Perfect Picture Book Friday- Groundhog's Special Secret

What a crazy week this has been! We started out the week with the Chinese New Year! Then yesterday, we celebrated the 100th day of school. And I was sick. As. A. Dog!!!! Oh my goodness you guys, I had the most terrible sore throat on Wednesday night. I had a hunch I shouldn't go to school yesterday so I quick emailed my bestie at school with sub plans.

What would one do without a best friend at school, right?
Are ya with me???

Luckily, my usual suspect of a substitute was available and willing to tackle the 100th day of school with my little firstie buzzers. I had this cute shirt all planned out and then, bam! sore throat hit. Also luckily, I was able to get in to my doctor right away at 8:00am yesterday and she told me I had something bacterial going on. A something closely related to strep, so she put me on a kick bootie antibiotic and I'm feelin' like a champ today!!! Good thing, because I did a LOT of managing these 27 little ones today....

Well, let's get to the perfect picture book, shall we....???

Groundhog's Special Secret
Written by: Iris Hiskey Arno
Illustrated by: Renee Graef
Scholastic Incorporated, 2003, Fiction
Suitable For: ages 5 and up
Themes/Topics: Groundhog's Day, Seasons, being a good friend
Opening: "Lila twirled around and around in the candlelit den. On the wall, her shadow spun like a whirling top.
"Time for all groundhogs to be in bed!" Papa called.
"But I'm not tired!" Lila cried. "I can't possibly sleep all the way until spring!"
"Now, Lila," Mama said, "everyone else is in bed and Uncle Wilbur is about to head for his den."

Brief Synopsis: Lila doesn't want to go to sleep because she is not tired. Uncle Wilbur challenges her to be the first one awake, but when she does wake, Uncle Wilbur tells her to go back to sleep for a few minutes. But instead, Lila goes above ground!

Links to Resources: There are some WAY cute craftivities out in bloggy world right now having to do with Groundhog's Day! Check out this burrowing activity, craft and writing from Cara at The First Grade Parade. I love the Smartboard lesson to introduce it. I'm so doing this on Tuesday or Wednesday next week!
There's also these way cute activities from Mrs. Cupcake over at A Cupcake for the Teacher. I can't wait to share in the fun with my little buzzers next week, too! I know there are MANY more on TPT or TN so go check that out, too! Oh! And don't forget to show your kiddos LIVE footage of the groundhog actually seeing or not seeing his shadow next Thursday, too. They LOVE that!

Why I Like This Book: I love this book because it is a fun way to introduce Groundhog's Day to those little ones that HAVE NEVER heard of it, or so they say. :) It's a cute little tale that kids can relate to--the-not-wanting-to-go-to-bed-and-the-waking-up-early-with-excitement thing of course.

For more perfect picture books with resources, or join in the fun, please click here!

Have a GRRREAT weekend!
Marcy

Perfect Picture Book Friday- Deep Snow

I cannot believe I have been missing out on this linky party! Where have I been?? Oh well, I'm excited to start in this Friday book talk!

Not the best picture...sorry I couldn't find a better one!

Deep Snow
Written By: Robert Munsch
Illustrated By: Michael Martchenko
Scholastic Inc., 2006, Fiction
Suitable For: ages 5 and up
Themes: Snow, Winter, Seasonal Actvities

Opening:
"Way out in the middle of nowhere, Ali suddenly yelled, "STOP!"
"What's the matter?" said her father.
"I want to jump in the snow," said Ali.
"No," said her sister Kate, "that is deep, deep, deeeeeeeep snow!"
"I still want to jump in it," said Ali.
"This is not a good idea," said Kate."

Brief Synopsis: I hate to give it away so if you don't want the surprise ruined, read on.
They have to get something out of the snow. I hope I haven't said too much.

Links to Resources: I haven't found any yet....so if you find some, post a comment below and I'll get them added!

Why I Like This Book: Because it's by Robert Munsch, duh! :)
I love the voice in his books. He adds humor in his books which kids "get" and understand. I love using Robert Munsch books to teach how to use voice in kids' writing! I loved using this book today after the 6 inches of snow we received early this morning.....

M.I.A.

