It's been quite the week of winter here in Southern Virginia.

But today, it's 55 degrees... can we dare think of flip flops??  The inches of snow and sleet are melting quickly!

The cold weather is going to return tomorrow night, but my little family and I are enjoying a sunny Sunday.  Made the weekly grocery trip not so unpleasant feeling a little warmth and sunshine on the face.

I'm linking up again with the Teaching Trio for their Sunday Scoop!

Yeah, I really didn't do much school work this past week (shame on me...not really!)  I played with my girls and enjoyed some family time.  I might grade some papers after the race and my nap... maybe.  Since football is over, I'm glad to have something to watch on Sundays.  My husband is to blame for the NASCAR in this house.  I couldn't stand it before I met him, but it is interesting to watch.  I've even been to a few races!  It is my favorite time for a nap... the humming of the engines is the perfect white noise, especially at the restrictor plate races!!

I'm happy to say that we got a contract on our house and our offer for the house we wanted was accepted!  We'd been trying to sell our house for almost a year and the luck was with us this time!  So, if all goes to plan, we'll be closing on our house in mid April, but the fun has just begun.  I hate paperwork, I hate financial stuff... I leave all that to the hubs.  So I'm hoping for this to be a painless process!

We are also enjoying today's weather... It's 55 degrees!!  Is it flip flop weather yet??

It's supposed to be cold again this week, so we're enjoying some warmth and sunshine.  If there were a dry spot outside, I think I'd nap out there... a week of snow is melting and it's a mushy mess!  No flip flops today...

Hope you all have a wonderful school week, and for those, who like me, are returning after a mid winter break, happy day back.  Hope you have your coffee!!

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Owls and Lessons, Etc.

I love Sundays.

See and be with my family at church, leisurely afternoons watching football (Go Pack!!) and a little blogging to get back into the swing of the week.  Today I'm linking up with the Sunday Scoop over at the Teaching Trio.  

I thought I'd add a little  organization tip to my post today because it's Sunday and this goes along with Sundays....

My grandmother bakes for church every week.  We have a little cake and coffee after service.  She started saving the icing containers for my mom to use for random things, and after playing around with them, she noticed they'd fit a 24 pack of crayons.  Perfectly.  Thus, a bright idea was born!

Background from The Candy Class

Mom put these crayons in the church pew for my girls to use during service when they got restless.  We had talked about how to store crayons... pouches versus boxes... buying those crayon boxes for each student.  This is a great way to keep up with crayons, especially if you bake or know someone who does!

On to the Sunday Scoop!

I'm enjoying a nice Sunday (which is my Saturday since we don't have school Monday) sitting with the fam and watching some Packer football.  Following Aaron Rodgers' good advice and R-E-L-A-Xing!  He is the man, you know.

Happy Sunday and Go Pack, Go!

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Owls and Lessons, Etc.

I hate that I missed last week's Sunday Scoop...

Last week, I had to make a quick pitstop at the local ER...apparently my Bumblebee has a peanut allergy.  She's had peanut butter before, but she had a pretty good reaction to it.  

We had to keep her occupied by taking pictures of the "baby" in the ER... thankfully she's fine and it wasn't a bad reaction, bad enough to scare mom and dad!  This was my first ER visit.  Talk about adding to your schema!  Hopefully we won't have to make any return visits :)

So, here's a little of what we're doing this week and today.

And here's my Sunday Scoop!  Head over to the Teaching Trio and see what else is going on!

Have a wonderful week!!

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Owls and Lessons, Etc.

Wow...what a week!

Monday- conference night... Tuesday- PLC... Wednesday- Meet with the literacy coach to go over new transitional reader lesson plan... Thursday- Meet with the math coaches to look at Exemplars and guided math... Friday- go to MAP reports training.

Sigh... and today's my birthday so I'm off later to celebrate (yay!) with my family.  Hoping for a Packers win today... :)

So, here's a quick look at What We're Learning This Week!!

My student teacher has started teaching just about everything with the exception of my reading and math groups.  With the spread of ability I have, I'm teaching three reading groups while she teaches two.  She'll take over math groups next week. In Math, we'll be learning about different ways to write and represent numbers, including expanded, standard, and word forms.

Famous Americans is our new unit for the next three weeks of Social Studies.  We used to teach them in February (ya know, when Presidents' Day falls...ahem...) and we taught First Americans in the fall...(ya know, when it's Fall and Thanksgiving...ahem...) but someone decided to change that...so we will be learning about George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Helen Keller this week, and next week Susan B. Anthony, Jackie Robinson, and Martin Luther King, Jr.  I can't wait to see what activities she'll have.

Now, the Sunday scoop!!

I'm linking up again with the Teaching Trio and here's a quick look at what I've got going on today!  

Like I said, today is my birthday, so much of today will revolve around that.  I'm really hoping that my Packers pull off a win against the Bears, but we'll have to wait and see how that goes.  My little laptop suffered a fate too unspeakable to mention (the 1 year old got a hold of it and jumped on it...up and down...numerous times)... while the screen is obviously busted, the hard drive is fine...hook up to the old monitor and boom!  But I don't like being tucked away from the kids while I get my tech fix for the day, so for my birthday, the hubs bought me a Galaxy Tablet.  It's awesome.  I have a Galaxy 3 phone, so while there are a few things different, I've pretty much got the gist of how to use it.  And I'm very, very happy to get a piece of apple pie and vanilla ice cream later. No cake for this girl, my daddy and I (both September birthdays) get apple pie and ice cream to celebrate.  

