miss kaley and pink towels.

I have had the world's greatest high school intern for the past 5 months in my classroom!  She's done (and was willing!) everything from correct math facts tests, spellings tests, read with my kiddos, compile homework and homework folders, and even take over the class for a couple of hours when I had to leave for a training meeting (the sub was there, of course, but Kaley took the reins while the sub sat back and relaxed).

Meet Kaley.  She's also the secretary's daughter.  She also works as a custodian at Rock Canyon.  She's also graduating from high school next week.

She's also going to be the world's greatest teacher in the future.  Seriously.  This girl has got a catching personality and the kids love her!

Why yes, I did say she has an incredible personality...

Exhibit A.

 I'm kind of jealous that the Kindergarten teachers get her as a classroom aide next year and I don't.  I've told her time after time that I want her to be my student teacher when she gets into her practicum experiences.  She's THAT good.

So good that she gets everything done super fast and she loves to laminate and cut out materials.  She even alphabetizes and color codes everything I give her to do.  I love it.  She's as OCD as I am, which is awesome.  That's the sign of a good teacher in the making!

Today was also our class Field Day.  T helped me fill up 100+ water balloons last night and get everything ready for other water games and relays.  He's truly the best husband for a teacher.  He's always by my side when it comes to preparing activities and materials for my class!

 {163 water balloons.  I counted.}

We also found a purpose for the ugly towels we got for our wedding that we couldn't return.  Enter water balloon volleyball for a bunch of 2nd graders!

{These towels are an ugly pink in real life.  And those turquoise ones underneath are blindingly bright!}

And who seriously gives pink towels as a wedding gift?  I remember opening them up 3 years ago and turning to T and laughing out loud.  We seriously contemplated putting them in the bathroom for when people came over.

Though pink towels do hold a special place in my heart due to the fact that my grandma has a completely pink bathroom with pink towels.  Pink towels remind me of grandma's house, which is always a good thing.

Tomorrow T's sister is getting married.  We're excited to spend time in the temple with her and her soon to be hubby!  Her endowment on Wednesday was already a fantastic spiritual experience for the whole family.  

I love to see the temple!

A Day Better Than Christmas

Today is my favorite day of the entire school year.

It's a major reason the skewed my decision to become a teacher.

I mean the fact that there is a day devoted to just reading made my options of becoming a park ranger or teacher become a no brainer!

Thank you Theodore Geisel Seuss for making America declare March 2nd "Read Across America Day."

It's really my favorite day as a teacher.

My students received this invite to our class read-a-thon day. The times that I get to design the notes that get sent home, worksheets, and reading logs are stress-relievers.

The day started by the back of our room looking like this. Throw in 25 students in penguin, transformers, and even some footie pajamas and it looked like Mrs. Kussee was hosting a slumber party rather than a literacy read-a-thon.

That's how a classroom should be run.

Right?

Seeing how I was getting excited for a day of reading with my favorite little monsters, I made treats galore to keep my kiddo's mental energy up.

The night before the big event, I got the genius idea to try out a theme party.

Probably not my best planning day, but definitely one of my most creative.

One day I'll have kids and will need to do a cutesy party for them.

That's my excuse for this party, at least.

So here are the details to our "Seuss-tacular" Birthday Party!

Seuss Juice.

Made with equal parts of Sprite and Hawaiian Punch.

Easy Cheesy Lemon Squeezy!

My ever so wonderful husband bagged up goldfish for my monsters to eat while we read, "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish."

And here is my pride and glory of the day!

Cake pops.

Sneetches Cake Pops to be specific.

My first time making these babies and I seriously rocked it (even though I may have stayed up until 11 perfecting them).

I was quite pleased with how they turned out, along with my coworkers, and more importantly, my students loved them.

Here's a little close up. T and I had a lot of fun making these little babies.

And that's what they truly were.

My babies.

The "Sneetches" book is my all time favorite Dr. Seuss book. Which inspired these awesome cake pops.

You can't say they aren't adorable!

We investigated Seuss Juice with our 5 senses... this is one of the better papers by one of my creative writers.

Then we learned how to write a recipe. This is my ever so wonderful promethean board. My monsters copied the same recipe down on their own papers. They were quite proud to be the writers of a recipe.

All in all, it was a complete success! We read a total of an hour and a half today (the other part of the day was spent testing, eating lunch, and doing Dr. Seuss activities). We had a ball together and my students enjoyed reading by themselves and with their peers. I can't wait for March 2nd next year!