Butterflies and the Winner is....

Having a give away with Dana at  Fun in 1st Grade was well...fun!  We had a hoot dreaming up a great way to celebrate 80 followers together.  That celebration is over but I'm sure there is a party going on somewhere else right now!  The winner of the Sharpies Glam pack is...  Jana...Who should start blogging!! and Ashlee at Sweet Seconds wins the gift card to Starbucks!  Go check Ashlee out and follow her if you like sweet things...Her blog is Sweeeet!!



Ashlee just started blogging and would love you to follow her!


I hope you will fly over to see Kimberly at First in Maine.  She has a bookmark she is sharing to keep her students engaged with books and learning all summer.  I like it so much I'm sending it to my former and future first graders.
Remember my caterpillars?  Yesterday before church I was happy to find this.....

Laurie at Chickadee Jubilee....He is covered in polka dots!!

He crawled all over me for a long time!

How'd you sneak in here?  I found him at a
High School Open House.  I wanted to
take him home, but SOMEONE said, "NO!"
How could anyone say no to this face??!!

I'm enjoying my first Monday of Summer Vacation with an extra cup of coffee and watching the birds flocking to my feeders. Hope your day is filled with all the things you love!

Summer Reading...Bring it on!

I have been walking around for several hours now writing blog posts in my head.  We ate on paper plates summer china, so I could start getting my thoughts down quickly before they disappeared.  As soon as I read Clutter-Free Classroom's Linky post my mind has been racing. Getting lost in a good book is my favorite summer time activity!  The link challenge:  Share the titles of books you will read this summer!

I was recently asked to teach literature to 7th and 8th graders two afternoons a week. Is that a dream job, or what?  First graders all morning and then reading young adult novels with teenagers in the afternoon...Life doesn't get any better! The young adult fiction category is one of my favorite groups of reads.  Before having a teenager I never would have wanted to spend very much time with a whole group of them.  I thought they were rather intimidating.  I've gradually gotten to know this special breed of humans and have found them to be humorous, imaginative, and hungry for adults to talk to.  The best thing about spending time with them is that I get to decide on the reading list of books that we read together and books that they get to choose from independently.  Here are three of my favorite young adult reads:

The Giver

Lizzy Bright and
the Buckminster Boy

Life as
We Knew It

These are three books by authors who have won awards and have other books written in their own special style.  I hope that when My 7th and 8th graders read these books they'll want to read more by these same authors.

Here are some young adult books I plan to read at this beach....

  

From my 80s Giveaway, I know most of you may remember being a teenager better than I!  Please leave me a comment about a book that you think I should read this summer and include in my curriculum next fall!

I'm also planning on participating with Heather of Heather's Heart in her summer book study of Conscious Discipline.  I'm waiting anxiously for my book to arrive in the mail, so I can get started.

 My summer reading will include reading some material by some of my favorite authors...YOU!  I love reading your blog posts. They make me cry, laugh and cheer!  If you have read this far, thank you for being an inspiration to me and following along in this journey of joy! 

Blue-Who! End of the Year...

I'm feeling a bit sad and blue....or perhaps red would be a better description of how I'm feeling...Red as in SUN-BURN!  Today one of my owlet's moms paired up with another mom and hosted a pool party for the first grade class.  I spent a lot of time in the pool playing, splashing and laughing with my wonderful former students!  I did announce towards the end of the party that I had failed every student and the whole group would have to repeat first grade.  Yes...This group is that amazing.

We had a half day of school before heading out into the blistering Michigan sun!  We had an ice-cream party to celebrate reaching our reading goal for May, did some money work, read a story about a boy who drags a doughnut through town, which ends up drawing quite a large following, before he finally stops and eats it!
 I then read this poem I had written for my kiddos while shedding a tear or two...

Graphic by KPMDoodles.blogspot.com

I placed a copy of the poem on a clipboard that I had customized for each child.  My kids were fascinated by highlighters, so I gave them each a new highlighter, paper and a plastic back-scratcher, too!

From blah...

to wow!

End of year gift ready to be delivered!

