I Looked Out the Window and What Did I See?

Well it wasn't popcorn! It was SNOW! I hate snow! I don't care for the hot days of summer but I really hate snow and cold. Oh well, I guess I'll have to deal with it for the next 6-7 months. Yuck!

Fortunately it all melted away, but it started all up again today.

Fireplaces and Pumpkins

Last year my oldest daughter went on a pumpkin kick. I went over to good old Wal-Mart and bought a half yard of several colors of upholstery fabric and made pumpkins out of them. I was able to make about two pumpkins out of each half yard of fabric, one for my daughter and one for me.

This year I put some of them on my upstairs mantel and some on my just finished and hung downstairs mantel. My oldest daughter made the vinyl and wood additions.

Where Has This Secret Been All My Life?

I gave up making cream pies because I could never get the crust to work. This video makes it so easy. I'm going to have to go and try it tonight! YUM!



If you want to know where to get the whole book of pie making go to this link.
http://deseretbook.com/a/i/5046904?s_cid=e6101014_i&utm_source=spotlight&utm_medium=email&utm_term=5046904&utm_content=image&utm_campaign=spotlight

Harvest Party!

What a day this has been. I teach in a year round school and today was our last day of school for three weeks! I'm not excited or anything. Because my track is never in school at Halloween I don't have to have a Halloween party. But we did have a harvest party. We played musical pumpkins. I printed off 26 small pumpkins with a letter of the alphabet written on each. I then taped the pumpkins to the backs of chairs. I then had the children walk about and when the music stopped the children had to find a chair and sit down. I made sure that there were more chairs than children.

Then we went outside, divided into two teams, and rolled pumpkins. It was really fun to hear the children cheer students from both teams at the same time. They didn't if the child they were cheering for was on their team or the other team.

My rules for playing any games in my class are simple.
1. Did you play the game?
2. Did you have fun?
3. Did you learn something?

If you can answer yes to these question you are a winner. Coming in 1st or last doesn't matter. This way everybody can be a winner depending on the attitude of the players.

Math Centers

As I get centers out for the children to "work" on I want to make a photo record of what I have and how the children are doing.

I love this number writing center. The only problem I have with it getting the children to take their papers home at the end of the day.



A couple of weeks ago I read "The Hungry Monsters" to my class. First time I read the poem to the class we just enjoyed the poem. Then I went back with the children and we made a growing pattern using unifix cubes.


I love these pattern books. The children are able to see how the pattern is supposed to look. The only problem is that some of the children like to make guns and knives with the snap cubes. I've had to have the children who forget how to work on this pattern come and sit by me and think about how the center is supposed to be used.


These are farm beads I purchased several years ago. I have the children make patterns with them or I have them sort the beads by color or shape.


These pom poms are fun. I have the children sort them by color or as in the case I have them make patterns with them. Some become rather possessive and children like to pile them up. After spend time sitting next to me while I am working with a small group most get the message that they need to "work" on a center and not play with the center materials.


These sea monsters were left in my room. I have demonstrated how to sort the animals but this year the children have been making huge patterns. I love it!