A Return From a Short Hiatus

I have not blogged in while {try like … a month} and I really have good reasons!

My house has been in total chaos with remodeling. That is right, we decided to remodel our kitchen and what was suppose to only take about a week and half turned into four weeks!!! I have been up to my eyeballs in dust. But I can finally say that is complete and although it took forever I am happy with the results.

My house is not that old {about 6 years old} but I felt like everything in my kitchen/hearth area was just way too dark. Plus, we didn’t have a lot of natural light coming in. So we changed our paint colors, added travertine floors, and back splash. Then while we were at it we decided to paint the entire house. This is a picture of the hearth room, which is connected to the kitchen.

I really wanted more of a true gray, but with the granite counter tops being the color they are we decided on a taupe color with gray undertones!! The new paint color looks kinda khaki in this picture, but it actually has slight gray undertones if you could see it in person. The color I used in called Bennett Gray by Benjamin Moore.

To top all of this off with my house being under construction, my household keeps getting the crud. The first round was strep throat. Can I just say it is no fun when both kiddos have it?? As soon as we get over that, BAM my house is hit with the stomach bug this past week. And let me tell you, it has ran through my household with a vengeance. Even the hubs and I have caught it. It did not matter how much we Lysol the house down, it was just hanging on!

Hopefully with Thanksgiving Break we can all catch up on rest and get ourselves and our house back in order. Wait … did I say order?? Does that really even exist {LOL}? Now it is time to decorate for Christmas! I don’t mind though, decorating for Christmas is one of my favorite things to do.

So now on to what has been going on in my classroom! We have started introducing 2 digit addition and subtraction without regrouping. My class seems to be catching on to this, so that is a good thing! It will make things easier when it comes time to teach regrouping after our break.

We have also officially started our timed drills. My school/parish and me as well expect them to have their basic facts memorized by the end of second grade. Even though we are moving on to 2 digit, you can never have enough practice of the basic skills, wouldn’t you agree?? We work toward earning a fudge sundae. This is the board we use in our class to keep up with everyones progression.

I also decided to participate in the Great American Mail Race. Do any of you participate in this? We received a letter from another student from another school. Then each of my students has to write a letter {or 2} and send it out randomly to a school in each state. I always get letters for this each year, and I always write back to the child who sent the letter. However, this is the first time I decided to let my own class send letters. So if by some chance you get a letter from us, please respond even if you don’t allow your own class to participate. It is was by some miracle we were able to get this completed by the time break arrived, but we pulled it off. I don’t know about you guys, but the writing process always takes us a while. Especially if we are doing a true writing process from start to finish. Plus with me being sick and missing several days of school right before break it was hard playing catch up. Don’t you just hate when you have to be out??

Although Thanksgiving is over yet, the teacher in me is always planning ahead. So I have also been getting my stuff ready for Christmas. We will have Disguise the Snowman and of course Christmas Around the World. I have some really neat ideas/crafts planned for my class. With the craziness of all the holidays I will definitely have to keep them busy. If your looking for something to use in small group/centers or even whole group be sure to check out my Christmas Literacy Set!