So, summer is here and I am looking forward to a bit of rest and relaxation.  I love linking up with other bloggers.  Have you checked this one out?  Jeannie at Kindergarten Lifestyle has made it so easy to link-up and share how YOU know when it's summer.  Along with my sunburn...

Time to find some Aloe Vera and soothe the skin I am in...Welcome summer!  Don't forget to enter my giveaway....CLICK HERE TO ENTER!

It Was Acceptable in the 80s Give Away!

Do you remember the 80s?  I remember them fondly because great things happened for me in that decade!  I graduated and got my first teaching job in the 80s.  I met and married the love of my life in the 80s.  Here’s a list of some more firsts for me in the 80s:  first car, first house, first cat, first garden, first motorcycle ride, I could go on and on, but I won’t!

Today I spent some time at a car show with my husband.  I’m not crazy about car shows, but I love spending time with my husband and watching people.  I kept my eyes open for cars from the eighties and this was my favorite one:

Here it is....The Delorean!  If you can't remember the 80s
you can get this car travelling 88 miles an hour and go back in time!

That is another thing that I loved about the 80s…Back to the Future and other great movies!

 Now I have a great move for you!  I have teamed up with Dana Lester at Fun in 1st Grade for an 80s Give Away to celebrate 80 followers together. We have 8 ways for you to enter and we are each giving away prizes to four lucky winners!  You can enter with me and then be sure to go visit Dana for another chance to win!  Who wouldn’t want the 80s Glam pack of Sharpies?  I would like to enter to get the 8 dollar gift card to Starbucks!  Don’t wait 8 minutes or even 8 seconds to enter below.  I can hardly wait to see what your favorite thing from the 80s is! 

Good luck to everyone who enters...May the force be with you!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A Friend for Arnie...The End!

This student is getting ready to remove the eyes so her
doughnut doesn't have to watch as it is eaten!

Oscar the doughnut says, "Hello!"

Where ever you celebrated National Doughnut Day, I hope it was filled with holes!  In first grade, my owlets had a hole lot of fun.  After reading Arnie The Doughnut, we created friends for him.  The day was just not long enough to fit in all the doughnutty fun that I planned. Is  there anything better than a well planned day were everything goes just right?  I don't think so!  A momentary glitch with the paper plates was quickly remedied and didn't even cause more than a moment of stress!  In case you missed it here is the link to my Arnie the Doughnut Unit...You can buy it on TPT, too!  It is new and improved, after I figured out some mistakes working through it with my owlets!

Good bye, Oscar!

Is it just me, or have you noticed that students seem to be distancing themselves from each other and you in anticipation of the coming changes?  I think we underestimate the stress that the end of the year causes in young students' lives.  Yes, they should be excited to be moving on to the next grade.   Yes, they should be very excited about a whole three months of relaxation and fun.  Yes, they should be excited that teachers with high expectations are finally going to leave them alone!  But, I know that one of my students has been intentionally failing tests so that I'll have him repeat first grade!  Another student who is sweet and goodhearted is suddenly doing mean sneaky things to classmates.  Everyone's patience...yes even mine...is running thin.  In these last days or weeks I pray that you will have a kindness and understanding for your students who love you and may not be as excited about The End as you are.  For some this is a sad story...I hope that you are able to help them find some happiness in saying good-bye!

National Doughnut Day! Freebie!!

Do you ever get inspiration in unusual places?  I very rarely go inside a gas station.  I love being able to pay at the pump!  Yesterday I decided to give into my love of coffee and go inside to pay.   If you give a teacher a cup of coffee, she's probably going to want a...DOUGHNUT...Yes doughnut to go with it!  WAIT...National Doughnut Day is Friday. This Friday, friends!  I would never have known that if I hadn't had that urge for a cup of joe at that particular moment in time.  I'm sure I heard angels sing when I realized that I would be able to celebrate this event in real style!   I suddenly felt so sorry for anyone who is done with school for the year...No doughnuts for them!

If you don't know Arnie yet...Let me introduce you...Arnie, you
are looking at someone who will appreciate you like no one else
can.  They will introduce you to all kinds of hungry great friends!

