Tell Me Something Good... a Linky Party!

Tell me something good. Link up with Rowdy in First Grade and read about something good. She made a great point, we are in need of some good news these days with all the tragedy recently. The "rule" is to tell one good thing from home and one good thing from school.

Here is my good thing from school... you'll never believe it if you know me at all. We got a classroom pet. A hamster. Yes, a hamster. A rodent will be living under my roof for the summer. Are you kidding me?! I don't know how many times my children have heard that we will NOT have a rodent of any kind and I don't care what your reason is or how cute you think they might be! Some weird lack of skepticism overtook me when I read that email: Teachers: free to good home (blah, blah, blah)... and here he (she?) is.

The lady we got him from thinks that "he" is a "she." She is not particularly cuddly (I took this to mean that she isn't friendly), and she is very fast, the fastest kind of hamster there is. Well.... I guess we won't hold her and cuddle her. She is also very small.  Her name is (was) Cottonball.  We will discuss names tomorrow and students will write a journal entry about what they think will be the best name for her. Anyway... I was surprised at how excited I was to have her and how comforting and enjoyable it was to watch her. It was fun and I am happy about it.

Something good from home. Hmmmm. That one is harder. Well, there are some good things in my life, but they are not really at home or school. They are sort of just life. Okay, this is something I've talked about a lot lately, but... I think my other "good thing" is the four day week. Oh yeah. Because I am officially "over the hump" this week. We have SO MUCH TO DO in the next weeks/months as we move back to our HOME and our friends and family and the stress level is high so an extra day to pack, clean, organize and SLEEP IN is very, very welcome. So while you all are having a regular "hump day" Wednesday tomorrow, I will secretly counting my Wednesday as Thursday since Thursday is the new Friday in my world. Can you hear me grinning? I don't have a picture of this. But here's a screen shot of the weather forecast and it includes Friday and Saturday. Lookin' Good! 

*Housekeeping* ....and Testing is a BEAR

We have the BEAR test tomorrow and Wednesday still. So parents, make sure your lil Tiger goes to bed and eats a healthy, hearty breakfast as well. Ms. Horn is going to do her best to remember to stop and get a healthy snack in the morning.  I vote for bananas. Now the goal is to make sure three girls at this house are ready to roll a couple minutes early tomorrow, especially since there could very easily be snow on the ground. or sleet, or "wintry mix." *sigh* Bring back Spring!

Love the linkys. I am sitting this week's "Let's Get Acquainted" out. I have favorite activities and I've had favorite areas. I've worked hard on the organization throughout the year, but I just moved desks and did a big change-everything-in-our-room so I don't have favorite places and spaces right now.

If you are the parent of a Kinder.... help them read their reading list (long vowels this week, easy-peasy for many), make sure they get plenty of rest, and encourage them to drink more water. Most of the Kinders I know do not drink enough water.

That is all the "housekeeping" agenda I have. Oh! Wait! I almost forgot again.... next week we have the Kindergarten Rodeo on Thursday, May 2, so I could really use a parent volunteer or even two! I am responsible for the face painting station, and need a parent to accompany our class and help them to be responsible little citizens.

Oh wow... more housekeeping. Wednesday and Thursday of Next week please make sure your child wears sunscreen to school in the morning and if you want it re-applied, send it along with your student so I can be sure to re-apply. They also need to consider the sun on their face and could possibly wear a hat, cap, or visor.  Water will be needed.  Please send a disposable bottle of water to school with your child both days.

That is all I can remember at this point.  Wednesday we are planning to go to Slack, and since I am not from here, I don't really know what that means, but we'll watch the cowboys work for awhile, and then we'll do activities with Academy C in the afternoon. Thursday is the Kindergarten Rodeo and we will be there in the morning, with Western activities in the afternoon.

Please support your child in these last weeks of school. They are excited for the next grade with so much still to learn and they need their rest.  Thanks! I appreciate it!

Creative Writing and Bullying

I was grading papers this weekend and look what I came across.... last week when I was gone I had the class watch the free Brainpop Jr. video about bullying and I printed out the accompanying worksheets. I asked the sub to help them brainstorm but to encourage them to use "kid-writing" or phonetic spelling. Most students did not complete it or did not understand what was expected. And I tell myself.... that is okay, sometimes that happens when I am there, but it is certainly acceptable when I am not even there.... right?

