I thought I would never see you again!

day number 12 of having no school and there won't be any school tomorrow. it's like christmas break all over again. except for no one was prepared for it and some kids, like the one i ran into at the store today think there will never be school again.

the young chap i ran into is in 1st grade across the hall from my class. his cousin is in my class and it is ultra cool to this kid that i know his cousin so obviously we are bff. i was in target just meandering around looking to spend a gift card (thanks katie #1) and out of nowhere this kid jumps me around the waist. "mom it's sammy's teacher! it's sammy's teacher" of course the mom has no idea of who i am. i don't remember the boy's name so i just act really excited and say "and you're sammy's cousin!" it worked well, he had no idea i don't know his name. as i'm trying to introduce myself to the mom and explain why her son has latched himself on me the kid is talking 1385342 miles per minute telling me everything about his life. he then gets a really weird look and his face and blurts "oh ms. henderson i never thought i was going to see you again!" to see this kid who i don't even really know be so worried about not having school makes me miss my kids even more.

freaking snow. go away.

i don't want to work in july.

and i miss my children.

i wonder when we will end up having our valentine's day party. some teachers will probably cancel it (it was supposed to be this friday), but i refuse to cancel the best party of the year. we can just celebrate it in march maybe. when we go back to school. heck the parents can even save some money buying the cards after the holiday. i always wanted to buy the best valentine's for my classmates growing up, but mom wouldn't get them. i resent that, maybe that's why i got the good ones this year. thanks mom :)

maybe tomorrow i'll tackle the task of uploading some pictures on here. don't get too excited though, just sayin...

Happy February!

**Snow Day**
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Instead of transitioning my kids from one reading group to another I'm in bed. Simply amazing. This will be our 5th non-full week in a row, meaning we haven't had a real week of school since before Christmas. As wonderful as it is it takes 6 weeks for kids to form a routine. You can do the math with how long we haven't been in our school routine. Maybe we could just make 4 day weeks a routine for the rest of the year. Mr. Obama there's a way to save money for you!

Some people have been wondering what my day really looks like. Well here it is in a nutshell.
1) Unpacking-most kids come into the room, put book bag and coat in cubby, put folder in basket, make a lunch choice (I have pictures of their choices so I don't have to read them 18 times), and start on our morning activity.

1.5) Remind 2 of my students to go to the bathroom, recheck 1 book bag because the girl forgets every morning, call her to get her folder, remind her to get it out of her book bag (get the picture with this one yet?), count lunch count, take attendance.

2) Calendar time--we go over: days of the week, what day it is today, yesterday, and tomorrow, count the days of school, look at the weather, and read our morning message.

2.5) Remind my kids to give me 5. Sit up straight. Quiet hands and feet. Lips closed. Listening ears. Eyes on speaker.

2.75) Listen to the 148 stories each one of my kids has about the most important thing that happened to them the night before. Then somehow transition to math without anyone feeling they didn't get to share what was needed.

3) Math--#'s 1-20, count by 5 and 10 to 100, fractions, addition, subtraction, patterns. Fun times.

4) Centers and Snack--yay! learning to be friends :)

5) Reading group 1

5.5)Bathroom reminder

6) Reading group 2

7) Coats on and zipped. Hats on. Gloves on. Line up at back door. OUTSIDE!
8) Lunch. I hate ketchup packets!

9) Unit time aka my favorite part of the day. we learn about our weekly theme. this week bears grrrrrr.

10) Power-up read my previous post for the explaining of this topic.

11) Pack-up and Specials for the kids Planning which usually means meetings for power up for me

12) 1st bus load go.

13) Entertain 2nd bus load and after school kids. The new highlight. Hide in seek in the classroom. Yes I let them probably have too much fun. I'm ok with it.

14) 2nd bus load go.

15) Tell my after school kid to mosey down the hall as slow as he can. He's gotten pretty good at this because he's not allowed in the cafeteria until the last bell rings. Sometimes he crawls. Sometimes I get looked at like I'm crazy.

16) Prepare myself to do it all over again. I guess you have to be a little crazy to do this.

And I'm not gonna lie I really want to have school tomorrow. First, because it's groundhog day and that's just fun. Second, because I have a doctor's (yes another) appointment and have already taken a half day off. One of these days we'll get a new routine. Off to eat some delicous mennonite fooooood :).