Final slide show of the year is ready! July 10, 2008
Posted by anne marie in Our Classroom.2 comments
I am proud and happy to report that I finally created a slide show with some pix from our last week or so of school. We had been learning about he Rainforest so with the help of Mr. Dan we made some Rainforest hot chocolate, dissected some frogs and oh yeah, lets’ not forget when Scottie recieved a Mass Mutual Academic Achievement Award-YEAH! So without further ado here is the Rock You slide show-ENJOY!
Our Poetry Reading June 13, 2008
Posted by anne marie in ELA, Notebook 10, Our Classroom.Tags: Notebook 10, Poetry, SMARTBoard
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We had our poetry reading this afternoon and it was WONDERFUL! I was so proud of each and every student. Many parents were in attendance, as were administrators and fellow teachers. It is a true honor to be the teacher of these very talented, dedicated students. As we presented and read their poems, I was reminded of the positive attitude, love of learning and determinationn each of these students possess everyday they enter the classroom. It is heart warming and refreshing. Naturally pictures were taken, so I have created a short video of the event, using Rock You. Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate with us, thanks to Ms. Dee and Ms. Ruth for always giving 110% to make our classroom the best it can be and a special thanks to each of my students who make my heart smile every day!
Presenting our poems… May 30, 2008
Posted by anne marie in ELA, Our Classroom, SMART Board.Tags: Poems
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Proudly displaying their poems!
Today we finished our poems, complete with illustrations and, although I may be just a bit prejudice, I think they are simply the BEST!! Each student worked extremely hard at drafting, finalizing and illustrating their poems. It was both a very challenging and rewarding process. Once again I was reminded of how my students will shine like the morning sun when given the right tools and opportunities to demonstrate their skills. I am so proud of my students that we decided to have a poetry reading to showcase their work. A special thanks to Ms. Keenan from the English Department for her help and support. Click here to view the poems– I know you won’t be disappointed.
Updated pages. May 26, 2008
Posted by anne marie in General, Our Classroom.add a comment
I’ve had some time over the weekend to add two new pages of student activities- complete with pictures- so feel free to check them out to see what we’ve been up to. Here are the links: “Look What We’ve Been Doing” and “Making a Dirt Cake” or you can find them filed under “Meet Our Class” under the Page section to the right. Feel free to leave comments!
I also updated my Interactive Website Page and my Special Education Resources Page with new resources.
Happy Birthday Ms. Ruth! May 25, 2008
Posted by anne marie in General, Our Classroom.Tags: Birthday
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Friday, we celebrated Ms. Ruth’s birthday- complete with a “published” newspaper article announcing the happy event! I linked the article to her picture on our morning calendar, so when her picture was touched the article appeared in all it’s glory on the SMARTBoard! Boy was she surprised!!!
If you have a birthday to celebrate you might also want to check out a cute birthday video that can be found at Priorywoods. This site also has some other fun music videos that can be easily downloaded and incorporated into SMART Notebook lessons.
Feel free to leave Ms. Ruth a birthday comment!
Here it is… “Flowers Pretty” May 24, 2008
Posted by anne marie in ELA, Our Classroom, Special Education.Tags: ELA, Poetry
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A poem written by the students in room 123
They like sun.
Outside on tree.
Stem.
Leaves.
Beautiful colors.
Happy.
Growing.
Spinach.
Pick flowers in grass.
Dandelions are big.
Mom likes flowers.
Valentine’s Day.
LOVE!
My students loved watching the talking flower “say” their poem– it was made using Fodey’s Talking Flower
I also neglected to mention another poetry site from Julia’s Rainbow Connection that I incorporated into our lesson. This site offers 3 very nice poetic videos that my students very much enjoyed watching.
We also used a BBC website to analyse poems- English: Reading-Poetry.
We completed the poem by creating our own flowers, which helped to illustrate our poem. Take a look…
Next week we hope to have our students write individual poems about something of interest to them. Rasheen has already indicated he wants to write about cars and Scott, he wants to write a poem about his video games. So make sure you check back next week to be dazzled with more original poems by these amazing students!
Poems May 22, 2008
Posted by anne marie in ELA, Our Classroom, SMART Board, Websites.Tags: ELA, Poetry
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This week we are exploring the wonderful world of poetry- reading & writing poems. As part of this process I utilized several resources that were very helpful to me and so I thought it might be helpful to others if I shared. One of my favorite children’s poetry books is by Caroline Kennedy: “A Family of Poems: My Favorite Poems for Children”. Reading the poems in this book is a joy, not to mention that the illustrations by John J.Muth are spectacular and inspiring. Each poem was caringly selected by Mrs. Kennedy from her childhood memories. In addition to reading from her book we also viewed a CBSNews video of Mrs. Kennedy being interviewed about this book. The great thing is that during the video she reads some of the poems, so the students could actually see her and hear her voice.
