Tornado end of the week sigh

Whew! what an end to a week. With lots of activities going on for Dr. Suess week/AR pirate/map activities our week has been full of all kinds of fun.

 I used an idea from The First Grade Parade's Cara to make the writing about where we like to read. Cute idea and the kids did a great job of writing to describe where they would choose to read. We've been learning about maps (which will need to be continued next week due to our abrupt ending to our day). Read Across America offered me lots of ways to coordinate those standards!!!

The ar sound Pirate activity was so much fun. I'm not sure how to say that pirates mix with Dr. Seuss but we don't really care! They loved searching for the words in the classroom. There was one missing word and I finally found it last night. You can find the unit on Abby;'s site here.

And a sad ending to our shortened day. Our student teacher was leaving today. He was wonderful. I never thought I could be so sad but we all sobbed!!! Yes. Sobbed! He asked if we could eat in the room and we did. He went around and told each child how special they were. Melt my heart. These kids ate. it. up. They looked him in the eye and loved his praise of how special they were. I had made a DVD of pictures and activities so we watched that (and cried some more). I am sure we would have cried the rest of the day if the tornado early dismissal didn't change everything in a flash.

So, I sit at home...waiting...and...hoping that no bad weather will come. We had severe tornadoes through our region last March which destroyed many homes. So we pray.

And, a little request. Say a prayer for my student teacher. He found out this his mom's cancer is terminal and she only has a short time left. He will miss his second part of his student teaching to fly across the country to be with her. So I am sure he can use prayer support.

A fun idea he used this week was to make a Sam I Am by incorporating our color words in a direction activity. The kids read the Who Am I? which was projected on the SMARTboard and put the parts together.