A couple more things...



Painting the puzzle pieces



We finally got to finish our gifts for our moms and dads for Valentine's Day.



The finished products, I LOVE THEM TO PIECES!




So Cute!

 We read a few stories about Abraham Lincoln and made our own little book entitled, Abraham Lincoln's Hat.  Honest Abe kept very important papers in his hat at all times.  I asked the kids what they would put in their hats if they had a hat like Lincoln.  They came up with some cute ideas.

Class Book

                          

working hard on our illustrations and writing

Spongebob of course, cookies-I would agree on that one, and mom and dad

How cute, I would put mom and dad in it :)

Well that's all for now, off to bed.  Happy TGIF!!!

Way to Go Ryan!

The proud recipient (April 2010)

Here we are at Gillette Stadium

For the second year in a row, Ryan has been awarded the Pop Warner Little Scholar Award. To receive this, you must have a grade point average of 96% or above(Ry's is 99- woo hoo),community service hours along with playing pop warner football. The kids and their families are invited up to Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots for a luncheon and then the award ceremony takes place. It's a huge honor and it's very hard to come by in this part of New England. It seems most of the awards are given to kids from Mass and RI...that's where the headquarters are ;)  just sayin' Last year when we went, many names called were from that area. However,  needless to say, I am one proud mama! Way to go Ry! 

Superbowl XLV Steelers vs. Packers

Even though the Giants were not playing today, we were very excited for the big game.  Jack wants the Packers to win, the rest of us are indifferent.  Danny was totally up for making these cute football dudes, had to coerce the older ones just a little.  But they got very into it.  I asked everyone who they wanted to make, a Giant, a Steeler or a Packer.  Danny and Ry went for the Giants, Jack made Aaron Rogers. Love how they turned out!

Kevin Boss, Phil Simms and Aaron Rogers

Wanted to get this in before Danny Boy fell asleep.  He ended up making a bloody player too.  Did you like the Black Eyed Peas?  I love them, but I kinda thought they sounded a little weird, maybe the sound system wasn't working that great or something.  Well, back to watching the rest of the game, this was the fastest post ever.  Have a Happy Monday!!

Friday Fun

These were the cute groundhogs I was posting about earlier this week. I read Punxatawny Phyllis and Groundhog Day. The kids predicted whether or not the groundhog will see his shadow on the Yes and No graph. Then we wrote about our predictions filling in with the "muscle words" Side note: If you're wondering why we call them muscle words, I'm right with ya- haha just kidding- my sister thinks our word wall is so ugly and I may have to agree :) But I am new to the district and this school so I'm just going to go with it. Anyway, they are the words the kids have to know by the end of K, you can't sound them out, you have to memorize them. We tell the kids these words are like muscles in your body, you need to have muscles to hold things in place. And we need to know these words in order to complete sentences. Ok, back to groundhogs, then today we graphed whether or not their predictions were correct. This was a little tricky because if they said no the groundhog won't see his shadow, they had to put yes on todays graph. This took a little longer than I would have liked because some just didn't get it. Oh well, live and learn.

                                                    

                    

        

Our real science unit is suppsed to be on Shelters for animals. I sent home the houses for the kids to look in magazines to find and label at least 5 animal homes. They came out pretty cute, some families went all out! Then I introduced them again to the Venn Diagram. They did a great job.

                                          

        

We finally got to go back to school today.  The board of ed voted last night to take February Break away.  I'm so glad, I'd much rather have April.  March-June would be a LONG stretch. In other news here, John and Ryan are going on the middle school ski trip.  I'm so excited for them, Ryan has never skied and John hasn't skied in years.  The last time we went was way before Jack was born to this fabulous place.  I have BIG plans for when I get a full time job again  LOL.  All I ever say is when I get a full time job we are so going there again. California, Disney World and now because we're talking about skiing, this place - ha ha.   I always say to John though, getting to stay home with my little dude was so worth it and I wouldn't change anything. But still, fingers and toes are crossed beyond crossed for full time.  Well I hope you have a terrific Friday!!

Home Sweet Home {again}

Well we're home again, this time it's for safety.  The roads are fine but the roofs are not.  Last week Jack's bball practice was cancelled at the local middle school because they had concerns of the roof's well being.  Back then I thought hmmm, that could be dangerous but kind of brushed it off.  Then this happened on Tuesday night, thankfully no one was in the building.
                
This picture doesn't even do this justice.  This is the Tennis Club here and this is only one section, the place is huge and it is destroyed. This has happened to several buildings around the state.  SCARY!  The town and the custodians have been busy shoveling the snow off the school roofs these past couple of days. I'm hoping that we can return to safe buildings tomorrow, we're definetely ready for it. My house smells so clean and is sparkly.  Thought I'd take a little break to blog.  Danny's upstairs watching Fox and Hound, love that movie and the big guys are down here watching The Blind Side, my FAV all time movie. It's so peaceful right now.  Hope you're having a nice day too!

Meet The Teacher

This morning when I clicked on my blog, Cara Carroll posted this.  I love her blog.