Wow. What a crazy past couple of months. I apologize for being missing in action the past few months.

My dad's tumor on his lung was malignant and it has been a whirlwind figuring that out...holy cats. What they thought was lung cancer actually turned out to be pancreatic cancer. Apparently each type of cancer has its own DNA make up. (I'm learning so much...NOT by choice.) So, he has an EXTREMELY late reccurance of pancreatic cancer and it traveled to his lung, which has never happened before leaving our oncologists, radiologists, etc. totally dumbfounded as to what to do. They finally decided to treat it like pancreatic cancer, NOT lung cancer because of the DNA make up and we are in the middle of treatments.

The last time my dad went through this was almost seven years ago...way healthier and way more agile. This time around, he has severe diabetes that is uncontrollable due to the benign (yay!) tumor on his pancreas. He has no feeling in his feet, due to the diabetes, so he is pretty much confined to a walker or wheelchair. He is on a 24-hour chemo pump, which is refilled each Monday and goes off every 5 minutes. It sounds like a camera going off, which does take some getting used to. The radiation treatments are every day and they are hitting him from 10 different angles. This is causing terrible sores on his lips and in his mouth, causing extreme pain when he eats, thus causing a loss of appetite, which has led to an 11 pound weight loss in the last week and a half.

It has been a blessing to have him around this holiday season, but it is so hard to see my dad in this condition. I do not wish this upon anyone once, let alone twice.

SO that's what has been going on in my life and something had to give. It was this poor little blog. Thank you for hanging in there and for all your thoughtful prayers and emails. They are so heartfelt and it makes me teary eyed thinking about this amazing community I have become a part of. I have been taking my dad to treatment as much as they will let me. I'm not missing out on any family time!! My school family has been amazing and I have a TERRIFIC substitute that continues to amaze me, too.

Needless to say, I haven't been that crafty when it comes to school. I have been using all of YOUR units from TPT and TN to write my lesson plans. :)
My sweet buzzers LOVED Cara's New Years unit that you can get HERE if you haven't yet. We did that all last week and it was a blast. I LOVE some of their New Years Resolutions!!! SO cute.













I am so blessed to be getting a student teacher for the first time! I met her randomly at a bridal show I was at yesterday (yes, I am married but I help out a friend in the photography business). My student teacher is engaged and was there getting ideas and such. I can tell she is a mini-me, so things could get dangerous in this sweet classroom of mine. I CANNOT wait!!! :)

How do you all make your student teacher feel welcome?? This is my first time, so I am so excited, but want to make sure she feels right at home!

Enjoy your week! And I hope you'll hear from me more often now that I am becoming more accustomed to this new norm.

Marcy

What a weekend!

What a relaxing 3 1/2 day weekend I had! We were done with school on Wednesday and had a half day inservice on Thursday morning and I was done. It was GREAT. I didn't accomplish much of anything, other than spend that time with my family.

Thursday after inservice I stopped at Quiznos. Oh my, do I love Quiznos. Great sandwich shop, in case you've never heard of it. I got sandwiches and soup to take out to my dad for lunch. We spent the whole afternoon shootin' the breeze and watching tv. It was amazing time that I will never forget! That night, my sweet hubby, parents and I went to the local steakhouse for filet mignon. LOVED the margaritas, too!

Friday was spent back at my parents making apple pies. We made about 12 pies and it was so much fun! My mom makes THE BEST apple pies and she finally passed down the recipe!

Do you see a pattern? Not one thought about school.....

Saturday I went shopping and started laundry. My sweet hubby went hunting and then we stayed in for a date night at home! And yesterday we went to church, went out to eat again with my parents and then spent the remainder of the day at my sweet hubby's grandmas. She is hilarious!

So, no school anything on this little blog for awhile. I feel terrible. The nearest 2nd grade teacher to me made these way cute poppies and stories for Veterans Day. And she gave me permission to share with all of you. But did I? No...I am not beginning to do them justice with these pictures either. Thank you Cait for sharing!

Did I ever write about our 50th day of school that lasted for a week? No...it was a BLAST though, thanks to Cara over at The First Grade Parade!

Root Beer Floats!




Writing about the 1950s!

 

The Greasers!



The girls!



And my all-time favorite.

