Five For Friday

Valentines Day would not be complete without talking about the greatest love of all! John 15:13 tells us what the greatest love is. "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friend." Each day teachers put the needs of their students ahead of their own, they are loving like that. My Owlets read 1Corinthians 13 with me yesterday and looked for words that gave evidence of love. We want our hearts so full of love that there isn't any room for hate. Sharing God's word with my students every day is the best part of my job.

I can't imagine living somewhere that doesn't have the hope of a snow day once in a while. There is something really awesome about hearing that phone ringing at an odd time in the middle of the night. Then being able to climb back under toasty warm covers while listening to the winds pound the windows asking to come in is priceless. Much to my daughter's disappointment I spend a snow day at home and off the roads. I search for unusual crafts to make using hangers and milk jugs. I drink coffee, take naps and watch birds. 

I think I finally figured out how to give Hundred's Day the time it deserves. Stretch it out over the first several days of hundred. There is no way anyone can fit in all the wonderful and educational ideas associated with the day. My favorite activity this year was 100 balloons. After blowing them up I was going to use them until they popped of natural causes. The best time we had was taking them out of our classroom tepee and covering the associated number on a unifix cube 100 frame. The Owlets had to find a cube the same color as the balloon to cover the corresponding number with. We could easily use the cubes to build a graph to see which color we had the most. Because we can't go outside if the temperature is ten degrees, they ended up being a great indoor recess activity too.

Valentine's Day, how I love you. My Owlets get so excited about sharing their cards and treats with each other. This year I the most unique Valentine ever. One of my kids made wooden Valentines for me and each of his classmates. He was so proud to have made them all by himself. What great parents this kid has. He came up with this idea and executed it on his own. He brought them to school three days early!

My baby turned 16 this week. 16! She is a constant source of sweetness in my life. Even when she kicked my hand yesterday during some wild dancing we were doing in the kitchen, I can't imagine life without her laughter and energy. Drivers Ed. Starts in two weeks. I hope I can survive this last student driver's 50 hours!

Happy birthday to her. Here is a set of bookmarks for you. They're free until March!

Something Old Something New Something Free Just For YOU!

My daughter recently became engaged to a wonderful southern gentleman. My own groom of 25 years and I are so excited for them. They've got me thinking about something old, something new, something  borrowed and something blue. As I reflect over the past year I can think of something from my classroom that fits into each category.

Alright the only things older than me in the classroom are these fossils! My students
loved uncovering bones and finding out which dinosaur they belonged to. I ordered small dinosaur dig kits from
Oriental Trading Company. They lived up to their description! 

I just made these bookmarks for students to keep track of their summer reading.
They're FREE for a limited time on Teacher Pay Teacher. You can always get them FREE
HERE!

No Oreos were left uneaten at the end of this moon activity. The evening we worked
on this I went to a couple of students baseball games and we were able
to identify the moon's phase thanks to this activity I borrowed from Hilary Lewis.
After eating the oreo we used chalk to make a more permanent resource for home!

Our school bluebirds were back this year. In fact, there were two nesting pairs around
the playground. They fledged on the last day of school! I loved recess duty during the time
the mom and dad were coming and going feeding their young. I opened the box to check the chicks a couple
of times. I counted five little bluebirds! They'll nest again in this box  this summer.

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!

Currently October

I left everything at work tonight on purpose! I'm not grading papers or planning. I'm hanging with my homies and watching Merlin. I have to do something at the same time or I'm afraid I'd fall into a deep coma like sleep...I'm that tired. It feels good to be this tired because I know it comes from trying to keep up with the most awesome people I know...first and second graders.

Have you ever had your students do a Currently? I (puffy heart) LOVE Farley's Currently for Kids. If I had brought my work home with me tonight I'd show you the most adorable Currentlys (Currentlies?) you've ever seen. I sent it home as homework and was amazed at the time and thought some of my owlets put into it. I'll show you some next week! 'nough said...Here is my Currently for October...

If it had up to me I would have put more than 24 hours in a day. Next I would have given myself an extra hour in the school day just to have fun with my Owlets! Finally I would make the night three hours longer so I was able to get more sleep and spend a little more time drinking coffee in the mornings! 

My all time favorite field trip was this week. The farm we went to has corn fields, soybeans, a pumpkin patch, pigs, apple trees and more! Giving city kids a chance to see what life on a farm is like is pretty sweet. Check this out...

I love these kids! Seeing all this through their eyes is awesome!

Ready? Here is a treat just for you and the students in your life!

Click on the picture to get your own!

Have you shared your Currently yet? Leave a comment below if you would like to win a whole set of bookmarks! Now I'm off to follow the rule of three!

Don't Tell Anyone About This! FREEBIE!

I've got a HUGE smile on my face today. Sara from Smiling in Second Grade has an exciting giveaway
going on and you don't want to miss it. Well, maybe you do want to miss it because then I'll have a better chance of winning! How awesome would it be to have a laminator in your own house or classroom? No more depending on someone else to do it for you. No more going to the laminator only to find out someone else has used the roll up and not put in a new roll. My school laminater is so old that it is more like putting a bag around your creations...Can you tell I really want to win this one?

I already have my first product to put through. Wanna see? It is pretty sweet. Ready? Here it is...

Graphics by Digital Bakeshop...'cept for the mustached owl...he's my sons creation! I designed these using MyMemories Suite software....LOVE!
Enjoy! Forget about entering the GiveAway. Don't forget to enter this awesome GiveAway!