The Legend of the Poinsettia play

Merry Christmas to all!  Below you will find a video of first grade students performing their adaptation of the book, The Legend of the Poinsettia By Tomie dePaola.  I hope that you are all having a wonderful holiday break:)

Holiday Book Club

Photo slideshow generated with Smilebox  The Third Grade Book Club met to share several favorite holiday books and several books that would be "fun" reads while we are off for the Christmas Break.  We all enjoyed looking at some traditional and not so traditional holiday tales!  Here are several websites that have interesting facts about this special time of year: http://www.msichicago.org/scrapbook/scrapbook_exhibits/catw2004/holiday_traditions.html http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/holidays/ http://www.the-north-pole.com/around/index.htm Also, here is a site with some Christmas math games - http://coolcatteacher.visibli.com/share/aX6dmf

Math Fun on iOS devices

I hope that you all had a wonderful and fun Thanksgiving with your family and friends. I went to see "The Muppet Movie" on opening day which was something that I hadn't planned on, but I really enjoyed doing. I also spent some time working on my computer and iPad and was reminded of some very fun apps that are available for you to practice math facts and math concepts in general. I have added some websites to my "Math Resources" tab at the top of this page for use on the computer and here are some apps that you can find in the app store for the iphone/ipad:
Motion Math
Rocket Math
Splash Math
Mad Math 2
G 2 Math
ACE Kids Math Games
Fraction Fiddle
Kids Math
Coin Math
Math Quizzer
Pop Math
Sumsstacker
Find Sums

HAVE FUN!

Flat Turkeys

St. Mary's Turkey's are making their way to Lafayette, LA in a pen-pal type exchange. First Graders from the Episcopal School of Acadiana sent their "Flat Falcons" (their school mascot) to St. Mary's with interesting thoughts about their school and questions for us about ours. A group of our first graders decorated "Flat Turkey's" created by Mrs. Hutton and mailed them back with the answers to their questions and lists of things that we like about St. Mary's. We hope that we will stay in touch with these new friends throughout this year!

Flat Stanley Storykits

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A small group of first grade students read the book, Flat Stanley, and did several fun activities relating to the story. Before we read the story we made predictions about what would happen to Flat Stanley and we posted these to a Wallwisher (see other post). Next we read the book and took Stanley on an adventure of our own creation in our Storykits using the iPads. Throughout the year different groups of students will come together to participate in these special activities:)

November Book Club

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First Grade Flat Stanley Predictions

OREO Project 2011

Several grades of students have recently participated in a collaborative project organized by Jen Wagner called the OREO Project.  Students make predictions about how high they will be able to stack OREO's in a tower before they topple!  Each student makes two attempts at the towers and then we find the class average of the best attempts.  This information is shared with classes from around the world.  We worked math problems involving cookies, looked up nutritional information about the cookies, and even wrote our own "If you give a ..... an OREO book"!  Click on the Smilebox below to see our girls in action!

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Click here to view the results of the OREO Project 2011.

Scarecrow Collage

Thanks to Ali Fowler for sharing a few more photos from the Lichterman Scarecrow contest award day -

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Receiving our Award

A big thank you goes out to all of the students and their moms who were able to come to the Lichterman Nature Center this afternoon to receive our certificate and $100 prize!  The prize money was donated by Dr. Theodore and Julia Wilson and will be used to buy supplies in the Think Tank.  It was wonderful to get to see all of the scarecrows together and we were amazed at the creativity used in assembling them.  I hope that many more St. Mary's families will make the trip to the Nature Center to see the scarecrows and enjoy this unique asset that we have here in our community.

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Mary Wins Best School Mascot Category!

Lucy poses with "Mary" at the Lichterman.

"Mary, the Robot Rocks" won the Best School Mascot category at the Lichterman Nature Center Scarecrow Contest!  The Lower School students are so happy:)  We were also pleased to find out that she received an Honorable Mention award in the Most Creative category.  Mary, the Robot scarecrow has the possibility of earning yet another award if we all go to the Lichterman and vote for her as "most popular" over the next two months while the scarecrows are on display.  Thank you again to all who helped make this project such a success:)))

Mary, the Robot Rocks!

