I found this at http://rachelwojo.com/prayer-cant-understand-gods-plan/ and found it very fitting. This is a prayer that I have been looking at myself this last week and this week. There are just some things that I just don't understand and won't until I am no longer in this world. It is hard for me to understand that sometimes those things that I don't understand are part of God's plan for me. I need to remember that everything happens for a reason and it is his plan and there is a good reason for it even though I may not understand it. This is something that is really hard for me to do.
On another note, TPT is holding a sale starting tomorrow for having 3 million sellers. YAY! We already have items in our wish list! Don't forget to check it out!
Well, let's talk the important stuff first...a little lice advice.
For the last two weeks, I have feared that I might catch those little critters (as it has been passed around my kiddos). I mean...I have been having people check my head almost daily. My husband insists he doesn't know what he is looking for, but "look you must" I say! I have a hair appointment scheduled for today so I was really nervous about walking in and being embarrassed as she says a nice version of "Get out!"
I finally saw a hair dresser friend last night and asked her to check me to be sure. She said I was probably fine because I blow dry my hair daily. As she checked me (and thankfully found nothing), she said she tells everyone--teachers especially--to blow dry their hair daily this time of year. Even if you don't wash your hair, blow dry it anyway. The heat will kill them.
Maybe you already knew that (I knew heat killed them, but didn't realize the blow dryer was such an effective weapon)...but hey, if I can spare someone the scalp tingling anxiousness I have experienced the last two weeks...then I will!
Moving on...because my head is starting to itch (again).
I am in charge of our Dr. Seuss celebration this year. We're dressing up all next week and finishing with some fun rotations on Friday. We have 64 kids K-2 and will divide them up to visit 5 stations. I *think* I'm going to use the book Bartholomew and the Oobleck for my station on Friday. Dare I try to make oobleck with those excited little kiddos???
Check out this video of some kids making dancing oobleck - kind of creepy (the oobleck, I mean, not the kids - HA!):
Here's what we came up with for dress-up days (a combination of a few ideas I found on the internet):
Monday – Red,
White, and Blue Day (featured book: One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish)
– Wear red, white, and blue!
Tuesday – Crazy
Sock Day (featured book: Fox in Socks) – Wear your craziest socks!
We had our extra fun thing on Friday and I decided to have the kids do a portrait drawing of Abe Lincoln since we had been talking about him this week. The kids were so excited to draw him and their eyes lit up when I told them that after they drew him, they got to paint it. I don't know what it is about paint, but there is just something magical about it. The kids get so excited about painting and think it is just the coolest thing. In fact, when they saw the paint sitting on the shelf, they started pointing to it and getting excited at that point.
Check out some of their portraits (I have always found it interesting how a drawing can turn out so different from one another when given the same directions :-)).
Right now, I'm feeling the time crunch with my kiddos...only a few more months to influence them and share my love for reading with them.
Where has this school year gone?
Has it gone by so quickly because it was my first year at a new school?
Or my first year in a new grade level?
I'm not sure why I feel like the end is approaching way too fast, but I do know I have more to do! I still have some little readers that I want to see improve their skills and find a passion for reading so they can find this Dr. Seuss quote to be true.
Today is a lazy day. I told my hubby I deserve it because coaching middle school basketball since November is like working overtime for four months! These girls had a great season finishing 15-1, taking 1st in regular season division play, and then fighting for the championship on Saturday. Take a peek:
That's me on the left and my daughter is right in front of me. She is #30. My niece is also on the team (#22, you can't see her number but she is right by #00) and it has been so fun to watch them play together. I'm a little bummed the two will be separated next year as my niece goes to high school...
That's all I've got today...like I said, lazy! I promise more school related things next time. ;-)
This is a new game that we started this week and the kids absolutely love it and beg me to do it! I found it at Whole Brain Teaching. They actually use high frequency words in their game, but since we are later in the year, I decided to make up my own and do the words that we are working on for the week. (I plan to use the high frequency word one at the beginning of next year and I have started using it in my MTSS groups this year). They have also made a math one, that I would like to incorporate as well.
