Lots of things going on!!!

Sorry for the late post, I'm not sure where this week has gone but I can say it has been pretty hectic. Starting on Monday, we had to say our good-byes to our 12 year old dog.  :-(  He was diagnosed back in December with cancer and his tumor had gotten a lot bigger and he was getting weaker.  My husband and I didn't want him to suffer therefore, we had him put to sleep.  

Now our other dog that is 2 years old is missing him terribly.  We are trying to give her as much attention as possible.  Now, we are debating if we should get another puppy.  They say that Siberian Husky dogs do better with having a companion.  My problem is that I don't know if this old lady can keep up with a puppy!  We will see!

Tuesday-I woke up with a fever and ended up having to get a substitute for the day.  I will say that I slept until 11 and then from 12-3:30.  I went to the doctor at 4:30 and back home and asleep again at 8:00 until my alarm in the morning.  The sleep was very nice!  

Along with being sick, my stepdad had surgery to remove some kidney stones.  Everything went great with the surgery.  

Wednesday-At our school, we do AR reading and if the kids had an 85% average on their AR tests then they got to go bowling in the morning.  Our librarian set it all up.  The kids had a blast!

Thursday-We started our 10 day countdown like Crystal was talking about in her last post.  Only we didn't do balloons because my co-teacher doesn't like the popping of the balloons.  She came up with the idea of using little cups, pinning them on the bulletin board and putting tissue paper around them.  Well, when putting it together I had to tweak it some because it just wasn't working out for me.  (I'm not very crafty).  

Today, if they hadn't moved their owl down yesterday for behavior they got to do what was in the cup and it was painting.   They were thrilled!  We haven't used paints too much this year so this was a real treat!

I've made it through so far and now tomorrow is our field trip to the zoo.  It is supposed to rain here but we are hoping it holds off until we come back from the zoo..........fingers crossed!

Have a great day!

Wisdom for Wednesday - The Battle

Good Morning!

I hope you're having a happy week! 

This week has been crazy already for me. I survived Hats! The kids did a great job and nobody seemed to notice that I messed up leading one of the songs. :-/

Last night my son accompanied the high school choir in one of their songs at their concert. Pretty cool experience for him.

Tomorrow is my daughter's league track meet and then Friday she is having some friends over for her birthday. The end of the year is just crazy!

At school, the kids have enjoyed "ink pen day" and "rearrange the room" day so far from our balloon countdown. 

Today we are having "puzzle day." This class absolutely loves puzzles and they often choose them as their Fun Friday activity, so I'm bring in some "big" ones and we're going for it after lunch. I can't wait--really! I love puzzles too!

Now for this week's Wisdom quote. Take a look:

This quote is actually talking about the "work" we do for the Lord, but I think it applies to all of the "stuff of life." If we are so busy doing, that we are not taking the time to truly be in fellowship with our Lord, we are missing the point! 

The Lord desires a close relationship with us and that takes time. Time in the Word. 

Time in prayer. 

Let's not be so busy doing, that we neglect the "one thing is needful…" as Jesus calls it in Luke 11:42 when he is talking to Martha. She was "…careful and troubled abut many things…" and Jesus wanted her to choose "…the good part…" which was fellowship with Him.

Thanks for stopping by for:

Hope it is an encouragement to stay focused on the Lord in these last, crazy weeks of school! 

Hang in there!

P.S. Don't forget the TPT sale! It ends today! 

Five for Saturday!

Five for Saturday just doesn't have the same ring to it as Five for Friday, but I'm linking up anyway. 

I actually just walked up to the school to take these pictures since I completely forgot take pictures all week. If you remember from last week, I'm in survival mode people.

1

Speaking of survival, I have our 10 day balloon countdown ready to go. I love this! Such a simple incentive for good behavior at the end of the year. I have one simple rule. If you get a mark (that is our school-wide behavior system), you do not do the next balloon activity. Easy Peasy.