I hope everyone has a wonderful fall Sunday and a great week at school!  Check out what everyone else is doing on their Sunday Scoops.  Leave them some love!

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Owls and Lessons, Etc.

Today's Sunday Scoop and What We're Learning is going to be short and sweet today... I've been up since 5 with the Bumblebee who decided it was a great time to get up and play (fail!) and since she's now asleep, I think I need to be as well. 

My student teacher begins taking over reading and will continue to teach math and science.  I'm really enjoying seeing my students from another perspective.  Shout out to my student teacher- she's doing a really good job with her instruction :)  the kids are engaged and excited to learn.  You should see 7 year olds trying to say precipitation, evaporation, and condensation!

We'll start place value tomorrow and for my upper math groups I'm going to introduce my Tic Tac Toe Plus! Place Value games that I finished up last week.  I'm really excited to see them play because I think they'll love it.  

Now, today's Sunday Scoop!

I hate laundry.  I hate getting clothes ready for girls.  Boys would be so much easier.  Lesson plans will have to wait until post-nap.  Priorities... yes, the bag of candy corn has already been opened... yes, there is some left.  I won't say how much... :)

My good buddy gave me her husband's recipe for white bean chicken chili that looked so, so, so yummy that I begged for the recipe.  It's on tap for dinner tonight, post-nap.  I need to finish printing my tic tac toe place value game and get it ready for tomorrow...again, yes, you got it... post-nap.  See a pattern here??  And....as I sit and watch the Philly/Washington game... I'm anxiously waiting to plan my first trip to Philly and my first NFL game.  No, it's not a Green Bay game, which will happen one day, but it's a good place to start since it's my hubs favorite team.  

Okay...on to my nap.  Leave some love while I'm off in snooze land.  Have a great week y'all!

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Owls and Lessons, Etc.

It's time for the Sunday scoop!  Whoop!

Last week was a better week at school.  Kiddos are finally getting into a routine (except for MAP testing...ugh!) but we are done with testing until January!  Now we can settle down and get back into our small groups and get to learning!

Here's what we're learning this week!

Fonts by Rowdy in Room 300
Cupcakes by KristyBear Designs

My student teacher is taking over whole group math and science this week and has lots of cute activities planned.  Water cycle is hard for most 2nd graders, just the overall vocabulary... visualize 6 and 7 year olds trying to say condensation, evaporation, precipitation three times fast with no front teeth!

So, on to the Sunday Scoop!  I'm linking up again to the Teaching Trio to share what's going on!

Have to do today:

Math small group lesson plans- we've had to put small groups on the back burner the past two weeks due to PALs and MAP testing, but we're raring to get back into them this week!  The lesson plan that my district created was a bear, but tweaking it to fit my BUILD rotations makes it a little easier to plan.  I have some really weak students, so differentiation will be key!

This week's read aloud- We are working on making predictions and making connections.  In our Making Meaning curriculum, we'll be reading  Jamaica Tag-Along and making connections to character feelings.  I've also found a really good combo of predicting and connecting on TPT using the read aloud Owen by Kevin Henkes (I love his books!)  If you download, please follow and leave some great feedback!  

Disinfect- It's that time of year, my friends... My bumblebee *might* have a mild case of hand, foot, and mouth.  Not sure, but it's looking more likely.  She has two little blisters on her foot, but none elsewhere and no fever.  Hoping that it goes by her quickly and painlessly.  Not to mention, I don't want to write sub plans for a Monday! (selfish momma!)

Today will be spent being doctor, teacher, momma, and sports fan.  Lots of football games (Go Pack, go! you owe me from last week!!!) and racing at Chicago (Go Junior!)  If time allows, I hope to work on some new math units I came up with!  

Have a wonderful Sunday, y'all!

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Owls and Lessons, Etc.

Wow...it's been a crazy few weeks.

In NO particular order, I have done/had:
-classroom to set up
-kindergartener start school and Bumblebee started a new sitter
-5 year old birthday party
-student teacher arrive
-first year as grade chair
-21 2nd graders arrive to my classroom
-11/21 2nd graders arrive who are more along the lines of a 1st grader
-weekend vacation
-stop to breathe...

I might be able to breathe starting tomorrow once I'm done with a certain ladybug's birthday party this afternoon.

I wanted to share a few things with y'all today that are going on in blog land...  I came across a new linky that I totally love!  I'm linking up with The Teaching Trio and their first Sunday Scoop!

I won't comment on most of this because it's pretty self-explanatory, but if anyone has any good book suggestions... I just discovered that my local library has an app where you can download e-books (score!) right to your phone (score double!) and since I finally went and got a new library card, I've been a reading fiend lately.  I read Fifty Shades of Gray (yes, I'm THAT behind in my life) and Written in My Own Heart's Blood (just finished last night...who doesn't love the Outlander series) so I'm in need of a new book to read.  

September also marks the beginning of football season (Go Packers!), fall, school, and the beginning of birthday season in my family.  There are 3 birthdays in September (my Ladybug, my daddy, and myself!) and then we are slammed from November to December.  Excited to get some family time in today!

The ladybug turned 5 on Thursday!

And speaking of birthdays, my good blogging buddy (and Virginia Blogger, too!) Andrea at Reading Toward the Stars! is having a birthday/1500 follower giveaway going on at her blog.  There are lots of goodies up for grabs (even some of mine!) so head on over and check out what she has going on.  Click on the photo to take you to her blog.

Have a wonderful week y'all... hoping to get back to the blog with some classroom pics very soon!

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Owls and Lessons, Etc.