Brush your teeth!

Ahhh bless their hearts, but some of my kids have the worst smelling breath ever! Don't your parents teach you to brush your teeth?
"Ms. T- um, well, um" Gosh spit it out girl- you're killing me with your breath! Haha just yesterday I was sitting at a table helping one student with their writing, and another student comes and stands right next to me so we're eye level. She starts talking and I have to stop breathing! It's THAT bad. It smells like she woke up in the morning, went straight to school, stuffed her face with some cafeteria breakfast food, spent the morning in my classroom without even wiping her mouth and then came back from lunch with even WORSE smelling garlic/ onion breath.
All I have to say is that I'm dedicating a lesson next week to personal hygiene and how important brushing your teeth is. Unbelievable that the parents don't notice their child's breath smells so putrid.

Ahhhh a fresh new year

Ahhh. My closet was clean and organized. My homework sheet and newsletter were copied and ready to go. Carpet was clean. Floor swept. Morning Message written. Calendar changed. The students had a new seating arrangement. New reading partners. New reading baggies. I walked into my classroom this morning feeling renewed and ready. I had a wonderful vacation visiting my family in California. I was sad to leave them, but I felt good walking into my classroom this morning. I had an abundance of patience and happiness all day long. I love being organized and being ahead of the game. One of my New Years Resolutions is to be organized. To keep up my organization as the year goes on. It feels so good! I just get lazy and let the organization slip one day and then another and another.... not this year!
I have this poetry book for the classroom that comes with many poems for each month and then has lesson plans attached to them. The one for this week is called, The Beginning of a New Year Means. It talks about the fresh start that a new year brings. All the fresh starts that can occur. I hope that this poem really helps the students to improve themselves as students for the new year. It's a concept that they haven't been exposed to yet. A new year means you get to start over. You can try harder this year to be a better reader, a better writer. You can work harder to follow the rules, etc. We'll see how it goes and if any behaviors (academic and/or social) change for the better.