The 100th Day of School

This upcoming week is a big one. We have two celebration days in a row. On Wednesday, it is a certain teacher's birthday. Her students are planning a surprise for her. They are adorable students. I cannot wait to see what they have planned.
The day after my a certain teacher's birthday, it is the 100th day of school. I am definitely excited for it. I take any excuse to make school that much more fun. One thing I am sad about is that my team is doing math rotations this week. It is the first time we are rotating in anything and it just happens to be on the 100th day of school. I had some math activities that I definitely wanted to do with them. Maybe we'll just do double math. (True story: This past week, I gave my students the option to rearrange the schedule for a day to fit in two math lessons and all except 5 voted to do that.) Here is a rundown of what we are going to do.

1-100 search (math activity)
I received an epiphany for this idea when I saw this cute Hunting for Kisses idea from this website.

Once I thought about how this activity wouldn't do very much for my 4th graders, I changed it up a bit. I still will put kisses throughout the room, but they will search for the kisses with a partner. When they find one, they mark it off on the chart and then draw two arrays for the number and list all the factor pairs.

Make 100 pinwheels. I am a mega fan of pinwheels. So cute and springish. (If we need anything, it is a little spring. It was -20 a couple weeks ago when I arrived at school. Disgusting.)

If each of my students made 3, we would just about have 100.

I definitely am going to be making a sign similar to this one.

In fact, I want to get started on that one right away. Her website is full of adorable pennants and I am definitely a fan of the adorable pennant.

Last but not least, have a 100-year-old photo shoot. Remember a few years ago when mustaches on a stick were all the rage? (Okay, they are still all the rage.) Well...picture this: Your choice of a white mustache, beard, hair, and thick glasses. Choose what you like and adorn yourself as a 100-year-old for a photo shoot with your friends. I have hinted to it already and my little 4th graders were really hyped up.

There you go. A few of my 100 day ideas. (Can't Thursday come any sooner?)

A birthday cake and Valentines Day decor

Every second sunday of each month, my family gets together and celebrates whoever's birthday is in that month. Last week, we were able to celebrate one of my nephews birthday as well as my own. This called for a birthday cake.
My favorite cake recipe is ATK's flourless chocolate cake layer of their triple mousse chocolate cake. It is divine. Because it was my birthday, and one always wants the best for one's self, I went ahead and made it.

It is an intense cake. A dozen eggs. Flourless chocolaty goodness. I made the three layers of cake and Mr. Wolfgang helped with the two layers of mousse we stuck in the middle. This is the third or fourth time we've made this cake. It tastes much better if you can made it a day in advance. This time, along with the chocolate ganache, I adorned the side with a layer of toasted, slivered almonds.

Even though we had well over 16 people at this dinner, we still only finished off just over 1/2 of the cake. This baby is rich.

Yesterday I made a red ruffled topiary to help with Valentines Day decor.

I was beginning to make a second one, but I broke my sewing machine needle. I haven't done that in years. Seriously. I don't think I broke one in high school or even junior high. I couldn't find my spares so I have to do with just one adorable topiary for the present.

Even though I used 1 1/2" satin ribbon for the ruffles, they still showed some of the white foam ball under. I just took some short needles to pin down some of the white. I'm tempted to change those out in place of needles that have white spherical heads.

We also moved this lovely sign that I made about a year ago. I love it even more than when I made it. (And my husband does not even mind that I have a Beatles quote up in our place!)

We stuck it up just above our television. (We also possibly may not have taken down all of our Christmas decorations. At least the tree is down finally.)

 I also still have my adorable ruffled wreath up. With its white and red coloring, it fits in perfectly for Valentines Day decor.

The student who was there...

The last day before the break, I received a note from the lovely secretaries that I was losing a student. E had moved twice during the school year and had to walk over a mile to and from school each day. His mother, understandably, was sick of the walks. I sadly signed the papers. He left that day without a goodbye and I thought I would never see him again. The day after the break came and went. I cleaned out his desk and threw everything away. I moved on. When the following day arrived, I received word that I would receive a new student. I took the old student's desk and prepped it for a new student. As I chatted with a coworker, explaining all the arrivals and departures I have had recently, I happened to throw out, "Well, E moved so the new student will bring me back up to 32." As I said that, we walked into the office to see my student, E, sitting there. Awkward. "Uh....E! What are you doing here?" How do you explain to a nine-year-old that you tossed all their belongings and gave their desk away? Apparently his mother did not realize that they were supposed to move back in December. Okay. I can deal with this student in my class for one random day. The day came and went. He left. I hugged him goodbye and wished him well. He was back the next day. I was so confused. I finally got the vice principal to call his mother to tell her I do not run a day care for students that randomly want to show up. That darling boy approached me as the school day ended to inquire about homework due the next day. Lovely boy.