Monday Made It that Sparks Student Motivation...Valentine's is on the way...

This week has been a blur.

I'm behind on readin' blogs and commentin', but

I know all my sweet friends out there will let it slide.

You see...this week somethin' very sad happened

for my school...we lost one of our own 

to the awful "C word".

Mary Martin's laugh could be heard

anywhere in the school.  

She had the best sense of humor and

was the strongest person I've seen dealin' 

with this sickness.

She came to school every single day without a complaint,

even when goin' through chemo.

Mary dedicated her life

to all the babies she ever taught, her daughter,

and the rest of her family and friends.

On Friday, her sweet second graders let go 

of ballons with a message to Mrs. Martin in Heaven.

Their sweet innocence while gigglin' left many

teachers and older students with flowin' tears.

Yesterday we celebrated her life and it was beautiful.

Mary was a huge Auburn football fan.

Everyone wore orange and blue and it made my heart smile

when everyone shouted "War Eagle, hey!" for Mary.

She will be missed, but never forgotten.

This was hard, but I was happy to see 

my school band together, as they always do

when one of our "family" is hurtin'.

To any of my co-workers readin' this...

I love you!

Since I'm behind...I am doin' two link-ups at once.

Thank you Tara for hostin' Monday Made It

and Joanne for hostin' Spark Student Motivation Saturdays.

Love these ladies.

I wanted to do somethin' sweet this week for my babies

that would cheer everyone up and keep them motivated throughout

the week of Valentine's Day.

I made a little pit stop at Dollar Tree today 

and picked up a few things (Joanne...are you proud?)

I got enough for our 3rd grade buddies also.

 I'm goin' to have the kids write their names on the lil' heart boxes

where they will store the pink heart gems 

they earn throughout the week.

I don't really have a set plan for what they will earn them for,

but I'm sure they will have some ideas when they see them.

The table scatter hearts are for the tables durin' our 

Valentine's celebration.

 On Valentine's Day I will let them buy a special treat

with their gems.  

Maybe these will work?

Again, I will let them choose what 

the gems are worth.

The kids are more creative than I am

and it will be interestin' to see if they agree with me or not.

1 gem=treat bucket

2 gems=ten minutes free time on device

3 gems=extra recess time

4 gems=free choice

I am goin' to let them keep the gems to take home.

 I also bought these pink glitter stickers and a

 photo frame to stick them on.

I'm goin' to give this to my best friend's niece

just because I love her and she likes sweet treats.

We took this picture yesterday on our way to the funeral.

She was adament about goin' with us.

She was ready four hours before we left.

Here's a Valentine's freebie for any of you that use 

Behavior Beads 

in your classroom.

Don't know what Behavior Beads are?

Read about them here.

"You melt my heart!"

"You're top dog in my book!"

"I'm "berry" proud of you, Valentine!"

Valentine's Behavior Beads

Be sure to check out 4th Grade Frolics and Head Over Heels for Teaching

to see everyone else's ideas.

Have a great week friends!

Hug your loved ones and your babies at school!

Still snappin' on Sunday...

Yesterday I linked up with Run! Miss Nelson's Got the Camera for her Saturday Snapshots and loved checkin' out everyone else's snapshots, but I wasn't finished snappin', so here are some more pics of my adventures at Nitty's. 

Another pretty painted glass lamp.

Player piano rolls that go with a player piano from the 1920's.

Music Box.

Adding machine that was my Papa's.

Went on a little adventure outside durin' a rain break.  It's been rainin' for daaaaaaaaays!  The sun FINALLY peeked out for a few hours today.

Backyard with lots of ivy.  It looks like it would be fun to jump into if I wasn't deathly afraid of snakes.

So crisp and pretty after the rain.

Peekin' on the neighbors' backyard.  Looks like a barn over there, but it's not.  It's a shed of some sort. 

Found a secret door.  Wonder where it leads to? 

My imagination is runnin' wild right now with the possibilities!

Guess what!?!  My DonorsChoose.org project was FULLY funded!!! I'm absolutely ecstatic about that and can't wait to write another one.  I think next time I'm goin' to write for a MacBook Air or a Touch Ultrabook PC.  Any thoughts on which one you personally prefer and which would be easiest for the kiddos to work with in the classroom?  I'm so very fortunate to have some really supportive and lovin' people in my life (my real life parents, my current rockstar parents and past parents from my many years of teachin').  I'm blessed for sure and could NOT do it without them!

Last night I jumped in on a "Summer Planning Giveaway-Scavenger Hunt" over at I'm Lovin Lit.  It's going on from July 6-12.  It was neat to hop over to other blogs, stores, FB pages and find the secret word.  While hoppin', I found some new blogs to follow and am learnin' about so many new things that I didn't even know existed in real life and teachin' life.   Anyways, at the end of the scavenger hunt you fill in a Google form with all of the secret words you find; pretty painless. I did Pack C & Pack D yesterday and Erin Cobb already emailed me the packs last night...speedy! 

Tomorrow I plan on linkin' up with Tara for Monday Made it with 4th Grade Frolics.  I'm pretty stoked because it will be my first link up for Monday Made It.  I'll give you a hint: they're round.