So Thankful for the Weekend

I am so happy to have a four day weekend in front of me. I've been exhausted for the past couple of weeks and I think I'm fighting off a cold of some sort. I'm looking forward to catching up on my blogging, watching some more of the kindergarten expo, and reading my Patricia Cornwell book today. Throw in my fiance's laundry, my laundry and fixing lunches and I feel like I'm quite the happy housewife. Saturday I'm participating in a middle school retreat that's an overnight er. So I need all the rest I can get today. Monday I'm heading to Knoxville with my mom to see my sis and sweet niece. My wedding dress is in so we might go by there Monday. Although my sleeves are not. It has barely been a month since we ordered it and I'm shocked it's already in.
We had a pretty good week at school celebrating Valentine's day and learning about weather. It's a weird combination I know. I have had 2 students move in the past week so my class size seems really small. When my 6 ELL kids leave to go to ELL class, I only have 9 students in my room and this week some of them have been absent. (Those of you that just added up that I only have 15 students, please don't hate me. I had 18 at one point. I'm apparently going to be a revolving door this year. And only 4 of those kids are girls.) On Valentine's day we decorated our bags to distribute our valentines, made a valentine for our parents, and played my puppy love cover up game. The kids seem to have a lot of fun. I didn't take any pictures of their valentines but they were nothing super special. I had bought some foam hearts and put their first day of kindergarten pictures on it. They just decorated them. I was really proud that most of my students had actually written their names and their friends' names on their valentines. That was something I asked the families to do so they could practice. I was also really proud of how well they read their friends' names. I think this year I've done more with names that I have in the past so they know each others names. Technically I'm a half day kindergarten where some of my kids leave at 12:30. That afternoon I only had 1 girl and then the rest of the kids were boys. It made me laugh a little because at one point they were all doing crafts. They had their choice between all the free centers and they chose to make stuff out of hearts. I was inspired by someone's blog who gave her students hearts to make animals out of. I found some felt hearts in my stash of stuff. They used them to make pictures. They turned out pretty well. One boy made a butterfly for me and then attached some paper from the writing center with a picture he drew of us and labeled. It was pretty cute.
I just finished watching Crystal's presentation from Kindergarten Expo on writer's workshop. I'm super inspired to go back to school and implement some of her ideas. If you haven't checked out the expo, you definitely should. I just purchased my ticket to the primary expo. I am loving this professional development on my own time in my pjs. 

I'm working on a blogging challenge for next week so be sure to check back.