This morning, as I was driving to work, I noticed that everyone on Hwy 109 was without power. I was hoping that wasn't the case for our school, but turns out, it was. My second graders handled the powerless situation like champs. They got straight to work, right after their eyes had time to adjust. I'm so proud of them for working hard and making the best of this crazy situation! 
This is called an Elmo. It's our favorite new gadget for teaching and learning. It's like an updated version of the overhead projector. You can lay anything under the Elmo, and it will project it onto the white screen. We use it for all kinds of fun things. Our class was lucky enough to get an Elmo, but there are still some classrooms that don't have one. Hopefully, our spring fundraiser will allow our school to purchase a few more. We are very thankful to have new technology like this in our school and classroom! 
We've been doing some spring cleaning and rearranging in our classroom. It was time for a change, and that's certainly what we did! We love our new classroom layout. The entire room has shifted, but everything works much better for our class, and we feel like we have more space to learn. Change is good! 
Our class partnered up with Mrs. Wilkinson's third grade class to read some books. We spent about fifteen minutes taking some time to enjoy the company of students we don't get to see often. It was great practice reading to other students in our J.W.W. family. Hopefully we can do this again sometime soon! 
That's right! Portland's WQKR radio station came and set up in our lobby at J.W. Wiseman. Throughout the day, different students read on the radio a favorite Dr. Seuss book. Aubree and Orlando were some of the lucky readers. They have amazing reading voices and I'm so glad that Portland residents were able to hear them. 
Every March, J.W. Wiseman students celebrate the birthday of Dr. Seuss, a popular children's book author. The kids are encouraged to dress as their favorite character from his books. Some of the kids in our class transformed into characters straight from the books. It was pretty fun walking therough the halls on Dr. Seuss's birthday! 
Michael Shoulders, a popular children's author and speaker, came for a visit at J.W. Wiseman. During his presentation, he read, rapped, and made us all laugh. He is a very inspiring man who loves telling his story to kids and adults. Our school was very lucky to have him for a visit. During his lunch, he invited one student from each class to join him. Orlando (in the green shirt) was the lucky student in my class that got to eat lunch with Michael Shoulders. It looks like everyone had a wonderful time! 
As a part of our Valentines celebration, Aunt Kay and Uncle Chip came and made Valentines crafts with our class. They also read us a book and brought goodies to share. We always have fun when Aunt Kay and Uncle Chip visit! 
Our Valentines party was a huge success! We swapped cards and enjoyed some candy and pizza with each other. Each student created a Valentines box for our February project. Our class came up with some creative and inventive boxes to house their Valentines Day cards. 
Uncle Chip came to read us a Christmas Story!
We made reindeer food.
Students decorated Christmas Tree puzzles, then exchanged them with friends and worked each others.
Our party food was delicious.
Here are some students (and Shawn) making Christmas Cards.
Here we are dressed in attire from countries around the world. They look so authentic!
Eric and Lucas are playing a game together.
Some of the girls are making hand art using stamps.
Alex tries to eat using chop sticks.
Twins!
Abby made here gingerbread man using her troll's hair. So now, it's a gingertroll!
Alex made his from playdough and bendaroos. His head fell off, but Alex was able to put him back together successfully.
Kolbe's gingerbread man was edible. Thanks Kolbe for sharing with us! Yummmm!
Each student made a snowman ornament.
We used canning jar lids, hammers, and nails to make this Christmas tree ornament.
We took class pictures and put them on Rudolph's antlers.
Each student made a 2011 calendar for his or her parents. They wrapped them up themselves and delivered the gifts on Christmas day.
This is our class posing with our decorated Christmas tree. We worked so hard on our ornaments and gifts. We were finally done and were awaiting an exciting and fun Christmas party.
These two students told and acted out the story of the Ginger Bread Man. It was very entertaining.
These girls shared How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
These two students sang and danced to Frosty the Snowman. They have awesome voices and are so brave for singing in front of all of us.
Each class brought a certain item to the Feast and shared it with the rest. We wore Native American headdresses and pilgrim hats to the feast.
Kolbe and Eric enjoy their meal together.
Carlos, Allie, and Harmony enjoy the beef jerky and wild rice.
This is a picture of the Thanksgiving Spell Down.
My pilgrims are learning to plant corn.
This is a job well done by my little actors and actresses! I was so proud of them!
Today, my students presented their Thanksgiving Book Reports. Each student selected a Thanksgiving, Pilgrim, or Indian book from the library or our classroom library to read several times. Then they either created a scene from their book or made a poster to retell the story. I was quite impressed with the outcome. My students are so creative and smart. It was so much fun watching them present their project. I could tell that they were very proud of the outcome. Their hard work really paid off. Way to go guys!!!
Aunt Kay is sharing some of the neat things she found on their hike over the weekend.
Aunt Kay and Uncle Chip gathered leaves, moss, acorns, pine cones, and pine needles. We made Thanksgiving decorations with all of them.
Uncle Chip read Huggly's Thanksgiving Parade and Aunt Kay did some amazing crafts with the class. Here we are showing off our new creations. We had another great time with Aunt Kay and Uncle Chip.
