Thankful Teacher

It is officially Thanksgiving break. School is out for the week and all the kids are with their families having yummy food and creating nice memories. I ended up heading inshore early for break and I found myself thinking of the kids and school often. I would even go as far as saying I missed those little rascals! This made me realize how much I have to be thankful for as the teacher of such a fantastic school.

I am thankful for our beautiful school house with the ocean view.

I am thankful for four smart, funny, and kind students who care about each other and the community they live in.

I am thankful for a community that comes to BINGO night and fills out our school questionnaires and reads our school blog.

I am thankful for a hysterical ed. tech who is such an amazing teacher to all of us.

I am thankful for two fantastic school dogs who take their jobs very seriously.

I am thankful for Wyatt's curiosity and his willingness to learn new things. I am thankful that he keeps me on schedule and that he always says goodbye and shakes every ones hand and at least once before he leaves school. I am thankful for the look he gets on his face when he knows he has answered a question correctly.

I am thankful for Quinn's laugh and his wiggles. I am thankful that he sometimes sings when he reads to himself. I am thankful for his pure joy and interest in things we learn about at school. I am thankful that he has taught me that it is okay to admit when you are wrong. I am thankful for his freckles.

I am thankful for Dalton's maturity but also his goofy side too. I am thankful for his love of books, to-do lists, and writing. I am thankful for Dalton's ability to care about others so much that his heart could just burst. I am thankful for his compassion for animals and his wisdom beyond his years.

I am thankful for Gabe's relentless humor and wittiness. I am thankful for his fair-mindedness and consideration of how others feel. I am grateful for his adoration and love for Maya. I am thankful that he takes responsibility for his actions and is proud of his accomplishments. I am thankful for his smile.

I am thankful for Donna's random outbursts in class such as "woohoo" or "meow" or some other animal noise. I am thankful for the ways she can relate to kids and make them laugh. I am thankful for her willingness to work as a team and her genuine friendship. I am thankful for what a fantastic teacher she is.

We certainly do have a lot to be thankful for at the Monhegan School!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all.

Library Class

This Friday we had our first "Library Class" with our favorite librarian: Ms. Jan Bailey. The kids got to go to the library and learn a little about the library's history and purpose in the community. The kids then participated in a "library scavenger-hunt" that helped them become a little more accustomed to the layout of the library and all the amazing books the library holds!

The boys used the card catalog, search for books alphabetically, and learned what the "call numbers" meant on the outside of the books. It was a successful first library class! My favorite reaction from the kids was, "Wow, that was WAY more fun than I thought it was going to be!" Yes, that is right, the library can be FUN!

Jan giving a little talk about the history of the Monhegan Library.

Gabe's first time using the card catalog.

Let the scavenger hunt begin!

Taking a peek in one of the display books.

Wy's scavenger hunt worksheet!

Wyatt figuring out how many pages are in the book.

Jan was a great help to the older guys!

Maya wasn't allowed in the libaray... so she watched through the window.

Emma was allowed in the library, she is a little more mature!

Dalton was a card catalog pro!

The Number Snake

The beginning of the number snake!

The snake is getting awfully long!

Wyatt decorating the sides of his snake!

Those are some pretty amazing numbers to be writing for a kindergartner!

Our favorite kindergartner has been "slithering" through numbers like he is a little snake! Wyatt has a passion for math (much like his older peers) and there is no stopping this little math man in his pursuit for counting. He is able to count up to 30 non-stop (without looking at numbers) and he is able to add and subtract numbers 1 - 10 with very little (if any) assistance!

We decided it would be a good goal for him to count to 100 before Christmas. It is a pretty big goal but I think he can do it. To help him we decided we would make a giant math snake that could go around the entire school house. On the snake he would write all the numbers 1 - 100, which would help him with his counting. He is going to unveil his number snake at our school's open house in a couple of weeks. Every day Wy writes 10 more numbers on his snake and he has already reached 60! He will be able to count to 100 in no time at all...

Erupting Volcanoes!

Mixing plaster for our volcanoes!

Smells yummy!

Looks like dynamite!

Quinny looking super smart with his safety glasses!

Dalton...not looking so smart.

Jessie ALWAYS looks smart!