We will be having Ink Pen Day, Rearrange the Room Day, Ice Cream Day, Science Experiment Day, Puzzle Day (this class LOVES puzzles), Extra Recess Day, Kickball Day, Mystery Readers Day (reading with the K class), Movie Day, and Have a Kool Summer (gift from me) Day!

2

Our garden beans are sprouting! These are the ones we planted in cups. The ones in the paper towels may have gotten a little to wet. Some are sprouting, some are molding. Teacher FAIL.

3

We interviewed a friend, wrote biographies, and then typed them up. Yes, typed them! That part took us a good week or two, but the result is cute. Hee Hee!

We have an odd number, so one of my students wrote about me and drew a picture of me. Love the KU shirt! Not sure why I have brown tips and blonde roots--it should be the other way around…ha!

4

The Spring program is Monday. Praise the Lord! I am so ready to be done with it. Those of you that don't know I am the 2nd grade teacher AND the K-2 music teacher. Music is a challenge for me and well, let's just be honest, I hate teaching music! It is because I am a perfectionist and I know I'm not good at it, so…

Enough about that. Here's a neat-o quilt the students made squares for that will be auctioned off on Monday night. It is so cute! Dr. Seuss theme!

5

Teachers Appreciation Week is next week--which means SALES! I already started my wish-list shopping. Both of our stores are on sale, so shop away and enjoy the Teachers Appreciation discounts!

Have a great week! 

P.S. Or #6 or whatever…we are saying goodbye to my daughter's 29-year-old horse, Cosmo, today. :-(

So thankful we did a little "photo shoot" with him a few months ago before he got too bad. We are all broken-hearted, but it is time...

It's OVER!

No, not my school year.

 

Although I do only have 7 1/2 more days...we dismiss on the 16th at 1:00!

Yes, I know, it is early and you are jealous.

We do a condensend calendar so we start late August and get out mid-May, but we have longer days than you...

 

The spring program is over.

 

The kids did a wonderful job last night performing Squirm!

 

I woke up with a smile on my face knowing it was over!

 

Then my sweet coworker decided there should be no music classes today! Instead she bought Popsicles for the kiddos and took them outside for an extended recess while I got a little break during our normal specials rotation.

 

I'm telling you...this teaching music (in addition to 2nd grade) would have been much worse if I didn't have such supportive coworkers. They helped me pull together the details of the program and were always willing to help out and rearrange schedules for rehearsal.

 

As for 2nd grade, we started our 10 day balloon countdown yesterday!

 

I can't believe we are this close to the end of the year.

 

CRAZY!

Disclaimer: This is not my classroom. This picture is from Erin over at First with Franklin. Kristi and I took this idea and ran with it back when Erin first posted it. Check out her original blog post here. It includes a freebie of things to put in the balloons that I'm still using this year.

The kids were SOOOO excited. Yesterday was bubble gum day. I gave the kids a piece in the morning, after recess, and after lunch. Then today was ink pen day. Hubby did a great job picking up some cool ink pens the kids were excited to get and use. Tomorrow they will get to rearrange the room...that one always makes me a little nervous. Ha!

 

I'm using quite a few of Erin's ideas, but this year I'm going to have "Build a Fort and Read Day" and "Surprise!"

 

That surprise one is because I couldn't find any cheap-o sunglasses like I wanted, so now I'm on the hunt for something totally cool to give to my kiddos on the last day of school--which is Rodeo Day (western inspired field day). Ideas welcome! :-)

 

3 More Days and AR Competition Winds Down!

 

I can't believe we only have 3 more days of school!

 

That means next Friday I will be leaving my classroom and school for the last time. :-(

I'm feeling sad and excited all at the same time.

 

I have keys to my new classroom and school already. They were done on Thursday. It was really hard to get up and go to work Friday when my own kids were still in bed snoozing. I just keep thinking that next year, we will have the same calendar! That will be so awesome!

 

About my new classroom, I just took some of my things up there and looked around. Then I came home and took a nap! LOL!

 

It is too overwhelming right now to think of all that I need to do...

