February 3...

What an amazing day!
Today started out with beautiful flowers and homemade cards! It couldn't be any better! The best part of birthday's at my age are the JOY that the kids get from them.  ANNNNDDD then Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Landrum came bounding in with the CUTEST bucket of tumblers and gift cards!  Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for all of the goodies!  The littles think we should all head to Target's toy section!  And of course how could any birthday be complete without the talk of AGE...So...we figured mine out!  We started with 2015 and then subtracted my birth year and you've got to LOVE when one shouts out, "IN the NINETEENS?" haha....yep those 1900's...Anyway, one little asked was it in the 40's or the 50's...So, I just broke down and gave it to them straight...1914!  We did the subtraction and SURE enough it came out to make me 101 YEARS OLD! And what I LOVE even more when they don't believe that I'm 101 years old is when they say, "UH UH...you are ONLY like 80!" They keep me young...I can't imagine spending my birthday with any better group of littles!

We started our day with Pam Calvert, author of Princess Peepers.  (I have just recently been introduced to her this wonderful princess and she's done writing about her!)  She told us she is a Plano native and has plans to start a new series about a Ballerina Knight.  She is still looking for a name for this ballerina!
She was very informative and entertaining.  She chose some of our Spears' students to act out a "new" story, Princess Peepers and the Magic Glasses. I'm trying to get it uploaded but Youtube is not cooperating with me at the moment!  I will keep working on it! These are some of the books that were offered prior to her visit!  I snuck a quick read of Multiplying Menace and there were SEVERAL littles that really enjoyed it and wanted to make sure I posted it so that they could convince you to get them a copy of it at Barnes and Noble!

 We will have these two books in our classroom!  I think there was a special fairy princess that sent us Princess Peepers Picks a Pet! 

This week we started learning about the genre poetry.  Yesterday each group were given a stack of poetry books...I asked them to look through and see what they noticed about poems...I LOVE their responses!  We will continue to refer back to this chart and see if we can add things, delete things or just need to move them around!

We were on the fence about rhythm...so we will continue to check the poems we read to see if we can find rhythm in each and every one.  There was a discussion about WORDS as well...(I just really enjoy listening to these kids really discuss and try to persuade one another to their side of thinking)! The discussion went something like this, "Words are in all poems. NO, I have seen books that have no words...But I don't think those were poems...Oh, yeah maybe you're right. Okay, all poems have words!" So, we put that on Always unless we are proven differently!  Once again, they continue to amaze me!

Today was the last day of our focus of Time measurement.  Everyone seems to being doing very well with hour and half hour...but that's not stopping most of them!  I love to see them checking the hour hand and then checking the minute hand...I catch them counting by fives and many of them break it down further and continue counting by ones.  And again with discussions...I like digital clocks better, no analog clocks make you smarter!!! CRACKS me up!

In science, as we talk about Frogs and their life cycle we are getting acquainted with Pebble Go.  Next week we will begin researching ocean animals!  We will record our research on an organizer, from there we will begin to write a non fiction book and an expository composition! We will do one together before we send the littles off on their own research mission!

Super Star STudent...

 Last week Sepano was joined by his sweet family!  Thanks mom and dad for coming!

This week Kendall tells ALL...I'm working on her sharing her story The Monster Who Lost his Mean!...once again Youtube...

Lightning Bolts Adventures...
OH poo...Lightning Bolt went home with me last night and took a nice LONG, Gentle cycle BATH...Oh my he was looking ICKY...haha After, a night of tumble dry...he's GOOD AS NEW!

Last week...she spent the week at Palmer's house!

THANK YOU AGAIN,

I just am not sure what I have done to deserve such a wonderful Spears Experience!  The most precious of kiddos, kind, caring families...I don't want this year to END!