                              

So I decided to join in the fun.  My sister Annie introduced me to blogging a few years back.  She lives in California and I loved seeing pictures of her kids and what she was doing on a daily basis.  So I thought I'd give it a shot.  Anyway, I was pretty good in the beginning, then I became a slacker and then I got the facebook bug, so I stopped it altogether.  In the meantime, I went back to work teaching part time so I started googling websites to get ideas to use in my room. Kinderbykim, Mrs. Jumps Kindergarten and Beth Newingham were the ones I found first, LOVED THEM!  All of a sudden one day I clicked on mrs. jumps kindergarten and it said to click on her new blog...hello I was in teacher blog heaven because that's how I found most of you.  So around Christmas time I decided to give it a shot again.....this blog thing is addicting!!

A little about me.....
I have been teaching for practically 18 years, I have taught 1st grade, 2nd grade, Kindergarten and was a Literacy Tutor for grades 1-5.  Most of my teaching took place in Stamford, CT but now I am lucky enough to work (although only part time) in my town teaching kindergarten again.  However, I'm praying that this year turns to full time :) 

My fam!

I have been married for over 18 years to the best guy in the world-John, who would do anything for all of us and really anyone I know.  We have 3 awesome boys, Jack 14, Ryan 12 and Danny 6.  It was a piece of cake to get pregnant with Jack and Ry and for some reason it took forever to get Danny.  But the wait was well worth it, he is the sweetest kid.  I grew up in New Rochelle and White Plains, NY and I am the oldest of 5 girls, 4 of us are teachers!  Woo Hoo!  My blog is called Football Nut because I seriously am.  I love football and actually get depressed when it ends.  I love watching my kids play sports especially football- shocker!  I LOVE the NY GIANTS!!  My grandfather was the Vice President, I went to all the games growing up and 2 Superbowls. It really was an awesome life. My real name is Monica, but my nickname is Mikey.  No one seems to know how I got that name but it has stuck.  I love the beach and warm weather, my dream is to one day move to California, but that is total wishful thinking, at least I know I have a place to always visit.

My boys!

My Fabulous Sisters
Kerry 21, Me 42, Erin 23, Annie 40 and Katie 33 

Now for the Q & A

Q: What would you be doing if you weren’t a teacher?
A: I would say a nurse who works in the maternity ward.....I love babies!

Q: What are your hobbies?
A: Sadly, hobbies seem to have been put on hold, as everything I do, I do for my kids.  I do love photography and traveling though.

Q: When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A: I wanted to be a teacher, I played "Romanian School"  all the time with my sister Annie and our 2 next door neighbors. Romanian School??? random I know.  When I was little, Nadia Commeneci was this unbelievable Romanian Olympic gymnast. I thought she was the greatest thing ever, so when we weren't playing Romanian School we were pretending we were gymnasts.

Q: What are your guilty pleasures?
A:  Shopping of course and Dr. Pepper with greek pizza-yum! Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookies, Keeping Up With the Kardashians, E! True Hollywood Story, Cold Case and House Hunters
 
Q: What is your biggest fear?!
A: My biggest fear is leaving my kids, I want to live to be in my 80's at least.

Q: When you’re on vacation, where do you like to go?
A: Disney World!!!!!  I cannot wait to go again, it's been a little too long.

Q: What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
A: Everything always works out!

Q: What do you value most in others?
A: Honesty and loyalty

Q: If you could choose one of your personality traits to pass down to your kids, what would it be?
  A: To speak up more for yourself
 
 
Q: If you could have lunch with anyone in the world….living or dead…who would it be?
A:  I would LOVE to have lunch with my grandparents one more time so they could meet my kids.  I know they would absolutely love them.  I'm so sad that they are no longer here, they were truly the best!
 
One random thing about me:
I cannot live with out chapstick, I swear I'm addicted to it, like right now my lips feel so chapped and I don't have it on me but I want to finish this post, so this part will be brief.

Groundhog Day

I feel like I'm in the movie Groundhog Day, only it should be called "Snow Day!"   We have not had a full week of school since before Christmas.  I am sooooo bored and so sick of being snowed in. How much cleaning and laundry can I do?  Maybe I should mention baking too, I swear I have gained weight during these days, I have baked so much junk, it's ridiculous. We are all bottomless pits.  Anywho, my class finished up their groundhog projects yesterday at school and of course I forgot my camera.  The groundhogs are so adorable.  I'll have to post pics on Friday when we go back, tomorrow is going to be another crummy day. Getting back to groundhogs, I read the books,

and  I have never read either one of those and they were great books.  Groundhog Day was full of awesome info and Punxsutawny Phyllis was an adorable fiction book about a girl that wanted to take over after her uncle Phil retires, it was so cute. I only read these 2 this year.  I'm NOT a big fan of Geodfrey Groundhog and It's Groundhog Day(if that's what it's called). There's no way of being delicate with this so, I'll just be blunt, I think they have the dumbest story lines ~ I was thrilled to find these 2 gems.  Anyway, speaking of groundhogs, I found this wonderful blog a few weeks ago, this girl makes you want to cook and bake.  She has the best ideas.  Just look at her cute and yummy groundhog treats, I wish I had some of this stuff in my house so I could make this for the kids tomorrow.
In other news, I think Ry has strep, so a trip to the doctor will be my big venture out tomorrow.  Oh well, here's to hopin' and prayin' the groundhog DOES NOT SEE HIS SHADOW tomorrow morning!  Have a good night all.