Ask anyone who knows me well and they will tell you that my love language is most definitely words of affirmation. I mean, who doesn't love to be told that they've done a good job or that they're appreciated?? While I realize this isn't everyone's love language, I really try to give my kids at school lots of affirmation and I try to encourage them to give praise/encouragement to their classmates and friends all throughout the day. To help us think of ways to encourage others with our words today, we read Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch.

I love this book for so many reasons. First, it is a great example of how a character can change in a story. Second, it a precious story of how our actions and words can build someone up and give them encouragement when they might need it most. After reading the story and discussing the changes in Mr. Hatch, we each picked a staff member of our school to surprise with some words of encouragement. My kids were so thoughtful in their writings and drawings, since they knew we were going to surprise who they were writing about later in the afternoon.

This sweetie has come such a long way in her letter/sound knowledge!

This one cracked me up!! She wrote it to our assistant principal and I love the part about her paying me!

I love the detail in his picture - it looks just like he's in her small group!

After we were done, we walked around campus and delivered our special valentines. The kids were so excited to read their writing to our staff and I loved that they saw doing something nice for others would make them feel good!

Our principal - seriously the best!

Our assistant principal - a.k.a. the lady who pays teachers ;)

Mrs. Hardy, our remediation teacher, and a SAINT! She is by far the most patient, loving teacher I've ever met!

If you would like to do this with your class, you can grab the writing page by clicking the picture below.

If you'd like more activities to go with this story, check out Cheryl's reading companion. It's an awesome pack, that has so many great activities!

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Vickie

We've been having so much fun this past week digging into some of my favorite themes! We kicked off our week by making our guesses about what we thought the groundhog would see. The kids loved this activity and they did so well writing about their data! {This is part of my groundhog pack} One thing I've started doing this year that I love is to have the kids tell me what they notice about our data {written on the easel under our graph} before I ask them any questions.

After we watched the news to see what the groundhog predicted, we wrote about it and made these so, so cute groundhogs from my sweet friend Heidi.

Tuesday, we started reading some of my favorite Valentines stories - there are so many good ones!! I love reading the ones about friends, since this about the time of year when we *sometimes* forget what being a good friend means.

First, we read The Biggest Valentine Ever {my kids love this series of books!}. It led us into a conversation about friendship. We made a little tree map about friends, then made the valentine mouse that Clayton and Desmond made in the book. The kids thought it was so cool that they could replicate the mouse from the story!

Another of my favorite stories is Silly Tilly's Valentine. It's perfect for finding text evidence! My kids did a great job of finding evidence as to why Tilly was silly.

After reading the story, I wanted my kids to practice "argument" writing. I wrote all my students' names on slips of paper and each child drew a friend to write about. They had to give evidence that showed why their person was a good friend. Y'all - it was so sweet!!

"She is nice to me because she shares"

"He never left my side. You know why - because he is my friend."

{He shares with his snack and he plays with me}

Probably the favorite story of the week was Froggy's First Kiss. The kids were rolling in laughter the whole time! After we read the story, we wrote about who our true valentine is and made these PRECIOUS Froggy and Frogilina from Jenn - so, so cute!!

{My Ms. Plant - melt my heart!}

Friday, we took a break from learning about 3D shapes in math and used a special snack to practice graphing. I mean, what's better than practicing math concepts with Valentine M&Ms?? When we do graphs, I usually always pre-sort whatever we're working with. It takes a little extra time, but it helps a lot! I love having my kids work with a variety of graph types, so this time, I made our bar graph go horizontal. You can grab the graph here as a freebie. :)

This week, we'll continue our Valentine fun and work on our Valentine bags. We'll make these...so cute and so easy!

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Vickie

We had so much fun today celebrating Valentine's! 

 

 

My candy hearts lesson was inspired by my friend Deeanna's kisses lesson that you can find here. 

I am *hoping* to have my President's Day Centers pack up by tomorrow night. It looks like I might get to finish it since my husband is currently addicted to the new Playstation game I gave him for Valentines!  Let me know if there is something you specifically need for your kiddos :). Off to work on that and a few things for my FORMAL observation tomorrow!! Let's hope all the kids won't be on a sugar high!

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Vickie

I love this time of year...it seems like so many lightbulbs start going off and so many of my babies that started the year turn into independent big kids. We're still working on our love/friendship theme and are having so much fun! 
{My link for the writing paper from yesterday should be working now :) }

You can get the Heartbreaker real/nonsense words center here for free :).

