“Why should I give thanks on Thanksgiving? What have I got to be thankful for? All it does is make more work for us at school.” –Sally (Peanuts)
Well, we certainly had a lot of work to do this month, and not a lot of days to get it all done. It was so great to see the kiddos all able to list many things that they were thankful for. Our at home project was centered on disguising a turkey (so that he could avoid being caught for Thanksgiving.) As you will see from the picture of the bulletin board, we have some very creative students and families!
We enjoyed celebrating two special birthdays this month, and now all of our students are five or older. We celebrate students for an entire week for their birthday (or as close to their birthday as we can.) For summer birthdays, we try to celebrate on their half birthday. During this week the students bring to school a poster with photos and filled in with all of their favorites. They get to be the teacher and explain this poster to the class. It hangs on our Top Banana bulletin board. The next day, all of the students complete a star journal page which is later bound into a book for them to keep. Hopefully this is one of those things parents will pull out when they graduate. During their special week they are allowed to bring in special pets, special snacks, and invite their parents in to help them complete a science experiment. I have included some pictures of our special snacks and a special science adventure where we watched skittles turn water colors, and even did a little color mixing.
On November 20th, we celebrated our 50th day of school with an old-fashioned fifties party. This included mini pizzas and root beer floats, but before we did that, we did a little fifties dancing and tried out the limbo with girls dressed in poodle skirts and boys with slicked back hair and jeans rolled up high. We also compared living from 1962 to today. The students loved looking at the differences in TVs, telephones, clothing and cars. We also had fun reading the students’ journals about what they think they will be doing in fifty years! Stay tuned for the exciting way we celebrate 100 days of school.
A few more fun things we get to do every week include art class, language, and singing and dancing. I have included a few fun pictures:
Art class with a fabulous art teacher who creates fun and exciting projects with the class
The students love language group with the best speech teacher EVER, Mrs. M.
And of course, one of the kiddos favorite things to do….sing and dance….here we are doing the Tooty Ta.
We ended our month by reading different versions of the Gingerbread story including “The Gingerbread Man,” “The Gingerbread Boy,” and “The Gingerbread Baby.” We talked about how the stories were the same and different and then, we cut out and decorated our own gingerbread cookies. Many thanks go to Mrs. N for making the cookie dough (and being sure to use ingredients that none of our students had an allergy to.) She then came in and helped the students each cut out their own gingerbread cookie, took them home and baked them for us, and then brought them back….along with some yummy frosting so we could decorate them. I have included way too many pictures of this, because we had so much fun.
Got Milk ??
Outside of the classroom, I enjoyed spending some time with my teens and traveling to my parents. I especially enjoyed seeing my niece and nephew, who I don’t get to see nearly enough. I thought my children grew up quickly, but my niece seems to get three inches taller and talk better every time I see her. (Of course, I am going to include a picture of this gorgeous little girl!) Of course, I succumbed to a Facebook challenge to post something were thankful for every day for the month of November. Thirty days was not nearly enough. I have included one of my entries from the month…..
Opportunity.....that is what I am thankful for today. The opportunity to spend my days with 20 wonderful five year olds. The opportunities to change what I don't believe in, opportunities to leave someone smiling, opportunities to help someone up who has fallen, opportunities to make changes in my life, opportunities to share great moments and memories with great people that make the days easier, opportunities to share my convictions with those who support me even though they don’t always agree with me, opportunities to educate others, opportunities to use my past experiences as a way to relate to others, and opportunities to work with some amazing people who are committed and excited about what they do, regardless of mandates, testing, and challenges that tend to weigh us down. I am also thankful for the opportunities I have had to come in contact with people who are missed dearly, however, because of the opportunities I had, I will always get to carry a part of them with me. I am thankful for the opportunity to say I am wrong, and to forgive and be forgiven. Yes, I am definitely thankful for opportunities.
“Ability is nothing without opportunity.” ~Napoleon Bonaparte
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