Mary is settled into her new home at the Lichterman Nature Center, please go visit her and the other "scarecrows" there:)

Lichterman Nature Center Scarecrow Contest

First through Fourth grade students have collaborated during several lunch recess breaks to create an amazing "recycled robot" as our entry in the Lichterman Nature Center Scarecrow Contest. "Mary, The Robot Rocks" will represent the St. Mary's Lower School Think Tank beginning Sept. 8th.  "Mary" was created from recycled items from St. Mary's and our students' homes.  We are grateful to our wonderful helpers - Mrs. Padron, Mrs. McElroy, Mrs. Carter and her cafeteria staff, and our maintenance help, Mr. David and Mr. Leith.  Please take your family and friends to check out all of the scarecrows and learn about outdoor habitats and plants at the - Lichterman Nature Center.

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First Week Fun!

It has been an exciting and fun first week of school!   It has been so nice to see old friends and to welcome some new faces to our campus.  Another new thing that happened this week was an organizational meeting of a group of students who are going to work on our first Think Tank project, a scarecrow entry in a contest sponsored by the Lichterman Nature Center.  The Center is a great resource for our city and we are looking forward to being a part of this activity.  The students discussed using objects that we already have around our houses, turning our "trash" into a "treasure".  There will be more information on this project to follow...
In the meantime, click on the smilebox below for a few photos from our first week of school:)

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August Activities

August is a month filled with fun activities and events for my family.  We just returned from the beach Saturday night after having celebrated my 21st wedding anniversary with my husband and my daughter's 12th birthday (and my husband's birthday is on August 20th).  Today I have returned to school to start setting up our wonderful new "Think Tank" classroom in Davis Hall.  I am so excited about the activities that we will all do in that room!  Be thinking about new things to research and study and I look forward to seeing you all next week:)

Summertime

Summer is quickly winding down (I can tell because my daughter is working on her last book for her summer reading!).  I hope that you all have been enjoying some good books and would love for you to comment on them on this blog.  It is always great to read something recommended by a friend:)  I have recently added some sites to the SMS delicious page, so please click on the Resources and Activities tab above to access them.  I am going to fit in a last trip out-of-town to the beach at the end of this month and plan to read some magazines and perhaps a school book or two.  See you all soon!

Vacation Time

I hope that you are all having a fun summer so far!  I had an unexpected trip to the beach with some of my girlfriends that attended elementary and high school with me.  It was great visiting with them and sharing good times.  I have seen several of our St. Mary's friends at various swimming pools, vacation bible school, and softball fields and I hope to see many more of you before we return to school.  When you aren't out playing don't forget to check your grade level's delicious pages and the Learning Specialist's Delicious page for some interesting activities and games.  Take care:)

Monster Re-Draw

Click here to view our Monster Re-Draw photo show

End of Year Fun!

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Monster Project Wiki

Please check out our drawings and descriptions of our monsters and our re-drawn monsters that we created from the descriptions of the classes we were paired with this year. It was amazing to see how closely some of the monsters resembled the original drawings, and we all learned the importance of being as accurate and descriptive as possible when writing our paragraphs.
Click here for our original monsters
Click here for re-drawn monsters
Click here for more of the re-drawn monsters

Summer Fun Book Club final meeting:)

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Math Fun (for parents too!)

I had the wonderful opportunity a couple of weeks ago to travel to Indianapolis, IN with several of our great St. Mary's teachers to attend the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics conference.  We had a fun time talking about math and learning about new programs and strategies to share with our colleagues and students.  One quick resource that you can use right now is the Everyday Math website with examples of how to work problems in a little different way from the traditional method that you may be used to - click here for the link to  Everyday Math Parent Resources (then click on the free family resources page and then one of the algorithm pages).  Please let me know if you have any questions about this - glandaiche@stmarysschool.org.

April Book Club - Celebrating Poetry!

