Five for Friday...Snowmageddon style!

Oh my goodness!!! This has been the craziest week I think I've ever experienced! I teach in Atlanta, and you may have heard Atlanta has had some snow problems this week (such an understatement!!).  

 

 

I'm linking up with Doodle Bug to share my craziness from the week  =)

 

 

1. The snow started falling around 11:00am, and when we dismissed at 1:45pm, the roads were already JAMMED! No one could get through! No buses. No day care vans. No parents.

 

At 4:00pm, we had about 800 students.

At 7:00pm, we had about 400 students.

At 9:00pm, we had about 200 students.

Our last student was picked up at 10:30am Wednesday morning.

 

I knew it was not a good sign when we started pulling out mats for the kids to sleep on.

Once we were down to only a handful of students, and they were settled for the night, I was able to leave. Except that I didn't have anywhere to go! The roads were icy and the traffic was gridlocked (may new least favorite word!). There was no way I would make it home. Thankfully, a loving teacher who only lived a mile away from school opened her home to teachers who couldn't get home. Can we say slumber party!?!

Snow orphans ready for a slumber party!

 

The next day, Wednesday, several teachers were able to make it home. However, the Chattahoochee River still stood between me and my house, and we've all seen the signs:

 

 

The roads were icy and the abandoned cars were causing traffic problems on the interstates, so I decided to stay put in the nice warm house where I'd been staying. I FINALLY made it home Thursday afternoon, just in time to hear that schools were closed Friday. Phew! What a relief! It's gonna take a few days before I'm ready to leave this house again!

 

2. My hubby was also affected by the Snow Jam (a name that makes this thing sound a whole lot more fun than it actually was!). He spent 8 hours trying to make his 8 mile commute. He eventually had to abandon his car in the Bank of America parking lot and trek in the snow the last 3 miles. He left a thank you note on his car, by the way, which I though was so adorably thoughtful.

 

 

We rescued his car when I got home Thursday.

 

3. Before the snow hit, we did do some actual learning this week. My para-pro was a HIT when we did our labeling lesson. After talking about labels and other text features, my para let us label her, which the kids thought was the most fantastic thing they had ever seen!

 

Teachers will do anything to help their students learn!

4. We're also learning about measurement. To practice measuring length, the students took off their shoe and traced it. One thing I've learned about teaching is that any lesson where kids can take their shoes off is a winner! Students estimated how long their shoe would be in cubes, and then measured it. To end the lesson, we ordered the shoes from shortest to longest.

5. Monday was also our 100th day of school! I didn't take any pictures unfourtunately, but I do have a couple of links to share.

This first link is to a 100th Day Ticket a co-worker of mine created. The students worked on 100 day activities all day, and as they finished, I marked that activity off of their ticket. I put yarn on this and my students wore it as a necklace. They loved it, and it kept them working hard! This is in Word, so you can change it to fit your class' activities.

The second link is a super fun TPT freebie I found. I used a lot of the ideas from here including a fruitloop necklace (made in groups of 10 of 1 color), "If I had $100" writing prompt, "I can write 100 words," and 100th day snack mat. Hope it's helpful for you, too! 

 

Birthdays and freebies and giveaways OH MY!

School news: 

I've been busy obsessing over creating more Dots on Turquoise merchandise! My latest creation is a dots on turquoise voice level chart. 

Click the Pic for a link to the FREEBIE!



Have you seen these charts? They are starting to pop up everywhere and I think they're fantastic! Mostly I like how they help kids see that different voice levels are appropriate in different situations. A student talks super loudly at stations, but is almost mute when giving a presentation. I think this chart will help cue them to use proper volume.

Changing the subject, today is the LAST day to enter the birthday giveaway that Liz is throwing over at Polka Dot Firsties. You could win my digraph sort or other super cool prizes from great bloggers. Check it out!

Click the Pic to enter

 

Not school news:

Happy birthday to me!!! This week is birthday week! Specifically Tuesday was the big day. Here's my hubby bringing out the cake.

29 candles this year. Last year of being in my twenties, which is simply unbelievable. Does anyone remember Deana Carter's song Strawberry Wine and the line that says "I still remember when 30 was old"? Well 30 still seems old, even though it's knocking on the door! 

Anyway, my family came to visit for my bday and we had a delicious dinner at Copelands. Great for my parents' New Orleans roots. Speaking of, here are my lovely parents: 

And my dear hubby and me:

Oh yeah, I got a bike!!! Hubby got one for his bday in May, so now we can ride together! The only problem is that after one ride through our very hilly neighborhood, he announced he's never riding again. Oops!

 

I also received some new Back to School books. They're so cute, and I can't wait to read them with my kiddos! I'm linking up with Andrea at Reading Toward the Stars to share these great books! Click on any of the pics to find out more about them on Amazon.

 



Great for explaining why we have rules.



A great way to talk about tattling.

 

Another tattling book (this is a big deal in K!). This book uses
rhymes to explain the difference between reporting and tattling.

 



Bulletin board time!

I went to my classroom today and started putting up my bulletin boards. There's something about having bulletin boards up that makes the room feel more put together (even when the rest of it is a DISASTER!). Plus, I get to use my Dots on Turquoise border! I'm so in love with it!

Future home of the word wall

Tip: Instead of using butcher paper or fabric, I use $1.99 table cloths from Party City for my bulletin boards. They are cheap and easy to wipe off if they get dirty. The rectangular ones I use are 9 feet long so they cover most of the long bulletin boards (but not all). The table cloths are thinner than other materials, so you can kind of see the bulletin board through it, but that's not a big deal to me.

Now I just have to figure out how to cutesy up those icky brown cabinets! 
In non-school news, my hubby and I got our dog a year ago today! She's the best dog we could have asked for and I've been AMAZED how much a part of our family she is! I love my Jenna!

The day we got Jenna

Jenna today. She's so big now!



A not-related-to-teaching post about a cute little puppy!

Last summer, my hubbie and I adopted a dog. She was a 16 week old lab mix, and she's been spoiled rotten ever since! Neither my husband nor I want another dog permanently, but there's such a huge stray population in our area that we decided to give fostering a dog a whirl. A whirl it has been! Saturday, we picked up our first foster dog--an 8 week old puppy. Let me mention again that we got our dog at 16 weeks...when she was already house broken. I had no idea how much work went into crate training and potty training a puppy! At night we are getting up every 3 hours to let him out and during the day we have to watch him constantly to make sure he doesn't tinkle in the house (thank goodness for hardwood floors!). He's got super hero powers, though, because after all that work, he gives you one little look with those puppy eyes, and it all seems worth it! He's going to be a great dog for someone someday. Just look at him!