Random

Today we had a lock in drill at school which required me to explain the concept of a lock in while avoiding the true explanation of why we would actually go into a lock in situation because I didn't want the kids to get scared. I told them that our school is safe, but just in case there was a time when it was no longer safe, we need to kind of play hide and seek and be really quiet. They did a great job sitting quietly for close to five whole minutes (which is a really long time for Kinder kiddos to be totally silent and still). In the past any mention of a "bad man" results in the kids coming up with all kind of crazy scenarios and ideas and I didn't think it was necessary to get their kids' imaginations reeling thinking of bad men coming to get us at school.

My book club met after school today and we are absolutely loving The Hunger Games. We already finished it, so we decided to read the other two books in the series as well. I heart book club, but these days it's mostly because I get to see friends and the snacks rock! I also feel like I need to schedule myself to read at least one book for pleasure because I love to read and I have to much to read for class that if I didn't somehow commit myself to reading for pleasure, I just wouldn't get to it.

I realized recently that I have a total addiction to frosted animal cookies. I have been craving them a LOT lately and I can seriously down a whole bag in just a few days. I finally took a look at the nutrition label and decided that perhaps it's not such a good idea to buy them all the time because they are not exactly all that healthy. I prefer getting them from the store where I can buy them in bulk because I actually buy a smaller quantity when I get them there. 

I did a lesson today that used a balance and the kids were so into it. I used my Boardmaker software to print pictures of the items that we would be comparing and also some images to them understand the vocabulary words that were part of the lesson (heavy, heavier, down, light, lighter, up, balance, and predict). They did such a good job predicting and explaining why they thought a certain item would be heavier. Some kids reasoned that two markers would be heavier than one pencil because there were two markers and only one pencil. They also noticed that the markers were bigger (fatter) which was another reason they would be heavier than the pencil. It was really fun seeing how excited they got and reminded me just how important is to make lessons really visual and interactive for the kiddos.

It's February already! I can't believe it, but February is a short month which means before we know it, it will be March and that means spring break!! I miss my hubs and I can't wait to see him over break.