Awards, rants,..and a writing activity..oh my!

Ok...before I go off on my first rant for the day....I want to give a HUGE thanks shout out to a fellow Jennifer over at





She just awarded me the Sunshine Award, along with many other fabulous blogs that I LOVE TO STALK too!! Rowdy is one of my fav blogs - you should check her out!
And as I was typing this post, I got an email that Christine from

Click HERE...I couldn't get her button to work

awarded me the Sunshine Award!! You girls really know how to make a girl smile!! And why do I like these awards so much??? Because they come from fellow bloggers!! Thank you girls!



And to see my list of blogs that I awarded the Sunshine Award to, check out that post {HERE}
Also, I have been asked on my Behavior Management Post, how I keep those cards from getting lost....well, I have these pockets taped to the kids' desks. 

I laminate them and then box tape them to the desk and the index cards fit in them perfectly :) I bought them at our local teacher's store. They last a pretty long time - I might have to go through in the middle of the year and replace some of them. But they're even great for holding bookmarks and such!  :)

Ok, so onto my first rant for the day -
WHAT IS WRONG WITH MY BLOGGER!?!? I KNOW I have started following some of you - I've clicked the "follow me" button on y'alls log, I've copied and pasted your blog link in the "add" box on blogger...but you won't show up!! WHY??? What is going on? I don't like missing your posts...why is this happening...anyone? anyone? Bueller? Bueller? (lol..sorry, I couldn't help it!)

2nd thought -
I did a CUTE CUTE CUTE little gingerbread man today that I got from Mrs. Miner's Kindergarten Monkey Business

Here's what they look like (from her blog)

I haven't taken a picture of ours yet - we did them SLIGHTLY different....

BUT, we are going to tie it into a writing activity! They are going to create a "LOST" poster (you know, like when you lose a puppy??). They had to create their gingerbread man first, so they could describe him in the writing activity.

But...before I give you the writing activity, let me go on ANOTHER rant...lol. Sorry...THIS one just PEEVES me!

So, our budget cuts just astound me....to save jobs, our district has made our art program go EVERY OTHER WEEK! What????? Is art NOT an important part of education??? What's next?? Music? I think I'm so mad over this because I am SO for the arts - I am a "photographer" and a "musician" (I played the tenor sax all through school." The arts are such a MAJOR part of education. My husband, for one - HATED school - and the only reason he was excited about school was because of the art program. AND to top it off, our art is "art on a cart" because we have so many teachers that he had to give up his classroom, which makes "art" education even worse. (Let me clarify here - I am not mad at our school for doing this - we are doing the best we can with the cards with which we were dealt...and with the charter school closing this summer, our school was inundated with new students - we had to hire SO many new teachers!)

The reason I am on this rant today is because my kids had the HARDEST time knowing how to glue the arms and legs on the BACK of the gingerbread man today (you know, so you don't see the "seam")....and how to decorate him (now mind you, I do A LOT of art in my room, because of my passion for it).  I'm sorry...I didn't mean to get on my soapbox, but it is so sad to me that the "arts" have taken a backseat in education. But in my room, I try my hardest to incorporate it into my lessons, but I realize and know that it is SO hard for teachers to incorporate art all the time into their lessons. And do we really need ANOTHER hat to wear??? Ok...I'm finished..for now! lol...Please tell me that there are others out there that feel the same as me! (no seriously...please! lol..so I don't feel like I'm all alone here...lol)

Ok, so for the writing lesson...lol..sorry!

After they make their cute little gingerbread man, they are going to do a descriptive writing to find him - I can't wait to show y'all how they turn out!!

Click {HERE} to get a copy - but remember....I {SUPER PUFFY} Heart comments! :)

Happy Teaching!