To play the game, the students work with their shoulder buddy. They have to decide who is going to go first. You time them for one minute and when you tell them to begin one person reads the first word, then the other person reads the next word and so on. If their partner doesn't know a word, the other partner can help them with the word. When the timer stops they mark the spot they ended up at and then they do it one more time with the other student starting first. The goal is for them to try to get past the word they made it to.
My students made the goal to try to reach the end of it by the end of the week. Many of them made that goal while others went further by the end of the week. I noticed that when reading our stories for the week, when they came to the word that we were working on, they remembered it, YAY! It is so easy to do and only takes 2 minutes out of your day and the best thing is that the kids love it!
Well, I must say that sometimes I allow the world's volume to be louder than God's voice in my life. It is so true that I need to stop and turn all the other voices off and listen to the one that knows what is best for me. If I don't stop and listen to God's voice, then I will miss out on some very important things!
I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye. Psalm 32:8-9
You might remember my block art in my dining room from this post. I *loved* it!
Well, right behind that wall we are adding a second bathroom and hubby was doing some work in there...can you guess what happened?
Yep, the blocks fell down...
No big deal, right?
Well, I had never put a sealer over the modge podge. I picked them up and stacked them. BIG mistake. They stuck together and when I tried to separate them... Let's just say, it wasn't pretty. :-(
The good news...it was much easier this time around! I followed my tips in my first post and ta-da:
Block Art Take Two
I was so happy to find my favorite scrapbooking paper again...was worried I wouldn't be able to replace this one!
100th Day
Hubby laughed when I told him reading 100 books was one of my plans for the 100th day of school. He didn't think my kiddos would be too excited. I assured him kids will be excited about anything if the teacher is excited and makes it sound like the BEST thing EVER! ;-)
The idea was inspired by this pin and as expected my kids had a blast! They blew past 100 books and ended with a whopping 217!!!
Notice I'm also playing around with the Aviary photography app...what fun! My kids read a lot of little decodables--and I let them put a tally mark for every chapter read (if they were reading a chapter book).
We also borrowed this idea. My favorite "I wish I had..." is in the smiley face - BOOKS! :-)
Now for the "I would not want 100..."
Here's a key to all the stickers:
Star - KIDS, funny because I really wanted to write that I would not want 100 students!
Green Circle - BOOKS, my least favorite...unfortunately I have not won them all over. :-(
Heart - "Boys in my class" - LOL! My favorite! After she wrote this one, a boy wrote "Girls in my class" a little above it.
Blue Arrow - Mrs. R!!!! Are you kidding me? This kid is pretty funny. According to him, 100 Mrs. R's would give way to much work. Ha!
Subtraction with Regrouping
Found this great freebie on TPT for regrouping. Love the sheet that broke it down to just having the students practice the regrouping part (top number)...actually used that one today with a few of my strugglers. Check it out!
Basketball... Basketball has been keeping me pretty busy!
It is winding down for us though...tourney started Saturday. Both my kids play (middle school).
I'm the assistant for the girls team. The girls survived the first round (and I do mean survived) and play Thursday in the semi-finals. We *should* win the tournament (we are 13-1 for the season and a really good team - most of the time - HA!).
The boys lost, but they had a good season with a 10-4 record. I'll leave you with a pic of my son in mid-Andrew Wiggins move (minus the dunk, of course). I'm trying to find it on video because I want to see it again!
I always like reading the Currently that gets posted monthly. We have linked up with Farley for the February Currently:
Listening: I love watching and listening to my dogs play in the snow. They love the snow because they are Siberian Huskies.
Loving: It is so nice to have a day just to relax and enjoy looking out at the pretty snow.
Thinking: I know that I should be taking advantage of this extra day off and get something done around the house.....but I just can't get motivated to do something.
Wanting: I don't enjoy the cold and I am so ready to have some warm weather.
Needing: Even though I'm being lazy today, I need to go and get my workout in for the day.