 Bubble number one says: ignore them? Do not pinch them. Bubble two says: don't punch. Don't bite their finger.  Bubble three: Don't kick them. Don't choke them. Bubble four: Don't shut them in the locker. Don't say bad words.

These may not have been my first choice to respond to a bully because I would like to know how students would protect themselves or others, but I love, love, love this student's paper.

Here is the creative writing that students worked on when I was gone. April showers bring.... (fill in the blank). We brainstormed before I left and students had to finish the sentence and draw an accompanying picture, adding details and plenty of color. Some of my favorites are lacking color, but I love them. Here is our bulletin board.

Our April Bulletin Board

This student didn't use color, but I love his detail and depiction of storms.

"April showers bring bunnys."
"April showers bring mud."
April showers bring little buns." 

Love to watch their minds work! I love their phonetic spelling! Look how far they have come! Wow!

Five for Friday

Five for Friday. I love Friday and I think all week about what I might post. Head over to Doodle Bugs and read, laugh, and link up.

1. We are developing more independent writing activities into our classroom. Last weekend I downloaded and printed, and printed, and printed..... and I have writing activities for oh.... forever. Am I crazy? Introducing new procedures and new ways to do things this close to the end of the year. I don't know because I've never done this before.  I just think that I might as well start now and figure out what works and put them into place for next year. I got new journals ready. I have started conferencing with students about what I expect and what they need to work on. Here is the writing rubric I found. It is so cool. I can't find where I found it now, but it is from Miss Francis's Class. So check it out! She has a link to TpT on her site so check it out.

writing rubric from Miss Francis's class

Cover of new journals

Title page of new journals

  

2. We are really restless with Spring and paying attention and listening to the teacher have been really hard for us! So I decided yesterday to reward my kids after all their hard work with some dancing.  I brought up Youtube and I found "The Twist." I love this photo SO MUCH because of it's blurriness. I love the blurriness because it means the kids are MOVING! It was great.

3. We are doing a some science learning about plants. I bought this unit from TpT, and borrowed from my friend Alyce who shared that they planted flowers last week. I love Marigolds, so I went out and bought some marigolds, potting soil, and colorful dixie cups. We are planning to observe our plants and record observations as well as doing an experiment to see if the plants really need light to grow.  Students plants are receiving water and sitting in our classroom.  My plant will be getting watered, but is in the supply cupboard in the hallway.

4. My daughter wanted to celebrate her birthday at school this week. Her birthday is in July and she wanted to take treats to school. She made sure she helped frost the cupcakes. Here are a couple of her favorites that she decorated. She watches DC Cupcakes and Cupcake wars and gave me strict instructions for how to make them look. I was supposed to try to make them taller and more puffy in the middle and make them flatten out at the edges. I tried but seriously, I could not make them look as nice as she did.

5. 20 days left. Wow. I vacillate between excitement/relief and panic/dread. Excitement to be that much closer to summer, lazy mornings and late nights, time with family and friends and getting reunited with my gardens an my home.  Dread to think my precious Kindergarten family will be spreading their wings. I am skeered that they won't have learned everything they need to know to be ready for First Grade. I am terrified that I will not be able to prepare them adequately for their next school adventure. I probably shared this last week.... but oh well. Our school doesn't have school on Fridays for the rest of the school year. So it's four day weeks from here on out. 

Okay, that's my Five this week. I am still on the quest to find a job. So prayers will not be turned down. Thanks for reading! Enjoy the weekend everyone!

Let's Get Acquainted. A linky party

It's time once again for the "Let's get Acquainted" linky! Here is what this week's topic is all about! Hop over, read more, link up. It's fun.

