A Lookback on January

January has been an ultra crazy, super busy month! I actually cannot believe that it has flown by so quickly and that February is in 2 days. In my classroom we welcomed winter by discussing snow (the blizzard this past week helped a lot with that discussion), appropriate clothes for the cold, arctic animals and the five senses. We talked about being fair and learned about the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Looking back it seems like a blur.

"Confetti Art"

For this project I traced the numbers 2016 onto black construction paper. Then my kiddos tore different colors of construction paper (the confetti) to work those fine motor skills. They then glued their confetti onto the numbers as we repeatedly counted down and screamed "Happy New Year!!!!" They had a blast : )

We used letter puzzles to help build our letter recognition skills and of course they turned it into a game. They did an excellent job, only struggling with a few letters here and there.

This was a sandwich that a parent made for her child for lunch. We all thought it was a monkey, but when you look close it is actually a Ninja Turtle!!! This was so cute and I loved the effort that this mom put into creating a healthy lunch for her son.

AND THEN.... the BLIZZARD CAME!! Snowed in for 3 days and having that time off allowed me to reevaluate my lesson plans for February. I have added more STEM activities for the month of February and am super excited to see what new things they will do.

My One Word for 2016

Happy New Year!!

My word for this brand-spanking new year of 2016 is HAPPINESS. Originally I had 2 other words and was going to make all 3 my focus for the year. CREATE and SUCCESS were those 2 words but then PRODUCTIVE popped in my head as well. After much thought, I discovered that being creative and expressing myself, working towards being successful, being ME and using skills both learned and new make me HAPPY! Being productive... even when I feel like sinking into the couch like Beast Boy and Cyborg on Teen Titan's Go (life of a parent lol)... will help me grow in the skills needed to be successful. They all work hand in hand. 

What makes me happy? Being me, not worrying about other's opinions or negativity, but just being myself. My motto this year is Be You, the World is Yours. I want to get physically fit, eat healthier, drink more water and cut back on my little Starbucks habit. I want to get back into writing stories and poems and continue to explore yoga. Have you ever tried hot yoga? It's pretty awesome. I want to take a jewelry making class at Michaels and maybe even try Zumba or dance. Improving my time management, praying more and thinking before reacting are all things I want to work on as well.

HAPPINESS is the word. Being a happier me will improve my life in all areas. A happy mommy makes a happy home. A happy teacher makes a happy classroom filled with the sound of laughter and learning. Here is a picture of my #CraftandChat project...

What is your word for 2016?