Five for Friday!!

Happy happy Friday, Bloggy Peeps! Kerri here...

Well, it's Friday, so you know what that means...I'm linking up with Kacey over at Doodle Bugs Teaching for her...

Let's get started, shall we??
First up...this gave me a giggle so I just had to include it. One of my little darlings drew this little polar bear for her Draw and Write story this week...

I do believe that this polar bear is wearing pink socks? Or maybe it's pink Doc Martens (which would be totally wicked, BTW). I love that the baby bear has pink socks too. H.I.L.A.R.I.O.U.S.

Number 2: The Fancy Water dispenser...in my classroom.

Yup. You read that right. At my school, the PTA pays for every classroom to have sparkling clean bottled water AND cone shaped cups that are delivered each week by a very friendly water delivery guy.  Yes, we are TOTALLY spoiled!
No drinking fountain water for my kidlets. Nope. No way! It would probably be nice if I let them ever actually GO AND GET a drink out from it, but sadly, that hardly ever happens, UNLESS it's Fun Friday. Then it's an all out drink fest, people. For reals!

Number 3...I used my "fancy schmancy" camera to take some pictures of the favorite places in my classroom...side note: my big buddy teacher who is a MALE (say no more) claims I have an issue with having too many chochkies, but I think he is out of his head. You can NEVER have too many chochkies! Who's with me!!

Here are some pictures and other momentos behind my desk. The Matryoshka doll came all the way from Russia by one of my favorite students ever and I LOVE IT! It's GINORMOUS! Also, I love the picture of my little ladies and my fellow first grade teacher friends!

Okay, yes. These MIGHT be chochkies, HOWEVER, that owl is awesome and the pumpkin juice bottle came home with me all the way from the Harry Potter Theme Park~so there...

I have a giant palm tree in my classroom that I use to hang, um, chochkies? on.  Mostly owls and birds, and I love it. It is fabulous!

This penant my friend Sarah sent me all the way from England and she made it. It hangs behind the reading table and adds a little splash of color to the area! Notice the rogue LEGOS on the shelf. Yeah, I have NO IDEA how those got there!

My little classroom library. I love this place and so do my kidlets. So much in fact that I have to kick them out of there almost every day, due to the fact that there really is NO WAY that 23 kids can fit in there, no matter how hard they try!

Number 4...scary baby doll...

One of my sweeties earned a fluffy friend ticket for moving her clip up to blue 5 times (my behavior system-we'll discuss this another time) and THIS is what she brought in. Does she not REALIZE that I have an irrational fear of baby dolls with filthy feet?? AND, she sits right in front of me so she turned that baby to face me ALL. DAY. LONG. 

Finally...100 Days Smarter crowns...

No, we have not had our 100th day of school yet, HOWEVER, I did have to test out the spiffy new crowns from my 100 Days of Fun Learning Activities, and I think they are FABULOUS!! You shoulda seen my kids faces when I put this one on my little friend...they were JEEEALOUS! But they got over it when I whipped it off after 20 seconds. No worries, my little friends. Your 100 Days Smarter time will come soon!!

That's all for now, friends! Hope your weekend is WONDERFUL!!

XOXO Kerri B

Bachelor Banter and Be Mine Valentine!

Howdy folks!  Lindsay here . . .

Happy almost-the-last-day-of-January!

Tonight's post is gonna be short and sweet.  I stayed up WAY past my bedtime last night watching the Bachelor (instead of Downton Abbey, like Kerri begged me to) last night and I. AM. TIRED.

(Sidenote: What is the deal with Sean keeping Tierra around for another week?  C'mon, I know there are some fellow Bachelor fans out there . . . Thoughts on this week's episode? At least it looks like in next week's episode she just might fall into some sort of an icy river . . .  I don't hate Tierra, I just think Sean is a nice guy with, ahem, rather large amazing muscles, who deserves to find a sweet normal girl who isn't psycho. Is that too much to ask?)

Anyway, as we are enjoying these last few days of January, I have been working furiously to get ready for all of the Kindergarten goodness that is coming next month: 100th Day of School, Valentine's Day, President's Day . . . Seriously, I can't wait.

In getting ready for Valentine's Day, I just finished printing, laminating, and cutting out my brand new unit: Be Mine Valentine {February Math & Literacy Centers)!!

I am SO excited for my kiddos to get their hands on this fun activities, which include 4 math and 4 literacy centers, for a total of 8 colorful, hands-on center activities!

