Wednesday Wow!

Wow! I. Love. This. Book. Well, I love the book below called Once Upon a Memory! One of the things I like about Amazon, but is very dangerous to my budget, is this section ...

I usually want to get every one of the books frequently bought together AND the books that also bought. I can't do that! I DID buy this book and WOW!

Click on the picture if you want to
check it out on Amazon!

This book is fill with beautiful touchable pictures and wonders. Renata Liwska's illustrations are whimsical, soft and have a beautiful dreamlike quality. My students were mesmerized by the simple text that had them to wondering about the memories of other common things such as...

So we made our own book inspired by Nina Laden's text. Here are a few pages...

Doesn't this crack you up? "Does Pluto remember it once was a planet?"

Our class book is gorgeous and usually at someone's desk. Once Upon a Memory is usually on someone's desk too! Did I mention there are six beautiful owls hidden among the pages? There are lots of other surprises that will make  you either say "awe," or "wow"...Really!

Want some more WOWs? Head over to Curious Firsties and see who else has linked up. Even better link up yourself and share your wow from the week!

Owl Watch

Don't you just love Sunday nights that are followed by Monday vacation days? I have had a whole extra day to job shadow my cat. She and I love doing the same things. Napping, bird watching and eating are three things we have in common. I'll have a lot of work to do tomorrow because I haven't done much but nap, bird watch and eat the last two days. I haven't watched just any birds...I've watched one bird...This one! Mrs. T

This tab is open day and night on my computer. I love listening to this lady call for her mate. Now I have my students watching and listening for her hoots, too. You have to come over and visit Mrs. Tiger with your class. Count the eggs. Predict when the eggs will hatch. Watch young Great Horned Owls grow. Or you could just pretend to be a cat, curl up in a ball and take a nice long nap!

Five for Friday

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to share five random things from my week! 

1) A funny thing happened on the way to Friday. I had two snow days and I still felt wiped out and exhausted by the time Friday showed up. Could it be that I just tried to squeeze too much in or is it that I'm staying up to late squeezing every thing I can into my son's Christmas break? I'm so thankful for the extra days I had at home with him. The snow days couldn't have come at a better time. 

2)When Wednesday rolled around and I got to spend the morning with my students, the first order of business was our class Christmas party! We finally got to exchange gifts, play games and have Christmas cookies!

Wednesday afternoons are filled with specials for my Owlets, so we had a lot to squeeze in. The heat in my room was not working and it was COLD. We have some awesome maintenance guys who showed up and had me back up to temperature pretty quick.

3) Happy New Year! I played with the clocks in our room so we could pretend that it was midnight and blew horns and wore our silly glasses to celebrate. THANK YOU, Granny Goes to School! Cindy made the most delightful photo booth glasses freebie. Click HERE to see them. She is pretty amazing and offers wonderful freebies on her blog regularly. Fly by to see her and let her know an owl sent you!

We used small dowel to hold our glasses in place and then pose! After our photo shoot we glued them down on paper and colored pictures in each lens of things we hope to "see" in 2014. Then we wrote descriptive sentences about each of our pictures. 

4) Each of my students is unique and special. I love each of them and tell them regularly. Sometimes they tell me stories that break my heart. On those days when I feel the most broken hearted for them it seems that I have even more love to share.  The awareness of their vulnerability opens up my heart and moves me to be the best that I can be to meet their individual needs.  I feel so blessed to be able to tell them that their is sNOw- one that loves them like Jesus! 

My Owlets had a blast making simple snowflakes out of coffee filters. They each made two and had races by throwing them both in the air to see which one landed first. 

5) I have seen this project all over Pinterest and I finally found an opportunity to squeeze it in. I love these bird's eye view snowmen. My Spartan fan had to put a Spartan hat on his in honor of the Rose-Bowl winning team!

Now it is off to bed for me. I'm reading Cold Sassy Tree and I've been waiting all day to slip into my footie pjs and spend some time with Will Tweedy and follow his adventures surrounding the drama his grandpa and Miss Simpson create! My daughter has to read it for school and I wanted to see what it is about...I think she is in for a treat!

Currently and a Freebie

I am feeling so thankful to realize that today is NOT Friday. Most of the day I've been walking around under the assumption that it is Friday, but it is only THURSDAY!! It is like getting an extra day of vacation. Which means I have time to link-up with Farley and share what I'm doing CURRENTLY!

If you do not like hearing people talk incessantly about their pets, you may want to quit following me. I used to be so annoyed by people who would talk about their pets as if they were actually members of their family. I now understand. My kitty Chessie is a member of my family. I never thought having a pet would be so much fun. I was getting a cat to appease my daughter. I am totally smitten with my kitten! I love listening to her purr.

Chessie and I spend many hours together on this couch!

I'm loving this vacation. It has been so relaxing. Because of the new family addition, we put out very few decorations. We kept it to the things that matter...Two nativity sets and a tree. I've gotten to spend wonderful times baking, playing games, shopping and just hanging out with my kids.

All this relaxing has gotten me thinking about retiring, but not seriously! I don't think I'd do a very good job as a retiree. I don't get much accomplished when I don't have a set routine or schedule. Several weeks ago, a kindergartner came to me in tears to tell me that her sister had told her that I was retiring next year. It was so hard to keep a straight face. She'll be one of my first graders next year and her sister was trying really hard to get her sister really upset. What a funny idea that me retiring was the worst thing she could tell her sister. I'm happy to say I'll be teaching for many years to come. 

I'm really wanting to visit my daughter in St. Louis. I moved to Michigan from St. Louis 26 years ago and can't wait to visit her there in the spring. 

I have not committed to a resolution yet. I've had lots of ideas swimming through my brain. I need to be more active. I need to eat healthier foods. I need to spend more time in prayer and reading the Bible. I'll wait until Monday and make my resolution with my owlets with this FREEBIE you can grab too!

We had a full house New Year's Eve celebrating the old and new. Games, food and laughter filled our home. We are blessed with many wonderful friends. Who wouldn't want to have bagpipes played at their house at midnight?!