Catching up...and a freebie!!

Oh wow.  It's been like a week since I've been on the ol' blog.  I have no clue where the time goes.  Seems like I just left school on Friday afternoon and here I am getting ready to head back there in about 12 hours.  Where did my weekend go?!  And then as soon as Monday gets started it will turn into Friday and I'll end up wondering what happened to all of the days in between.  Busy is good, I guess.  It means summer will be here even faster!  We have 50 days left this year and they all just flying by!  It's crazy!

Last week my team started doing something new--we make our kiddos call home once they've received their third behavior mark.  WHY didn't anyone tell me how incredibly empowering it would be to make those calls in the middle of the day {and for some kids, before 8:10 in the morning...}?  Seriously.  It's the best thing I've ever done.  They DO NOT want to call mama at work, so some of my worst offenders have been good as gold the past few days.  We'll see how long that lasts...

Another thing we're starting is a fun Friday reward for kids who have excellent behavior all week.  How many of you do this every week?  What are some of the activities you do?  We were thinking about showing a short video, playing some games, making a craft, or making some sort of edible craft.  I'm just hoping that making these phone calls during the day and having an awesome reward on Fridays will help the crazy behaviors that have been going on!  Gotta get through these next 50 days without pulling out all of my hair!

Before I go check out all of the awesome Dr. Seuss activities you guys have planned for the week, I thought I would share a little patterning activity with you.  I'm having my kiddos make a little lift the flap book about patterns with these:

Click here to download.  Hope you can use them!  Alright...off to blogstalk and finish up my Lifetime Killer Marathon.  Oh, how I love my Lifetime Sundays.  

Let it Snow!

Yesterday the first snowflakes of the season fell!  They were big and fluffy and absolutely beautiful.  It didn't last long or stick but it got the kids {and me} excited.  Even though I knew it wasn't going to accumulate, it made me hopeful for a snow day.  Oh how I just love a snow day.  It's the only time that I actually enjoy being awakened by the phone ringing at 5:30 in the morning.  Ahhh, knowing I can turn off the alarm and roll back over and drift off to sleep is just so nice.  Some people do not like snow days {bah, humbug!}.  But I really don't mind having a few make up days added at the end of the year.  We go the same amount of days regardless of whether or not we get a few unexpected days off sprinkled in here and there.  I would go to school until June if I got a month off during the cold winter months.  I hate being cold and just want to stay snuggled up on the couch all winter long.  {But I love snow...go figure!}

Because I am crazy, whenever they call for snow I have a ritual I do to guarantee a snow day.  I tell all of my students to do it too.  You know, because it's more likely to work if there are lots of people doing it.  {That's what I tell myself.}  I wear my pajamas inside out and backwards, flush a cup of ice down the toilet, and put a spoon under my pillow.  And it works!  Promise.  But I'm scared to death that one day my ritual is going to stop delivering results and I might need a new game plan.  Do you have a tried and true way to get a snow day?!  I need to have a few more tricks up my sleeve so please share!

Here's a little snowy patterns freebie I made to use with my kindergartners this week.  I try not to use too much color ink at school for fear that it might run out and we may never get another color cartridge again.  So it's black and white.  But I'll print it on pretty cardstock.  Cut apart the cards and put the pattern name cards in a pile.  Students draw a card and use the snowflakes to create that pattern.  I'm sure there are many other ways to use it too.  Please share if you come up with something different!  Grab it here.