2 Truths: I do drink about a pot of coffee a day :-(........I drink it straight without any sugar or cream. I know that I need to cut back on it with all the caffeine in it.
I have 2 beautiful dogs and 2 precious cats.
Fib: I have never been to the Bahamas but would love to go there someday.
Head on over to do your February Currently.....can't wait to read yours.
We were out of school yesterday for the first snow day this year. It was nice to have a day at home with my own kiddos. We baked cinnamon rolls, recreated an art project for my dining room (I'll post about that soon), did some cleaning, and of course, a lot of relaxing. :-)
If you follow our Wisdom posts, you know my last one had to do with having a heavy heart (two weeks ago since Kristi and I try to take turns). This one kind of follows that up...the idea of waiting on the Lord. Take a look:
I don't know about you, but I don't like to wait!
This is a good reminder to me...
...no need to rush ahead of God...
...no need to try to fix things myself...
Just wait!
Reminds me of Psalm 37 (one of my favorites)...filled with verses about trusting in the Lord and waiting on Him.
So...in my last post I told you about wanting to do a telling time activity "scoot" style. My kids (and I) have fallen in love with this fun review game--and as you know we LOVE "I Have...Who Has...?" games. I had just printed all the games in our Telling Time Mega Pack on cardstock and laminated them so I thought...why not use those cards for "scoot?"
I'm all about easy, so I took a table I already had made with my students' names (it had first and last hence the reason for all the black in the pics - sorry). I added a column to the right for their answers. I then put the cards on their desks. As they stopped at each person's desk, they read the clocks (ignoring the "Who has _____?" part) and wrote the times next to that person's name.
Easy peasy! No need to add a number or letter to the cards.
So if you have any of our (or anybody's) "I Have...Who Has...?" games give scoot a try!
It works! I have one kiddo who was really struggling, but after reading 23 clocks he was starting to get it. Hooray! Maybe we'll play it again...and again. Ha! ;-)
P.S. We might finally have the possibility of a snow day tomorrow! ;-)
What an exciting, but yet exhausting week this week has been. It all started last Thursday when I received a phone call at about 4:30 p.m. from my step dad. Now as soon as I saw that it was him calling, I knew something was wrong because he doesn't call at that time because he knows that I'm usually still working. So, my stomach flips as I answer the phone. He tells me that he is at the hospital with my mom. Long story short, she had fallen and dislocated her shoulder. :-(
I left Friday right after school to go down and help take care of her (she lives about 2 1/2 hours away). I stayed the weekend to help her out and on Sunday she started running a fever and just wasn't doing very well. So, I decided to stay another night with her and get a sub for Monday. I stayed Monday until about 9:00 pm and came home. Got home at about 11:30 and by the time I got to bed and fell asleep, it was about 1:30 in the morning ( I am one that has to get sleep or I just don't function too well).
Luckily for me, Tuesday was the 100th day of school and we were all dressing like we were 100 years old! How fitting was that since I was feeling like I was 100 years old by this time! LOL! Anyways, I was glad because I didn't have to decide what I was wearing. All I had to do was put on my sweats, t-shirt, robe, slippers, glasses and grab my cane and I was good to go! We had a great time with it and the kids looked so adorable. Check them out:
Wednesday was the day to teach contractions. So, in the past I have always done contraction surgery (students perform surgery on words to make them into contractions). I used some of the pages in this cute packet that I found at Made by Common Core Corner:
Here is one of the students performing the surgery with her gloves on.
Wednesday was also Kansas Day. So, we celebrated Kansas Day by enjoying this adorable cake that one of the parents made for them.
CUTE!!
On top of this, I was observed and evaluated by my principal. Needless to say, by Friday I was exhausted. I was thinking that maybe I could sleep in this morning, but unfortunately I was wide awake by 6 a.m. thinking of all the things that I need to get done at home today (like the 100 7 loads of laundry, cleaning the house, getting groceries etc). So, my goal for today is to get it done and get in a nap this afternoon!
