The Day I Was Called Nana...

It's been a while, friends!  Sorry!

 

The 100th day of school, Valentine's Day, an 11 hour parent-teacher conference day, and an "emergency drill that turned out to not be a drill" to top off the week on Friday afternoon will do that to a girl! 

 

I don't have tomorrow off for President's Day...but I know lots of you do so ENJOY and stay in your jammies for as long as humanly possible tomorrow so I can live vicariously for you.

 

I still have some school work to do to get ready for the week so I'm going to let the pictures do most of the talking!

 

We played tons of math games this week to work on new stuff (skip counting, numbers to 100, patterns on a 100s chart, etc.)  as well as to review some old stuff that was a little shaky on the last cumulative test.

 

My kiddos were still struggling with ordering 3 numbers from least to greatest and greatest to least.  I made a simple litle sheet for them to practice and used a deck of cards to spice things up a bit.  They worked with a partner to draw 3 cards, build cube towers for each of the cards, and order the 3 numbers from least to greatest before recording on the sheet. 

 

 

They LOVED this little fact family activity (more review).  It is available in my TPT store for 2 bucks!
 

We partied hard on Valentine's Day!  We kept the food simple because let's be honest...the kids are WAY too excited about those silly little paper valentines to care much about eating.  We did make these little Valentine Floats (lots of versions on pinterest!) as a fancy-schmancy drink!

They were a hit!  I used a scoop of vanilla ice cream, cherry 7-up, LOTS of whipped cream, and fun sprinkles!  I'm not a huge fan of anything cherry but the kids slurped them right up (and I may or may not have eaten a cup full of whipped cream and sprinkles).

 

I did glowstick valentines (thank you Target dollar spot!) and the kids loved wearing them as bracelets.

 

My favorite part of Valentine's Day was (and always is)  the "Bucket Books" that I make for the kids.  It's a kind of a pain-in-the-rear project that I always end up being glad I did once I make them and the kids read them.

Over the years, I've simplified it a little bit and it's really not so bad.

 

Basically, I call each kid up one at a time (you need to start a week or two in advance)  and ask them to give every member of the class a compliment...something to "fill their bucket."  They come up with some great things...some need a little prompting, but it's actually amazing what they can usually come up with on their own.

 

I type each compliment on a blank page of labels (in MS Word).

 

Then, I print them out and stick each label on a half sheet of paper.  I put all of the half sheets in a gallon ziploc bag and we take an afternoon for the kids to illustrate all of the pages of compliments that they came up with.

 

Then, I sort them by student so that each kid gets an entire book of compliments about themselves!

 

 

You should just see their sweet faces light up when they start reading through them. They're shocked at some of the things that people think about them! 

 

Here are some sweet examples of the kinds of compliments that my sweeties came up with.

 

Total sweetness.

 

Now...my LEAST favorite part of Valentine's Day was when a child called me "Nana" by accident.  Don't get me wrong...I get called "mom" every other day but "NANA"??

 

Sheesh...time to look into some new concealer and wrinkle cream, I believe.

 

The only redeeming part of this little cutie calling me Nana was that he also brought me a red rose and gave me this card.

 

My heart offically melted.  He can call me Nana all he wants now.
(and he gets an A on everything from now on forever and ever, amen)
Kidding...kinda.

 

On a completely unrelated note...look what I got in the mail yesterday! 

We are now officially ready for the wedding (hurry up, May!) because our "son" has his attire!

  How handsome is this little dude?

 

Stud. muffin.

 

 

Happy Monday!

 

Happy teaching to you!

 

Valentine Pattern Freebie!

Is anyone doing some candy heart patterns and graphing in the next few days? 

 

Is that a silly question? Probably!

 

If you need a little independent practice or a quick assessment for patterns...here is a freebie that you might be able to use!

 

Click the image to download.

 

 

 

 

Happy Monday! XO!

 

 

Super Duper Sunday Sale (and a freebie)

Hope you're having a fantastic weekend!  Mine has been good so far...except for the fact that it is FREEZING. 

