are times when we just need to sit somewhere else. 

I have trained my class to really focus when they are doing independent work. This has allowed them to be able to work from other places in the room. Some like to sit in the reading nook, others right in the middle of the classroom. They each have a clipboard and if they need to move away from their desk, then they can. I find I don't have to remind them to focus on their work or even to keep their eyes on their own paper.  My students have really learned to take pride in their own work and only at times do I have to remind them to keep their eyes on their own paper. 

Here are a few photos of us working in other place in the room  besides our desks.

Happy Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day was on a Sunday this year so we celebrated on Friday the 12th. The kids had a great day full of fun Valentines themed learning. 

Here are the little Valentine Goodies I put together for them. Everything came from either the dollar spot at Target or Dollar Tree. My kids work hard everyday and I try and give them all I can from lots praise to Valentines. 

So I got the kids the coolest Valentines. It looked like a fruit snack package. They had to put it on their desk and hit it with their fist. Then the package started to expand. 

When it popped open there was a little balloon inside they had to shake up. SO MUCH FUN! 

We also made Love Potion. (Sprite and Cherry Juice. The kids got to put cherries in their drink if the wanted). The straws were from Target Dollar Spot.

The kids graphed with conversation hearts, and worked on other activities. I let one group at a time pass out their Valentines. 

The classroom is ready for the kids. They all have their Monster Valentine Holders on their desk and a fun V-day morning work activity on their desk to work on.

A few more things

Here are a few more things we've been up to.

We've been so lucky to have a great Arts Out Reach Program. We had music the first trimester and now we have art. Our wonderful art teacher is showing us how to tie die. Our first attempted didn't turn out so well but check out our second and third attempt. I think they look awesome. I just squeezed these out on Friday and laid them out to dry. So come Monday morning the kids will have a super cool surprize.

So I found these shirts from a facebook ad and asked my co-workers if they wanted to get one along with me. They are super cute and my principal loved them.

Update!

Happy middle of February. We've been busy and I wanted to share a few things we've been doing. Coming back from our Winter break we made New Years Party hats and wrote 3 New Years Goals on them. I let the kids wear the hats around for a week to really get them focused on their School New Years Goals.

We made it to 100 days. It is a big accomplishment for my students and for me, so we celebrate.  We did all sorts of fun activities. Here are a few I was able to capture.

Our door. The kids loved it so much! 

We counted by 10s and made a baggie of 100 snacks. I've done this with every single class I have ever taught, adjusting it depending on the grade level and they love it. I allow them to much on their snacks throughout the day.

We wrote about what life would be like when we were 100 years old. I used an ap of my phone to transform us into our 100 year old selves. The kids were so surprised and loved seeing how silly they looked. Here's my photo. I think I look good for 100. 

This was our morning work. The kids cut out this crown and wrote why they felt 100 days smarter/what they have learned in 100 days on the back and we stapled them to sentence strips for them to wear. 

We are playing a great game I found on Pinterest called Race to 100. The kids loved playing together. Basically they roll die and add the two numbers together. That is how many squares they color in on their shared game board. The second sheet is where they have to write down the number sentence of what they rolled. Whoever colors the last (100th) square in wins, or you can play whoever has the most squares colored in wins. 

In January we also did a fun writing/craft activity with one of our read aloud books. 

This poor snowman was always looking for a way to warm up but kept melting. He came up with some silly ideas.

We brainstormed ways our own snowman would try and keep warm but didn't work out so well and showed what they looked like when they melted.

Melting their snowmen.

I went to a great math conference and started implementing a few of the games.

I went to a great math conference and started implementing a few of the games.