Stop and Smell the Roses! (Freebie!)

Thanks for all the sweet notes in reply to yesterday's post - today was a much better day! I guess sometimes you have to pick and choose what you're going to let upset you, and today I chose not to let anything get me down! So, in no particular order, here were the highlights of the day:


17 out of 19 students got 100% on the spelling test today! The two that didn't get 100% only got 1 and 2 wrong. Oh my goodness, we are finally all getting it! The one I am most proud of is my little guy who usually gets only 1 or 2 right. I convinced him (and his mother!) that even though it might take him longer, I was still convinced that he can learn. He came to me right after Christmas Break, so far behind everyone else and mama asked for him to be tested, stating "I don't want to keep pushing him if he's not capable." Well, this proves that he is capable! He requires a longer wait time than other students, and he's still using manipulatives for adding and subtracting, but he's getting it! I hope she makes as big a deal over his 100% as we did in class!


We won the Library Award today for the first time this year! It's given to the class that is the best behaved in the library and I had despaired of ever getting it because we are usually very chatty about books. I'm extremely competitive, so I love getting awards lol!


My class is loving this new (to us!) series and all of them cried out in despair when I told them that today's book was the last one that our library had. They begged me to get more, so I will be searching Amazon this weekend to see if there are any others. The series is "Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa" and I use a heavy Southern twang when I read Cowgirl Kate's parts - the kids think it's a hoot! We did an informal popularity survey today and Cowgirl Kate won hands down over Henry & Mudge and Mr. Putter & Tabby. By the way, the boys love it as much as the girls, which I wasn't expecting, funny how they can surprise you like that, right? Do you know any other series of books we should try?


Also, one of the local churches that has "adopted" our school gave every student a bag with plastic eggs, candy and grass, as well as an egg dyeing kit. The kids were so excited! This same church also came and mowed our lawn and weeded our flower beds over Spring Break. Our school looks so much better now!

We had "colorful cauliflower" for snack today. This was actually a great week for snacks - Wednesday we had Grapples, Thursday was Del Monte melon cups and today we had the cauliflower. Now, maybe it was just the novelty of the colors (the flavor doesn't taste any different), but I had kids asking for seconds and thirds! Many of my students are discovering that they actually like fruits and vegetables thanks to this grant program.

At our monthly assembly today we watched a great video to get the intermediate classes revved up for testing - I loved it! We also finalized plans for the primary teachers to adopt an intermediate class and provide little goodies for testing next week. My partner and I are doing little candies with notes - like a peppermint with "You are 'mint' to be successful" or a chocolate egg with a note that says "You'll do 'egg'celent on the test today!" I need a couple more ideas, so if you think of one let me know!



One of my students from last year found a small (almost microscopic!) egg on a leaf on the playground today and brought it to me because he knows I'm the only one crazy enough to actually bring it in the classroom to try to hatch it! I'm just crossing my fingers it's not a cockroach egg or something crazy like that lol (forgive my ignorance if cockroaches don't actually lay eggs, but I don't feel like googling it to find out)! I wish I had grabbed a picture of it so maybe someone could advise me on what it is...I'd hate to walk into a nasty surprise on Monday. I put the leaf in the mesh cage with our praying mantis egg case and some moist cotton balls. If it's still unhatched on Monday we'll be writing fiction stories about what we think may come out of it!

When we arrived home we saw that the rose bushes had all blossomed! I had nothing to do with it, since the bushes were planted before we moved in, but it's such a glorious sight! My new camera also took some great pictures of the roses, which made me quite happy:




Last, but not least, I got an email saying that Jack Hartmann is having a sale on his cds! Just use the code: SPRING12 to save 20%! I have a feeling between books and cds I will be spending a pretty penny this weekend!

Alright..that was a much better post than yesterday's, wasn't it? Just to keep that feeling of love going, here's a quick freebie for you! Next week we are working on words with the "ou" dipthong, so here's a fun Read & Write the room activity with ou and ow words! If you grab it, I'd love it if you'd Rustle Up a Response below and tell me something good that happened to you this week!


Oh, and I have to do Farley's Currently tonight too, otherwise the month is going to get away from me before I can participate!

Just think of what you could do with a pause button for real life! Someone makes a snide remark? Just pause the moment while you think of an awesome comeback! Little one wants to snuggle but you have lesson plans to write and laundry to fold? Just pause real life so you can snuggle guilt-free and get to the chores later! Chatterbox students says "I don't know what to do!" for the 5th time after you've given your instructions as precisely as humanly possible and everyone else is already halfway through the assignment? Just pause her while you grab a cop of coffee and take some deep breaths while you think of some other way to communicate the directions - smoke signals are an idea!

Ok, this post is probably a zillion miles long, but I'm too content to care... my husband just brought me a huge slice of veggie pizza and a diet Pepsi. Can life get any better?

7 comments:

Miss Squirrels said...

That is great news on the spelling test! I am glad that today was a good one for you- we spent the day on the road- bleck- but the destination was worth it!
Staci

Going Nutty!

misssquirrels@yahoo.com

Lee Ann said...

So glad your day was much better, but you had school today? Those roses are beautiful!!Can't wait for it to warm up so we can enjoy our flowers.

Kerri Buckner said...

I'm so glad that you had a better day. I love those pictures of roses. They are beautiful. I'm also glad to know I wasn't the only teacher in bloggy world who had school on Friday. I'm now on Spring break so I can't complain much. We had our Easter Egg hunt inside and the kids did a great job.
Thanks for sharing the freebie.
Ms. Kerri and her Krazy Kindergarten

Unknown said...

Just remember, as teachers, we have more good days than "bad" ones. :)

I love Jack Hartmann too! He just came to our school and did a personal concert. It was awesome. Come check out the pics on my blog. He has a great new CD out and his 3rd DVD is awesome. It has some great math songs on it and The Penguin Dance which is one of my kids favorites.

Happy Blogging!
Ann
@http://mrsgreeneskindergartenkorner.blogspot.com

Elizabeth said...

Happy for your Spelling Tests! Yay! Some days are great, too :)

Hope you had a nice Easter.


Elizabeth

Fun in Room 4B

Mrs. L said...

I love your super power!
Life with Mrs. L

Anonymous said...

My students love listening to the Ready Freddy series by Abby Klein. Stop that Hamster is one of their favorites.

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