Happy New Year!!

 

Happy New Year to you!! I hope 2014 is good to you.  What are your plans for the new year celebration. I am the designated driver for a group of responsible college kids. We will drop them off at their destination and are on call to pick them back up about 2 a.m. Yikes! I sure hope I can stay awake that late. These old bones usually don't make it past 10:30. With that being said, I will probably be spending the night checking out your blogs and spending a little bit of money on TPT.

 

Have a great New Years Eve and Day ! Stay Safe!!

Ugly Christmas Sweater Day

 

Since it's been such a crazy week around school why not throw ugly sweater day in the mix! All the teachers in our school wore some really ugly sweaters and didn't tell the kids we were going to do it. The kids loved it. Especially the upper grades. We even had the student council walk around and vote on the ugliest one.

 

 This was the ugliest sweater voted by the student council kids. The back of it made it. It was hideous!

 

 

Here are our Christmas gifts to the parents peaking out of their bags. The snowman idea came from Reagan Tunstall over at Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits. They are way too cute! I then gave the kids scraps of scrapbook paper and they cut it apart to make the trees. Since everyone was here today and several firsties tend to take the last day off  before break (I have no idea why) we sent the bags and all their projects home today. Now, one more day of craziness and then the break begins. I can already feel a movie coming on for tomorrow. So, if you are still in for one more day have a great day and if you are already off have a GREAT day!!



Christmas W/Firsties is Exhausting!!

 

Other than looking at Pinterest I am running out of clever ideas for Ralph, our elf. Today our elf was caught taking a bubble bath and playing with the bears, his rubber duckie was MIA. Since it has been so crazy these days with our little lovelies Ralph is now sitting in our prayer corner saying a rosary. Maybe this will calm them down a little (not!).

 

 

One of the reasons it was a little crazy around first grade today was that it was Polar Express day at our school. Everyone was in their jammies and we switched classes throughout the day to do different activities in each room. It was a ton of fun but exhausting. Here are our trains we made, from Stacy at Funky Fresh Firstie, after trying to make trains with the pattern blocks. We also played hot potato with a bell and we played Conductor Says ( just like Simon Says).

 

Today was also the last day for our after school classes we have. Myself and another wonderful teacher at my school did a Christmas class where we made ornaments, decorated stockings, frosted Christmas cookies, and dipped pretzels in chocolate. This was even more exhausting than Polar Express day. We had an awesome group of first through fifth graders in this class and it was a ton of fun. Now, hopefully three quiet days around the building.  Wait, Thursday the teachers are wearing their ugly Christmas sweaters and the student council will vote on the ugliest. That should be a hoot. AND the kids don't even know we are doing this until we all show up on Thursday.

Now, on to clean jammies and a comfy bed.

 

Before I sign off for the night does anyone know of a sight that blurs out faces on the net? I really would like to post more pics but I just can't post pics of my kids. I thought the blurring would work out and I know the sight piknik is no longer. Any other suggestions?

A Hodge Podge of Christmas and Odd and Even

 This bulletin board is just too cute. Our second grade teacher found in on Pinterest and had her own children help her recreate it. Love it!!

 Here are a few projects we have completed so far this season. Since we are a catholic school we always make Advent wreaths. The children color in the candle each Monday during Advent and they really look forward to coloring them in on Mondays.

This is also one of my favorites. I found this project last year on Doodle Bug Teaching.

One of their favorite stories my firsties love to hear is Santa Got Stuck. They can't imagine that happening to him. Some of their ideas of how they are going to help get him out are a hoot! We also completed this elf writing and art project to go along with our class elf, Ralphie.  I found this project on A Cupcake for the Teacher's blog. She has several different versions of it. Check it out.

I had to throw this anchor chart in. We have been working on odd and even numbers. The kids love skip counting so working on odd and evens were fairly easy.

And lastly, these reindeer are made out of graph paper. The second graders in our school do this every year. Aren't they adorable?!
Now, on to our school Christmas program. Wish us luck!!

Why I Love Teaching 1st Grade!!

 

 

 

 

Okay, I was all ready for bed when I thought I would check my emails one last time and this is what I came across from a parent of one of my sweet firsties. Her mom was cleaning her room today and she found this in her daughter's bedroom and passed it on to me. I just love my firsties!! That just made my night!

More Christmas AND An Amazing Teacher

 

I had the pleasure of going to dinner last night with one of my favorite bloggers, teachers, and friends. Erica Bohrer from Erica's Ed-ventures came to our town to conduct an inservice and I just had to attend. Not only did I get the chance to attend the inservice but some of our other wonderful teachers at my school and I  took her to dinner. I sure hope we didn't pick her brain too much. We had a wonderful night visiting with Erica. She is an amazing teacher with one great idea after another. Thanks, Erica, for spending time with us. You are welcome to Chicago and to visit our schools anytime!

 

Here is another awesome Christmas bulletin board. Our amazing second grade teacher saw this on Pinterest and recreated it. Soooo cute!!

 

Now, I'm not a huge fan of the Elf on the Shelf. However, I think it serves it's purpose for a little while and my firsties LOVE it. So with that said, I have to do it each year. Here is how we found him yesterday, playing Uno with the other animals of the room. My firsties love trying to figure out how he gets around the room. Don't you just hate it when you forget about it until the minute they walk in the room for the day and they realize he hasn't moved since yesterday? That tends to happen quite often for me. Next year I don't think I will start it at the beginning of December, maybe much closer to Christmas.
Now, off to bed to get an early start to the weekend.

Christmas Time Again!

 

So here is one of the bazillion bulletin boards I have. More to come as soon as we finish the projects to go on them. Behind the light bulbs my firsties wrote about different ways they can be kind this time of the year ( I have a few in my room this year who like to secretly give other students little digs when no one is looking, like at recess) I am working on character education quite a bit this year.
On another note, I am looking so forward to attending a kindergarten conference on Friday. There are amazing presenters going to be there and myself and several other teachers at my school are excited to meet many of them.. So check back soon for more pics of the great boards many of our teachers have done in their rooms. I feel our hallway is right out of Pinterest.