Saturday, February 22, 2014

Reading is Cool!

Igloo building is hard work! We've been building one inside and outside. I'll share pictures of our outdoor igloo if there is anything left of it after our too brief thaw! Our indoor igloo is complete and ready for use. Of course it is a magic igloo. As soon as anyone crawls inside they feel an overwhelming urge to read. Because we think reading is cool, we read ALL day on Friday. As soon as one person read a book and crawled out there was someone ready to crawl right in. By alphabetical order they were crawling in and out all day long without ever causing a disturbance to the rest of the class. Only one child needed me to haul him out after he had been in there over half an hour. Of course it was my owlet who is most likely to get lost in a book!

I can't tell you how many milk jugs we used. My counters have not completed that part of the project yet. They WILL read a book for each jug and then we'll make little igloos to take home out of marshmallows. I had some help from a youtube video...HERE! There igloo is much "neater" than mine. I had students help in the construction as much as possible and towards the end I just somehow got it finished! Looking at this picture makes me really excited to get back to school and see my owlets falling in love with reading! Stay warm!

Head HERE for a free set of "cool" bookmarks!



Monday, February 17, 2014

Happy Presidents Day! {Freebie!}

HELP!! Is it President's Day, Presidents Day or Presidents' Day? Yikes! I'm just not sure. This I am sure of...I have the day off, I enjoyed cinnamon roll waffles for breakfast, and it is snowing again!

Best

waffles

EVER!







Here is a FREEBIE for you. If you don't have an account with TPT leave your e-mail and I will send it to you. My Owlets will be making and reading this book tomorrow, unless it is another snow day or is it Snow Day or is it Snowday? Anyway click the picture for the FREEBIE! Happy President's/Presidents'/Presidents Day!!

Friday, February 14, 2014

So This is Love!

I do love this song...
And I do love that the lyrics are right there when I show this to my class! It is so important when building fluency to add song and poetry. Sometimes we even sing our fluency passages!

I do love this valentine that I got from a student...

this is a grat hornd owl. you are a grat teachr
This kid knows what I love! He only thought of himself a little itty bit when he added "go Green" for his favorite team in the corner! He and 11 others show me love every single day! I try to show love to them, too. What they don't know is that I feel pretty inadequate some days to  respond to the love they pour out on me. Their love is so unconditional and sweet. The hugs, pictures, and smiles warm my heart and keep it warm through each weekend and vacation. It is pretty hard to call what we do as teachers that four letter word..."work"!

I have tried to figure out the love language of each of my children. Most of them are pretty easy to decipher. The kid who is always plastered to my side...Physical Touch is his language. The kid who always wonders if he can keep a fun new manipulative...Receiving Gifts. The kid who wants to eat lunch with me every day...Quality Time. The little girl who wants to clean my desk...Acts of Service. "Do you like my picture?"...Words of Affirmation. I've got all five languages going on in my room! If you have never heard of these languages and want to know more start HERE! I'm just waiting for them to come out with Five Love Languages for the Classroom! Until they do I reference this book for classroom and home...

I know your celebration of Valentine's Day is over for 2014. I'm just putting this out there for people who believe in celebrating love everyday or for your future celebrations of love!
Click on picture to go to freebie!


So what is love? "10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
13 This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
1 John 4:10-16


Would you like to get an awesome song stuck in your head? This one has been dancing through my mind and coming out of my mouth for almost a week now. I've caught my students singing to it too...


Freebie Fridays

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Currently Wow!

Wow...It is Wednesday and February is going to be full of WOW!


Do you love February as much as I do?
It holds so many edventures for me and for you!
There's a groundhog named Phil who predicts the weather
On the fourteenth we'll share hearts and love together.
Washington and Lincoln we'll celebrate them too
Do you love February as much as I do?

It is such a short month but there are so many great things we get to bring into our daily routine. The poem doesn't even mention that it's Dental Health Month, Black History Month and National Wild Bird Feeding Month! February is good.
I love linking up with Farley and her monthly Currently. I love linking up with Curious Firsties and the weekly WOW report.  So I'm trying to do a mash-up and use this post to link up with both!

Most of my currentlies (only one lie!) don't need much explanation. I'm going to give you some clues to the truths and fib. You decide which is my fib! The pictures below are this weeks WOW!

My students and I love acting. We love reading plays and putting on performances. This is one of our favorites!




Drum-roll please....





I really am building an igloo!



I'll keep you updated on the highs and lows of igloo building!