A Lil' Bit of President's Day with some Valentine's on the Side

So the past week has been CRAZY with weather - snow and ice...mainly ICE.

 Last week was one of those weeks that you just survive. 

We were out on Monday for President's Day, out on Tuesday for weather (ice), school on Wednesday, delayed start (ice) AND in-house professional development on Thursday, and early dismissal (ice with a TINY bit of snow) on Friday.

Needless to say, all of the fun activities that I had planned for President's Day didn't happen. :(

We did, however, find the time on Wednesday to read the book Duck for President and talk about what we would do if we were President. (I intended to copy all of their ideas down onto a cute anchor chart to display, but time was not on my side!) Time did allow for a little flag craft and discussion!

We first examined the flag in our classroom and counted the stripes and stars.

Then, we made our own!

We added a little writing activity (of course!) to our flag and then displayed them in the hallway.

(I think he has the right idea!) 

So that is all that we accomplished for President's Day. 

Before I go, let me share some of our Valentine's Day boxes. I got the idea from Simply Kinder! You can check it out {here}. 

I have to say I was VERY surprised at how well these turned out! This was the first year that I have done anything like this. We usually just decorate white paper bags and call it a day. :)

All of them were WONDERFUL! You can tell that a lot of thought and time went into making them.

 Here are a few of my favorites:

I will DEFINITELY be doing this again! Thanks Jennifer from Simply Kinder!

One more thing....

can't leave out our BEE-utiful bees from Jennifer at First Grade Blue Skies!

I hope everyone has a Happy Monday! I will be enjoying yet another Snow (ICE) Day!

Out with the OLD and in with the NEW......PRINTER!

So, my fellow blogging friends, it finally happened. My faithful printer that I have had for six years DIED. 

I felt as though I has lost my right arm. Seriously....I use my printer way more than most people (I think). You see, my classroom is way down in the basement, FAR AWAY from the school's copy machine. All of my printables that I use (from TPT of course!) are on my computer, so it is just so easy and convenient to simply print my 15 copies off the printer. Until, it was GONE! Then, I had to depend on the teacher across the hall to print off the essentials (weekly homework that you can find {here}) until I could find a replacement laser printer. 

Luckily, I still had my instructional money left to spend, so the search for a new printer began! I started off by asking the advice of my fellow teaching/blogging buddy Jennifer from First Grade Blue Skies. She shared with me her post about her new printer that she bought (which you can read {HERE}). 

LOVED the printer, but unfortunately Amazon doesn't carry that particular printer anymore. :( 

My next step was to check out the recommendations from Amazon on printers similar to Jennifer's and,  

lo and behold, I found my new printer!

Canon imageCLASS LBP6670dn Laser Printer

I LOVE this printer! It is super fast, pretty quiet, and has an AWESOME two-sided print option. I couldn't ask for a better printer and what was even better about choosing this printer is that I found it on a day that it was ON SALE! That's right, I bought my new awesome printer for $99.99!!! 

WOOT! WOOT! 

And the (off-brand) printer cartridges are just $30! 

Check it out for yourself by clicking {HERE}. Like I said, I LOVE LOVE LOVE this printer! I highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a laser printer. Best purchase that I could have made for my classroom! 

Polar Bears and Weather

Just had to share what we have been up to the past couple of weeks!

We used Jennifer's (from First Grade Blue Skies) Polar Bear Close Read and "Bear" Facts FREEBIE packs to learn about Polar Bears.

We began a unit on weather by asking and answering the question 

"What is Weather?".

We learned what a meteorologist is and does using this darling anchor chart from

  A Cupcake for the Teacher.

And we were able to listen to a presentation by the MAIN WEATHER MAN,

JAMES SPANN!

And of course, you can't have a weather week without GRAPHING!

We used activities from this pack from Education to the Core.

That's what we have been doing....what have you been up to?