Reading Month, electricity rules, and flying the coop

 What a month! What a week! What a day! What a moment!

Wait a minute!
I'm done! The kids are gone, the power is all unplugged from every electrical appliance in our building! (I'll tell you more about that in a bit.) And now I'm finishing up on a couple things and I'm off to Florida tomorrow afternoon.

Remember at the start of March we decorated our building with beautiful artwork? Well the finale was last night. We hold Stars on Stage every March. This is a time for each classroom to perform for the families. There were songs, plays, and poetry and it was very well received. Also in each room there is another activity going on so the families have something else to do while they are waiting for their child's turn on the stage. One room has tattoos, one has A Minute to Win It games, one had bingo, one was a dance party with disco ball too! One room you could make a book mark, and also one room set up with snacks and tables full of lost and found items for parents to identify. Our library is also open with computers on for kids to show parents what they can do on them. We have a book mobile outside which is a local book store brings a trailer filled with books (new and used) for the families to buy.

I know it was a hit, because the weather cooperated and we had 450 people who signed in. . . keep in mind we are a small school with only 150 students. It was a great night. . . . . a long one. . . home by 8:30, but a great night for families.

Today was a piece of cake. . . couple of specials and a read a thon, plus our principal dressed up like a clown because our students met the challenge to read 5,000 books. However, they read 8,800 books instead! Remember that number of only 150 students. . . that's a whole lot of reading in one month!

Oh, the electrical thing. . . Several years ago they did a study of how much electricity we could save if we turned things off every night and if we turned EVERYTHING off on long breaks. It was a pain at first, but now it's a habit and it has really saved us a lot of money. Every night all computers and monitors must be shut off, anything with a light on it must be off. On long breaks they are not only shut off, but they must be unplugged too. You see even a monitor pulls some electricity when it's still plugged in.

So you may be wondering. . . ok, so I don't turn it off, who cares? What's the big deal?

Well that's called the Energy Natzi!!! He is a retired teacher (that we truly all love!) and he has been hired to come in after hours especially when it's dark, to see what's been left on. If he finds something still on, he puts a smiley face ( A SMILEY face? like he's happy? Nah, like he's gotcha!) on it so you know he's been there and found the something that you left on. Then a report is given to our principal showing who isn't doing their part. .. So all in all we do try to help out and turn things off as much as possible. If it saves more money so they can pay me more, all the more reason, I'm willing to do it!!!

Have a great week. . . I will try not to blog while on vaca, but I will at least be reading yours. . .
Until Easter
Happy Happy!


Patty

Pulling Teeth

For several years students have come to me to have their teeth pulled out. . . . I know. . . kind of silly.

I didn't go to dental school, nor do I want to.

But I don't mind pulling teeth.

My hygenist found out that I am doing this so she made this cute little kit for me! Isn't that just so sweet of her?

Inside are gloves, gauze squares, rolled cotton (like the ones she has in her mouth) plastic teeth to put the extracted tooth in, and stickers to give the brave child!
I do love this lady who takes such good care of my own teeth and cares for the teeth of my students!

Today little Miss Di comes to me and asks me if I can pull her teeth. . .  teeth? as in more than one? Yup she has two that are ready! 

So she braves both of them and is so proud of herself, she is even willing to pose for a picture for me! 

Patty

BAM FREEBIE

My kids love . . .love. . . LOVE to play BAM! I don't know who created it, and if you did, I'd love to give you credit for doing so. (I even searched google for BAM and didn't find it!)

I created a BAM game with some of the words our students need to take the MEAP test in Michigan. These are words for the language arts portion of the test.

Rules for the game. Each child takes a card  from a pile with the cards face down and reads it. If they can read it, they keep it in a pile in front of them. If they can't read it, they place it in a pile near the stack of unread cards. If they draw a card that says BAM, then they must turn all of their cards back to the pile near the stack of unread cards. The person with the most cards in the end is the winner. You can reshuffle them and play again.

(When I first played it and drew one of the BAM cards I wanted to say DAM! So I'm pretty sure that the creator thought of that when they named it!)

A couple suggestions. Don't color in the words BAM, because my kids could see ahead of time when it was coming. Also, they are probably too many BAM cards, so feel free to take some out. Playing the game this way only asks kids to be able to read the words. But you could have them define the word also if you'd like in order for them to be able to keep the word.

I'd love to know how you feel about this game. . . I think this is very appropriate for 2nd, 3rd, or 4th graders.
 Click on BAM to get your copy of the game. . . I couldn't include a picture of it here because it was created in EXCEL and apparently you can't save things as jpgs. . . who knew?

3 more days and I'm on spring break and off to Florida. . . yippee skippee . . I can't wait!

Patty