hip hip hooray!!!

I think the 100th day of school was every thing I expected it to be and more.  My students had a blast.  They worked together and helped each other in groups all day!  I loved walking around and listening to all their little conversations.  Every time I do something or plan something I always want it to work out perfectly...because that is how I see it in my head!  Well, I think one thing I have learned this year being a 1st year teacher is that most everything I do is trial and error!  My assistant might still be hating me from Thursday, but I told her that it is trial and error! 
We got everything done I had planned which I was pretty excited about because I had a lot planned!  I found a lot of great ideas on different blogs.  So glad our 100th day of school was after a lot of other school systems!

 Oriental Trading had these cute crowns that I had the students color as their morning work.  They LOVED coloring with markers.  They knew it was a special treat!

We counted by 10s, put the numbers in order, glued the numbers to our ice cream scoops, and then put the ice cream scoops in order! 

This is why she hated me that day!  I had the students count out 100 fruit loops then put them on a necklace.  It did take a long time!  I really had no clue because I had seen the idea on several different websites and on blogs.  No one mentioned how long it would take!  It was a little messy too but the kids thought it was awesome!  One student told me that the 100th day of school was the best day and better then all the other days because he got to make a fruit loop necklace. 

I think all of them had the fruit loops eaten by the end of the day!  It was too tempting!

In our groups we made a giant pizza with 100 toppings.  I had already cut out all the toppings.  We sorted the toppings, counted, and added up to see that we had 100 in all. 

I also hid 100 Hersey kisses around the room.  On the bottom of each kiss was a number.  I let the students find them throughout the day and then put them on our hundreds chart.  I had to make sure that they knew not to eat them or sneak one in their pocket because we could not eat them till we found ALL 100!  It was not until the very end of the day that we found them all. 

I had sent home the weekend before this paper as a parent involvement.  I told them to fill the numbers with 100 of anything they wanted.  I had some creative ones come in.  I enjoyed watching them share with the class and praise one another's work!

It was a fun day had by all!  Now let the count DOWN begin!

slush and centers!

Slush is our classroom mascot I guess you could say.  I introduced you to him in one of my first blogs.  You can refresh your memory here.  Centers have become one of my favorite things because the students enjoy working together and exploring the different things I have in our classroom.  Every morning they ask what time we are going to do centers!  It also allows me to get a couple of things done.  My assistant is GREAT and helps out with the art center a lot of times.  I don't always have art centers though.  Most of the time my centers consist of math, blocks, reading, art, handwriting, play dough, and sometimes other little things that we need to get done in smaller groups.  I have 5 different groups and about 4 or 5 in each group.  I feel like I have done a good job with discussing our behavior in centers and the clean up process.  I have a center monitor as one of the classroom jobs who makes sure the centers are cleaned up just the way I like them!!!  I told them at the beginning of the year that if they do not clean up the way I have shown them and asked them to then we will not play with those things anymore.  I really hated to do it but it happened.....the puzzles are gone.  They had just put the pieces of the puzzle on top of puzzle and then back on the shelf.  I put them away and I am not sure how long they will be gone from our center but I do want to make sure I make my point!!!!!  Since this is my first year I do want to make sure I follow through with my classroom discipline. 

Last week during centers one of my students came up and asked if he could read to Slush.  I thought it would be really cute so I could not say no!  He got Slush and another frog stuffed animal I have on top of my book shelf and sat in my rocker put the animals in his lap and started reading.  It was one of the sweetest things.  He also made sure to show the animals each picture!  After he finished the book I guess he decided that Slush wasn't finished in the reading center because I looked in the center and saw this....

They love listening to all my books on tape!  I hope Slush did too!!!!