I also used Classic Poetry Aloud , which is a poetry podcast of poems from the past. There is a link on this page to search every reading since May 2007 (organized by themes). It also gives an option to request a specific poem be added to the list.
The Favorite Poem Project is another great site that offers 50 short video documentaries showcasing individual Americans reading and speaking about poems they love. A nice feature on this site is the fact that there are some young adults and younger children videotaped, allowing my students to view students their age. Click on the video link to view the available selections.
And now for my top pick- Interactive Poetry Tools and Lesson Plans. This outstanding resource is loaded with interactive poetry activities, many which are perfect to use with a SMARTBoard. I especially like the Magnetic Poetry Board because you can generate your own words to create poetry, allowing the students the opportunity to move the words around on the SMARTBoard and Student Riddle Interactive because it is very well organized with clear instructions and because my students love riddles!
Hope this helps with your own poetry adventures. I will be posting our first class poem called Flowers Pretty, tomorrow. My students did a PHENOMENOL job writing and illustrating their poem– guaranteed you’ll be impressed so make sure you check back tomorrow!!
Our Romeo & Juliet Story May 19, 2008
Posted by anne marie in ELA, Our Classroom.Tags: ELA, Romeo and Juliet
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Today we completed our Romeo & Juliet unit by writing our own synopsis of this Shakespearean saga. I believe our students captured the true essence of these troubled lovers.
Romeo and Juliet were friends.
Romeo gave her flowers because he loved her.
Romeo played Juliet a song on the guitar.
There is a fight with swords.
Juliet is gone and Romeo is sad.
Romeo is dead with a sword.
Juliet comes back and is sad.
She wants to marry Romeo.
She is crying because she wants Romeo and he is dead.
Juliet drinks the poison and she is dead.
THE END
Romeo and Juliet May 18, 2008
Posted by anne marie in ELA, Our Classroom.Tags: ELA, Romeo and Juliet
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Last week our class was invited to join Ms. G.’s 9th grade English class, in the courtyard, as they acted out Act 3, the fight scene from Romeo and Juliet
. Here’s Ms. G. directing the scene, where Mercutio and Tybalt are about to fight when Romeo enters. Romeo and Benvolio try to stop the fight. Tybalt stabs Mercutio under Romeo’s arm and leaves as Mercutio dies. Anyway, my students loved watching the scene unfold, especially the excitement of the sword fighting (aka: wrapping paper tubes) and enjoyed the opportunity to demonstrate their acting/dueling skills! Take a look…
We kept the fun going when we discovered a production of Romeo and Juliet on Musearts Cartoons, otherwise known as the Guinea Pig Theater. This video is just too funny, but at the same time it helped my students synthesis the main idea of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. So thank you, again, Ms. G., and your students, for including us in this activity- it was both educational and fun!
Germs & Hand Washing May 13, 2008
Posted by anne marie in Our Classroom, SMART Board, Science, Special Education, Websites.Tags: hand washing, health, Science, SMART Board, Videos
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Each and every day, whenever the opportunity arises within the classroom, we discuss the importance of good hygiene to battle the war against germs- especially the importance of washing your hands! Today our school nurse, Ms. Charlotte, followed up with her lesson on when, why and how to wash your hands. 
When she was finished we then switched gears to the SMARTBoard so we could reinforce Ms. Charlotte’s lesson by using the website Find the Germs. To play this interactive activity students drag the magnifying glass over the hand to find the 5 different germs and learn about them. Great to use on the SMARTBoard. To incorporate even more fun, while learning, I used the NSF Scrub Club Games Page which has 6 games to explore, most appropriate for the SMARTBoard. The Scrub Club also has a webisode: “The Good, the BAC, and the Ugly” about hand washing and bacteria. Three of the Scrub Club games are also part of the webisode- the first two games work great with the SMARTBoard.
If you’re not lucky enough to have a Ms. Charlotte to come and speak to your class about germs and hand washing I did find a few free videos that might be helpful. Public Health Hand Washing Video: you can watch the entire video or view video clips.
A fun, quick 30 second video to review how to wash your hands can be found at Did You Wash Them from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
Henry the Hand Visits School is a cute video for younger aged children, reinforcing the how and why of hand washing.
