Currently...

Um.  Can we talk about how I should probably start playing the lottery because I totally called the score yesterday?  I don't care about football.  At all.  But I somehow knew the score.  I'm psychic.  {Or maybe it's psycho?  One or the other.}  Anywho...Lori and Kelly, check your emails for your prize!

I'm linking up with Farley this month!  I know you're all DYING to see what I'm doing RIGHT! NOW!

This is random, but I hope you'll love me anyway.  Are you guys having your Valentine's parties on the Friday before, the day of {Tuesday}, or the Friday after?  We had our Halloween party on a Monday this year and it totally threw me off my game for the rest of the week.  Any suggestions for toning it down next Tuesday so we don't start the week on a sugar high then crash and burn WAY before Friday comes around?   

I {Heart} Number Bonds...

{...well, that's not entirely true.  Our relationship is more on-again, off-again.  I heart number bonds when all of my sweet little friends are pickin' up what I'm puttin' down.  But when the number bonds throw them...well, that's when I don't heart the number bonds.  Thank God this year's bunch is getting it.  Otherwise I would have pulled out all of my hair by now and I'd be forced to wear my Jessica Simpson hair every single day.  And I'd have a permanent bruise on my forehead from banging it against the wall.}

Anyway...I just wanted to share a new little game I posted on TpT for just $2 {this includes all game cards and 3 fun worksheets}!  There are several different ways you could play/use this fun little valentines-themed number bonds resource.  Take a peek...

And because I heart you, here's a freebie from the I {Heart}Number Bonds activity pack!

Grab yours here!

And because I really, really heart all of you party people, I'm going to give away two copies of these little games!  They will go to the two people whose comments are the numbers of tonight's winning score.  Soo...if the score is 21-17, my friends who posted comments number 21 and 17 are the lucky winners!  {Make sure you leave me your email address!}  I'm not ashamed to admit that I will have to google to find out the score.  Because I for sure will not be watching the Super Bowl.  The only sports I care about are shopping and running Lifetime movie marathons.  So I will be watching the Nora Roberts movie marathon on Lifetime AND shopping online.  Who says you can't have it all?

Oh!  I'm also super excited to be part of this AMAZING giveaway for second grade teachers!  There are like a KAJILLION bloggers teaming up to give away sooo many fun things!  Head over and check it out:

Make sure you enter the I {heart} 2nd Grade giveaway at Swimming into Second {not here!}!

The one with gas, sad vocal chords, and a freebie

It feels like it's been forever since I've written a real blog post!  I have missed catching up with everyone.  I'm about to make a BIG DENT in my Google Reader.  Hope they have good insurance...  {I know.  I think I'm so funny.  It's sad.  Laugh anyway.} 

The children have been keeping me busy and cracking me up.  Bless their hearts.  They must know that if they didn't keep me laughing all day, I'd pull out my hair.  We've recently had some uh, gassy issues.  Last week there was the WYDTIFOJB incident. {I'm working on bracelets for all my party people.}  The very next day I was able to use that line on a kindergarten darling who totally let loose and ripped one on my carpet.  Like I think I saw her lift up off her spot on the carpet.  It was ferocious.  And of course everyone had to hold their noses and express their disdain for the fact that this {seemingly sweet} little girl just polluted their air.  I was trying to maintain my composure because I'm five just like them and can't help but laugh when someone passes gas and I looked back to see my assistant's head turned around, shoulders shaking with laughter.  {So relieved that I'm not the only immature adult in the room.}  I fought the urge to crack up and started to explain to the class that everyone does it and there's no reason why we should carry on like that.  All of a sudden, out of nowhere, one of them screamed out, "IT'S ALL THE BEANS!"  At that point, it was over for me.  It's all the beans...  It's time for me to have a serious chat with our cafeteria manager.  Smells Sounds Seems like we need to back away from the beans for a while.

