Chiberia! The New Chicago Nickname

 

Yep, you are seeing that right. When I woke up this morning that was our temperature. Unbelievable! Once again, no school. This has been the strangest school year. First we start out with 100 degree temps and by the way we don't have air conditioning. Now we have the opposite. No school yesterday or today. I feel like we will never reach the 100th day. We had open house on Sunday and I forgot to take pics so as soon (if ever) as we get back in the building  I'll take pics and send them your way. So STAY WARM!!

Weather Unit and the Deep Freeze Again!!

 

This coming Sunday will be Open House at my school so we have been really busy completing projects and getting everything hung up.  Here is a little bit of our weather unit projects. Besides the baggie books about the different types of weather my firsties made we also did this cloud anchor chart (thanks for the idea, Cara Carroll). We went on to make these cloud and water cycle booklets. The kiddies put the clouds on the outside and their descriptions on the inside as well as the water cycle on the inside. We were going to go outside and check out the clouds with our cloud windows but with our temps right around 0 degrees that was out of the question. If it ever warms up a little around here we will head out to observe the clouds. The water cycle sheet came from Kristen Smith's weather unit on TPT. She had a ton of awesome weather ideas in her packet.

   

We are back in the deep freeze here in Chitown. When will it ever end around here?? Next week is predicted to be even colder.  Oh no!!

 

I'll  have more pics to post after tomorrow and last minute cleaning of our room. Be sure to stop by to check out our little corner of the world.

Weather Baggie Books, Snowmen, and more Bulletin Boards

 

We've been working on our weather unit these days (as everyone else is) and the kiddies made these really cute baggie books. I don't know why but I didn't even think to take a pic of the inside. I cut a file fold to fit sandwich size baggies. I stapled four sandwich baggies inside. Inside each baggie was an index card which they drew different types of weather on each one. Then they decorated the covers. They really turned out great.

 

We were also working on writing number words. I used the snowman from Funky Fresh Firsties and tweaked it a little. We just wrote the number on the middle snowball and their number word on the bottom. The kids had a good time making them.

 

Here is an adorable board outside our second grade room. These penguins are 3D.

 

Here is another great board made by our wonderful kindergarten teacher. Too cute!

 

Finally, this one is in my room. I love doing this writing activity every year. This year we used clear plastic plates for the snowglobes. We will have open house next Sunday so this week we will be busy cleaning and uber (if that's such a word) decorating for the big day. This is the day for recruiting and it will be a little crazy around here. Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy your day off for MLK day!



Snow Much Fun and Bucket Fillers

 

I just love these snowmen from First Grade Blue Skies. They are adorable. This is one of my favorite boards we've made.

 

I just started our bucket fillers this week. I've started them before in September but found that my firsties understand what it is all about but have a hard time filling in the little sheets. So this year I thought I would wait until now and it sure makes a difference. After reading the books and writing about how they can fill a bucket my little guys truly get it. Some of their notes they wrote were so cute. Especially the one that said "I like your pants," our kids wear uniforms and everyone is in the same clothes. Too funny!

 

This chart really helped get the idea across and now they point out if someone is doing something on the bucket dipper list. Now, on to plans for the week.

SNOW DAY #2

 

I just had to show all you blogger friends from the warm part of the country what Chicago and Lake Michigan looks like in the deep freeze. It is steaming right now. When the warmer water and the frigid cold air come together it makes for a steamy sight. The city actually looks like it's floating in the clouds. So cool (literally)! Our temps right now are -11 with windchills of -35. Unbelievable!! For that reason the whole city including all schools are closed again for tomorrow. Woo hoo! However, I am ready to get back in the swing of things (and away from the food at home). I've spent the last several days getting a ton of projects ready to go. I know this will definitely be the last day off due to the cold. Oh well! It was fun while it lasted. So, hunker down, bundle up, and blog on!!

BRRRRR!!!!!!!

Right Now: 8:39 AM CST

• 

• -14°
• Few Clouds
• Feels Like -37°

•   
• So, do you think these temps call for a snow/cold day off of school?!!  I am so glad we don't have to get up and warm up the car to head out in the arctic Chicago air! This is unbelievable! We'll, now what to do. Laminate and cut, cut, cut! Since I knew school was closed today yesterday I had a field day on TPT and went a little overboard on purchasing awesome activities for my kiddies.  I have good intentions of getting it all put together and ready to use but we'll see what actually gets done. Here is a pic of just some of the laminated goodies so far. 

 

I know, the snow doesn't look too bad, after all, this is Chicago and we are used to it. But it's not the arctic and we aren't used to -15 temps with windchills of -40!  When the Chicago public schools close you know it's bad out there. The moral of the story is:  STAY INDOORS AND STAY WARM!!

 

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!!

 

 Look what Mother Nature brought us for the new year! It started snow on Wednesday, January 1st and it's just about stopping now, a day and a half later. Now the temps are going down, down, down! Oh my! Winter is really here.

 

 Even our cute little dog wanted to go out and play in it. This is his favorite spot to sit all day. He can sit for hours and watch the park across the street and see everything going on. He's too cute!

 

He didn't last too long in the snow, his little paws were frozen and of course he had to put his whiskers in the snow. 

Now that we are living in a snow globe I guess I'll get my lesson plans ready for back to school on Monday. Stay warm!