Happy Halloween or Happy It's Over?

Hello! 

I survived Halloween!

Actually it wasn't too bad this year. My class really is amazing! We had a pretty normal day until about 2:00. Then the kids put on their costumes and paraded around the gym in front of parents. My kids had some really original costumes! They all looked cute, but I was able to snap a few of my favorites...

I've never played Minecraft, but this was cool!

This little "nerd" even had fake braces on her teeth! LOL!

This may have been my favorite. She was an old lady with a wig, sweat suit, and fanny pack. Hee hee! She made it even better by saying things like, "What'd you say? I can't hear you!"

Enough about Halloween...

I have one little guy who is working so hard on his handwriting. I mean, seriously. I haven't even been able to believe it is the same kid writing some of his latest papers! His second sentence on the spelling test shows me exactly how he feels about it, too. LOL!

 

He makes me laugh! :-)

Have a great weekend!

Wisdom for Wednesday - Life's Situations

Happy Wednesday! 

Thanks for stopping by for today's:

I love this quote because it is so true! Take a look:

I don't know about you, but there are times when the situations of life can get a little overwhelming and discouraging. 

If I start to focus on those things--and my lack of understanding about why they are happening--it leaves me feeling pretty helpless. 

Those are the times when I should change my focus from the situations to the things I do know about my God. I know that He is good, that He cares about the details of my life, and that I can trust Him with anything this life has to throw at me!

Have a blessed day!

The Learning Station FUN!!!

I have just found this cool site that is great for the little ones to take a brain break!  Throughout the day we take some brain breaks which there seems to be a lot of them on youtube and pinterest.  I recently found the learning station and the kids absolutely love them!  Today we did the monster shuffle and they wanted to do it every time we took a brain break!  :-)  

They have several different ones and you can find them at https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLearningStation.

On a side note, if you read our latest blogs, Crystal and I have both been fighting sinus infections.  Well, I have a new drink that I am starting to have daily.  One of the teachers in our building said that he started drinking it daily last year and he hasn't gotten sick since then.  HMMMM.....I think it is worth a try.  So, here it is.....

2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar (UGGHHH) and add some drops of lemon essential oil (or whatever kind you like-this is just so you don't taste the apple cider vinegar as much), add water and drink up.  I'm hoping this works and I won't be sick the rest of the year!  :-)

I was also very excited because my coffee pot broke about a month ago and I found one on sale that you can program it to make coffee at a certain time (my old one was really cheap and didn't do that...lol!).  So, this morning it was so nice to wake up to the fresh smell of brewed coffee.  I forgot how much I've missed it!  I think it even helped me to wake up a little better at 5:00 am for my morning workout at the YMCA!

Hope you are having a great week!  

Relay Races with Common and Proper Nouns

Happy Friday, Friends! 

And it is happy...I'm relaxing at home today after 2 1/2 days of school, one long night of parent teacher conferences, and one day of parent teacher conferences. Like Kristi, I've been battling the sinus junk this week too. It seems like this always hits me on PT Conference week. :-( 

I wanted to share a fun little activity we did on our short day. I recently read a blog post (I'm sorry I don't remember who it was--so if it was you, please feel free to comment below and I can add a link) that talked about turning pretty much anything into a relay race. 

We've been studying proper nouns and common nouns, so I decided to give it a try.

I already have students on color teams (4 students on each team), so we traveled to the gym for our relays. It would be great to do these outside, but it was cool on this particular morning and since I wasn't feeling too spiffy the gym worked just fine.

 

The kids raced to the end of the gym where several index cards waited for them. I had written common or proper nouns on them. Each team had two big signs that said common and proper. The students read their card and then placed it on the correct sign (or tried to). 

 The kids loved it! And it helped me see that we have a bit more work to do on sorting those nouns! Ha!

They actually did better on the next activity. I made several cards with proper nouns and proper noun phrases written incorrectly (not capitalized or not the entire phrase capitalized, etc.). Students had to figure out what was wrong and rewrite the nouns correctly on their whiteboards. 

Then I called each group to the front and had them explain their work.

So if you're looking for a little break from routine, give relay races a try. I definitely plan to come up with some more activities we can review in this way. 

Have a great weekend!

I'm hoping the long weekend will give me a chance to get to feeling better...

Wisdom for Wednesday-Children

Welcome to another week of:

I saw this quote and thought that with parent teacher conferences this week, this says it all.  I think that as you meet with each of the parents that you need to remember that this is their child that you are speaking of and this child means a whole lot to them.  So, it is important how your words come out as you speak to each parent about their child.  

Hope you have a great day!

Busy Week!

I don't know what it was about last week, but it seemed to be very busy.  Maybe it was because on Monday we had a teacher work day (getting grades done etc. and preparing for parent teacher conferences this week), and we only had 4 days with the kids.  Here is a look into some of the activities that went on throughout the week:

Playing a connect 4 game with short u words that we have on TPT

I did the scoreboard from Whole Brain with the kids and they loved it.  When they beat me, we did a 1 min. dance party and here they are grooving!  LOL!

Another dance session

If you look closely you can see that these 2 kids are wearing lanyards with words on it.  Each student got one of these every day and they had the sight words that we were working on for the week on them.  Whenever I called on them, they had to tell me what their word was before they answered my question.

Number line adding and subtracting.  I got this neat idea from The Bubbly Blonde

The students got post its numbered 0-10 and had to build their number line with their partner.  I then gave them addition and subtraction problems and they had to use their number line to answer the problems.  They had a lot of fun doing this activity.

