Currently December

Oh my goodness...December is upon us! Just yesterday I was blogging about back-to-school, and now we are gearing up for some pretty intense learning, despite Christmas Break looming ahead. I am sure each and every kiddo will be completely focused in the upcoming weeks....wink, wink.

It seems forever since I have sat down to post, but I have no excuses really, just life.....I have enjoyed some seriously fun and silly time with my family. It is not often that I can wrangle grown kids into "family time," so when I do, I take full advantage!

Because it has been so long between posts, I want to catch you up through pictures....

Let's start with December's Currently...

Most of my Currently is self-explanatory. Wanting...my hubby is not feeling himself, so I have spent much of today trying to nurse him back to health...and my favorite tradition...well, as my kids grow up, become more independent, and move out, I realize how important it is for me to have them all together on Christmas morning. I don't know how much longer I will have that wonderful gift, but I will certainly treasure it while I do.

Be sure to stop by Farley's Oh' Boy 4th Grade to see what everyone else is Currently up to!

We wrapped up our November with our pumpkin projects. Mrs. Whitt and Mrs. Barnhill had some amazingly creative founding fathers projects turned in. More than once, I heard kiddos and teachers alike share how fun this project was. 

Mrs. Whitt arranged for a local Native American enthusiast to come and speak to the kiddos just before Thanksgiving Break. He brought some of his own locally found artifacts, and Mrs. Whitt even shared some of her own. 

 

The wood duck carving was an artifact found and treasured by her father, and it was even featured on the cover of the book, The History of McRae, Arkansas. 

  

Some of our kiddos have enjoyed sharing picture book read alouds with their classmates. I love seeing how excited they are to share.

Yay! Our Sunny D books came in. :)

We've had some awesome new additions to our classroom library. Our first box of books from the Sunny D came in! It was like an early Christmas! Then not too long later, a sweet kiddo cleaned off his book shelf and donated even more great titles. You can NEVER have too many books!

Both my class and Mrs. Whitt's class brought in tons of goodies for our annual food drive!

We are wrapping up our unit of Reading Like a Scientist, and although along the way we have learned much about Mars and our solar system in general, our true growth has been in reading nonfiction texts and really picking them apart, like a scientist!

The Dollar Word chart comes from our reading of  Because of Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea.  We are really enjoying so many different points of view as each chapter is narrated by a different character. One of the projects Mr. Terupt does with his class is searching for dollar words. What are $1 words....assign a cent value to each letter...A=.01 B=.02 C=.03 and so one...up to Z=.26. For any word, add up the values of each letter, and if the sum is $1, it's a $1 word. 

The kiddos have had tons of fun finding $1 words... this little book has been a lot of fun in our search as well.

  

Here are some random happenings around the classroom the past couple of weeks...

I was very excited to have a former kiddo come
back to job shadow me. My current kiddos enjoyed
her visit as much as I did. She was a great help!

The kiddos pick the craziest places
to call a comfy book nook.

Sometimes kiddos earn extra computer time during
their reading workshop...this sweetie is checking
out our blog!

Mrs. Hanna was our "stuffed turkey" just
before break. The three classes with the
highest food donations got to stuff her!

A little randomness from the house....

My sweet babies look bionic with their glowing eyes!

After stuffing ourselves on Thanksgiving, my sisters
and I headed out for our annual Black Friday craziness...
Here's my mom and little sister setting up a plan of attack!
Such a crazy thing to do - Black Friday - but we make it fun
and light-hearted. 

Alright...I truly have more to share, but then this post would be forever long! I will try to touch base soon with some great book recommendations and share what I have been reading in my goal to read as much as my kiddos do. 

I had a great friend express how much she misses our Picture Book a Day, so I will make that a goal to get back to real soon.

With that I will say good night and happy reading...I am off to recover from tonight's Walking Dead.

Happy Veteran's Day 11-11-13

Happy Veteran's Day! I wanted to stop by for a very quick post. We had a wonderful yet busy day!

Katie Byrd stopped by for a visit this afternoon. The kiddos thoroughly enjoyed her help as we continued researching our planet projects. 

 

We discussed Veteran's Day and what it truly means. We also watched a couple music videos that brought more than one tear.

We were certainly all moved. 

I would like to leave you with a look at last year's Veteran's Day post.

11-11-12...

I cannot think of Veteran's Day without thinking of one of the most memorable men I ever knew. I sure do miss my grandfather, Mac. I do not have a picture of him in uniform because he was long retired before I came around, but I fondly remember how excited he was when I joined the Air Force. You would have thought I had hung the moon because I followed in his footsteps!

Following in his footsteps is the path that led me to meet the love of my life, Josh Dunn. Where would I be now if I had not followed him? 

If I ever write a book, he would be one of the main characters front and center! The stories I could tell about my grandpa! Miss you Grandpa and Happy Veteran's Day to all that served ~ Thank You!

 

I stopped by school today to get ready for the week. I am sure I have said before that there is not enough time in the day to fit it all in. You would think this is still my first year to teach, LOL. Maybe before I retire I will be able to fit everything I need to do within school hours! We can only hope, right?

