How Mrs. Coop got her groove back!

So after ten days away from school recovering from my gallbladder surgery I head

Back to my class tomorrow....I am so excited to see there smiling faces and get

going on the great projects we have a brewing....

My day started off with breakfast and planning at a favorite spot....Denica's....with 

my super fabulous friend and teaching pal....we started this third grade road together

this year....me a first timer to third and she also a first timer to third but also coming 

back to teach full time after many years staying at home with her boys.  She is always

there with an idea, inspiration, encouragement, and a shoulder to cry on if needed.

Here is a picture of our post breakfast and big planning time:

We are starting a unit from Lesson Plan SOS on communities....we planned

out some great read alouds to help our students expect to connect between

three different texts....Roxaboxen, Weslandia, and The Chalkbox Kid.  

We also shared some laughs about this hysterical book I learned about while

Blogstalking last week during recovery....if you haven't read this book....

YOU MUST...it is so laugh out loud funny....

Oh yeah....that cookie....yummy! And a super fun card from my pal!

We headed over to our classrooms to gather up and organize after a week of

having a sub....so glad I went in...this will make Monday morning so much

smoother....and so will packing my lunch for the week as well as the kids for

tomorrow.....woohoo!

Now I sit on the couch checking through the animal reports they worked on 

last week....I plan to put a post it on each with notes to encourage them while I watch

the academy awards...

I am also super excited that this brand new book was in my school mailbox...

So that sums up my awesome planning day....I even had time to paint my nails...cheers!

WHEW...this week flew by...time to catch up on EVERYTHING!!

So I realize I have not blogged since Monday but I have so much to share with you all!!  I had quite a busy week....trying to fit in all my reading for my book club book, presenting at the PTA meeting about NYRWP, attending Jury Duty, Book Club, oh yeah and being a teacher and a mom!!!

So first off, I think that the "teacher's prayer" rings so true this week with everything I was trying to fit in with my class in just three short days (I had Jury Duty one day and the Monday holiday).  I feel like I truly fit in a lot and I feel very happy about how this week went.  Here is a sneak peak into the triumphs and successes of this week in Coop's Class...

Today....while the kids were busy painting snowmen and rewriting their How-To-Build-A-Snowman pieces, I got busy with my Clutter Free Classroom Project...

One of my favorite blog loving teacher
 friends enjoying my fancy desk chair....lol!

One of my drawers along the counter cleaned out as well...
I found some amazingly old things in this drawer!

Desk Drawers all cleaned out and re-organized!
 I even found a color ink cartridge for my printer....
a gift from last year's teacher!

Here are some pictures of the art work the students created inspired by deepspacesparkle.com and Snowmen at Night...

I was so impressed by the kids ability to take a small idea from me and then create amazing pieces of work.  The writing portion was a "how-to" that they wrote last week for homework.  They art work was created first with oil pastels to create a night city scene, then they used white and blue paint to create the snowman....each one looks so different, I will have to capture some finished work next week to share!

We are heavy into our Non-Fiction unit of study....the children spent time today on the COWs both researching their animal as well as learning more about endangered animals.  We then worked more on our challenge based learning project....more on that later!! I am loving the Lesson Plan SOS blog and her Animal Research Unit....this is a must buy....head on over to teacherspayteachers and check it out!!

Penguin Paragraphs....

Penguin Tear Art...

Here is our writing wall that changes every few weeks...
Right now it is showcasing the student's New Year's Resolution Paragraphs!!!

The students started the week by thinking about Martin Luther King Junior....we started by listening to Martin's Words on Scholastic Book Flix, then the students wrote down what they were thinking, we read another book and they added to their thinking.  Finally, we read the poem for the week and they added that thinking in the speech bubble and illustrated the poem.  I love this one....sorry the picture is on it's side....by one of my super reading/writing/thinking students...

I felt so successful this week in the teaching department....now I can look forward to a weekend with my littles!!  Tomorrow morning we will start off with Waffles at Momo and Papa's followed by a trip to the Library....a favorite Saturday tradition!  I am hoping to get a couple of good runs in too this weekend....maybe there will be a few hours of no rain so I can get out!!!

TGIF!!!!