Back in Team Bond for a 5th Year

I am so excited to be back!  When the kids first noticed me, a bit into the school day, they crowded around me and looked so excited!  It is so much fun bringing excitement to little ones!  Team Bond looks pretty much the same, except for the addition of crayfish.  There are some really big ones too!  Yesterday they found that one of them chopped the claw of another one.  Poor guy!

I have had a great view out into the classroom, as I have been sitting perched at the top of the book spindle.  I was touched by a student on my first day, so I lost a bit of the magic to move, but it was OK because I loved the view I had.  Sometimes the kids got a bit noisy, but they seem to be excited learners!

One of the things I really enjoyed seeing is this thing called Hour of Code.  The kids learned about Bits Box on Monday, and then I have been able to watch them type code, modify code, and even create their own apps.  One girl had a big Justin Bieber face on her app, and a lot of them enjoyed having stamps that if you tapped on them, they would explode.  Mrs. Bond said they are going to create their own app to send with their holiday card. I am excited to see those come to life. 

They are also making the wonderful bag wreaths that I love seeing each year.  They look so comfy...I just may have to hang out there in the next few days. 

One thing new that I noticed that I haven't seen in years before is The Positivity Project. The kids are learning about kindness this week and having such great conversations and sharing how they show kindness.  I also noticed there are other traits they have learned like curiosity, open-mindedness, perspective, creativity, teamwork/citizenship, bravery, gratitude, and modesty/humility. They had a conversations about book characters having these traits, and I was really impressed with their thoughts!

Today I hung out in a comfy cardboard house. I even had one of the boys write a note for me. I really enjoyed seeing kids after school work on being creative.  I think they were in a program called Destination Imagination. I got to watch some of the kids saw wood, sing, and research pollution and space.

I hope to see a lot more interesting things happening in Team Bond over the next few weeks! 

Sincerely,

Elfran Etavonni 

Email From a Student

I got an email from one of Mrs. Bond's students. Her name is Maddie, and she was very compassionate about my fall the other day! It made my night to see her email in my inbox. I was just getting ready to send an email to Mrs. Johnson to report on how the class has been doing, and I saw her email. I am a bit sad that tomorrow is the last day in Team Bond. All of the kids and teachers will be leaving for their holiday break. I am not sure if I will be sticking around or being sent elsewhere. It has been great to be back! Elfran Etavonni

Holiday Fun in Team Bond

Last week I thought it would be awesome to hang around in Team Bond on the beautiful wreaths they have made out of plastic baggies, but in the afternoon I took a fall to the ground.  Check out the tweet I found from Mrs. Bond


Luckily a little boy picked me up with a piece of paper, in order to preserve my magic.  I wasn't strong enough to move anywhere else in the room the next day, so I stayed in the back of the room.

They were working on the computer doing math problems on Edmodo Snapshot.  I am impressed with the kiddos in this classroom.  I have seen some of them coding, and a lot of them love playing on a site called Prodigy.

On Monday I was very touched, as 2 boys left me presents...a bow and an elf sticker!  I liked them so much, I decided to take them with me to my new location.  I decided to tuck myself inside a pocket near the classroom makerspace.  This is a very cool section of Mrs. Bond's room, as it has a lot of neat things that kids can build with.  It also has a very large box that the kids like to sit in and read. Sometimes they get in arguments over who can sit in the box, so that isn't so nice, but I think that it is cool that Mrs. Bond has a big box like that in her room.  Monday was pretty interesting too, as there were 8 new kids in the classroom, as their teacher was sick, and there weren't enough subs. Their class had to divide into 3 groups, and Team Bond got 8 of the kids.  It made it a more interesting day, I'm sure.  I liked watching them do explorations with mirrors and light.  That was super cool to watch!  They also learned a lot about how Christmas is celebrated around the world!

Well...school gets out on Thursday, so I will be sticking around for a bit more!  I'm looking forward to observing their holiday party! 

Etavonni the Learning Elf

Back in Team Bond!!

