A Whole Lotta...

I love blogging!

Just wanted to put that out there in case you weren't sure.

First of all, my house is clean!  It was clean on Friday and I worked really hard to pick up after my three messy boys for the last two days so it would stay that way.  I was able to sit around today and do a whole lotta...

Church goin'
Blog stalking
Sledding
Coffee drinking
Blog stalking
Coffee drinking

It was blissful because I'm usually running around doing a whole LOTTA lotta...

Since you might have been doing your runnning around today instead of living on the blogs like me,  I'll give it to you in a nutshell.  My bloggy buddy Kelley over at Buggy for Second Grade is having a giveaway.  She's trying to reach 300 followers and she's oh, so close!  Go over, follow and enter her giveaway for a $25 dollar gift certificate to Teachers Pay Teachers.  She's announcing the winner on Wednesday, just in time for the big sale going on for Leap Day!!!!

If you haven't checked out this post over at TBA {here} you might want to. New bloggers are linking up over there and I've found some brand spankin' new ones...you know you'll make their day by following....you'll probably make a few of them jump up and down and scream a little bit when they see their numbers grow.  C'mon - you know I'm right!

I've hit a winning streak - did you notice?  I've been winning some giveaways...I don't know where this stroke of good luck has come from because my saying is "If it wasn't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all"...which isn't entirely true...my bad luck goes in spurts like that week when I pulled out of my driveway and forgot hubby's car was there and I took his mirror right off the side....and some other snafoos.  I'm so hoping this good luck sticks....I won a Starbucks giftcard and two awesome TpT products from Amy over at Krazy About Kiddos, I won this from Miss Foote over at Chickadee Jubliee...

Click on the picture to go to Storiarts Etsy shop

Just today I found out I won another giveway {You aren't hating me, are you? Please don't take me off your blog roll, please don't UNfollow me} over at Miss S's blog Just Teaching Kindergarten.  She's a sweety pie student teacher.  Maybe you could head on over and follow her blog.  It's always nice to support those just entering the field.  I won a whole slew of goodness from Miss S...a $15 dollar gift card to Target {Now I KNOW you've jumped ship...come back...please....I'm having a give away soon and it's gonna be just as good...so stick with me...pllllllllease}, some awesome clipart from the one, the only, The 3 AM Teacher, some goodness from Jen over at The Teacher's Cauldron, by the way - don't freak out when you go over to Jen's blog like I just did...her blog looks way different and, MY WORD, it's so dang cute!!!!!!!! From Shawna over at The Picture Book Teacher's Edition I won an awesome unit for the book The Mitten Tree!!!!!!!

Okay - I would be rolling my eyes right now too, if I were you.  Here's what you have to do - go find a few more followers to help me get to 400 and then wait for my new bloggy reveal sometime in March and you too might be a WINNER!!!!

On another note, Chrissy B over at Buzzing with Ms. B wrote an amazing post today about her guided reading groups.  She and I run ours pretty much the same.  She motivated me to get more organized with my note taking so I went over to Zazzle and made myself a couple of cute binders.  I haven't purchased either one yet because I'm undecided and need your help.  Which one do you like best?

We'll call this one "circles"

And we'll call this one polka dots

Notice the customization - would you use different words?  Look at the front cover and the spine...you like?

I was going to wait until the summer to get myself organized with my reading and writing notetaking/running records, etc. but I'm so darn motivated right now I have to roll with it.  So put in your vote so I can order it, receive it and get moving before I win another giveaway and get side tracked.  HA!

Have a great week everybody!!!!!!

Holly

Dandy Random ~ Giggles & Pictures

Theriously girlth {ode to Kristin - now I'm in "the know"}, I had to turn the couch cushion over today - it was all smooshy and stuff.  It had "blogging" written all over it.  That and Ellen...I had MONTHS of Ellen dvr'd that I finally caught up on {somewhat} today.  Tomorrow is already Thursday....put the brakes.....on this......break. 

For those of you working this week - here's a little pick-me-up...have you seen these?





