2014_12_19 Friday

From Elise's teacher: Today we talked about all the things we are going to do over the holiday break. We worked on sight words big,in. We also found the missing vowels in between CVC words. Elise played on the kindle while we did the sight words. We had fun with playdoh. We played with Frozen themed matching cards yesterday and today. They played in pairs and took turns. We made a snowflake with tape and blue paint. We watched Frozen for 30 mins with Ms. Ann's class! :)

How are you feeling today and why are you feeling that way? 

Elise- I am happy because I'm with my friends.

From Elise's reading club: Hello! On Monday, X and X worked on words can, it. X Elise and X completed the booklet Come See My... X also worked on coloring sight words Christmas tree sheet. On Tuesday, X and X worked on see, it. X Elise and X read a winter booklet. On Wednesday X and X worked in words for, in. X X and Elise completed the booklet Ready For Christmas. We all played sight word bingo. We all did some round robin reading with 3 Curious George Curious About Phonics books. On Thursday, X  and X worked on the word big. It was X's birthday! X completed the booklet Snow Falling. We enjoyed our last day of reading club of the semester by doing sight words flash cards outside on the playground. Then we took turns on the kindle. I read BOB books with X . 

2014_12_18 Thursday

Well, Elise stayed home from school today. She seemed a lot worse last night and this early morning than she did by late morning. I'm not sure if I got snowed. But, especially after the TV went off at 9:30, she suddenly felt a lot better. hmmm.

E: Mom, please don't kiss me on the lips.
M: Oh, honey, why not?
E: Because I don't want anyone in the world to get sick germs from me.
awwww.

2014_12_17 Wednesday

From Elise's teacher: Today we discussed Hanukkah - discussed latkes, gelt, dreidels, story of how Hanukkah came about. We talked about how it is the first day today. We painted a menorah with our hands. We made the Star of David with Popsicle sticks by putting 2 triangles together. I read books The Hanukkah Mice and This is the dreidel. French teacher will bring work tomorrow and they will bring home!:)

I read X'sbook Spin the dreidel. She had a dreidel with it so we had a chance to talk about the game! I read Polar express from X. I read X's Curious George Christmas countdown. X brought Pete the cat saves Christmas.
Tell me something you learned about Hanukkah today: 
Elise- you play a game with a dreidel and you spin it and land on a letter like nun.

2014_12_16 Tuesday

From Elise's teacher: Today we reviewed what the holiday Kwanzaa is about. We made a kinara and learned what the candles signify. We played a dice game to put Santa together on his sleigh. We played with the category cards to put things in certain categories. They had Spanish today.  I read X's book 'Twas the night before Christmas and X's book The Angel and the Lamb. I read X's book Gingerbread Baby. We had music time at the end of day and listened to winter songs. 

What did you like doing today? 
Elise- I like when we danced around for music time.

2014_12_15 Monday

From Elise's teacher: Today we made snowmen that had lots of different shapes. We kept him warm with mittens and a scarf. We worked on sight words see, it. Review at home. We will keep adding to the list and do flash cards as we learn more of them. We also sorted different categories using cards and picture chips. 

I read the book Why Mosquitoes Buzz in Peoples' Ears-- it is a West African tale. We made predictions. We discussed the pattern in the book. We listened to Spin Dreidel Spin for music and danced in a circle. 

What do you remember or like from the story?
Elise- I remembered that the mosquito got slapped by the woman.

Bring in a favorite holiday book this week! Elise brought in Jingle and Bell's Christmas Star and I read it to the class. 

2014_12_12 Friday

Jonathan went to the Fox Theater to see The Nutcracker with his class. Despite some logistic idiocracies, he reported back that he "really loved the show" (never get him to call it a ballet b/c that's for girls -- hmmm!). I think it's so cool that he liked it regardless.

2014_12_11 Thursday

From Elise's teacher: Today we made mosaic tile art with different materials. They had Italian today. I did pattern cards with each student. We went over AB, ABB, AAB, ABC patterns. X played a phonics game on the kindle. I read the book Colors of Us and we discussed how people can be different shades of color/brown like the kids in the story. We came up with words like they did in the story such as cinnamon, honey, caramel, chocolate, peach. We also went over sight words flash cards together as a class. Most recognized I, a, at, up, can, me, on, go. 

