Saturday, February 8, 2014

Craziest Winter EVER!

This is getting silly.  Between all the 1-hour delays, 2-hour delays, and cancellations, this has been the wildest winter I've ever experienced!  And it's snowing right now.  Again.  *Sigh*  Where oh where is spring?  We've only been in school for 6 complete days since before Christmas break.  Six.  It was nice at first, but now we're all panicking about how much learning we're missing out on!  How about you?  Has your school closed or delayed a lot this year?

First of all, I know I'm way late on this, but I'm linking up with Farley for the monthly Currently!  :)


Why does laundry and cleaning a house never end?  Gracious.

And if you're wondering which one is the fib...it's number 2.  :)  I HATE pineapple.  I'm probably the only person on earth, but I just don't like it.  It has a very strange taste to me.  I prefer blueberries, raspberries, Honeycrisp apples, and oranges. 

So what does one do when the weekly schedule is entirely interrupted by snow days and cold days?  Survive.  That's what one does.  I have a student teacher right now and I feel so bad for her because it's taking FOREVER for her to learn the routine and schedule.  Half the time I forget what it's supposed to be!  She's done a fabulous job, though, and has done some great lessons.  Her very first lesson was an art lesson where the kiddos made penguins with all sorts of crafty things.  They loved it and they turned out ADORABLE!



How many times can one redo a Word Wall?  Many, many times.  I used to have it up at the top of the wall, close to the ceiling.  I liked to have bulletin board space for other things.  But I'm just too short and hated getting out the ladder to add words to it.  So I moved it down to a bulletin board.  It actually works much better!


We recently had our 1st grade Reading Super Bowl!  The students were to read as many books as possible each night (with a limit of 12) and turn in a slip stating how many they read with a parent signature.  The students were divided into teams (the Broncos and Seahawks).  Each day we would tally their books.  The team with the most books read scored a touchdown (6 points).  This was done daily, Monday-Friday.  No late slips were allowed, as each day we tallied the books and put up points.  When we came back Monday, the winners were announced and the whole first grade went to the cafeteria for a Milk and Brownies party.  The losing team had to serve the winning team their milk and brownies and then were able to get their own.  So really, everyone won, but it was a fun lesson on manners and serving others first!  Just a small little reward for the winners.  :)  But the kids LOVED it and LOVED seeing how many books the first graders read in a week!





The last little thing I'm going to share tonight is a fun idea my student teacher did with the kids that correlated with our Weekly Reader.  The issue was about penguins and it taught the students about the heights of different penguins.  She took some butcher paper and had groups design their penguin according to the different types.  The important thing was that she cut the paper so that it was the same height as the penguins that they studied.  When she explained that the actual penguins were the size of their paper ones, they were AMAZED!  It was a great visual.


Have a great Sunday everyone!  My day will be filled with church, lesson planning, cleaning, and our small group!  I'm HOPING for a completely normal week next week!  We'll see!


5 comments:

  1. Hi, I just found you this morning. We too have missed way too much school this winter! It has been so hard to get up and running so to speak. Hope your week goes smoothly. Maria

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  2. I'm so late linking up with Farley this month...I'm a new mom and still trying to figure out how to fit it all in!! So hugs to you while you plan your son's party. ;) I also have a Hillsong channel on Pandora and I LOVE Hosanna!! We were meant to be blogging buddies!!! Your superbowl reading party was too cute. I wish we were allowed to work in fun things like that. Absolutely adorable and I'm sure your kids will remember it!

    Little Miss Glamour Goes to Kindergarten

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  3. I'm late linking up this time, but so happy to have found your super cute blog. Love it!! In Atlanta, we have only missed 3 snow days (which never ever happens), and we're looking at possibly 2 more this week. I can't believe y'all have only had SIX full days of school since Christmas break. That's just crazy - bless your heart! Oh, and I slept 'til 1:00 today, too.. hee hee :)

    Kelly
    First Grade Fairytales

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  4. Looks like so much fun!! I love your word wall, it's so cute! :)

    Miss DeCarbo at Sugar and Spice

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  5. Sarah, I just found your blog today. I really like the penguin idea, with the butcher paper! I'm totally going to borrow that idea for my kinders. It's so nice to connect things to their real scale. I agree with you about this winter; it has been highly unusual. We've also had many 2-hour delays and days off here in Maryland. I grew up in Buffalo, so snow is not something unusual for me, but here everybody panics. I guess I look on the bright side. When I have days off from school, I can make more TPT products! :)

    Your latest follower,

    Sharon Dudley, NBCT
    Teaching with Sight

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