Love is patient, love is kind, happy feast of St. Valentine!

Oh my gosh last week was hands down the most exhausting week EVER! Let me give you a quick run down of what last week at our school looked like:

Monday- 100th Day

Tuesday- Mardi Gras

Wednesday- Ash Wednesday

Thursday- Valentine's Day

Friday- Collapse with exhaustion :) 

Did anyone else have everything happen all at once for them this week?? I am soo happy about our 3 day weekend to recover! Especially since we got a little snow!

 My little one got his first day EVER in the snow :) He LOVED it!

 

So this Monday was the most favorite of all school days... the 100th day!! I do not remember the 100th day being such a big deal when I was in kindergarten but boy oh boy is it a big deal now! We started with our 100th day crowns from Julie Lee's website (who was one of my first blog loves by the way, she is a genius!).

 

After making our adorable crowns, we began on our 100 compliments poster in the hall. The students had to write 100 compliments for their friends and teachers and stick them up in the hallway for all to see! This was a really fun lesson because it was a confidence booster for all my little ones when their friends wrote a compliment to them! 

After the 100th day came another one of my favorite days of the school year... Mardi Gras! At our school we love celebrating this day before lent with silliness and snacks and a big parade at the end of the day. 

I am so mad at myself that I didn't take more pictures on this day. We started with our Mardi Gras masks and discussed the three colors of Mardi Gras (purple, gold, and green) and what those colors stand for (faith, power, and justice). I found this free mask for them to color on Pinterest:

 

Rather than use string to make it stay on, we glued it to a Popsicle stick so they could hold it. We also put a feather on them for a little decorative flair :)

We played so many games and got to eat our yummy king cake on this day but I was too busy to take pictures :( Next year!!

Wednesday was Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. Throughout Lent we are using these "Lenten Path" handouts from Catholic Icing (another one of my favorite blogs).

 

This one is colored already for Wednesday and Thursday but you color it all the way through to Easter every day that you successfully give up your item you've given up for Lent.

Finally on Friday, we celebrated Valentine's Day! These are the glyphs we created:

 

These glyphs are from my Full Year of Glyphs unit on TPT.

Have a great Sunday!! I hope you all do something exciting on your day off for President's Day :)

Wrapping up unit 4 with some fun word work :)

Word work may just be one of my favorite things the students work on. I love how easy it is to make learning our sight words hands on and interactive. Last week we started wrapping up unit 4 in our reading series, Journeys. I've created a little packet of activities for the students to complete as centers. In this packet, students practice molding our sight words with play-doh, going on a sight word scavenger hunt around the room, and more.

We used letter stamps to stamp our sight words. This took them what felt like forever but they were so focused on what they were doing, you could hear a pin drop-- a teacher's dream :)

 We also love our Rainbow Write :)

 

We had more fun activities but I forgot to take pictures of them. You know how it goes, you plan to take pictures but then get so caught up in something else. I need to be better about that! This packet is available in my TPT store for those of you kindergarten teachers who use Journeys. Click the picture below to go to it.

Tomorrow is our 100th day of school and we are all dressing up like we are 100 years old. Our kindergarten cuteness level is about to go way off the charts!! Can't wait to show you all some pictures :)

Currently February!

Two posts in one day?!? I completely forgot it was Currently time earlier... time to play catch up!!

 

Listening...  to Hunter Hayes "Wanted". This song makes me so happy! Something about his voice is just so soothing :)

Loving... February already!?! YESSSS! Spring break is only two months away. Where is this year going?!

Thinking... Grad School graduation is right around the corner in May (alright, its not THAT close, but considering how much I still have to do, it feels like it will be here so soon!!). I still have to finish my final research project and lead a professional development at my school on top of the rest of my papers and assignments.

Wanting... to be right HERE right NOW:

Every time I get stressed with school/grad school/wedding planning, I take a look at these pictures and daydream :) It will all be worth it.

Pet Peeves... the giant mess that my apartment is becoming right now. i feel like every time I finish a load of laundry, there are three more waiting. Every time I do the dishes, a whole new stack is waiting on me. It is so hard to stay on top of cleaning sometimes!! Especially when it is at the bottom of my priority list.

The Rest of Catholic Schools Week

Oh my goodness was Catholic Schools Week exhausting! Last night I came home, collapsed on the couch and took a hard earned nap. We had so much fun last week with all of our activities but I am definitely looking forward to a normal week! Earlier this week I posted a little bit about what we did on Monday. The rest of our week went a little something like this:

Tuesday: Teacher luncheon and Vocabulary Parade

Wednesday: Movie in the afternoon

Thursday: "How Well Do You Know Your Teacher?" Game Show and Invention Fair

Friday: All School Mass, Science Show, and 5th graders vs teachers kickball game

All throughout the week we had Penny Wars and Candy Grams (buy a candy bar to send to a friend and write them a message).

Our vocabulary parade was so much fun! The students all had to dress up in a costume or outfit that represented a vocabulary word. Here is a pic of a couple of the kids dressed as "technology" and "orbit".

We had so much fun but this teacher was absolutely exhausted by the time it was all over. 

I wanted to share with all of you the bulletin board we ended up going with for CSW. We tried to stick with the theme of "Raising the Standards":

 

Each student had to write one goal on a circular piece of lined paper and illustrate themselves achieving their goal. We put it into a cross formation to keep with the CSW theme. Next to our board, we had the words "Kindergarten is raising the standards". I love this crinkle border I saw on Peace, Love, and First Grade. Laura is so creative, you should check out her blog if you get a chance!

Have a great Saturday!!

Beginning of February and Super Bowl Sale!

Beginning on Super Bowl Sunday I will be hosting a sale at my TPT store. I'm sure you already know the one... the big 28% off sale!

I have recently uploaded a super fun Mardi Gras unit and also a unit full of centers for Unit 4 of the reading series Journeys.

If any of you other kindergarten teachers use Journeys, this will make your life significantly easier for a few weeks!! The centers are so much more realistic and fun than the ones recommended in the manual. There is nothing worse than trying to do your small reading groups and being interrupted by students in another group who aren't doing what they are supposed to. I hate when the little ones I am working with in small group lose time due to that! The Journeys centers in my packet will keep student interest longer and follow very simple directions.

Just in case you are too busy watching the Super Bowl or preparing for a SB party, I've extended my sale to Monday as well. Monday will only be 20% off though so try to make all your purchases Sunday if you can!!

I will post more pictures from CSW later tonight... we had so much fun this week!