Birth-Day 2!

Welcome back for another day of birthday ideas!



sweet peas and bumblebees

How sweet is this homemade butterfly/flower garland? Now, I'm not sure I would ever have the time to pull this out everytime we celebrate a birthday but how cute would it be to use at home?

1+1+1=1

Carisa (who has a fabulous homeschool blog & curriculum) has these great birthday printables. These are mainly geared towards pre-school age.

eighteen25

How about some homemade playdough for your kiddos? I love this idea! Playdough is so simple to make and I know my sisters wouldn't mind helping me make a batch every month! For boys, you could find a more "boyish" cookie cutter and wrap it in blue ribbon!

Hope you're enjoying these birthday ideas! Don't forget to link up & share how you celebrate birthdays, either in your classoom or at home!

Birth-Day 1!

Happy Monday all :)

Hope you enjoy these different birthday ideas. (Not all of them are strictly classroom oriented)

eighteen25

How precious are these bookmarks?? My kiddies would love to get something like this instead of a boring 'ol paper one!!(if only I had the time to make 20 of these)

it is what it is

 Or what about taking something like this and changing the words to say "Congragulations Smartie Pants. You're one year smarter" (or something else less corny than my attempt!)

And finally for today, visit Mrs. Golds Class for lots of different birthday printables, crafts, games, & much more!!!

Don't forget to click on the Birthday Week Button to link up all of your fabulous birthday ideas!

Birthdays

In honor of my upcoming birthday, I am hosting a linky party about ways you celebrate birthdays in your classroom or at home!

In my classroom, I always have a birthday crown with the student's name on it placed on their desk for when they get there. I also give them a Happy Birthday pencil.

Then the rest of the class uses the Happy Birthday special note from my special notes pack to shower the birthday kiddo with lots of friendly love.

My school has a nutrition plan in order, so we are not supposed to have too many sweets. Try telling that to parents though. Often times we end up with cupcakes or cookies. What's one day of a little treat? I also have a peanut and egg allergy in my classroom, so everything has to be store bought with all of the ingredients labeled.

The birthday boy or gal is allowed to pick one friend to visit other teachers on the same floor with the leftover treats. Of course the other teachers love getting a sweet treat at the end of the day.

Finally we do the human birthday cake. The birthday friend picks a candle for each year of age. They form a circle around the birthday friend. The rest of the students form another circle around the candles. The candles walk in one direction and the cake part walks in the opposite direction while singing Happy Birthday. Once we sing twice, the birthday friend gets to blow out the candles (he taps each candles head and the fizzle down). Finally, the birthday friend cuts the cake (picks a spot around the outside circle to seperate two hands)

We have a lot of fun on birthdays! I'm curious to see what my firsties have planned for me this week. They all seem very excited to make me pick candles! They clearly don't realize there aren't even enough students in my class to make candles!!

How do you celebrate birthdays?

Birthday Week

My birthday is next Saturday so I thought it would be fun to have a linky party to share what types of things you do in your classroom to celebrate birthdays!

Throughout the week, I will be posting different ideas that I have found in blogland. Some might not necessarily be from educational blogs, but hey can't everything be adapted to fit into a classroom?

 

This whole weekend has been jam packed for me! I feel like I just left school. My sister, Lexi had a dance recital Friday night (she did A-MAZING), I hung out with my father-in-law yesterday while my hubby and mother-in-law went on the hunt for a new wagon, and today Lexi has a soccer game & it's ladies night out at church. Busy -busy!

I will post the way I celebrate birthdays in my classroom tomorrow!

Until then, have a great Sunday!

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Friday Freebie for TBA

Hi!

Welcome back to my world of crazy!

Since today was my designated day to post something for Friday Freebies over at the fabulous Teaching Blog Addict site!

Ever have those times where you wish you had a quick print out to give your students when you want to celebrate a birthday or retirement? Or what about when a student has been out sick? Or lost a family member?

I learned the best idea from my supervising teacher while I was student teaching. She had these pre-made templates for special occasions that she would just copy and pass out. Then the kiddos would fill out the sheet and place inside a large piece of construction paper. Staple along the side. Decorate the front and back.

Voila-you have a very special and meaningful book that those students or adults will cherish forever (at least I hope the do-I am basically basing this assumption on the fact that I love receiving special notes so why wouldn't everyone else??)

Click here to find a whole packet of special notes!

The file contains:

Welcome to Our Classroom

Welcome to First Grade

(Welcome to all the grades up to 6th grade)

Goodbye

Thank You

Happy Retirement

Happy Birthday

Get Well Soon

Thinking of You

Hope you enjoy & don't forget to visit TBA for an amazing resource of teachers!



