Toddler Story Time - dots and circles

Today's story time was simple:  dots and circles, and lots of interactive fun! We started by reading the book Circles by Marybeth Lorbiecki. The boys and girls helped me find and count so many circles! We decided that the yummiest circles were doughnuts, cookies, and cakes! Mmmmm... Next we sang "There's a little wheel a-turning in my heart" with Miss Nina. I love all the hand motions and sweet singing we did together! Then we were ready to read Ten black dots by Donald Crews that asked us to count the black dots making all sorts of pictures! After all of that, I asked the kids to help me read and interact with the book Press here by Herve Tullet.  It was so much fun to see the dots move and change depending on whether we pressed them, blew on them, or clapped for them! And finally, we watched the group OK Go sing "Three Primary Colors" in a Sesame Street segment. Before we sang our "Goodbye Song" we made pictures out of dot stickers.  Everyone made a colorful picture of green, blue, yellow, purple, and red circles. We won't have story time next week due to testing, so I look forward to seeing everyone again in 2 weeks!

Digital Citizenship

All MWE students have been discussing Digital Citizenship this month.  An important part of digital citizenship is staying safe while on the internet.  Parents have an important role to play in staying informed about what children are doing and seeing while online.  Here are a few tips from Common Sense Media and our friends Phineas and Ferb (and friends) about how to stay safe while online.

Toddler Story Time- Springtime

Since today was the first day of Spring, we read about this wonderful season of new beginnings. The first book we read was "My first day" by Robin Page and Steve Jenkins. In this book we learned about many different animals on the first day of their lives. Did you know that emperor penguins and a Darwin frogs are watched over by their dad before they are born? Next we sang "Five green and speckled frogs" with Miss Nina.  Then we listened to Eric Carle read his well-loved book "The very hungry caterpillar." Next we read "In the small, small pond" by Denise Fleming about all the animals who live near the water. All our stories were about the animals who come out in the Spring, so our next story-song was called "Over in the meadow" by Barefoot Books. Finally we read about a very silly bear who can't get enough after waking up from his winter hibernation in "Bear wants more" by Karma Wilson. I was glad to see a few friends come out, despite our spring thunderstorm. I hope we see even more little bookworms next time!

"Reading Discovery Featuring First Lady Barbara Bush"

This Connect 2 Texas video includes a reading by Barbara Bush and a performance by the Texas A&M band. It will be showing in the MWE library for 3rd-5th graders to see during their library times this week.

Skype with Eve Yohalem

Our fifth graders truly enjoyed our Skype visit with the author of "Escape under the forever sky", Eve Yohalem. It was such a wonderful experience. We heard her tell about the true news story that inspired her novel, her visit to Ethiopia, and her net book "Castoff".

Read Across America Day Pics

Look at the fun we had on Dr. Seuss' Birthday and Read Across America Day!

39 Clues Virtual Field Trip to Smithsonian

for MWE 3rd grade recess webcast from Scholastic 39 Clues Book Club

Toddler Story Time - Dr. Seuss

Today we celebrated the silliness of Dr. Seuss!  We started our story time by reading The Foot Book, and we practiced our opposites.  We found our right and left foot, reached high and low, and made ourselves little and big.  Miss Nina helped us sing Raffi's "Shake your Sillies Out", and we shook, waggled, clapped, marched, and stretched our bodies silly! Then we had a special guest, Ms. Snyder (pictured below), read My Many Colored Days to the group, and we talked about our favorite colors. Then we read Mr. Brown can Moo!  Can you? and practiced making lots of fun and silly sounds. By that time we had so much silliness in us we had to sing "Shake my sillies out" again! Our last story was read to us by none other than the football player Tim Tebow!  He read "Green eggs and ham" while the book was animated all around him.  We ended our time together by singing our "Good bye song" from Disney's "Out of the Box".  Each child got to take a Dr. Seuss hat and sticker with them as they left to have a silly day!

Graphic Novel Club Mtg #1

Today MWE had our first Club meetings. It is a new concept that we are trying out to incorporate more activities into our days at school. I am leading the Graphic Novel Club, which consists of 11 boys who love to read and create comics. Today we read a few comic strips (from OWL magazine), learned about the ABCs of cartoons (from OWL magazine), created some simple comic conversations (from Highlights magazine), and read a little bit from some new (and exclusive to them) graphic novels. I think we all had a great time!