Sad news, acts of kindness, and a new product!

This week was a sad week at work...I found out that a former student of mine lost her house last weekend in a fire.  They lost everything, including her 7 pets (they were not home at the time). Through social media, I have been asking friends and family if they have any donations of clothes or toys for her and her 3 year old brother.  Today I was so happy as some friends who I still communicate with via Facebook but haven't seen since high school came to my house and dropped off 3 big bags of toys and clothes!  I can't wait to drop them off at school tomorrow!!! I have other friends as well that are donating items and I had another friend who I have not seen in a while offer to drive around and pick things up for me if I am not able to go get them!  Acts of kindness just like these...there are no words to describe how they make me feel...I am so appreciative that I know and have these people in my life.
In honor of February and Valentine's Day, where we show people how much we care and love them, I am going to have a ACTS OF KINDNESS incentive..just thought of it and not really sure how to go about doing it but I will do some research and let you know what I come up with. It is also in memory of what I went through 3 years ago.  When my girls were just 9 months old, I was diagnosed with a very rare form of uterine cancer.  I had a lot of complications and almost didn't make it but after months of chemo and emergency surgery, plus the love and support of my family, I survived.  Many acts of kindness were done for me, such as raising money for me at my school because I wasn't able to work for 4 months and my sick bank time didn't go through right away.  My friends purchased formula, diapers, baby food, and clothes for the twins...My best friend also raised money so that I could get professional pictures taken of the girls and their 1st birthday, a milestone that I will always treasure.  My husband's job gave us a $200 gift card to Babies R Us to help out with the girls and my mom's job also raised money to help pay for gas and medical bills (we had to commute for over an hour to get chemo 3X a week).  Words can't describe how thankful I am, everyday, for these people and their kindness...they made a really hard time in my life a lot easier and when I introduce this to my students, I am going to tell the class all about these people and their acts of kindness.

On a more positive note, I have uploaded a new product that I LOVE!!! It involves one of my FAVORITE phonics rules! SILENT E (aka Magic E, bossy E, etc.)   I already have my list of YouTube songs ready to go for next week and the first rule I am teaching is a_e so those sheets are all printed out and ready to go! Here is the link to check it out!!!

They are calling for more snow this week...I really hope we don't lose anymore days...the kids are so off because of these crazy snow days!!!! Plus, I have a lot to teach and they have a lot to learn!!! =)

Happy teaching!!!

Alyson Hennessy