Simple Spelling Fun

To help the kids practice their spelling words before Friday's test, we do something called "Quiz Me". One kid gets to be the teacher and the other is the student. (You have to use the words "teacher" and "student" because for some reason they don't think it's as fun if you just say test a "friend". ha!) The teacher has the list of spelling words and says a word for the student to spell. The student writes the word on his/her whiteboard and shows the teacher when done. If the word is correct, they move on to the next word. If it's wrong, the teacher tells the student the correct way to write the word and the student has to write it correctly 3 times on the whiteboard.  When all the words have been spelled, the kids change roles (the teacher becomes the student and vice versa). It's kind of silly what activities they love to do but if it's simple, fun, and they like it...then I'm all for it!

Open House

We had our Open House a week ago. We studied weather and the four seasons in our science units. Our classroom was divided into 4 squares--each square with a different season represented.  The kids had so much fun recreating the seasons in our classroom. Here's a few pictures of how our room looked that night for the families.

This is the view of spring as you come in our front door. 

(You'll notice some Pinterest projects of course!)

 

Summer comes next

Autumn is in the front corner of the room

Last is winter...brrrr!

 

The kids each made a paper version of themselves to sit at their desks. The parents loved seeing these. One of my students is a huge San Francisco Giants fan, so he put a Giants hat and orange shirt on his paper person. Well that night, he came dressed exactly as his paper person! It was too cute!! (Love the eyes on the girl next to his! ha)

The day after Open House all of the classes take part in a parade through the classrooms. This is the best part of Open House! It's so fun to see all the classrooms. The kids like to see their old rooms, the 2nd grade rooms that they might be in next year, and their siblings' rooms. Everyone's hard work was well worth it!! 

Testing, Observations, Open House...oh my!!

The past few weeks have been CRAY-ZEE!! We have been inundated with testing. We had 2 common assessments about 3 weeks ago and now we're going to be giving 2 more this week. I'm so done with testing my kids! Our grade level also had to be observed by our reform coaches that we've had on campus all year. This was our second lesson observation but have had many drop ins throughout the year. These lessons and drop ins have added a lot of unwanted stress for everybody...but I'm happy to say that we're ALL DONE with them!! yay!!! We've been getting ready for Open House which is this Thursday. We've been busy little bees for the past 6 weeks getting prepared for this special night. I divided the classroom into 4 squares and in each square is a different season that we've learned about. I'll have pictures for you later this week. I'm as excited as the kids for Thursday night to be here!


I hope all is going well with everyone. The end of the school year is getting near!! Only 17 more days for us! Woohoo! Can't wait for summer to begin! Have a great week everyone!

Interesting Day...

So Tuesdays are generally pretty normal, nothing too exciting except our weekly trip to the library. Well this particular Tuesday was anything but normal! 

Two of my first grade "friends" have been having a hard time following the playground rules after the recess bell rings. They were talked to before Spring Break, on numerous days, as well as yesterday by the teachers on yard duty. Yesterday the boys were told that they couldn't play tetherball for the rest of the week due to repeatedly not following the freeze bell rules. I have morning yard duty this week, so I told my friends they needed to play something else during recess time. 

As I'm walking around the playground, watching other kids play, I hear giggling behind me. One of my friends has a ball pointed at me, ready to throw! (This does not make me happy!) I tell him he needs to make a better choice with how he is going to play with that ball and to go somewhere else on the playground. I turned and walk a few steps when a ball ZOOMS by my head. (Definitely NOT happy now!!) I turned to see the other friend try to run away. I called them both over to me to find out what's going on (I turned into a 6 year old at this moment). When asked why he threw the ball at me, all I get is a shrug. Really?! So I ask, "What if I get the ball and throw it at you? Would you like that?" No. "Why? Because it might hurt?" Yes. "Well, I wish you would have thought about that BEFORE you threw it at ME." aaaarrrrggghhhh!!!! He got to sit out the rest of recess and had lunch detention. You'd think that would've been enough but no!

In the afternoon, my kids had a few minutes to read, play a math game or write on their white boards before we cleaned up to go home. One of my girls comes over and tells me my 2 friends are writing on the back of their whiteboards with their markers. Hmmmm. When asked to bring me the whiteboards, one of them is frantically trying to scribble on the back. Being the smartie that I am I have someone else bring the board over. My friend didn't get too far with scribbling out what he wrote. 

This is what he wrote on the back of the whiteboard, names have been changed (use your phonics skills):  

Bill and Ted sqwez Mrs. Tompkins boobs.

That earned both my friends a trip to the principal's office!

Anyways, I'm looking forward to and hoping I have a very BORING Wednesday. (Now, THAT'S a first! haha!)

 

Back to work...ugh!

Today was back to work...no more Spring Break. :(   I really, really enjoyed my Spring Break after I got rid of my yucky cold. As always the night before going back to work after being off, I slept AWFUL!!! I don't sleep well to begin with but last night I had anxiety about having to go back to work, getting up early, hoping that behavior would be better than BEFORE Spring Break, etc. I probably got a solid hour to hour and a half of sleep. Not cool but I made it through Monday! The kids were very well behaved (BONUS!) but started to get antsy about 11:00 which is right before lunch time. I think I was getting skittish too! I kept thinking I should've been in my pajamas, reading my nook on my couch, all snuggled up in blankets like I had done last week. :)  Yes, Spring Break is done and gone. I'm over it! I'm looking ahead to what's left of the school year...which is 38 more days!! Woohoo!!! Summer, here I come!


How many more days left for you???

The LUCKY Winner is...

Judy of Teaching Little Apples!! Yay Judy!! I'll be emailing you about your prize!

 

Thank you to everyone who stopped by my blog! For those of you going back to work tomorrow, have a great week! For those of you on Spring Break, like me, ENJOY your time off!

 

 

Spring Break Day 2 & Feeling Better!

Day 2 of Spring Break started early with my son's baseball game. This is his first time playing baseball and it makes me so happy!! I LOVE baseball and it's so much fun to watch him and his teammates play. Notice his jersey number...double zero! He chose it. haha!

 

After the baseball game, we came home and I decided to mow the lawn and pull some weeds while my husband was at work. Spring is never fun for him since he has allergies! I thought I'd help him out by taking care of the lawn. :)  When I was done, I came inside and took a nap...sigh. I must've needed it because I slept for 2 hours! WOW! It felt so good to get some much needed sleep. My cold is almost gone. I feel so MUCH better than earlier this week!

So good, in fact, this is what I'm doing right now. (Not in the dark...picture just looks that way. ha!) Enjoying a mango margarita and checking out some teacher blogs.

Don't forget that tomorrow night I will be announcing the lucky winner of my giveaway!! If you haven't entered, get on it! :) If you already have, good luck!!