What a week!

Ok y'all - I am tired!  I guess it's because this was our first week back from spring break, but boy am I whipped!  All day yesterday I felt just sick to my stomach and was worried that I was coming down with a stomach bug (I even stayed yesterday and wrote sub plans for today - just in case), but today I felt better.  I did have a little boy this morning tell me that his tummy hurt.  I tried to talk him into staying until he could finish his reading test, but he kept on and on and on.  Finally, I wrote him a pass and sent him to the clinic.  About 2 minutes after I sent him, a cute 5th grader came to my door and said, "That boy you sent to the clinic just threw up right outside the door!"  Boy, I dodged a bullet there.  That is one thing I can't handle in the classroom. 

Yesterday, I had one of my cute little boys come to me after lunch and said real quietly, "Mrs. Spradlin, I did something no first grader should do."  Now he's got me thinking.  So I ask, "What did you do?"  He said, "I did something no first grader should do in his pants."  "Did you have an accident?"  "Mmmm hmm".  So, being the nice teacher that I am, not wanting to embarrass him, I quietly tell him to go to the clinic so they can call and have his mom bring him some new pants.  He begins to walk off and I go to get my class and he turns around and yells, "It's not in my pants, it's in my underwear!"  So much for subtlety!  Maybe he is getting a stomach bug too...  The good news is - we only have a 3 day week next week.  We have a day off for the fair on Thursday and then off for Good Friday!

So today we wrote about our spring break.  We have penpals in Greensburg, Kansas that we write to every year.  This year, we're picking a different type of writing to send each month.  We've sent friendly letters, reports, and now we are writing a personal narrative about our spring break.  To make the writing a little cuter, I had the idea to print out and make a suitcase cover to attach to the writings.  The students then made "stamps" that read, "To:___" "From:___", "Kansas", and "Florida".  I was really proud of how cute they turned out.  Heres a picture of one:

We also included an Easter treat for our penpals:

and of course, one for the teacher:

How about you?  Do you have any "local" days off for the fair or other things?  Do you have penpals?  If so, where are you and where are they?