Some of the adorable activities include Cupcake Syllable Sort . . .

Smitten Sight Word game . . .

Be Mine Estimation Station . . .

And Love Shack Addition Sort (just to name a few) . . .

You can check out the whole TPT unit in my store by clicking the cupcake below! (Don't delay folks, Valentine's Day is only 15 days away!!)

 

Well, that's it for now!  I am off to put on my cozy socks and flannel PJ bottoms - it is freezing tonight!  (And by "freezing" I mean, of course, freezing as us Californians think of freezing . . . ya know, like 45 degrees perhaps?)

 

Goodnight and happy teaching tomorrow!

 

Lindsay



 

A Whole Bunch of Valentine Goodness (FREEBIES and UNITS)!!

Good morning, friends! Kerri here...
Thank you thank you to all of you who have purchased my 100 Days of Fun Unit! I am too excited to use all of the activities with my littles soon!

Also, it just wouldn't be a post from Kerri B without a Downton shout out~ it's Downton Day so I'm a happy camper!! Remember how I said I wanted to get a "FREE BATES" shirt? But then I thought that might be too much? Well, look what I found on Etsy (top right corner)!

I love the little keys that dangle off the side!!

 Here's another one that I think I will save to wear on Fridays, especially rainy day Fridays!! Isn't it too cute!?

Okay, enough Downton Abbey Etsy talk. The fact of the matter is...we are in the last week of January already! How did THAT happen?? In a few short weeks, Valentine's Day will be upon us, but DON'T PANIC!! We can get through it, peeps! :) 

I am especially looking forward to it, not because I get to be all romantical with my hubby (Please! Who has time for that?? Just kidding. I love my hubs!), but because the week after that my family and I are going to this place...

Yippee!! My hubby's family is from New Orleans, and we have never taken the girls, so we're finally going! So so excited!

In other news, I have been scouring Target (per my usual weekend errands...and on other random days of the week, for that matter!) and I found some fun stuff recently...

I actually have a bone to pick with Target about these guys. Every single year, I have been able to get the individual conversation heart boxes for my kiddies to use for graphing, patterning, what have you. This year, they did not have a SINGLE BOX. What the heck, Target? Only big old bags of hearts that I now have to portion out into little baggies (don't judge me for being lazy! I know they probably have them at CVS). A baggy of hearts in not AT ALL the same as a cute little box of them. Actually, one of my littles brought said boxes in for every single student on Friday as part of her Student of the Week celebration, and I was SOOO tempted to commandeer them until V-Day (dream crusher, I know), but I begrudgingly let her pass them out. Sigh...

Here is a cute little FREEBIE that Lindsay made last year for graphing with these yummy hearts. 
 (click the heart to download)

Remember these fun little heart dice I blogged about a few weeks ago? 

Well, I think they are long gone at Target by now, but you can always use regular dice for this next freebie... (click to download)

Here are a couple more fun things I found...

You can never have too many heart stickers, right?

I'm going to use them for our "Love Monsters" which were inspired by this post from Rachelle at What the Teacher Wants!

Aren't our little guys too cute!

 Here's another fun item...Valentine bubbles! I especially LOVE the mustache ones!

Speaking of mustaches, look at these food picks! Muchstaches and juicy lips!! I sense a photo opportunity in my Firsties near future! Too funny!

 Finally, here is my latest unit...Hot off the presses! Sweet for My Sweety! Valentine Math and Literacy Centers! (click on the cover for a closer look!)

And a little sneak peek of what's included...

I will be laminating these cute little centers this week and getting them all ready for the LOVEFEST that's coming up before we know it!

Happy Sunday, folks!
XOXO Kerri B

Five for Friday..and a giveaway at Blog Hoppin!!

Happy Friday, Peeps! Kerri here...

I am linking up with Kacey from Doodle Bugs Teaching again for her Five for Friday, cause it's just too much fun!!

Okay, let's begin! First up...Brown butter salted rice crispy treats. Can I get a YES PLEASE?? These are absolutely delicious!! I found the recipe online and made them for my friend Carol's birthday-TOO. DIE. FOR!!

Here is the recipe...
1 stick of butter browned (melt until brown and nutty smelling but DO NOT burn. That would be yucky)
1/4 heaping tsp. of sea salt
1 10 oz. bag marshmallows
6 cups of rice crispies

Make just as you would regular crispy treats, adding the brown butter, salt, and marshmallows together and then adding the rice crispies. Wait until cool and then die of deliciousness! Which reminds me, I will be making these again this weekend!!

