Did you think I'd forgotten about you?

Well, the craziness is almost over.  I had to take a mental health day Friday to go visit two separate doctor offices (one for me, ya know, the fun one you go to once a year...) and my daughter's two year check up.  It's sad that those visits were more fun than crowd control at school.  Sheesh.  Whodathunkit right?


I still have two more days to go next week.  Tuesday is going to be our fun day/I give up trying to teach you something/Christmas party.  We are having an ornament exchange.  All the kids (hopefully) bring in a wrapped ornament and they get to pick one to take home.  Sometimes I play Dirty Santa with it, but my kiddos this year don't really have a sense of humor (aka...very immature 7, 8, and 9 year olds) so I don't think they would appreciate the fun.  When I taught 5th grade I did that and the kiddos had a blast.  I had one try to hide her gift in her desk just so it wouldn't get taken by someone else!  Monday I haven't exactly figured out what I'm going to do other than maintain some sense of routine.  I've got some Christmas activities and math graphing that I've prepared for, but hopefully it'll get done.  Anyone have any fun ideas?  


Here is the Reindeer Job Application writing activity that the kiddos did last week.  I have gotten SO many compliments on them.  The kids just BEAM when someone peeks in the door to say how cute they are.  I'm proud of them because this is the first writing project they've had to follow the steps to the writing process.  AND they get a little keepsake for all the hard work.  I really hate to take them down, but pinterest is just floating with cute ideas that I'm sure to use.

We also did the Christmas penguins I found at Amy Lemon's page and the kids really liked making those.  You can see some of the crazy ways they decorated them.  


You can see my classroom has been BLOGIFIED!  (and I absolutely love it!)  I feel  so much better about teaching since I've found all my new friends and ideas out on blogland.  Instead of either scrapping art all together, I've found new ways to incorporate it into my curriculum.  I really think the kids are learning more because it's sticking with them.  So please keep sharing!  And when I get two brain cells clicking in the right direction, I'll try to come up with goodies for you.  


2 more days....

Can we say countdown?

The countdown is on.  On like DONKEY KONG!


Anyone else feel like they're fighting a losing battle?  Cause this girl does.  Next Tuesday can't get here quickly enough.  Although....{happy dance!} I am taking off Friday to take little girl for a checkup and me for a checkup....darn if it didn't fall on a Friday {wink!} So two more days for me this week.  Just have to write sub plans which I absolutely HATE.  Can't they just read my mind?? :)


My kiddos just finished their first big writing project of the year.  We have really been working hard to learn how to write sentences with a capital letter AND the correct endmark AND have it make sense AND not a run-on that has about 50 ANDS in it like this sentence does.  Thanks to all of my many hours on pinterest and blog hopping, I found a really, really, reallllllly cute writing activity - Reindeer Job Application from What the Teacher Wants and the kiddos were so excited to actually get to work on all of the steps to the writing process.  They even got to "conference" with *gasp* "the Teacher" before they wrote their final draft.  I took pictures but my phone just died and I won't can't get up to get the charger to get the pics off my phone.  I'll post them tomorrow along with some of their qualifications. Some of them are pretty darn cute....swift like an eagle is one I remember off the top of my frazzled head.  I was very proud of their hard work.  AND.....I've gotten lots of compliments on their work.  That never hurts either :)


So, until tomorrow my dearies :)


Hang in there.