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Monday, December 9, 2013

Rose the Elf

Well, it has been been a long time since I've had time to blog.  This year is flying by.  It seems like we just started school a few days ago.

Thanks to Cara Carroll's freebie....ELFis is in the Building my classroom is enjoying the new arrival of our own Elf from Santa.

We began the morning by finding out just what our surprise package from Santa was.  Then, we made a web of names.  Finally, we voted on our favorite name.  The top name suggestions were:

1.  Rose
2.  Elfie
3.  Jessica

After a class vote

the winning name was................

 ROSE!  What a lovely name!

I must admit, the boys were a little disappointed it was a girl!

While we were at lunch, Rose decided to climb up our lantern and take a little red rectangle with her.  Naughty Rose!  Then, while the kids were in library and Mrs. B was in a meeting, Rose decided it was time for a snack.  She also decided to take a much needed rest and read a good book.

Take a look at her mischief!


Thursday, August 1, 2013

Classroom Progress

It's been awhile since I've been able to blog.  Sure missed my Mac, can't blog from my iPad.  I have missed out on a lot of giveaways and updating everyone on my classroom progress.

Here it is:
Still have much more to do, but am pleased with the progress.  Can't believe it is almost time to go back to school.  Where has summer gone?

Thanks to my mom who helped with my gray curtains.  I actually sewed the yellow one.  (my grandma would have been proud of me)  I will post my calendar when it is finished.  I still have to get a pocket chart or calendar to use my awesome Chalkboard set made by my great friend Amber of http://sweetschoolmoments.blogspot.com.  If you want to see what they look like head on over to her store at Teachers Pay Teachers.  She did an amazing job on them!  So proud of her!


I was inspired by all my fellow bloggers that I decided to decorate my filing cabinet.  Hope it is ok, because I didn't ask before doing.  Guess the old saying is ask for forgiveness later.  I think it is super cute!
I absolutely love my chalkboard wall on the side of my wooden mailbox (I use it as storage for manipulates).  Again, oops didn't ask, but I figured better paint over it than kids get splinters in their fingers from the roughness of it.  I am going to let students write on this during Daily 5 writing.  So excited!

These are my curtains over where the kids put their backpacks.  It was too long and I did not want the kids to have to duck down to put up their stuff so I added the chevron ties.  Thought it turned out adorable!


My color word wall.  I actually moved the bottom colors to above the storage drawers after taking this picture.  Think it works better.  Again, the 6 storage drawer was an inspiration from my fellow bloggers.  I made it today while working in my room.  Now, I think I must get more paper and cover the bottom one.  I will use the top one to keep track of my papers and books each day.  

It's not the greatest picture (my daughter was trying to help...thanks Bella I appreciate your help), but here are the new curtains my mom made.  They are gray with turquoise chevron.  I still need to find big yellow buttons to add to them.  I will try to take a close up tomorrow so you can see them better.  They really are cute! Thanks mom!  

Well, that's it for tonight.  I did manage to organize my desk and make it look presentable for at least a couple days!  I try to keep it clean and it never does.  I am hoping my new organizational changes will help.  Thank you fellow bloggers for all the wonderful ideas this summer:)




Friday, July 12, 2013

My 1st Award!

I am extremely excited to have been nominated for my 1st award.  Thank you to my wonderful, dear friend Amber from Synonym rolls & Antonym Moments for nominating me.  I am blessed to have you in my life and am thankful God helped bring us together.  He always knows when we need a special friend to help us through the difficult times in our lives.

Blogging is so exciting and am looking forward to learning more about the fun and fabulous aspects of blogging.  I hope to become inspired to post amazing activities/creations for my fellow teacher "blogging" friends.

