Merry Christmas!

Today was our last day at work and I was certainly busy! Started with seeing a kid outside when I opened the windows this morning, he was outside in the 30 degree weather, an hour early, so I had him come in the back library door and come get warm. I guess his dad doesn't have a good clock, so he said. I ended up with 6 classes in the library to check out since we didn't get to check out yesterday. I read The Clown of God by Tomie DePaola, one of my favorites. Mrs. M let me read instead of heading up to her room for my half hour of aiding and the other teacher was grateful. Was up in her room for the last hour and helped pass out tons of stuff for the kids to take home and work on over break. Had a short LLI class since there was an assembly at the beginning of the regular school day and that was fun. Some Christmas music and a sing-a-long too! Got a couple of presents, one from a teacher at Sprague - warmed my heart! Got everything all shut down and turned off - oh, I just remembered I forgot to water the plants ~~ oh well, I watered them really heavy last Friday!

Craft Day

Today was craft day where all the kids rotate among rooms and work on a holiday craft. I helped out in Mrs. B's room today because she didn't have anybody to help her manage the kids. We made stockings - red cardstock with a stocking printed on it, they cut it out, then glued cotton balls to the top and made glue designs then covered those with glitter. It was very busy! Didn't get a break until after I did my cafeteria duty though Mrs. B did ask a couple of times, it was just too busy to leave and I knew I had the entire afternoon since the kids left at 1:15. Got in my breaks and lunch, put away all the books that had come in this week and the few from last week, so things are looking very nice. Since I didn't have library time today, I offered to let two classes come in tomorrow during my library/prep time so the kids have a chance to check out books before break, so I have six classes coming in tomorrow! I'm exhausted, came home and took a nap!

Desolation

Of Smaug of course! Finally got to see the new Hobbit movie tonight and totally forgot what I did at work during the day! Oh well, I did LLI I'm sure! As well as some library time and a lot of the day up in Mrs. M's room. I had no classes today, so glad I had the movie to look forward to!

Order!

Very excited today, I turned in my first ever Baker and Taylor order! Mrs. H had always done it at Sprague, so I never bothered to learn it, but I learned today. With the JLG order I already did, and this, that still leaves a bit of money for supplies if I should need some more. I am so proud of myself and can't wait until the books arrive!! Had one class come in today and a couple of the kids actually asked to help me. That was awesome. They wanted character bucks, but I'm not sure if I get any ~~ must ask tomorrow! I read them My Penguin Osbert and afterwards I asked what a bad present would be and a kid put his hand up "A gun!" wow. That nearly floored me. I'm talking penguins and they're already so far down the road from that. Another said a bomb, another a bb gun. So I turned them into thinking of other animals and that was better! Helped Mrs. M today cutting out pentagons and triangles for her project in the afternoon and turned on the upstairs computer lab for her kiddos. Back down for lunch and cafeteria duty. Then my class and some cleaning up, then up for the activity and then some math, then a time for completing class work that had been left and you could watch the movie if you got it all done. Class over then to the library and getting that order done. Huzzah!

Orchestra Visit

Today was crazy. Put a new voice message on my phone since it still had last year's assistant on it. Had our LLI program first and sent them off for the weekend. Then heard there would be a fire drill at 9:30. Great, no students, I'd be in the library, perfect (except that I'd lose precious library time!). Then they decided to cancel. Then, I got in my first class of Kinders, and it went off! I ushered them out to the covered area and felt very bad that some of them didn't have coats. At least it was warmer today than it has been for a week or more. I was wearing a sweater vest and loaned it to a student. Got back into the library and nearly got done and the alarm went off again! Back out we went. This was all from yesterday's problem with the busted water pipe, but thank goodness we didn't have to go out again! My 5th grade class next had an assembly, so they didn't come in and I was able to get my jlg stuff ready to go for a PO number, but I wanted to talk to our principal first and was able to touch base with her at lunch and she said all right. I only want half out of my budget for this year used, and the invoice I was sent was for all of it, so I emailed the jlg rep to get an invoice for half for now, then the rest after our new budget year rolls around.   Then I had our music teacher ask if he could bring in the 4th grade orchestra to play for my Kinders, and I was ecstatic! Yes! We also had Mrs. H's kids in the computer lab, so she pulled them all out to listen and be an audience as well. It was great and I loved it! Then lunch, cafeteria duty and back for my last class of the week. I turned in my request for a PO, and then up to Mrs. M's room for the rest of the day. I helped with her 'Christmas Around the World' unit and we made stockings, wooden shoes, yule logs and finally the crowns for St. Lucia. It was busy, fun and the kids loved it. After school we had the teachers come into the library to discuss next Wednesday and I guess we're having a special day of activities for the kids to do, so there won't be anyone in library time :(  so I offered to be another place in the school (a teacher is also using his room) for anyone that would like to just come and read, do homework or work on computer skills while the others are doing the holiday things. Mr. M was very excited, Mrs. M was also very grateful because she has a student who wouldn't be participating in those things, so we'll see if anyone shows up!