More number line

more number line

Owl assembly-Our theme this year is owls and the school had someone come in and talk about owls and she brought a real rescued owl to show the kids.  

Check out this great EEKING for Daily 5!

We go over our Whole Brain Rules every morning and I have one student lead us.  Here they are saying the rules.  

 Extra practice for that spelling test.  They love working with a partner and practicing spelling their words.  

Well, like I said I felt like it was a very busy week and this week we begin parent teacher conferences.  I'm not sure why but it is always around this time of year that I get sick.  So, guess what?  I got a sinus infection and felt horrible over the weekend.  Luckily I was able to sleep a lot and thanks to this wonderful sinus remedy below......I feel much better! 

http://theelliotthomestead.com/2012/11/an-awful-awesome-rinse/

If you have never done it before, I will tell you that it is awful to do, but it works wonders!  Try it the next time you get a sinus infection.  

Hope you have a great day!

Field Trip Exhaustion and Volleyball Mom

I survived the Pumpkin Patch! 

We went on our field trip yesterday and it was great. I had so many parents come along I didn't even have a group of kids with me. I just walked around and checked on the kids...so why was I so exhausted? I came home and took a nap! Ha!

This morning, I put on my "volleyball mom" shirt and headed to the league tournament for my daughter's middle school team.

Kansas sunrise...It was a beautiful sunrise as I drove to the tournament.

Our team went into the tournament 9-1 and ranked 1st in our league. We played pool play in the East Division, avenged our only loss for the season, and came out 5-0 for the day. Monday we will play in the league semi-finals (east and west) and hopefully advance to the finals. :-)

So proud of these girls! My daughter is #25.

Finally relaxing a bit tonight...catching up on Person of Interest. Tomorrow is the finale to our Missions Conference and 60th Anniversary at church. Then next week parent teacher conferences...can't believe how fast this year is going!

Wisdom for Wednesday - An ideal, principle, or a Person?

Hi there! I'm a little late...I had it on my mind all morning that I needed to post this. Then the day got away from me and I completely forgot when I got home from church. We are having our Missions Conference this week--along with celebrating our 60th anniversary (our church, not my husband and I)! It was a great service and I'm excited about what the rest of the week will bring. A lot of old friends coming back to town for the celebration... :-)

Anyway, take a look:

I believe Tozer is right when he says there are millions of Christians loving an ideal, being loyal to the principle of Christianity. 

They are missing the Person behind Christianity--Jesus Christ.

What motivates us to be a Christian? 

What is behind the things we do and say that we believe represent Christ? 

Is it just ideal and principle...or do we need to get to know the Person behind it all?

It's a good reminder for me to examine my motivation, to not let my Christianity become automatic, and to remember the Person--not just the principles. Even the celebration at my church would be in vain if it isn't centered around The Lord Jesus Christ.

What's behind your Christianity? Have you gotten to know the Person?

Thanks for joining us for another:

Have a great day!

Whole Brain Scoreboard ????

I started to use some whole brain in my classroom last year.  I never incorporated the scoreboard because I have always done points in the classroom.  My points are boys vs. girls and class vs. Mrs. Torrey.  Here's how I've used it:

Example:  When they come in the room whoever is the quietest gets a point.  If it is both the boys and girls then the boys, girls, and class get a point.  If both are talking etc. then I get a point.  We keep track of points all week and at the end of the week, we see who got the most points.  There is no prizes etc., just for fun to see who gets the most points for the week.

If you have read my blogs in the past, you know that I have a hard time with change.  So, when I saw the scoreboard....I immediately said to myself....no need to do that because I already do points in the classroom.  Well, now that I'm looking at it closer, I'm wondering if it would be more beneficial and helpful than my points in the classroom.  

So, I am wanting to know if anyone uses it?  How do you use it?  Do you find it helpful?  I would love to hear your thoughts before I make a change and implement it into the classroom.  

Hope you have a great week!

Five for...um...Saturday!

So I'm late to the linky party, but I promise I have a good excuse! :-)

I'm linking up with Doodlebugs again to share five rather random things about my week.

First up, the reason I'm late. Late Night at the Phog!

If you've followed our blog long, you know I am a huge KU basketball fan. My kids had never been to Allen Fieldhouse so we waited in line on Friday (in the rain and cold) to get into their "kick-off" night of practice. They introduce the teams, do some skits, dances, etc. and finally a little scrimmage. It was fun and I'm glad my kids got to see it--but I don't know that I would wait in line (in the rain and cold) again. I'd rather watch a game! ;-)

2. Math INB - Making a tally chart and counting by 5s

3. Math INB - types of lines

Have I told you how much we love our INBs???

4. Volleyball - Usually I go to my son's cross country meets and my husband goes to our daughter's volleyball games (time just works better that way for us), but this time I actually got to watch volleyball. They are looking good! Tournament on Saturday--can't wait!

5. Breakfast Cookies

We can't get enough of these things. I'm telling you--2nd favorite Pinterest find ever! These are full of peanut butter, oats, apples and bananas. They taste delicious and they actually help fill up my 14 year old son! If you have one of those or already raised one, I know you are feeling my excitement. Hee hee! That boy can eat!

Mine look nothing like the real thing--see pin here--but they are tasty. I've been doubling the batch and freezing them. KEEPER!