What is your favorite wintertime activity? Elise- building a snowman and having a snowball fight with my brother 

From reading club: On Monday, X, X, and I played the roll the dice game with sight words: up, I , at, is, me. X, Elise, and X worked on a color words/sight words coloring sheet. X and X also worked on matching numbers to their number words.  We all went over sight words. X and I went over letter sounds. On Tuesday, X, X, and Elise played the roll the dice game with some of our difficult words such as jump, make, find. We all worked on a coloring reindeer sheet with sight words. X and X also worked on a beginning sounds wkst. On Wednesday X and X made color word cards. Cut out and practice please! They also worked on beginning and ending sounds of CVC words. X, X, and Elise made read What Color Is it? booklet. We went over flash cards.  On Thursday, Elise and X worked on recognizing sight words. They also read BOB books to me. X and X worked on sight word like. X and I also worked on color words. X played a phonics game on the kindle and learned some letter sounds. 

2014_12_10 Wednesday

Jonathan slept from about 5pm last night until about 8am today! insane. And, he stayed home today to recover from strep. We did a tiny bit of TV this morning, but then it was back up to bed and entertaining himself (books, legos, ??). I gave him the Barf Bell, which ended up being more like a maid service, so I may need to rethink that. By this evening, he seems completely better again, thankfully.

From Elise's teacher: Today we made art-kabobs with pipe cleaners and beads. They had to put the beads and noodles through the pipe cleaners. We pretended to add our favorite foods to them. Then they had a BBQ with a partner. I read  The Twelve Days of Christmas. They had French. We drew 3 pictures for letter Ll in our folders. We drew a lamp, lollipop, lizard. We practiced counting objects 11-13. We practiced making patterns. We practiced our song one last time!:) 

What is your favorite language to learn and tell me a word you know in that language? 
Elise my fav language is Spanish the word is roja it means red 
We went to Elise's winter pageant tonight too. pix/video? to follow. Her teacher gave me a nice poinsettia.

We decorated our tree too!

2014_12_09 Tuesday

Jonathan's been feeling off for the past few days; he says that his tummy hurts and that his throat hurts when he talks. (I know a very easy solution for the latter.) This morning as we were rushing around to catch the bus, he turned to me and said: "Mom, I don't feel good. I really think I might have ebola." We talked a little about how safe we are (and that people with ebola actually come here to get better; whew, did that come in handy!!), but I ran out of time. So, I alerted the school nurse and his teacher to be considerate of that fear. ;o) Well, he got sent home around 1pm for a fever, and we stopped by CVS to rule out strep, but the nurse ruled in strep. Jonathan has to stay home for 24hrs, so he'll miss the last day of his science club; he's pretty bummed about that.

And, a few days ago, Elise had a doozy. "You know, when boys get their fingers painted, it's called a manicure." I couldn't resist asking what it's called when girls do: "a ladycure, of course."

Elise had a complete, satanic episode this morning. I asked her to get dressed; she refused. I told her that I would pick an outfit or she could; she refused. Then, I stuffed her into jeans and a sweater; she did not really appreciate that. Then, I had to rush to get dressed myself b/c I had a conference to attend this morning. When I went back to her room, she was hiding in the closet, naked. OOOOH, was I furious. I jammed her back into the clothes that I chose (she kept yelling that she didn't like those), and we proceeded to breakfast. How do you like those consequences?! I explained that I hope that tomorrow she gets up and selects what she'd like to wear so that we don't repeat this nonsense. She was fine afterward. When I dropped her off at school, she said that she was only going to be respectful of her teacher and babysitter. Hopefully by the time she gets home, she will have reset herself.

From Elise's teacher: Today we talked about poinsettias and made one. We heard a story of where the plant came from in Mexico. We also made stockings. I read the book How My Parents learned to Eat. I had a pair of chopsticks and we practiced picking up an erase with them! They had Spanish today. We practicing writing Ll in our journals as well as numbers 1-10. We made patterns with buttons and pattern cards. 
Tell me something you learned about poinsettias today: 
Elise- they come in different colors 

2014_12_08 Monday

From Elise's teacher: Today we talked about ways people eat food all around the world whether with chopsticks or on the floor. I read Come and Eat! and we discussed people from Tibet, Nigeria, Japan, Chinese, America and what foods they eat. We focused a little more on Japanese foods. We talked about what they eat such as sushi, rice bowls, fish, other seafood. We drew a picture in our journals of how our family eats.  We worked on the letter of the week Ll. We made a Christmas tree by painting it green with forks! Then we added glitter ornaments. They had Mandarin today. 

