Keeping Up With Kirbys

Well, I'd say Operation Gratitude was a Success! Almost all of my kids brought in a bag of their sweets from Trick-or-Treats.  I'm pretty positive that some treat bags were a little smaller by the time they arrived at school. I'm grateful for their generous hearts and their desire to give what they had. Even some of my teacher friends brought sweets. We sorted and separated the chocolates, made circle maps of things to share in our letters, and wrote letters to the soldiers.   I LOVE that they wanted each person to receive their favorite candy and some were concerned about allergies. We ended up mailing 17 lbs of candy and 21 letters.   November 15 was the deadline to send candy but  you can visit Operation Gratitude if you would like to get involved another way.

Yes, that just happened.  Three FABULOUS "f" words.  Fonts. Freebies. and Friday.   I just LOVE fonts!  Something about fonts make me happy. Trust me, if I could play with the fonts while writing this I would....I'd have each sentence in a different font. Too much?! Some of these fonts were left over from FOURth grade that I had started working on and finally finished...better late than never ;-) {click here for NEW fonts} I'm loving the "donut talk about it" the most because my little mini me worked on that one.   Don't forget to visit Teaching Blog Addict for lots of wonderful freebies today! Happy Friday Fabulous Friends!

Have you heard of Operation Gratitude?  I am beyond thrilled that I found this wonderful opportunity for my 2nd graders to take part in.  This organization takes your child's excess candy and provides care packages to our military personnel.   I think I'm in LOVE with the idea of kid's giving up something that they love for someone else.  It's a lesson that goes beyond the curriculum and the school day.   You can find out more about Operation Gratitude and how you can get involved by clicking { here }.  I am also very thankful for Just Reed blog because she has created a letter to send home and templates for letter writing.  Stop by her blog and print them out if you would like to do this with your class.  I had to rewrite the letter without asking for money from students for postage.  You are welcome to use it if you'd like. { click here } I sent letters and gallon ziplock baggies home today and EVERYBODY was ready to give up ALL their candy.

Well, where do I begin...I didn't share a room reveal because I think I might have been pouting.  I haven't given you at least a monthly up to date because I have been trying to wrap my head around my teaching career.  There is no doubt that I LOVE teaching and the indescribable thrill I get when kids are excited to learn but things have changed so much.  Yes, I prayed and prayed about my move and I really feel like I'm exactly where God wants me to be BUT it's been hard. 14 years of teaching and I feel like a new teacher again.....lost, scared, and constantly second guessing myself.  In my new school no one knows me, there are rules for everything that I do, and at least 10 meetings per every rule to train me in the rules.  I left a place where everyone stopped and hugged to a very different environment.  I really wallowed in self-pity the first few weeks but I have since realized that was not going to work for me.  I need to pick myself up, smile and make a differen

This new school year brings with it a lot of NEW.  I will be in a new school district, a new grade (kinda-just different from last year), and a new classroom. So in order to simplify and make things a little easier my plan was to keep the same classroom decor (I know, BORRRING) but I loved the black and white with turquoise. .....and then I walked into my new classroom.  I was swept away into a world of wood paneling. There is faux wood everywhere!  Not far from the door was a large box fan propped against the wall along with a note stapled to the beautiful faux wood wall. The note read: I'm thinking that was very kind of someone to share the signs of heat exhaustion and heat stroke with me in my classroom. WHAT DOES IT MEAN?? At this point I'm beginning to sweat a little, not because of faux wood,a box fan, and this new sign that is posted in my classroom but because I live in the state of Texas and it's HOT!!   Seriously, it was dark in there and HOT.  So I didn&

Well, why not change the blog too. Plus, it's summertime and it seems to be my favorite time to change the blog name. Actually, I'm going back to 2nd grade but just not at the same school that I've been at for the past 13 years. That's a HUGE change but wait......there's more, the hubs is going to be a teacher. Wha?! Yea police officer to teacher.  Ya'll that is his new classroom.  Seriously....what an insane entrance and he won't have to decorate his bulletin boards.  Can you imagine being a kid and going into a classroom that looks like this? How fun?! I'm not done.....we are moving house. We put our house on the market 2 weeks ago and the very first showing it was sold. Yes, sold. We are patiently waiting to close on our new home. Which is barely pictured below... The waiting is hard because I just want to get my stuff in there. There's more....the man child has left for college.  He is currently going through what Air Force calls "

To say we've been busy would be an understatement.  It's funny because if we are home at least one day out of the week it's considered a slow week.  I'm not complaining. I love my family and the time we spend together. I do have a small confession though...I've been running around like crazy mom that I almost forgot about getting my Mother's Day gift ready at school. It seriously became a last minute gift but I think it turned out precious and hopefully none of the mommas felt as though they were a last minute thought.  Hobby Lobby had everything I needed. 1) 1X1 mosiac tiles 2) ribbon 3) necklace loop (this is not the official name) 4) Modge Podge 5) strong ceramic glue (to attach the necklace loop) Considering I was running a little behind I'm happy this project was fast and easy. The kids wrote an "I Love You" message on the back of the tile and then Modge Podged their picture to the front. I made 1X1 pictures in Mic

We just cannot get enough of the book Pictures of Hollis Woods !  Have you read it?  It's been a fantastic book that has generated so many thoughtful and meaningful conversations within my classroom.   Is it bad that I secretly LOVE it when the kids beg me to read....ONE....MORE...CHAPTER...PUHLEEEAAZZE?!   I t makes my teacher heart happy, happy, happy.  We spent some time writing letters to Hollis giving her helpful advice. I have the most thoughtful and kindest kids! We've looked for similarities and differences between Hollis and a close friend of ours. Wow, I learned a lot about their friends! Student partners had jobs that I assigned from my Literature Circle group packet from the fabulous 4th Grade Frolics .  They completed and shared their questions, connections, and favorite parts with the class to create their own discussions. I LOVE this packet! It has been a fantastic unit to use with my literature circles so I just changed it up and incorpora

It's finally here....the BIG. TEST. DAY. My fabulous fourth graders will be sharing everything they have learned so far this year. I told myself not to get nervous or worried but goodness my tummy feels like butterflies are wrestling. The littles at our school thought they'd leave us some LOVE and ENCOURAGEMENT. Awww! My kids LOVED all the notes that were personalized to them. They were cracking me up because they couldn't figure out how    the younger kids knew their name. ;-) We all wore capes on Friday and left a little note with a fun new pencil for our SUPER writers.  {click here for notes} I tried to keep myself busy this weekend and not spend too much time reading and rereading this book...boooorrriiinnnggg. I'm not sure why I felt the need to reread this but I did. So we took our little princess to see Disney Frozen on ice. LOVED it!!   Then we came home to watch the Kids Choice Awards. Of course after watching everyone get sli

So....where do I begin? Well, I have finally finished all my classes for my master's degree.  I've turned in my ARP paper and I'm just waiting to hear from the university. It has been weird making plans to do something without first checking to see how much I should read and how many papers I should write before I make plans.  I have so much {mind} time. It's great! Mind time.....my mind has been racing with ways to get my kids prepared to be a BIG 5th grader.  I want to fill their learning gaps and help them to continue to grow and learn. Let me show what is going on in my classroom. After my students' last test I printed out each individual student's data chart for that assessment.   They placed this chart in their data folder and highlighted the objectives that they scored below 75% on.   I have placed tubs around the classroom filled with activities and games that will help reinforce the objective that the student struggled with and need