Share about your vacation!

Hi Everyone!

I hope you are having fun this vacation! I can't wait to hear all about it! Did you visit family or spend time with friends? Did you watch any good movies or travel? Add to the padlet below a sentence or two or even a picture of a special vacation moment that you would like to share about. On Monday, each of us will be choosing one special moment to illustrate and write about. This padlet can help with our brainstorming when we are all a little tired as we settle back into our routine. :)

Simply double click on the board and write a note. Write your name at the top of the note as the title.

 

100 Days Smarter!

The students and I can't believe we have been learning and growing together for 100 days already!

The children's 100th's Day projects they completed at home with their families.

It is crazy how quick the year is flying by.  It was nice to see the children take a minute to reflect back on what they are able to do now that they weren't able to do 100 school days ago.

During Daily 5, children had special 100th Day literacy and math activity choices.  Some students practiced counting by tens to 100 and ordering those numbers correctly.  Others chose to write their numbers 1-100, write 100 words, or write what they would do with $100.

During writing, children imagined what they will do when they are 100 years old.

We also saw how long 100 seconds can be.  We ran, danced, and attempted to plank, each for 100 seconds!  We also were successful in remaining quiet for 100 seconds.
As a Kindergarten team, we had a goal to collect 100 cans for our town's food pantry.

I am happy to announce that all 5 classes worked together to donate 190 cans! Thank you, boys and girls, for your donations!

I am looking forward to seeing the children's love for learning continue and their reading, writing, and math skills soar over the next 78 days!

Kindness Counts!

Wow!  It has been a busy and exciting couple of weeks with lots to share!   During our class wellness meeting last week, we reviewed what it means to be a kind friend.  

We also discussed how it is important to be kind to others all the time, not just when a teacher is watching or when there is an incentive involved.  We talked about how being a bucket filler makes you feel good inside and it makes the other person you were kind to feel good as well.  I informed the students that during the month of February, Miss Teixeira and I will be on the lookout for acts of kindness.  When we catch someone being kind, we will give him/her a heart sticker and add their kind deed to our kindness bulletin board.  

In my morning message the day after our play day, I asked the students if they would like to have a play day again similar to Global School Play Day (it was a unanimous yes!) and I asked them to think about how we could make that happen.  There were several suggestions including asking Dr. Carreiro to let us do it again, Miss Teixeira and I just deciding when to have it, and also there were talks of having more play time every day just because.  
In the end, it was Karthik who came up with a wonderful idea that we all thought was perfect.  He remembered that Miss Teixeira and I each have 40 kindness heart stickers and his suggestion was if the class earns all 80, then we could play.  Everyone liked this idea so we set a time frame and goal.
As a class, can we show 80 acts of kindness in the month of February?  

My students are ready to accept the challenge!  They are hoping to earn one hour of unstructured play at the end of a school day in the beginning of March.

I hope they are spreading kindness at home as well!  Comment below how your child is being kind to family members, friends, and neighbors.  We would love to have our buckets filled by hearing about more kind deeds!

#Coolest Classroom

Guess who is one proud and excited teacher? I am!! I received an email regarding a contest for teachers taking a selfie with their class with the hashtag "coolest classroom".  On Tuesday, I told my students about the contest and suggested we enter, but explained how so many other classes were entering and that we might not win.  Before taking our selfie, I asked the children to think about why we are the "coolest classroom".  The list was long and so heartfelt, but with only 140 characters on Twitter, I could only list a few in my tweet.

This morning, while we were in the gym for morning recess, I received an email notifying us that we had won the contest!  Thankfully we were in the gym because there were loud screams of excitement!  Who could blame them?!  I was surprised and thrilled as well!

A huge THANK YOU to KidsFit and Action Based Learning!!
I am new to Twitter.  Feel free to follow me @mrslibbyFM!  :)

Global School Play Day

My students had so much fun during Global School Play Day yesterday!  This was a day of unstructured play that was supervised by teachers.  It was so nice to have the opportunity to play with other children in first grade and kindergarten.  What was even more wonderful and touching was the sharing, turn taking, collaboration, and kindness I witnessed among students throughout the day.  Kids were helping other kids problem solve or teaching each other new games.  I loved seeing their creativity! 

 My class's favorite part of the day was arts and crafts!  

The block center was also a big hit!

Our school nurse, Mrs. Marshall, also invited us to the gym for a mini BOKS session.  The students played Fruit Basket as well as a relay game that involved squatting and collecting cups to work together as a team to build a cup tower.  BOKS is a before school program and the next session will be starting soon.  I loved my students' teamwork and sportsmanship!

It's amazing that play helps with brain development, increases children's imaginations, develops their self-control, problem solving, and critical thinking skills in the areas of math and science as well as enhances self-esteem and language skills.  My goal is to encourage more unstructured play here at school.  I hope you will consider doing the same at home.