Fast forward to today, when I woke up with NO VOICE.  Doesn't my body know how much I love to talk?  That is why I became a teacher, after all.  You know, so I would have a good excuse for yakking all day long and have a captive audience 5 days a week, 7 hours a day {Although, that's still nowhere near as much air time as the Kardashians...}.  Luckily my wonderful assistant taught kindergarten for me, so I just had to find a way to make it through first and second grade.  I struggled with my sweet firsties.  They took full advantage of the fact that I had to walk to them to correct their behavior.  I wised up with second grade though.  I gave them gum.  Magical gum.  Gum that would keep their mouths busy so they wouldn't need to talk.  And guess what?  Silence.  And amazingly wonderful behavior.  For almost two hours.  Aaahhhhh....  I will have to break out that magical gum more often.  But then it would probably lose its power.  I'm going to stay home tomorrow to rest my voice so that I can hopefully chat it up non-stop again on Friday.  Send vocal chord healing vibes my way, please. 
Finally, here's a little prize for you!  My second graders can always use extra practice with place value.  Here's a fun little activity you can do where they have to put the digits in the correct order and write the three digit number on the line.  Some of you may be able to use this with your first graders.

Grab your copy here!  Have a wonderful Thursday.  And think of me when you want to scream, "If I have to tell you one more time..."  Because right now, I would so welcome the opportunity to say something one more time.  When I finally get my voice back, I may end up talking to myself.  I might have to get on here and post my phone number when it starts working again.  You guys would call me so I wouldn't have to talk to myself, right?!

New Blog!!!

Sarah and I are so incredibly excited to share our new blog with you!

 

We are moving the exchange chit chat over to a brand new blog!  Starting Wednesday, all giveaways will take place over there.  And it's where all future exchanges will take place as well.  {Yep, we have more up our sleeves.  Seems like every time we get partners matched up, we get emails from people who didn't find out about it until too late.  And we like to keep everyone happy.  Soo...there will be several exchanges throughout the year for those who want to participate!}  This way we don't have to keep trying to bounce back and forth between each other's blogs.  Anyway, click the button above to go check it out and follow so you can receive updates on all the fun things we have planned!

 

Tomorrow I'll be back to normal.  Who am I kidding.  I wouldn't know normal if it hit me in the face.  I'll just be back.  With something other than valentines exchange information.  {I know...it's about time, right!}

 

Holy Emails, Batman!

Let me apologize in advance for the fact that this post and my last one are both nothing but valentine exchange information.  But it's kind of taken over my life.  So that's all I have for you folks tonight.  Will you love me anyway?  I'm going to take care of a few housekeeping things {before I go take care of real live housekeeping...my poor house has been neglected the past couple of days}:

Gift Exchange Participants: You have all {and by all, I mean every last 140 of you!} been matched with a partner and you should have an email from me in your inbox.  Or maybe it's in your junk mail.  But I'm not junk.  So you may want to add teacherbloggerexchange{at}gmail{dot}com to your contacts so you don't miss anything from us!  If you have checked your junk mail and still don't see anything from me, please email at the address above and we will get it to you ASAP!

Classroom Exchange Participants: I am going to get this squared away over the weekend.  If you have not received an email by Monday morning, please email me and we will get you the information ASAP!

Sponsors: If you haven't already, you will get an email from us very soon letting you know what day your giveaway will take place and what you need to do as far as getting us your product.  If you haven't received an email yet, don't panic!  We started with February 1st and are working our way through the 14th...your giveaway may just be taking place a little later!  We have some AWESOME giveaways for you folks!!

Well, maybe I can leave you with a cute little story from today...

After our math intervention time, the interventionist told me that one of my lovely ladies kindly informed the rest of the group that she needed to fart {I know, I know...some of you are probably running around screaming, "Ms. Preppy said the F word, Ms. Preppy said the F word!"}.  Anyway, she needed to fart.  The interventionist asked, "Now, would you have said that in front of Justin Bieber?"  Little Lady got quiet and blushed.  So apparently "would you do that in front of Justin Bieber" is the new litmus test for whether or not something is socially acceptable.  I think we need WYDTIFOJB bracelets.  They would be all the rage.  I'll get right on that.

Last Call!

Short post tonight because I am working away at the Be My Valentine Exchange!  I'm pretty sure we have a hojillion people signed up!  Sarah and I are busy emailing sponsors, matching partners, and matching up classrooms.  Just wanted to post a quick reminder that tonight is the deadline to sign up.  We will start emailing partner information tomorrow and will have them all finished by Wednesday.  You won't want to miss out on the fun!

A Day in My Ever So Fabulous Shoes!

I've had so much fun reading about everybody's daily routine that I decided to link up with Miss Klohn too!  I know that I'm a little late to the party, but I'd like to think I'm just fashionably late.

