A recap of our week....

This week we celebrated LOVE!!!

Students brought boxes or bags from home to receive Valentines from their friends! I forgot to take a picture of all their hard work! Yikes! We talked about the love of friends and the kind of love we have for our class family. We don't have a "smoochy" kind of love at school. (Then we all pucker up and make smoochy kiss sound.... lots of fun).

Writing! I loved, loved, loved this little writing activity! We cut out our hearts, tore up pieces of paper, and wrote about who we love to pieces and why. A couple of my faves were students who love their step-dads.

I love my Jake to pieces because he tucks me in.

I love my Mom to pieces because I can lay with her.

"I love Dad to pieces because he protects the world."

Another one read: "I love Ethan (stepdad) because he makes me laugh." The little one on the bottom, he didn't get his heart finished yet but his dad is in the army and lives in another state.

Phonics! We started out tapping out some words, which evolved into talking about word families. Then students gave me a thumbs up if they knew it was a real word, they put thumbs down if they knew it was a nonsense word, and half-way if they were not sure.

 

We went through and circled the real words and X'd out the nonsense words. We had a conversation about how quat sounded like quack! That is why you see the word quack up there! These kids are great learners and hard workers!

 We earned a Cool Beans reward again! WE just celebrated last week Friday! This week we ate lunch in the classroom on Friday to celebrate again. One way that we are working on learning about tally marks is setting a goal each day of earning beans in our cool beans can. Every time we earn a bean, we get a tally mark. If we meet our goal, we also get a big bean on the board.


Special gifts! My little valentines gave me special gifts and so in this digital age, we took selfies together! :)

I wanted a picture of a cookie that I got from our district (thanks for the cookies, they were amazing), but I had a room full of photo bombers!

So.... this happened! I was "Super Hero of the week!" I have until Wednesday to name a new hero. I am supposed to choose classified staff, and classified staff chooses certified staff.... 

The neon sharpies are so much fun!!

Splurge? Necessity?  I injured my shoulder because my bag is too heavy and too full every day! So I sprang for a rolling back pack! Whoot! So far I love it.

 This was a very rewarding teaching week for me and some things I will "announce" later. I feel confident that my kiddos will continue to excel, grow and learn! I love teaching and feel proud to be part of my district. I blessed to work under a principal who wants the best for kids and understands that poverty isn't just about the money. He also understands that judgment never invites positive change and growth. I am where I belong.

Five for Friday (on Friday!)

This week on Friday I am posting my five random things! I love linking up with Kacey at Doodle Bugs Teaching and then reading about everyone else's week!

 

1. This week we learned about graphing in math and also about comparing numbers. One day each table had a different number of unifix cubes to graph. Then we compared results and learned about greater than, less than, and equal. We also learned an action and used our alligator voice to say this phrase, "The alligator always eats the bigger number." Then we compared numbers! 

2. We learned about groundhogs on Tuesday and had a groundhog snack and made Groundhog hats. I forgot to take a group picture with all of our hats on.

Pudding with crushed oreos and a teddy graham to represent the groundhog.

I almost forgot to take any pictures! But one little learner forgot his hat and I snapped a photo after school! 

3. We did a groundhog roll and cover game! Students have to roll two dice and add the numbers together. If they get the same sum as their partner, they can "bump" their partner off and cover the number with their own color. When the board is covered the person who has the most of their color wins. As always, we work on social graces during math game time and the loser Congratulates the winner and the winner encourages the loser. They are such a caring class!

I am appalled when I see this photo! I try to encourage students NOT to "W" sit.

One student didn't have a partner so she played the game "Put the kids in order."

4. Today we celebrated our 100th day of school! We talked about how 10 groups of 10 is 100 and when you group numbers like this it is called multiplication.

 I can't believe my horrible grammar, BUT.... I MEANT "Things I want 100 of" and "Things I do not want 100 of." My students understood! :) One student told their carpet partner that they want 100 dogs while another told their carpet partner they did NOT want 100 dogs!

Making 100th day hats is messy business! Ack!

 100th day snack! Students put 10 pieces of 10 different snack foods in a bag and had a 100 snack!

A snack made up of 100 pieces of snack food

 

Making the hats was messy (and boy do I have some better ideas for next year), but they sure turned out great!

5. My non-school random thing.... last week my sister and I had a sister day! She has young children, so this was a rare moment! We had a lot of fun! We went to Lindsborg and ate mexican food and then walked around Main street. Then we drove back. We laughed and talked and had a good day as sisters.