13 in 13

I am linking up rather later for the 13 in 13 linky party hosted by Teeny Tiny Teacher, Miss Kindergarten, and Dragonflies in First. Here goes...

I hope these will be my favorite, I just ordered them and I haven't gotten them yet. they look so warm and comfy, I can't wait to try them out!

I don't go to the movies unless it is with Delaney. Even though they were technically kid's movies we saw two that I absolutely loved. The first was Monsters University, it made me laugh out loud it was so funny.

The other one was Frozen, it was an excellent mix of drama and comedy. We loved it!

 Olaf provided lots of laughs!

We got cable after not having it for about six years. Before cable I watched crime dramas like Criminal Minds, Law and Order Criminal Intent, etc... Not really programs to watch with Delaney. Since getting cable, I have become and HGTV and Food Network addict.  Some of my favorites are...

I wish Hilary would come and renovate my house, I love her designs!

I do still like crime shows, but i don't know that Psych necessarily qualifies as a drama, but I love it!

We don't go out to eat at nice restaurants a lot, but Chili's has been one of my favorite places to go to for quite a while.

I seriously can't think of a favorite new thing I have tried, so instead, I will say that I have some favorite new friends from blogging. I've got a little group of friends that always try to read my posts and comment and I do the same back at them. It really means so much to me. I know if I have a teaching question, they will help me out, but really I think they would probably help me out in other ways too. Thanks you guys...you know who you are!

I guess my favorite gift really wasn't meant to be a gift, but it is something I will always treasure. I got in the habit of putting notes in Delaney's lunchbox. One day I found this in mine.

I've pinned a ton of things. There are so many cool things I would like to do to my house. I just picked one of the ones I really like to put in the post. The sad thing is, as much as I like it, I don't know if I have the nerve to actually paint the chandelier in my dining room. I love the bright colors....if I get my nerve up, you'll be the first to know. lol

My most popular post as far as views was this one. I had sight word card game freebies. I'm not in the big leagues as far as blogging goes so my numbers aren't all that big. One post that got quite a few comments was about a game I came up with. You can read about it HERE.

I guess I felt a sense of accomplishment taking on a kdg/1st grade split (32 kids) class. It was the first time I have ever had a split class. i know others said they did it, but I thought kdg and 1st were a tough split. I was wanting to have lots of developmentally appropriate activities (do they even use that term anymore?) for the kinders, but I just didn't have room for much. Anyway, I will have them for one day when we get back and then they will go to their new teacher.

I love this picture I took of Delaney when she went to the track meet last spring. It was pure luck that I just happen to snap it when I did, ;P

Another favorite photo is this one of my dad on his 80th birthday and my step mom.

It's hard to think of a favorite memory, we haven't had any "big"moments this year. As I was sitting and thinking about it, I realized today is a good day to remember. We have a NewYear's Meeting at church every year. Friends and loved ones come from all over to attend. This morning I sat next to Delaney and one of her best friends from Texas. During the service, one of my nephews led a song and another nephew gave a wonderful sermon. I was one proud aunt!!! After the service we went and ate with friends we don't get to see often. These are the things that make good memories.

Well it should really say goals instead of goal, I have several things I want to work on.

I want to be a better Christian and mom. Delaney deserves the best I can give her, I need to make sure I am setting the right example for her. As much as I love being a teacher, there have been times that I have let my job take the priority. Becoming aware of it is has helped me to start making some changes, but I can still do better.

I think I had this next goal last year, but clearly something went wrong....

I do feel a little more motivated than I did last year, so one more time, I want to lose some weight, but it is really more than that I want to be healthy. If I am eating better and moving more, I am going to lose weight.

Oops!  This post has already taken me waaay too long to write and then I realized I forgot my One Little Word. I'll have to get back with you on that one...I can't think that fast.

Five for Friday 12-20-13

I'm joining Doodle Bugs Teaching for her weekly linky party Five for Friday

1. Well, it's official. We have a new kindergarten teacher starting right after Winter Break. I'm happy for the kinders, I know it will be the best for them. I'm a little sad for me, not that I liked having 32 students, but I have grown very fond of the kinders while I have had them. It would be great if I got to have all of them in my class next year... I'm going to make them a little going away package. I thought I would give them several little books for them to put in their "Box of Little Books", a reading finger, a little spaceman, a decorative pencil and I'm not sure what else.

2. This week I have been teaching intersession for 3rd grade. Since I have never taught anything above 1st grade, I am grateful that they gave me some teaching materials to use. One of the things we were supposed to be going over was perimeter and area. I got on Pinterest to look for some fun ideas. The first project I found HERE.

The original project was as you can see teaching fractions. My kiddos made themselves and then figured out the area and perimeter of their pictures. They loved doing it and were soo excited to show the principal and anyone else they could get to look at them. One little boy even got his phone from me so he could take some pictures.

I loved his sunglasses!

BTW I did have some lighter paper for his face, he chose the brown.

Notice her fingernails. I asked her about the hair and she said she loves Nicki Minaj. ;D

4. Today they figured area and perimeter using the idea found HERE.

We also made synonym rolls. I for got to take pictures of these projects. I had each student work on synonyms for a different word. then we worked together to help come up with a few more words. I had each student make a "synonym roll" for each word. I then gave each of them a piece of aluminum foil for them to glue their synonym rolls on.

5. Finally, today was Delaney's last day of school before the break. It was a pajama day.

 Here she is ready to go.

 We do love Hello Kitty in our house.

Thursday WOW and a FREEBIE

I'm joining my BBB Em @ Curious Firsties for her weekly linky party Wednesday WOW. It's easy to join, just link up and share something positive from your personal life and/or teaching life.

