Monday, December 17, 2012

Blue Ribbon Celebration

Today was our National Blue Ribbon celebration.  We encouraged all of the students to wear blue and the staff wore their new National Blue Ribbon shirts.  Yeah!!  What a celebration we had.  It was so encouraging to see our school come together and celebrate this honoring event.
 
At the awards presentation in Washington, DC our principal, Mr. Leis, and I had to dance before we were given the award. Today I taught the entire building the dance that we preformed at the ceremony.  The kids had a lot of fun and were super excited when they each got a Blue Ribbon medal to take home.
Way to go Marshall and thank you to everyone who helps make our school the incredible place it is!

National Blue Ribbon Awards Ceremony video, Washington, DC

Sunday, December 9, 2012

We Are Getting Ready For Christmas

We have been busy getting ready for Christmas.  Check out our door!  We are adding more everyday.  
One of the things we have been doing is helping Santa get his reindeer ready.  If the reindeer want to fly Santa's sleigh, they must go to Santa's Reindeer School.  We started by sorting them (greater than, less than or equal).  The reindeer with the bigger number got to go to school this year!!  Yeah.  It was so exciting when there was a tie (equal)! :0)
Then we had to get them all lined up for inspection.  So, since we are working on counting by 5s, we ordered the reindeer up counting by 5s.  This was a little hard, but the kids loved the challenge.  

Finally, don't forget that Tuesday night, December 11, is our Christmas Music Program.  It starts a 6:00, but please be sure to have your child here by 5:45 so we can get lined up.  We will meet back in our classroom.  :)

Mrs. Rucker

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Fan & Pick

We have started working on our High Frequency words.  Today we learned a new Kagan strategy called Fan and Pick.  The kids loved it.  One person is the "Teacher" and he or she has a class.  They just love being in charge.
Just like it is called, the teacher fans out the words and then calls on a student.  The student picks a word and reads it.  

The High Frequency Word Lists will be sent home after Christmas.  We are just getting a head start!! Yeah! :)  

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Happy Birthday Aven!

This week we celebrated Miss Aven's birthday.  She is the big 6 now!! 
Happy Birthday Aven!

Thursday, November 15, 2012

We Are Home!

We are home!  Washington, DC is one exciting place.  There is so much to see and it definitely requires some good walking shoes!  (I was accused of walking 23 mph!)   :0)  I missed my students very much and was told that they were very good for the substitute.

We returned to the wonderful group of people that made this all possible.  Without them and the terrific students here at Marshall Elementary, our school would not have won this incredible award!  Go Marshall for being a new 2012 National Blue School.


Sunday, November 11, 2012

Off to DC!

I am off to Washington, DC with a group of teachers from our building to officially receive the National Blue Ribbon Award our school was awarded this year!  Please call the office if you have any changes or need anything!  See you Thursday.


Friday, November 2, 2012

There is a Witch in our classroom! Eeeek

There is a witch in our classroom!  Thank you to Scott's "Nana" for coming and reading us a fun Halloween story.  Also, a big thank you to all of our other moms who helped out with the Halloween classroom party! 


Thursday, November 1, 2012

Symmetry and Masking Tape

Wow, it is so fun to see kids laugh!  Today we worked on symmetry.  We started with simple shapes, drawing the line of symmetry..... etc.  Then the fun part comes!  :0)  People!  Can we draw a line of symmetry on a person?  Oh yeah and the laughing begins! :)  We also painted pictures too!

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

What is in the Witch's Soup!


We are getting ready for Halloween, so we read a book called Spooky Hour.  The story works on numbers 1-12.  After reading the story we played a little game called....What is in the Witch's Soup?  The kids are in pairs with two dice.  They roll, count the dots, and color the matching number on the Witch's bowl.   I tell them that if they roll a number that they have already colored, they just pass the dice to their partner.   They are always sooooo surprised when they roll the same number,  once....twice...three times....!  :)  hahahha








Friday, October 26, 2012

Stick Your Nose in a Corner - Fun With Shapes


We all remember that century old punishment....stick your nose in a corner, I just love to use it when we are working on sides and corners of shapes.  They totally get it if you tell them to stick their nose in a corner! :) 


So like always we start with sides, and then we move to corners.  We talk about that the corner is the place where the two sides meet.  Now let's make it with our hands.  Side, side, and then ....... put your nose in the "corner."  Yeah  They just giggle.  :)


Monday, October 15, 2012

Two Proud Dudes

They finally finished the giant 3D floor puzzle!  Way to go boys!


Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Pass, Pass, Pass the Purse

The kids love this game.  We have all kinds of things in a "purse," and we sing this catchy little tune....."Pass, pass, pass the purse, pass it round and round. We're looking for a special sound and look at what we found!"  Have them sing it for you! :)  When the song stops, the person holding the purse pulls out an object and tells us what it is and what sound it starts with.  I have them do the gesture too just to make sure they know it! :)  They always get a good laugh when someone pulls out the "t-t-toilet!"







Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Pattern Fun!


Today we painted patterns!!  The kids just love it when I say we are painting, so why not make it a learning experience too!  There is such power in "picking" your own colors! :)  They have to ask again, "Can we really pick what ever color we want?"  Wow!



Monday, October 8, 2012

Body Shapes

I told the kids we were going to build shapes with our bodies.....they hit the roof.   First, with a lot of excitement.......hooping and hollering........and then it hit them, "How?"  I have to laugh because there is always a true look of confusion.