odds 'n ends

I have hundreds, no probably thousands, of pictures that I've taken of the kids this year that are stuck and hidden on my hard drive.
So here you go. Assorted odds and ends :)

I tried hard to get this one :)

Birthday hat for the birthday boy. That's a birthday cake hat BTW.

The end of Snuggle Up and Read! Here they're posing with their new books and last certificate. Yes Kevin Henkes is one of my favourite authors, how'd you know??

This is way back when we were studying animals. The shark 3D book was a favourite of most of the boys. I liked it too, but that's because I had a hoot looking at them looking at the book.

Language Arts time. Yep, nothing like fixing all my mistakes on the board. And hey, look what they can do! Read handwriting!

Math class. We were learning to count by 10s.

I think.

It was all so long ago!

It was easier to make sense of the pattern of 10s and 1s using manipulatives. Plus it's fun :)

Enthralled by my teaching... :)

So I just thought I'd let you be a little birdie in the classroom, observing what I see everyday. Kids engrossed by my every word and action.




Oh wait a sec...food...

...and drink...

And as much as I'd like to say it's true...
I'm afraid I don't always...

have such complete and undivided attention....

as when they're listening to

Dangerous Journey.

It was extremely fun to watch them listening to and reacting to the book. It's not necessarily the easiest book, but there they were engrossed and involved and having little aha moments. Those kiddies of yours sure are a smart bunch! We're still talking about the book in class, making links in Bible, Church History class, and well, lots of times. Tres cool.

Who says dandelions are ugly??

It's only a weed if it's growing where you don't want it. I like these dandelions! We make our annual trip into the knee high grass for a pic. I like it :)

Animals? Yep, we've seen a few...

Now this was an exciting day for the kids in Grade One. Animals galore!
First we had another bunny come and visit (briefly, because the teacher might lose her mind to have another rabbit for any prolonged stretch of time in the classroom). This rabbit was awfully cute though. And much smaller than our Blizz!

The big excitement happened at lunch time when these wee baby raccoons peeked out from one of the bazillion holes their momma (ok and others) have gnawed underneath the portables.

Turns out they were looking for mom.

And rather intimidated at 2:30 when hordes of students descended upon them.

Too cute. Says Miss J who doesn't need to patch any of these entry/exit holes.

We also have killdeer nesting at school. It's been really interesting for us to see the eggs camouflaged in the gravel (by the swings no less!) Think perhaps momma killdeer had her nest completed on a kid-free weekend?

We also watched the mom who watched us warily. No pic, but it was cool to watch her broken-wing routine as she tried to draw us away from her nest.
Not that we can't easily find her eggs, guarded as they are by four bright orange pylons. Maybe she'll be able to avoid flying students, soccer balls and baseballs and hatch those eggs. We're looking forward to it!