Five For Friday Linky Party (Feb. 7)

Keeping It Going

I'm keeping it moving, ya'll.  I'm trying to keep this weekly goal going by linking up with Doodle Bugs for their weekly linky.

 

On Wednesday, Mrs. Newton (our student teacher) had to go to her class so we decided to play catch up.  LOOOONG ago (more like 2 weeks) we wrapped up our "Objects In the Sky" focus in Science.  We had so much fun exploring the patterns of the sun and the moon.  We planned to do the ever-so-famous- idea of making Oreos into the 8 phases just to wrap it up with one last bit of fun.  Unfortunately, we ended up completely off schedule because of the Winter Weather Storm of 2014.  So the 3 packages of Oreos sat on the corner of my desk for several days.  The kiddos were so good about not asking us over and over again if/when we were going to do it, so I decided to get it done while she was MIA.  It went well.  This group is so easy to work with when we jump off course for a bit.  You know you've had those years when the schedule gets changed, they go crazy and can't take it well.  They completely enjoyed it and we were able to do the activity in less than 20 minutes.

Hey 2nd Grade teachers out there...let me see a show of hands of those of you who blow out a sigh of relief when your class finally seems to get that 2/3-digit subtraction strategy!!  I have been so worried all week long because it just didn't seem like it was ever going to click.  I think I get a serious bout of stress tension when I see that unit coming up on the calendar.  This year, I attacked that concept from all sides: base-ten blocks, songs, dances, rhymes, anchor charts, algorithms, problem solving, drawing, etc.  On Thursday, I was beginning a lesson of 3-digit subtraction with regrouping tens.  I was really nervous because I had a list of about 7 babies who seemed to still be struggling with 2-digit subtraction.  I'm not sure what happened but for some reason, they got it!!  Let's just hope it sticks.  Practice, practice, practice is the name of the game.

Woke up on Thursday morning to our 14 year old complaining about having to go out and wait at the bus stop in the snow.  SNOW??  Surely not here in Houston should I have heard the word snow.  Especially after those 2 "snow"-less days we had off last week and the week before.  I didn't believe him, of course (he is the one middle child that keeps up going).  Then I heard my hubby yelling for me as he went to start his car.  I ran to see what the fuss was and this is what I find:

 

It was the best pic I could get as I drove out of the driveway

There was snow (or really, really, small pellets of ice) all over the roofs of houses, cars and grass!  Figures that when it really does snow, we all head out to work/school.  It did bring about some excitement, though.  

Here's the pic my hubby grabbed when he left

We survived!!  My 2nd graders survived 100 days of school.  We decided to make a change and celebrate our accomplishment on the 101st day of school. And we are doing it SURVIVOR style!  I LOVE Survivor.  It's one of my guilty pleasures.  One day I'll admit to all of them.  Anyway, I found this great packet on TeachersNotebook with a way of celebrating the 100th day by paying homage to the long-running reality show.  It was so much fun last year that I could not pass up the opportunity to do it again.  I'm tweaking it a little to go along with our 101st day celebration, but I'm sure it will have the same effect.  Tomorrow, we will draw buffs (or florescent colored bandanas) to determine our teams.  Then they will create a team name and flag.  Then it is time for competition!!  Check out the packet HERE and join in the fun.  I also added some other great ideas found around Pinterest and my ever increasing habit of blog hopping.  We are hanging balloons with activities by the 100 101 to pop throughout the day.  They have the streamer hanging doorway and my favorite is the idea of creating an aged picture using the "Aging Booth" app.  I played with it last night and here are a few of the shots my hubby and I got.

   

The kids shot are HILARIOUS!!  I got them printed out and I'm going to put them on a poster board grid with a "Guess Who" title.  Then I'm going to let the kids figure out who is who.  I can hardly wait for them to see themselves at 101years old. 

What I'm sitting next to at the moment:

This is a picture of my hubby.  His brother lives in Reno, NV.  They have been spending the last couple of nights on FaceTime.  He has a new nephew so originally it began as a way to introduce us to the new baby.  The next thing I knew, they decided to take a walk down memory lane.  Both of them got out photo albums and began yelling, "hey look, do you remember this one?"  It was funny.  It really makes you think about how we connect to friends and family now a days.  I thought it was ironic to see the old-school way of keeping photos being shared with our new, modern technology.  Very cool!