Positive Thinking Thursday

I am linking up with Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for 

Positive Thinking Thursday! 

Even after the worst day of teaching in the world, there had to have been one thing that went right.

A few years ago I had a bad day. I'm talking the worst. Like nightmare-inducing. I still tremble at the thought. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong. Later that night, I checked my email. A parent had written me an email explaining that her daughter (her lovely, fabulous, do no wrong daughter) had come home and talked about the day and how upset I had been because of some other naughty behaviors in the class. The mom offered her help, let me know that I'm doing a great job with her kid, and she'd be more than willing to volunteer her time in the school to help out with the class. It was so sweet, and now when I think about that bad day, I also think about the good.

Positive Thinking Thursday

I am linking up with Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for 

Positive Thinking Thursday! 

Our teacher meetings tend to get off topic quickly. 

Like, in the wrong, Debbie Downer, complaint-fest direction. 

We'd probably be a lot happier if we just shared happy moments with our students every once in a while!

Tried It Tuesday

Let's link up with Fourth Grade Flipper for Tried It Tuesday!

We're continuing the process of learning about life cycles and plants. This week we're using this neat compost experiment to see what happens to items when placed in soil! I'm excited to hear each student's hypothesis!

A Peek at my Week

Today I'm linking up with Jennifer from Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for "A Peek at my Week."

Monday

First day back from February break.

Always tough to get back into the routine, but if you have strong routines in place, the kiddos should adjust quickly. 

Tuesday

My practicum student from a local college joins us on Tuesdays. Always a happy day when there are extra adults in the classroom to help the kiddos! And to help me! 

Wednesday

I'm starting our next unit in ELA soon...INSECTS!

Just trying to get it planned and ready!

I'm very excited to bring in my ANT FARM for the class!!!

Friday

Staff meeting? Okay.

Five for Friday

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching this week for Five For Friday! 

I spent way too much of my vacation watching Mad Men on Netflix. It's quite addicting!

I signed up for a half marathon in April and I'm not so sure how I feel about this. Our area in western New York has been covered in 3 feet of snow and hovering around zero degrees for many weeks...and there's no end in sight. Consequently, my training has been...not so good.

I dropped off my copying to be done by our secretary over vacation and when I popped in yesterday, everything was done! THREE copy boxes of guided reading books and math lessons to get me through to April break!!!

I planned out the next few weeks of guided reading and writing over this vacation! I found these cool multilevel books on ReadingAZ all about giant animals like elephants, komodo dragons, blue whales, and ostriches. The kids are going to read these books while taking notes on them. They will write a research report, a compare and contrast, and make a giant animals passport! Next, we will read Diary of a Worm and the kids will choose one giant animal to write from their perspective and create a Diary of that animal. It will be a few weeks of work and I am super psyched to not have to think about writing for a while! :)

Back to school tomorrow after a long and lovely February vacation!

I'm going to miss this little pupster, but she'll probably be thankful to have me out of the house so she can go back to her 12 hour long naps each day!

Positive Thinking Thursday

I am linking up with Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for 

Positive Thinking Thursday! 

I think this is me every day. And I think it's the best analogy for teachers...

A Peek at my Week

Today I'm linking up with Jennifer from Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for "A Peek at my Week."

Monday

February Break

Tuesday

February Break

Wednesday

February Break

Thursday

February Break

Friday

February Break

YAYYYY!!!!

Over the break I will obviously do schoolwork. I'll go to school to do some dreaded copying and battle those darned copy machines. I'll also do some fun housework...like finally getting my dishwasher fixed after weeks of living in the old days of hand washing!

Five for Friday

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching this week for Five For Friday! 

Today is Galentine's Day!!!

Any Parks and Rec fans get me right now...

Look at this cutie pie!

Guess what she's staring at?

The Dunkin Donuts man who is offering her a plain munchkin!

She can be so good when there's food involved.

I use fun spelling activities during Daily 5 to practice our challenging spelling words, which is good. BUT recently we've also been playing spelling tic tac toe! The kids love it. They buddy up with a whiteboard, and each child chooses a spelling word. They play tic tac toe using their words instead of X and O. It's a blast!

I thought the novelty of brownie points would eventually wear off, but here we are in February and the kiddos are still into it! They still work their butts off for a brownie point! It's really motivating!

Use my referral link to try Stitchfix for yourself!

It's a lot of fun! I'm not a fashionista, but I love having a box of goodies filled with styles and colors I might not be brave enough to try on my own!

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