I accept this Liebster award from Amber with honor.  In doing so, I must follow these specific guidelines she has set:


    1. Link back to the blog that nominated me.
     2. Nominate 5-11 blogs with fewer than 200 followers
     3. Answer the questions posted for you by your nominator
     4. Share 11 random facts about yourself
     5. Create 11 questions for your nominees
     6. Contact your nominees and let them know you nominated them

I want to make sure I follow these expectations as this is what I expect my students to do in my classroom.
#1 Check out Amber's blog at: Synonym rolls & Antonym moments.  She has amazing ideas and is very talented.  She has been a great help to me in setting up my blog!  Thanks dear friend!
#2  Nominations:
#3  Questions from my nominator
                 Question #1 What is your favorite childhood memory?
  Hmmmmm....That one might be hard to answer because that has been too long ago.  LOL 
I think my favorite childhood memory is of my grandma helping me learn how to sew and cook.  As a young girl, I lived next to my grandparents on a farm.  My grandma was the typical housewife.  She always had lunch on the table at exactly 12:00 for my grandpa each day.  Their house was always SPOTLESS! (wish mine was)  And....she loved to sew!  She made many of her clothes and many dresses for me to wear to school.  It was her dream for me to love to sew.  I hated disappointing her, so even though I didn't really want to....I tried for her. She was so patient and would just smile or give a faint little giggle when I became frustrated.  
 Even though I never grew to love sewing, I will never forget the time we shared together.  Oh how I wish that I still had her to share those moments with.  I can't wait till the day I am reunited with her in Heaven!  This memory is even more special to me as I remember her because yesterday would have been her 97th birthday!
                 Question #2  Least favorite teacher
I would like to say I never had a least favorite teacher, but unfortunately that was not the case.  There was one in High School!  However, I would rather tell you about one of my favorites!  Her name was Miss Mott!  The reason she was my favorite was because she went above and beyond to show compassion to me throughout some difficult times in my life.  She encouraged me when I had difficulty giving speeches in class (still do not like to speak in front of peers/adults, but am better at it) and had a way of making class fun and interesting.  Miss Mott is not the reason I wanted to be a teacher, but she did inspire me to be that compassionate, understanding, and dedicated teacher she was.

                 Question #3 What is your dream teaching job?
My dream teaching job would be in a classroom that focused on the developmental needs of children and did not put so much pressure on how well they do on an assessment.  With all the demands of CCSS and state assessments, social interaction and dramatic play have taken a back seat.  I feel that these two things are crucial for our young learners.  I love teaching, but feel for my kiddos and all the pressure they are under even as 5/6 yr olds!

              Question #4  Would you want to be an administrator?  Why or why not?
Absolutely not!!!!!!!! I have never had the desire to be an administrator.  I am too much of a softy!  Would not be able to handle all the stress and I would much rather be in the classroom.  

              Question #5  What was your 1st car?
Chevy Caprice Classic that was handed down to me from my grandparents.  It was blue!  Not a very fun car for a teenager, but it got me from point A to point B

             Question #6  What was the name of the last movie you saw in a theater?
Oz, the Great and Powerful in 3D.  Great movie...very intense at times in 3D.  I will admit I jumped a couple of times as the flying monkeys flew toward me!  

              Question #7  If you have kids, how did you come up with their names? Something you liked, family significance, etc. If you don't have kids, what would you want to name them if you ever did?
Levi, my oldest was named by his dad.  I had no choice!  He had picked out the name Levi Lane even before we began dating.  Levi was after his mom's dad and Lane after the famous bull rider, Lane Frost.

When my I became pregnant with my 2nd child, I told my husband that I was picking this name.  I never imagined that I would need a girl's name so I didn't have a definite name picked out until I saw her for the 1st time.  She was beautiful and just looked like an Isabella.  Her middle name was one that I had on my list, but had originally paired it with Victoria Hope.  She just didn't look like a Victoria, so she instantly became Isabella Hope.  Had she been a boy, she would have been Noah Allen.  Allen after my dad and Noah to continue names from the Bible!

              Question #8  Tell me about one lesson that went wrong...just didn't go right
Most of the ones I put deep thought into seem to be the ones that aren't as good and feel need tweaking.  Some of the best lessons are ones that I think of at the last minute.  One particular lesson I can think of that went wrong was a sunflower measuring lesson.  The students were to measure the area around a sunflower using sunflower seeds.   What went wrong?  A....the seeds would stay straight   B.  A girl apparently was allergic to the seeds and began itching terribly (a teacher's nightmare)  C.  I used too many different sizes of sunflowers for them to measure at the same time.

             Question #9  What do you do to relax?
Relax...what's that!  I would I love to go on a long vacation to Costa Rico or Hawaii to relax, but thats only in my dreams.  I try to relax during the summer, but my mind doesn't seem to shut off.  

