Happy Black Friday

 OK, under the category of random and miscellaneous - here we go!

Do you notice the little red thing inside this pencil sharpener?

 Yes, that's an eraser. Because somebody didn't think that there was any reason that the teacher would say, "Don't sharpen pencils shorter than your little finger!" So the sharpener kept sharpening and sharpening, and I looked over, and one of my sweeties was standing there looking perplexed {because she wasn't the one who did it!}. So I went to unplug it, and I heard another {at this moment not so sweet} sweetie saying "It was so noisy anyway." Like the whole reason he stuck this too small pencil in there was to break the sharpener so we wouldn't have to use that noisy sharpener any more. Isn't life fun in the 2nd grade mind?

Isn't this too cute?

I totally honored some {now anonymous} blogger by copy-catting this. I freehand cut out the turkey {I know! I'm amazed, too!}. Then I gave everybody a feather to decorate as homework. Everybody but two did their homework, and then I {the super nice teacher that I am} gave them time in class to work on it. {And still one didn't finish.} 

And here's my new toy:

 As a present for taking care of my sweet bubby, he bought me this!! {What a sweetie - and whatever, I think he just wanted an excuse to buy this for me! Cuz he likes to do that sort of thing.} And happy day, they are having a sale on designs, so I'm heading over there {online, of course!} soon. 

Have a Happy Black Friday - whatever you do!  

I am Thankful

I saw on my "Blogs I Love to Read" list that a couple bloggers were doing Lucky to be in First's I am Thankful lists.  So I quick scrapped my original post idea and decided to join in!

1 - Spent the morning thanking God for all sorts of things - two sides of notebook paper in my prayer journal! Wow and thank you, Lord!

2 - Of course, thankful for my hub-bub and that his knee surgery has been such a success and that he's tried so very hard not to be a complainer, when I know it is stiff and sometimes hard to get comfortable.

3 - So thankful my college girl made it home safe last night and can't wait to spend some time chit-chatting with her. I was so tired last night, we didn't really do much.

4 - Thankful for my terrific group of kids I have in my class this year - and all the fun stuff they are willing to do with me. 

5 - Thankful for this silly little blog - and silly little me, who enjoys going back and reading what I've written. And sometimes even thinking - hey, that's a pretty good idea. {what a dork I am!}

6 - Thankful for my bloggy friends that comment and answer my comments. 

Ok, Ok, can I just add this? {And hee, hee, hee this is really my own original idea!} Yesterday {our last day before Thanksgiving break} our school had Make Room for Turkey day. We all got to wear sweats - and this time I really remember to remind the kids to wear sweats, so when only 5 of them showed up to join me in wearing sweats day - well, that was on them, not me! And then every time my timer rang, or the school bell rang - we stopped and did a little 1 or 2 minute activity. Like jumping jacks, high knees, tiny steps and giant steps across the room, a marching parade around the room. The afternoon was crazy/funny because we had lunch bells ringing, and come in from recess bells ringing, and my timer ringing. And we were moving fools! So I can safely eat all the turkey I want - cuz I made room for turkey yesterday - haha.

I hope you have a very nice Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Books

Ooh, I so wanted to join this linky party:

Because this book:

 

Is cracking me up - I mean literally Laugh Out Loud! I was laughing and just about couldn't read. It's the part where the little boy is supposed to have something in his thankful bag, but he forgot, so he says he's thankful for the bag. And the teacher is like, "Really?" So the boy decides he is thankful for his shirt. And then I was just picturing him turning his shirt all around so he could read what was on the tag. 

Really, who couldn't love a book where people are thankful for Exploding Biscuits, Jelly in a Can, Rainbow Sprinkles, and of course, Toilet Paper!

I have a couple others I like - 

We are having a cold, blustery day today - and it's our Thanksgiving meal at school. I'm eating with my kiddos, because nothing says teacher love like sitting in the middle of a bench table eating pressed turkey :)

Ah, really, it's something I wanted to do - and boy, do they love to talk to me when I eat lunch with them! 

