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.  

Reaching New Heights!

Monday, December 16, 2013

Today, the kids cracked up to see me swinging high above the class sitting comfortably on a lush baggie wreath!  I love the view around the classroom, as it is adorned with these great crystal wreaths.  Who knew sandwich baggies could be so beautiful!  In fact, I overheard some girls talking about making me one.  Mrs. Bond hung it right in front of me.  They are supposed to put a note on it, letting me know that it is for me.  I don't think they knew I was listening in.  I am so excited to know that I will be able to keep one! 

This morning, Mrs. Timlin, the principal, talked about the word of the week.  The word of the week is trustworthiness. What an important word to focus on!  Being a trustworthy person is a life skill that is so essential.  You have to be a trustworthy friend, a trustworthy employee, and a trustworthy neighbor, among other things.  Being able to count on other people to be honest and loyal and dependable is what makes relationships grow! I wonder if I will be able to spot kids being trustworthy to each other?  I sure do hope so!  I noticed Mrs. Bond put the word on this poster.  I wonder what she is going to do with it?

Today in math, Mrs. Bond showed the class how to use the iPad and an app called Minecraft to practice perimeter.  It was pretty cool.  She made a diamond rectangle that had a perimeter of 14 by having 1 row of 6 blocks.  The kids seems super excited to use Minecraft in math.  Not all the kids were able to do it today, but Mrs. Bond said every child would be able to do it by the end of the week.  That's nice that she can trust them with her own iPad! 

In the afternoon, Mrs. Bond read more of The Secret Zoo!  OH BOY!  IT IS GETTING SO GOOD! Today, the kids met a new character, Mr. Darby.  He is an old man that wears a purple velvet trench coat, has a long gray beard, with long gray hear in a pony tail, and wears beady sunglasses.  He sounds creepy, but Mrs. Bond assured the class he is a good guy.  She also said that she sometimes pictures Dumbledore from Harry Potter with sunglasses on.  Some kids thought he sounded cool.  

Then, the kids were able to tune into a live video stream from inside the White House.  There was a man getting interviewed about the White House artifacts, furniture, and art. It was very interesting.  He talked about presidential portraits, the furniture presidents decide to have, and even a piano that was the 300,000th piano Steinway produced, complete with eagle legs. 

Then, the highlight came at the end of the day.  It was Goal Time, and the kids were busy!  There was a pet club meeting in the back of the room, as well as a spa!  Hand massages in a container of water, raffles for bracelets, and even a braiding station. They even had background music playing.   Some kids were creating snowflakes and drawing, while others were crocheting.  One boy created a small hat on the knitting loom.  I think it could even fit me.  I may try one on tonight, as there is a rainbow one on the top of the yarn pile.  The other hats are in bags with kids names on it. 

A man brought in Mrs. Bond's mail, and there were more cards delivered.  This Holiday Card Exchange project is pretty neat.  The kids LOVE getting mail! Mrs. Bond got a card all the way from Canada today!  Check out the chart they have created to keep track of the information shared on the cards. It amazes me that the class sizes are pretty small...with the exception of Sweet Apple Elementary in Georgia.  (What a cute name for a school!)

Again, this third grade classroom has been so much fun to visit.  I may have to try to see if I can stay here for the rest of the week.  I hear they have a party on Thursday.  What fun! 

Cheers to Learning, 

Etavonni

Day 2 in Team Bond

Today I got a lot of attention.  The kids were staring at me a lot, as I moved to the filing cabinet. I noticed that the kids were writing in cursive, so I decided to practice my handwriting and made a name tag.  

The kids are getting excited for the holidays, and Mrs. Bond was getting crafts ready for kids to make.  She showed the class 2 projects they were going to work on for the morning, but I will keep that hush, hush, as they will be giving these to family members.  I watched Mrs. Bond demonstrate the crafts, and I wished I could make them too!

They also talked about opinions and generated questions that would be good to ask to get the opinions of others.  They are going to be doing interviews at home soon.  One good question I liked was, "What day of the week do you like the best?"  I bet there would be a lot of interesting answers to that!  

They had a special visitor come in to help.  They called her Mrs. Richard.  She spent most of her time out of the room, but then she read a really cool book about a man named Henry Ford.  It was a creative story about how Henry Ford met Santa.  Mrs. Richard said that the elves making toys in an assembly line helped Henry Ford make cars the same way.  

Then they had that BA test that I was talking about.  The students worked very hard on their tests.  When they were done they worked on multiplication menorahs.  A menorah is the candle holder used to celebrate Hanukkah. Mrs. Bond had to leave for a doctor's appointment.  She had an issue with her ear...and she couldn't hear very well.  Hopefully the doctors can help her. 

There was a new lady that came in the classroom.  I saw her come in this morning then she was gone.  I guess she liked it here because she came back and stayed until the end of the day.  I bet she’s part of the team.  The kids all called her Mrs. Share.  I guess she likes to share a lot.  Cool Name!

I learned about energy transfer.  The new lady from Team Bond read from a very interesting book.  I liked the part about sound waves.  Did you even know that there are waves that travel through the air that you can’t see? The teacher said that waves were coming out of her mouth right to the students’ ears.  There are so many kinds of energy.  I was impressed to see how many of the students knew about these different kinds of energy.  Then the class used their creativity to create an example of an energy source and the transfer of energy it provided.

The Mrs. Share had the students stop their work to go to Media.  I wish I could have gone with them.    I really love books.  I heard some of the students asking if they were going to use the computers.  They seemed really excited about it.  In the room I made some new friends on the shelf where I was sitting while they were gone.

When everyone returned, they finished drawing examples of energy transfer.  The students glued some notes into their science spirals.  A boy named Johnny tried to help Mrs. Share find Mrs. Bond’s spiral.  He even checked under all of the tables, but no luck.  The students reviewed all the types of energy they had studied.
I could tell the day was coming to an end.  The students were trying to finish things up.  Some were writing an opinion paragraph, some were doing cursive, and one was over near the door writing on little pieces of paper and sticking them to the wall.  It was curious though, one girl in the pink top and a braid kept lying on the floor.  I’m wonder if this is a new learning technique I’ve never heard of before.  I’ll keep observing this to see if I can figure it out.

Then two blond girls, both with a purple top on, were staring at me.  I mean really staring at me.  I started to get a bit nervous, but I held my head high and let them look.  I guess they have never seen a learning elf before.  They had to go back to their seats as the teacher was winding up the day.

When the students were getting themselves organized to go home a boy showed up in front of me.  He has short blond hair and was wearing a gray jacket.  He was staring at me too.  But he did more than stare; he was trying to talk to me.  He was speaking so quietly and the room was kind of loud that I couldn't understand him.  I would be really cool if he could write me a note.  I like the two notes that Andrew and Alyse wrote.

Well, the children have gone home for the night.  I made friends with the moose who was sitting next to me.  He told me that the reason the room gets so cold at night is that the heat is turned down.  I was very cold last night.  The moose said I could sit with him to stay warm.

I really like it here in Team Bond.  I may just have to stay a while longer.