Sunday, February 16, 2014

Valentine's Day Compliment Poster Projects!

I survived Valentine's Day 2014!!!

Luckily, we actually had a VERy mellow day thanks to my sweet friend and blogging buddy Tonya from Tonya's Treats for Teachers . She shared an amazing idea with me about a project that she has been doing with her kiddos for the past 4 years on Valentine's Day. You can check her original blog post out {here}

Once I heard about this super cute and awesome idea I just knew I HAD to do it in my classroom!! 

I gave my kids about 3 weeks to work on 'Part 1' of their V-day Project at home for homework. Part 1 required them to write a sweet and meaningful compliment to each of their classmates. We really spent the time talking about what a meaningful compliment was and talked about how totally lame it would be to get 24 cards that said 'You are nice'. 

Part 2 of this project was a mystery and I told my students they would learn more about it on Valentine's Day…BUT they needed to finish Part 1 to hear about Part 2!

They were sooooo excited about this project and really worked hard on it. I shared with Tonya how adorable some of my kids were because they would ask if they could stay in during recess to work on writing their cards. I even had a handful of boys who wanted to stay in (and they NEVER want to stay in) during recess- I was totally shocked when I saw one of them carefully coloring and decorating each card he wrote! 

This year, I went out and bought all of our supplies to complete Part 2 of our project. I wanted to kick myself as I was cleaning up (at then end of the day) because I forgot about an entire bag full of stickers I had bought to us- but forgot to put out. Oh well, I will just use them next year :) 


Once I got in all of my students Compliment Cards I separated them by student and put them all into baggies. 
The students then randomly chose a bag out of my basket and created a Compliment Poster (with all the sweet notes from classmates) for whichever student they chose. So if Bryanna chose Kelly- she made a poster for Kelly with the notes from all of our classmates (and me!). 

I wish I could have captured a photo to show you all when I told them about Part 2. Because it was a 'mystery' up until V-day, they had no idea what they were doing. They were completely stoked to be getting a FULL SIZE poster board to decorate and that they could go crazy with their supplies and the supplies I had purchased. 

They were required to arrange their cards (index cards) to ensure enough space before gluing. They also had to find room to decorate the persons name onto the poster… 


Once everyone was done, they each had a chance to come up in front of the class to present their posters to their classmates. It was really fun and everyone (including myself) was super excited to find out who made their poster!! 


 They all came out sooo cute!! 

I especially loved the sweet notes I got from the students!! Some of them literally made me laugh out loud!! :D 
'I hope you find a good man' 


This was another really sweet note. Thank you for the compliment sweet child, but really?! Never Retire?! You must be kidding! lol 

I hope you also had a great Valentine's Day!! 

Saturday, February 1, 2014

February Currently!

I can't believe it's already February!! Things are so busy for me I just can't' keep up! 

Linking up with Farley today for her February Currently! 



Listening-to one of my favorite sounds…my dog running around playing with all of her toys. She has lots of 'jingles' on her collar because her mommy wants her to have a blinged out dog tag and her daddy wants her to sport a Red Sox dog tag (in pink, of course)…plus her city and county tag= a jingly puppy collar! I can't imagine life without her….

Loving- the COLD weather we've been having. Cold for us is probably warm for anyone who lives in the mainland….but we've been enjoying temperatures in the 70's..sometimes even dropping to the mid 60's. I haven't had to run the AC in our room for about 2 weeks..we've just been opening up all the windows, enjoying the cool breeze. 

Thinking-uhm. Yah-it's about time to order my bridesmaid dresses! Here is the dress I've picked out…
I also need to check up on the status of my wedding dress! It should be in soon since I ordered it in August…

Wanting a tan. I am so pale it's sad. I haven't been to the beach in way too long. School + wedding planning + blogging/tpt + rainy weather= no time for the beach/sun. 

Needing- to get back to eating healthy and exercising regularly. Since the holidays have come I have really slacked on the way I've been eating. I was being really good for about 5 months straight and actually had no desire for 'unhealthy' foods……I was also starting to run/walk daily. That stopped and I need to get back into shape!! 

2 truths and a lie-
1. This is my fib. I AM full Japanese. Most people often mistake me for being 'hapa' which is a mix of nationalities 
2. I'm getting married in June-duh (I kinda blabbed that earlier) lol
3. I danced in a luau show for about 5 years of my life and entertained at private weddings/parties professionally for about 7 years….
Here's a waaaay super old photo of me (on the left) back when I was skinny and tan :P 

Last but not least…I will be throwing a 20% off sale in my TPT store today and tomorrow in honor of the Super Bowl.
Thanks to Corinna from Surfin' Through Second for this super cute button ;) 

Thanks for stopping by! Head on over to link up with Farley!! You know you want to…. :)