What type of new food do you want to try from our book or something else we talked about today?

Elise- I would like to try sushi with rice and shrimp 

2014_12_05 Friday

Today is St. Nicholaus!!!

From Elise's teacher: Today we completed some different crafts. We all made a snowman craft. We worked in centers practicing writing and counting numbers. X played a phonics game on the kindle. Some students worked on a sight word worksheet. They had German today. We practiced for the pageant. I also read the story The Sandwich Swap and we made predictions throughout the story. We also made real life connections by talking about a time we have had a problem with a friend and how we solved the problem just like how the girls solved the problem in the book. I also read Everybody Bakes Bread which is about different cultures baking different types of breads.

And also Jennifer (Elise's mom) came by to talk about their family's tradition of leaving shoes for St. Nicholas to come and give treats to good boys and girls. I talked about what it means to be a good person and to do nice things for people. We talked about things we shouldn't do like steal or say bad words. They enjoyed taking their shoes off and receiving some goodies! Thank you for coming!!

Tell me something about the St. Nicholas story you just heard:
Elise - St Nicholas walks with his friend down the street and St Nicholas gives candy to the good kids and his friend gives bad stuff to the bad kids

From Reading Club: Hello! X will be joining us from now on! :) And also X will be with us for a while! :) both are in Ms X's class. I will send this email weekly with what we did that week in reading club. On Monday, since we had a large group we did many different activities where we either worked independently or in pairs. I went around and
checked their work and also worked one-on-one with all the students. We read She Will Play booklet. We worked on sounds and read BOB books. X played a game on the kindle. On Tuesday, we worked on consonant blends. X and X and I worked on letter sounds. We worked on learning our color words. On Wednesday, X and Elise read and made Things I Like. X and X worked on sight words up, I,a. We all went over flash cards. On Thursday, X and Elise played a roll the dice game with sight words. X and X worked on the sight word go. We read BOB books and played on the kindle.  We went over flash cards.

2014_12_04 Thursday

From Elise's teacher: Today we made a holiday chain where each student's decorated links by drawing holiday pictures. We put it all together to create a chain. We worked on some addition problems. We completed a K is for King craft. I read Celebrations of Light and we talked about different holidays and how light is apart of most holidays. We practiced for our pageant. 

Why do we celebrate different holidays?  Why is light important to many holidays? 

Elise- Light helps you see in the dark. 

2014_12_03 Wednesday

From Elise's teacher: Today we talked more about traditions and also about holidays from around the world. I read the book Traditional Celebrations. We learned about Chinese New Year, Running with the Bulls, New Year's Eve, Chu Suk. We played with gumball mats where they counted out chips in the machines and wrote the numbers --1-20. We worked on our letter folders for K. We drew key, koala, kite. They had French today. We worked on sequencing events. 

What is a tradition your family has? 
Elise- I help my family put the decorations in be Christmas tree

2014_12_02 Tuesday

From Elise teacher: Today we talked about family traditions. We talked about the traditions that people who celebrate Kwanzaa partake in. I read the book Kwanzaa Kids which explained the holiday. We learned what a kinara is and the colors for Kwanzaa. We learned how many days Kwanzaa. For art we each made a drawing about something important that signifies our families on a small square. Then I put the squares together to make a quilt.  

Show and tell shares:
Elise- for my show and tell I brought keys because keys starts with k.

2014_12_01 Monday

From Elise's teacher: Hello and welcome back! Hope everyone enjoyed the holiday! :) Today we talked about the new month and all the festivities that will happen. We talked about different holidays. We made an invitation to invite you all to our winter pageant that is next week. We are having fun practicing and can't wait for you guys to see our show! We worked on color words and counting today also. Letter of the week is Kk. We came up with words that start with K. 

Who are you going to invite to the pageant? 
Elise-I'm going to invite my mommy and daddy and my brother 

2014_11_21 Friday

Dave flew to IAD with the kids and I picked them up.

From Elise's reading club: On Monday, X worked on the word down. We all worked on the word away. And now we also have started reading short booklets with CVC words. We read What do you have? On Tuesday, we read BOB books, worked on my Kindle, did flash cards, and counted objects on math worksheets. On Wednesday, we read BOB books and played in the kindle. We also worked on rhyming words. X completed the violet what can we draw? We all worked on a teen numbers/color words wkst.  On Thursday, the girls completed 2 booklets. We did flash cards. We played I Have__ who has__? Game. 

