Valentine Treats YUM!

The winners of my Valentine activities are Lori, Mrs. Lavoie, and Sarah. Check your mail for some surprises! Thanks to everyone who stopped by!

Now for the yummy stuff!

I can not claim these as my own. . . and I don't even know who made them originally. . . but since I saw them on Pinterest, I thought it was fair game to share them with you. I'm not selling them or making any profit what so ever. . . well, I guess I could increase my weight with these, but not my wallet!

Here's the simple, and quick directions:

Ingredients: One bag of Hanover square pretzels, but any pretzel that is circular or square will work.

One bag of Hersheys Hugs (but you could use Kisses or any flavor of Hugs or Kisses.

One bag of  Valentine M&M's.

Preheat the oven to 225 degrees.

Put a layer of parchment paper on a cookie sheet. 

Lay out the pretzels and begin unwrapping the Hugs. 

(This will take you the longest time!)

Place one Hug on each pretzel. 

Put the cookie sheet in the oven for only 5 minutes. 

Pull them out and place on hot pads on the counter. 

Put one colorful M&M on each melted Hug. 

They will sink in enough to stay. 

You don't really need to press them down very far.

Let them cool and put them in the fridge over night. 

Place on a nice plate and 

share with your colleagues. 

I just heard the other day that if you don't feed the teachers, they will eat the students. . . . so I want to be sure to feed my teachers! 

(Thanks Mackenzie!)

Patty

V-V-V-Very Valentine's & You Can Win One!

Have you looked at the calendar? At the end of this week comes February.

Have you noticed a lot of pink, red, and white on other people's blogs? I have and well, I like it. I love the froo froo girly girly stuff. Even if I myself am not froo froo and girly girly!

I have also been creating some Valentine activities and I would love for you to have them. I'm willing to give one of each away.

All you have to do is:

• be a follower of this blog.
• leave me a comment of which one you like.
• leave me your email address
• tell me the blog that you LOVE to follow (besides mine of course!)

I will pick 3 winners on Thursday after school.

The first one I made is to help with fact and opinion. These cute little cards have a statement on them. Your child must read them and decide if they are a fact or an opinion. Pretty easy to do. But oh so good practice for your students. It's called Love Bugs Facts and Opinions. You can get it by clicking on the link.

The second thing I made is a practice in verb tenses. It's called Valentine Verb Tenses.  Each verb is underlined. The students must match up the other verbs with the main one, then decide which one is spelled wrong. That's the one they write on the answer key. 

And the last one I'm highlighting today is my Love In Alphabetical Order. It's a basic practice in ABC order, but there is some sorting of the matching cards first, then they put them in ABC order. There is a recording sheet included in case you'd like this to be a writing activity. 

And here's a freebie if you're still hanging around to read all of this.

I call it a Back to Back.

Students sit back to back with a lapboard for a hard surface. One student will say, "color the word stirrup pink." So they both color that pink. They DO NOT turn around to be sure that they have the right  word. Then the other player tells them what word and what color to use. This continues until the whole figure is colored in. THEN they share their pictures to see how well they read, listen and have chosen the right colors to use. (They can only use the colors that are listed at the top of the page.) In the end the picture will look crazy colored this way, but it will be a good oral language and listening activity for them. 

Don't forget to leave me a message!

Patty

It's the little things to be thankful for.

Today. .. TODAY. . . . TODAY, we got to go outside!

Let me assure you, it's been a long week with kids who have way too much energy.

And that energy wasn't for doing their best work or paying close attention or even for getting everything answered correctly.

No Siree! The kind of energy they had was the same kind that all of your dogs have when they are caged for too long kids have when they need some fresh air.

So today did go much better. But then again, Fridays usually do.

I did end up treating our aides to some delicious Cadbury Mini Easter Eggs. . .. I know, I should have bought them some Valentine's candy, but those Cadbury mini eggs are the best. And if the store is going to put them out even before Valentine's is over, then I'm going to buy them!

Our aides have been real troopers this week, putting up with our kids and inside recess, so they definitely deserved this treat.

What do you do to reward your staff? Do  you stop and thank them in some big or small way once in a while? I'm so glad to have this support staff to do some of the work that I can't possibly get completed by myself.

Have you ever sent the bus drivers a kind note? We like to send a bowl of candy to the bus garage at Christmas time to thank them for taking the kids home every night. Well, we do thank them for bringing them TO school also! It's just that sometimes it's more meaningful that they have a ride home.

Do you thank your custodians? Have you left them a note or a treat once in a while? I know that some of them may not seem to deserve a special treat, but maybe if you kill them with kindness, they'll turn around and do something for you too. I've often heard of custodians who complain about all the mess in a classroom. . . .. hmmmm. . . let me think about this. . . . if there were NO messes, would they have a job? Isn't that what they applied for? Don't they get paid to clean up after us? Imagine that all of us kept our rooms spotless, why would we need them?

Oops, I digress. .. this was supposed to be about good stuff.

Today my principal brought all of us a large drink from MacDonalds and one of their chocolate chip cookies. She hand delivered them to us. . . .Yes, she is a peach and yes, I love her on every other day too, But wasn't that wonderful that she did all that for us?  She said it was National Appreciate You day. . . or something like that. . . I was so amazed at the treat, that I don't think I heard what came from her lips. . .

Moral to the story. Stop and look around you. Who helps you? Who is always there for you? And who do you need to give warm fuzzies to? That's your homework for the weekend.

I would love to hear what things you do to appreciate your staff. Leave me a note. I'm anxious to read your thoughts.

Patty