HAD to share! Shoe tying easiness!

I've tried to teach my daughter how to tie her shoes for awhile now. Today I stumbled upon this video and I had to share! Wren can now tie her shoe after watching the video twice. http://youtu.be/l-y49EOvyaY

Team Building Today

I saw a great movie (When the Game Stands Tall) this past weekend and immediately wanted to begin sharing what inspired me with my kids! The movie's message: Team is thinking about the person beside you! is one of the most difficult messages to get all humans to understand. We are all naturally selfish and I truly want this group of students to think of others first! So, today we played a team building activity where they choose their leader and had to silently LISTEN and FOLLOW directions. :) I know you are all thinking...How did that go? It was a little rough in the beginning, because we have a group of natural leaders. Here is our whole group example, I was the leader and they listened without talking while I verbally gave directions and we made a triangle using our bodies!

Here was a group that listened and made a circle. ;)

Here is the other circle.. :)

Here they are working on making a square, this shape was a little more difficult to make.

Do you see these straight feet?... square completed!

Another fantastic square!

Another quote that I am using from the movie is "I don't expect you to be perfect, but I do expect perfect effort". Isn't that awesome, I am encouraging them daily to give me THEIR best, and their best isn't always going to look like the person next to them. :)

Look for more team building activities to come.

Our 1st Skype of the Year

Today our class was able to skype with author Howard Binkow. He has written a lot of books about things that students are always encountering. He talked about being a good listener and showed us a short video about Howard B. Wigglebottom the bunny and how he learned to listen. He has a fantastic website with stories, songs, color pages, and a place to write your own book.  

Check him out! https://wedolisten.org/

Happiest, Busiest, and Best First Day!

I wish I had lots if cute pictures of your kiddos living school, but today was way too busy! They kept me going all day long! We made new friends, had P.E., drank Jitter Juice, learned how to walk silently in the halls, and they learned about my family and our pets. Here is a pic of me at the end of today...they wore me out, and I can't wait to do it again tomorrow!

1st day back!

These are photos of our classroom...look at all the work that needs to be done!

My niece Rachel came to help out! She is amazing at taking down bulletin boards!

A cool panoramic view of the total mess!

Be patient...after pictures coming soon! ;)

Testing Twitterfeed

After doing some ( a few hours or so) research on what would be able to automatically send my blog posts to Twitter and Facebook, I found Twitterfeed. This is my test blog post to see how it works!