            Question #10  What was your most memorable vacation?
I have only had 2 real vacations in my life.  To Colorado and South Dakota!  Both were great because I was with family.

             Question #11  Coke or Pepsi person?
Diet pepsi!!!!  Used to be regular pepsi and I know I should not drink any.  Trying to do better at that and drink more water

Random Facts:
I don't know if there are 11 random facts, but I'll try.
1.  I would secretly like to be an interior decorator
2.  I love chocolate, but try to avoid it lately
3.  I have a birth mark behind my knee
4.  I was born during the year of the big flood
5.  I wear an 11 wide shoe

Well, thats five!  Going to have to call that good.

Questions for my nominees
The questions are the ones I answered above.  Instead of your worst teacher though, please state what or who inspired you to become a teacher.


And the nominees are:
1st nominee is my fellow Kansas Blogger Miss Martin at http://www.missmartinsclassroom.com/

2nd nominee is http://rockstarsatwork.blogspot.com/ another one of my fellow bloggers.


3rd nominee is Mrs Krol at http://pencilsandcrayonsandbooksohmy.blogspot.com/


4th nominee is Sara at http://innovativetothecore.blogspot.com/


5th nominee is http://applescrayonsandcaffeine.blogspot.com/

All these blogs are from Kansas and they have great ideas.  Check out their blogs.



           




                          

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Calendar Routines

Question for my fellow bloggers?  I want to hear from everyone about your calendar routines.  In the past, I have used a wall calendar with a variety of songs.  I find that it is not engaging and would like to find something new and exciting for students this year.  I do not have a promethean board or smart board, but have a way to project onto a screen using my computer or iPad.  Does anyone have a great idea?

 I have seen many great calendar notebook ideas on TPT, but am looking for a way to make it interactive and modeled.  (not just the kids filling in their notebooks, but meaningful activities).

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer.  I can't believe it is already July!  Not ready for summer to be over!  Have been learning so much about the CGI math strategies this week at a workshop.  I am excited to see where this adventure will take my little kindergartners.  I wish this method was around when my son was first in school.  Would have saved a lot of heartache and frustration for him:(


Wednesday, June 26, 2013

A Little Behind....but here are my 1st week Read Alouds!

I am linking up with  DeAnne from First Grade and Fabulous to celebrate reading by giving you a list of my top 5 stories for the 1st week of school. 



 Wow, doesn't seem possible that the first day is a little over a month away.  Where has the summer gone? 


1.  The Kissing Hand


This is one of my favorite books to read the very 1st day of school.  I have a raccoon puppet that I have named, Chester.  He joins us during the story and interacts with the students throughout the book.  The kids love it and it really captivates their attention on the first day.  I wasn't going to read it this year because I decided I needed to change things up a bit, but what would a year be like without Chester.  Plus, I have implementing Daily 5 this year for the 1st time and it was on the suggested list for introducing Read to Self.

2.  This is on my wish list with Amazon...The Recess Queen.  We do character ed in our school and also PBS.  We are supposed to teach desired behavior, so I thought this would be an excellent book to help teach some of the positive traits we want from students.

3. Chrysanthemum
This is always on the top 5 because we are learning about our names. It is a great way to introduce names. We then graph how many letters in our name and I even have an assignment for them to do at home. They have to work with their parents to learn about how they were named.

4. No David! This is a great book to use to talk about rules. I also use it to review shapes when we make a paper David.


5.  Have you Filled your bucket....a wish list for this year.  I am going to use a French Fry holder (purchased in the $1 bin at Target) for my buckets.  It will be my "Hot Stuff" wall or my "Rays of Sunshine.  (haven't quite decided yet).  I am going to paint popsicle sticks yellow and use instead of balls.  The sticks will represent french fries.  So excited about this!

 



Friday, June 14, 2013

Super Give Away!

Primary Inspired is once again having a great giveaway!  Jump on over to her blog for a chance to win some amazing products!  Good Luck!  Here is the link:  http://primaryinspired.blogspot.com/

B.Y.O.B. Build Your Own Binder from Teaching My 3



Keep On Rollin' Bundle from Stories by Storie



Winner's Choice from Bunting, Books, & Bainbridge



AND - TWO Items from my store!
  