Stress

There was a staff meeting this afternoon and after a talk from United Way, we had a talk about stress and how to control it. It's called R.A.D.A.R. looked pretty interesting. Then because of some strange compression problem, the fire alarms kept going off during the meeting. Some laughed that having the alarms going off randomly were giving them stress, but some good tricks for helping each other out and taking care of someone who maybe needed a stress break. Glad the kids were all gone. Had LLI this morning, finished reading one book, jumped into another. Had them draw a crane and label the parts, glad tomorrow is Friday. Did some library time, then had three classes come in. Cafeteria duty, then a bit more library time (did I ever mention that all my breaks (2 a day) are during library time? So if I have half an hour to work in there, it's really only 20 minutes?). Up to Mrs. M's class and we did more passport work and I brought in my old passport for her to let the kids see one. Then back down for another library class, then back up to Mrs. M's class to finish the math part of the day. Got in a lot of books and even some kids found lost books and brought them in so they could check out for the first time in awhile. That made me happy. Five days of work until break.

13,850,001

I guess according to someone that is my blog ranking in the US. Ha! Made me laugh! Did LLI and worked with the kids on their other consonant sounds and read the play from the book. Made them take it home again. Practiced our words. Then got all ready for my four classes today. Put the podium stand we have out so I could put out a David Macaulay book for the kids to look through since he is one of our December authors, The New How Things Work. Not much for a reading group, so I read Peter Sis A Small Tale of the Far Far North for my older kids. For the younger ones I read Sorry by Jean Van Leeuwen and for the youngest we did The Mitten and though I didn't have a mitten, I brought in a hat with beany babies and we stuffed the hat with them. I think they liked it. For the afternoon I worked on my Baker and Taylor list. For some reason I had two lists, and not quite sure how that happened, so I printed them off and compared, got rid of one. Added more books to the list. I like how when I hit the price quote it cuts the list price down! Got rid of some of the titles I liked, and added others. Ordered some graphic novels! A great way to spend the afternoon. Might go ahead and submit next week, just to get it out of the way and make sure I get my budget in before it disappears!

File Be Gone

Today we had a new lady come and use the old librarian office so I commented that if we got the old file cabinets out there would be more room, so later in the day one of our custodians came and carted them away! Yeah! More room! Much nicer! Sent out an email to let people know as well. Checked in lots of books today, sent out overdue and what was due reports to the teachers today. Sent back some books from other schools. Sent a book in for processing for our school that another school got rid of. Shelved all of the rest of last week's books. Worked up in Mrs. M's class today. She didn't have much for me to do in the morning, so I got to work the library a bit more checking in a whole box of books she had brought in from home. She's down to only 56 books out! Mr. B came by today to put a new part in  one of the lab computers! I gave him a big hug! We really missed him when he was sent off from Sprague. He used to have lunch nearly every day with Mrs. H and I. What a nice guy, funny, conversational with two women! I really miss him! It was good to hear his voice and hug a really great guy. Up in Mrs. M's room we did some reading today, then worked with a 'Christmas Passport' unit that shows what other countries do with the holiday time. It is fun and the kids really like it. Then we worked our math unit with clocks. I love working with the clocks! Did some cleaning and getting ready for classes tomorrow. Did LLI and had a good time with the students. Only had two, so I was very content. I can just about handle two! We worked on words that have consonants with two different sounds, like 'c' in city or cozy. A pretty good day all in all.