I cannot wait to celebrate 50s day every year! It was SO much fun! My new best friend at school and I are going to celebrate 80s day also!!! We are already planning. :)

See.....we have been doing a lot in this little classroom of mine! I just haven't had the time to post any of our wonderful activities! Thank you for stickin' it out with me! Have a GREAT full week!

Marcy

Hope this brightens your day...

I was telling my little buzzers that I was running a Trick-or-Treat Trail Run this weekend with my friend and instructional coach, Kersten. They started blurting out what they thought I was going to dress up as and I explained to them that Kersten and I need a pair, or couples, costume since we are running together. Well, all through writing time they were secretly writing what they thought we should dress up as. Most of them said things like witches, bees, baseball players, etc. One even said peanut butter and jelly OR eggs and bacon. But my personal favorite was this:

Can you tell I live in South Dakota???

:)
Marcy

Witches Brew

What's with the frigid cold temperatures? Last week it was in the 80's and today it's down to 32 degrees!!! My poor kiddos are FREEZING!!! And they still don't get it to bring hats and gloves yet. Poor dears.

Many of you have asked about my Wanda the Witch brew we have cookin' up over here. I do not actually have the letters in PDF or anything electronic. I received them from my former best friend at school who moved away.

Here are the ingredients I use:
Owl Eyes- skittles or m & ms
Rat Bones- cheetos
Slimy Earthworms- gummy worms
Chicken Toenails- candy corn
Yummy Ants- mini chocolate chips or raisins if you're healthy
Cat Eyes- lemon drops
Bat Bones- pretzels
Butterfly Wings- triscuits
Cat Claws- peanuts or sunflower seeds
Human Eyeballs- eyeball candy found during Halloween time
Blood Drops- red hots
Lizard Gizzards- Nibs
Snake Eyes- sixlets

This year I got smart and emailed the parents telling them it was a BIG secret and they all have joined in. They each brought in an ingredient to the office and put it in my mailbox so the kids didn't find out. GENIUS. And way less expensive for me this year.

Since I don't have the letters electronically, I did find this post from What the Teacher Wants. Rachelle's witches brew is VERY similar to mine! Go check it out and DON'T forget to tell her who sent ya! ;)

If you REALLY can't live without our Wanda the Witch letters, email me and I'll see what I can do. :)
busybeesandcupcakes at gmail dot com

P.S. My kids cannot stop writing about Wanda the Witch OR ghost stories. There was about 5 minutes before we went to recess the other day and the lights were off. Luckily, there is a flashlight by the door so I grabbed it and started telling a ghost story. Oh my word, they took off with that! Now, they are writing their own ghost stories and they are HILARIOUS! I LOVE IT!!!!

Marcy

Leaves

I am estatic today! It's only lunch time, (yes, we go to lunch at 10:55) but I am so happy already! My kids are working so hard and quiet today! I couldn't be more happy!!

We started the day practicing for our first spelling test on Friday. Let's just say I hope the real test on Friday goes better than the practice one today! ;)

After recess, we came back and did poetry, finished up our bee project-based learning unit, and then went into the bulk of this post!

I read Leaves by David Ezra Stein. LOVE the illustrations in this book.

We talked about how author's don't need to use a ton of words to get their story out there. And then we reviewed the CAFE strategy "Retell the Story" by writing about the beginning, middle, and end in their cute little reading journals. I sent my little buzzers back to their desks and this is just a sampling of their reading journals:

 

 

When they were all settled and working, I started pulling some little ones to work with at the table. Then, all of a sudden I hear one of my little darlings say, "Hey, I just forgot the periods!". My class is terrible at remembering punctuation, but I keep telling myself, "It's only the first quarter of first grade!" Even though it was a disruption to my high attention kiddos, it was adorable. When they say cute things that relate to what I have been hounding, I make a BIIIIG deal of it. That student gets to draw their school picture, just like they did here, expect on LARGE paper and then we write in a speech balloon what they said. We hang it up so all can see and remember for next time. They LOVE this. All of them. It really gets each child to strive to get their picture up with something brilliant they said. Here's his:

GREAT day here so far! I hope you are having an AWESOME day, too!!!

Marcy