Mystery Solved and a Winner

Hello- only four more minutes and it won't be Thursday anymore!!!
I have to hurry!

First for everyone who was concerned with what may have happened to Mr Green's gold, here ya go:

After our math tasks were finished and our creative juices were spent on writing, we had to have the best way EVER to display them both!
What better way to do that than a craftivity from A Cupcake for the Teacher???!?!

We worked on (and finished) our versions of Mr. Green with her

Here are a few close ups-

"A bandit with a gilley suit with a mask stole his gold and took it to his turf of bandits."
(Always be on the lookout for vigilante leprechauns).

"He spent his gold on a Xbox 360 and  Sonic and new green clothes and he wanted a Sky lander and that's where he lost his money."(Remember, he only lost 16 coins.....I want to live where he does, he gets a lot for his money)

"He accidentally turned it into chocolate and I might have ate it!"
This sweetie is the most expressive writer I have ever had. Her tone can be very subtle when she talks to you, but her sense of humor always comes out in her writing! Love her!

"It got lost"
(No need for all the details, eh?)

"Somebody must have took it"
(Someone must have.)

They did an fantastic job. There were lots of possible explanations- but I think we should definitely get a warrant for the bandits' turf- there's plenty of probable cause there!!!!

I get my student teacher the day after St Patricks day, I dont know how riled up I want to them the day before.
We may read a few more books and I think I might sprinkle out  a lttle green glitter here or there. I have my fingers crossed for a few Silhouette giveaways, maybe I'll get lucky and I'll be able to make  a little something, something:)


Today (the 7th, when I am starting this post) is a very nutty day for me-
Chances are though that I started this post so late, it will be the "day after" ....
The day after what?
The day after MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!
Wondering how old I am? Trying to figure out how old this cutie squirrelish figure is?

40.
Yep- I'll wait while you pick up your jaw.

My family made sure it was a day filled with lots of fun for this old Squirrel- check out what came in the mail from my Mother in law!

I can't wait to make squirrel chocolates for the class!!! (And for myself)

Later this week, I'll continue celebrating by sharing a virtual coffee date with Heidi from  MY Not So Elementary Life!!! Congratulations on winning THE WORLD'S SMALLEST COFFEE CUP!!! BOLO the lookout in your mailbox!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!!

Who Has Mr. Green's Gold????

Hey guess what-
It's Tuesday- do you know what that means?

IT AIN'T MONDAY!!!!


All this talk of St Patrick's Day coming made me feel like I was getting behind!
So today I had them do a Math Task on our district template. It was a fun one. I showed them a picture of JW Illustrations Leprechaun and gave them a few minutes to discuss what we should name him.
A few choices:
Lucky
Goldie
Travis (lol)
Leonard
and then the formalities came in
Mr. Luck
Mr. Gold
Mr. SneakyPants
Mr. (Our librarian- I considered it)
Mr. Squirrels (that one was really close too)

And finally they settled on Mr. Green.
I know, right? He wasn't even in the running!?!??!?

The math task was a "change unknown" problem- and I loved watching them solve it!
Mr. Green had 29 coins in his pot of gold when he left his house this morning. When he got back home there were only 13 coins. What could have happened to them? And how many are missing?

The "stories" they are coming up with are great!
I will tell you all about "thieving brothers", "bumpy car rides", and "sneaky squirrels" as soon as their final papers are finished-

They solved the math portion in a variety of ways.
Some drew 29 circles. Colored the 13 that were left. And circled the 16 that was lost.
Some started it out 29-?=13.....and dove right in.
Some started with 13 red counters and started adding blue ones til they got to 29.
There are some smart lil squirrels in that class:)

As soon as their tasks are completed tomorrow they will move it out to the hall to live with 'Mr. Green" for awhile.
I LOVE making displays! Love it!

Check out this gold! I used my 1' hole punch to make yellow coins- but they were B.O.R.I.N.G.
So I covered them in white glue and dipped them in glitter!!

I am going to add a few more in the morning. I was pretty- after I get a few lil friends to make me some more.

I may have  a slight problem with this display thing. We do so much great stuff that I can't decide what to display and what to pass on.  Prime example? This is my section of the hall as of 6:30pm this evening. Check out all that is "mine".

