Busy in the classroom

...the week is just FLYING by!  I've been counting down the days until our Spring Break of course [Paris here I come], but now it's going a bit too fast!

  Last week was the start of a new month.  And that means one thing... a new bulletin board design!  Of course I would have liked to stretch it out as long as possible... but the whole 'Valentine's Day' theme...could only be stretched so far.  So once again my secret helpers, a.k.a. my Mom and sister were back in and decorating!  I have to admit I did the board by myself this month... but they created a super-cute board for the kindergar't'en room.  Inside joke on the 't' in kindergarten.  Haha.   Here's how they turned out.

Kindergarten-
'Kindergarteners Brighten Our School'

They worked with the kinders to use their handprints to create the rainbow arches.  Definately more patience than I would have with paint.  Or trust!  Not in the paint, but in the kids.

And here's how my board turned out.  I was also thinking of something with a rainbow so I had the kids trace and cut out their hands in each color.  [if you look close you'll notice all the FABULOUS designs... a few even resembled Edward Scissorhand!]  I then created a lesson around teaching similies.  Each of the kids wrote simile sentences comparing things to the different colors in a rainbow.  Some of their sentences were very creative... or scary?  [As red as blood.  Hmmm school appropriate??]  But it turned out cute!  So I quickly stapled their simile rainbows to their picture.

We had 4 kiddos absent today... because of sicknesses and 'growing pains...??  But here's what it looked like before/after the student's work:

Here's a close-up of their simile rainbows.

I'm hoping to leave this bulletin board up a bit longer.  Only because when I get back from Paris, creating another bulletin board will be the last thing on my mind! 

I can't believe we're already well past the half-way point of the year, I can 'feel' we are...but I just don't know where the time goes?! 

So...today we had a lot of 'whining' in class and I told them I needed one of those signs that has WHINING writen in the middle with the big SLASH across it.  Of course they just giggled and said, "but we're supposed to whine, we're still kids".  To which I replied, "No, you need to whine at home, and let me know how long your parents listen to it."  So I quickly made this sign which is hanging proudly up front.  We'll see how long it works!

 Fact and Opinion anchor chart we've been using:

 Anchor chart I made for today's lesson.  We read the story Crazy Like a Fox to introduce the idea of a simile.  It was a fun story [which we were interrupted in for a lock down.  Luckily nothing serious.] and they enjoyed creating their rainbows.

...and one last funny conversation from today...  Our afternoons are filled with math and while I was working with a student today [writing multiplication and division equations for 6's] a second student came over and we had this conversation:

student:  "Is this right?"

me:  As I'm looking it over to check their work I say "Yes, I agree with your thinking, but your numbers are so small it's hard to read."

student:  "Oh, I'll write bigger next time."

me:  "Thank you.  Because when I have to squint to read your writing it makes me get more wrinkles by my eyes" 
 [student showing a surprised look on their face] 
 [meanwhile the other student nearby is giggling] 
...and I continue "And if I keep getting wrinkles by my eyes I'm going to have to put more and more cream on there, and then I'm going to need to buy more cream..." 
 [student begins questioning himself, cream? huh?] 
...at that point I walk over to my desk and the other student nearby is laughing.

  The only reason there's any significance to this, or why I responded the way I did was because this weekend while getting groceries I had [and Ty] a few 'bathroom products' that I needed to restock.  The usual hairspray, lotion, facewash, and what not.  Meanwhile Ty was debating what 'eye cream' to get... wrinkles... puffyness....but supposedly needed TWO because I used all the last one?!  ;)   So we put all these 'bathroom products' together first to see what the total would be as we checked out... and it came to $100 with just that stuff!!  Oh boy?!  The cost to keep our skin lookin' young!?  Anyways...  It made me laugh that while teaching this debate about eye creams is what came to mind.  Haha. 

  Time to toast with a glass of wine and begin beading another necklace!  I can't wait to see how they come together.  [after going to Hobby Lobby last weekend with my Mom and sister, I went the NEXT day with my other sister and found some more beads!  Hee hee]  Those are the ones I'm going to use next!  Pics soon!