A sale, a freebie, and HAPPY December!

     Happy December!  I hope you had a Thanksgiving full of blessings, laughs, family, friends, and lots of yummy food!  I was feeling most thankful for my maternity jeans after all the food I ate this weekend.  Yikes!    (I am still trying to figure out why all pants are not made with those glorious stretchy waistbands.)

     My long weekend was extended an extra day because I am patiently awaiting my ultrasound appointment in a few hours to *hopefully* find out if our little sweetie is a boy or a girl!  You could say I'm just a taaaddd excited!  I may or may not have already checked out some cyber Monday deals online so I can do a little pink or blue shopping this evening. ;)

     I think we got our fill of all things TURKEY last week in first grade,  and now it's on to Christmas...so hard to believe!

 These scrapbook paper turkeys turned out to be one of my favorite projects we did. Adorable! 

If you are getting an early start on Christmas projects like we are...here is a little freebie to get you started.  We are participating in the Macy's "Believe" Campaign as a school.   We are all sending letters to Santa to support the Make a Wish Foundation.  Our local paper also publishes their letters...so our deadline is soon.

Here is a template for your Santa letters.  Click to download.

We are working on asking vs. telling sentences this week so in our letters, we will TELL Santa something, make two wishes, and then ASK Santa something. We also talk about *nice* ways to ask for something so it's not an I want, I want, I want letter. ;)

Here is an example from last year...

Dear Santa,

I am in first grade now and I lost two teeth!  I would like a Monster High doll.  I would also love to have a stuffed kitten with blue eyes. How are your reindeer doing?

Love,

a first grader :)

Do you have this book??

It is a precious read aloud to use when you are ready to write your Santa letters!

I am participating in the big TPT sale today and tomorrow!  20% + 10% off....yes please! 

Here are some Christmas & Winter math stations, games and activities galore to get you going this holiday season.  Click the images to check out the free previews!

Don't forget to use the code CYBER for an EXTRA 10% off from TPT on your purchases!

OK...almost time to head to my appointment! Yippee! Fingers crossed that our little booger cooperates (and his/her legs are NOT crossed!) ;)

Boy or girl?? Any guesses??

Happy Monday & Happy Teaching to you!

Forgive me!

Wow.  It's been a while.  A long while. I promise I have a very good reason for being completely absent from this little blog for the last few weeks months.  In fact, it's the best reason I can think of...

 It's true! We are expecting a little one on April 30th.  The hubs and I are thrilled.  Sawyer is...undecided. ;)

In all seriousness, I have missed blogging and all of YOU so much.  I truly am sorry for not getting back to those of you who have reached out, asked questions, and sent sweet e-mails.  Truly.  I feel so out of the loop.  I'm telling ya...even blogstalking in the evenings has been too taxing. It has been straight to PJ's, fuzzy socks, and naps after school.  Thank the Lord for a fabulous husband! I feel incredibly blessed that I have not been terribly sick or any of that nonsense....just plain ol' worn out. 

 So long story (kind of) short....the first trimester and the beginning of a school year with 21 "spirited" first graders combined...just really kicked my tail.  I hear wonderful things about you, second trimester...so bring on the nesting and the energy!

I was hesitant to tell my students about my pregnancy too early...but one of my cuties began to question what (and how much) I was eating each day at lunch because of my growing belly...so I decided to tell them after our field trip to the pumpkin patch.

They gasped and broke out into applause.  It was pretty special...and downright adorable.  I felt like I should stand up and bow.  They immediately began shouting out names.  They came up with "Sparky" and "Pumpkin" (which may have been due to the fact that we spent all day at the pumpkin patch and were eating pumpkin ice cream at the time).  In any case...we're going to keep thinking.  I'm not sold on either of those quite yet. ;)

In fact, now that I think about it....all of the names that they have come up with so far have been better suited for a dog rather than a child.  Maybe they think I am going to give birth to a golden retriever rather than a human. Hmmm.

Our classroom has been a busy place despite my exhaustion, I promise!  I will be back very soon with pictures.  My kiddos are making so much progress.  Our school is doing Action Based Learning labs in the morning and I really see it making a difference in some of my babies who struggle the most. 

Are you familiar with Action Based Learning?  It has a lot to do with brain research and crossing the midline. It's really fascinating to see and hear about the connection between some of these fine and gross motor skills and academic performance. 