On Youtube there is something called "pronunciation book" where you can listen to words being pronounced correctly - so if you're learning English, this would be helpful.  Well, some guy with a funny bone calls his "pronunciation manual" - it looks the same as the other one, but he says the words incorrectly.  Ellen was in stitches and it had me rolling too.  I like how he says the same word a few different ways.  HA!

To make you feel a wee bit better - I did go into my classroom today.  I brought my boys with  - which is always...interesting.  They had a blast in the gym rolling around on scooters, shooting hoops and just running around like crazy kids. I was able to get quite a bit done. Lots of organizing and I'm all planned for next week.  PHEW.  

I am in total love with my new chairs around my guided reading table...

They slide under the table like butta...

I just have to share my new Reader's Toolbox and Tools that my parapro made for me...

Old

New

Here are a couple of the strategies/ "tools" up close...

She's way more talented than I am..that's for darn sure!  When she brought in the finished product I gave her the biggest hug ever and stopped just short of a big fat smooch...

We celebrated President's Day last week.  I don't usually "do up" that holiday but there were so many cute things out there in blogland I couldn't resist.  We combined Cara's "statement and question" writing {here} because my kiddos are having such a hard time with these with Erica's craftivity {here}.  Her's is a two-sided activity but I didn't have anywhere to hang them up so you could see both sides, so I had my kids choose which one they wanted to do - Abe or George.  They turned out really cute.  You can't really see very well, but Abe's eyes are pennies and George's buttons are quarters.

 

 Well that was one dandy random post....

Pukes or Crying Wolf?

'Tis the season...

For the pukes, that is.  You might be aware that we don't "celebrate the holidays" at my school.  Well, some people do - but it has been "highly recommended" that we don't.  So I don't.  Which is really hard for me -  because for 11 years I did and {{{POOF}}} now I don't. 

BUT....

Lucky me, I do have the pukes in my classroom - 'tis the season for THAT. In a BIG way. Holy Toledo, I had four kids out today.  One of my little girls walked in the room and the first words out of her mouth were "My mom says if I don't feel well I can tell you and you can call her".  Ummmm, Mom - that little trick rarely works so don't try it.  It never fails they come right to you with this little nugget and expect to be sent to the office right then and there.

But I don't. I usually wave them off and say "oh, you look fine to me - go sit down".  Figuring if they were REALLY sick, mom would have *never* sent them to school that way, right? {Okay, I'm a mom and I think I may have accidentally sent my kids to school sick a time or two...but they really did act pretty okay when I had to make the big decision ... call in for a sub, scramble around and make sub plans, or not, call in for a sub {get the bottom of the barrell} lose my mind making last minute sub plans or not...}...

It never fails, a few minutes later "sick kid" comes back up to say "I think I need to go down to the office, my mom said I could".  To that, I usually say "Go get a drink, try to go potty, I think you'll be okay".  I do usually keep a secret eye on them though.  You know, looking for some tell-tale signs that they may be crying wolf.  You know, laughter, sillies, excessive chatting.

So, after my little dumpling was sent for some water, a potty break or two, and a "just try putting your head down", she wasn't going to give up {although she very happily hopped off to recess}.  Right after recess I see her skipping down the hall toward our classroom. When I asked her where she was going she said in a sing-songy voice "I'm going ho-o-o-me". 

Hmmm, I thought - she's totally faking it.  I went down to the office to let the secretaries know of my suspicions  and they were in complete agreement - they thought she was a total faker too...remember that later.

Cutie patootie swears she's not faking it - even after I explained to her that moms are really top secret detectives and they know when you're really sick and when you're not and that I bet mom will bring her back to school if she thinks you just came home for some snuggles. 

Mom picked her up, mom took her home, mom emailed me to let me know that while she thought she might be faking too {reason for sending her to school in the first place} she was two steps away from walking out the school doors when she threw up EVERYWHERE.

Thank goodness I didn't trust my instincts ...

Sending up a prayer of thanks...

Report cards have me crazy busy - someday I'll be back to posting something helpful.  Hey, maybe this post will help somebody.  When a kid tells you they aren't feeling well...just send them down to the office so your story can have a happy ending like mine. {If my custodian blogged his story might go a little differently}

Happy Wednesday Eve!