Giving Back ~ A Pajama Drive

During the month of December, my class has been bringing in pajamas to donate to our local homeless shelter. The idea to donate pajamas came from Scholastic Book Clubs.  They hold a Pajama Drive every year and match each donation with a book for children in need.

This is the first year my class has participated and I feel humbled and proud of my students and their families. Most of the pajamas donated were children sized so instead of donating to our local Aid for Friends, I made the decision to donate to our local Family Services Alliance for domestic abuse victims. They tend to have more children in need than our local homeless shelter.

I wish I could have taken my class on a field trip so they could have been a part of the entire process, but Christmas Break came WAY to fast!  I think this will become our class project every year.  I am definitely feeling the Spirit of Christmas now!

Parent Gift ~ Student December Craftivity

Every year I try to think of a creative, cute, and EASY crafitivity for my students to put together for their loved ones as a gift in December.  Every year after I finish the creative, cute, and EASY Christmas project I think "WHAT was I thinking! NEVER AGAIN!"  This year "we" made these creative, cute, and "easy" wreaths from tulle.  Incredibly cute, right?!

All you need is a 3 inch ring (Any office supply store or HERE).

Tulle (HERE or I found mine at Walmart) cut to 6 inch long pieces in any color you would like (it took 35-40 pieces).

 And ribbon (HERE or Walmart again) of any size so is can hang.

It will be so easy, I said...

They can tie knots, I said...

It will be easy, I said...

They can tie double knots, I said... (They tie them in their shoes all the time!)

It might be easy, I said...

It will be so creative, I said...

It's easy?! I said...

I only have 22 to fix, I said...

What was I thinking!!! I said...

Ahh, it turned out so CUTE!! I said...

I think I'll think of something else next year. I said...

Kid Quote of the Week

Remember when you were a kid and you couldn't be bothered to get undressed one layer at a time?  Like pulling off your pants and underwear at the same time, and then your mom would get mad when they went through the laundry that way?

This week's Kid Quote comes from my co-worker's classroom.  After completing centers in her class she asked the students to pick up......

"Teacher there's UNDERWEAR under the table!!" Concerned Classmate

Wondering what her students were talking about she looked under the table and sure enough! Underwear!  They were clean, I'm sure they fell out of a students pant leg and (because it's 1st grade) they never even noticed.

We've ALL been in that awkward place; maybe it was a sock in your sweater arm, or the dry sheet in your pant leg instead.  But it can really start a conversation when it's underwear under the table!

Now I wonder what would YOU do with the underwear?!.......

Kid Quote of the Week

Last week was a little crazy!  There are so many things going on this time of year and I had math curriculum training this week too! (More about that later... I'm really excited about it!!)

This week while writing during our class centers a group of kids were talking about older and younger siblings and how much they bug them......

"My little sister is SO annoying.  She invades my personal space!" Blake ~ Annoyed Older Brother

I really wanted to tell them that it won't matter how old they get, siblings (older & younger) will always be annoying.