"Monday Monday Mon-day!"

It was energizing to hear kiddos chant this song as they came into our classroom today. The joy that they feel is wonderful and it was good to be back! It was a very exciting day because we finally receieved a highly anticipated book: Skippyjon Jones Class Action! For those of you who are not familiar (well one, you need to read this book) this series is about a Siamese kitty boy named Skippyjon who wants more than anything to be a Chihuahua and has a huge imagination. Oh, did I mention he has an alter ego named Skippito Friskito who is Spanish. We really enjoyed reading this new book this morning!

We also learned how to play a new math game today! Total Ten is a simple game in which the students have to cover up 10 squares by rolling a dice. This seems like a simple task, but it helps students in putting together numbers that make 10. This is a great game because it appeals to all students regardless of their academic level. We practiced using cooperation, assertion, and responsibility while we played today. It was a success!

By far, the most wonderful part of our day was reading the book, A Mother For Choco. This book is about a little bird who does not have a mother. He ventures out to find his mother only to be turned away by other animals. He finally finds a bear who takes him in and becomes his mother. This book opened up incredible discussion about our families and how they are all different. We even talked about how different families have different qualities- some have a mom and dad, some have just a mom, some have just a dad, some have no mom or dad but a grandparent. We discussed our families and then had the opportunity to draw pictures of our families. This was incredible to me because the students used crayons that were like their actual skin color. How awesome! We will learn about another type of family in November with another book, but until then here are some pictures from our day. (We will constantly be talking about families, just not using the Families All Matter curriculum.)

Books We Read Today:
Skippyjon Jones Class Action  Judy Sachnar
A Mother For Choco Keiko Kasa
The Cat in the Hat Dr. Seuss

Tidbits from our day:

"Please stop kicking me, I don't like it." (WOO What a great way to be assertive!)

"Wow, Ms. Carlberg you are enormous!" (This kiddo was so proud because enormous is one of our exciting words... haha!)