Shipping Out!

My husband and I have just finished packing for our cruise and we leave for the boat in... 19 minutes! Talk about LAST MINUTE! I hope we haven't forgotten anything!!
I can't be too upset with myself, as per usual... I got stuck at work late last night. There is just something so incredibly satisfying about engaging in rich conversation with colleagues with the same drive and passion. I know that many of you can relate!
Yesterday, to celebrate the end of summer school, my Principal and a few of my co-workers had a chicken wing party! Living in Connecticut, you really haven't lived until you've tried the wings at the Dew Drop Inn in Derby. I wish they had a website that I could link up to, but... check them out on Facebook. They have something like 80 different varieties of wings -- ALL ARE DELICIOUS! My favorite are Parmesan-Bacon-Garlic, Peanut Butter & Jelly (with a fluff dipping sauce!), and Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. I know, I know... they sound ridiculous, but NOMNOMNOM they are just... oh, so good! I won't even begin to pretend like I know how to explain how a combination of chicken and candy work, but they just do. Trust me! :) REGARDLESS! While we were chowing down, we began to talk about the the school play for the coming year. During each of our 3 years under the PCAH Turnaround Arts Grant, we held a school production:
Year 1: The Wiz Year 2: The Jungle Book Year 3: Hairspray, Jr.
This year, we were planning to present The Little Mermaid, but made a switch to Annie, Jr. after learning about the new Jamie Foxx-Cameron Diaz movie. 
Through our discussion we began to brainstorm the many ways we are able to integrate the play into our instruction as aligned with the CCSS and district curriculum for grades Pre-K through 8. Our discussion lasted for nearly THREE HOURS! We were unexpectedly productive, building off of one another and now we have been set to task -- as soon as I return from the cruise, I will be putting together a packet for our staff complete with arts vocabulary and ideas for lessons, units, and PBAs (Project Based Activities). I am so optimistic for this school year and really cannot wait to delve into it and share all of our ideas with you!  But now I'm curious! At this point through all of my training, substituting, and now teaching, I have working in 6 different school districts (over 20 schools total!) and have seen arts integration at all different levels. I'd love to hear about your arts integration experience. Answer the question below and feel free to give more info in the comments! I apologize in advance for delayed responses since I will be out of the country until August 2nd!

surveys & polls

Also, don't forget to follow me here, on bloglovin, or on Instagram (Shoelaces_SweetFaces) before I get back on the 2nd. All followers by then will receive a FREEBIE of my completed Sight Word Assessment Pack!
Happy blogging, all and soak up all the sun you can! School will be back before we know it!! :)

0

More Pictures!

As promised, more pictures!

I featured "The Adding Machine" in an earlier post. Monday morning I showed up extra early to install it. It took a bit of troubleshooting to get it to work, I eventually got it going. I found that marbles flew out much too quickly and bounced out of the cup, rolling all around the room on our tile floors... definitely a safety issue. I ended up giving the kids colorful puff balls that I found at Dollar Tree. We have found them to work much better. My KinderLoves absolutely LOVE IT!! They've been asking to play with it during indoor recess and my early finishers beg to go here instead of completing other tasks.

For our hibernation unit, we created bear caves. I apologize for the poor picture quality, but basically... we took paper bags, opened them up, rolled them down and cut an opening for the cave. Students cut, colored, and pasted bears into their cave. Some students placed them standing up, getting ready to sleep while others had them laying down already sleeping. Additionally, students tore construction paper to form the grass a leaves that created their bear's bedding. Finally, students painted snow atop the caves using a 50/50 mixture of shaving cream and glue (a recipe I discovered on Pinterest). This left the snow nice and fluffy!

One of my students put a blanket over the bear, explaining to me that "bears should be comfy, too!"

Three days a week, my students have the opportunity to meet with 8th grade reading buddies. It has been a slow process setting up a strict schedule for this half-hour block, especially being that it comes right after lunch. Typically, the older buddies review the letters and corresponding sounds, practice sight words, read a story, and guide the students in a journal reflection of the story. Please comment with any suggestions you may have for managing reading buddies!

Our school has been honored by receiving the support of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities (PCAH) by being named a Turnaround: Arts school. There are many corporations sponsoring this initiative. Last month, we were visited by representatives from Crayola who ran a training for integrating the arts into our instruction. We were given time to manipulate their materials and create things to use in our classrooms. The Minnie Mouse puppet above is a creation of my own that I use with some of my shyer students. Students speak through the puppet when answering questions. I am looking forward to creating these puppets with all of my students for use with a book report project we will be completing in the spring.

For fun, I made a dinosaur...

I leave you with the view from my classroom at sunset. Clearly, I stayed at work a little too long last night, but... I am very lucky to have such a beautiful view. Looking out at the park, my kiddos often reference the view in their writing journals.

0