Our Halloween Party

Today was a smashing success. I always worry about the Halloween Party because it is the first big party of the school year and sometimes the kids go WILD! I was hoping to prep them and talk about expectations of the party before hand, but it was such a busy day that I didn't even think about it. Although that was skipped, my little buzzers did amazingly well! There was only one out of 27 that was running around crazy. And only one more out of 27 was yelling! Not bad if you ask me!!! Our principal even came in and was impressed by the relaxed atmosphere!

Our principal really digs Halloween. I mean, REALLY digs it. She has our whole office staff dressed up in theme. This year, they were bees. Whoa. Copycats!! Haha...they were cute. Usually I am a bee since that is the theme of my classroom, DUH, but this year, one of my little one's personal assistant and I were Pooh and Tigger. It was hot. But cute. Too bad we don't have a picture of that yet. My camera battery conveniently is dying and I have NO idea where the charger is. That's a-whole-nother story that I might need Cara to help me with. ;)

The 1st and 2nd graders parade around the whole school while the Kindergarteners and 3rd-5th graders sit in the hallways and watch. It's so much fun.

As you recall, Wanda the Witch has been leaving us random notes and treats all month. She made her appearance today.

Well, it was really my sister-in-law who is the South Dakota State Director for March of Dimes. She comes in about once a month to read to my little darlings and does an AMAZING job with them.  Look how engaged they are (and the parents for that matter!):

She mixed all the ingredients together:

She even had two little Buzzer apprentices to help her:

They put a magic spell on it:

Double, Double, Toil and Trouble...Time to EAT!

All the kids LOVED it! I hope if you have a Halloween Party it went as well as ours!!!

Happy Halloween Weekend to you!!
Marcy

Monday, Monday...

If I received a nickel for every time I had to say, "Hands to yourself", this girl would be RICH!!! Wowsas...this just days after our counselor came in to do the ol' hands and feet to yourself lesson.

I was SO busy last week. A meeting every day after school, not to mention I was out of the classroom Tuesday and Wednesday for project-based learning training. The long leisurely lunches were FABULOUS. I could totally get used to that!!! A lot of learning took place on my end and I am so excited to implement more project-based learning in the future! I can't wait to share them with you!

Today, we worked on visualizing. I love teaching this during Halloween season because there are so many great graphics in books for Halloween. Today we listened to one of my favorites:

I played it on c.d. and the kids first closed their eyes and visualized in their heads. They like to call visualizing, "making movies in my brain". Whatever. It makes sense to them, right? Then, they go back to their desk and fill out the top part of their form (Before seeing the actual illustrations) while they listen to the story again.

 

Then, they come back after about five minutes and we listen to the story again BUT this time they get to see the illustrations. They go back to their desk and illustrate the real Goodnight Goon illustration. The form isn't all fancy shmancy. Definitely not TPT material. If you have commercialized fonts and want to make it fabulous, email me a copy. :)

The little buzzers were SO engaged in this lesson. It took about a half hour and they were so enthralled. I was hoping the assistant superintendent that was visiting our school would stop in, but no such luck.

How do you teach visualizing???

Hope your week is starting off great!

Marcy

Wanda the WITCH!

For our October Project-Based Learning unit, I was going to do spiders. With all of the cute things on Teachers Pay Teachers, I thought that would be SO much fun! But then I remembered my former best friend at school Katie used to do Wanda the Witch and I couldn't resist bringing it out....

We had a visit today from Wanda the Witch!!! YIKES!

The kids are LOVING it!

She first left this before school...

with a letter inside that said this...

And then she returned after lunch with a letter that said this...

I wonder when she'll make her next appearance...

Have a GREAT weekend!

I'm off to our Autumn Festival Craft Show!!!
Marcy