2014_11_20 Thursday

From Elise's teacher: Today we talked about Thanksgiving. I read Pete the Cat the first Thanksgiving. I also read Bear Says Thanks. We talked about where we are going for thanksgiving break. We worked on counting skills. We made a 5 little turkeys booklet. They had Italian.

Show and tell shares: 

Elise- for my show and tell I brought my baby bear. I'm thankful that my brother gave it to me. 

2014_11_19 Wednesday

From Elise's teacher: Today we talked about our bones. First we guessed how many bones they think we have. Then I told them we have 206 bones. We learned names of some-collarbone, rib cage, femur, phalanges. We danced to Dance Around In Our Bones. I read Give Thanks for Each Day. We finger-painted a turkey. We worked on some math skills. They had French today. We practiced our pageant song. 

What are you thankful for? 

Elise- I am thankful for my mom and dad and Buggy and for Christmas because I get to go to Oma and Opa's house. 

Today was an incredible day for me, professionally. I was responsible for interviewing Dr Kent Brantly and his boss Dr Lance Plyler in front of an audience of 1,500. I rocked it!!! You can Google my name and Ebola, and the event will come up.

2014_11_18 Tuesday

From Elise's teacher: Today we talked about the layers of the skin. We looked at a picture of our skin. We saw the hair follicles and sweat glands. They had Spanish today.  We made a turkey and I read the book Turkey Trouble who was trying not to be apart of thanksgiving dinner!  Today we had X's mom come in and be a mystery reader! She read How Does a Dinosaurs eat their food? , How do dinosaurs say I love you? , Miles and Miles of Reptiles! :) 

What is your favorite dessert pie? 
Elise- my favorite is strawberry 

2014_11_17 Monday

From Elise's teacher: This week we will talk about biology topics. We will also talk about Thanksgiving. X and X shared what they remembered from the scientist that visited the school on Friday! They made toothpaste and popped balloons with and w/o water!  Today we talked about what biology is and what a cell is. We discussed a few parts of a cell- cell wall, ribosomes, mitochondria, nucleus. We looked at pictures in a book called Cells. They had Mandarin today. We had indoor recess where we had different centers. 

Tell me a fact from today: 

Elise- I learned that a cell is a circle. 

2014_11_13 Thursday

From Elise's reading club: On Monday, X worked on the word find. He also made the I See and I Like booklets from last week. He came up with some cake sentences because it was his birthday! :)  Elise and I read 3 BOB books. We will all start reading some daily. I have 2 box sets. X played 2 phonics games on my Kindle. On Tuesday, we worked on the word jump. We read sentences with word little. We talked about why the first letter of people's names are with a uppercase letter. X and X practice writing numbers 1-9. On Wednesday, we each read Mat Hid from BOB books. We read sentences with words with, have. These seem to be hard ones for them. On Thursday, the girls worked on the word down.  They also took turns on the kindle and working with me reading the BOB books, reading CVC words, working with blends. They have moved on to the book Hop in BOB. 

From Elise's teacher: Hello! Today we talked about volcanoes and earthquakes. We also went outside to do a diet coke/ mentos experiment. We discussed what was happening in the reaction. We worked on writing the letter Jj. We practiced counting pictures and circling the number. We all took turns playing science related games during center time. They had Italian today. 

Tell me something you learned about volcanoes or earthquakes today:
Elise- I learned that volcanoes can erupt. I learned when an earthquake happens buildings can break and you can get hurt if you're in it. 

2014_11_12 Wednesday

I got an article today about the lengthy history of the street that runs next to us: http://historyatlanta.com/todd-road/. It's the oldest street in Atlanta and was likely an Indian trail before it was the driveway of famed homesteaders! that's pretty cool.

From Elise's teacher: Today we talked about meteorites and meteors. We made a meteor for art. We played games from the Science File Folder game kit. We drew 3 pictures for the letter Jj in our letter folders. We drew jellybeans, jump rope, and jellyfish. They had French today. I read the book My Teacher is a Dinosaur. It had facts about earth and riddles and jokes. 