This month is National Poetry Month and our 2nd grade book club celebrated by sharing some of our favorite poems.  See the Smilebox with photos from our meeting and go to my delicious page for activities using poetry...Delicious page http://www.delicious.com/smsresources

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"On Stage" video

Here is the link to a download of the video Mr. Tanner made of the "Angelina Ballerina" performance of the "On Stage" Enrichment Cluster - Link to download of play

Pippi Pictures

Whew! Last week was so busy! It started with the field trip to the Pippi Longstocking play at the Cannon Center and, although I didn't go on the field trip, I loved reading about Pippi with the second graders before they went. Mrs. Collier and I were talking one day at the copier and came up with a "book hook" and descriptive drawing activity based on the original Pippi Longstocking book. The smilebox below includes the girls and their Pippi drawings that they drew before they read about her (except for some who had already read her books or had seen a Pippi movie!). From all of the talk after the girls returned, it sounded like they had a great time at the play:)
Last week also included my attending a presentation hosted by St. Mary's by the author of a book called, Hamlet's Blackberry by William Powers. The author talked about how important it is to have a "balance" in our lives with all of the amazing technological tools available to keep us "connected" all of the time. It is an interesting read!

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Mythology Overview

Second grader Jessica J. created an informative power point presentation for her class on Greek Gods and Goddesses. She shared clip art pictures of different gods and explained what they represented. We all appreciated her hard work and enjoyed her interesting lesson.

Monster Exchange

All of the Second Grade students participated in a descriptive writing activity that involved them drawing a monster on the computer and then writing a clear, concise description of their monster to share with a friend.  The girls exchanged their descriptions and tried to re-create their friends' monster.  Each classroom voted for their "favorite" monsters and twenty were chosen from the second grade (click on the Smilebox below to view those that were selected).  These twenty monsters are being shared with a class in Illinois that we are paired with through a collaborative online project.  We will soon try to replicate the other classes' monsters and they will try to copy ours.  This would be a fun activity to do at home with a sibling, neighbor or friend describing something new or even an everyday object from around the house!

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"On Stage" Performance!

Here are some highlights from the Enrichment Cluster Showcase performance of "Angelina Ballerina" -

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Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler Book Club!

Check out our Mardi Gras themed book club that meet this past week...
Also go to http://www.delicious.com/smsresources for some fun Mardi Gras activities!

Dress Rehearsal for "On Stage" Enrichment Cluster

Thanks so much to the JK and SK classes for attending our dress rehearsal and being such a wonderful audience!  Here are a few photos from today...

Angelina Practice

Check out our play practice this past week - looking good!!
Angelina Practice

QR Codes

I recently sent a flyer via email to the parents of the students in the "On Stage" enrichment cluster that included a "QR" code at the bottom of the sheet.   

All that is needed to "read" these "quick response or QR" codes is a free app that can be downloaded on to a "smart phone". When you scan the code with your phone it will take you directly to a specific website. Here is the OR code for this blog:

Penguin Project Presentation

The Adelie penguin chicks and their parents left their nests in Cape Royds, Ross Island, Antarctica on January 19, 2011, but two of Mrs. Haddad's parrots, Lily Claire and Mia continued their research. The girls worked before school and during lunch to create a keynote presentation that they shared with their class this past week. They found interesting facts and photos about penguin habits and we reported that four of the six nests that we had followed this year were successful.

On Stage on the road!

The On Stage Enrichment Cluster this week enjoyed practicing and preparing for our play and going on a tour of the Rose Theater.  After lunching together we boarded the SMS van to go across the street.  Our tour guide was the one and only, Mrs. Jenny Madden and is was fascinating seeing all of the "behind the scenes" places and props.  Click on the photo below to see some of what we saw and did!  

Monster Project

The Second Grade students recently began work on a "Monster Project" that involves drawing and describing a "monster" and sending the description to a school that we are paired with in Illinois.  This collaborative venture incorporates creative writing using adjectives with drawing and improves visualization skills.  We will send twenty descriptions to our partner class at Jefferson Elementary School in Ottawa, IL and see if they are able to accurately duplicate them.  As an introduction to the project we watched one of my very favorite cartoons from Saturday mornings as a youngster - see below and enjoy!

Grammar Rock Adjectives Video

Grammar Rock Adjectives

Fun and Games (and learning too!)