Happy Week until Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving craft

These just turned out too cute!

{So sorry they aren't arranged all fancy! With me, we are just happy to have a couple pics!}

I was thinking I needed - ok, really, wanted - to do a Thanksgiving craft, but I couldn't find any that I liked - that didn't include painting hands or feet or something that just scares me to death! {and super kudos to anyone who undertakes those type of adventures!!!}. 

Then Pinterest to the rescue. I actually pinned this a while back. And I was at the grocery store and saw this bag of very colorful spiral pasta, and grabbed it. I think they turned out pretty cute, and still show the individualness {I'm so sure that's a word!} of my kiddos. 

I gave them a 6 inch square of orange paper. Then I gave them a 3 inch circle and a 2 inch circle in brown. I opened up my box of scraps and let them go to it. They made their own beak, waddle, eyes and feet. After they got those done, they glued on the pasta. Some appear to be more in love with pasta than others. 

And ya know, if you wanted to make it all educational - and if I'd been thinking ahead of time - we are doing "how to" writing. I could've had them write how to make a pasta turkey. 

Anyway, just loving the cuteness - and enjoying a chance to let my kiddos be creative! 

Following Directions

It's just been one of those weeks. Between taking my hubby to physical therapy one day during my plan time and two other days right after school was out, and paying back the recess duty I owed a fellow teacher - it seems like the week went by -- whoosh! Oh and not only that, but the internet is out on our desktop - and that's really a hubby job, but it's downstairs, and he can't manage that yet. 

And it seems like once again, I need to be remind how much difference MY attitude makes in my classroom. Wait, wait - I'm trying hard to say, our classroom.  

I think it was Tuesday, ack - why aren't you children following directions?  And I went to an in-service that night. {Sometimes God is kinda funny this way!} Most of the time, the presenter said, children/students want to do what they are supposed, but for whatever reason, what you are asking is just something they can't do. 

And so I was thinking about my centers where I was frustrated with my kiddos. Each day of the week, my kids go to computers, a reading center and then a different center each day. {I can't think of a good way to explain this :)}Three of the five are the same structure every week, just the content changes. But just for a little variety in life, I change up the other two weekly. And I was wondering if that was the problem. Some of my off-task kiddos are those that aren't the best readers. Other of my off-task students were my smarty pants kids who probably think they know what to do {said with a wry grin}. 

So I'm still in the process of thinking this through. But I was really thinking, I want my kids to be successful, not frustrated. 

Hello

...ahem... It's been a little silent over in my part of the blog world this week. My husband had both knees replaced a week ago Thursday - and he's done great! I just didn't realize - didn't have any idea - how tired I would be! And he is not at all a demanding person. In fact, he's trying to do an awful lot by himself. 

So I had scheduled to be gone through Monday but when we got home Monday afternoon, that just didn't seem realistic. So I emailed the sub gal, and she got my sub to stay another day. 

Sometimes we really have kids who make you pay for that kind of thing, don't we? I had to use my growly bear voice a couple times last week. Blah. 

It's always funny to me, when I look at the sub plans I've left, to see what got done, what didn't get done, and what didn't get understood. I always think I can't make things any clearer - or my sub plans will end up being 100 pages long. I can't imagine that's really what anybody wants. 

However, THE sweetest thing. When I got back Wednesday, I had us do a mini morning circle - morning meeting, whatever you want to call it. (We don't have time for these since after the first few weeks of school because we do interventions right away.) I told them I had been gone for four days, tell me something exciting that has happened. We got almost all the way around the circle, and one boy said, I'm excited Mrs. S. is back. Thank you, thank you from my warm, fuzzy heart. 

Ok, more later - this exhausted lady might just take a nap! Which just never happens since I was about 5 years old and my momma would try to convince me I needed one - haha.