Tell me something you learned about space rocks or space today: 
Elise- I learned that when space rocks bump into each other they break off and go into space 

2014_11_11 Tuesday

11/11 is quite a day: Danielle's b'day,Veteran's Day, St Martin's Tag all bundled into one short day. I think I missed my office memo that we had the day off; I can't be sure, but it doesn't really matter since the kids are in school anyway. And, it's remarkable how much more productive I am when I know no one else is around to bug.

I spent too long last night online trying to figure out how to make a couple of lanterns for today without leaving the house (car is getting some work done) and came up with nothing, at least nothing for that project. That doesn't bode well since Auntie S celebrated last night, surely in a big way. Jonathan's teacher is in/out ill so I didn't bother to try to come in this year for a St Martin's lesson; besides, a good number were in his class last year anyway. I did mention it to E's teacher, and I think they discussed in class today. I made some dough this afternoon so that we could all bake pretzels together tonight. Naturally, the evening routine didn't got smoothly (single parenting stinks!), but we did manage to make 3 pretzels.

We didn't get to making Laterne, but that's a-ok. J finished his homework from yesterday and today (include 2-digit subtraction with carrying/re-grouping), but not before we had a very serious talk that Mom and Dad will never hate him, as he apparently suspects we might (can't tell if this is a delay tactic or if something else is going on since there were real tears). Everyone ate dinner; E even took a bath while J read to us. oye. where's my wine?!

oh, did I mention that I've caught up on all the photos I've been meaning to add to this? check, check, and check!

From Elise's teacher: What wonderful and silly hats everyone wore today! :)  Today we talked about the layers inside the earth. We learned the words crust, mantle, inner core, outer core. We made earth layers and labelled them. I read parts from he book Earth's Mantle and Core. We talked more about geologists. We made the letter Jj with playdoh. We completed games from a fun Science Folder kit. Elise shared with the class how her family will celebrate St. Martin's day from Germany. They had Spanish today. 

How do we show we are thankful for the earth and other things in our lives? 
Elise- do not pull leaves off of a tree because it will die. 

2014_11_10 Monday

From Elise's teacher: This week we will talk about geology. Today we talked about who geologists are and what they do. We talked about the 3 types of rocks and how we use rocks in different ways. I read the books Geologists and Rocks and Minerals. X shared a story: she said at home I found a rock at the lake and we tried to find out what it was made out of and it was a fossil.  We became geologists and study some rocks with our magnifying glasses. Our letter of the week is Jj. 
They had Mandarin today. 
What is one fact you learned about Geology today?
Elise- I learned that stones are made out of rocks. 

2014_11_07 Friday

It's like I'm looking in a mirror...

From Elise's teacher: Today we talked about food chemistry. We made playdough with flour and water!I asked what would happen if we added too much of one ingredient. We used measuring cups to measure out the ingredients. We also did centers where they had the chance to use the computer, Kindle, play Zingo, or work one-on-one with me. We worked on blending CVC words together. We worked on flash cards with rhyming words. No German today. Everyone should have their pictures at home! They came in yesterday! Turned out great!  

What is a food you would like to make at home by combining ingredients?
Elise- at home I want to make chicken noodle soup. I would put carrots in it. 

2014_11_06 Thursday

From Elise's reading club: On Monday, we read sentences with words are, here. We worked on the word need. We went over flash cards. Each student also made a shape pattern using shape cutouts. No school on Tuesday. On Wednesday, we all worked on the words said, went. They also wrote sight words on white paper with a white crayon and then colored over it with a marker to reveal the words.  On Thursday, girls worked on 2 booklets... I See.. and I Like... We also worked on the word find. 

2014_11_05 Wednesday

Elise over breakfast this AM: "The worst thing about my brother is that he doesn't like avocados."

I guess that's pretty reasonable of her. If that's the worst thing, I'll take it.

2014_11_04 Tuesday

Today is Election Day, so Elise's school is closed as a polling station. She got to sleep in today, which was nice for her (she's fighting a cold), although she asked a few times if she was late for school and when school was going to start today. I love the enthusiasm.

Jonathan's bus was messed up this AM, so I dumped him in a friend's car and hoped for the best. Apparently, he was the only one who didn't cry at drop off (whaaat?!?). gesh. can't wait to hear that story this afternoon.

Over breakfast, Elise and I sang "Oh My Darling Clementine." When I asked her to sing it back to me, she sang: "Oh my darling, Oh my darling, Oh my darling peach." soooo close!

