Saturday Fun

I was thrilled to wake up to this:



...especially after having worn flip flops one afternoon earlier this week! The colder weather helped inspire me to bring eggs and butter up to room temperature:



...because I have lounge duty at work this week. Apologies in advance to anyone who gave up homemade cookies for Lent, you *might* want to avoid the lounge on Monday and Friday!

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After selling the last of my St. Patrick's Day banners, I'm in the mood to make a few more (I'll post photos of them tomorrow~ you can let me know if you'd like to make a purchase), but not before I show you how well my re-purposed card catalog has worked out for my ribbon stash:





Heaven, I'm in Heaven...



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One casualty (actually, six): my Martha Stewart Ribbon boxes. I have three walnut and three seafoam green.



Let me know if you're interested in any or all of them~ I'm selling them for $6 each (though you might want to check with me about shipping cost first, just let me know your zip code) to happy crafters or teachers who might want to give them a good home! You can email me at: michaelek1(at)yahoo(dot)com. Once contacted, I'll send you my PayPal info for a quick transaction. I should be able to get the boxes in the mail to you on Monday or Tuesday.

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I forgot to show you the silly lion/lamb display the Stars and I made for our art area (many thanks to former-colleague Jessica for the lamb pattern):



(The sentence strip reads "March comes in like a lion and goes out like...")

The wide eyed lambs make me smile!

March Mess

Don't mind the mess, we're just preppin' for March:

*~Quacks~* Me Up!

Mellow is Good

After a good night's rest, I'm looking forward to getting back to work and settling into a calm rhythm. Yesterday's drama (my truck was stolen in front of me and my children) still has me feeling a bit tense, but I'm in the mood for some peaceful normalcy. I'll be listening to Jack Johnson on the drive into work, and will share "Constellations" with my Super Stars who've had two visits to our planetarium since Christmas, learning to look for constellations in the Kansas night sky:



Mellow is good.

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Many, many thanks to my principal, teacher's aide, colleagues, and Super Star parents for all of the help and support yesterday! I didn't expect to miss work, so I hadn't set my lesson plans, teachers' manuals, work sheets, stories or activities out for the day~ my principal and aide tracked down everything necessary, called a trusted substitute teacher who had already spent time with my students previously, and kept the day fun and productive for my students. Talk about AWESOME!

Not What I'd Planned...

Today was the day I planned to teach, enjoy our class spring-picture appointment, and spend some time out in the warmer weather. I thought that once home after work, I'd even post a new-to-me song by Jack Johnson.

Instead, as I walked outside with the preschooler in tow this morning, I looked up to see my truck drive away from me. A smaller, dark vehicle led it down my street, and both sped away as I ran the preschooler back inside, yelled for Dear Daughter to call 9-1-1, while I called on my cell phone. I was talking to the dispatcher as my truck pulled out of view. To say it was a surreal experience is an understatement.

First I was scared and shocked. I was frustrated that while Dear Husband would have immediately recognized the year, make and model of the little car, I could identify nothing but the color. It was too dark to see the license plate on the vehicle, and I couldn't even remember what my own plate number was. My brain and emotions failed me.

I was then relieved and grateful: for whatever reason, the thieves took my truck, they didn't break into my home. My children weren't in the truck, and none of us were physically hurt. Though they took my house keys, my husband has the time to change the locks on our house, though we'll have to get his truck re-keyed. We are able to purchase another car seat. I'll miss my iPod Nano, but I get the satisfaction of knowing that IF the thieves are music hounds, they'll be bummed when they have to listen to Apples and Bananas or Shake Your Sillies Out by Raffi over and over again.

Now I'm mad. Beyond mad. And worried. Mad enough to feel that if my truck is recovered in less-than-pristine condition, I hope it's completely destroyed, with a body impaled upon the steering wheel. I know. How very non-Christian of me, how very cruel. This mood will pass, like the others have, if that's any consolation, Dear Reader. Worried, because if I have to imagine a worst-case scenario, I hope my truck is off to some chop shop somewhere in Kansas City, and NOT being used elsewhere to perpetrate more crime. The truck is out of my hands, out of my control, but I still feel responsible for it.

