Exceptional Children's Week Ice Cream Party!

On the final day of Exceptional Children's week (Friday), right before our Award's Ceremony, all of our "EXCEPTIONAL" students were rewarded with an Ice Cream party! The Ice Cream party was a big "We Love You" from the special education department to our kids! They were given several choices of ice cream and toppings!!! Yum!!!

Of course Eric and his best friend Lucy sat together at the Ice Cream party.

Lexi smiles for the camera before taking a big bite of her ice cream.
Travarius and Jarmorcous (from Ms. Henderson's class) as well as Izaiah and Tradarius enjoyed their ice cream!! They also enjoyed sitting with one another, talking about anything and everything!
Kayla and her friends from Ms. Henderson's class also enjoyed their ice cream!

This was a very special day for our students!! We love them very much and admire them for their determination to overcome their obstacles and succeed!

Happy Birthday Mrs. Ford!

Today, March 10th, was Mrs. Ford's birthday!! So, we had a party!!!

After opening and reading all of the cards that the kids made her, Mrs. Ford opened her birthday gift! It was a massage pillow!! Everyone wanted one!!

This picture was too cute!! I had to share!! Tradarius and Izaiah loved playing with the horns that we had for the party! They are such great friends!

After eating our treats and watching Mrs. Ford open her present, we played "Pin the Tail on the Donkey". The students really enjoyed this!

Lastly, Tyrisha serenaded Mrs. Ford with her favorite and most requested song, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow". It was precious!

Happy Birthday Mrs. Ford!!! We hope that it was a Great one!!!

5th Grade Field Trip

On February 11th the entire 5th grade class went on a field trip to the theater at Georgia Tech to see a play called "Ellis Island". This play referenced the experiences of the first settlers to arrive at Ellis Island.

I had the opportunity of going along with my 5th graders: Eric, Tradarius, Tyrisha, and Lexi. We had an excellent time and really enjoyed the play.

When we were getting ready to leave the theater I asked my students what they learned. Tyrisha quickly said "I learned about America". She was right!

Happy Valentine's Day!

We had a great time in our class this year on Valentine's Day! Ms. Stowe created a "ball-room dance" that we practiced.... and practiced... and practiced. The dance involved all of the students being split up into boy-girl partners. Ms. Stowe played the accordion (she is very good at it) as we danced. Of course, Lucy chose to be partners with Eric. They are best friends!

This is a picture of us bowing to our partners during the dance. Ms. Ford TRIED to play the accordion!! Let's just say, she needs a lot more practice :-)

Our friends in Ms. Stegall's and Ms. Hadaway's Kindergarten class came to visit so that we could perform our dance for them. They loved it and even wanted to join in!

I had to share this picture. This boy in the Kindergarten class wanted to be Tyrisha's partner. He did a great job and was so sweet to her!

At the end of the day, we had a great Valentine's Day party with lots of treats and a ton of food to eat! It was a great day!

Kite Day!

The students had been waiting on a windy day to fly the two kites that Ms. Malcom bought them!! On this particular day it was so incredibly windy so we packed up the kites and headed out to the track. We had a wonderful time! Lucy, especially, loved flying the kites!

Izaiah even got in on the action and took kite-flying instructions from Lucy.

After taking turns flying kites for a while, we all decided to lay on the ground and look up at the clouds. It was such a nice day! We left Eric and Tradarius in charge of making sure that the kites stay up as we were taking a break. Eric got a little too comfortable and "accidently" let go of his kite! The kite took off flying and it's string got hung on one of the classroom trailers. It was so windy that the kite flew itself, the trailer "holding" the string. We watched, wanting so badly to get our kite back!! Eric thought it was hilarious and couldn't stop laughing, especially when asked where his kite went! A couple of minutes later, Tradarius accidently let go of his kite (this was actually an accident). The kite took of flying and it's string go hung on a tree. We watched again, now wanting BOTH of our kites back! Since it was so windy, this kite also flew itself, the tree "holding" the string!!! Picture this.... the whole class, sitting on the ground, watching two kites that were flying independently!!! It was definately a memory that the students will not soon forget!! All we could do was laugh!

Happy Birthday Tradarius!