2014_11_03 Monday

From Elise's teacher: Happy Monday, Hope everyone had a great Halloween. This month will be about science. This week we are talking about chemistry and the letter Ii. We discussed what chemistry is today. We discussed that chemists work in labs to mix certain chemicals together to make medicines, foods, cleaning supplies. We made a chemical reaction with pink watercolor, vinegar and baking soda today. They all said it made cool bubbles and looked like soda. We free painted what the small explosion looked like to us. We discussed acids and bases. I went over the number range with them. They had Mandarin today.

What does chemistry mean to you?

Elise- Chemistry is, to me, when you can make and erupt volcanoes. 

Both kids had special events at school to take back their Halloween candy. Jonathan had a Switch Witch, and Elise had Operation Gratitude for US soldier overseas. neat-o.

I also had a meeting with the VPrincipal today about the upcoming transition in Jonathan's class. I'm really excited about having a male long-term substitute for him. I think/hope it will do him a world of good.

2014_10_31 Friday

Cat-erina

From Elise's teacher: Good afternoon and Happy Halloween! Wow what a fun-filled day we had! We had a free play and calendar time in the morning. Then we talked about our costumes and took some awesome pictures! We made a sign for the parade! We then decorated our pumpkins. And we made a ghost treat to take home. We also made a balloon ghost. Hopefully it makes it home! We listened to which witch is which? and 12 days of Halloween. I read Halloween Hoots and Howls and The Best Halloween Hunt Ever.  We enjoyed some time outside. Then we had our parade! :)

It was great seeing everyone!! Thanks to all who helped out!! Show and tell is next Wednesday- bring in a cool rock or fossil to share!  

What fun we had roaming around our neighborhood with 40 of our closest friends. The street behind us gets blocked off, and families are everywhere.  Dave was a 70s funky guy; Elise was Cat-erina with a tail, paws, and ears; Jonathan was a soldier/military dude; and I was Cersie Lanister (from Game of Thrones). On Saturday, the kids divided up their candy for themselves and to give away. whew. My belly can't take it anymore!

Dave had two work buddies from Vietnam over for dinner earlier this week, and they all carved up pumpkins (such an American tradition!). They were pretty funny to watch as they used spoons to dig out the guts and carve fancy designs with special tools.

2014_10_30 Thursday

From Reading Club: Hello, On Monday, we completed a My Color Book with simple sentences.  We colored a witch picture that had color words on it that they had to read to color. We worked on the word look. On Tuesday, X and X worked on colorful pumpkins to identify color words. They also worked on the word come. They each also got to choose a I Can Read book that I have borrowed from the library and they will work on reading their book. Elise will get to choose one on Wednesday if she is feeling better! On Wednesday, we worked on the word make. Elise worked on the word come from yesterday. Elise chose to read the book Reading Makes You Feel Good. X and X finished their books and did a great job recognizing the sight words we have worked on!! On Thursday, Elise finished reading her book. We worked on reading sentences with the word here. The girls put 2 Popsicle sticks together to make out sight words. It was quite a challenge. We also had some fun doing math pattern art with Halloween stickers. Have a fun and safe Halloween!!

From Elise's teacher: Hello, Today we talked about bats. We discussed that they are nocturnal and about their body parts. We made a witch craft. We discussed the different shapes that made up the witch. X knew that the blue shirt was a semicircle shape! We practiced writing our uppercase letters. We talked about our festivities for tomorrow and what we should do during the parade. They had Italian. 

Tell me a bat fact: 

Elise- I learned that bats can see very good in the dark. 

2014_10_29 Wednesday

From Elise's teacher: Good afternoon, Today in the morning we made cards for troops who will not be home for the holidays. We learned about the pumpkin plant life cycle. We made our own Jack- o-lantern by cutting out and identifying different shapes. The pumpkins are on our pumpkin patch in the hall! Some completed the Halloween math sheet from yesterday. They had French and learned summer words. We had a Mystery Reader at the end of the day. Thank you X mom for reading some Halloween books to the class and they met Raggedy Ann! They enjoyed it very much! 

What is your favorite season and why? 

Elise - my favorite season is winter because I get to build snowmen. 

2014_10_28 Tuesday

Poor Elise had to stay home from school today b/c she was booger-y and had a decent cough. What a boor it is to be home. no TV, just in bed relaxing. who wants that?! she was back to school on Wednesday without even having to ask!