I was a bit bummed that I missed out on being in Mrs. Bond's third grade class last year, as she was a 5th grade teacher.  I am so glad that she is back in 3rd grade, as I love observing all the fun things she does with her little kiddos.  As usual, the students were so excited to see me in their classroom.  I heard a lot of kids comparing me to their Elves on the Shelves at home.  They were wondering if I was a girl or a boy, as they couldn't see what outfit I was in.  (I was hiding inside a book spindle.) It was pretty neat, as there are branches of leaves that have cool words on them.  I bet Mrs. Bond taught something where they had to look up words.

From my point of view, I was also able to see a map of where the kids had Skyped or had Hang Outs with. I think it is cool that they are able to connect with people from other states.

In Math I was able to see the kids practice how to measure to the nearest half-inch. Some kids enjoyed measuring the Minecraft books.  I am glad to see that Minecraft is still something kids are interested in.  I love how creative kids can get while using it. I was not too happy with some of the kids that were trying to make me spin around and around on the spindle just for fun.  I mean, if they are looking for a book, that is fine, but these boys were just spinning it for fun.

It was amusing watching the kids get bundled up for recess.  One child said that they had to put 50 things on.  I didn't really see 50 things, but I am sure it felt that way.  Hopefully they stayed warm. 

One of the students wanted to know what it would be like to have me sit on the flagpole..so that is where I plopped down last night. So far today I have watched the kids measure their show lengths and create a line plot, and I enjoyed watching them write letters to their parents about the things they needed. I bet the parents will really like that!

That's all for now!

Etavonni, the Learning Elf

Tis the Season for Gifts

The other day Mrs. Bond told the kids they were going to write about gifts.  Well, after all, this is the season for gift giving.  However, she had a different twist on it.  She talked about the gifts each person has within them to share with the world.  She showed them a book called Classroom Habitudes by Angela Maiers, which highlights the importance of having students realize the gifts each of them had to offer.  Each student brainstormed the gifts they had within and wrote them in their Idea Notebooks.  It was neat when the kids shared, as Mrs. Bond wrote them all on a chart. It surprised me though, some of the kids did not know what gifts they had inside them.  One boy is always the first to raise his hand and participate in classroom discussions with smart things to say, yet he didn't know that it was a gift he had.  Silly boy!  I hope he can recognize that many kids are so scared to answer questions and participate.  His courage and leadership is a strength!  It will definitely help him later in life too! The kids typed up their paragraphs about their main gift inside and printed them off.  Then they decorated a paper like a gift.  They used glue and colored sand to create the wrapping paper.  It got a bit messy, as the kids put on lots of glue, but it worked out.  Today I decided to hug the gift sign that Mrs. Bond painted to show the kids how much I like the gifts they have inside to offer the world! They liked seeing me there!  I even snuck and wrote a little note to them!

Today the entire third grade class has a winter party.  They had a breakfast and then did a craft.  They did a neat craft that can measure the amount of snow is on the ground.  It seemed like the whole day was full of crafts.  The students really enjoyed using their creativity.  They even had Art this afternoon, so it was a day full of artsy fun! I bet the families of Team Bond will enjoy all of the handmade treasures heading their way!  

My time in Team Bond is coming to a close, and again, I have enjoyed being with them.  I am going to see if I can get assigned here again later on this year.  I saw something on the wall about Digital Learning Day.  I think it is February.  It would be neat to be there for it, since I got to be there for Hour of Code.  

Round and Round Etavonni Goes

Today felt more like a ride at an amusement park than a day spent in a classroom.  What was I thinking when I moved to the top of the book spindle?  I had to hang on pretty tightly!  Speaking of amusement parks...the class had a sub named Mrs. O.  She did a really cool thing to get the kids attention that sounded like a roller coaster! Maybe they can teach it to Mrs. Bond.  It looked like they really enjoyed it!

They are making beautiful wreaths made out of plastic baggies.  I noticed one of the boys left a lot of the baggies under his desk, but Mrs. O picked them up.  No matter what type of classroom I am in, I am always noticing how the teachers are always so helpful.  I did notice a lot of the kids helping Mrs. O too.  Being a sub must be hard, but having students that are willing to lend a hand really helps!

