Instagram Me!

It's Instagram time!  Do you Instagram?  Do you have an account?  If not, it's time to get started and join the fun if you haven't done so yet.  The great ladies over at Apples and ABCs and What the Teacher Wants have teamed up and started an Instagram Linky Party called #teachertalktuesday that's about to roll out.
So join the fun won't you… 

Here's how you can find me & my Instagram.  It's a mixture of teacher & family fun…

Click HERE to follow me now.  I can't wait to see you Tuesday!

…just don't forget to label your pic with #teachertalktuesday !!

A "Complement" for ART DAY

Hi Friends!

Well, yesterday was our annual "Art Day" at our school and as expected, ALL the kids had a great time.  We spent our day complementing each other as well as the colors of our project which you'll see in a bunch of pictures. 

 Anywho, our day works like this:  Kinderoos arrive and immediately are thrown into a tizzy when all they have to do is hang up their backpacks.  Several kinderoos question the break in our morning routine and ask.  "Wait a minute Ms. H…what about our homework and our folders?"  My reply..."My little love bugs, you don't need anything." {Insert quizzical looks!}

As we gathered on the rug waiting patiently for my few late ones to arrive, I had my fabulous assistant applying stickers to shirts that let them know what color group they were going to be in for the day.   "What's this for Ms. H?" "Huh?  I don't get it, I'm not a circle today?" "What are we going to do?"  Oh my word…the questions were just shooting out of their mouths left and right…KPOW! BOOM! WHACK!  Boy oh boy, did I feel like I was in an episode of Batman…all I needed was my Bat Mobile to escape.  But alas, I knew I had to answer just enough of their questions to calm the kidneroos and all in the span of the TWO minutes I had left to stay on track of our down to the minute schedule we needed to keep. 

Next, it was time to divide my kinderoos into their groups.  One group was going to start in the computer lab with two of my dad volunteers.  They were more than happy to be the Computer Dad's for the day :)  Lucky me!  Then, I sent one group to my partner teacher and I kept one…then the others arrived.  Now it was time to get the show started.

"Natalia, your blue sweater looks so cute with your orange socks."  (Thank goodness I had some kinderoos who's we wearing the colors I needed for my lesson to go well)

"Ian, your yellow Spongebob shirt and your purple sweatshirt look really cool today."

"Dylan, the orange shirt your grandma bought you for your birthday has some pretty nice blue letters written all over it…It makes your face light up." 

As I went around the room and tried to give every student a complement of some sort I then sat back when I asked them to complement each other (some needed a little prompting…) but all in all they did pretty good.  

Then it was time to reveal our fun (and easy) art project.  

Complementary Color Squares!  

We talked about how it feels to receive a compliment and that how amazing it was that colors gave complements too.  We tried matching up color squares and as we found the colors that "complemented" each other we glued them down on my sample paper.   

I sent them back armed with directions and let them get started…and here's what we did  in three class rotations of 45 MINUTES each !!!  Woot! Woot!

Here's where I found the idea...

Grab it here!

All in all, we had a great day…58 kinderoos made this fun art project.  Not too shabby!  Oh, and if you're wondering about the prep time and organization of it all:

1 hr cutting and folding 18 x18 white paper & 2 hrs cutting over 1,200 big squares and way too many 2000+ little squares.  :)

Zippy bags are heaven! 

I think your kinderoos might love this so give it a try…

Happy to be back blogging again.

Smellicious Days & Currently February

Hi Friends…

I want to share with you what has changed my life in my classroom of kinderoos.  We now celebrate with Smellicious yummy days/hours/minutes and in some cases even seconds ;).   I wish I knew who orginally came up with this fabulous idea so I could give credit and say THANK YOU…but I don't so I'm hoping one of you all may be able to help.  Anywho, here is a picture of what makes my kinderoos happy campers.  

Smellicious

LOVE

Just dap a little on their hand and voila!

...and according to on of my kinderoos Jarrett, "No more stickers Ms. H, this is way more better!"

Pick your flavor…Root Beer is the top choice followed by grape, Vanilla Coke, and Sprite

The Kinderoos love being able to pick the flavor for the day.

Patiently waiting...

It's Grape-ishly delicious! 

I keep two buckets so I am always in reach.

Smellicious…it's a beautiful thing!

Now…CURRENTLY February

Hello power outage…really? How does this happen?  

So, about this month's Currently…

It's Superbowl Sunday and personally I'm not a huge fan of with team but I'm pulling for the Ravens…just because.  How is your Superbowl going for you?  I've been watching with one eye while clipart shopping on both TpT & TN…FUN!!!  Make sure to head over to Farley's Oh Boy Fourth Grade and remember to follow the rules for her linky.  Enjoy the rest of your Sunday.  

