So I need to start with an apology to our 7 followers! I chose the yellow for the font thinking it would show up nicely on the black background of our blog. But we had no idea it would send you emails in that same color. Yellow ink on a white background is just plain "hideous" (my son's word). 
So to make it up to you, I'll give you a heads up on an up-coming activity I do with my first graders that might make you chuckle.
For Valentine's Day, I like to ask my students about love and romance. Their first reaction is usually "Yuck! Gross!" But the answers they give to my questions are hysterical yet touching. I just started the process yesterday when I had 7 out of 20 students absent (flu season!). So I'm not done collecting answers yet.
I take the time to interview each child individually. Some kids need a lot of prompting. If they can't think of anything, I ask them to think of something they may have heard others talking about or seen on TV. The hardest question is usually the last one. Years ago, I had a child tell me his parents met in a bar! Of course the mother vehemently denied it!
But here are some of the better ones so far this year:

1) How can you tell when someone is in love?
    They give you heart cakes.
    A boy stares at a girl and they sigh a lot.
    They act cool but pretty at the same time.
    Some girls act like a dog and follow boys around.
    They say hi, giggle, and walk away.
    They act lovey to each other.
    The guy wears something black and the girl wears a dress.
    They have hearts in their eyes.

2) Describe your ideal husband or wife.
     A prince who dances and works at Key Bank and makes $4 every day!
     He finds us food and makes good dinners.
     He's a nice guy and acts lovey all the time.
     He gives her a car, a house, and a diamond ring.
     They're good at taking care of the kids and taking the wife out to eat.
     Someone who likes sports, video games, and hugging me.
     Someone who works a lot to get money so they can buy better stuff.
     Someone who is generous, kind, and works hard.
     Someone who can fix a broken hand and a broken car.

3) What is your idea of a romantic date?
     Go out for Chinese food.
     Go to a wedding.
     Go on a cruise boat for 2 days and then go out for food.
     Eat dinner at Denny's (a 24 hour diner).
     Go to a fancy restaurant that has white tablecloths and candles and napkins, where the
        waiters are really nice. Then go out to a ballroom for dancing. End the date by going
        church to pray.  (This response was from a non-Christian student who has never set
        foot in a church!)
  
4)  How did your parents meet?
     Mom wasn't married to anyone. My dad's mom called her and said to her, "My son
          doesn't have a wife and he's looking for one." So they met and got married! 
     They were both born and mom was looking for someone. She found someone and asked
          him when he was born. He said Oct. 5th and she was born on May 5th. They thought
          that was cool so they decided to get married. Then, he brought her to America.
     They went to Denny's and ate chicken wings. They both loved chicken wings and they
          loved each other so they got married.
     How can I know that? I wasn't borned yet! But I'm glad they met or I wouldn't be here!

When I'm all done interviewing, I'll put the best responses together in a booklet and create
a class book. Then I send it home to the parents. If you want me to post the template for the
book, let me know and I'll put it up as a freebie on TPT.

Happy Reading!
Meenal

  

It's late and I should be in bed. But I'm happy to say I finally posted my first "non-freebie" product in our TPT store!  Now before you start booing us, please know that it took a LONG time to create this file. (And it took forever to get it uploaded to TPT too!)
It's great  for you if you use the Wilson Fundations Phonics program and if you have a SmartBoard in your classroom. And it's a measly $3.00. I'm hoping this one will be successful so we can work on creating many more.
Thanks to all our supporters for becoming followers! We're up to a grand total of 7 now! Hey, you know what they say...every expert was once a beginner, right?
Thanks for being with us for the beginning of our journey.
Still haven't figured out the picture thing yet. Maybe next time...
Now I'm off to join all the other teachers who are already snug in their beds. Sweet dreams!
Meenal

Snakes Alive! A FREE math game!

It's that time of year when report cards and parent-teacher conferences are looming near. So Stephanie won't be able to do too much blogging right now. Since Meenal is a master procrastinator (especially for all kinds of paperwork!), she has volunteered to post Stephanie's first freebie for her.
Check out our latest FREE game to help kids practice math facts.
Here's the link:

www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Two-Night-Owl-Teachers

Once we figure out how to upload pictures to this blog, it should look prettier!
In the meantime, we hope you're enjoying the freebies.

Stay tuned for more and thanks for your support!

Meenal & Stephanie

Download this FREEBIE!

Ok, cross your fingers! We're posting a freebie for you to check out. This is our FIRST product in our Teachers Pay Teachers Store (insert mental picture of Snoopy doing a happy dance!).  And you can find it right here:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Two-Night-Owl-Teachers

Ok, so it's not fancy. But it's all done already and that saves you time and money! So go download it already!

This is a first of many more to come. Bear with us and we'll keep you posted as we progress.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! May 2013 bring peace, love, and lots of Snoopy dances your way!

Our first blog post ever!

Hi! We're Stephanie and Meenal. We both teach first grade at two different schools in a western suburb of Cleveland. Last year we had the chance to teach first grade together and it was a match made in heaven! Meenal was good at coming up with ideas while Stephanie was the tech-savvy perfectionist who polished everything until it gleamed!
Along the way, we found out that we both have this one thing in common-we are night owls! In addition to teaching full-time, Stephanie parents four school-aged daughters and Meenal has two kids who are freshmen in college. So over the years, we both have realized that we do our best work late at night when the family is asleep. Thus, we've become the consummate night owls.
Since our discovery of the world of teacher bloggers, we have revitalized our teaching. We frequently follow others in search of one more way to teach something better. We can frequently be found on Pinterest, Teachers Pay Teachers, and Teachers Notebook looking for ideas to change things up and thereby keep our teaching fresh.
Then one day we realized that we too had the capacity to be contributors and share our expertise with others. So we met for dinner and began our journey. Who knew Mexican food could be so inspiring?
So here we are...with a deep breath, shoulders straight, and a can-do spirit, we're off. Wish us luck!