I Love You and Some Other Stuff Too!

I love you. What power these words hold. Last spring was the first time I remember looking at a student, making eye contact and saying, "I love you, Tucker." What a floodgate of love was opened with those words. That child wasn't real easy to love, but I did because I knew I couldn't give him anything else of value until I could give him love. It works both ways. Several weeks ago I walked into the after school latch key program to return a student's lunchbox. A future first grader smiled at me and said, "I love you, Mrs. Reck." I teared up. My heart swelled. I have made a connection with a child I don't even have in my classroom yet!  As a teacher, I know that I will sound like a grown-up from Charlie Brown's world if I don't have love to back up what I'm teaching. I can't help but think about 1 Corinthians 13:1

Speaking of love...my daughter is marrying her best friend. You couldn't ask for more than that for your children. We got their save the date card in the mail this week and I am giddy with excitement! Can you identify all these famous couples?

As long as I'm stuck on the subject of love...I found a new friend on Instagram. She made my students think that I was a creative genius! Art with Jenny has some truly amazing and fun art projects to make any special occasion pop! I reluctantly took down our Veteran's Day mural, but will soon replace it with one of Jenny's other creations. Go give her some love, but check this out first..

Click HERE to visit her TPT store. 

My students are falling in love with reading. I love watching first graders grow into readers so quickly. I gave my class a challenge to read 50 books outside of school in two weeks. Each time they read a book they got to place a turkey feather on the turkey decorating our classroom door....they did it!

Because we met the challenge, I get to...well, see if you can decode Tuesday's morning message...

Well, that's embarrassing! What the heck is a pacake? Looks like I have some fixing to do. Please don't tell anyone that I occasionally make mistakes. Just when I thought I was really on top of things!

 I leave you with one last picture. As I was sitting here tapping away look who stopped by! There is a whole flock in my backyard, but this hen came right up to the window. Maybe she is looking for kitty! Maybe the idea of a warm oven sounds inviting on this dreary day? Poor Chessie slept through all the excitement!

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...