You can get the Friend Argument page here. 

Also, while you're on TPT, be sure to check out my friend Deeanna's shop. She just posted a super cute weather pack full of great math and literacy centers.

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Vickie

To go along with Valentine's Day, we are talking all about friendship this week. I think it goes perfectly with the season of love and we can all use a little reminder this time of year about how to be a good friend. Sorry again for some of the pictures looking greenish...not sure what's going on :)

 

You can get the What Do You Love writing page by clicking on the red words.

Also, in the spirit of friendship, my Love is in the Air Valentine unit will be on sale for $5 tonight only until midnight. It's usually $8 and you get a ton of math and language arts centers and activities!

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Vickie

Happy Monday! My kiddos were soooo good today...I hope it keeps up the rest of the week. We started new math centers today to kick off our Valentine's fun. Sorry about the funny color on some of the pictures. I think my camera is about to bite the dust :(. 

 

You can get Deeanna's 3D shape game here {it's free!!}. Be sure to follow her new TPT store!

You can get my Love is in the Air packet with all of these centers here.

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Vickie

I am so excited! I finally finished my Valentine's pack of language arts and math activities! I am still thinking of more things to add, but I'm posting it now and will probably post some freebies later :). Here's a little preview. You can click on the picture to grab it from my TPT store. 

You will get an emergent reader, sight word game, CVC word game, 4 literacy centers, writing prompts, 2 math centers, ten frame/numeral cards with 10!! variations of games, number dice, chocolate candy graphing activity, and heart measurement activity. I can't wait to use this with my class!!

Also, my new blogger friend (who leaves me the nicest comments), Julia is having a giveaway. Hurry and click here so you can enter!

I will send the first person to comment on this post a copy of this pack if you will review it and give me some feedback...don't forget to leave me your email :).   Thanks Lori..I just emailed you and would love your opinion!

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Vickie

I am linking up with Katie at Adventures of a 6th grade Teacher to tell you all about a typical school day for me. 

 

5:45 - Alarm goes off on my phone...fumble until I hit snooze. Hit snooze about 5 more times. Really need to get back to my getting up and working out before school...can someone send me some motivation?

6:15 - Finally get up. Get in shower.

6:35 - Iron clothes (that I usually have set out, but didn't iron)

6:40 - Turn on coffee, fill water jug (I drink A LOT of water)

6:45 - Dry hair (this takes forever because it's way too long!), put on makeup, get dressed, get breakfast ready, kiss hubby bye, leave

7:10 - Go back in to get phone/jump drive/whatever I left

7:20 - Arrive at school. Put out morning work, scramble to get things ready, go make copies, etc.  

7:50 - Go get kids from lab

7:55 - Kids do morning work, I check folders, email, post attendance (if I remember)

8:10 - Morning Meeting: calendar, daily news, calendar songs

8:30 - Reading/Language Arts Block starts with whole group lesson/activity

9:15 - Start Workshops (literacy centers)...pull guided reading groups while other groups work on centers related to what they're working on in small group

10:45 - Come back to whole group - sing song

10:50 - Snack: Kids listen to HeidiSongs sight word CDs in hopes some of the 110 words we have will sink in

11:10 - Take kids to P.E. (they stay 40 min. then Coach takes them to wheel class) Go make copies, print centers/games on office computer, go to Deeanna's room to talk/plan/eat M&Ms

12:30 - Pick kids up from wheel class (Yes, we have 80 min. planning) Go back to room, play missing number math game, count to 100, count by 10s

12:40 - Lunch: Stay with kids, try to eat lunch while standing up while kids discuss who will get to take my trash

1:15 - Math Lesson/Math Centers

2:15 - Science/S.S./Art/Play centers if we have time

2:45 - Car riders leave

2:55 - 1st load bus riders leave

3:05 - Take 2nd load bus riders to bus...stay for bus duty

3:15-4:00 - Try to get ready for tomorrow, see what everyone forgot to take home, load bag with stuff to cut/make/etc.

Not too exciting, but that's it :)

Now here's a little Valentine's freebie for you. I'm *trying* to get my Valentine's Pack finished before the end of the week, but here's a little real/nonsense word center for you. Just click on the picture to get it. Let me know if you're able to use it....have a great day off or back at school (why isn't everyone off today?)

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Vickie