Spring Break & Newsletter

First, I will start by posting this week's newsletter.  Sorry it is late - I blame it on Spring Break ;-)

Next, I want to tell you a bit about my Spring Break - I'm sure you are thinking, "Really, Cothran?!?  Like we want to hear about your week off???" but if it makes you feel any better, I didn't go to the beach or on any fancy excursions (remember, I have a teacher's salary!) - in fact, nor did I in high school or college!  It's sad how things still don't change when you have a 'real' job :( BUT, I am grateful for the break and the time spent with family, friends, and of course, catching up on household chores!

Although I missed nothing about my 5:30 alarm, I DID miss my 20, sweet, happy, energetic, caring, loud, thoughtful, smart, messy, beautiful, (and so on!) babies!!  This time off was a true reminder of not only how lucky I am to have the coolest job around, but also of how lucky I am to get this time off with family and friends.  Though I have not (yet) started a family of my own, I can only imagine how awesome it will be to be able to spend such time with them J  Meanwhile, I was fortunate enough to spend time with my precious niece and NEW nephew!!  As you may have heard, I was out the Thursday before SB - this was due to the fact my sister had to be medically induced.  She was scheduled for induction during our Spring Break (1 week before her actual due date), but due to some complications and the fact big boy was simply ready to come out, he was born Thursday morning (April 9th) weighing 8 lbs. 5 oz. and was 21 1/2 in. long (and 2 weeks early!)!  I am happy to say that both mama and baby are home and doing great!  With that being said, I want to show off how I spent the latter part of my SB :-)

How could you not want to eat them up?!?

Pure. Sweetness.

I won't share any pictures of my 'spring cleaning' but I will share this one of my sweet friend and dear colleague Mandi Jones and I at Uptown Art over the break.  I absolutely LOVE doing these paint classes, and highly recommend the idea for a night out.  They are becoming pretty popular so you don't have to drive far for the fun :-)

Hope you all have a marvelous week!!

Hip, Hip, Arrays!

For the past couple of weeks, we have been working on introducing the base of multiplication through repeated addition and arrays.  The students have really enjoyed arrays and truly seem to grasp the concept - especially when food & chalk are involved ;)  We went outside last week when it was so nice and created arrays using sidewalk chalk.  The week before we used Fruit Loops to create arrays.  I forgot to snap some pictures of the Fruit Loop activity, but I did get some of them outside, so here you go!

Click here for this week's newsletter! And remember (not that you could forget!), only 5 more days till Spring Break!!!