February Quilt

Today is Wednesday. That means big 4-H rotation. 8:30-10:30. 

This week is we studied vegetables. Not as easy as fruit, but with the help of the local grocery store add, we found enough pictures to fill a poster board. (Forgot the photo. Sorry)

When we finished this rotation I was so tired that I just want sit and relax, but alas, I was needed on recess duty. The saving grace about this duty today was that my good friend was out there as well, and she had a therapy session with me. 

I had planned to do the quilt before lunch, but recess went too long and we had to do it after lunch. It is so cool and the kids really enjoy seeing if they can figure out how to make the cuts and put the pieces together before I tell them.

Looks like two friends were not listening to the "how many to cut" speech, or the "how to put the red triangles in." You should have seen their faces when they brought their square to me. It was pitiful, they were sad (and maybe embarrassed) that their square was different than everyone else's. 

We had a great afternoon. We painted love birds. Hope to finish that project tomorrow. I will show you then.

February Currently

I'm not sure that I have a favorite month. I love when one month ends and another begins. It's like I get a fresh start. Flipping the calendar page is a reminder that I have another chance. The chance to be the person, wife, mother, teacher that I want to be.

Ok, enough with the heavy, on to Farley and the February currently.

Listening: he had to DVR the game because of working this afternoon, now we get to watch it and skip the adds and extras.

Loving: my first grade buddy/teammate and I had some wonderful discussions and planning times this week. I am so looking forward of doing that more, now that we kinda know what we are doing.

Thinking: I haven't been Goodwilling since last summer. It may be time to gather my Goodwill buddies and set a date to shop.

Wanting: I need a plan. My firsties need help with sight words and I have a helper who can do it, but do not want to re-create the wheel. I want to open a manual and just do it. HELP!!!

Needing: I'm tired of the clips I've been using, time to look for some alternatives.

Pet Peeves: Lying is never good. But lying to stay out of trouble can really make it hard for me to keep my control.

There you have it. My currently. If you feel like reading more, hop on over to 

and read more currentlys.

Five for Friday (February 1, 2013)

Time to show some love. Love for the week that has been. I am linking up with Kacey @ Doodle Bugs Teaching for her week-end party.

Here are five random things from this week...Happy Friday!

1. The wonderful Mr. Flaming (from the county extension office) came and spoke to my class today about sheep. General information about sheep care and fun sheep facts. One little friend was shocked that Lily is 2 years and 3 months old and about to give birth. He could barely wrap his head around that.

Yesterday we created a document about what we knew about sheep and what questions we had. I sent it to Mr. Flaming, so he could know what we wanted to learn, and today I added to it as he shared with us. 

We ended our time together by visiting the sheep. It was 20 degrees outside, so we did not stay long.

2. I felt so much love from my coworkers this week that I did not know what to do with it all. So I cried a bit and then passed the love on to my firsties and my family.

3. My firsties loved the new paper and envelopes I showed them this week. Letters were passed around the class, and to me. This is a picture of only part of what I received this week. Some have writing, some have pictures. All are filled with love.

3.5. One of my little boys was gone today. His face partner asked if he could write him a letter. During an unplanned extra recess. You betcha! Last year that was part of the absent student helper's job (to write a "we missed you note"). Not this year. So, it was exciting to me that he thought of this on his own, wrote it, put it in an envelope, and then put it in his mailbox to be read upon return to school. How sweet!

4. Today my school hosted another tour. A charter bus pulled in about 9:00, the people in suits asked a lot of questions and saw a bit of the school before heading out again at 10:10. The bus was filled with state senators and representatives. We were a-buzz with cleaning and prepping yesterday! Our PTO put out a wonderful snack table (which was hardly touched) and let the school workers eat the rest. Thanks PTO!

5. Our 100th day of school was yesterday. I may be the only first grade teacher in the entire nation that did not make a huge deal of it. I/we did not dress up. There were no fun centers or rotations. We had no fancy snack (they were happy to eat the graham cracker that I gave them). At the last minute I grabbed some freebies from TpT, ran copies and called it "good." The kids didn't ask and I didn't make a big deal out of it. I do feel like a bit of a wimp for not doing more, but oh, well. I'm already over the guilt of not doing more. There is always next year. But I feel like I have set a bit of a precedent--no big deal for 100th day with Mrs. Bartel. I do love doing the place value pictures that I got from Teach with Laughter on TpT.

Now that you've read my randomness, you could head on over to Doodle Bugs Teaching to read more randomness. 

A Make-over?

Yesterday I had an interesting conversation with one of my sweet girls who has just started to warm up to me. (And today is day 100 of school!)

As we are walking to PE she asks me, "Can I bring my sister's makeup to school tomorrow?"

I think a little and say, "No, I do not think that is a good idea." (Or it might have been "no.")

She responded, "I could give you a make-over." She used a very sweet and sing-songy voice.

