Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

The week leading up to March 2 was "Read Me" week at school. We celebrated by having some guest readers come to our class:Our librarian is the greatest! She just asked us when people could come and then arranged all the volunteer readers. Of course, some teachers ask friends and family to come read, but since this was the same week I got engaged, my mind was not really focused on Read Me week! Sorry kids. We still had some great guests come (even though I didn't know them) and it was a good experience for the kids to have someone other than me read to them.

Then, on Friday March 2 it was time to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday! We had been reading Dr. Seuss books all week so the kids were super excited. I had big plans to make some super cute snacks a la Pinterest, but then my silly boyfriend had to go and propose! So once again, my mind was elsewhere. I don't think the kids minded having store-bought snacks. Here they are enjoying their "Thing" punch (bc it was blue), one fish two fish goldfish and Lorax cupcakes:

They're also wearing their Dr. Seuss hats we made with -at rhyming words. I was a little worried that this activity was over their heads (ha! no pun intended) but they did great! Most kids just did the same words I had brainstormed, but some added words on their own. Love their little minds! Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!!

p.s. our celebration was supposed to be at the end of the day, but we had really bad storms all day in our area that day so kids were leaving left and right. Finally at about 1:30 (our day ends at 3:45) I decided to have the party with the remaining 11 kids. Good thing I did because not too long after we had to "duck and cover" because of tornadoes in the area!

Help us!

Remember when I blogged a few days ago about my kids using my iPad? Well, now I have a new Donor's Choose project posted where you can donate and help us get a set of iPads to use! It is SUPER easy. All you have to do is go to my project and give! Your gift is tax-deductible and online giving is very secure. Please please please consider giving, even if it is only $10. My kids really could use these iPad! And please feel free to spread this message around. The more people who know about it, the more donations and the faster my kids can get these awesome tools!!

Here's the website one more time : http://www.donorschoose.org/clareharbison

thanks!!!

iPad in action!

Here's a photo I snapped the other day of one of my babies "playing" on the iPad. He's doing the "Stack it Up" app which is great! You have to visually discriminate which piece is the largest and then stack up the pieces according to size. Sounds easy, but some kids who struggle with sequencing and size it is great. And you can tell from the smile on his face that he is having fun with it!Right now I'm just using the iPad as an intervention with students who are struggling in some areas. The best part is they don't realize they are learning and working on skills, to them it's just something fun. All the other kids were asking when their turn was on Friday. Anyone want to donate 15 iPads to my classroom???

What's been going on

I am so sorry I haven't posted in a month! Things have been a little busy around here...I'm ENGAGED!!! In about a year from now I won't be Ms. H anymore, I'll be Mrs. A. Wonder what to do with my cute teacher bag? Oh well, too many wedding plans to worry about that!

It was also my birthday at the beginning of the month and my awesome parents got me an iPad! I feel a little extravagant getting such an elaborate (and expensive) gift, but I'm using it in my classroom so it serves many purposes. I'm just beginning to explore with apps and such, but my kids love it! Today they were all wanting a turn on in during rest time, not realizing that I'm using it as an "intervention" for some low performing babies.

Here are some fun (and FREE!) apps I've found:

Source: myfirstapp.com via Clare on Pinterest

Source: myfirstapp.com via Clare on Pinterest

The first one is called "My Mosaic" and the 2nd is "Sort It Out". They are both free and come from myfirstapp.com. Both are great for problem solving, sorting, visual discrimination, etc. Can't wait to find more. Any suggestions?