I know it shouldn't make a difference where or when my truck was stolen, but I have a feeling that if I'd woken up and looked out of the window after a long night's rest to see my truck missing, it would have been a much different experience. Walking out the door of your house holding your child's hand to look up and see your vehicle, maybe twenty-five feet away, speed off without you is unnerving, frightening.

I'll post Jack Johnson tomorrow, okie dokie?

Classroom Management Tip: Regularly "Spring Clean" Manipulatives

Kindergarten students use many different kinds of manipulatives and materials each day. While it's easy to maintain table baskets or bins by sharpening pencils, refreshing erasers, tossing dried up glue sticks, and cleaning scissors, other hands-on items can get overlooked or forgotten. Take some time to dump out your math bins, tubs of legos and other boxes or containers used to store classroom items:



When several different types of manipulatives are available, students often "clean up" by following the old toss-it-in method. The result? Elephants, horses, Duplo blocks and clear "gem" style blocks form an original potpourri...and broken toys with sharp edges lie in wait for unsuspecting little fingers:



Ouch!



Students will also mistakenly (or *sigh*, intentionally) use your manipulative tubs and baskets as waste receptacles:



Why hello there tissue paper, straw cellophane , and cough drop wrapper!

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Trust me: dump....bins....out....regularly! Once sorted, the custodial staff at your school can recommend (or even let you use) a safe sanitizer for either spraying onto the manipulatives or for using as a soak.

When I've moved to a new school, I sort through all of the materials available in the classroom, cleaning as I go. During the year, I will sort through and clean out all of the bins and tubs used at least twice per quarter, and once again at the end of the year so that the following August, cleaning manipulatives is NOT on my already full to-do list.
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More toy/child product safety help: Parents and teachers alike should try the Toy and Product Recall Finder at Parents.com. You can search by product name, brand, or model number either before you purchase (teachers and parents will not only want to know about new items in stores but used items offered at yard sales, online, etc.) or after you've shopped or received gifts for children. Safety first!

Blog Discovery: Bessie's and Bea's Creative Sandwich

When visiting blogs via One World One Heart, I stumbled across Bessie's and Bea's Creative Sandwich. Inspired by all I read and saw, I entered their giveaway, which thrillingly, I won! Yesterday, after spending time in my classroom, I came home to find my pendant wrapped beautifully in bits of lace, a sheet of music appearing to come from an old hymnal, sparkles and and confetti bee, with a teabag and handwritten note:



The pendant is made from repurposed sewing notions, beads and wire:



Ladies, may I say...So SEW beautiful!

I have added Creative Sandwich to my blogroll- please do visit their wonderful site!

Tick Tock: Teacher-Created Manipulatives

I was able to find and download plenty of analog clock illustrations and photographs for my students' math center this week, but experienced a bit of difficulty finding various digital time displays online that didn't all look alike. Digital camera and colleagues to the rescue!

My computer screen:



Our classroom clock:



A digital time display from a SMART board used by one of my first grade colleagues:



Our cafeteria director let me photograph the clock on the ovens in the school kitchen:



The office staff shared the digital clock on their fancy black I-don't-know-what-it-does-but-it-looks-important machine:



...and of course, the microwave in the teachers' lounge was game to help me out as well:



I resized all of the photos and printed them out, laminated them, and used a glue gun to adhere magnetic buttons to the backs:



My students will now be able to use the photos to sort digital and analog clock displays as part of their clock/telling time activities.

Hickory Dickory Dock...

...we are learning about clocks!

Learning how to tell time is just one skill kindergarten students develop when learning about clocks. This week my Super Stars have been noticing the difference between analog and digital timepieces, and have identified and counted how many of each they can find in their own homes. Next week they will learn how to tell time to the hour and half hour, and of course we'll tie our math unit into our language arts materials as well. This week, the Stars numbered their own clock faces and assembled a grandfather-type clock after reciting "Hickory Dickory Dock." After identifying different events and times in our school days and weekends, my students chose their favorite time of day, dictated that information to me, which I then printed out for them to glue onto their finished project.

Here are the pieces of construction paper we used:



The purple sheet is a piece of 12X18" paper.



The white clock face has lines for the numbers~ make sure your students write the numbers in the correct spots.