Me incredulouly, "Do you think I need a make-over?" 

Then she said, "You need to wear make-up to be cute." More sing-song.

So, we were at the gym and I didn't say anything else. I wear hardly any make-up, and I wouldn't win a beauty contest, but that is ok with me. 

Apparently, I should think about getting some.

Paper and Planning

Like I've said before, my students are wanting to write, but I have not supplies them with wonderful paper (or any paper at all). What to do?

My wonderful husband has this "copy center" at his job. He said that he could get me some paper.

Look what we brought home today...

Tall stacks of small notebooks. We will make at least 30 hand-sized notebooks out of this. Each child will get one, and I am going to keep a supply to have at my reading table for when I have the kids write sight words or words that we are studying. (I cannot wait to get that "The McCrackens" spelling book!)

Planning. I spent a lovely afternoon perusing blogs. I love when my friends post their ideas/lesson plans. It inspires me so much. 

Today I found Mrs. Wills Kindergarten, and her poetry station unit. LOVE it. What I loved most is that it taught me how to use poems more. The kids have a poetry notebook, but I have been way under-using it. Now I have some ideas of how to bump up the learning using poetry. 

So, what is a great afternoon? A walk outside with my husband and more ideas written into my awesome composition notebook that has all of my thoughts/ideas/wonderings/book study information since last May. I think tonight for my before bed reading, I may have to reread my notebook.

Rereading is good for fluency, right?

Five for Friday (January 26 edition)

This is one of my favorite parts of the week (and weekend). Writing this post of five random happenings of the week gives me time to pause, reflect, assess, and enjoy. I love thinking about ALL of my many experiences during the week and then choosing five that are significant in some way (to me) and sharing them here.

Kacey from Doodle Bugs hosts this party and I have loved writing for it and reading so many of my friends' Five for Fridays.

1. On Friday after school I felt "the bag" of Lily. She is our ewe that could lamb sometime in the next two weeks. Her official due date is February 3, 2013, however, if she is like humans (how often do we give birth on the due date, I was 0 for 2), I am giving her a two week window to have this baby. It could be a single birth or a twin, we do not know.

2. My students are so into writing notes (and apparently I have not supplied them with enough paper) that they are getting a paper towel from the sink to write me notes. When I'm with a small group they need to leave me alone, but they have figured out that they can slip me a note... This week I got one that said "mis bartle can i go to the bafrom"and another said...

(The message is great, and look--capitals and punctuation! Woohoo!)

Today I will locate some (a lot) of paper for these writers.

3. A favorite toy at recess is the little barn. I loved watching the kids play in it on Friday when the weather was finally nice.

I am told by this little guy that it seats two comfortably, three is a squeeze. I can barely bend down to look inside!

4. Just about anything I give my kids to read they are starting to notice "hunks and chunks" that we have learned. A few are doing this unprompted, and most can locate the hunks if I mention there might be something they recognize. Applying their knowledge is so exciting for me and for them.

5. At home...my boys have learned an awesome piano duet for Greensleeves this week. It is wonderful to hear them play together. They do not do this because they want to, but I do love hearing it.

That's it for this week. Hop on over to 

to read other Five for Fridays, maybe you want to create your own post and link up as well. I would love to read it!

Power Panther Pals

Our school participates in Power Panther Pals and today we started our 8-week journey of "Eat Smart, Play Hard."

We get a big notebook of 8 lessons, and money to buy the food that goes along with each lesson.

This is a natural fit into our Cloverbuds time, but instead of being twice a month, it is weekly for 8 weeks.

We divided it into 4 rotations (like Cloverbuds). Each lasted approximately 30 minutes. Then we had just enough time for recess, lunch, another recess and 2 hours worth of lessons. I felt like I crammed a lot in, but always wonder if I am doing enough "teaching reading." That's a whole nuther discussion. And then we need to talk about math. Big sigh. I can only hope they are ready for second grade despite what I am not doing and because of the "stuff" that we add.

Oh yeah, and we had visitors today. I'm done counting how many visitors we have had this year, let alone in the past 6 weeks!

One rotation was cooking. They made some delicious looking "rainbow fruit cups." It was a thumbs up from my kids.

Another rotation was learning the lesson and specifically what muscles need.

My group made chef hats. I think I got the BEST rotation today. It was fun, the kids loved making and wearing the hats, and it inspired great writing this afternoon.

He is explaining to me the healthy foods that he has drawn on his hat.

I loved taping the hats and then sending the kids to the mirror to see how they looked. I think their smiles tells it all.

The last rotation was physical activity. They played some tag games. And when I came in to take their photo they were doing ABC push ups. What a great way to be active and practice the alphabet. We may be doing that again.

We were so fortunate that the temperature was high enough to be outside today. I was at both recesses, so no break for me, but at least the kids screamed, ran, had fun, smiled and acted goofy as much as they wanted.