Next up...our Tacky the Penguin stories. These just came out too cute! The kids LOVVVEED writing about Tacky!!

Number 3...Martin Luther King portraits. I just love first graders' drawings, don't you? And thank you Anna Brantley at Crazy for First Grade for the fabulous "I Have a Dream" paper!!

I have a dream that one day for everybody it is cool and a good day and they love their mom and dad. Awww!!

I have a dream that one day everyone will pick up trash and throw the trash in the trash can. Sweet!

Number 4...my new iphone app Retromatic! I am having so much fun turning pictures into posters! And it is SUPER easy to use!!  Check it out...

My pin-up doggy!

Katie B-the goldminer! All ready for her 4th grade Walk Through California History program!!

Finally, Number 5...RAIN!! Bleecch...2 whole days of being trapped inside my classroom with 23 squirrelly perfectly behaved First graders! AND, to top it off, it actually wasn't raining at recess either day, BUT we still had to stay in because of the puddles. What the heezak, people?? They're just puddles! Don't get me started...

rainy playground...how I wish my kidlets could have run on you today!!

Watching Heidi sight word songs (which are FABULOUS, BTW) and practicing writing them INSTEAD of recess!

Well, we're off to Cafe Rio for dinner (delicious yumminess!) and then I have a big old date with my fat pants and my blankie on the couch! Have a happy weekend friends!
XOXO Kerri B

P.S. Don't forget to enter our GINORMOUS 100th Day giveaway over at Blog Hoppin! TONS of great 100th day of school products up for grabs!!

Martin, Mittens, and the Mega-Flu

Happy three-day-weekend folks!  Lindsay here . . .

Happy Martin Luther King Day/Weekend!!  

Ahhhhh . . . aren't holiday weekends THE BEST?!  Everyone here at the Messner household has been thoroughly enjoying the past two days at home in our PJ's. 

Don't judge. 

I EARNED my right to spend AT LEAST two days in pajamas . . .  Let me tell you about my TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO-GOOD, VERY BAD week last week . . .

It all started a week ago Friday.  It had been a long week and I was SO looking forward to putting Baby Jack to bed so momma (me) could have herself a delicious glass of wine . . . And then, IT happened.

Projectile vomit. All over me. And him. And his ENTIRE room.

It was gross. 

Needless to say poor Jack spent the whole weekend sick with the flu and throwing up, and Mr. Messyhair and myself spent the whole weekend giving him snuggles and watching Sesame Street with him.

Then on Monday, it was my turn.

Horrible stomach pain, hours spent in the bathroom, nausea for days . . . it was really awful.  (Sidenote: Mr. Messyhair got sick with the megaflu as well -  he merely threw up once and was done!  Not fair!)

Sooooooo as if a sick baby, sick mommy, and sick daddy weren't enough, when I went back to school this past week I came to discover that I would be getting three more new students - in addition to the two new students I had gotten the previous week! 

Holy Pencilboxes, Batman!  That makes 5 new students in two weeks, for a grand total of 30 kindergarteners! 

Then, throw in a few more relapse fits of vomiting on mommy in public followed up with an acute ear infection (for Jack), and that was my week! 

The good news is that after some serious prayer and counting of my blessings, I feel much better.  I'm blessed to have a wonderful (sick) family and beautiful students that I love to teach.  All THIRTY of them! ;)

Anyway, that's enough about pajamas and vomiting . . .

We have been busy little bees in Room 17 this month.  First we have been having fun with my Mittens & Marshmallows centers . . .

My kiddos especially loved the digraph sort and number before & after practice.  

You can check out my whole unit on TPT - just click on the image below!

We also had fun learning all about Martin Luther King Jr. over the past few weeks.  We did a super fun "egg-speriment" and freebie worksheet from Ffion Thomas you can get HERE.  My kiddos had such great predictions about what they thought the brown egg was going to look like when we cracked it open - imagine their surprise to see both eggs were the same on the inside!

And finally, I created a few little vocabulary cards to use as reference for my kiddos during our study of Martin that I thought I would share with y'all. :)  My chitlens felt oh-so-grown-up using big words like "harmony" in our discussions!

(Click on the Martin below to download file)

Well, that's it for now.  Hope you all enjoy the rest of your holiday weekend today.  In your pajamas of course! :)  I'm off to get in a few more snuggles with that sick baby of mine!

Lindsay