Five for Fraturday

HELLO!

I get on kicks where I’ll eat the same thing every single day for weeks on end, and then I finally get to a point where the food item completely disgusts me, and my gag reflex kicks in, and I swear I will not eat it ever again.  Until I do.  This is a problem in my life.

Welllllll . . . I was eating the belvita cinnamon brown sugar crunchy biscuits, but now I just simply cannot because of everything I said above.

And then I switched to the dark chocolate sandwich creme ones because holy yumminess.  I haven’t burned myself out on those yet.  Thank goodness.

BUT NOW.

NOW!

They came out with these peanut butter sandwich creme ones AND I MIGHT AS WELL BE EATING NUTTER BUTTERS FOR BREAKFAST, people, because THEY TASTE JUST LIKE NUTTER BUTTERS and I LOVE NUTTER BUTTERS and, according to the box, instead of eating an actual Nutter Butter which is a cookie, I’m eating a breakfast biscuit that gives me four hours of nutritious steady energy.

FOUR HOURS!

And it has 15 grams of WHOLE GRAIN.

And whatever else, I really don’t care, please do not leave me a comment or email me separately to tell me that this box of pretend Nutter Butters is not healthy for me and it’s all sugar and fake artificial stuff that is poison because, at this point, I’m just thankful that I am NOT allergic to peanut butter because I LOVE THESE THINGS.

A LOT.

So far, in all my life, I have never gotten sick of peanut butter.

 

Hooray!  It’s time for plays!!!!  We are in our first round of REAL centers and my kids are LOVING plays.  They are ADDICTED!  In fact, I had a room parent meeting one morning, and my room parents’ children came, too, and I said do whatever you want, you can write on the whiteboard, play with the math stuff, use a tablet, whatever and they went STRAIGHT FOR THE PLAYS!  And a couple of my kids have started writing their own!!

I mean!!!!

HOORAY FOR PLAYS!

Well, the first group to perform this play “Lunch Time!” really showed me what a stand up comedian I am in the first grade world. I am a RIOT, apparently.

When they read this part:

And then this part:

Well . . . the “audience” went crazy.

They laughed and laughed and laughed.  They held their sides, they fell over, they slapped one another on the back (which led to some tattling as it always does) and they gasped for air.

So then the two boys performing this play got the giggles and then I got the giggles and then we ended our day on a super high note (minus the slapping a tad bit too hard and the tattling).

This play is POPULAR and we have seen it performed about five times in a row now.  But they STILL laugh like it’s the first time.  I keep trying to tell them that there are other funny plays in the basket but . . . they either don’t believe me or they honestly do not care.

The best part?  Their fluency and expressions just keep getting better and better as they try to top each other.

TOO MUCH FUN!

 

It was time for me to eat and eat and eat and then eat some more.

In other words, it was time for a luncheon in the staff room.  This one was put on by our office staff, special ed staff, and any instructional aides on campus.  The theme was football/tailgating/etc and let’s just say they set the bar WAY TOO HIGH.

The bar was so high that I couldn’t even see the bar.

First grade is next and we are supposed to host it on Halloween.

And there are only four of us.

FOUR.   Whereas the office staff, special ed staff, and instructional aides at our school number in the THOUSANDS.

Okay.

HUNDREDS.

Alright!!!

Okay!!

Fine!  I am exaggerating.

BUT!

There were AT LEAST FIFTEEN people involved and possibly more because I am pretty sure we have about ten instructional aides on campus that I haven’t even formally met yet.  And then we have about seven (or more!) office staff!  And then our special education team involves the special ed teachers plus Resource teachers plus Speech teachers and OT and ABA and now I am thinking there were at least THIRTY people involved in this one.

ANYWHO.

Starting off your day with chocolate and fritos (plus the Nutter Butter Breakfast Biscuits) is a pretty okay way to start your day.  And then for lunch, I had chips and cheese, lumpia, some sort of artichoke dip and more fritos, a real ALIVE coca cola (not diet), spinach dip, a hoagie roll of some sort, brownies, and a cookie.

At which point, I felt sick.

Obviously.

So I told myself I would NOT eat dinner.

Do not eat dinner, Kristin I said.

So I didn’t.

I ate breakfast.  (for dinner)

Captain Crunch.

And almond milk.

I know.

I KNOW!

Almond milk is so healthy and good for you!!!

😉

 

AY YI YI!!!

Okay, so Benchmark Advance is slowly killing me and I wish I could get on here and act like I have it all together and say this worked really well for me and you should try it or this didn’t work that great so I made this to go with it and here you go BUT I CANNOT.

I CANNOT AT ALL.

I CAN’T EVEN.

One thing that was really bothering me were the leveled readers.  They came to us sorted by unit.  So all of the leveled books in unit one are about government and community members.  But there might only be one level C/3 book and what if I need to find another?  I have to search through all the units to find one?  It’s not like they are in any kind of leveled order WITHIN the unit.  And it’s not like I have better things to do.

Ahem.

My team and I spent the better part of an hour (hour and a half) breaking apart all of the “units” and resorting them by level.  So now I have a TRUE leveled library in my very own classroom which is a first for me!  And I don’t have to share!!!!

I like to share.  I’ll loan you anything.

But the fact that no one else is going to have the book title that I was hoping to use that week or with that group or with that kid is sort of amazing.

And as far as the whole unit/theme whatever thing, it’s not a big deal.  Let’s say I pull a leveled reader on community members in December.  My kids will have BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE.

And let’s say I pull a leveled reader on plants or something and we haven’t gotten to that unit yet . . . well, then I am FRONT LOADING my kids.

It’s a win win, if you ask me.

But Benchmark didn’t ask me OTHERWISE I WOULD NOT HAVE HAD TO DO THAT THIS WEEK.

Just saying.

 

After a lot of requests and emails and Q/A in my store, I am finally beginning to work on some Listen and Learn activities for Math.  I’m starting out simple because that’s just the kind of girl I am.

This pack focuses on number recognition, counting, counting forward, number identification, tracing and writing the numbers, and, of course, listening and following directions!  I just finished up the recordings which obviously take a long time because each activity is between 15 and 17 minutes, and sometimes the recordings feel like torture to me because I can’t have the TV or music on in the background, and Murphie can’t be in the room with me (she is a TALKER and I’m not kidding) and I can’t sneeze or get a tickle in my throat, and if I mess up, I feel like I have to start all over (although now I’m like Hey!  They’re kids, they don’t care if I mess up as long as I own it) and endless other things and hitches in my giddy-up AND NOW YOU KNOW.

Have a GREAT weekend!

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