Holiday Happenings

Thanks for all of your feedback on last week’s post “Timers:  Yes or No”!!  I can’t report back because our party isn’t until this week.  But I promise to report back on how it goes . . . I’m a nervous wreck to say goodbye to the timer, but I’m doing it!

In the meantime, I thought I’d do a little hodge podge post on all the Holiday Happenings going on in my classroom.

Let me start by saying that my class is practically falling apart at the seams and getting to 3:00 on the 21st is going to be a long and difficult road!!!!  GAH!  But I can do it.  I’m a pro.  And wine after school always helps.

Here we go!

1.  We will be making the same parent ornaments that we made last year!  

You can read all about how I organized this so that the kids did practically everything {HERE}.  And you can grab a free editable tag {HERE}.  I LOVE THESE ORNAMENTS!!

2.  We will be having a hot chocolate party!

We are “earning” it, but I know that we will earn it by Wednesday afternoon.  I have to know so that I can have all of the supplies ready to go for Thursday.  So on Wednesday, I’ll time it just right so that we get our last letter at the end of the day.  The crowd will go wild (or wilder, seeing as how we are pretty much acting like hyenas with rabies right about now) and then we’ll have our little hot chocolate party the next morning.

You can grab this freebie {HERE}.  It’s EXACTLY what I use and so easy!  Just add magnets or scotch tape and you’re all set.  Or even better, use a pocket chart.  I’m right now wondering why I didn’t just use my pocket chart that  is already on my whiteboard and has nothing in it because I’m not teaching spelling at the current moment.  My team and I decided to skip it for two weeks and review instead.  And this goes without saying, but by review, I mean hold onto our sanity and each other, and say “there there” when one of us wants to cry a little.

And here’s my DELICIOUS hot chocolate recipe.

Don’t forget the crock pot liner for easy clean up!!  I shared this on Instagram this week and some of the comments had me cracking up!  Some people wanted to know if this was real.

Um.  Yes.

I’m real.  And this is my recipe.  And it’s real.

And some people wanted to know how long to “cook” it, and did I put my crock pot on high or low?

People.

I do not cook.  I do not know what I am doing.  I just plug the crock pot in and do my best not to splash myself when I’m pouring the gallon jug of milk into it.  I put it on high because I want the milk to be hot.  And maybe it’s been heating for a couple of hours by the time I actually start to serve it . . . I don’t know!  But if I can do it, then you can, too.  TRUST ME.

I always borrow another crock pot so that I’ve got two going because I typically have a large class size.  I’m holding steady at 25 kids right now, but I’m still getting two gallons of milk and two crock pots.  Maybe we’ll have enough for seconds.  And bonus:  when the hot chocolate cools, it’s fine.  It’s chocolate milk.

3.  We had Ugly Sweater day this week.

I hate Ugly Sweater day because as much as I like to show school spirit, I HATE wearing ugly things.  I mean, HELLO?  I do my best on most days to NOT wear ugly things.  And I know, I know.  It’s just for fun, but STILL.  I do not want to wear a vest, or a sweater with a puffy Mrs. Claus on it, and fur on the collar.

That’s what I have.  I have a sweater with a puffy Mrs. Claus on it, and it has fur on the collar, and it ZIPS UP THE MIDDLE LIKE A CARDIGAN except that it’s NOT a cardigan, it’s a SWEATER.  This means that the fur on the collar SEPARATES.

Shudder.

I finally did what I should have done a long time ago.

I got onto good ole Amazon and searched “Ugly Sweaters“.  And look what came up!!!

Now this is a sweater I can get behind.

Speaking of BEHIND.

YES!

Yes, I ordered it, and yes it came in time for our Spirit Day, and YES I love it!

Most people said the same thing:  That’s not ugly.  That’s super cute!

And it is.  I know.

But would I wear this out on a normal night?  Like to a restaurant?

Hmmmm.  I mean, I DEFINITELY want to wear it again.  But I don’t think I would wear this OUT.

I don’t know!

SO ANYWAYS.

A couple of people said that when I walked, the reindeer on the back shook his hips, too.

Um.  STOP LOOKING BEHIND ME.

😉

One of my teammates kept trying to record it (all stealth-like) on her phone so I finally gave up and gave her permission.  If you want to see the video, you have to go to my Instagram.  This is because every time I put a video on my blog, it breaks it.

In the video, I’m repeating JUST THE SWEATER because I didn’t want her to get my backside (obviously!) and then she says oh, there it goes, keep it moving, sister, keep it moving!

Ay yi yi!!  🙂

Here’s our team picture:

Laurie, on the left, said she had a VISION of this picture and made me get across all of their laps.

I don’t know what is up with my teammates, but I’m not sure they think of me as an actual equal.

IS IT MY SIZE?!

Oh, and maybe it is my size, but having a big ole poof ball in the middle of your chest just begs first graders to touch it.  So you’ve been warned.

With all of this going on, it’s a wonder I did any teaching at all.

🙂

4.  I gave out my Parent Gifts!

MY MOST FAVORITE CAKE IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD!

You guys!

One of my teammates had this idea and she is so so so smart!!  I made the tag for us, but other than that, Nothing Bundt Cakes did the rest!  If you order a Bundlet Tower, you can choose ONE cake, but they still wrap it all up for you!  You get to choose a little flag (I chose “Happy Holidays”), the ribbon color, and a card which is attached with a mini clothespin (I switched it out with white ones I already had, but seriously, who cares, and I didn’t use their card because I had my own tag) and for $1 extra, you can choose a flower!

All for the price of $7.75.

That’s for EVERYTHING.  The cake, the card, the flag, the cellophane wrapping, the ribbon, and the flower.  NOT TO MENTION, they DO IT ALL FOR YOU.  I literally ordered online, and then Steve went to pick them up for me because I was working on something, and he was being helpful, plus ensuring that he would get some cakes for us, too.

The only thing I had to do was write a message on the back of my tag and clip it on.

Call me crazy (I am) but I just don’t think you can beat this!!

If you like this idea and need the tag, you can get them {HERE}.  I have circle or square shaped ones.

My volunteers help me run reading groups each day, but we are not having groups next week because of all the FUN we’ll be having instead.  And by fun, I mean USING MY STUN GUN and MEGAPHONE to do crowd control, obviously.  So I needed to pass out my gifts THIS WEEK when each of them came.

Let me tell you.

It’s really hard to hand over a Nothing Bundt Cake.

A couple of the parents might have had to tug a bit to get me to let go.

5.  I don’t really have a number five.

But four just seems odd.  Even though it’s not odd.  It’s an even number.  I know that.

But you get what I’m saying, right?

Five just rounds everything out.

So I’ll just say I am hoping for the best this week!

For you and for me and for all of us!

WE CAN DO IT!!!

Next week, I’ll recap how my Timer-LESS party went.

YIKES.

🙂