Ball Posters!

I made this post last Monday, but my phone wouldn't email all my pictures, so I took the camera to school this week and got the ones I needed to complete the post.


So today makes snow day number 5! Really I am so tired of this. I haven't worked a full week since December, between our crazy East TN weather and being off with my sick girls, not a full week. 

I live in the county next to where I teach, today they had to go on a regular schedule and we didn't go at all. I  am telling you it doesn't make sense, but I know the county I teach in did get more snow than I did, so not complaining too much.

Anyways I have a little rule that I like to go by, IF I can safely get my two year old to daycare, then she is going! I can get soooo much more done with just the six year old. And my feeling is if I am paying for it, I can send her and not feel too bad about it. I keep her home when she is sick and on some snow days, but I need a break. So off to school she went this morning. I talked the six year old into picking where she wanted to eat, IF we could go to school and I could work a few hours this morning. It worked and she did great. 

So off to school I go on a snow day. LOVE these days, I can get soooo much more done, when I am alone at school. The majority of things I accomplished this morning was hanging up stuff that should have been up awhile, but just haven't. I am sure you have those days too!?!?!?

Up first was the rest of my ball posters that my wonderful art teacher drew for me, I took home and colored, and they just got laminated last week. The kids have been looking forward to getting the rest of them up. I have one student who is one his last list. It makes me sad, cause now I have to find him more words, but I think I am going to start him reading a chapter book and see where that goes. He is bilingual and most of the time refuses to talk to me, although he is extremely smart. 

Here is a closer view of the ball posters!

Baseball and Soccer ball

Basketball and Football

Volleyball, Golf, and Tennis

Bowling, Ping Pong, and Hockey

Beach Ball

So got those babies hung up and placed the student balls on. And boy are my kids going to be excited tomorrow morning when they see them! BTW the ball words are from Marsha over at A Differentiated Kindergarten! I LOVE this. My kids are reading so much better this year, because I am introducing them to sooooo many more words! Each set of balls have 20 words! And each ball on the poster represents that student passed the ball word test. I have students all over the place and I LOVE it!

Here is a picture of the ball list on rings that I hung up, so they could have easy access to them. They are constantly working on their words. It's so nice to see. And working together!

Next on my list was to finish putting up my number wall. I am so different from most people, I only put up numbers as we learn them in class. It makes it relevant to them, and after doing the number sheet I put it on the wall. I am awesome at the beginning when I put up the numbers but as we get to the teen numbers, not so much.

The last thing I did was finish putting up my words on my word wall. We have a Pathways to Common Core study group that myself and two other teachers are hosting at the end of the month, so other teachers from around the county will be there, and I of course want my room to look GREAT!!!! BTW this study groups is the hardest I have ever participated in. The book is great, but the words are big and so hard to understand. I think I would do better if I had a thesaurus with me as I read it! No joke, my kindergarten brain does not understand those big words. 

Oh and I have to share our read to self time during January! I am super proud of my kiddos. We started Read to Self on day 1 of kindergarten and this month even though it has been very chaotic, they are doing great! We read for 133 minutes! 

Anyways so there is a few pics from my room and I will leave you with a few pics of our snow!

Sydney and Bree playing in the snow!

Target's parking lot @ 7:00 on a Saturday night!

 And yes I know some of you get a ton more snow than this and don't get out and for that I am sorry! But it is a perk of living in East TN.

~Heather

Currently

It's that time again! Time for Farley's Currently. I may not always blog as much as I would like to and share what I am doing in my classroom which I honestly hope to do MORE of this year, but I try to always link up with Farley. So here goes:

Of course I am listening to the Super Bowl, but watching the commercials. So far I have loved the 1st M &M one and been absolutely disgusted by the Go Daddy one! GROSS!!!! So just seen the Taco Bell elderly commercial. LOVED IT!

Since today was the TPT SUPER Sale, I cleaned my cart out. I spent extremely TOO much money last year on TPT things, that I use most of, but not all of. So I carefully went through my cart and removed or bought what I needed. I removed WAY more than I bought. Since I have purchased for more than a year. I have most if not all the themes that I use! One thing I WISH all sellers would do would be to put I CAN cards with the activities, it's so difficult to try to make your own because you don't own the clipart to make it easy!