Before I start, I have to share this funny song with you {and I have a feeling most of you will relate}.  By about Wednesday, this is me.  Except I don't have kids.  Or a husband.  So I don't really know exactly why my life is so crazy, but it is.  And I'd like to do a little edit...instead of love and laundry...

.I just keep prayin' that I can get everything done and still have time for BLOGS and a load of laundry!

Here's the nitty gritty:

5:30- Alarm.  Hit snooze.

5:35- Alarm.  Hit snooze.

5:40- Alarm.  Hit snooze. {man, this alarm thing is annoying}

5:45- Alarm.  Resist the urge to hit snooze again.  {Why don't I just set the alarm for 5:45?  Seems like that would be the most logical thing to do.  But apparently I'm not into logical.}  Sit up in bed and check email, Facebook, and blogs on the phone or iPad.  {I won't go to sleep without my phone and iPad next to me.  Can't handle being out of touch.}

5:55- Drag myself in to the bathroom to shower, dry hair, and turn on straightener.

6:15- Eat some delish fake bacon and egg beaters for breakfast.  Wash it down with a Coke and pray the caffeine kicks in QUICK.

6:30- Put on makeup and fix my hair, even though I know my makeup is going to magically disappear from my face by 8am.

6:45- Get dressed.  I like to save time by picking out my clothes and ironing them the night before.  I know, I'm so efficient.

6:50- Last minute touches on the face and hair.  {As if it really matters.}

6:55- Get in the car and head to work.

7:05- Arrive at work.  Run to my room to put my things down and go pick up the kids in my teammate's room.  As I walk down the hall, I try to brace myself for the LIVE ACTION that's coming my way.  Have you guys seen Call of the Wildman on Animal Planet?  Anytime he's wrestling an animal, he screams "LIVE ACTION!"  So that's our newest catch phrase.

7:07- Walk in teammie's room.  Take one look at the children who are already climbing the walls and try to leave before anyone sees me.  Too late!  I was just spotted by a five year old who is running toward me squealing, "Tickle, tickle!".  Dead serious, people.  I get a tickle and hug every morning from one of my sweet friends.  And it totally kick starts my day.  I don't know what I will do if he's ever absent.

7:15- Kiddos are now in my room eating breakfast and doing their morning work.  I spend this time checking homework and planners.  I also try to teach the children to not rub biscuits on their face.  

7:50- We switch classes and I get to spend some time with my kindergarten friends.  We do calendar.  Sometimes Rihanna comes.  I do some whole group teaching and then we head to stations.  They have matured so much since the beginning of the year and stations run so smoothly now!

9:25- Switcheroo number two!  First grade this time!  This group of kiddos is crazy smart.  Seriously, they could teach me.  I just stand back in awe for most of the class period.  And I love it.

10:30- Lunch.  I mean brunch.  {Last year lunch was at 10.  I was ravenous by the end of the day.  It was rough.}

11:00- Recess.  We don't get a planning every day, so we worked out a solution on my team.  If we have a planning that day, we have recess duty.  If we do not have a planning, we are either completely free or we have detention.  Today I was completely free!  Tomorrow I have duty.

11:30- First grade again.  We do stations and they continue to amaze me.

12:15-  The final switch.  Second grade comes back and we spend the rest of the day together.  We do calendar.  We do some whole group activities.  Then my favorite part of the day comes: intervention time.  I have two super fab interventionists who each pull a group and I am left with 14 kiddos.  We kick some major booty in the last 45 minutes of the day.  It's awesome and we all end the day with full brains and feeling so smart!

2:15-  Tell the kids it's time to go home and they're all, "Really?  Already?"  We pack up and I send them home.  I go back to my room, making a few stops along the way to catch up on gossip debrief.  I make sure everything is ready for the next day and head out.

3:45- Tutor.  I am totally loving tutoring on the side.  It's so much fun working one on one with kids.

6:00- Home!  Finally!  I find something to eat, turn on the TV, turn on the computer and spend the rest of the night catching up on emails, Facebook, blogs, and doing some planning from home.  I also clean out my DVR during this time.

10:00- Shower and dry hair.  Pick out my clothes and iron them.  Get lunch ready for tomorrow.

11:00- Bed!

Rinse and repeat.

If you haven't already linked up, click on the picture above to do so!  Only two more days of waking up to an alarm clock!  Happy Wednesday, my friends!