Leaping into a new month!

I cannot believe that we are already to the end of February!  One of my teacher friends started the count down...  58 days!  ACK!  I am stressed about getting these kids where they need to be!  I have a few teachery things to share. 
1.  I just found Steve Spangler Science Videos on YouTube.  (My family sat and watched his videos during dinner-  ummm.... really???  There goes the no tv at dinner and uninterupted family time rule!  Oh yeah-  and what kind of nerds watch science experiments for entertainment?  Teacher's families I guess!!!!!)  My students LOVE LOVE LOVE the experiments and beg to watch them.  I have come up with a couple of scientific method sheets to go with some.  I will share them in the future!  My kids were asking me to write down the name of "that guy" so I sent home the info today.  I am guessing many will be watching science experiments tonight!   Speaking of YouTube...  there are some really fun Just Dance Kids postings.  My students and my kids at home love them!  ...and it gets in our 10 min. of physical activity requirement...  and it is the fastest way to get them to clean up and move to the carpet.  Win Win Win! 

2. I have found some incredible center ideas on PINTEREST!  I made a variation of one I found, but wasn't long enough.  You can download it HERE.

The activities like this that I have seen only have 4 spaces, so this gives a few more.  Some of my kids are fast decorators, so they do some on the back too.

3. I have also been working on some fluency phrases.  One of the games I have is made of questions: the students play in a group.  They roll a dice and read the question that is the same number as the dice.  They tally up each time they read and after 5 times they write the question on the back.  I have all the kids in the group read the question at the same time.  (This is one that helps to have a volunteer at!)   Download it here:  Question Fluency Game

So that is just about it.  I have a game of Hide and Seek to join and some Kindergarten homework to cheer!  Wish me luck!

Julie

Snow Days, Princesses and other fun things...

Yesterday was a day of a few firsts for our family.  We woke up to the sound of the "SNOW DAY!" phone call!  The first for our year.  I can truly say that I hope it is the last, but I wouldn't complain if we had just one more. :)  By 9am the roads were clear and it was sunny and the kids and I headed to run some errands and then spent the afternoon making crafts, including "make your own tatoos!"  (thanks Aunt Traci!)  Very low key, but fun! 

The next first was our Girl's Night and Boy's Night family time.  Last year in May, I saw an advertising for the Disney Princess show and used summer school money to get the most amazing seats they had for Emelia and I.  Brady and daddy knew that they wanted to go to Star Wars 3D, so it worked out for all of us to go last night.  I have been to several shows in the past, but this was by far my favorite!  I am sure that my date had a lot to do with it!!!
Here are some of the highlights!

How cute is she!!!  She was beaming!!!

The three princesses, Snow White, Cinderella and Belle!

We were so close that the beautiful glitter fell right over our heads! 

Emelia was laughing and so excited!

It was just amazing to see this all through her eyes!  I was just in love with the whole thing!  Can't wait to do it again!

I love these 3 day weekends!  5 weeks until Spring Break!  I think I will make it!!!  :)

Julie

President's Day Weekend

For all of the happiness a 3 day weekend brings, President's Day weekend is always a bittersweet time for me.  Seven years ago, I sat in Rush Medical Center listening to a Pediatric Cardiologist explain the heart defect in my son.   One thing that I truly do love is data...  percentages and statistics usually impress me, but not that weekend.  We started the weekend with just the initial "it could be" diagnosis... with a "but try not to worry about it"  thrown in at the end.  How sad is it to leave a doctor's office with a note that had couple really long words on it and not to know if you should even be crying or not?  But I could tell I should from the look on the nurses' faces. 
So we went to Minnesota on our planned trip for my niece and goddaughter's baptism.    My sister-in-law, who conveniently works in a hospital nursery found out some data from her hospital...  60% chance of survival... ok...  60% was better than nothing...  Monday came...  their success rate was 90%   in dealing with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. Better.  We made it through, and most days I forget about that awful weekend. But the worry and anxiousness always comes back- usually on these milestone type of occasions.  So while many celebrate President's Day with lessons of good old George and Abe, I celebrate something entirely different...  a 100% success rate in beating Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, a 100% success rate in 3 open heart surgeries, and 100% success rate in getting a great kid!  So Happy Birthday, dear Presidents and Thank you God for keeping us in your care!

