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!

Dental Health Freebie!

REALLY? Another Snow Day? I can't believe it! As soon as I heard the phone ring at 5:45 AM I knew it could only mean one thing. Each day we have scheduled Crazy Hair and Hat Day at school it has been a Snow Day. I've had enough. I miss my Owlets!

At least we had time to get some wonderful work done yesterday. We read directions to make a mask and, of course, followed them!  I know it is wrong to pick favorites, but... Is this mask not gorgeous? He spent so much time making his mask look like a cheetah. Some students just rushed through to get the job done. I don't know how to get some of my friends to slow down and do more careful work. It seems that many activities become a race to see who can finish first. I've tried many things to slow them down. What do you do to help your students be more thoughtful and careful workers?


Today was going to be Dental Health Day. Sadly, we'll have to put it off until Monday. Would you like to join in the fun? I've written this little play about dental health. You can buy it at TPT, or get it free HERE! Or we could facetime and my class could put the play on for you....Wouldn't that be fun?!

SNOW DAY! Freebie

My daughter thought this birdhouse's hairdo was pretty funny!

I was happily surprised by yet another SNOW DAY! What is better than a Snow Day? A Snow Day on a Monday. I'm looking forward to playing games, updating some TPT items, and perhaps venturing out to do some shopping at my favorite store...Barnes and Noble!

Last Friday my class and I finished up a project to share with other classes around the country. SPOILER ALERT!! If you are participating with the Winter Wonderland Exchange Project at First Grade Carousel, you may not want to read on! These are the projects my class decided would be fun to send to my friend Maria who organized this fun exchange. We put A LOT of glue in a zip-lock bag and then added wiggle eyes, a carrot nose and three buttons. We sealed it and attached a song to sing as students look for and arrange the snowman parts to look like a snowman! Only one bag broke on us and I hope that the ones we sent all arrive in good condition to Maria! Thank you Maria for organizing such a fun project...I can't wait to see what everyone else did.

What ever the weather where you are...I wouldn't trade! I love my Michigan!

Leaping into Leap Day!

Our latest students are frogs.  Can you find all three?  Now you see them...

I feel so torn right now.  I would love to have a Snow Day and the chances of having one are quickly coming to an end for this school year.  I would love to go to school tomorrow.  My students are so excited for our Leap Day celebration.  I am pretty excited for the day, too!  Our frogs are ready to be named.  Ten random colored frogs are hidden in bags ready to be graphed.  Measuring tape is ready to measure the length of said frogs leaps.  I'm just not sure how I should pray...

And now you don't!

Oh no!  Frogs are escaping!  Snow Day or not we WILL celebrate Leap Day!
We'll use the lily pads to play Musical Leap...It's very similar to Musical Chairs, but safer.

I just can't help wanting to sit in my living room, sipping an extra cup of coffee while working one more Sudoku!  I live in Michigan and we have had a Snow Day every year since I started teaching here twenty-two years ago.  My children haven't had a chance to go skiing, skating or sledding.  Don't you think every first grader who lives in Michigan should experience a Snow Day?
My son introduced me to the Snow Day Calculator.  He has pretty much lost faith in it, but I secretly think he checks it nightly.  This winter it has given us false hope twice.  It claimed we had a 99% chance of a day off, but the 1% chance of school was what we got.  Two hours ago it gave us a 67% chance for tomorrow, but now we're down to a 55% chance.
Snow Day Calculator

I would love to know if you have a Snow Day and what you do with it. IF I have one I'll probably end up preparing for Dr. Seuss day on Friday and thinking about all my favorite firsties!

My students will be greeted by this message and have to leap into the  classroom on February 29th!