To *try* to make up for my blogging absence...I'm going to throw a little sale in my TPT store...20% off everything!

And lastly, here is a fun Thanksgiving freebie to work on "adding two."  We are gearing up for a big unit on addition in my classroom! 

Happy teaching to you!  It feels good to be back!

Teacher Week 2013: Tips & Tricks - Make a Fabric Bulletin Board from "scratch"

 

I'm back for a quick post on the last day of teacher week!

 

I've gotten a lot of questions about the fabric "bulletin boards" that were in my classroom pictures earlier this week.

 Example #1 - blue polka dotted board beside the Smartboard

Example #2- yellow chevron board above community supply shelf

Example #3 - hot pink board above (soon to be blue shelves) for math manipulatives

The truth is they are not bulletin boards at all...it's just plain ol' fabric on my painted cinderblock walls.  So, I figured I'd go ahead and make that a quick trick to share.  I think I've finally mastered the easiest (and quickest) way to put fabric on the walls after several years of trial and error.

 

So, first things first.  You need to meet my hot, new BFF.

 

Here she is.

 

 

Isn't she beautiful?

 

This is a cordless glue gun.  I've borrowed one from one of my coworkers for going on 7 years now so I finally broke down at bought my own (at JoAnns).  It's fabulous.  You can use it for quite a while before putting it back on its base to heat up again.  I'm sure you could do this without a cordless gun but this makes it way easier.

 

I put up almost everything in my room with hot glue because it's the only thing that stays all year.  Most of the time it pops right off of the wall with no problems but every now and then you'll get a glob that doesn't want to come off without the paint. 

 

Soooo...I figured out a different way to hang things instead of putting the hot glue directly on the wall. 

 

 

Painter's tape!

 

Just put the tape wherever you want to hang something and the hot glue goes on the painter's tape.  If you need to take it down, you just peel the painter's tape off and there is absolutely no mess or damage!

 

You can also put painter's tape on whatever it is that you are hanging so that it won't be damaged if you want to take it down or move it but I didn't do that with my fabric because I figured by the time I wanted a change, I would be ready for new fabric.

 

The best part is this makes the whole process go super duper fast AND helps you get your fabric straight on the wall!

 

 

More tape and the fabric is on its way up!

 

*Notice the purple bandaid...yes...my hot little bff can be kind of feisty sometimes.  We have somewhat of an unhealthy relationship.  She burns me.  I say bad things to her and then I forgive her and love her once more.  Sigh.*

If you need a little extra staying power for a larger board...this stuff works great and wipes off the wall with a Clorox wipe pretty easily.

 

 It works fine without anything except hot glue around the edges, though!

Then, you can put your border up the same way OR hot glue your border straight on the fabric.

 

Now you have a brand new bulletin board and less ugly cinderblock wall!

 

Please excuse the hot mess below the board.  It is going to be dealt with soon. ;)

 

Happy Friday!

 

 

 

Teacher Week: Taming the Wild!

I didn't get a chance to link up yesterday because vacation got in the way.  Sad story, right? :)

I'm back bright and early this morning, though, and I promise I do have some posts lined up to show you lots of instructional organization so just check back in the near future.  I am especially excited to show you my new organization for word study sorts!

But today...is "taming the wild" day! Ha! Love it!  Classroom management is one of my favorite topics and (I think) one of my strengths.  I believe in setting high expectations for behavior and I find that my kiddos usually follow.  When everything is under control and everyone is being NICE...then we can have FUN and be silly!

Here are some of my tips and tricks for classroom management.  I usually keep a few things in place all year and just add in some others when we need something fresh and exciting...or when I find something on Pinterest that I have to try! ;)

Our guidance counselor is pretty much AWESOME and supports a school wide bucket filling program to go along with this book.

I seriously love this book.  I'm sure you've seen it...but if, by chance, you haven't...it is a MUST read!

Any time I want to reward the entire class for good choices and "bucket filling" behavior, I put marbles in their bucket. Our counselor takes care of awarding stars for full buckets and rewarding them in small ways.

I'm going to focus my post on what I do in the classroom.

First of all...I only have 3 rules in my classroom.  I can fit anything under one of these rules!

Check out this post to find our more about my rules and grab a free copy of them.

