Day 75

4 days until Christmas break!!! I think I can! I think I can! I think I can!!!

One project is complete! My kids decorated their glass ornaments today! That’s right, I said GLASS. Five and six year olds decorated glass ornaments today. AND, not a single one broke or even came close to breaking. When I mentioned doing this to another teacher, she poo pooed it, saying, “They can’t handle that.” All I have to say is, “Booyah! They did it!!”

I have decided that kindergartners can do whatever you push them to do. After all, they won’t even try if you don’t push them to do it. Coming from second grade, I push my kindergartners A LOT. Poor things don’t get babied by this teacher. Lately, each day we have been doing addition problems during our calendar time. Today I even threw out the term “fact family” to them. Now I didn’t mention the subtraction part of that family but we talked about the addition side. For example, today is the 13th. I don’t have 13 fingers, so my leader and I did some team work. He held up any number his first choice was 10. As a class, we had to count on to 13, meaning I added 3 of my fingers to make up the 13; thus making 10+3= 13. Then, we talked about how 3+10=13 is part of the fact family because it uses the same 3 numbers. I promptly told my kids that they were learning second grade things and they immediately felt smarter!

Tonight, we had Supper with Santa, also known as MADNESS. The kids seemed to enjoy themselves but also learned a lesson. When one person plans, make sure they are going to be there with their plan. No one really knew what was going on since that person couldn’t come due to sick kids. Kudos to the teachers that all worked together to make it happen. If there is a next time, we will know how to plan it to run more smoothly.

Due to Supper with Santa, I was unable to attend bunco. I was really bummed about not going because it was Christmas sweater themed and I didn’t get to wear this…
This picture does not do that sparkly sweatshirt with attached turtleneck justice. Several years ago, a friend had a Tacky Christmas Party. Hubby may have taken it to extreme but aren't we festive?!?

Last night, I posted my first grant on http://www.donorschoose.org/! This website allows teachers to create grants for materials for their classrooms and anyone can read about the project and help fund it. I am waiting on Donors Choose to send me an email saying my grant has been posted or needs more information. It is not a large grant, so hopefully it will be funded quickly and I can get those items into my kiddies hands! When the project is funded, Donors Choose sends a ‘thank you kit’ and my friends and I get to write letters of gratitude to the donors. Several teachers in my school have had grants funded so I am excited that I finally did my own!!!