Next up…Open House on Tuesday.  I'll have lots of pics.  

:)

Currently::January

It's January 13th…when did that happen?  I'm a little behind but not so far behind that I can't still link up with Farley and her monthly Currently.  So here it is…

Make sure to head over to Oh Boy Fourth Grade and check out all the other Currently links…last I looked there were 425.  WOW!

Snowmen Galore

Bowling Pin Snowman…totally cute!

…I thought I'd share with you what we did in class this year for out parent gifts.  I've been making these cutie patooties for well over 14 years and they are a hit.  Keep this in mind for next year because it's worth the effort!

This year we made well over 60 snowmen because we included our 3rd grade buddy class.  …can you imaging 200+ cotton balls per snowman…holy guacamole batman!!  Believe it or not, the kids did a fantastic job!  They were neat and didn't even get glue up to their elbows as I expected.  They followed directions and loved every minute of it.  Here's the how to and the materials needed:

-one bowling pin per student

-200-300 cotton balls per student (they come in bags of 100, 200 & 300)

-LOTS of white glue

-one scarf per student (cut from fleece)

-one sock per student (tied and cut at the top…don't forget to shake it out to remove extra lint)

-one orange nose (made from 1/3 length of reg. pipe cleaner)

-one black mouth (made from 1/2 length of reg. pipe cleaner)

-3 jingle bells per student

-2 goggly eyes per student

1)  Get a parent volunteer to scout around to your local bowling alley and ask for any donations of their old pins.  Some years we have had to pay $1.00 a pin but his year, our volunteer hit the timing just right since they were switching out old pins for new pins and got over 100 pins donated for FREE!!!!!  

This is only half…the remaining half is in our buddy room.

2)  Have students bring in 200+ cotton balls and store them until your ready for the big gluing day(s).  We did this over a two week period.  The first time we just got started and the second meeting, we met for an hour to finish all the gluing.

3) As you have your kids begin gluing, make sure that they start at the bottom and glue one row at a time.  I gave the kids a paper plate with a puddle of glue to share…then dip and glue, dip and glue, etc...

First day results

Second day results…a week later

The (un)finished snowman…200+ cotton balls :)

4)  Now is the fun part.  I went out and purchased (each kiddo donated $1.00 - $2.00) about 2 1/2 yards of wintery fleece (cut into 2 1/2 strips), jingle bells (3 each), black & orange pipe cleaners, and lots of large googly eyes.  We pre-made the mouths, hats (made from a "no-show sock-tied and cut at the top) and the noses (cut an orange pipe cleaner into 1/3 and then wrap it around the pointy end of a pencil…this makes the perfect spiral nose).  Remember to show the kids one thing/detail to glue at a time.  We started with the hat & scarf then moved on to the mouth, jingle bells, and eyes.  We placed the nose on last and then let our snowmen take a nap while we went to lunch.  Adorable!!!

Don't they look so cute? 

5)  Finally, the last thing to do is wrap them up so your kiddos can put them under their trees...but this year, to save time…Boomer our Elf got a little busy!  If you could have seen their faces when they walked in to our room the last day -priceless!  We found Boomer wrapped up a little as well.  Thanks Boomer!  

I really think you would love making these with your kiddos next year or even in January to celebrate Winter.  :) 

Holly Bloggy Christmas Exchange

Merry Christmas!

 

I was so happy to participate in my first Holly Bloggy Christmas Exchange.  I can't tell you how happy I was to get my package in the mail…who doesn't like a package arriving on their doorstep?

So here's what I sent my new bloggy friend Kaci Hoffer over at

Favorite things I sent to Kaci… Candy Cane lip gloss …I love the game and I LOVE any kind of yummy flavored lip gloss.
Kit Kat Bars …Really nothing I can say about these except that I purr when I eat them.
Gumby & Pokey …I grew up watching the cuties on TV and the put a smile on my face.
SSS …Skin So Soft hand cream.  This is probably the best I have ever found!
Awesome stamp …Just because Awesome is what I love to say and tell my kiddos.
Mr. Snowman …I made an extra one this year just for my Bloggy Buddy Exchange.
I hope she liked her goodies.  I know I did from my secret buddy Amy over at  Look at the fun things I received…btw, I can't wait to wear my socks Christmas morning…

LOVE… <3…LOVE !!
Thank YOU Amy!!!

…silence for Sandy Hook Elementary