(And the Facebooking with Dr Seuss is still on the door)

Note the Habitual Photobomber. This is Littlest Little- he's the "dancer". Whenever Big Brother gets in a shot- it's ALWAYS a "thumbs up pose".....that info might help you distinguish between the two in future posts:)

But see what I mean? The birds on the left will come down this Friday. And the Leprechaun Writing Craft we are working on will go where the Happy Birthday (to he who cannot be named) Cakes are.

You may have heard me say before that EVERY PERSON in our school passes our room at least once a day. The cafe is just to the left of where I shot this pic. So they all have to pass it to get in- I like for the them to have lots to interest them while they wait. And my sweeties LOVE LOVE LOVE showing off what they do. They even stop and stare at the own work sometimes and hold up the line behind us!!!!

Stayed tuned this week for some great stories about how Mr. Green came up short on his gold- and don't forget to enter my nutty little giveaway

Have a great Wednesday!!!!

Giveaway and a "Teacher Crush"

Happy Monday!
I will admit that it is "happy' for me right now because it is almost over
{sad face}

What a day! What a day!
I was out both Thursday AND Friday- so I had to "mop up " all those messes before I could begin the new week.
After all those were taken care of, we moved on to our day.

I introduced some AH-mazing Math centers from my friend Jen @ The Teacher's Cauldron- you are going to fall in love with these-
I will post some pictures of those centers in action tomorrow!


In Lit Block last week, our spelling words were all compound words. When I saw Miss Kindergarten's Compound Words Craft this weekend- I knew that it would be something that they would instantly LOVE today. I was right!

{My class kinda has a "teacher crush" on Miss Kindergarten}

They absolutely loved working on this!!
Here are some pictures of the final product, the work in progress, and my favorite- THE DISPLAY:)

Isn't that the best? I printed the pages with the strips where the compound words were and then they chose a strip- with their eyes closed.
And then I told them it was
 A SECRET!!

 DON'T TELL ANYONE!!!

KEEP THAT WORD TO YOURSELF!!

And it was the quietest, most relaxed, craft we have done in a long while.
"Secrets" are the new "secret" in my room!

Thank you Hadar for making compound words so fun!

Here's something that is NOT a secret
{great segway}
I am a Squirrel in L.O.V.E. with coffee.
I drink it in the morning, I drink it in the afternoon, I drink it at night.
This could be insight as to why I am so high strung sometimes...... I may have to look into that!


Sometimes late at night, when I am perusing the blogs, and replying to all the great "nutty chatter" you leave for me- I wish that I had someone to share a nice hot cup o' joe with ....but everyone here is asleep (thank goodness)

How great would it be to share?

How cool would it be to enjoy a little latte together?

Well, now we can. At least one of you can. Check out this mug. It could be the best coffee mug ever!

Is that not hilarious???
It's SQUIRREL APPROVED, FOLKS! It's right there on the package!!!
When I saw it at our bookstore I bought two-  because this is just too funny to keep to myself!!

So what crazy thing does Squirrels want us to do?
Easy Peasy.


a Rafflecopter giveaway


The winner will be announced Thursday evening!
For now though, I am going to take a little hint from Barkley:)
Hope everyone has great Wednesday!

 

 

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

FIve for Friday

Happy Friday, Friends!
This Friday I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching
 for

It was a short week {for me}. There was a this "court thing" on Thursday and a Little who was feeling a little under the weather today. But missing days at school did not keep me from having an abundance of pictures.
{I may have a slight problem with taking soooooo many pictures}.

1. One of my firsties brought in her make up case because she Just.Had.To.Show.It.To.Me. I NEED this case in my life. Daily. To hold all my important stuff...or cause I am just a hoarder.

2. I know you can all count change. So I will wait while you count this up.
Know how much this is? It is five cents less than what you can get a soda for in my building.
Yes, we still have 75 cent sodas in 20 ounce bottles in a machine.  I really needed that soda too!
I sent a pic to the Mr- being all silly- with the caption "AGHHHHHH!!!"
He sent back a pic of all the change in his pocket with the message "Take one"
We work 20 miles from each other.

3. Dagwood sandwiches for dinner tonight. Easy and yummy.

4. On my "judicial errands" Thursday, I was behind this guy. I want this sticker.

5. And finally, had some Chinese for lunch today. The front of this fortune vs. the back of the fortune really makes me wonder .......nothing says "I hope you enjoyed your meal" like learning how to say "disease" in another language.
I was also curious about the Chinese word for disease being Bing. Do you think Microsoft knew?