We have been enjoying testing some new games at St. Mary's. See below a list of "kid-friendly" games and activities that stimulate our brains and are lots of fun too! Mrs. Person has even hosted "game days" at lunchtime for the teachers:) Some of the activities require a board game, some just need a deck of cards, and others can be found on devices like ipods/itouches (click here for an updated list compiled by Mrs. Lancaster of some of the "apps" we are using here at school) - http://myap.ps/SMSLowerSchool.


Chess
Checkers
Cubico

Minicube
Q-bitz
Logic Links
Scrabble Slam
Konexi
Catch Phrase (electronic version)
Boggle
Jenga
Scrabble
Quirkle
Set
Ruckus
Ugly Doll
Manchala
Blokus (Duo and Trigon)
Rush Hour
Shut the box
Banagrams
Colorku
Sudoku

Enrichment Cluster Fun!

The "On Stage" Enrichment Cluster met to discuss our upcoming production of "Angelina Ballerina"! We had auditions for parts and the "behind the scenes" crew began making lists of needed items. The creative juices and ideas were flowing and we are all looking forward to our next session together and an upcoming field trip across the street! Click on the Smilebox to see some photos:)

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All we need is Love...and a few friends and books:)

The February gathering of the Second Grade Book Club had a theme of "love" and several of the girls brought some of their favorite books about Valentine's Day.  After sharing our books we enjoyed sugar cookies and then "shopped" for books from some that I had gathered together.  Hopefully during our next meeting we can group several girls together to discuss similar books and authors.  Click on the Smilebox to see a few photos from last week -

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Flat Classroom Project

I had an exciting opportunity last month to participate in judging videos made by students from around the world as part of the Flat Classroom Project initiative. The Flat Classroom Project is centered on the concept of providing meaningful project-based learning opportunities to students in different parts of the world. Using topics from the book, The World is Flat, by Thomas Friedman they collaborate and create a video that is judged by other teachers around the world (like me!). By flattening the world (lowering the classroom walls), classes are connected to join together virtually and become one big classroom. At the current time, only high school students are eligible to participate (although there was a "pilot" session this past fall with 5th-8th graders) - I will keep you posted! For more information on the Flat Classroom Project click here -

"On Stage" Enrichment Cluster!

This past week we all met with our enrichment cluster groups for the first time. Mrs. Stephens, Mrs. Miller and I have a wonderful group of first and second grade students who were full of creative ideas for our cluster experience. We brainstormed the roles involved in the production of a play and ended our session with a discussion of possible scripts and a listing of "experts" that know who could be resources for us throughout this process. Below is a "smilebox" with photos from our meeting -

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Accelerated Math for Second Graders

This semester a small group of second graders have been given the opportunity to work on "accelerated math packets". This is a voluntary activity and will be completed during free time at school or at home. The students are encouraged to work on the packets by themselves, but they are able to ask their teachers or parents if they have questions because they will encounter material that has not be discussed in class. I also plan to meet weekly (if possible) with the students to present brief lessons and review the problems that they miss.

Skyping with Africa!

When Mrs. Yant's Fourth Grade class read a National Geographic Kids article entitled, "Thirsty Planet" last Fall, who knew that it would lead to a fascinating skype discussion with a St. Mary's alum working on a water filtration system in Africa! Shortly after we read the article, I was talking with Mrs. McElroy about her daughter (Rachel) and her daughter's good friend who is working for 10 months in Africa. We realized that Katie Camille Friedman (St. Mary's graduate from 2006) is studying at an Engineering school in W. Africa and specifically trying to help the surrounding communities use local materials to make funnels that filter out impurities and parasites from the water supplies. We contacted Katie through email and on the day that all of St. Mary's participated in the "Sit for Good" on November 30, 2010 (where we role-played that we were students in Uganda), we brainstormed questions that we wanted to ask Katie after her life and work in Africa. This past week (Thursday, Jan. 13) we were finally able to connect with Katie via Skype (see photos below). It was such a wonderful experience to talk with this exemplary graduate of St. Mary's - she is a terrific role model for us all! We hope to continue our relationship throughout this semester and would like to check in with Katie sometime in May. Thank you to Mrs. Lancaster and Mrs. McElroy for making our Skype session so successful! 

P.S.  Katie recently sent me this link about the
water purification program (Potters for Peace)  - click here for more information.