"We know that you would never leave us Ms. Carlberg, even if it is a blizzard!"

Our kiddos were so surprised to see me standing in the doorway of our classroom today, which is where that darling quote above came from. They simply could not believe that I was there. (Well, after that drive I couldn't believe I had made it there either!) We have been enjoying each other's company so much this past week (we always do, but being in our classroom is a novel concept after a whole week off)! We have been working hard to get back into the routines of our room and school, we've been mastering doubles facts, learning how to stretch out our stories across multiple pages, and we have done some playing too! Today we utilized the snow and had some time to work in small groups at literacy centers and then celebrated our hard work by playing outside. Check out our pictures of our hard work and then our playing! 

One group at the center where they played
the game, "Crash".

Computer center where the kiddos could
choose which website they wanted to use. 

The "Categories" station. The kiddos
would draw a letter and a category
and then have to think of as many things
that started with that letter. 

Are we blessed to have these darling kiddos in our lives or what?! Stay tuned until Friday because officer Joe from the Columbia Heights Police Department is going to visit!

"More than anything, I love cats and I wish I had a million of them and I love them so much and they are so fluffy and cute and I want them"

What do you get when you combine Valentine's Day and the 100th Day of School all in the same week? You get magical, creative, excited, chaotic bliss. It was one wonderful week! I think the pictures will speak for themselves. Are we blessed to have these kiddos in our lives or what?!

Did you know you can
measure with Hershey Kisses?!

Look at how focused we are
at passing out these Valentines?! 

To start our 100 Fruit Loops necklace,
we filled in our 100's chart, then placed
Fruit Loops on the chart, and then strung them. 

This cracks me up! Look at how serious
they are eating their necklaces!

Making a chart of 100 things. 

And now, the clean up! This was unprompted!

"Knock, knock." "Who's there?" "Joke" "Joke who?" "Onion!"

Since it's I love to Read month we are enjoying reading all different kinds of books-short ones, long ones, poems, and today, jokes! We had a blast reading books that were full of jokes, but also sharing some of our original jokes. (Ok, most of them didn't make sense, but still made us all roar with laughter.) It has been a busy week full of laughter (even not on "joke day"), hard work, and cooperation.

We have finally finished re-writing our hopes and dreams for the rest of the 1st grade year! It is always so heartwarming to listen to the things our kiddos want to do. Some are very serious (I want to be a kind friend.) and some are very outrageous (I want to become a shark.) but are all very heartfelt and sincere. We will keep these new dreams up for the rest of the year as we finish up 1st grade. (CAN YOU BELIEVE WE ONLY HAVE A HALF OF A YEAR LEFT?!)

This week we continued learning about how to measure using different tools. We realized that using our feet is not only stinky, but also not very consistent because we all have different sized feet. So we started using cubes, which worked really well until we realized that not everyone has cubes. So, we started using inches as our unit of measurement. We began using rulers to measure objects in our classroom. We are also still working on our math facts and are getting better everyday!

We learned how to play a new game this week called, Titanic. This is not only fun, but has helped us practice our listening skills. In this game students have to listen to certain directions and then do a certain action for each different direction. It's a game that uses all of our C.A.R.E.S. values. (Cooperation, Assertion, Responsibility, Empathy, and Self Control). Here are a few pictures of this silly game:

We read the book, Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse, and learned about "The Ripple Effect". Just like water in a puddle, our actions affect other people around us. We realized that just like Lilly when she made a bad choice, our choices not only hurt ourselves, but other students, teachers, and our families. We are going to keep this in mind as we work in our classroom...

Thanks to everyone for coming to conferences! It was fun and exciting to chat with you and share informaiton about your great students! (If you didn't make it, don't worry we will find a time to catch up too!)

"I love to read month? Shouldn't every day be I love to read day?!"

This week has been a whirlwind full of giggles, goodbyes, birthdays and celebrations! We were sad to say goodbye to one of our friends at the beginning of the week as she is moving to another school. It was hard to say goodbye, but exciting to hear her talk about her new school and everything she is looking forward to. Tomorrow and Friday we are going to celebrate birthdays! The two kiddos have been counting down for a month now and tomorrow and Friday are the big days! We will celebrate with songs, games, and by making each of them a birthday book. Stay tuned for pictures from these exciting events!

Even though 2nd quarter has ended and it has been a couple of weeks since our winter tests, we are still celebrating all that we have learned in 88 days of 1st grade! We have started Unit four in math which focuses on measuring using different parts of our body, rulers, tape measures, and yard sticks. We have enjoyed finding things in our classroom that were taller and shorter than us. We have learned how to accurately use these tools to measure and how to write the units. We are continuing to work on our math facts and will absolutely keep on playing those fun math games!

This week we are re-writing our 1st grade hopes and dreams! We have looked at the dreams that we wrote at the beginning of the year and are writing new ones. We read the book, More Than Anything Else by Marie Bradby that tells the story of Booker T. Washington's life. We have spent the week learning about him and all of the success he had in his life. He didn't start learning how to read until he was 8 and by the end of his life wrote 14 books! We are using him as a role model as we learn new, challenging things too.

February is going to be an exciting, jam packed month! Coming up is the Valentine's Day, the 100th day of school, Energy Break, and all month is I Love to Read Month! We will be celebrating our reading all month at school and you can at home too by reading with your kiddo every night. I'm looking forward to seeing you all at conferences!