Gabe just looks silly!

We are finishing up our geology unit in science and have been conducting super fun experiments to show some of earth's phenomenal processes. We built volcanoes out of plaster and crayons and then added heat to our volcanoes to cause pressure. And what happens when heat and pressure build up in volcanoes????? THEY EXPLODE!

That is exactly what happened with our experiments... see for yourself.

Look! A volcano!

Time to heat them up!

Waiting for an eruption.

Lava coming out of the vents!

Now it is time to open our volcanoes!

Quinny got lava on his face! Good thing he was wearing protective eyewear!

Census! Census! Get your census here!

Hot off the press! The Monhegan Census Questionnaire!!!

The Burrough brothers stapling the packets!

In our civics unit in social studies we learned about the history behind the United States Census, just in time for the 2010 census coming up this spring. We got to see what the census looks like and the results from previous censuses in the past. To end our study of the census we decided it would be fun to conduct a Monhegan census to find out some more information about our community!

The boys brainstormed questions they would like to ask in their census. They then formated the set up of their census, made and stapled copies, made a list of all the residents to send the census to, addressed, stuffed, and sealed envelopes, and then finally mailed the questionnaires out to the community! The kids had fun pretending they were "governmental" workers but didn't realize how much work it was to do a census mailing and we only had 50 census to send out!

Our plan is to graph the data we collect in the questionnaires and present our findings to the community at our open house in December...we will share our results on the blog too! So stay tuned!

The whole gang (including our guidance counselor, Jean) pretending to be governmental workers!

LOOK AT ALL THOSE STUFFED ENVELOPES! (50 to be exact!)

Absolutely exhausted from all of that work! BUT WE ARE DONE!

Gull Rock Poems

To continue our poem series the next poem the boys wrote was about our hike to Gull Rock. We all ventured out on an overcast day and climbed Gull Rock. It was a beautiful hike and the waves were terrific. The kids took some great photos that you can see below!

The kids assignment was to write poems using at least two of the three following elements of poetry: simile, onomatopeia, and alliteration. See if you can identify them in these fantastic poems!

Gull Rock

Dull Demanding Dominate

Dull as an Overcast sky

Demanding as an Emperor

Dominate as the untamed lions

Hidden

behind the Island

Tall

as the cliffs beside it

Eroded

as much as the Grand Canyon

Gull Rock

- D. Burroughs

Gull Rock

The fields are as lifeless as

a dead mouse

The tress are blowing

throw the wind

We reach the rock

Crash, smash, splash

The waves are smashing

Climbing on the rocks

Getting to the top

Water splashing over the rock

Slipping, sliding,

All the way down

- Q. Burroughs

Gull Rock

The sun's warm kiss planted right on my face

Green grows greatly on the ground

Rock as grey as the stormy sky

Whooshing wind howls by

Smiling faces greet the sky

Down we go to the rocks below

Up the winding paths of green

- G. Church

November BINGO!

Our beautiful array of BINGO prizes.

Our beautiful Donga with her lovely hair cut and BINGO face paint!

The dynamic duo: Mr. Boynton and Ms. Hitchcock! They were one unlucky pair though! No wins for them this month.

Tralice modeling her new Turkey belt.

Donna won the drumstick hat!

Gabe and Maya helping out in the kitchen.

Norma won all the food prizes... even though she can't eat any of it!

Tara won the turkey hat!

Quinny calling the lucky numbers.

I can't believe it has been almost a month since our last BINGO! As one community member said last night, "BINGO is such a good way to keep track of the "winter" (AKA off season months) on island." I agree. I know our school always looks forward to BINGO nights. It is so easy and fun!

Last night was November BINGO. It was fun because all of the prizes were home-made, which added even more excitement to winning the prizes. Of course the theme was Thanksgiving, so we had turkey hats, turkey belts, turkey baskets, some home-made cranberry muffins, and pumpkin bread! The championship prize was a home-made "Thanksgiving Wreath" made with handprints. Pretty darn cute if I do say so myself. My other favorite part was that we played Motown music during the games and it was awesome to watch everyone boogie down while eating popcorn and playing some good ol' BINGO!

And the November BINGO champ is...

TARA (T-Dog) HIRE!