Thursday, December 27, 2012

enjoying a little R & R...

Hope this post finds you doing well and relishing in sweet memories shared with family and friends over Christmas. We are all doing well and I am definitely enjoying some rest and relaxation from school although once again I did what I said I wouldn't do and went up to school this morning to do a little work in my classroom. :) Of course, I didn't get everything done that I need to but I got a good start on things so that I won't be too behind when we start back Jan. 7. This morning I printed off activities from Alessia Albanese's adorable units The Mitten and her new one Frosty and Friends for my reading and math centers. Be sure and check them out at tpt and/or at her blog www.missalbaneseclass.blogspot.com now I just need to get back to school to laminate them...
Our family is doing well. We had a really nice Christmas and everyone was happy with their Santa gifts. Kali is 10 this year and Santa and her elf on the shelf are very REAL to her so don't say you don't believe at our house or you will get a scolding from her. :)  Kirk and Kara have been busy with their part time jobs -Kirk at IMart and Kara at babysitting. Kali enjoyed a sleep over at her bff's house last night. Tonight the 5 of us are going to see a movie-woo hoo! We will probably go to The Ritz at Milan, TN. We really like going there and we like the family who own and operate it plus Marty always wins free tickets for there since he calls in to our local radio station 100.9 The Farm and answers their trivia questions in the morning. Don't get me wrong we love our local court theatre but it's nice to be able to go see a movie during the week especially on Christmas break.
Our school Christmas party went off great! We did gift bags for the kids and each student brought in small Christmas items such as individually wrapped candies, plastic santa and snowman cups, pencils, holiday novelties, ornaments, gloves, anything the parents could think of and be creative with to fill our gift bag. I made pillowcases for the students -well, I wrote on them-all the popcorn words we are learning this year. I got this idea from Shari Sloane several years back when I met her at my first SDE conference. She has them printed up for her students but I just freehand mine and they turn out fine. I order the pillowcases online and they average less than a $1.00 per pillowcase. You can find info on the sight word pillowcases and the poem that goes with them at Shari's website www.kidscount1234.com and if you don't have her cd's you are MISSING OUT big time! They are two of my favorite must have cd's.  I also gave each child a copy of the book The Biggest Christmas Tree Ever. Next year, I think I will give the boys a copy of The Gingerbread Boy and the girls a copy of The Gingerbread Girl. :) Never to early to think ahead!  
When I went up to the school this morning, I noticed the green and white ribbon on our flagpole in memory of the Sandy Hook victims. I usually enter from the Kindergarten wing so I don't always go by the front of our building. This was such a tragedy and I know that it affected everyone especially teachers. Even though the stresses are greater now than ever I still cannot imagine not being a teacher. I feel that the Lord called me to be a teacher and I have never doubted it for once. Someone once said if you love your job, you'll never have to work a day in your life. Well, we all know teaching is A LOT OF WORK and much of the preparation goes on after hours even on our school breaks  but we are truly blessed to have this high calling from the Lord to teach. I pray that you too feel as blessed with your job as I do and that we will all strive to continue to foster our classroom as a place of security, a place of wonder, a place of learning and a place of love for our students.  Wishing you and yours a very Happy New Year and God Bless! 

Friday, December 14, 2012

God Bless Newtown, Connecticut and all of the families affected by this tragedy. Our prayers are with you.

Sunday, December 2, 2012

The Gingerbread Boy, Proud of our Mustangs and a fun family Christmas weekend in Middle Tennessee!

Whew-last week flew by!  We attended the play of the Gingerbread Man at The Dixie-our local performing arts center last Tuesday. Take a look at their website www.dixiepac.net and get a tour of it. If you remember Dixie Carter from Designing Women, you will especially be interested in it since it is named after her and the theatre is named for her husband-Hal Holbrook.
We read some different versions of the "The Gingerbread Man" plus these other ones-"The Gingerbread Cowboy", "The Gingerbread Baby", "Gingerbread Friends" and my new favorite "The Gingerbread Girl". It's too cute!
Our family left after school on Thursday and headed on to Middle Tennessee. We went to see the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular show at Grand Ole Opry House on Thursday night. It was truly spectacular!!!! We watched our high school football team-the Mustangs- place as runner up in the District 1A state championship game on Friday morning at Cookeville, TN. They have had a wonderful season and we are proud of them and their hard work throughout the season. On Friday afternoon, we headed over to the Opryland Hotel for Ice "Shrek the Halls"-SO MUCH FUN! On Saturday, me and the girls headed over to the mall in Franklin, TN to browse and do just a little shopping. Kirk met up with some of his FBLA friends for lunch in Nashville. Marty stayed at our room on Smyrna Military Base and worked some on his masters class that he is taking. This morning me and the kids came home and Marty stayed and met up with one of his guard buddies to watch the Tennessee Titans game.
Did I mention that I caught something from my little sweeties?-two of my students were out last week with sickness-one was confirmed with the flu. Of course, he is the one who is our little sweetie that we all have to take care of and he is in my lap or in my face every opportunity he gets :)  so I have battled a yucky cold and cough since Thursday night. so far i'm treating it with otc's and home remedies but if that doesn't do the trick i'll be heading out to the dr. this week.
we only have 13 1/2 days of school before Christmas break begins so we've got a lot to do and not a lot of time to get it done. they will be benchmarking our students for AIMSWEB probably by the latter part of the week.
Don't forget to follow my blog-you never know I might just do a give away! :) here's wishing you and yours a fun and exciting December!