Slowly, but Surely!

I absolutely love my class this year. I absolutely love being mommy to 3 little bitties at home. I love my job. I love creating things for TPT. However, I AM TIRED! :) Is anyone else there with me??? :)

I feel like I can't catch up on enough sleep to be well rested no matter what I do! Hmmmm..I'm sure that doesn't have anything to do with the fact that I have 3 under 2&1/2 and also hang out with 2nd graders all day long. Anyone who says that being a teacher, babysitter, nanny, (basically anything with children) is an easy job is just nuts!!! To be patient with kiddos, love on them all day, and still teach them what you have to teach them is WORK!! I would love to challenge those people to spend a day in my classroom (even with great kiddos!!!) and then go home and hang out with my kiddos for the rest of the night. I'm sure no one would ever again tell me that I had a walk in the park job! :)

My plan next year is to, hopefully, go part time and have more time with my own children. I don't think this will make me any less tired, or have any more time to create products. However, I do think it will give my more time to love on my own children and to be less stressed/guilty about not getting enough time with them.

So after hearing all about how tired I am, I am sure you will appreciate the fact that I actually finished some products for TPT that have been on the back burner for FOREVER!!!!!! If you are interested in checking any of them out just click on the picture and head over to TPT to check them out.

Can you tell that I have a slight obsession with Krista Wallden's Superhero clipart!  Seriously, it is too cute!!!!

If you would like a chance to pick one of these products for free just leave a comment. I will put numbers in a hat and let my girlies each pick one out sometime on Thursday evening. Please make sure to leave your email address so that I can send you your choice if you are a winner!

[Glitterfy.com - *Glitter Words*]

Five for Friday

Hello!  We are linking up with Doodlebugs Teaching for Five for Friday.

Here is a peek at our week in pictures.

Teacher Helpers

Several of my little cuties are sure that they want to be teachers when they grow up. They take home all my extra copies and teacher junk when I am purging in my classroom, play teacher at home and recess, and help with anything and everything in the classroom.
So they cracked me up when they came in this week with name badges.  Of course they had to have them because I have a name badge that I wear!  Stinking adorable when the first thing they do when they walk in one morning is to come right over and show me how they had talked at recess and gone home and asked their mommies for badges! The very next day they showed up with these!

They were so excited when I told them that I could make them some "official" helper badges while they were at specials.  They now wear these everywhere!

Halfway through 2nd grade my little friends are all about freedom of choice!  They will practice about anything as long as they can choose how to practice!  This week I put some of their favorite ways to practice spelling up on the board and let them choose how they wanted to review their spelling words.

 Making a word search and then giving it to a partner to solve.

 Writing on desks with Expo markers.

 Giving each other a test. (Little teachers!!)

Hands on Science Museum. 

Every year we have a Hands on Science Museum that makes the rounds of the district in tubs.  Our 5th grade teachers are in charge of implementing it.  So they send out a sign up sheet, we sign up for a time, and the 5th graders come and help our kiddos go through each of the stations.  I love this every year! Our 5th graders are such great helpers, the kiddos love rotating and learning at each station, and it is so much fun to see the kiddos that I had in 2nd grade growing up and being so responsible!

 

 

 

 

Indoor recess....enough said, right???  We have been inside for way too many days lately due to the cold weather. Bleh!

Movie night.  We have started having movie night at our house since the girls are getting bigger.  It is such a fun new tradition for us.  We order pizza for dinner, have popcorn and shakes for a snack, and watch Cinderella. Yes, you read that last part right!!!  We watch Cinderella.....every single movie night so far!!!  We keep trying to suggest a different movie, but my girls are completely in love with Cinderella!  So now every Friday all 5 of us watch Cinderella!  My hubby and I keep hoping that at some point the girls will let us watch a different movie!  :)

 Lovin on little brother before the movie starts!

We hope you have a happy weekend!!! If you have snow send it towards Kansas please!  We have had crazy cold weather, but would like some snow so that we can use the 4 built in snow days our district has!!!


[Glitterfy.com - *Glitter Words*]

Check Out This Giveaway!

We are participating in Natalie's giveaway over at Teachery Tidbits.  She has reached over 2000 Facebook likes.  Way to go Natalie!!!!  We can only dream of a number like that !!! :)
Head on over and check it out! 

[Glitterfy.com - *Glitter Words*]

Snow Days and Regrouping with Subtraction Practice

Hello! 
We have been enjoying some snow/cold days here in Kansas.  We got to miss an inservice day on Monday and also a day with kiddos on Tuesday.  I don't think either Katie or I were too disappointed to stay home for a few extra days with our kiddos!  Although on Tuesday I was so sure that we would have school that I didn't even bother to check the news.  I got up early and got my girls ready for Kids Day Out, the baby ready for his Dr appointment (my hubby was off work and home that day), and rushed out the door running late for school. I arrived at school and was baffled as to why there was only a few cars in the parking lot.  Then our custodian poked his head out the door and told me there was no school.  Holy cow!  I am a ding dong!!!  However, I was a happy ding dong as I took myself to Starbucks and then home to have an extra day of quality time with my family. :)

So today we were back at school and I wanted my kiddos to get in some extra practice on regrouping with subtraction and regrouping with addition.  Since we had just finished up regrouping with subtraction before Christmas break I decided to start with that.  My kiddos are great this year and are able to do so much  more than my groups in the last few years so I love doing scavenger hunts/task cards with them.  For 13 years I have always called these scavenger hunts (not sure why, other than that we are hunting for the cards to solve the problems) and recently I discovered that the rest of the world seems to have an actual name for this activity...task cards.  Sheesh!  You learn something new every day! :)  So basically I am doing the same activities I have done for 13 years, but now I am calling them something different! Over my break I created a new set for my kiddos to use for review.  I always let me early finishers hang the cards around the room, which for some reason is a VERY sought after job.  Go figure! Here is my class enjoying getting to move during some math review.

Here is a pic of the set I created. If you would like to check it out over on TPT just click on the picture to head over.  I have it listed for only $1.50!!!!!

If you would like a set for free just leave a comment and I will send it to the first 3 people!

[Glitterfy.com - *Glitter Words*]