Monday, April 29, 2013

Teacher Appreciation Week

With teacher appreciation week coming up I thought I would send out a quick freebie to hopefully help any of yall that have kiddos who have teachers! This can also be a cute idea for your closest teaching friends. My very best friend is a teacher and I am going to use this to make a little tag and tie it to some nail polish! She loves nail polish! I will post a picture asap when I am finished. Here is a picture of the PDF and you can download it HERE

Have a great night!
 

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Tell Me One Good Thing

Found this awesome Linky over at Rowdy in First Grade ! Its called Tell Me Something Good! You tell one good thing that is happening right now at school and one good thing at home! 


This reminds me of when I was growing up. I have 3 younger siblings and my parents made all four of us say one good thing about our day at the dinner table. I really appreciate it now that we are all spread out around the country. I wish we could all go around the table and just talk about our days. Anyways here are my good things :)
 
Home:
 
Today is my Grandmother's 90th Birthday! My Dad is the youngest in his family of 5 kids so I am so thankful I still have both my Grandparents on his side. My Grandfather is still living as well and is 92! They are troopers. I am so excited to travel to see them this weekend. Its going to be a hell of a drive but I am so pumped to see all of my siblings who will be there as well =)
In other good news in my family today! My sister in law got accepted into Vet School today. I am so so sooo proud of her. She is graduating from Virginia Tech this year and I cant wait to see her graduate! Big day for our family! Here is my girl with a baby lion in Africa! Isnt she the coolest?


School:

School school school. Well one good thing is we are going to the National Zoo tomorrow! All my kiddos did an animal project and I am so excited for them to go and see all the animals tomorrow! EEK! So that is my good school news! Quite the animal theme today!

Link up and let me know the good things going on in your lives =)


 

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Mentor Text-Science: The Cloud Book

Happy Sunday Everyone! I am linking up with the Collaboration Cuties today with their Mentor Text Linky! Today is all about the books we use for science! 


My kids LOVE being read aloud to! I usually try and introduce a topic with a read aloud. I just used The Cloud Book by Tomie dePaola to introduce clouds! Its a wonderful book that talks about the types of clouds and even myths that have started from cloud shapes. 


Of course I did not take a picture of the activity we did but I used Krazy About Kiddos  activity about clouds!! She has the worksheet on her blog for FREE! It looks like this:





Enjoy the rest of your weekends!!

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Product Swap and Earth Day sale!!

So I just saw a bunch of the blogs that I follow doing this product swap with Mrs. Standford's Class !! I went and visited her blog and it is such a good idea! You get paired up with another blogger of the same grade level and you swap products! Who does not love going shopping and getting anything they want from someones shop! I missed this time around but have signed up for the next one that is happening in June! Sounds so fun!

Earth Day is Monday the 22nd! In honor of that my Earth Day Pack will be on sale tomorrow and Monday along with the rest of my shop! Happy Weekend!



Friday, April 19, 2013

5 for FRIDAY!!!

Happy Friday Yall! What a week! 

1. Let me first start by saying that I am praying for all of those up in Boston. Horrible tragedy and I hope God sheds some light on who did this act. USA!! 

If you have not seen this video is a must see andddd will make you cry. But...I cry at the anthem all the time haha so maybe its just me. 


2. I made a new Daily 5 chart that I am thrilled about! I love how it turned out! My kiddos love seeing their names on the clothes pins and knowing exactly where they should be and what they should be doing! (I love that too obviously). The picture is kinda bad but you get the gist. 


3. We did our Earth Day unit this week!! I need to hang up their little Earths they made! Everything we did was from my Earth Day Pack ! We learned all about Reduce, Reusing and Recycling! 

4. Today we had a pep rally and this guy came in did a Laser Show. Did not really now what the heck that was going to be like but the kids loved it! It was a fun way to end the Friday! 


5. Lastly I am SO excited that my semester for grad school is almost over! I am graduating this semester with my masters and I am PUMPED! I am presenting my capstone project not next week but the week after! Send good vibes! I am presenting a program that I came up with and started in my class called Bedtime Stories at Lunch! I will do post about it when its all over but basically the project seeks to promote reading aloud to young learners! Its something that I am so passionate about and I hope it all goes well presenting it! WHOO almost done!!

Here is my dad reading to my son when he was a little bitty guy! (he was quite bald haha)




Monday, April 15, 2013

Let's Get Aquainted Skittles Time!

This week Flying Into First's awesome Linky: Let's Get Aquainted is playing the skittles game to get to each of us a little more! Link up!

 
Here is the code:
Red- Favorite Ice Cream Flavor
Orange- Favorite Memory from College
Yellow- Favorite Sports Team
Green- Favorite Fast Food Place
Purple- Wild Card(Tell anything about yourself)
 
RED
My favorite ice cream flavor is Moose Tracks! I am that annoying one that picks out all the mini Reeses cups and eats those first :)
 
The hubs got me an ice cream maker for my birthday so I am excited to try making my own version this summer! Obviously with lots of little mini Reeses cups!

ORANGE
Coincidence that this one is ORANGE because I went to college in BIG ORANGE country at the UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE!! GO VOLS!!!
 
Peyton Manning :)

Ok so my favorite memory of college...that is a hard one! I had such a great college experience. I was a Kappa Delta and loved participating in my sorority. I played lacrosse at UT for 4 years and loved playing with my younger sister for my last 2 years when she and I were there at the same time (she was a KD too). And I loved going to Football games and traveling to other SEC schools for games! 

