Ringing in the New Year

As I sit here drinking my coffee with my last drop of peppermint mocha creamer, I am reminded that this is the last day of vacation. (Insert big crying baby here) I am always amazed at how fast the breaks seem to pass when some weeks throughout the school year seem to drag along with no end in sight. My boys are the saddest I think. My oldest boy looked at me this morning after my husband had left for work (BOO) and said, "Mommy, does that mean we don't have any more family days?" BROKE. MY. HEART.

My other reminder is that I keep make all these lists in my head for my work day tomorrow. I secretly love work days. You are alone in your room just organizing, creating, cleaning... no one is asking you questions... nobody needs to go to the bathroom... just me and my Pandora on my phone. Ahhh........ I think we should get work days every other week. Wouldn't that be nice? That 1 hour of planning time a day is just not enough time ever. Can I get an Amen? A-M-E-N!

My district adopted the reading series of Treasures last year and I have grown to love it. It has a lot of ideas and activities to choose from. My district had a Treasures presenter come in last summer and really had us dig through it to find everything that it really offered. My favorite thing that I took away from the two day training was that "Treasures needs to be taught at a perky pace." That has helped me so much this first semester and I can really see the advancements of my students already.

All that said... I have a lot to teach this week in only 4 short days. We are finally finding that magical silent E that has the power to change letter sounds. I found the best song on Pinterest last week called the Sparkly E  (and it includes a free download of the song! Go get it!) which can be found on Fun in First . I also plan on having the kids make the Sparkly E to use in a word building center.

 

We are also going to be talking about those fun VERBS by using this unit I found on TPT made by the Teacher Wife. I am so excited to use this unit! I am going to take one of my boys superhero capes and we are reading the book that I can't access the name of in my lesson plans because my district server is down. (boo!) It is one of those grammar tales that comes in the Scholastic Book Orders packs. I hate that I can't think of the name of it. Grrr! 

In our work stations this week I found this poem deep in my files probably given to me by one of my teammates somewhere. If you know who wrote it please let me know so I can give the author credit. It is a little poem about Chinese New Year and I made a little pocket sort for you have. Eek!

Chinese New Year Poem Pocket Sort

Have a great week!