Projects Over Break

I decided to get some serious cleaning and organizing done over break. Before the school year started, I never had time to get rid of all the stuff left to me by the teacher whose position I filled. So I'm doing it now! 

Check out what I found in the pocket of a binder (I didn't check to see if they were winners I just threw them away). 

I'm sure the custodian loves me right now. When I got to the school yesterday, they had just waxed all the floors. Well, after all my rearranging, the floors aren't so shiny. Oh well. It was going to happen eventually anyway. 

This is how the room looked when I left yesterday. Sometimes you have to create a total disaster to actually create some order. 

And check out these cute foam penguins I found at Target! I am writing their names in metallic sharpie and will make a cute winter bulletin board with them. The boys have bow ties and the girls have hair bows. This is just an example - Fred is a make-believe student in my class :) 

Well anyway. I am getting excited about the next few months! We are going to get so much learning done!!! 

-ms. J 

Happy Break!

Yay! Winter Break!!!! 18 days of bliss. 

We had such a calm last day today. I determined that all my students celebrate Christmas, so I brought out the Christmas music and Christmas picture books. We hosted a party for our fifth grade buddy class, then ended the day reading The Polar Express. 

Some funnies: 

- today, a little one hugged me and said, "I'm gonna miss you so much!" I silently repented for lying as I replied, "I'll miss you, too." 

- I got a Starbucks gift card today from a little girl. About four hours later, she asked me what my plans for break were. I responded that I was going to sleep in. She said, "Oh, and you can drink coffeeeeeee from Starbucks toooooo!" Haha yes. I guess I didn't make as big of a deal about her present as she was expecting. 

Today was so nice and chill. I loved it. 

Of course, after school, the party began. The teachers gathered together to sing a teacher version of "Walking in a Winter Wonderland," and of course, there was the wheelie chair race down the hall. I of course, was the mature one and did not skip down the halls singing Christmas carols. 

Ok, maybe just one song... 

- Ms. J

Gifts

This time of year, teachers typically are given gifts. They also typically give out gifts. I gave each of my students a book - they got to choose the one they wanted. Much better than candy, people. Just saying. 

I thought I would share a few of the gifts I received. I chose these for various reasons, which will be explained along with each picture. 

Isn't that a cute little arrangement? My families are so creative and thoughtful! 

This snowman (with bath salts) was made by this family - how adorable is that?!? And the little sibling picked some seeds for me. Can we say awww?

This kid drives me crazy sometimes with his antics but he was so proud of his gift! And of course I love it!

I told my students that the thing I value most is little cards and notes. Here's one that makes me laugh so hard - how cute is this???

- Ms. J 

Sick Day

Yeah, I know it's only 2 days before winter break, but I don't feel good, so I stayed home. 

Well, actually, I tried to stay home but no subs were available. So I went to work, only to be sent home by my principal, who said, "we have a plan." 

I guess the plan was getting our reading specialist to take my class. Which I feel really bad about, in case you wondered. 

While I was waiting for her to get there, I watched the custodian come and sanitize everything in my classroom. I guess that was part of the plan, too. 

I'm not THAT sick, but I am glad they sent me home. I've slept a lot, and been taking plenty of Vitamin C. 

Going back to sleep now, 

- Ms. J

Third Grade Spelling

The spelling cracks me up sometimes. I asked this kid to explain why he thought this was a line not a line segment or ray. 

Derwekchuns - I can sense that there was a lot of difficulty spelling directions. Maybe that should be on the word wall... 

Oh! Btw, one of the kids told me he was giving me diamond earrings for Christmas (haha kids always say goofy things like that). One of the other kids said, "wait a minute, I've never seen you wear earrings." I said, "yeah, I don't wear earrings. My ears aren't even pierced." But I'll be glad to sell the earrings if you give them to me! Cha-Ching! 

Oh my. Such funny kids. Gotta love em.... Most of the time. 

I'm trying a new system with my most challenging student - it worked Friday! I'll have to keep going and see if it continues to be successful. And then I'll tell y'all about it. Because if it works, my life just got soooooo much easier. 

Very glad there are only four days left until winter break (we can do this, people!) 

- Ms. J 

Slight Exaggeration?

One of my darlings has a hard time deciphering between her very active imagination and reality at times. Today she was telling me about how she spilled glue on her desk in kindy and it made a big mess. It took quite a lot of work to clean it up. 

I stopped her. "I don't believe you." 

"You don't?"

"Nope. I don't believe it took the WHOLE CLASS to pull your paper off your desk, and it couldn't have taken 15 days to pull it off."

"Oh. Well, maybe that was a slight exaggeration." 

Haha. Yeah maybe so. 

- Ms. J, lie-buster 

I Wanna Be a Teacher...

One of my kids told me this week, "I wanna be a teacher so I can make the kids do a bunch of work and I can sit at my desk all day and say, 'Stop talking and be quiet!'" 

Hahaha! If only it were that easy!

-Ms. J 

Note to Self

Leave blinds in classroom closed today. If it snows, all chaos breaks loose in the classroom (I've learned the hard way). 

If only it said 90% chance... I sure would love a 2 hour delay or something! 

-Ms. J, wanting to stay in my warm, cozy bed

Proud

Our class gets Scholastic News every week, which is a newspaper for kids. The kids love it, because it usually has cool stories. I also enjoy it, because the kids enjoy it. There are also comprehension questions on the last page of the newspaper so the kids can practice the comprehension strategies I've been teaching them. We read the newspaper right before lunch, when the kids are too hungry to do much learning. 

This week's main article was about monkeys. One of the vocabulary words was primates. The kids were working independently on the questions. One vocab question on the back said, "humans, apes and monkeys are part of the _______ group." The answer they wanted was the word primates. (I didn't write the questions - I try to stay away from controversial subjects that don't really belong in third grade). 

Well, they didn't get the answer they wanted from one of my students. He raised his hand, and said quite vehemently, "Ms. J, this isn't the right answer, because we did NOT evolve from monkeys!" 

I told him he could cross off the word humans so the sentence would say "apes and monkeys are part of the primate group." He used so much lead to cross that word out - it was hilarious. I also noticed he wore his cross necklace outside his shirt (instead of tucked inside) for the rest of the day. 

I must say - I am very proud of him for standing up for what he believes. Not many third graders would do that. 

I'm also kind of annoyed with Scholastic news - let's keep those discussions out of school until later years. 

-Ms. J. 

It's That Time of Year

Time to start dressing warmly! Being in an old school building, one never knows if it's going to be warm or cold in the classroom, so layers are a must. Brrr!

The plus side is: we might get a snow day next week! Pleeeaaaassee let it snow! :)

- ms. J