2014_10_27 Monday

I'm back from a whirlwind, amazing trip to Germany. Will be catching up today and tomorrow. Stand by for updates and photos!

From Elise's teacher: Hello, We will talk about Halloween this week. We discussed how we celebrate Halloween and how other countries around the world celebrate it. Today we discussed names of bones such as femur, tibia, fibula,  cranium. We made a skeleton and included all the bones we learned about. They had Japanese today. Some matched uppercase letters to their lowercase letters using clothespins. We completed a Halloween number book. We also completed a My Color Book. We danced to Dem Bones or Skeleton Dance. 

How do we celebrate Halloween? Or you can tell me how other people around the world celebrate Halloween? 

Elise- people in Austria leave bread and water and a lamp at the table for Halloween night. 

2014_10_26 Sunday

I got to read with Elise at bed time:

2014_10_25 Saturday

Today is Dave's 40th birthday celebration since I was in German for the actual day (Tuesday). I organized a full day of festivities for him and his boys. The kids and I took him to Cracker Barrel for breakfast; I had to hold back my vomit (I hate that place). He loved it, despite having to drive 25 minutes out of town, shocking, to find one.
At 11:30, I had a party bus pick up the guys at the house and deliver them to paintball.
(Then, Jonathan had a birthday party to attend.) Ahh, a bit of girl time. It was scheduled to return them at 6, but somehow the poor guys were so tired that they were home by 5. Somehow I got un-invited to dinner out; I guess the memo didn't get passed to the ladies to meet up, so it ended up being just the guys...better that way, me thinks. Dave was home 'relatively' early, but then again, they started a lot earlier than usual! good times.

2014_10_24 Friday

From Reading Club; Hello, On Monday, X worked on the words play, with. We all practiced counting halloween pictures and circling the correct number on a worksheet. Elise and X played a roll the dice and color the moons game. On Tuesday, X finished up the halloween counting worksheet from yesterday. He also worked on words not, here. We all worked on the word look. The girls completed an ending sounds worksheet. On Wednesday, X worked on ending sounds. Each of them made a sentence strip with a sentence that they each came up with that included our sight words. Then they drew a picture to go along with it. On Thursday, we worked on making a certain number of dots on candy corns. We did numbers 1-12. We went over flash cards. We played a round of bingo with sight words. Soon we will start making and reading little booklets with sentences and pictures. We have a handful of sight words to go. Everyone's doing a great job! 

From Elise's teacher: Hello, Today we took turns playing Starfall on the computer and phonics games on my Kindle. Some read Go Go Go! We went over some sight words. Some made letters and animals with play-doh. X played a phonics game on my Kindle with safari animals. X completed a matching game where she had to match 2 rhyming picture cards. X and X completed simple addition facts with the candy corn parts using rubber animals as counters. Elise and I worked on addition facts on the dry erase board. We all played a pumpkin/starry night roll the dice math game. They had German. Most know their German color words! 

OMG, I returned from the most amazing, albeit short, work trip to Germany!! I was in Munich and Stuttgart for two days each. I'm so tired, but what fun it was to be 'back home' again. Weather was cold and rainy, but that's winter in southern Germany. I gave a 90-min briefing/impromptu discussion on Ebola in Munich. I was thinking and dreaming in German by the first night there (in Munich). I have video of the Glockenspiel for the kids/Dave to watch. I got to help lots of silly Americans and had a fair share of Dunklebier, Schnitzel, und Gurkensalat (but not much Spatzle, unfort., and no Apfelkorn!). I took the train to Stuttgart (so darn nice; why don't we have that here!? took video of the landscape too) for a one-day conference where I met some super cool folks at Kelly Barracks. Didn't sleep a wink on the flight home. Oh, I'm just so re-energized!!!

2014_10_23 Thursday

From Elise's teacher: Hello, Today we had calendar time in the morning. We went over the days of the week. We practiced our letter sounds from A-H. I also discussed the Indian holiday Diwali which is today. It is the Festival of Lights and we decorated a diya (lamp). I also read the book Families Are Different. We talked about how families are made up of different people and can look different. Then we all went around and said who is apart of our family. We finished up our other 4 seasons tree. They had Italian today. X brought in Rosemary for us to smell from yesterday. She wanted to share it with us. 

What are you going to be for Halloween? 
Elise- for Halloween I'm going to dress up as a butterfly. 