Julie 

My baby at 3 weeks old...

Beautiful and healthy today!!!

Can't help but celebrate!

Jelly for dinner and everyting else that makes perfect sense to a 3 year old!

Three is probably my favorite age for both of my kids so far.  I remember just daily laughing about things my son would do (like compliment our realator's shoes!) and I am finding the same joy wth my daughter.  She is really expressing herself and has such a new perspective of the world.  Here are some of our latest from our darling daughter!

1.  Eating out with Emelia has never been easy.  Brady would just sit and be cute and eat when he was supposed to, but not her.  She tries to stand up, screams bloody murder, and I am sure that very few of the victims eating around us find her very cute.  Tonight was different.  She sat still, was quiet, and ate the whole time.  Jelly...with a spoon. We went to a little hometown restaurant with the jelly in the four rows in square containers.  She had about 4 while her dinner sat with no attention paid to it.  At one point she looked at me proudly and said  "Jelly is GOOD!"  Well, I suppose it is....



2.  Emmie started dance this past month.  I have always dreamed of the beautiful ballerina daughters that float gracefully across the floor.  I am not letting go of that dream, but the past month has been more of a negotiation of trying to get her to stay in the room and somewhat comply until the end.  Last night we made it ALL the WAY THROUGH!!!  Thankfully!!!  The whole way home she explained to me that "you have to stay in dance the whole time!"   :)  There is hope!

Not the best pic quality, but awwwwww!

3. Reading is subjective.  I never knew that I don't know how to read properly.  I seem to be able to get by in the rest of my life, but apparently I read incorrectly when it is time for me to read to her.  She usually gets a little huffy, grabs the book, and begins to read the correct way!  I kind of am dreading what she may be like as a teen...

Smiles!
Julie

Valentine's Day

We are full force Valentine's Day this week.  I think I will be able to finish by Wednesday, so we can start President's Day Thursday.  Whew...  February is FULL of special activities.  It feels like I have hurried through each one to get to the next.  The good thing is Febrary has flown by so far...  6 weeks until Spring Break.  I have a feeling I am going to need it.

I sent home a list of foody type items that I would like for our classroom and I was flooded with wonderful, fun stuff. (Like 4 big bags of conversation hearts!)  The problem was how to use it other than the standard graphing.  So this is what I came up with for the hearts...

I went through them all to make sure that they were not inappropriate for first grade, (like anything that said SEXY, HOT STUFF, etc... ) or that was hard to read because it wasn't placed right or was blurred.  The difficult to read ones were placed in a container in the middle and the rest were out on the table.  The kids had to read through the hearts on the table and pick their favorite ones to write.  I added the incentive that after they wrote 3 they could eat one from the container in the middle so they didn't sneak the ones that people had handled.  (ICK!)  They LOVED it!  They stayed on task the whole time and were helping each other read and write.  It was wonderful.  Not quiet, but controlled noise- which is what I try for!  :)  You can download a copy of the activity HERE! 

I also ended up with Marshmallow Hearts and Gummy Hearts.  So I came up with this cute little VENN DIAGRAM to compare and contrast the two.  Gotta love the VENN!

Can't wait to do this!  The kids always love the activities that involve food!

I am hoping to keep up with the students' candy consumption so that I am as hyped on sugar as they are!  If you can't beat em...  Hope your Valentine's Day is lovely!

Julie

Weekend Warriors!

It is amazing how a weekend can give you enough of a break to feel refreshed and ready to tackle the week ahead!  Adding in that my husband worked both days and it makes it even more amazing!  I did however have some great distractions!

Friday night we were able to go out and get in a little family time!  Lone Star Steakhouse and Target-  20 years ago I would have never believed that would consist of a great night!  (I am pretty sure the company of hubby and kids helped!) 