After having three snow days, we went back to school last Wednesday. Our principal called an emergency staff mtg after school to tell us our first formal evaluations of the year were due BEFORE we left school for winter break on Tuesday (12/17)! What???? No I need more time. Is what I was thinking but I signed up for her to come to my room on Monday. I thought it was the perfect solution because I have an assistant on Mondays. She takes the kinders to the computer lab for 50 minutes and then takes the firsties for 50 minutes so I have a little time with each group. So I quickly signed up during one of the computer times. Every thing was going good, I was trying to decide what lesson to WOW my principal with. lol Then I remembered that the assistant had some comp days that she had told me she was going to use....you guessed it Monday. She definitely deserved the comp days, but my heart sunk.

What kind of lesson could I possibly teach to 15 kinders and 17 firsties that they could all stay on task? Most of the things I could teach, the firsties already knew the basics and then once I got to their level, it might be too hard for the kinders. I was lamenting my problem during lunch last Friday and WOW one of our new young 3rd grade teachers offered to take the kinders to the library for a buddy reading session. She totally saved the day for me.

I don't know how you have felt about the new evaluation systems. I went to a lot of Marzano training last year and lots of teachers feel like they are just trying to get rid of teachers. Of course that is not the intention, but I was much more nervous about this evaluation than I have been in years. 

I ended up teaching a lesson on Base 10 Blocks. I used this idea from Pinterest:

After working with the number grid, we switched to a Place Value Chart. Instead of using the Base 10 blocks, I gave each student a ziplock with saltine crackers (100s "flat"). pretzel sticks (10s "long") and Reeses Pieces (1s "cubes"). I started with giving them a number for them to make and then I let them constrct their own number that they had to write and break it down into hundreds, ten s and ones. Overall the lesson went well. I had a couple of students that needed some one on one help, but they did OK. Of course they got to eat their Base 10 blocks when they were finished.

My last day of regular class was Tuesday (I'm teaching intersession Wednesday-Friday). So that was the day of our party. I was very happy that I had four parents come to help me out. It was great they stayed right through to the clean-up. Earlier in the morning we finished our "Box for Little Books" I got the idea several years ago, but I don't know where. I googled and googled searching for the site, but never could find it. Basically it is a decorated shoebox for the kids to keep little books that they make in class. The teacher had written a little poem to put on the box, since I couldn't find it I had to write my own (which my daughter informed me didn't rhyme). Anyway the kids were all excited to take theirs home. I had been saving some of their books so they wouldn't be going home empty. If you are interested in it and don't mind a poem that doesn't rhyme, you can get it HERE.

Wednesday WOW and a Skip Counting Freebie

Here I am, this week on time linking up with one of my BBBs, Em @ Curious Firsties for her weekly linky party Wednesday WOW.

My first WOW, "Wow, I posted Wednesday WOW on Wednesday!" I know it's quite shocking. 

My next WOW is school and personal combined. We are going back to school today after having three, yes three snow days! I guess technically they weren't snow days, it only snowed one day. We had a real cold streak and so the snow and ice didn't melt and here in Oklahoma, we don't have enough snowplows to clear all of the streets, just the major ones and the side streets were as slick as could be. I tried to make good use of my time, but not being on any schedule and kind of being stuck in the house made me feel very lethargic.

I have another WOW. Saturday Delaney was playing in the snow.

Right after I took this picture we had a 4.5 earthquake, things shook and rattled, but fortunately nothing got broken.

My next WOW is kind of a negative or maybe more like a shocked, surprised kind of WOW. We have had a mouse in our house for about a month and a half. I have always been a big baby when it came to mice. The last time we had one in the house, I got those kind of traps that it goes in and you can't see it. I paid Delaney $5.00 to pick it up and put it in the dumpster. I just don't want to have anything to do with them dead or alive. Anyway, we have a mouse and so I got two of those traps and set them and have not had any success. So a friend told me to get the glue traps (you can be sure I discussed it with Delaney to see if I could pay her again to pick it up ;P ), I have had 3 of them "set" for a couple of days  and so far nothing. Well apparently he got on one a little bit, there is some grayish brown fur on one...yuck!!! I sure hope we catch him soon. My niece and her family were supposed to come and stay with us this weekend, but she has little ones and she's afraid the baby might get into one of the traps so they aren't going to stay with us. BOO!

We had indoor recess today because there was still a lot of slushy snow on the ground. Since we have 63 kids in one room during recess, there really isn't much to do except watch a movie. They were watching Rudolph today. As I was leaving the room to go eat my lunch, I heard one of the boys say, "Hey this movie is just like the song!"  All I could say was WOW. I thought every kid had seen that movie, apparently I was wrong.

 Have you ever made the reindeer that you trace your shoe and your hands?I have been making this reindeer for many years. I got the idea from: 
http://www.dltk-holidays.com/xmas/reindeer.html  They have changed it a bit since I found it 15 or so years ago.  

Sometimes I make the craft just for decoration and sometimes I use it for a learning activity.  I put a big piece paper on the wall and then glued 10 of the reindeer on the paper in a row. I took the students out into the hallway and then we did several skip counting activities. First we skip counted by 2s using the reindeer’s antlers. I write number between the antlers. We skip count by 5s counting each antler and then skip count by 10s counting the two antlers for each reindeer.

 This year I decided to make a little worksheet that I could use to assess the skill. I made one for the kindergartners that only has skip counting by 10s and counting by 1s. The first grade page has skip counting by 2s, 5s and 10s. If you would like a copy, you can grab it HERE.  

If you grab a copy, I would really appreciate a comment or a like on Facebook. Thanks!