We added heart details since it's still February, but it would be easy to simply trace a circle for the bottom of the pendulum, or cut out a cute shamrock shape if you're teaching time in March. Foamy stickers also work well for this project.



Of course we HAD to add stars to the top:



A larger clock for the bulletin board:







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Funny quotes about time:

~ One student told me her favorite time was "six o'clock." "Six o'clock in the morning, or six o'clock in the evening?" I asked. Hesitating as she tried to not roll her eyes at me, she replied "Uh, Mrs. Sommerville, six o'clock in the AFTERNOON."

~ "How come my mom always says 'It's time to GO?' How come she doesn't ever say 'It's time to STAY?'"

~ "My favorite time of day is whenever it's warm enough to go outside for recess."

~ "My favorite time of day is when my brother takes a nap so I get the t.v. all to myself."

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I'll be spending some time in my classroom this weekend, making a few "teacher created manipulatives," photos of analog and digital clocks backed with magnets so the students can sort them by type. I'll post photos this weekend!

Link Thursday

It's been a week full of tick-tocks (more on those tomorrow), extra chores (DH is out of town this week), potty training for the pre-schooler (he's been so successful that he's decided to sneak out of his diaper and into multiple pairs of Spiderman or Star Wars underwear after he's been tucked in for the evening...which *works* until the next morning when his grogginess prevents him from remembering he's NOT IN A DIAPER while still in bed), and paper preparation (time for St. Patrick's Day banners!). Needless to say my posting has been sporadic, at best~ hopefully you'll enjoy

!

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Recipes:

~ Make and Takes shares the how-to's for muffin tin meatloaf...

~ Homemade heart shaped SAMOAS are baking in Laura Rebecca's Kitchen...

~ ...and The Pioneer Woman Cooks french onion soup...

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Crafts:

~ Whimsy Love shares a photo tag book tutorial...

~ Miss Fancy Pants has me motivated to make some magnet gift sets...

~ ... and Saucy tells us everything we need to know about making fun shrink art (her charms are awesome!) at Bloggedy Blog Blog

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~ Check back late tomorrow for "Hickory Dickory Dock, We Are Learning About Clocks!"

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Taking Me Back to My PBS Childhood...

My husband and I knew we had become members of a new consumer demographic when we started seeing boxed dvd sets of some of our favorite programs from our...ahem... "younger" days. Our pre-schooler has started watching Sesame Street on dvd, and yes, I will admit it: I heard this one from the kitchen, dropped everything, ran into the living room to watch it, and cried big wet happy tears:



The same goes for "Telephone Rock," and the "Yip-yip-yip-yip, uh huh, uh huh" Aliens.

Tell me I'm not alone in this.

My Kindergartners' Truths: February

My kindergartners' truths:

Stickers are cool.

Everything looks beautiful if colored "like a rainbow."

Getting caught playing around in the bathroom has *nothing* to do with that word the teacher keeps telling us about: acoustics. Nope, the teacher is just magic. Really!

Fairies live in our classroom. The Untie-the-Shoe Fairy, the Hiccup Fairy, and the Desk Fairy are only a few of our regular visitors.

Play-dough is awesome. So are boogers. And scabs.

Teachers forget waaaaayyyy too many things- proof? They always ask "which color is this? What is this number? What sound does this letter make?"

Teachers don't just love apples. Chocolate and coffee- total faves.

Glitter makes everything an incredible piece of art.

CRAYON sharpeners? *The* *coolest* *invention* EVER.

Shaking our sillies out= serious business.

Moms and Dads love our handwriting papers, but we'd rather build cool rocket ships out of blocks, checkers, paper, old shoe boxes, ANYTHING!

Markers are preferable to colored pencils. Colored pencils are preferable to regular pencils. Either the shortest pencil or the tallest pencil are preferable to the medium sized pencils in our desk caddies.

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The list goes on and on...

And I *love* the list.

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...of course, if they start being quiet in the bathroom, all Stealth-mode... how will I know when they're playing around?

