Zuni Guardian Animal Stone Carvings

Students hold five Zuni Pueblo Indian stone carvings of animals from my collection of native American art. The Zuni are native Americans who have lived in a remote part of west central New Mexico on the Arizona border for thousands of years. I am sharing what I know about the Zuni and other Pueblo tribes with the class as a way of introducing our year long theme of "identity awareness and culture."


I taught in and visited many Pueblo Indian schools during my twenty years living in New Mexico. Here is a close-up of the stone carved animals who the Zuni believe are guardians of the four directions. They are shown on the New Mexico flag. The bear guards the west. The mountain lion guards the north. The wolf protects the east and the badger the south.



Above is a close-up of my Zuni watch band.

Dry Erase Boards: a fun tool for exam prep

Students hold up the list of spelling words they've just practiced writing on our dry erase boards. We use the boards many ways including preparation for vocabulary and math exams.

Everyday Math Unit One: Geometry

Mariah V. practices using a compass to learn more about geometric shapes and concepts. Students explored using the tool to make circles, measure line segments, create polygons within a circle, construct concentric circles and patterns. Mariah is designing a pattern using congruent circles. This was all a part of Everyday Math's Unit one.

Math Manipulatives Develop Thinking Skills

Students ponder their math manipulative challenges (from top: Danny K. thinking through coin patterns, Elia J. absorbed with the attribute blocks, Matthieu C. figuring out a complex geometric shape using pattern blocks and Melanie F. sorting out the tangram puzzles. Students turn to this enrichment project when they finish their regular math lessons.

Maps of Our Hearts and Stomachs

Inspired by The Map Book by Sarah Fanelli students made some different "maps" of their own. Here are two hearts and one stomach. Other students mapped their minds, bedrooms and faces.

All Tied Up: describing my ties.....one day at a time

I have an unusually large and diverse collection of neckties. Part of our morning start-up activities is for each student to observe my tie of the day and write a description in his or her log. In the photo, I'm wearing one of my favorite beverage-themed ties....it's all coffee.

Wish We Had Been There

These are four of the post cards "sent" using stamps from my collection that were part of my welcome to back to school letter. Students researched where their stamp was from and then imagined they had traveled to that place. They composed a post card message reflecting information about that country.

Reading Assessments: checking independent and instructional levels

Each student's independent and instructional reading levels were checked over these past few weeks. Everyone read a 4-5 page booklet while I took notes. Students read half the selection aloud to me and the rest silently. Later I asked them several questions to determine how well they understood what they had read. Here Evan S. is reading about the causes of earthquakes. This data is collected at least three times per year. The levels are used to help design independent and guided reading experiences during the year. Levels achieved in third grade were starting points for the assessments this year. The system is Fountas & Pinnell's Benchmark Assessment System.

Toothpicks: one of many valuable math learning tools

Jasmine L. manipulates toothpicks to complete the first of many math enrichment challenges sheets. It's all part of Math Toolbox's 35 challenge sheets of 9 activities each. Each challenge comes with a complete explanation that expands on the concepts under investigation. Students turn to these fun math experiences when they have completed their daily math lessons.

Recognize This Plant? Our School's Plants part 1

Everyday all of us pass by many beautiful and thoughtfully placed plants that collectively make up our lovely landscaped campus. Our class has a unique opportunity to enjoy these plants as we daily take the outside sidewalks to special classes, recess and lunch.

If you know about this pretty lilac colored flowering plant please leave a comment below.

We will be posting many more photos of our school's plants hoping to learn about them.