2014_10_22 Wednesday

From Elise's teacher: Today we made a favorite apple graph and we picked which apple we like the best. We all got to taste a red and green apple at snack time then chose our answer. We discussed how many people chose each color apple. We talked about what senses we use that relate to apples such as touch, taste, and see. We counted apples and wrote the number. They had French today. We finished up our seasons trees. 

Show and tell shares: 
Elise- for my show and tell I brought a crayon puff(melted crayon block). It smells like crayons. 

2014_10_21 Tuesday

Happy Birthday to my beloved!!!! Welcome to 40!!

From Elise's teacher: Hello, Today we continued to work on math and counting. We learned the 5 Little Pumpkins song/rhyme and made our own scene for art.  We talked about our 5 senses. We smelled a vanilla candle and a pumpkin spice candle. We made a what is your favorite Fall activity? graph and counted how many students were in each category:
Elise- my favorite fall activity is Halloween and pumpkin picking. 

2014_10_20 Monday

From Elise's teacher: Good afternoon, Today we talked about monsoons. We discussed that they happen mainly in Asia. We talked about what tornadoes, hurricanes, snow storms can do to buildings and where we live. We also worked on math today such as counting and adding. They completed simple addition problems (1+2, 3+2) and they had to piece together candy corn parts to find the answers. They used rubber animals to count out the addition facts. They also took turns playing the season sort game on the pocket chart. Some friends also counted out a specified number of leaves to put on a tree. We also painted a fall tree with corks since we will be discussing fall this week.

What is something you learned about monsoons today?
Elise- You can have monsoons in the summer in India.

2014_10_19 Sunday

We did our annual journey to the Southern Belle farms today...and randomly bumped into Elise's school director (for the second year in a row!). This is such a cool farm; we spend more than the day there (they let us hang for an extra hour after closing) to do all the fun things.

2014_10_18 Friday

ack, somehow our days are off...

From Elise's teacher: Hello, Today we had calendar time in the morning. We made the letter Hh with playdoh. We painted a summer scene for art and then we added Kool-Aid on top and friends described the smell of it. They said it smelled like strawberry and that is was sweet. It was tropical punch flavor. I read Starry Safari and we continued to talk about rhyming words. The sentences in the book rhymed. They had German today.

What is your favorite thing to do in the summer?

Elise- My favorite thing to do in the summer is go to my grandparents beach house. 

From Reading Club: Hello! On Tuesday, the girls worked on the words not, with. X is learning her number words 0-10. On Wednesday, we worked on the word play. We also reviewed our vowel song. We went over flash cards. We also talked about rhyming words. The girls had to put 2 picture cards next to each other that rhymed. Ex rain , train. They were 4 seasons-themed.  We also did a rhyming words worksheet. X also worked on a four seasons book that she read to me. On Thursday, we worked on the word here. X's sentence- Here are my toys.  Elise's sentence- Here were my erasers. X also put Halloween witch letter cards in abc order. Both girls read the 4 seasons book together from yesterday. Elise worked on matching numbers with the same number of leaves on a pocket chart. She did numbers 5-12. 

2014_10_17 Thursday

From Elise's teacher: Today we talked about opposites. We made a flower using felt petals and beans as seeds for the middle-- felt is soft and beans are hard. We went over other opposites. They picked 2 colors and made an AB pattern for the flower. We worked on writing the letter Hh in our journals and we also practiced writing numbers 1-10. Each student also practiced matching season-themed picture cards that rhyme- such as rain, train, rake, cake. We also made a 4 seasons booklet with sight words like, the, I , to , in. They had Italian today. 

We discussed the traits that make something living or non living: Name a living thing or a non living thing and tell me why it is that--
Elise- A nonliving thing is a pen, because it does not eat or drink or grow 

2014_10_15 Wednesday

From Elise's teacher: Today we talked about our sense of smell. We all had the chance to smell different foods--cinnamon oil, mint oil, lemon, vanilla extract, thyme, and clove. Friends used words such as spicy, yucky, good, pepper, sweet to describe the smells. Some didn't like the clove smell very much. We also worked on beginning sounds of words pertaining to the 4 seasons such as m for mittens. We also worked in our letter folders and drew hay, heart, horseshoe. They had French today. We had music time at the end of the day. We practiced hopping on one foot and walking backwards. 

What is your favorite thing to smell? that smells good to you?

Elise- I like the smell of lemons.