Cat in the Hat

 

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!!!!  I had to decorate my Starbucks' cup today.

I love reading Dr. Seuss books to my kids.  This is my favorite week to teach because my kids' get so excited with the activities and the rhymes.

 

 

Today's book was "Cat in the Hat", which was perfect because we had a major rain storm as I was reading the book. A couple of my kiddos kept looking at the door to see if the Cat would come in.  TK kiddos are adorable.

I was at a conference this weekend, so the week crept up on me.  But, I knew I would find some ideas from Jennifer at First Grade Blue Skies.  I love that girl, she is so creative.

She made these adorable Thing 1 and Thing 2 headbands with her kids. The cutting was a little hard for my little ones, but they did a great job - it took some time.  Jennifer had her kids make a big necklace for 

Thing 1 and Thing 2.  I drew the circles so that they would be able to glue them on their headbands.  They turned out adorable.

You can find her pattern  Here 

We, also, made a directed drawing of the Cat.   I love doing directed drawing activities for listening.  I can tell which kids are paying attention and which ones aren't.  They all turned out different and adorable!!!!

You can find Jennifer's directions for the directed drawings Here.  She has a super cute packet in her TpT store, that you need to check out.

Well, I need to plan out tomorrow's book activities - thank goodness hubby is making dinner.

Five for Friday - February 6

This week was my first week back after my 6 week Winter break and I am so glad that it is Friday.  I am finally linking up with Kacey, after a very long time of not blogging.  

 

I finished a couple of knitting projects while I was on my break, it was so relaxing.

 A shawl

 

A cowl. 

 I gave both of these to two ladies that have chemo with my sister.  The ladies were watching me knit every week and I wanted them to have something to wrap up in.

 

 

I filled out and filed my retirement papers. This year I will be retiring.  I'm going to spend more time with hubby and the grand kids.  Plus, my sister is going to needs lots of help this next year.  I am excited and nervous at the same time.  It is a huge step.  I love teaching and being with my babes, but my family needs me too.

 

 

Our brand new Kinder word wall.  We are loving it.  At first, I thought that having the words jumbled would drive me crazy, but I actually like it better - plus it looks so Disney.  The word cards are huge, so the kids can see them from anywhere in the room.

 

Our PTA pays for a program called "Art Smarts'.  I love this program.  Three times a year, our kids learn about the life of an artist and see slides of their work.  Then, a teacher comes to teach them an art lesson.  Every grade level, does a different project based on the artist that we are studying.

This time it was Georgia O'Keefe.  These are my TK's poppies.  I think that they did a great job.

 

Our school has the next two Mondays off, so hopefully I will be able to catch up on some school work.  If you want something for independent work for you kids that also reinforces what they have learned about Lincoln and Washington - you might want to check these small books out that I created last year.

These are half sheet books that have a fill in the fact sentence frame on each page.  It, also, has the missing words as word cards for a pocket chart.

Lincoln is here

Washington is here

If you have a three day weekend, I hope you have a relaxing weekend.

Merry Christmas

I hope you have a wonderful, blessed Merry Christmas - from our home to yours!

My Top Fourteen in 2014

I can't believe that this year is almost finished, it has gone by so fast.  I haven't had a lot of time to blog this year, my grandbabes have kept me busy.  Plus, hubby came home after being in Hawaii for 3 years, so there was some adjusting.  So glad that he is home.

I am linking up for my top 14 in 2014.  These are in no particular order.

ONE

My oldest grandbabe, Siouxsie promoted from 6th grade.  She is the sweetest girl.

TWO

My grandson, Keahi, turned two.  He has brought me lots of joy and laughter.  My sister is holding his hand down because he thought it was a smash cake like his first birthday.

THREE

I finished knitting my first sweaters for these two.  They weren't as hard as I thought the would be.

FOUR

I started test knitting for people that design knitting patterns.  My grandbabe loves to model the finished product for me.  Knitting these patterns has helped calm me.  I started having chest pains and high blood pressure in October, so this helps relax me.

FIVE

Grandbabes, Bowie and Remie, along with their cousin Sophie turned 1.  They were all born the same day, so we had one big party to celebrate.

SIX

My youngest grandbabe, Lily turned 1 in November.  She shares her birth date with my #2 son.  We had a Swan Princess theme party because her middle name is Odette like the Swan Princess.

SEVEN

We made a trip to Boulder, CO and I finally, got to meet the wonderful person that dyes all the yarn that I buy.  I have been buying yarn from her for 5 years, so I was excited to finally meet her.  This is how she dries the yarn.

EIGHT

This one is hard.  This is my sister and she was diagnosed with Stage 3 Ovarian cancer a couple of weeks ago.  She wanted her hair dyed Candy Cane red for the holidays, so my daughter in law dyed it for her.  She started chemo last week.  She has a long fight ahead of her, it just makes me sad that she is fighting Cancer, again.

NINE

Grandbabes, Kayleigh and Morrigan turned 7 and 6 this year.  They are sisters born on the same day, one year apart.

TEN

My niece got married this summer, so we traveled to Colorado for the wedding.  I teach at a year round school, so we snuck this trip in.  I got back the day before school started - won't be doing a trip like that, again.

ELEVEN

My first pineapple that we grew in California.  It was so yummy and sweet.

TWELVE

I went with some friends to Beverly Hills for a wine tasting lunch.  Our champagne had gold flecks in it.  My sister said that it was Lisa VanderPump's restaurant - I have no idea who that is.  The last picture is Rodeo Drive, yes that is a chandelier hanging in the middle of the street.

THIRTEEN

My niece and her family came out for my sister's surgery over Thanksgiving break.  The kids had never seen the ocean, they were having so much fun.  The weather was a warm 85.

FOURTEEN

And the last event, I am going to be a grandma in May, again.  So excited for another grandbabe, #9 - a boy..  Now, if they would just decide on a name, I would be happy.

I hope you have a wonderful, blessed Christmas.

Monday Make-It - August 11

Well, another week has flown by - getting that much closer to my month off.  I have been busy making things for my room, so I am linking up with Tara.  I love Monday Make-It, it keeps me creative and inspired.

I take a lot of pictures when I go to Disneyland.  So since my classroom is Disney theme this year - I decided to make a memory game with some of the pictures.

This was super easy to do.  I printed doubles of each picture at 4 x 6, then put a piece of 4 x 6 scrapbook paper on the back. This set has the black polka dots on the back.  Laminate the photos and you have a great memory game for free centers.  

I am going to make one set with just the princesses using a different scrapbook paper, so they don't get mixed up.  I can add more picture cards to each group, when I feel my little ones are ready for it.

 A set with pictures of the kids would be a great beginning of the year center. 

This center was inspired by Jennifer at First Grade Blue Skies.  I have used the little photo albums before in my classroom, but it got me all inspired with the possibilities.  I made my own set of letter printing practice flashcards using a Disney theme, of course.

I made a set of uppercase and lowercase letters, then put them into two albums.  This way, I can have two students at a time in the center, then they can switch the albums

My head is swimming with different ideas for these albums.  

You can find it HERE

I, finally, finished my ABC small books - it was a year in the making.  My little ones did the books last year, but I needed to finish putting them together in a packet.  There are 24 books, because X, Y and Z are in one book.  My kids loved them.

You can find it  HERE

Have a great week and thanks for stopping by.  If you go back to work this week, I wish you calm days.