 

I hope that little rodent was right this morning and that spring is on its way in a hurry.

 

Speaking of that little rodent...we read some fun stories yesterday about Groundhog's Day and learned a little bit about them, graphed our predictions, etc.  My favorite groundhog story is "Substitute Groundhog."

 

 

One of the writing activities we did went along with "Wake Up Groundhog."

I told them that they could write any ideas they had about how to wake up a groundhog AS LONG AS they didn't HURT him.  I've had some traumatic experiences with my sweet little darlings writing horrific things they would do to wake him up in the past.  NO HURTING!

 

My kiddos this year had some...interesting ideas.

 

 



 

Yes...you read that right.  Stick him outside "nacked." What in the world!

 

I would find a big "simbl" and hit it.  I would throw snow at him. Ruthless, I tell ya!

 

 

 This is great.  Step 1: Get kids  Step 2: Give kids sugar Step 3: Make kids yell

That'll wake him up for sure!

 

 

This one is hard to see but I had to show you.  This little guy is super serious...always doing the right thing.  He wrote "I would poke him with a "nif" (knife) "jitley" (gently). 

I said not to hurt the groundhog...so he added gently!  Violence = not funny....but this made me giggle.

 

We also finished up our pattern unit with some fruit loop necklaces!  I just used plastic ribbon (the kind you can curl and put on packages) and taped the end to their desk so the fruit loops wouldn't slide off into the floor. It worked GREAT!

The best part is, now I have half a box of fruit loops to finish up.  I never let myself buy sugary cereal like that but if it's leftover, I can't let it go to waste...right?!?!

 

So, Andy has to work tomorrow which stinks...because I don't think it's socially acceptable to make a ridiculous amount of junk food to watch the game if you're at home by yourself, even if you share a little bit with your dog...

 

Luckily, some friends are having a little get together so I think I'll head over there for the first half
(to watch commercials and eat).

 

Speaking of the SUPER bowl...Are you ready for the SUPER sale tomorrow??

Thank you Ashley Huges for the ahhh-dorable button.  If you haven't checked out her clipart...wow.  It's fabulous (and in my cart waiting for the sale to start!)

Well...here's a little secret.  My sale has already begun (20% off PLUS an extra 10% from TPT)...so you can start shopping on Super Bowl Eve if you like. ;)  I'm also going to extend the sale to the 4th as well. (Ya know...just in case you're in a food coma tomorrow and can't get your fingers to click the right buttons. It happens.)

 

I added a few new products to my store recently...mostly math.  Click the pictures to find out more.

 





 

 

 

I had a bunch of requests to offer my geometry materials separately from my "Hello Winter" pack and I was more than happy to offer that as a brand new "Shape it Up" Mini-Pack!

 

 

It includes the super fun "At first it was a shape" activity (a personal fave!)

 

  

 

*Just please note: you should NOT purchase the "Shape it Up" pack if you have already purchased my "Hello Winter" pack.  I don't want anyone to be disappointed to find duplicate activities.  If you have the "Hello Winter" pack, you already have these geometry materials as well. :)*http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Shape-it-Up-A-Geometry-Mini-Pack

 

 

Perfect for Valentine's Day...

(or anytime because I surely don't need a special occasion to enjoy a cupcake!)

 

 

 

 

 

I didn't forget! 

 

Is anyone else celebrating the 100th day this week?  Ours is Friday!  Last year one of my favorite projects of the whole year was our "100 year old portraits."  There are lots of ideas floating around pinterest.  We put our own little spin on them and are planning to do them again.  I'll post pictures when they're done!  The kids did an awesome job last year of describing themselves at 100.  The writings were downright hysterical.  I'm hoping for more of the same this year.  If you are doing any variation of this project and need writing paper...here it is!

 

The second page has empty space at the top so that you can tape the first page over top of it (and overlap) so that it looks nice hanging in the hall.

 

Click the pics to download.

 

 

 

 Happy teaching to you!