Speaking of 20 years ago:  I met with my college friends for supper on Saturday to celebrate a milestone birthday.  Very rarely am I in a group these days were so many of us have the same milestone birthday at the same time.  So no rude old people gag gifts for us!  :)  I have to say that I am truly blessed to have made the friends I did, because I still love them all today! awwwww.....

Today, we went and bought a few tubs and I started going through stuff that I need to put in our nextgarage sale.  Wow, the amount of items that come into this house is incredible!  So I purged and purged some more.  I also was able to get caught up with laundry, made a couple of meals for the week, and finished my lesson plans for the next week.  no wonder I am tired! 

I have a new favorite app for my phone:  Photobooth!  So funny! 

Julie

Keeping Up!?

Do you ever have those moments when you look around and think things are under control?  I am feeling like I am at a pace where I am actually keeping up.  hmmmm...  I had better be knocking on some wood!  I have not been sleeping well due to my cold, so I was pretty worried about how today would go.  It was going pretty well until I told my students that they would, yet again, have another sub this afternoon.  (In the past few weeks I have been to a few meetings and had 2 sick days with Emmie)  All of a sudden one of my boys starts SOBBING! I felt so bad!  The next thing I knew I had 3 or 4 kids all trying to hug me and looking sad.  Like dominoes falling...  luckily, my Promethean board saved me-  I played a funny song and they started dancing and forgot all about me deserting them.  Tragedy averted!

What I made for lunch! 

So here is the deal:  My kindergarten son just started ADHD meds in January.  He is already a picky eater, but the meds really mess with his appetite.  He has lost quite a bit of weight since September anyway, but he has lost another few pounds this last month.  So, overprotective HEART mom takes over, freaking out, and devises plans to make him healthy lunches he will actually eat.  So it started with me looking at Pinterest and having him pick fun items for me to copy.  Now, I say: what do you want in your lunch tomorrow?  and he picks a topic out of thin air.  Sunday it was Angry Birds- which messed up in the container and apparently was so disturbing that he ate hot lunch the next 2 days!  Tonight he picks...  LEGOS!  hmmmmm...  not hard to picture since they are laying all over my house! 

So here goes:

What I made for lunch! 

Not too bad!  Hopefully this one can make a few repeat appearances.


So another day done...  looks like we may get some cold.  Hopefully it won't last too long!  I am holding Woodstock Willie to his little Ground Hog's word of an early spring!

Julie  

Feeling Accomplished!

Is there any feeling better than finally accomplishing something that seemed huge?  I finally have my blog looking somewhat like the expected blog that is in my brain!  Whew!  Now onto something new!  I have been experimenting with a few lessons and have one that I am doing this week.  One of the concepts that is difficult for first graders is understanding story problems, so I try to get them in as much as possible.  Here is my Valentine Word Problem Packet.  I have tried to closely tie the concepts in with Common Core.

Hope this works! Not perfect, but at least progressing!
Julie

Learning to Blog

I have been working to get this whole blogging thing under control.  The hardest part:  I want my blog to look like I have been doing this for 5 years instead of 5 minutes.  Ugh!   I am working to get my banner up and all ready, but then I delete all my fonts and settings.  The good thing is, I am getting there...  right?  So the past week we have all been sick.  I need to take a disinfecting day!  But the high points:

Brady's Angry Bird Lunch... 

I need to come up with a way to secure it, he was mad it ended up like a tossed salad!

(sorry about the blurry phone pics!)

Making chocolate covered strawberries with my little Valentine!  Can't stand how much I adore her!

Yummy! 

And... the best part... Brady read to me!  He hates reading and being read to, but he was so excited to show me that he could do it!  Shows that a great teacher can really motivate a student!  So many thanks to his Kindergarten teacher! 

I found out today that I am going to be able to go to the ISTE (International Society of Technology Education) conference!  It is the 2nd largest K-12 conference in the world!  I was able to go last year and LOVED it, but it was so overwhelming!  I have never been to anything that large before.  I am so excited to go!  San Diego here we come!

I finished a few things to add.  When I am a little less blog stressed I will figure out how to add them.  Can't wait to do some sharing!

Julie