This month has been hard on me due to the fact that on January 4th, my six year old daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. Thankfully she is a trooper and is doing great with her pricks and shots and everything. We have had to learn how to count carbs and measure food. But we are all doing great with it!

We are hoping to plan a trip back to Tybee Island, Georgia this summer. I LOVED it when we went two years ago. My only problem is we want someone to go with us, so we can enjoy a bike ride across the island a few times. So if I can get that ironed out, I can schedule the trip!

I am needing a 5 day work week. I think I calculated my actual work days in January and came up with 10. That's it. Between being off with my daughter for the Diabetes and when she got sick with RSV a week later, and the CRAZY East Tennessee weather. We have been out one day for flooding, one day for ice, and tomorrow will be day 3 for snow! Not to mention one 2 hr delay, and two early dismissals. And we were out for Martin Luther King Day. I really feel like I haven't done anything with my kiddos. We haven't had a full week since December. 

My biggest pet peeve is people who ALWAYS have something to say. It doesn't matter if they are not in the beginning of the conversation, they always have to put in their two cents. It drives me CRAZY! 

So I am heading back to Farley's page to do my Rule of 3! 

~Heather

High/Low Linky

First of all don't you just love it when you have already gotten out of bed, showered and then you get the call or text that school is closed or delayed or something. Well yes that happened to me this morning! I tried to stay in bed because I was certain we were going to close. It snowed last night and here in East TN, that means no school if you teach in a county system. Waited....waited.....and nothing. So up I go and into the shower. Only to get out and hear the phone beep. I know without even looking what it is going to say. So instead of crawling back into bed, I am up and working on this. 

I found a wonderful new linky party to celebrate the end of the month. I love Farley's Currently which is always at the beginning and now we have a linky that reflects on how the past month went. Katie at Teacher to the Core has began this new one. You tell what your highs for the month were and what your lows for the month were. So here are mine!

~ Meeting a new parent of a 6 year old who was diagnosed last year with Type 1 diabetes. It's great to find someone who truly understands what you are going through.

~Hubby got a new job at work. Which means pay increase and six to seven days a week or 10-12 hours a day during busy season.

~ Daughter diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes

~CRAZY weather

My low this month was finding out my six year old daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. It has flipped my world upside down and we quickly went from everything is normal, to having to count carbs, check blood sugars 4-5 times a day, and giving her 4 shots of insulin at meal times and bedtime. 

I was very, very fortunate that I was vaguely familiar with Type 1 Diabetes. Six years ago I had a student who was on the insulin pump. So I knew about watching what she ate, and a few of the symptoms of if she went high or low. Plus I was a gestational diabetic with my 2nd child, so I knew about checking blood sugars. 

But even knowing all of that, I still have a lot to learn. We are now 3 weeks in and she is doing fabulous. She checks her own sugars and is already learning how to look for carb numbers on packages to determine if she can or can't have it. I hate that my little girl has in a sense had to grow up so fast, but she has made everything that much better on mommy and daddy because she is doing so well. 

~ My 2nd low is the crazy weather we have been experiencing in East TN. Two weeks ago we dismissed at 12 for flooding on Tuesday, was closed on Wednesday for flooding, went to school on Thursday only to be dismissed early again but this time due to fast moving snow coming in, and then were out on Friday due to snow.

Last week, we were out for Martin Luther King day on Monday and on Friday was out due to ICE. It was nasty outside. Everything was coated in ICE. 

Now this week on Wednesday we were under Tornado Watch for most of the day, high wind advisory, and now today we are out again for SNOW! 

Add all that together with the days I missed school with my daughter(3) and I don't feel like I have been back to school since Christmas break!

So anyways there are my ramblings about my highs and lows for the month. Hoping next month I have better highs than lows! Go on over to Katie's Teacher to the Core page to read others and link up your own. She is also asking you do Farley's rule of 3. Look at two in front of you and one who posts after you. I am going to check others now!

~Heather