Back in the Saddle Again and New Years

When my alarm went off this morning these words literally came flowing all countrified right outta my mouth "Back in the Saddle Again"....I  was right back into my groove and not even half way through the day when I felt my voice begin to get weak. I could not believe it. I guess I just had too much enthusiasm in my voice?!
Anywhoo...it was a good day back but I am pooped. We reviewed and practiced ALL of our procedures for the classroom, hall, and lunchroom. (which is probably why my voice went weak...I talked TOO much today)

Me in 2014

We did this "Me in 2014" paragraph writing and I emphasized the use of pronouns. I downloaded the freebie from Teachers Pay Teachers from Amy Murdock. There were a lot of cute options for printing and even the cute little faces with several different options.  If you click on my pic above, it will take you to her TPT store. I also downloaded and laminated the banner below from TPT. Click on the pic below for the link for it also. It's great because it can be used year after year!

I hope the links work, I think I remembered how to link them;) HA! It has been a while!

I do sincerely appreciate all the amazing teachers who share their work, talents, and creativity on TPT as a free download. You all are extremely talented and I will go to Heaven with many thankful praises for you all!

sNOw Way!

So after being out for 2 1/2 weeks there was sNOw way I wasn't going to school today because of cold weather! My inner soul just desired to be there! I didn't do anything plan-productive...and really my plans are shot because of the "snow" days... but I did organize and make it a little more winter-friendly. I have a TON of winter books and games from teaching younger grades. I debated on taking most of it to school but the reality of it is BIG kids are still LITTLE kids they just don't want you to think so and with all this cold weather this will give them plenty of indoor recess entertainment.  Some of my favorite winter reads are Balto the True Story, the Tacky series, and Mr. Popper's Penguins. I plan to read all of these and start tomorrow out with Mr. Popper's Penguins.

When my fifth graders finish early, they like to work on puzzles.

 I found some loot on clearance and I LOVE Michael's clearance. I couldn't resist all the circus animal plush ornaments! I will save them for next year's Christmas tree. I also bought a super cute 2013 teacher owl ornament for one of my fifth grade teacher friends. Upon first impression, I likened her to James and the Giant Peach'es  "Spiker" which I soon learned she is nothing of the sort and is every bit of sweetness that there is and also super dedicated! I wanted her to know that she has been a CRUCIAL and SPECIAL part of my adjusting to a new school year for the 2013-2014 school year...and she will appreciate the clearance part because she is one of the biggest  penny pinching, recycling tree huggers that I have ever met. She's been a great influence on me in many ways and I'm very thankful for her. The "Let it Snow" wreath is for my door and then they had some great Barnum and Bailey circus stuff but it wasn't clearanced so I only bought what I couldn't resist.

Are they not the cutest circus ornaments ever?!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can't ever resist photo booth props!

Ever since day 1, I have wanted something for sweet notes, cards, drawings...that you feel so bad to just throw away so I came up with something for that hopeless door that I hope will next year be a closet...NOT GOING TO HAPPEN...it leads to that nasty disturbance of the server room. It makes the inconvenience much more bearable to me! This isn't nearly all of the notes I've gotten this year and most of them are from the same 3 girls :) Except the handsome pictures of 2 boys and the paper airplane! It happens to be from the sweetest little boy *EVER* and has my name written on it as Ms. St"u"wart...I shall treasure it forever...though I'm sure he'd much rather see it flying around the room than taped onto a door. He also gave me this cute picture frame with a sweet quote by Anne Frank for Christmas so I found a spot to put it as well! I used that super de dooper outdoor sticky stuff that holds up to ten pounds to adhere it.

 I also covered my door. I feel much better about going back now...though I do need to spend some time on my plans!
Happy Second Semester!