 

Anyway, the AR competition has come to an end--which is a good thing. Kristi and I are both extremely competitive. The library closed on Wednesday, but we each asked for a basket of books so the classes could keep reading. I even pulled some leveled readers from earlier in the year to keep them earning points. We had told the kids we would have a party if we made it to 1000 points (between the two classes) in the last nine weeks.

 

On Thursday, we knew we would not make the goal so Kristi and I started taking tests too. I took a test on The Hunger Games (which I had read last year) and some of the half point books pictured below.

 

 

At the end of the day, I had 27 points. Kristi had 5.

 

Would you believe she bribed (with Coca Cola) another teacher friend to take a Harry Potter test under her name?

 

So I came back the next day and took tests on Catching Fire and Mockingjay and earned another 25 points (I got a 60% on one of them--oops--guess that is why you shouldn't wait a year to test on a book).

 

Like I said we are really competitive! :-)

 

As it turned out, the classes tied and we made the 1000 points so we have a float party planned for next week. Hooray!

 

Well, I wanted to leave you with a video of my daughter singing in her school talent show, but I'm still working on getting it uploaded. Maybe tomorrow...this proud mom has to share. :-)

 

Have a blessed weekend!

Crystal

 

 

 

How to blow up a Balloon!!!????

 

So last year we found this cool idea from Erin at First From Franklin.

 

 

 

 

http://firstwithfranklin.blogspot.com/2012/05/10-day-countdown-baby.html

 

We came up with a list of fun things to do each day, typed them up, printed it and stuck it in the balloon.  If the student doesn't have to move his/her clip down throughout the day, then they get to participate in what it says in the balloon the next day.  The kids are so excited about popping a balloon every day and want to make sure that they are following our rules so that they can do whatever is inside the balloon.  The following is what we decided to put in our balloons:

 

May

9^th – Gum-we gave them gum to chew all day long

10^th – Sunglasses-this was the day that we went to the zoo for our field trip, so we gave them sunglasses to wear to the zoo

13^th – ink pens-they will get to write with pens all day

14^th – lunch in the room with the teacher

15^th – extra recess

16^th – move desks-they get to arrange the room the way they want to for the day

17^th – mystery readers (other 1^st grade class)-they get to read with the other 1st graders

20^th – kickball-we will have a kickball game between the 2 classes

21^st – nature walk-they will go outside and take a walk and do a scavenger hunt

22^nd – Movie Day

 

The best part about all of this is that I learned something about Crystal last year when we did this activity.  We were in my room after school and started to blow up the balloons.  I don't think I have ever laughed so hard in my life.  Crystal doesn't know how to blow a balloon up.  Bless her heart, she tries but it doesn't work!  LOL!

 

I was sitting there blowing up balloon after balloon and realized that she couldn't do it.  She was trying with all her might and blowing, making noises and turning red.  :-)  Needless to say, by the time I had all of my 10 balloons blown up, she had her one balloon halfway blown up.  I had to blow the other 9 up for her.

 

This year, I was so excited to do it again just so I could watch her try to blow a balloon up (I know it probably isn't very nice of me), but I have never seen anything like it before.  LOL!  She must have been practicing or something because she actually was able to blow up a few more balloons this year.  Although it took her 14  2 hours.  :-)  I only wish I could have a video of it for the full effect so you could hear the noises and see her face as she tries so hard to get 1 balloon blown up.  But, I did capture some of it with pictures.  Check it out! 

 

 

Taking in deep breaths before her attempt to blow up her first balloon!

 

 

After 15 minutes LOL!  Here is what she had on her first balloon!

 

 

 

 

WOW!  2 hours later!!!  :-)

 

 

 

 

 

SHE DID IT!!!  14 HOURS LATER!!!

 

 

It really didn't take that long, but I think I had about 4 balloons done by the time this first one was blown up! 

 

Needless to say, we had a fun time blowing up balloons and we did have a good laugh about it at Crystal's expense (Thanks Crystal). 

 

Hope all of you have a great week!  Kristi