Delayed

Two hour delay today, but since I drove my hubby to work, I ended up coming in on my regular schedule anyways. So, I got some extra library time that way! Did go into the LLI room and divest of last week's stuffs and picked out my lessons for this week. Got all my fiction shelved and everybody books. Finished straightening up from last week and then had to do a bit more from Mrs. L's class after they left. We read 'The Mitten' today and that was fun. Helped out in Mrs. M's class with them making poinsettias and did a lot of clean up from that. Put my last class up on my Thankful for Great Books board and it looks good, from a 'well, everyone is on there' kind of stand point! They are saying more snow tonight, so we'll see! I have to finish up Game of Thrones, then have two more sitting here with more Game of Thrones coming in from Sprague.

Snow!

Got to see my first snowfall out my windows today! It was so cool! Did my LLI lesson today and gave my kids their seeds from the giant sequoia's in our neighborhood. That was fun. Read to three classes today, but the PM kindergarten was cancelled so I got a bit extra library time. Did The 12 Bugs of Christmas to the Kinders and they loved it, even got their attention away from watching the snow fall outside. The fifth graders were all right, we read The Gift of the Magi, a bit above their level, but they didn't do too bad. Proposed that I open the library on inclement days and have a space for kids to read, make up homework and work on keyboarding skills. Mr. M loved the idea, at least for half of my lunch duty time. So I'm working on it! Worked clock math with the kids today and then took them down to the computer lab to play math games on Sumdog. They wanted everyone outside to make sure the kids didn't go too wild when school got out, so luckily I had my mega winter coat and gloves and scarf and yelled "Walk! WALK!" to them. After we got all the kids out, Ms. T came on the intercom and told us all to go home and get home safely, so I got out a little early. Loved watching the snow out the windows today. That was a real joy!

Cold and Getting Colder

I keep hoping to see snow out my windows, but not yet! Did LLI today we worked on a book about the Redwood Trees. So when we left I told the kids I work with that I had Giant Sequioa seeds and for every word that they did extra from our consonant digraphs sheet, they would get a seed! So we'll see what happens with that. Read to another four classes today. It was good! Helped with Mrs. M's class for awhile today. Worked on my December Leaves posting for the month. Sad to see this week go! Really have enjoyed reading the Christmas books.

Quilted

Today for reading time I brought in a quilt I had made years ago since on Monday a girl had asked what a quilt was. It was fun to roll it out and then I draped it on my desk for the rest of the day. Two of the ladies came by and loved it! Did my LLI class today and then my four classes of reading in a row. The older kids didn't quite get The Gift of the Magi, but mostly listened. The other 2/3 blend loved the Jolly Christmas Postman. I held the last accordian postcard open so they could all peek into the postman's home through the letterbox and they all really enjoyed that! Then cafeteria time. Then the kids left for home for the day and I had lovely blessed library time. Got books displayed for the authors of the month, sorted and put away all the non-fiction and Everybody books, so just a shelf of fiction to go. Checked in a lot of books as well. I love my library time!

No More Dumping!

Halleluah! Our old custodian was sent to another school, and one of my old friends who is now a supervising custodian came in and told me "That's not your job! That should be the custodian that does that!" So he was there all day and talked with people. It was good just to see him again, but hearing I wouldn't have to cafeteria dump anymore was a great bonus and made my day! Huzzah! Worked up in Mrs. M's class this morning and this afternoon. Worked LLI this morning as well. I helped Mrs. M with some math scoring. And helped with reading to the kids. Several asked me to listen to them read. Maybe we are bonding at last. Then  helped with their math and tackling division. That went well. Got together some books for Mrs. M. Checked in about 100 books. Sent reports out on which students still had books out, and that because of the week off for the kids, everything was due! So I got to check in about 100 books. No classes in the library today, but packed tomorrow! 

Compassion

Today was the first of the month so we had our assembly today and the word for the month is compassion. Our Read-A-Long this week is also entitled 'compassion'! I had one class in today and we read about a bear who always missed Christmas because he was asleep, so all his friends come and wake him up the day before and keep him busy so he won't miss it again! A cute story. Worked in Mrs. M's class today twice. Did some work for her for math and turned on the upstairs computers (very, very slow - would start them, go back and work - check computers logging them in - go back and do more work - check computers and click on scholastic icon...) Cafeteria dumped. Worked on my December authors, not as many this month! Back up to Mrs. M's helping with a classroom ABC book and they started division today for math. The students were very engaged today and did some good work!