I really like watching the video that Mrs. O played this afternoon on the transfer of energy.  My favorite transfer is food energy!  I found some cookies in the Teacher's Lounge tonight.  Those calories transferred into energy to help me fly back to the classroom.

Tomorrow the kids have extra time in art because they are working on clay pots.  Mr. Miller, the art teacher, left a note for Mrs. Bond to let her know of the adjusted time.  How neat is that!  I hope they make cool things and have fun!

One thing that I would really like from the students is letting the kids find me on their own.  I know they are super excited to show people where I am, but it makes it more fun when kids find me individually.  I love to see their searching eyes and then their smile when they do find me.

Finally, I have to give a shout out to my email buddy, Maddie!  She emailed me a lot last year, and she has been emailing me again this year.  What a kind and welcoming young lady!  She just told me that she is going to be published in a book!  I hope she will let me know when it comes out! Mrs. Bond is so lucky to have such wonderful students each year!

Etavonni

Week 2 Off and Running

Well, like Mrs. Bond, I did notice there were a lot of tired eyes this morning! Perhaps it was a busy, busy weekend for the Team Bond members, or it was the pesky full moon still making mischief in the lives of the children. The kids went right to Music and PE this morning, which I think helped.  They came back much more energetic...but in a good way!

Today in reading Mrs. Bond read from The Secret Zoo.  It is one of the highlights of my visits each year.  I love the way Bryan Chick brings the scene to life...just as if it was a movie! Today Mrs. Bond focused on the ways characters tackle problems. Noah, Ella, and Richie, characters in the book, made it to the City of Species inside the Secret Zoo, however Ella and Richie were being chased by police monkeys.  They ran into a sector, which ended up being just for birds.  It had a big cliff and the prairie dogs that were chasing after them ended up falling off the cliff. Noah handled it by calling to one of the birds Marlo for help, and Marlo was able to gather his friends to go and get the falling prairie dogs.  The kids had to focus on how their characters handled problems in their series chapter books.

In Math the kids were super engaged and super quiet.  It was like a whole different class.  Mrs. Bond had them practice finding perimeter, and they were able to use Minecraft and Build With Chrome.  They were able to construct walls and buildings and then find the perimeter.  They also did a small assessment with Mrs. Bond.  Minecraft is a neat app!  Mrs. Bond shared a Math World she has on her iPad.  The students were able to pass around her iPad to add to the Math World.  The land that they were building on looked a lot like the North Pole.  It is a frozen tundra!

I could tell listening was still a bit of an issue today during the Social Studies BA.  Mrs. Bond modeled it and discussed what the kids had to do for their test...she even asked a couple times, "Are there any questions?"  I kept watching child after child turn in their test, only to find out they did not follow the directions. I hope the students will be able to focus on the oral directions and written directions, as I know it is a very important skill for life!

The craziest thing happened today after school.  A boy stopped in for some extra work, and he turned it back in.  While they were talking, I leaned in to read some of the Great Gator slips that were below me.  I can't believe it, I actually dove right into the bucket.  Mrs. Bond and the little boy looked right at me, and they couldn't believe it themselves! Mrs. Bond said it is the first time she had seen me move...and she is right. Today, I blew it a bit.  Then, I had to stay there, head-first, in the bucket.  I  can only imagine my muscles are going to be sore tomorrow! The good thing is, I was able to get a closer look into the great things about Team Bond.  There's a teacher named Mr. Vogt that gives a lot of Greater Gators.

Well, hopefully I will be able to stay still tomorrow! I am going to try and get a good view point, as the kids are doing the Hour of Code tomorrow.  It involves computers and sounds very interesting.  Today the kids watched a video from President Obama talking about it. I searched on You Tube and found it...and I found a picture Mrs. Bond took of me nose diving into the bucket.  I'll add it below too!

Thanks Mrs. Bond!  This was not one of my finer moments!