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 

Good-bye for Now Team Bond

 The students noticed that I hung out with my new friends in frames, the giraffe and the cow a bit too long. To be honest with you, I was quite content relaxing and keeping an eye on all of the wonderful learning.  Plus, I figured this was a great place to stay that was germ free.  I don't think many third graders have touched up here.  There have been many kids staying home from school because they are sick.  Mrs. Bond had to remind the kids to cough into their elbow.

I also wanted to hang around Team Bond so that I could hear the rest of The Secret Zoo by Bryan Chick.  It was quite an intense ending to Book 1. The Action Scouts had to battle the Sasquatches in The Dark Lands. Mrs. Bond allowed the kids to turn off the lights to make it a bit spookier.  It worked!  I really wanted to be cuddled next to Maxi like I was last week. All in all, the book was awesome!  Since there were some kids out, Mrs. Bond used her iPad to record her reading using a program called Evernote.  I thought that was pretty cool...as I know the kids that were absent would not want to miss the ending!  I wonder if she will email them the recording or will they have to listen to it on her iPad?

Well, since I have had a lot of time in Mrs. Bond's classroom, I decided to get a new perspective on third grade by visiting Mrs. Hamlin's class.  There is one boy that is in Mrs. Bond's bus line that is always talking about his Elf on the Shelf.  He had fun spotting me each day in bus line, so I thought I would give his classroom a visit.  Mrs. Hamlin had been out sick on Monday and Tuesday, and I could tell she still wasn't feeling 100%.  Hopefully she feels better tomorrow.

The students learned about decimals today in math. They learned about the tenths and the hundredths place. While I was listening, I noticed Mrs. Hamlin used these green blocks to show the kids what a tenth looks like and what a hundredth looks like.  A "long" which is a row of 10 cubes stuck together was a tenth.  The little cubes by themselves represented hundredths.  That helped me understand it better.   I really was interested in this app that kids were playing on the iPad.  It was called Stack the States.  Kids had to answer questions about the states and then they would try to catch some of the states.  It was pretty cool.  Just like in Team Bond, Team Hamlin was also working on gifts for the holidays.  Today I noticed some kids wrapping their gifts.  I bet their families are REALLY going to like what they made!  Speaking of families, there was another adult in the room helping out.  I think she was one of the student's mom.  That sure is nice that family members donate their time to help out at school! 

The kids are having another one of those BA things.  This time it is for Science.  They learned all about Matter and Energy, so they were reviewing for it today.  They had to remember all of the forms of energy they learned about.  Let's see if I can remember...light, heat, electricty, sound...and I think there are a couple more.  Perhaps I will be able to think about them more tomorrow.

At the end of the day Mrs. Hamlin read a book.  It was all about Santa getting a new suit.  The kids seemed to enjoy the book.  The kids go to different classrooms for bus line, so I got to see some of the kids from Team Bond. I could tell they were happy to see me!  Well, that's it for now!  Only 2 more days until the kids go on break!