 

I spent a few minutes rotating the book baskets on tables and adding Thanksgiving books. This is about as festive as I get for any holiday. I am almost afraid to admit I am a bit of a Grinch. I hope you all can forgive me. I promise it's not that my heart is two sizes too small. I promise that I have always wanted to be one of those people that decorates for every holiday, but that is just not who I am. So I guess we will have to live with new holiday/ seasonal books in our book baskets!

So on that note, I thought I would share some of my favorite Thanksgiving picture books.

I stumbled upon this awesome book, Thank you, Sarah The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving by Laurie Halse Anderson, at a reading conference last year. This is a great, and somewhat different, look at the history of my favorite holiday. Sarah, her pen, and her persistence, save Thanksgiving! Anderson's wit and Faulkner's perfectly humorous illustrations are a great combination. And, oh do I love how things can all fall right into place when you need them to because we are about to roll right into opinion writing. I will just have to throw in a little "Common Themes in Literature" as well ~ perseverance!

Squanto's Journey The Story of the First Thanksgiving by Joseph Bruchac is beautifully illustrated narrative story. My kiddos are already in love with Joseph Bruchac's amazing writing, so I cannot wait to share this with them!

I'm A Turkey by Jim Arnosky is just for fun! Love this story, and I love it even more because you can download a free MP3 version of Jim Arnosky singing it here. How fun!

One of my all time favorites is The Thanksgiving Door by Debby Atwell. For me, this is what Thanksgiving is all about. I love that open door, we are all family, kind of feeling! Acceptance and kindness are always wonderful things, and I know I blog about them often. This book is a sweet look at these common themes and the meaning of Thanksgiving.

A cute little back-and-forth text that I love is The Perfect Thanksgiving by Eileen Spinelli. We are all different, and our families are all different. Hmmm... acceptance and kindness. What a wonderful time to look at what makes us the same. Spinelli did an awesome job with this story, and I know exactly which family mine would be. :)

With that I will say good night! Happy reading!

Currently Unfocused in November

Where, oh where, has my focus gone? Or is it time that I can't find? Goodness...who knows?

If I ever pull myself together, I hope to complete a post joining Farley at Oh' Boy 4th Grade for another Currently and Doodle Bugs for Five for Friday. 

So much to catch up on...

First, Currently...which most of, as usual, is self explanatory, and as for my yummy pin, I am sure this is not a new one for most of you. But oh my how I love it! Anyone that knows me, knows that not much considered "yummy" makes it from my kitchen, which is why I love Better than Anything Cake from the Chef in Training. 

This yummy treat is something that even I can manage! That is why it is on my board "Something I might actually be able to cook"...does that give a clue to my prowess in the kitchen...haha!

Now, on to my Five for Friday...

Halloween was truly a treat for this teacher! As usual, I am spoiled by my sweet kiddos and their parents! Every year I am more blessed by all of the thoughtful things they do for me.

 

The treats continued when I joined my family for our annual Halloween fun!

My mom had a stack of picture books and stationary waiting ...flamingo paper, too!!! Treat for me, haha... :)

The Halloween fun was had by all...

All of my very own Super Heroes!

 

This was my desk when I left work the day after Halloween. Whew...what a week! Crazy doesn't begin to express it! I didn't even attempt to clean it off or gather my wits as I turned off the lights and walked out the door. haha... 

Each of our kiddos received a pumpkin this week, donated by Barnhill Orchards. Mrs. Whitt and Mrs. Barnhill have a number of projects they will be doing with them. So far, they have started with measurement and some estimation. 

Next will be their Founding Fathers projects... here are a couple of sneak previews. So cute! :)

 

My Justin has endured his knee injury and managed to make it back to the football field to finish out his senior year. The rush of boys growing up can be dizzying! I shake my head often, wondering just how it has all happened so quickly. 

 

Katie Byrd has turned 20! I guess I should say that the rush of children, boy or girl, is a dizzying, life-changing experience. 

As part of our district's staff wellness initiative, our school had a fun night of bowling! Lots of loud laughter ensued as we gave it a go! There are so many great and loving teachers in our building. I have always felt so blessed that I landed where I did when I was finally ready to plant my roots. I sure love these girls and each of them makes me a better friend and teacher. 

 

Whoo hoo...look who won the second round!
Don't even ask me how poorly I did during the first one, haha...

We are deep into our research as we focus on reading and writing like a scientist. It makes me smile each year to listen to the kiddos share each shocking or cool piece of information they have found. We began this research with stacks of awesome nonfiction texts, and after we find that we need just a little bit more information, we pull out our Chrome Books and search some more.

 

OK...just a couple more....

My sweet, spirit filled boys!

Gathering cans for our food drive!

This sweet girlie thought our sweaters matched
closely, so she insisted we get a twinkie selfie :)

After seeing selfies being taken...this
little sweetie had to jump in to get one, too!

As usual, it's another long post for you. Happy reading, friends...and be sure to check out Doodle Bugs and Oh' Boy 4th Grade!