Hope you have a great weekend!!!

Tuesday Troubles and Poop du jour

Happy Happy Tuesday!!!
Is it going well for you?
I hope so.

Mine started off okay. Just a normal day in the Squirrel-hood.
I was getting my clothes ready this morning and I hear knock knock knock on my bedroom door.

They never knock.

Knocks are almost always usually followed by something bad.
Historically, "post-knock sentences" are not ones that you want to hear from the other side of the door.
A few examples:

"Mama, do we have any big bandages?"
"Mama, do we have any super glue?"
"Mama, did you know Nana was coming over?" (often followed by "She's here.")
"Mama, what kind of cleaner am I allowed to use on the floor?"

This morning's post-knock sentence was the one that I dread the most though-
I do not like it  any time.
I would not like it late at night.
I will not like it when it's light.
I cannot like it, it's just not cool.
Especially when IT'S RIGHT BEFORE SCHOOL!!

Can you Mama's guess what it was?
Yup.
"Mama, I don't feel good."

UGH! 
Luckily (or unluckily) for me, depending on how you look at it, it was Chickadee.
She is old enough to articulate exactly what it is.
And she's been around the longest and I can totally tell when she's lying:)

Once it was established that she would not be attending class today, the knocks started coming more rapidly and with more force.
Remember, I am outnumbered. At any given time, The Mr and I are under attack - there are three of them and only two of us!
Both of the boys thought they would try their hand at the "I don't feel so good" game.
You will be happy to know though, that I won.
I was able to detect the smell of deceit and they were both sent to school- just fine.
Chickadee on the other hand may be coming down with something.
#insertsadfacehere

Moving on to the rest of my day-
once I had her settled and we all left the house, we found out that it was going to rain. ALL. DAY. LONG.
With the possibilities of thunderstorms.
Aye ye ye.....
So it did. It rained all day.
For many reasons- construction, rain, cold- you name it, my class has not seen the playground in a month!
We have inside recess instead. (no comment).

My favorite pen ran out of ink while I was signing planners today.
 I actually screamed, "Nooooooooooooooo!"
and I began scribbling frantically on another piece of paper- like maybe my pen was just playing a trick on me and it really did want to finish writing my name.
It was not to be.
The day was so crappy, that even the pen decided to skip out. Smart pen.
Boo. Hiss.

Once home we unpacked, took off our rainboots and headed in for a snack-
only to find that someone (totally not me) left the refrigerator door open.
#hadtothrowawayalotoffood
#insertangryfacehere
I'm not one to go accusing people of stuff, but I know for a fact when I used it this morning, I closed it!
I have an alibi!
Really.
My scarf got stuck in the door and I had to open it back up ....and ...nevermind- this is not looking  good for me.
Let's change the subject.

I have a good one- Remember when I had that linky for Easy Recipes for us Teachers-
linky

No? Oh, that's right. It flopped.
But I tried, darnit.
#nothostinganymorelinkysforawhile

here's a good recipe that we could have added-
It was something new tonight. Pretty easy.

Ready?
 You need:
I bag of cubed hash browns
1 can of sloppy joe mix
1 can of cream of potato soup
1 to 2 pounds of ground beef
shredded cheese.


One bag of frozen cubed hash browns (thawed) in a greased pan.

Cook the meat. (no picture here, I was busy stirring).

 Drain the meat. Add these two cans.
These guys are total photobombers!!
Pour the meat mixture over the hash browns.
Bake 450- covered- for about 20 mins. Take off cover and then about 10 mins more. Add cheese. Five more minutes.

 The Mr said it looked like corned beef hash- the Littles said it looked like poop. Truman and Barkley said they didn't care what it looked like, just set it down and we'll eat it!!!

 It was not pretty- but it got pretty good reviews after they all tried it.

There were only two things that could make this day better.
Coffee or ice cream.
We opted for ice cream- a little trip to our local Coldstone and I was feeling much better.

We are all hoping that tomorrow is going to be a better day. I have to imagine that it will be. And I say this after I have
just turned it from the Weather Channel only to find that not only will we have more rain, the temp is dropping- fast.
I am not a meterologist, but I am predicting more ice cream in tomorrow's forecast.

Have a great Wednesday!!