The heat wave has broken! (Fall Freebie)

What a weekend!

We celebrated my youngest's 5th birthday and he loved his gifts (we had him convinced he was receiving cleaning supplies so he could start pitching in more around the house so he was very relieved to get toys lol!).  We went out to dinner which was great until I looked over to see my 9 year old drooling all over his seat. Mortified Mama was about to scold him for bad manners when I thought maybe he was getting sick so I got up to take him to the bathroom. As I reached him it hit me that he hadn't been acting sick and at 9 years old he's pretty good about making it to the bathroom on time if he is sick. At that point I looked into his eyes and saw the sheer panic in them and realized he was choking. I looked at my husband who was still in his seat, not realizing what was going on and I yelled out "He's choking!" at which point we were swarmed by half a dozen waitresses and busboys. Luckily we were able to clear his airway without the Heimlich maneuver, but I swear it took 5 years off my life!

Also, our heat wave finally broke (100+ degrees for 2 months!) so the kids got to play outside and I got to pull out my fuzzy socks! As a displaced Northerner, I really miss the cooler temperatures. It feels so weird to say it was only 86 degrees on Sunday, and the fact that the kids pulled out their hoodies is even weirder! There's something wrong when mid-80's feels cool enough for a sweater! The best part is that we will get recess this week! For the first 9 days of school we weren't allowed to go outside because of the heat index, and let me tell you, I really, really missed recess!


In honor of this new cool front (and in desperate hope that it lasts), I adapted a cute Fall poem into a pocket chart format, I will be using it as subtraction reinforcement. Next week I'm going to start doing an Apples and Fall theme, so I'll have to start working on some activities for that soon! Also, September 19th is International Talk Like a Pirate Day, so I am creating an activity for "ar" words, so make sure you check back soon!

Click the picture to get the pocket chart for this poem. The last page has the full poem, just substitute the numbers as you go down from 5 to 0 leaves on the tree!

On a side note, have you tried fun4thebrain yet? It's a great website with educational games that my firsties are loving! I pull them up on my Smartboard so we can all have a turn, so far we've been using the Language Arts games (the Popcorn Monkeys sight word game is hilarious!) but I'm going to be using several of the math games as well this week. Here's a subtraction game with a pumpkin theme, check it out!

Well, that's it for now, today is picture day so I better get in the bathroom and try to do something with my hair!