Plants Science Journals

We recently finished our plants unit for science.  We just adopted the National Geographic Series.  Beautiful pictures.  We planted six different cups with seeds. 



Crowded, Not Crowded, Sunlight, No Sunlight, Water, No Water





Then we recorded the plant growth in our science journals.  Turning the notebooks horizontally helped the children draw their vertical lines.  I walked around with a ruler and made the horizontal lines.  We had to wait several days to see any growth, but when we did we had a great time recording what we saw.  We made predictions on the previous page of our journal.  These are some of the pages.

Have a great Halloween tomorrow.  We plan to eat and graph our pumpkin seeds.  We will be using the  pumpkin seed graphing pages from The Inspired Apple....Thanks so much Abby for the freebie!  We also used the Pumpkin Observation Book from Bainbridgeclass.blogspot.  It is an amazing book and it is free.  So well done.  Thank you Christina.  My little kiddos Loooooved it.  I will post pictures tomorrow of both activities.   





Wow What A Weekend

I have attended Teacher Appreciation Days on a few occasions.  Most days they are on a Saturday which is my catch up on everything at home day.  However, this Saturday my daughter and I decided to go to the Barnes and Noble Educator Week Celebration.  They were having a drawing for a NOOK Simple Touch Reader.  After yummy coffee, cookies and picking up a few books in the children's section, I heard the announcement.... the drawing would take place.  Can you believe my name was called!!!!  AMAZING!  A huge thank you to Barnes and Noble.  We have been passing it around our house all weekend.  We love our new NOOK!

Our Amazing Motor Lab

We are so fortunate to have a new OT Motor Lab.  In our state children are unable to get Occupational Therapy unless they are in another program such as speech.  We now have a new lab where we can take our entire class for exercises that build their core strength which is so helpful in their gross and fine motor skills.  The little ones have so many writing activities and for those that have difficulty with trunk strength it can be extremely difficult.  They become tired and frustrated.  Our wonderful OT teacher walked us through each station.  We started with two important exercises.

Don't break the Egg!

The children hold this pose for a count of 20 then rest for 20.

The Superman Pose. 

As you can see these two little ones had some difficulty.  Legs are supposed to be straight out just inches off the ground and arms straight out in front of you like Superman flying.  We do these two exercises right after calendar time.  Takes just a few minutes. 

When we go to the lab we do the following stations:  Trampoline, balance beam, scooter boards,  hopscotch, drawing a rainbow between two parallel vertical lines (their eyes must follow the drawing without moving their head).  I am so excited to see the results!

My First Linky Party

When I saw the Linky Party on The Inspired Apple I knew I had to post.  One of my favorite things is my teacher bag...well all bags.  Bags and shoes.   Do I need them? No. Do I buy anyway, of course.    Beach bags, backpacks, if it holds something, gotta have it.  But I must say I haven't shopped for a new teacher bag for a couple of years.  An intern walked into our school with the ultimate teacher bag..a Dooney and Bourke Handprint Tote (discontinued of course).  I searched and searched ebay to find it.  Found it , but could not bring myself to spend the money.  Then my sweet, wonderful husband surprises me with it on Mother's Day.  It's durable, cleans up well and did I mention huge.  

I finally cleaned it out so the items you see are the least I ever carry.  Usually a plan book and teacher's manual(s) are always inside, as well as lunch containers and an empty coffee thermos at the end of the day.  But these items are a must, sunglasses (for Florida recess), jump drives...yes there are 3 (8GB)'s, Diet Dr. Pepper, pencil bag filled with pens and highlighters, boxtops (need to leave those at school), camera for documentating those exciting teaching moments, Epic Phone, Kashi bar (afternoon pick me up since we have the second lunch of the day (10:43), JoAnns flier, kleenex, hanitizer (as my firsties call it), and the tennis-elbow band (spend way to much time on the computer.  Can't wait to see what everyone else carries!

Remembering September 11th and All of the Heroes of that Day

I remember exactly where I was standing on that day.  I was in my classroom, pregnant with my daughter when my cell phone rang.  It was my husband asking if I had heard about a plane hitting the World Trade Center.  I went next door to tell my teammate.  Then what seemed like seconds later the phone rang again to say there was another plane crash.  With heavy hearts we tried to get through the day, making sure to keep the day as normal as possible for our little ones.  

Growing up with a father as a fireman I can only imagine what their families went through on that day.   My heart goes out to all of the families who were affected by this tragedy.  May god bless all of you.

Thank you to the men and women of our military who continue to fight everyday for our freedom and safety.

Welcome to Primary Paradise!

Welcome to my new blog Primary Paradise.  With the encouragement of my amazing family and the awesome group of teachers I work with I have finally started my blog.  I am so excited about this new adventure.  This is my 18th year of teaching.  Thirteen of those years in 1st, all others in 2nd and 3rd.   

I chose the name Primary Paradise for two reasons: 
1. I live in the beautiful sunny state of Florida (Paradise...never a snow day here). 
2. My years of experience are in the primary grades and I can't imagine teaching anything  else.