Friday, June 7, 2013

Give-aways!

Congratulations to Primary Inspired for their 1000th follower.  They are having a giveaway listed below:


1,000 Followers? Let's CELEBRATE!

I cannot believe that I have hit 1,000 followers! Seriously! It's just crazy!
It really snuck up on me, too! I happened to notice a couple days ago that I had 994 followers & quickly sent out a H. E. L. P. smoke signal to some bloggy besties for some help in celebrating. . . 

And celebrating, we are! For the next week or so, you'll be seeing a freebie or a giveaway every day!! Make sure you keep checking back! 

It all starts TODAY!! 
Today's treats will really get you in thinking about summer ......

Let's Go Camping- Commas in a Series From First Grade a la Carte

AND
Math Scoops (up to 20) from The Moffatt Girls

AND
Your Choice of TWO items from MY store!


The winner of this giveaway will be chosen Saturday night! Hurry and enter!
head on over to their blog and enter to win!

Also, I want to give a shout-out to my friend Amber O of synonym rolls and antonym moments for her 100th follower.  She also is having a give-away for her awesome calendar set as well as a HUGE give-away of free stuff.  Check out her blog.

Thursday, June 6, 2013

More Inspiration

I have been inspired by the various behavior clip charts that I have been seeing.  However, I just have not been able to find one that "jumps" out at me.

I am still new at designing these items, but am finding that it is a lot of fun and I am enjoying it quite a lot.

Here is my clip chart to fit my with my classroom theme:









In addition to my behavior clip chart, I also created a voice level and parent/student behavior log:






Tuesday, June 4, 2013

I have my Guided Math book ordered and am excited to start my first blog book study.  My friend Amber participated in the Daily 5 book study last year and made me excited to join in one this year.



If you are interested in learning more about Guided Math, check out Brittany Kielar of second grade sweets blog.  She is hosting Chapter one of the book.  There is also a calendar available to tell you who is hosting all of the chapters in the book.

Happy Book Study!

Here is the link to Brittany's blog: http://secondgradesweets.blogspot.com/2012/06/guided-math-ch1-review-and-reflect.html


In addition to my book study, I have been working on classroom decor for the fall.  To go with my "Sunny Day" theme, I have created a new set of classroom rules.  Check them out!  I am pretty proud of my new, inspired creation (thanks to all my fellow bloggers)!









They are simple, but I think they will be a nice touch to my calm, relaxing inspiration!

Wow, I have been a busy "B" today!  I have created so many things that I am excited to put in my classroom in August.  Here is a preview of my word wall.  If you are interested in it for your classroom, click on the picture below to download a free copy at teachers pay teachers.com

Hope you enjoy it!






Friday, May 31, 2013

Linking UP with Kim

Today, I'm linking up with Kim from Finding JOY in 6th Grade to share my professional goals for the upcoming school year:)



I have already been organizing all my treasures from TPT in binders.  I want to know where everything is and have failed over the past six years in finding an organizational method that works for me.  I do not want to spend the entire year frustrated like I have in years past.  I have also already organized all my themed books (fiction and non-fiction) into categories and placed them in their own folders.



In order to meet the ELA standards with Common Core, I am going to focus on writing more in my classroom.  I have never officially done a Writer's Workshop with my kiddos, but am excited to start this new adventure.  I know with the help of DeeDee Wills and Deanna Jump's writing through the year units I will have the guidance I need to begin developing writing skills with my kindergartners.


Now, join in the fun and Link up with Kim, and share your goals for the 13-14 school year.
joyin6th Homepage

If you do it before Sunday, you might win a $25 GC to TpT.





Thursday, May 30, 2013

Sunny Skies Theme by schoolgirl style



Click on the picture to go to the website directly

No Rest for the Weary!

School has only been out for a week and I am already planning for next year.  I am organizing all my amazing TPT files, deciding on a room theme, and even beginning my own blog (thanks to my great friend and fellow blogger Amber)!

Here is the theme I have chosen for next year is from:


http://www.schoolgirlstyle.com/2012/11/classroom-couturesunny-skies


I am so excited to get started!  I think it will be a fun, bright, and also calming theme for my kindergartners.