It's Official!!!

WE are a BLUE RIBBON SCHOOL!! Yay!!! I am so proud and lucky to have taught at such a great school for the past 8 years. There were only 4 chosen in the entire state. Here is the official notification listing us on the Department of Ed website. The Herald had an article on us in today's paper. I am so excited to represent PDS at the recognition ceremony in DC in November. Go Dustdevils! :)

Miley Who?

I have a bunch of performers in my room. One day a group of girls came in from recess wanting to perform a song they had practiced on the playground. I love impromptu moments in the classroom where we take a break from academics to simply enjoy each other, so my answer was "Go right ahead!". I grabbed my camera and began filming. So without further ado, here are some talented and cute gals singing "Party in the USA".

After that, every day for the next week I had kids wanting to perform after recess! I finally asked them to show me at recess so we could stay on track with our Writer's Workshop. I think I will have to have a Talent Show some Friday afternoon!

Fly Little Butterflies, Fly!

Today we released our butterflies that we raised from tiny little caterpillars. Seriously the process of raising butterflies is very simple thanks to Insectlore. You can even raise your own insects at home by purchasing a kit from insectlore. Along with butterflies, they also sell ants, frogs, ladybugs, spiders, and worms. What a great way for the kids to learn about lifecycles!

We released our butterflies during recess. It would have been fine if just my class was on the playground.  It also would have been fine if the butterflies flew away once they were released. Instead, we shared the field with 4 other classes and many kiddos who chased after the butterflies that "flew" right to the ground. Seriously, why do kids want to pull their wings off? The kids in my class were running around trying to save their butterflies all the while yelling and screaming at the other kids to go away. Not the beautiful release into nature that I expected, but I guess you never know what's going to happen when you teach second grade!

"Picnik Show"

Create a free slideshow with Picnik!

Monarch of the Week and Mystery Reader

I'm late on this one but I wanted to make sure I posted pictures of our last Monarch of the Week and Mystery Reader. Last week we didn't have either because of the short week and conferences so these are actually from the week before.

Monarch of the Week- Kayla!

Mystery Reader- Connor's Grandma Sharon! (okay, I know that she is technically my mom. But I do have my own kid in the class so it's okay!)

Crazy Blog Layout

I went to post today on the ole blog and found that my background was completely gone. Evidently the talented lady who designed the blog layout had to change photo carriers because so many people were using her images and Photobucket was freaking out because of the enormous use of bandwidth. I don't claim to understand what this means, but luckily she provided new links and I was able to restore the layout with only a few clicks of the mouse. So, if you came to the blog over the weekend or today, you probably saw a bunch of craziness going on. All is well now and I will be posting like a mad woman!