Hard to title post...

Ok well it's been a long time since I posted anything. Over a month if you're keeping track. I'm sure all my followers have since moved on to bigger, better green pastures. But if you are still putting up with my neglect, then here's a big ice cream treat from me to you!

Now for an update on my life...

I officially have no job for next year.

I mentioned in my last post that my union president was very convinced that I had a case against my administration for wrongly terminating me. Everyone told me it was an easy case with an obvious outcome..me winning.

However, the steam has passed and my union president isn't as ambitous now that the end of the school year is here. I was told that the school would simply "lawyer up" and retract their statements to me. Then just come up with a more specific reason for letting me go.

I don't really have a whole lot to say about it anymore....I've cried my tears, yelled my angry words, prayed until I feel as though I'm hurting God's eardrums, and now I'm left with unemployement. I'm also left with the 100% belief that I was not meant to be at that school. In comparison to most other districts, this one can be summed up in one word *crazy*.

I haven't told my students yet...I don't know how. They keep asking me why I'm taking things off my walls when I will just have to put it all back up next year. How do I respond to that without bursting into tears? I don't know that answer yet, so I try to ignore. Not the best choice, I'm sure but it's all I can manage right now.

I have applied at one other school. I know, you're all thinking only one school! That's all that's out there in my area right now. And since we just moved back last year, we don't exactly have the excitement to up and move a hundred some miles away again. But if any of you know of some promising employement opportunities in your districts, I wouldn't be opposed to applying.

I'm praying that the Lord will guide my steps. He brought me back to NY for this job, so I know he has a plan.

In other news, my hubby is playing at Oakmont in Pittsburg, PA on Mon & Tues!! This is a huge deal. The US Open was played there a few years ago and according to the mister, it's a pretty intense course. SO lots of prayers that he plays his best and continues to be a good testimony on the golf course.

Also, he beat Arnold Palmer's grandson at the qualifying round. He didn't seem too excited about that, but the way I look at is his name was probably maybe mentioned in a conversation between a golf legend and his grandson. Which is a giant deal!!!

Only 10 more days with my firsties. Very bittersweet. Check back tomorrow for some freebies!

I'm still here...

I have sat down & started typing this post maybe a hundred times over the past two weeks.

I just couldn't do it.

My hearts been heavy (as have my eyes from the stress & tears).

I feel like a complete failure.

Like I chose the wrong profession.

 Like maybe I didn't follow God's plan for my life.

Shortly after break I was told that I was being let go after this school year.

I was told that it was for budget reasons by one person & teacher performance by another.

I have never received an unsatisfactory mark on my observations and was told I was making good progress towards our school's teacher development plan, which ultimately decides our tenure.

In all honesty, I was trapped in the middle of something that I couldn't control.

After meeting with my union president (& his meeting with our union rep for NYS), it was determined that what my school is doing to me is illegal.

 It's a long, messy story & as much as I would love to vent and share it with my fellow bloggy friends ( I wish I could so that I could get some honest advice), I really can't just blast all the gory details over the internet. Never know who reads this lil 'ol blog of mine.

Now the choice is mine whether or not I want to pursue the option of keeping my job.

A whole lot of prayer and longing for the Lord's guidance has been going on.

How will I know if I'm making the right decision?

Just in the time since I was told about my job, the Lord has brought some pretty amazing people into my life. People I never knew shared my faith. Isn't that amazing how He knows just what to send our way when we need it most?

My first thought was oh no, what will this mean for my husbands dream? We had just decided to take a huge leap of faith and let him pursue his dream & here I was losing our only income. Satan has made every attempt to break me. I'm struggling, in all honesty. This is hard. I'm trying to be a light in such a dark situation. I'm trying not to let this affect how I am with my firsties. I'm trying to answer everyone's question of "what next, what now, where are you applying" with a kind heart and soft words. It's really hard.

I know there is a perfect plan for my life and this is just a speed bump. I appreciate all of you and your uplifting posts. I haven't been completely gone. I just haven't been in the right mind to post anything happy.

I'm hoping I can turn that attitude around because I have fallen in love with this blog world. I look forward to checking blogs on my lunch break & rushing home to check them after work. You are all such an inspiration to me & you could never know how much you have helped me these past few weeks just by doing what you do. 

Just amazing teachers sharing their passion with the rest of us.

I hope I haven't scared you all away with my rather emotional post.

 It was time to write this.

Time to put it out there.

 Time to admit that things aren't always perfect in my life.

Time to admit that I need prayer.

I need support.

 I need a smiling face.

So, thank you all for being those things for me.