I pass out these tickets from Creative Teaching Press all day long for good behavior. Especially at the beginning of the year...ANYTHING positive gets a ticket.

And I mean anything.   The kids collect these tickets (cute container pictures to come!) and each week...if they have 10 tickets, they get to trade in their 10 tickets for one of these red tickets and they write their name on it and put it in our "raffle basket."

Each month, we do a big raffle drawing with the red tickets for prizes.  The prizes range anywhere from Dollar Tree junk treasures to "lunch bunch" and "bring a stuffed animal to school day" coupons to free books from Scholastic bonus points, etc.

I have just collected ideas from YOUR blogs and Pinterest for ideas that will work in my classroom for the drawings.  My kids' favorite things to win are things that don't cost me any money...like "stinky feet" coupons where they get to take their shoes off all day in the classroom.  Works for me!

I think they key to this kind of classroom management system is to be very liberal with the tickets at first and make a HUGE deal about it when they are dispersed.  They really like earning tickets and keeping count of them. I keep some in my pocket to hand out, but I also have them loose in a basket near my desk so if I'm working with a small group and see one teeny tiny little sweet soul doing what they're supposed to be doing while the rest of the class acts like wild hyenas...I can very sweetly say "Oh...wow! Look at Austin sitting quietly and setting up his math game for his partner.  Austin...go get yourself a ticket.  THANK YOU!"

And I don't have to get up.  Which is good.

 I also LOVE the math that I hear going on as they collect them too.

"I have 6, so I need 4 more to make 10."

YES! YES! YES!

I know you're wondering...and YES, I do take the tickets occasionally for negative behaviors.

'Cause I'm a big fat meanie.

I don't take them often, but sometimes it's absolutely necessary...and sometimes I'm in a bad mood.  There. I said it.

The other thing I like about this kind of system is that their whole day isn't judged by where they are on a chart or what "color" they landed on at the end of the day.  That totally works for a lot of classrooms and I have been itching to make a cute clipchart and give it a whirl...but if it ain't broke...don't fix it...right?? And this works for me!

So what else can my little darlings do to earn tickets?

Wellllll....check out this post to get more info on "Mystery Walker" and "Secret Student" AND to get your free copy of these posters for your classroom.

Both of these ideas work basically the same way.  One is for hallway behavior and the other is for any ol' thing.  I've even used "secret student" for school assemblies and field trip.

You choose a student's name and don't tell anyone who it is.  You watch that person closely...and they only get their ticket if they did a PERFECT job on whatever task you were watching.  

And lastly, a NEW thing I'm trying this year are "quiet critters."  I'm sure you've seen a version of this on Pinterest, and I have no idea where the original source came from...but if you search for "quiet critters" on Pinterest you will find tons of ideas!  I can't stand constantly saying "Shhh" but sometimes it's important that my kids work silently...especially if I'm doing testing, etc. with another student.

Most of the pictures I've seen on Pinterest use little pom poms for critters...but I found these ADORABLE little plush monsters on Amazon that I am going to use.  Click the picture for the link.

I'm going to use these little monsters for times when the kids truly must be silent.  Everybody gets a quiet critter to start with, and if they make noise...bye bye monster.  Sad!

At the end of the activity, whoever has a monster left on their desk will get a ticket.

I will let you know how this works since this is new for me...if anyone else has tried it...how does it work?

OK...beach time!

Happy Teacher Week!  Can't wait to read up and find some new ideas. :)

Teacher Week 2013: Classroom Sneak Peak

This is probably my favorite day of teacher week! I just love looking in other people's classrooms! 

My classroom is nowhere near finished! I will share what I have but I'll be back later to show you the finished product!

 I took some pictures last week before I left but I still have a lot to do.  I have worked more this summer than I usually do because I was on a mission to get rid of every single monkey/jungle thing!  I've been hanging with the monkeys for 6 years and it was just time for them to go.  I decided to go without a "theme" so that maybe I won't get tired of it quickly.  I think my theme now is just bright colors and patterns! I know some people probably think it is too bright and crazy but I believe in organized chaos!  I think if everything has its place and your room is neat and organized....you can go a little crazy with colors!  I just made that rule up as I was typing. I like it.  I'm sticking to it.  My house is neutral city so I think my classroom is my little outlet for my love of all things bright!

