Henry and Mudge

It was kind of fun having all the pieces
and gluing all together, just like a puzzle. 

I guess you  have noticed that it has been quite a time that I don't stop by to post anything. Well, it has been difficult for me to adapt to a new grade level. It hasn't been an easy task to have a last minute change,  when you have three levels: kindergarten, second grade and fifth grade. Oh,  well!  I keep going!

My second graders loved the story Henry and Mudge and we worked on the sequence of events using a very creative idea  I saw on Pinterest ( I believed) but I can't remember exactly. 

First, I made a template, traced the dog face on different beige tone construction papers, traced the floppy ears, and the snout. Then they drew and colored the eyes, and added the collar. The students cut and paste following oral instructions to create their own Mudge. 

We cut out bones to write the story events and then placed them in order. We glued them to a strip of poster board for the bulletin board. It was a huge success!  Hope you like them!

This is how it looks on the bulletin board of the hallway. 

Everybody loved the dogs! 

A drawing made by one of my students

We cut out bones to write thestory events
 It was a huge success!  Hope you like them!

smile! 

Interactive Wisdom Tree

For this school year, I chose the OWL theme for my classroom. It was my daughter's idea. She loves owls!! I like them, but I need to accept that I'm starting to love them!  Well, after drawing, painting, cutting all my classroom decors, I needed to decide what I was going to do for the exit door. I was clueless on Friday. All of a sudden, my daughter told me: Mom! I know !!... I have an idea!?!?  I have seen it in Pinterest !!        She then explained me the idea of making an interactive fingerprint tree were all the visitors "stamp" their thumbprint. "Perfect!" I exclaimed.  I just needed to draw and paint the tree trunk with the branches, then added a small owl as a special touch.  Since this was going to be for the Open House, I used fingerpaint. I set up a table with all the materials needed. My daughter and I placed our fingerprints first as examples. We had such a fun time, all family members stamped their fingerprints, teachers, office's secretary, our Principal even our School Director.

Thank You All for sharing with us!

Interactive Wisdom Tree 

my daughter,  thanks for the wonderful idea!! 

Classroom Pic's

After having to move to my new classroom, I'm almost ready...yes, I have to say classes began today and my classroom was almost ready. I still need to finish some details, but I'm so happy that I want to show all of you the results. I will appreciate all your comments.

Entrance Door

Reading Area 

Focus Wall 

Here you can see the back of the room
 From left to right,the reading center, spelling center, poem, center

my board

teacher's desk

Back 2 School

After a lot of summer planning, we were ready to start a new school year! Yesterday was our Open House. A Big Surprise for the Fifth graders, when they saw me, on the 2nd floor classroom."Teacher Leisha" they exclaimed. Why are you here?  Oh, no!  Really! ...Yeah!!! Yeah!!

It was  a mix of emotions!  On one side, I will miss my little ones (preschool) which I would not have this year; on the other hand, the fifth graders  were my students when they were on second grade.  Their parents were as happy as them. To see their bright eyes and emotions made feel so happy and enthusiastic. What else can I ask for at the beginning of the year? Not much... Thanks to all!

So after some changes made by the school administration, I will be teaching English to kindergarten, second grade and fifth grade. I'll be hopping from one grade to another ( LOL ) Well, after practicing blog hopping during my summer vacations, I think I'm in good shape!

Glogster Mania

I've been "playing" on Glogster.Edu & I made this for my kindergartners! Have you worked with Glogster before? If so, can you give me any advise, suggestions or any comments? Do your students like it?

I also made one like a graphic organizer, for my second graders  with the idea of completing it with them. Check it out!  What do you think about it?

My First Glogster

Hi, I'm so excited!  I did my first Glogster. I'm just "playing" around a little bit with the program to check what things we can do there. It's just a matter of  your imagination, find the pictures or photos that you want, get your style, color scheme, size,borders, background, write your own titles. It's great!  You can add sound, videos, animations and best of all they have a FREE OPTION for teachers!!
I started by linking some sight word videos in my first poster. That was simple, but it looks nice! Better than going to youtube and finding one by one. I can have them organized by week, by theme, etc. It's more appealing to the kids sight.  If you haven't try it, check it out Glogster Edu 

Sight Words Reading Blocks

 Today's project was to make the sight words reading blocks. I first saw this idea on Pinterest. I read more about it from Filth Wizardry . What is it all about?  Simple! get some white stickers and write sight words on each Duplo block.  I got the stickers in the dollar section from Kmart, and I was lucky enough to have a set of blocks at home that nobody wanted because my kids are grown ups, now. I'm using a plastic storage box to store them because I don't have their original box. There are so many other alternatives given on that blog, that I'm looking forward to get more blocks.