Funny Face Pumpkins

Is it only Monday, wow I am already exhausted! Tonight was a fun day filled with pumpkins!

After I saw this pin on Pinterest, I knew I had to make these pumpkins, they are just too adorable!

via Art Projects for Kids

I also found a great bulletin board image with these pumpkins that can be found at flickr {HERE}.
**Sidenote** If you are in need of art projects you must check out Art Projects for Kids. It is an amazing resource and a quick browse showed me a ton of fun Halloween projects that I already want to plan!

Frames via Graphics From the Pond

Rather than do a marble paint, I had the kids use orange, green and yellow watercolors and they turned out so adorable. Since we did only a thin layer of paint, they dried fast and we were able to use construction paper to add our eyes, mouths, teeth, stem and grass.

I love projects like this where you give all the kids the same materials and the originality that they come up with is amazing!

By the way, I always see people apologizing for the quality of the iPhone pictures . . . um, I apologize for my camera pictures. I would say that apparently I need to invest in a good quality camera but I am the worst photographer, so give me any camera and the picture will always turn out blurry, grainy and probably crooked!

Fall & October Currently

Well it's getting rainy and cold, the leaves are changing, Starbucks is serving Pumpkin Spice Lattes and my Scholastic order included a few Halloween books - it must be Fall! Here are a few of my fun Scholastic finds:

Substitute Creacher by Chris Gall. Perfect monster book to scare students into behaving.

The 13 Nights of Halloween by Guy Vasilovich. Fun, creepier version of The 12 Days of Christmas.

Frankenstein Takes the Cake by Adam Rex. Fun follow-up to Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich.

In a short follow-up to the Pete the Cat Saga of 2013 talked about {HERE} and {HERE}, we are still completely Pete obsessed. One student even showed me the handwritten note that "Pete" left for her at home. I must apologize to her poor parents. I have to say, listening to 20 five-year olds sing and read all the words to all of Pete's books makes it so worth it!

Finally, I guess I should get to October's Currently. I kind of dropped the ball on linking up for the past few months and I'm not sure why. Oh yeah, it's because I complete fell of the blogging train. I don't know if I was ever actually on the train since I write pretty sporadic posts, but anyway, I'm back to link-up.

I think mine all speak for themselves, no explanations needed. 

As for the treat, seriously if you have a SMART Board in your class (and access to Youtube) Just Dance Kids videos are perfect for movement breaks. Short, fun and work in any weather. We have had too many indoor recesses already.

Go link up with Farley over at Oh' Boy 4th Grade to share your Currently thoughts.

A Few Lessons with David Shannon

Well I think the Pete the Cat saga has calmed down, though some kids are asking if Pete will come visit us again, and others are still seeing him all over the school.

Friday was a day that consisted of some work and a lot of play. We met our big buddies for the first time and I have to say the kiddos were great listeners as the big buddies read to them. We have been working on our quiet book time and our stamina is now up to 9 minutes - about which we (most of us!) are really excited.

After practicing using our white glue we were ready for our first craft. We started our Rainbow Names - inspired by the fantastic Deanna Jump - on Thursday. And I do mean started. I think I completely underestimated how sore their poor little hands would get from all that tearing and gluing. So we continued that work on Friday and now I think most of the names are finished and ready to display and we're just waiting on two especially careful workers!

We read No, David! and worked on our Eagle Eye strategy. On Friday, we read David Goes to School then created an anchor chart of what we do and don't do at school. The kids were coming up with some great ideas and even mentioned eating healthy food!

By Friday I was EXHAUSTED. Now I'm off to make sure I'm all ready for next week which will be full of colours!

On a total side-note, I just pinned a pin on Pinterest about heating a pan with water vanilla and cinnamon on the stove to make the house smell yummy. I decided to actually try it (unlike with 99% of my pins) and it smells delicious and totally reminds me of fall. Now I've got pumpkin spice lattes, cool weather and Halloween on the brain!