Hopping into Third Grade

Ok my blogger friends... I am so sorry I have been lacking on the posts. As you all are aware SCHOOL STARTED!!! I am loving my new class, even my challenging friends. :) We are just now starting to dive in our curriculum. Umm can I say WOW! I am still not completely ready for third grade.... Im still stuck on first grade curriculum and little kids. HAHA. Oh well, all is great in Miss Samson's LilyPad.

Tonight I don't have anything HUGE and amazing cool to share because we are just now getting into the curriculum... however I would like to share one thing we have done!

So we started writing yesterday... I decided to start of by using the book The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle to demonstrate something fun for our journals/notebooks. I warned my class that I LOVE picture books and we will be using them a lot. (due to my love my the younger age crowd/having a million of them!) So I read the story and we discussed the tiny seed and how it grew into something HUGE and marvelous. In our notebooks, we flipped to the back section (about 10 pages) and named it our SEEDS. These seeds are things we can write about. I put a tab on everyones section of pages so its easy to locate. On each page we thought of different topics to write about such as... My favorite places, One time I, Things I like to do, Foods I love/dislike.. etc. These seeds are just now being planted in our notebooks, however in a month or so one of our seeds could begin to grow into a LARGE flower/story! I can say, I really liked this idea- sadly I cant take credit for it. My WONDERFUL teammate gave me the idea and went with it. AWESOME way to start off writing- helping the kiddos come up with different topics to write about. I have to update you on the progress... and maybe give you a few pictures of what our journals turn out to be. Maybe Ill even share with you about a seed that has been planted. :)

For now, I must do some physical therapy for my grand ole knee (3 weeks tomorrow since the big surgery!) and head to bed.

I wish you all a wonderful day at school tomorrow- even if you dont have kiddos yet! Get ready for a fun filled year with lots of excitement. :)

G-night!!!

Sadly today is my last day of summer break... Its kind of bittersweet! I am excited to start a new year in a new grade with a new group of kiddos, but I have OVERLY enjoyed my freedom this summer.
Last week I had my 4th knee surgery, so I decided since I wont be able to be hopping around setting up a classroom on crutches, I put my classroom together in advance. Of course, I'll probably get there tomorrow and realize I dont like it... I will just have to live!
Here are some pictures of my THIRD GRADE classroom. This year I have decided to go with a frog theme! I cant wait to expand the creativity in this room!