I find Laurie's illustrations delightful!  Each page is filled
with wonderful silliness that appeals to kids of all ages!

Several years ago, when my children were young enough to be in a summer reading programs, I was lucky enough to go and see author and illustrator Laurie Keller as she presented her new book, Arnie the Doughnut.  She brought along doughnuts that looked remarkably like Arnie himself.  She taught us the proper way to eat doughnuts which, I am happy to say, all of my children have mastered.  How you ask?  You always look at the doughnut and ask, "May I eat you, please?"  If the doughnut doesn't answer than you may go right ahead and eat it!

I can't wait to share pictures with you  of my owlets decorating their doughnuts with googly eyes and pipe cleaners. If your feeling the excitement mounting you may want to watch this video...Warning it may create too much excitement in the anticipation of National Day of the Donuts!


I'm happy to share with you these activities inspired by  the book Arnie the Doughnut and Digital Bakeshop's Kawaii Treats.What ever you do to celebrate I hope it involves a favorite doughnut of mine named Arnie who becomes the first DOuGnut ever. His adventure about friendship with someone he may

have least expected to be friends with

is as funny as it is heartwarming.   

Click on the link below to get the full packet!
National Doughnut Day 2012

Disclaimer:  This blog is in no way advocating doughnuts as a healthy life choice when it comes to food!  If there is a National Vegetable Day, this blogger promises to commemorate that day in style, too!  No doughnuts were eaten (yet!) in conjunction with this post!

WARNING: Obsessive Linky!

I'm so excited to be participating in this fun linky party!  I haven't linked up in a while and since things are winding down at school it's time to think about what to do over the summer months...I have so many obsessions, but for now we'll just call them loves! The rules for this linky are easy, and I'm into easy this last full week of school! All you have to do is list as many or as few obsessions as you have.  Give it a try.  I'd love to find out what things put joy into your life!

I LOVE birds.  I even have another blog devoted to them! (I'd Rather Be Birding)  I spend hours hiking in the woods or sitting in my backyard looking for these awesome creatures.  My mom says that when I was six months old my favorite thing to do was to sit in a box and look at an old bird guide.  That is still my favorite thing to do!

I found this baby tit mouse hopping around outside last week.
How can you not love him?

I LOVE Sharpie markers.  My favorite collection is the 80s Glam pack.  I have gone through two packages this year.  I only let my owlets use them for special occasions.  I'm so protective of them.  They just make anchor charts and sentence strips so much fun to make and read.

Those words, "limited edition" make me very nervous!

LOVE number three....COFFEE!  I love coffee.  I don't want anything in it...Give it to me dark.  My favorite place to get it is a local shop whose motto is: You can't sleep here, but you can wake up here.  They do have some organic breakfast cookies that are to die for with dried cherries and dark chocolate.  So I guess I do like a little sugar with my coffee!

Part of my attraction to coffee is time spent with good friends!
I splurged on this day and got a hazelnut latte!

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I recently got into a bidding war at a silent auction over a basket of chocolate items.  It came down to being between the kindergarten teacher and myself.  My future first graders had donated the items for their current kindergarten teacher to collect.  The auction was a benefit for our school.  I had made up my mind that I would stop at forty dollars.  The kindergarten teacher went to forty-four!  My darling daughter, looking out for her my  best interests, put my name down and added three dollars to make the grand total $47.00!!  I won the basket.  I wasn't too upset about going seven dollars over budget.  And I got some of my favorite chocolates....dark!!  Yes, I  LOVE chocolate!

I'm obsessed with buying digital clipart.  My favorite is The Digital Bake Shop.  I also love getting images from KPM Doodles.  If you get the sets from KPM Doodles blog they are quite reasonable!!

Tomorrow I'll think of something else I should have told you about.  For now I'm off to pursue one last obsession...Eight hours of sleep!!

Thanks to Bonnie at Living a Wonderful Life for such a fun linky!  She has a great blog and I'm excited to be following her!

Six days....

Jenny