Going back to Christmas!

Holy smokes! It's been a while since I have posted.  Christmas was so busy I didn't have a chance to sit down! This Christmas ranks up at the top for me for several reasons.  It was my son's first Christmas so it was so fun to see him try to open presents and then have to take the paper away from him before it made it to his mouth!  I also was showered with so many amazing presents from the parents that I work with such as treats, candles, cookies, jewelry... BUT the COOLEST thing I got was a CRICUT!!!! I could not believe it! My parents pitched in and got me a Cricut! (Ok, that might be one of the reasons why I haven't posted in a while.)  Everyone on my family enjoyed it over Christmas too! It even went to Ohio with us! I have Mrs. Blaha to thank for letting me borrow all of her cartridges!

I hope you forgive me for not posting in a while and enjoy our smilebox I put together of some of the activities we did back in December.   I got most of my ideas from Deanna Jump and Cara Carroll.  I had so much fun doing these activities the kids.

Another slideshow by Smilebox

Our Dynamite Principal and Other Highlights of Our Week!

Today was such an exciting day!  Our principal, Mrs. Basler, doesn't always receive as much credit as she should.  She recently has finished two of her goals she has set out to accomplish.  She just finished her L.A.C.E training which helps her to know how to improve the character in our school.  She also completed our lengthy school of character application.  To celebrate her training and everything she does, we held a surprise assembly for her!  She had NO idea what was going on! When she came in Mrs. Pope played "Pomp and Circumstance" and we had her put on a graduation gown!  She was showered with gifts and great talks about her.  Our class put together a class book where each student completed the sentence, "You are..."  The title of the book was called "Mrs. Basler, You are Dynamite!"  I also had rolos wrapped to look like dynamite to give her.  It was so great to honor her, and she is so very deserving of it!
Check out the smilebox below:

Another free slideshow design by Smilebox

Albert is back in action in our classroom!  This time he got the Grinch and Frosty involved! Check out what they were up to below.  We wrote about it in our journals. 

This morning I was so surprised when two of my students brought me in gifts! ALREADY! I don't know how some of these moms are so on the ball! I have to say they were some of the best gifts I have gotten!  I received oreo and cookie dough balls... need I say more?! AND homemade jam! My husband is THRILLED! :-) I'm trying to save the balls so I can savor them, but it's so hard!
The other gift I received was a school supplies cake!  I saw these on Pinterest and thought they were so cute!!  I'm going to have a very hard time tearing it down to use the supplies because it's so cute!! Check it out below!

Someone's Watching!

That's right! Santa is watching to see who is naughty or nice and this year he has an extra special helper, ALBERT! I'm sure if you are a parent in my class you have heard of our new visitor the elf, Albert!  He is an Elf on a Shelf and has decided to come watch the boys and girls in my classroom.  We also will be writing in our Elf Journal, he will leave Blue Jay slips, and we will be writing letters to him later.  It all started one day when he appeared in our Christmas tree!  The next day he was riding one of the motorcycles in our room!  Today we caught him hanging from a Christmas decoration in our room!  One of my favorite parts of this is that we are trying to work on character with Albert.  Since we were the only class that had an elf, the class decided to write Santa a note so Albert would visit the other classes! WHO KNEW?! IT WORKED! :-D He has been popping into the other classes as well.  Check out our pictures of the kids with their journals and of Albert. I got the idea for the journal here.