EX-STRAW Special Valentine's Day tag {FREEBIE}

Happy Monday!

We happen to be off today on YET ANOTHER snow day.  I'm looking out my windows right now and it is just a winter wonderland out there!  Lots of snow, very cold.....I'm happy to be snuggled under my blanket right now.

AND....I was happy that this morning I could take a few minutes to finish up my students' valentines.

I did some looking a few weeks ago for cute ideas that didn't include candy.  There is plenty of that already on V-Day, and I wanted to do something different this year.  I came across lots of cute sayings to use with fun twisty straws.  I've never met a kid who didn't LOVE a twisty straw, so I loved this idea!

This saying was my favorite...

You all know I'm a sap.  I've said this a million times before and I'll probably say it a million more times, but far above anything else my students learn this year, I want them to know without a doubt that they are amazing and talented and awesome and irreplaceable.  I want to build this into them every single day.  And so of course I loved that this cute valentine saying was just one more reminder to them that their teacher thinks they are EX-STRAW SPECIAL.  It's true.  I do.

I made this tag and printed six to a sheet onto cardstock.

It didn't take me long to cut them out by hand.  I did that on Friday night while I was watching Shark Tank because my Friday nights are THAT cool.  I was hoping to punch holes in the top AND bottom to help them stay on the straws better, but the straws I ended up getting were SO twisty and fun that it didn't work that way.  No biggie!  One hole at the top will do.  My students will rip them off right away anyway, right??!?

I'd love to share them with you if you want to use them for your students!  Just CLICK HERE to grab them from Google Drive.

Here's the link to the straws I ordered.  Amazon Prime is one of my favorite things in the world.  I can think of something, press a few buttons, and BAM!...it's at my doorstep.  Love. :)

Happy Valentine's Day prep, my friends!!

Five for Friday {February 14}

Happy weekend!

YAY for love and hearts and all things valentiney!!  I had so much fun celebrating Valentine's Day with my class yesterday....until about 3:20.  Then the sugar highs and all the lovey-doveyness was all just too much and I was done.  D-O-N-E.  Thankfully, we were this close to the end of the day, so I put on a smile, found a happy place in my mind, and bid them all a very loving farewell as they headed home.

Yay for Valentine's Day!

1. We finished our science unit this week all about MOTION.  We had been working through it for a few weeks now.  We learned words like "force" and "gravity".  The kids love science because it's all so hands on.  And this unit had them doing investigations with balls and bean bags and feathers.  It was all so much fun!  

2. My own kidlets worked hard early this week on their valentines.  Trey wanted Cars and Rowan wanted princesses.  Easy peasy!!

3. Trey's classroom has an owl theme, so I couldn't resist this cute bucket when I saw it at Target a few weeks ago.  I just filled it with some fresh new supplies for his teacher, and of course some chocolate.

4. Our Valentine's Day at school was relaxed and wonderful!  We decorated valentine bags the old-fashioned way in the morning.  They used crayons, markers, and construction paper to add whatever they wanted to their bags!  This kept them busy forever and they all turned out so unique and cute.

 Of course this one completely melted my heart because I encouraged them to add things that they love to their bags, and this sweetie drew a picture of me.  Love.

 These were my valentines for my students this year.

 And my FAVORITE part of the day!  Spreading out, making piles of our valentines, and reading through them all with BIG smiles on our faces!!

5. Quite possibly the biggest news of the week was the addition of this beauty to my life!

Our old text and talk only phones were due for an upgrade.  Those old phones fit what I needed for so long, but it was time to step into the current decade and switch to a smart phone.  And OH MY do I LOVE it!  I have so much to learn.  I just discovered Instagram! Ha!

My Valentine's Day evening at home consisted of leftovers for dinner and going to bed early. :)

Enjoy your weekend!!

Happy Valentine's Day 2013

We had such a fun and busy Valentine's Day at school !  I didn't take as many pictures as I wanted to because our day was jam-packed with all things hearts, glitter, and LOVE!

These are the valentines that I put together for my students this year.

One of the fun activities we did was this great "Find a Friend" activity.  I cannot remember whose blog I snagged it from, but my students loved it!!  We went through all of the items together first, and I drew a clue next to each so that if they had trouble reading one they could peek back at mine for help.  This was really fun for them!!

We also made a class book using this sweet freebie from Teri found here.

I like to put my class books together and then send them home with each student, one at a time, so that they each have a chance to share their work with their parents.  Sometimes I add a page for comments at the back so that the parents can write what they love about the book too.  I can't wait to get these pages bound together and start sending the book home on Monday!

We read my two favorite Valentine's Day books, "Love, Splat" and "Slugs in Love".

We also had ice cream sundaes and SO MUCH FUN passing out and opening valentines from each other!  I just LOVE this day filled with LOVE!!!