TOPIC - Skittles Game

Here is the code:

Red- Favorite Ice Cream Flavor

Orange- Favorite Memory from College

Yellow- Favorite Sports Team

Green- Favorite Fast Food Place

Purple- Wild Card(Tell anything about yourself)

Favorite Ice Cream flavor: this is a trick question. My all-time favorite for home made ice cream is vanilla (and I make a pretty mean freezer of ice cream).  "Gourmet" or specialty ice cream: mint chocolate chip.  If I am going to Braum's I never debate over what in the world do I want to get. I know what I want, mint chocolate chip. Except that now I have discovered that their soft-serve frozen yogurt in a waffle cone is CHEAP and I love me some chocolate yogurt! All this from a girl who would really rather have another heaping helping of lasagna, or pizza, or salad, or steak than have ice cream for dessert.  I guess it's grown on me. And I have some sinful tub of coffee flavored ice cream stashed in the freezer and it is really tasty also... especially at about midnight. 

Favorite Memory from College????? Which time!? lol. The FIRST time I was in college was so long ago that many of those memories are fuzzy. But the SECOND time I was in college, getting a degree in a Organizational Management, I remember that for our marketing class we had to market something and we chose something called ugly dip.  For our presentation we had T-shirts printed and they said: Hot Mama's Ugly dip: get ugly, feel hot. We had so much fun. I don't remember our grade, but it was a good time and we had a blast. 

Favorite Sports Team: hmmm. Now I have to think again. I'd say the KC Royals since I am a Kansas girl, but I will just admit to a dirty little secret. The NY Yankees are so pleasant to look at, not to mention a top rate ball team.  And as you can tell, I love baseball.  I have no idea why, but I do. 

Favorite Fast Food Place: McDonald's. I am not even going to make up some story. I love it. The fries, the greasy fried food, the big Macs, and everything in between. They even serve Coca-cola. I can hear it now.... I'm lovin' it! 

Wild Card: I used to dream (daydream and night dream) about horses all the time. I just wanted to have a horse farm, or work at a stable, and be around horses night and day. I wanted to live in the country and ride, ride, ride. I passed that passion on to my children. My youngest is smitten in a totally unrealistic way. The redhead used to be exactly the same. In fact, she was mad at me for several years because we didn't move to the country and get her a horse. I still love horses, but my dreams have changed. One of my dreams I am living right now, teaching school. 

More Reminders for Student Families!

Testing is a BEAR! Next week we will be taking the BEAR test in Kindergarten.  Please make sure your Kinder is well-rested, eats a good breakfast and comes to school alert and ready to learn. We have not been having snacks lately, your students are adjusted now to their school schedules but we will be having a snack on the days that we BEAR test.

School supply kits can be purchased until April 25th.  Fill out the form and return it with payment to your child's teacher.

School yearbooks. They are $25 and are first come- first served. In other words, when they are gone, they are gone! Order today!

Third and Fourth grade are taking the OCCT this week and we will continue to be flexible with our schedule!

Thanks for supporting your students!

*funny of the day**  Today the 3rd and 4th graders had a pep rally for the OCCT test and afterward the principal reminded them to get to bed early! My students then said.... "and drink lots of water! And do your homework!" That's our mantra. Drink a lot of water, go to bed early, do your homework! Ironically enough, I forgot to get homework in folders today.

Important Stuff for my lil Tigers and their parents!

• Book Orders were due Friday but I didn't remind students, so I will still accept orders on Monday. If you order online you receive a coupon for your next order (yay!). I will receive an email when you order an I'll place the order including the online order with mine. Thanks! Scholastic books are a great way to add to your child's library at minimal cost. 
• Testing. 3rd and 4th grade are taking the OCCT test this week and we might have to be extra careful in the halls and remember to be flexible. Our class is pretty good at this, so I am not worried. 
• Reminder! Tis the season. For water bottles. Students cannot drink enough water from the water fountain to meet their body's needs even if they could drink to their heart's content and with 20 students in line, they cannot drink enough and still be respectful of their classmates. So please consider sending a water bottle to school for your child. It needs to have a sport top lid. 
• Kindergarten students need plenty of sleep. One study says they need as much as 13 hours a night but the study that seems more appropriate says they need about 11 hours of sleep. So if your child gets up at 6:30 in the morning, they need to go to bed as early as 7:30 in order to be rested. Most of us have Spring fever, but there is still so much to master before the end of the year! Rested bodies will make it easier to focus.
• We have talked about respect all year and I've modeled it. But apparently not enough. So we will be practicing respect for our school and doing character development exercises.  Kindergarten students are expected to be responsible for their actions. 

These little Tigers are fantastic! They can do it! Thanks parents for your support.