Published Authors!

Hello Sweet Friends,

I'm writing to you today to tell you about how wonderful people can be. It is amazing how so many share their time, passion, and love with our students. I want to write to you about an amazing woman who lifted my students up and made them feel incredible! 

Her name is Athina and she is a published illustrator, as well as a great mom to one awesome kid I have the pleasure to teach! 

Athina gave up 6 days out of her busy schedule to come to our class and teach our students about the makings of a good book.

 She also believed in them and helped them become authors themselves, with the finished product being some of the best writing I have read all year. 

Take a look at our book project!

First, Athina came in with some great story books. She read them to the class and discussed the illustrations, word choice, and meaning. 

This was one of my favourite picks!

What a great book!

The next session was all about brainstorming. The students worked on their overall ideas for the book and some character development.

Following this, the students met with their editor (Athina) who advised them on the best direction to take and changes that could be made. 

The students took their meetings seriously and worked with the suggestions that were made.

The writing process began and authors were in the making!

The fourth session is when the real fun started! The students got to write and illustrate their stories in book format and it was a great experience. 

The kiddies continued this process for the last two sessions as well. They worked so hard and felt so proud! They even wrote a little Bio and added the school as their publishing house. 

Our last session also included some sharing. Some of my most reluctant students read their stories to the class. The big smiles were contagious!

The kiddies were so excited to work with Athina and grew to love her so much!

 They wrote some amazing Thank You cards for her.

We were sad that it ended but oh so grateful that we had this experience!

Thank you Athina for being a wonderful and inspiring teacher.

Until next time...

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Five for Friday

Hey Everyone,

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for some Five for Friday Fun!

1. Welcome to Dinoland!

We are in the last stretch before the end of the school year and amidst exams and formal evaluations we are learning about some dinosaurs!

Each pack includes a color read aloud (with a lesson and great meaning), craft, fun activity, stationary, and fact cards about the dinosaur.

We are having SOOOOO much fun! Can't wait to blog about it!

   

   

   

Click on the PICTURES to check out these packs!

2. New MacBook

I'm so excited! My last MacBook was with me for over 6 years and it was starting to play tricks on me! Sneaky thing! I splurged and got myself a new computer.

Of course, I decked it out in girly gear and an Ariel screensaver!

3. Mr. Anderson

As I mentioned in a past post, we had a terrible loss in our school this year. Our beloved physical education teacher passed away suddenly and we are heartbroken. This past week, we held a memorial in his honor. Our front entrance was decorated with messages of love and all the things he was passionate about.  

He loved handball and instilled that love in so many students. On the day of his memorial, there was a sea of purple as our handball players past and present wore their jerseys to honour him.

4. Graduation Fun

I am so proud of my girl Reshma. She just completed her masters degree (while teaching full time). She is my resource teacher and the kiddies just love her to pieces so the cycle one team threw her a little pre-grad celebration!

5. Portfolio Freebie

As the end of the year approaches, we've been working on our portfolios and reminiscing! 

You can grab a free copy of my simple Portfolio resource HERE!

I can't wait to blog about this too!

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching!

Until next time...

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Camping at School

Hello Everyone,

As promised, here is a quick little post about our Camping at School adventures!

Yep! It turns out we have enough crazy teachers (and parent volunteers) to gather together to actually SLEEP at school OVERNIGHT with our second graders. 

And... Yep! I'm one of them! 

In fact, it was all my idea!

The evening started off with the kiddies returning to school and having a little pasta dinner. We have some of the best parents and they volunteered to cook for everyone!

After we ate, we split the students in 4 groups of 12 and completed 4 stations!

The first station was all about S'mores!

The second station was all about art!

The fourth center was all about playing outside and the fifth centre was all about indoor games.

Memory, Read/Write the Room, Bingo

Finally, we gathered in the gym for some camp songs 

and then headed outside for some flashlight fun!

A great time was had by all and a great deal of sleep was missed by most! 

Prior to this event, we completed some camping units in class.

   

   

   

Click on the pictures to check them out!

Until next time...

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