I am incorporating a little bit of the "boho birds" collection from Carson Dellosa and "tweeting birds" collection from Creative Teaching Press to pull everything together.  It's funny because I really don't like birds in real life but as you can see from my blog...I adore little pink, cartoon birds. 

OK.....I'm just procrastinating because I don't want to show you my unfinished room.  Don't judge.  ;)

 Classroom library needs labels and some TLC

 Writing table and my teacher area...plus the "word wall to be"

A closer look at my teacher area...needing labels!

 Front of the room...needs a lot of work.  The yellow frames at the top ready to be filled with math word wall cards and word work "chunks."

 The meeting area with smartboard where most of my whole group teaching takes place.  The green chevron board in the back is going to be full of anchor charts and projects that we are working on throughout the year.  The pillow on the floor in the back will be around a little black table for reading and partner work.

 Squint your eyes and pretend that those math manipulative boxes are on a pretty blue shelf that the hubs is making me. ;)  That door is the bathroom door waiting to be decorated.  The yellow curtains hide guided reading materials and more math manipulatives and LOTS of TPT products and games in manilla envelopes!  The blue drawers hold work work materials like wiki stix, stamps, a mini sandbox, shaving cream, letter cubes, etc.

This is my guided reading/math table for small group instruction.  The blue polka dot board in the back is the back of my supply shelf and will hold reading strategies (magnetic).

This is our community supply shelf as you walk in the door...ready to be filled with brand new supplies...makes my teacher heart happy!  Everything is ready for some cute labels...on my to do list next week!

That's all for now.  Come back soon for a finished version! Don't forget to link up with Blog Hoppin' to get in on all the fun this week.  I'm off to the beach...can't wait to look in all of the beautiful classrooms this evening!

Teacher Week 2013: Ten Random Tidbits about ME!

I looove teacher week!  We are squeezing in one last summer vacation right now,  so this post is going to be short and sweet but I did not want to miss out on the party! 

I also LOVE my new blog design.  Thank you, thank you, thank you to Kassie at The Cutest Blog on the Block for giving my blog a little one year anniversary makeover!

Here are 5 random tidbits about ME:

1.  I got married in May in the Outer Banks.  It was the most fun thing I've ever done!  We rented a gigantic house and all of our family and closest friends stayed with us. I couldn't have asked for a more perfect, laid back way to start our lives together! The whole event was so "us."

*Another fun fact: My older brother got ordained online and married us because we didn't want a stranger at the beach to do the ceremony!  He now has the nickname "Rev". :)

2. My husband's name is Andy.  He's a firefighter in the same city where I teach.  We have a dog, Sawyer, who we treat like a child.  He was even part of the wedding!

  

Sawyer is completely spoiled rotten.

3. My dad was the principal at my high school.  It wasn't as bad as it may sound because I was a pretty good kid (had to be, right?!).  I wish I was at home to share a high school picture, but I'll just have to leave the awkwardness to your imagination.

4.  In high school and college, people used to get my best friend and I mixed up all.the.time.  It was ridiculous.  We get it less often now...but what do you think? Twins or no? 

This is us during our freshman year at Virginia Tech. Go Hokies!

And now...

Maegan is in Uganda serving as a missionary since January and I miss her SO daggone much!

5.  Andy and I hope to have children of our own in the future but for right now we LOVE lovin' on our friends' babies and our precious nieces and nephew.

Cuteness overload!

6.  I've seen Bon Jovi concerts in 4 different cities.  Maegan and I may been considered groupies for a short time. We actually traveled to Denver to see him one time (from Virginia...wow) and it was totally worth it because we had front row seats.  No one believes me except Maegan, but Jon Bon Jovi did indeed blow me a kiss at one of the concerts.  And I liked it.

7.  I met M.C. Hammer when I was a little kid in an elevator in Richmond.

8. If I go to a restaurant and they have fish tacos on the menu...there is a 95% chance that is what I will order.  My favorite fish tacos of all time are from a little place in Blacksburg, VA called "Cabo Fish Taco."

9.   I wish I could draw.  Even my stick figures are sad.  :(

10.  My favorite place in the world to be is at the beach!  Which is where I am now...which is why I need to get off of the computer. :)

Don't forget to link up and check back all week for fun teacher week posts!

Happy Back to School!