Since Tradarius' birthday was the same day as our trip to Merryvelle Assisted Living and Mandarian Palace Chinese Restaurant, we celebrated his birthday there!

Tradarius recieved a special gift from Eric. He recieved a home-made card, made especially by Eric, that had $1.00 (in quarters) taped to it! The purpose of the quarters was to repay Tradarius for a bottled Sprite! Eric "accidently" drunk Tradarius' Sprite last year!! This was such a cute, thoughtful gift!

Tradarius recieved a basketball shaped piggy bank from his friends in Ms. Malcom's class. It even had money in it!!! Mr. John, Ms. Stowe's husband, retired some of his special drumsticks and gave them to Tradarius for his birthday. Mr. John is an awesome drum player. He has played in several bands as well as in all of our Christmas performances. The drumsticks were signed by Mr. John himself!
Mr. John also stopped by the restaurant to wish Tradarius a happy birthday!

Happy 12th birthday Tradarius!! We enjoyed spending this very special time with you!

Mandarian Palace Chinese Restaurant

After most trips to Merryvelle Assisted Living, we leave it up to the students to choose where we will go to eat lunch. Since we had just recently finished learning about the Chinese New Year, it was decided that we would eat lunch at a local Chinese Restaurant. So, we loaded our big yellow bus and headed to the Mandarian Palace Chinese Restaurant.

Of course, we had to get the buffet!! Lexi was so happy to see that the buffet had french fries and macaroni & cheese (her favorite).

Tyrisha just enjoyed visitng the buffet!

I had to share this picture of Izaiah. I thought that it was too cute!! This was his response when I asked him if he was full!

We really had a good time at the Chinese Restaurant! Mandarian Palace, with it's buffet full of every kind of food, was definately a class favorite. I'm sure that they had to refill the entire buffet after we left!! We ate so much!

Valentine's at Merryvelle Assisted Living

On January 29th we visited Merryvelle Assited Living to pass out early Valentine's cards.

We try to visit Merryvelle once a month to pass out small crafts or trinkets to the residents there! Below, Tradarius leaves a Valentine's card on the door of one of the residents. Tradarius takes great pride in this small act of kindness!

Izaiah, Lexi, and Ms. Stowe pass out Valentine's cards to other residents!

Eric is just as content sitting in the comfortable chairs that are located in the sitting areas of each pod. I think he has tested EVERY couch/ chair in the building! :-)

After passing out Valentine's cards to all of the residents, we took time to visit with Granddaddy (Ms. Malcom's grandfather) and his friend, Ms. Nell. They were very happy to see us!

Lexi took out time to take Granddaddy for a "stroll". He loves spending time with all of our students and would let them push him around for hours!

Our other friends at Merryvelle, Grandpa Joe and Ms. Poole, also love our monthly visits! Grandpa Joe loves for us to come into his room and listen to music on his computer. We sing along. Ms. Poole is always the first to see us enter the front door. She hugs every single student as if they were her own grandchildren!

Our trips to Merryvelle are great experiences for everyone involved. It is a great way for our students to give back to the community and their visits are greatly appreciated by the residents there!

Friends from Newton High School!

Last month, in January, we had a great visit from members of the Newton High School Key Club. They came into our classroom and performed a play, complete with awesome animal puppets, about how to protect our brains. The play mainly focused on the importance of wearing seat belts and helmets!

Izaiah absolutely LOVED the giraffe puppet! I didn't think that he was going to let them leave when the play was over!!

We wanted to send a big THANK YOU to our new friends from Newton High School! We loved your visit and look forward to seeing you again real soon!

Put Your Heads Together!!!

I had to share this picture!! This was such a funny moment!! Lately in our class we have been learning letters sounds and how to blend those sounds to sound out/ recognize words. Tyrisha is really good at recognizing letter sounds. Tradarius is really good at blending the sounds to sound out the words. This day we had worked and worked and worked but were still having difficulties!!! In frustration I said "Come on! You can do it!! Just put your heads together." Then I turned around to look at the word on the board!! When I turned back around to help the students this is what I saw!!! Tyrisha and Tradarius had LITERALLY put their heads together!! Somehow every student in my class has a way of turning my frustrations into smiles!!! What a precious gift!!!