Hearty Appreciation

Today we're in-the-pink here at home, but this past week at school was full of sweetness, surprises, and fun~

My students won roses for me via our school's Box Tops for Education program. My Stars were thrilled that our class won the fragrant and beautiful gift, and shared my enjoyment of the flowers by stopping to smell-the-roses throughout the day, OFTEN. I had to laugh when one student, after three visits to my desk to smell the bouquet asked with a concerned look on his face "Mrs. Sommerville, why do those flowers smell like plants?"

The roses, cards, goodies and handcrafted treats traveled home with me yesterday afternoon and are keeping me company this morning...I plan on enjoying them throughout the weekend!



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~ Mamacita wrote the most wonderful "Letter to My Heart," a non-frilly timeline tracing lessons learned, ordeals endured, and gifts received through Love's orchestrations.

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...another reason Romantic Love is Wonderful? Because it happens at any time of the year, in any language:

Why Romantic Love is Wonderful: Sometimes it Requires a Set-Up

Kenneth Branagh's take is my favorite version of the Bard's Much Ado About Nothing. If you haven't seen it, rent it.

Buy it.

Watch it.

And be ready to want to dance in a fountain after seeing it.

Really.

Why Romantic Love is Wonderful: Wooing

The wooing.

Oh yes, the wooing.

Whoo-whoo, WHO Can it Be?

This heart-faced fella is on our hallway bulletin board (our Family Flowers are being sent home for Valentine's Day):



...along with this poem (we've been learning about punctuation and how to use our "questioning voice" when we see a question mark; we've also identified question words such as who, what, where, when, why, and how):





I photographed my Super Stars concealing their faces behind construction paper hearts so that their photos could be added to the display for some hallway "guesses" as to our valentines' identities~ here's mine:



Hopefully parents will not only enjoy the heart art that is sent home this week, but will get a kick out of finding their child's sparkling eyes and hidden faces when they visit us at school this month!

Adopted Ancestors

I adopted ancestors over the weekend. I have no idea what their names are, but their expressions captured my imagination and hit my funny bone all in one fell swoop...

(Honestly, couldn't you see some froo-froo valentine-y phrase above their heads extolling the joys of love, romance, and marriage?)



The tintype photograph was found in a coppery/metal frame that yes, I put back after scanning the photo:



I LOVE it!

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~ Right as my ancestor-adoption-addiction begins, The Thrift Shop Romantic concurs that the scanner is a most trusted friend to both me and my ephemera...



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Perhaps my great-great-great-great (how many greats?) relative above should have remembered this:

Whatever you give a woman, she's going to multiply.
If you give her a house, she'll give you a home.
If you give her groceries, she'll give you a meal.
If you give her a smile, she'll give you her heart.
She multiplies and enlarges whatever is given to her.


So - if you give her crap, You will receive more back than any one human being can ever handle.

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Making Valentines...Listening to Music...

It's a good combination~ patterned paper, white postcards, red envelopes, heart shaped and stamp shaped punch-outs... and Lisa Hannigan:





I suppose it's an odd song to listen to as I make my Stars' valentine cards...

...but it works!

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~ The Long Thread offers printable valentines (I love the "tweet tweet" cards!)...

~ Hostess With the Mostess shares what must be Cupcake Heaven...

Vintage Valentines

I visited W.D. Pickers Antique Mall last Saturday, roaming the aisles looking for nothing in particular when a box of vintage post cards caught my eye. I found some *~treasures-to-me~* that I purchased and brought home, that perhaps someday will find their way into some valentine art- until then, I'll enjoy their scandalous imagery:





One postcard actually revealed to me the *real reason* my mother taught me all about teatime as a young girl:



Yep...to land a man. The inscription on the back? "A tempting presentation."

Mother! For shame!

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Check back tomorrow to see the tintype that also made its way home with me over the weekend. I've never been one to adopt ancestors, but the expression on the couple's faces is priceless and may just inspire me to try my hand at altered art in the future!

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~ Tipnut shares some vintage/retro valentines as a free download...

~ Whimsy Love shares very cute handmade valentine ideas (TEACHERS, check out the owls!)...

~ Tara Frey shares a rockin' candy valentine tutorial to dress up those candy heart boxes...

~ Marie LeBaron made a heart themed tic-tac-toe game over at Once Upon a Holiday

~ Chocolate dipped pretzel hearts... Make and Takes certainly got me drooling...

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