How Full is Your Bucket?

At the beginning of the year we read a story called How Full is Your Bucket?. The story portrayed to students how we each have an invisible bucket that we carry with us. When bad things happen to us during the day, people say negative words, you argue with your siblings or friends, or similar circumstances, our bucket drips out water and becomes empty. When we say negative things to others we spill water from their bucket as well. When it is empty our hearts hurt and we begin to make bad choices. However, when we say kind words, use kind looks and kind touches to one another we fill our bucket up and help fill other people's bucket.  When it is full we are more likely to share these kind actions and make good choices.

As a class we discussed what this looks like in our own lives. As a visual reminder for our class I created a big bucket that we fill with golf balls. Every morning the bucket is full. Our goal is to have a full bucket at the end of the day. I remove balls if they are making bad choices and put balls back in when they make good choices. If they have a full bucket at the end of the day they earn a star. Every 5 stars they earn we get to celebrate with a popcorn party.

24 days later, we finally celebrated with a popcorn party!

It was refreshing to see the students' faces light up when they realized they actually earned all five stars. They were pumped. My hope is that they keep up the good behavior and our bucket stays full!

We will see!!!!!

Until our next celebration we will continue to work hard on doing the right thing.

Never Give Up!

This is going to be short and sweet!

We are still trying to get the hang of things around here. The one thing I keep reminding myself is DON"T GIVE UP! 24-7 we are reviewing rules, procedures and learning how to LISTEN!

However, I can say we are making progress.

Also, it amazes me at how much energy you need to keep up with the little rascals. To keep them focused you need to keep them active. I am constantly making up cheers, chants and songs to keep their attention.
WOW! I am learning a lot this year!

A verse from the hymn Jesus Paid It All that has been on my heart:
I hear the Savior say,
“Thy strength indeed is small;
Child of weakness, watch and pray,
Find in Me thine all in all.”

The Lord is my strength each day. He gives me the patience, love and words I need to pour out to my kids. 

Singing In the Rain

I'm singing in the rain
Just singing in the rain
What a glorious feelin'
I'm happy again
I'm laughing at clouds
So dark up above
The sun's in my heart
And I'm ready for love
Let the stormy clouds chase
Everyone from the place
Come on with the rain
I've a smile on my face
I walk down the lane
With a happy refrain
Just singin',
Singin' in the rain

This might be the song I would have sung when it rained on my wedding day, maybe something I would sing if I was playing mud volleyball or playing in the rain with friends. However, today it took me a little longer to laugh and sing along with the storms that came my way!

The rain came down constantly today because of something we like to call hurricane Hermine. I was actually looking forward to a rainy day but what I did not expect or wish to come my way was hearing the fire alarm go off during our math lesson. Yes, you heard that right the FIRE ALARM went off today of all days.
I even came prepared for the weather. I had my raincoat and rainboots ready but did I have time to grab these things? Absolutely not! So we all faced the rain and went outside to our assigned location to line up at in case of an emergency. Oh what fun we had splashing in puddles, laughing, screaming, dancing, and not listening to their name being called off. After I did roll call I was finally able to laugh and think it is what it is.
Singing in the rain is just what we did!

So thank you to whoever decided it would be a good idea to pull the fire alarm!

Dancing and Smiles

Friday was a day that reminded me why I do what I do.

The past two weeks I have had two to three students shutdown and cry during our spelling test. 
One student did much better this week but I  still had one boy who cried and threw a fit.
I encouraged them all to do their best, sound out the word and write down the letters they heard.
The boy wasn't even trying so I talked to him one-on-one and said he could try it now or would come in at recess and take it. That made him even more mad because he didn't want to miss recess.

He came in at recess and we took the test one-on-one at my horseshoe table. He was able to sound out the word but couldn't remember how to write the letters. I told him to look at my alphabet on the wall and see if he could figure it out. It took extra time but he did it! The look on his face was priceless. A wilting boy who was frustrated with himself now lit up with a smile from ear to ear. I passed out the test at the end of the day and he rushed to see how he did. "I only missed two!" he exclaimed, "Will you call my dad and tell him how good I did?" I told him to go home and show his dad his paper. I also wrote a note home to his parents sharing with them how much better he did on his test. Apparently his dad worked with him last night on his spelling words, something that has rarely happened since school has started.

I hope he continues to grow as the school year goes on. He just needs that little extra love and encouragement and that is what I am here to give.


After our tests Friday we celebrated. We danced to Follow the Leader and did a snake dance around the room. The joy on my students' faces throughout the day make coming to work something I look forward to daily.


Now for a wonderful extra long weekend! Time to rest, cheer on the Sooners and treasure the moments with family!

Tootsie Rolls and Glitter Spray

"You just won the million dollar prize!"

This has been my sanity today! I have done my best to encourage students to do the right thing, make good choices and answer questions by raising their hand and not shouting out.

Their reward is either a little tootsie roll or a spray of glitter on their hand. They loved it! We'll see how long that last! (Thanks to my wonderful mentor teacher for the million dollar idea!)

As for the crazies today, our wonderful morning came a tumbling down after lunch.
I had a student with a thumbtack in their mouth. I asked him to throw it away and he got a bad attitude, swung his arm and accidentally hit another student who then started bawling in class. I asked the two to go out in the hall so we could talk. When I was coming back into the room I walked into two of my kids yelling the A** word out loud in class and everyone staring at them like uh oh!
I ended up having to deal with these issues and will just have to pick up on math again tomorrow because we didn't have time to accomplish anything!

Are silly bands driving anyone else crazy? I love them and all but my kids just can't keep them on their wrist. It is either playing with them, talking about them, putting them in your mouth, etc. I've started collecting them. If it distracts them it is mine! I'm determined to collect more than them! LOL!

Everyday brings a new surprise!
Time to rest and recoup for tomorrow.

My Classroom

Senator Visits 1st Grade

At our new teacher breakfast hosted my the district I was chosen to sit by Senator Cliff Aldridge. He always picks two new teachers to talk to and congratulate and I was one of them! He visited my class last Friday and presented me with two beautiful pictures of our state capitol and a gift card to Mardel. He was so generous and my kids were awesome when he came to talk to them! Exciting moment:)