4th and 5th Grade Awards!!!

TODAY WAS A VERY SPECIAL DAY!!!

All of our 4th graders (Izaiah) and 5th graders (Lexi, Tyrisha, Eric, and Tradarius) received awards at the 4th/ 5th grade Awards breakfast at our school!!

Below are all of our award recipients!!! CONGRATULATIONS to all of you!!!

Lexi and Tyrisha pose for the camera and show off the awards that they received!! Lexi received the Science award. Tyrisha earned the Spelling and "A" Honor Roll awards!! Ms. Hairston, Lexi's mother, also joined us for the awards breakfast!
Tradarius received awards for Language Arts/ Grammar, Writing, and "A" Honor Roll!
Izaiah received awards for Reading and Math. His mother, Ms. Price, also joined us for the awards breakfast!! He was so happy to see his mom at school and had a smile the entire time!!
Eric received awards for Perfect Attendance (the entire 1st semester) and "A" Honor Roll.

Eric also received a very prestigious award!! Each teacher was asked to choose one student to receive the Eagle Award!! This award is given to the student that has exceeded classroom and behavior expectations, shows good character, and works extremely hard to achieve classroom goals!! This was such a hard decision for me because all of my students share these wonderful qualities. However, I have watched Eric grow leaps and bounds in his academic achievement, determination to succeed, and communication/ social skills!! He has very big responsibilities each day (including assisting with putting up the flags in front of the school every morning, picking up lunch counts, and taking care of our class pets) and he completes his responsibilities with pride and honor!! I am so proud of you Eric!! Lucy is the youngest student in our class. She is in the 1st grade and therefore could not participate in the 4th/ 5th grade awards ceremony!! However, she was more than willing to attend and cheer for all of her friends. In fact, she clapped for every 4th grader in the entire school that received an award!! Therefore, Lucy received a "Good Sportsmanship" award by Ms. Malcom!! Great Job Lucy!!

Christmas is the Time for Giving!

As our gift to those people at our school that are so good to our class all year, we decided to sign, seal, and deliver holiday cards to all of them! This project served the dual purpose of teaching the vocational/ job skills that are required to send cards and letters!

First, every student was required to sign their name to over 40 holiday cards! There are a lot of people at our school that are good to our class all year so it was very good practice!

Then, each student was required to stuff the cards into the envelopes!

Next, we had to lick and seal every envelope! This was a very interesting task! Some of our students had obviously never done this before! But, before long, they were professionals!! :-)

Lastly, we delivered our holiday cards to all of the people that we made them for! These cards were definately made (and sealed) with love!!

Our New Therapy Dog: Mona

We have a new therapy dog in addition to Bear and Sugar. Her name is Mona and she is a Welsh Corgi mix! We thoroughly enjoyed Mona's company in our classroom last week.

Below, Mona visits with Tyrisha during Language Arts!

Mona was so sweet and gentle. She even came equiped with a backpack that had a book in it!! Can you guess what book?? It was a book about Clifford, the big red dog!

Tradarius has come a long way in his love for dogs! Before this program, he would not come close to a dog. Now, he loves when our therapy dogs visit. He draws pictures of dogs as "extra homework" (that he assigns himself ) :-) and checks out a book about dogs from the library every week! In addition to the benefit of unconditional love by the dogs, we are also learning about dog (pet) care and safety.

I cannot stress how awesome this program has been for our class and for the dogs as well. It is hard to believe that Mona was in the pound/ animal shelter just six weeks ago. I guess this has worked out in everyone's favor! We look forward to our next visit with Mona!

The Holiday Season is Right Around the Corner!

In preparation for the upcoming holiday season, we made various ornaments that would be given to our parents for Christmas! Ms. Ford (the most crafty one in the group) came up with all of the ideas and organized all of the supplies so that we could make our ornaments!

Below, Ms. Ford is instructing the class on how to make our "elf" ornaments! In addition to the fun of making the ornaments, each student also learned how to follow instructions, work together, and show patience!

Tyrisha and Ms. Malcom pose with the "elf" ornaments that they made!

After the ornaments were made, the class posed for a picture with their creations! Every ornament that we made for our parents was a lot of fun to make. Thanks a lot Ms. Ford!