Remembering.....and celebrating

It was hard to go to work today....my mind kept thinking about last Friday's tragedies.

I didn't want to leave my own kids at home.  I wanted to stay with them all day long, play board games and eat ice cream.  I wanted to hold them and kiss them endlessly.

Then I remembered that I have special kids at school too, that I hold dear to my heart, who are expecting a teacher to come to school today and teach them, make them laugh, and show them that school is an amazing, safe place to be yourself.

So that's when I knew where I had to be today.

 

I wasn't sure if any of my students had heard the news this weekend, as every channel, every radio station and nearly everyone that I ran into was talking about it.

No one did.

And I was happy about that.  I really wasn't sure how I was going to handle it.  And if it does come up tomorrow or the next day, or even next week or next year, I really can't say what I will do.  All I know is that it's my job to make my students feel like school is the best place to be.  After all, I want my own children's teachers to do the same for them.

 

And so I am celebrating....celebrating all the wonderful students in my class. Every.Single.One.Of.Them.

They are all special and have touched my heart in so many ways.

 

It was business as usual in my classroom today, well, maybe I was a little more "easy-going" than normal.  We had Fun Monday - I usually only have Fun Friday on a weekly basis, where my students can choose whatever they would like to play with and with whomever they would like to play with.

But between dress rehearsals for our Christmas concert tomorrow night and trying to squeeze in some last minute activities I thought I would let things slide just a little bit today...and maybe for the rest of the week :)

 

Working on our Pocket Chart activities...one is from last week and one from this week.

You can find these in my best-selling All Year Long Pocket Chart Fun Activities.

 

The kinders made their parents the *cutest* handprint calendar (idea originally taken from Little Giraffes).  Thank you to Ms. C and Mrs. Sampogna for helping us with this big job and for laminating them, binding them AND wrapping them!  Phew!  What would we do without you?!?!

This is the card that my kinders made which will go with the calendar.

The one on the left is done by my SK students and the one on the right is by my JK students.

Adorable!

 

I pulled out this cute game that I made last year.  We have been getting really good at identifying the numbers on a die.  I had ALL the kids running to this centre today!

 

Click HERE to read my post from last December and download your FREE copy of my

Roll-a-Number centre.

 

I had a very L-O-N-G day (it was my ___-th birthday today, yes, you fill in the blanks!).  So I'm off to bed.  But I wanted to let you know that if you are looking for a few last minute things to do with your kiddies this week (which are extremely FUN, I might add) you must check out Tanya Solano's Holiday Fun pack.

My students just loved the Alphabet Maze today!  Hmmm....I think I'm going to use the Picture Crossword tomorrow....

 

Have a good night everyone!