My favorite memory would probably be spending time with my 4 best friends. They mean the world to me to this day and I am so glad we had our 4 years together! I miss the days we all lived together and could just knock on each others door and hang out. We are all around the country doing amazing things and I couldn't love them more!



YELLOW
My favorite sports team (besides the Tennessee Volunteers) are any of the Washington DC teams! Love the Skins, Nats, and Caps!! I was born and raised outside of DC and love those teams!


GREEN
  Favorite Fast Food

Do not eat fast food very often but when I do its wither Chick Fil A (cant wait to be back in the south with that!! WHOO!) or Micky Ds!

Purple
Random!

Well I am going to share by very proud mommy and teacher moment of the day! I got my son a 5$ tent to play in today and he loved it! I captured this picture of him playing in it and reading a book to himself. So cute :)

    



 
 
  

Monday, April 8, 2013

Stranded!!!!

I am not really stranded but I appreciate all of you who were actually worried. Just linking up with Flying Into First Grade for her weekly Linky! Lets Get Acquainted!


This week we are saying what 3 things we have to have on an island if we were stranded! 

1. With out a doubt the hubs would be my number 1. Always essential to have an Army Ranger with you.  Hunting food, making shelter, navigating ...would be set if he was there. (I am assuming my son would be there too ha )


2. Second essential thing would be: The entire series of FRIENDS!!! Does not matter how many times I watch the episodes they still make me laugh all the time! I feel like they are my best friends. 





Third thing I would bring would be practical. I have always wondered how people would cook anything, on a deserted island, if they do not have a pot!! 



ps-how cute is that pot..I kinda want it =)

Have a great rest of your Monday! 

Link up!!





 

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Oddly enough I did have chicken for dinner tonight...

Anyways! A few posts ago I asked yall to comment and leave your email addresses for a chance to win my Earth Day Pack! 2 fine ladies entered and I used this random generator:

and number 1 won! Elizabeth I will be emailing you my Earth Day Pack! I hope you enjoy :)

if you want to check it out on my TPT you can see it HERE!

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Knuffle Bunny: Mentor Text Sunday Linky

Stacia and Amanda over at Collaboration Cuties  are running their Mentor Text Linky Party each Sunday during the month! The first Sunday is Mentor Texts for Language Arts! I thought I would share one of my favorite books and what I do with that book with my kiddos!



Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale by Mo Willems is one of my favorite books! My first graders can so relate to this book. If you have not read it it is about a little girl, Trixie, who goes with her Dad to the laundromat. Trixie has a very special stuffed animal named Knuffle Bunny (Ka-nuffle) that she takes everywhere. Of course she brings her bunny to the laundromat but FORGETS it there!! Any child knows what its like to have their prize position lost! 


What is great about this book is that it could teach so many different things. This year I worked with this book when I was teaching Problem and Solution. It was easy for my students to understand what the Problem was because it was so obvious! Trixie lost her bunny! Then we I was able to explain that the solution is what fixes the problem and they were able to come up with that too! It became easier for them to pick out the Problem and Solution in other texts when this book made it clear to them! I used a story rope to discuss this book after I read it to them which really helped! Another fun thing about this book is that there are 2 more in the series! It would be so fun to do an author study with all of the Knuffle Bunny books and Mo Willem's other books! 

Here is what I used with the kiddos:

There are so many good book ideas on Collaboration Cuties blog! Go check it out!


Scroll down to win a copy of my Earth Day Pack! <3

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Monthly Mash Up: April

Mrs. Wheeler's First Grade Tidbits is hosting a Linky in which we showcase what products (and FREEBIES!!) we are using with our kiddos in April! 

Earth Day! What an important part of April! I will be using all of my Earth Day pack which you can find Here !! The pack includes a Craftivity and LA and Math printables! It focuses on Natural Resources, Reduce/Reuse/Recycling and other Earth Day themes! Here is a look at some of the things in the pack! 

Below is a picture of 2 pages in the pack! You print them back to back and then fold (directions included) to make a foldable! My kiddos are going to draw a picture/example of the natural resources -Soil, Water, and Air. I am going to make an anchor chart or write on our white board different things they could draw under each of the flaps! For older students you could have them write examples/sentences etc!


 Reduce, Reuse, Recycle writing practice! 


 My kids love these! Even though they are fun I think they help them gain more vocabulary and sight words!! =)
 I also have a great FREEBIE up on my TPT site for April! I have started to dive into making boarders! You can download my first three I made for free! Let me know what you think! They come in all sorts of colors!






If you want to WIN a copy of my Earth Day pack just leave a comment with your email address and I will randomly select someone on Monday!!





Spark Student Motivation Saturdays!

Love this new Linky from Head Over Heals For Teaching !! Link up and share what you do in your classroom to help motivate students! I have already stalked some of the blogs that have already linked up and they have the BEST ideas. I have so many things running though my head now! Plus..her button is so cute!


In my class this year I have really been emphasizing kindness. I think it is so important as a class to be a community and work together so that everyone can learn! This starts, I believe, with being kind to one another. I believe one of the best things I can do for my kids outside of teaching them math or language arts is teaching them how to be good community members. Yes even 6 year olds can be good community members =) 
 
In order for me to praise the kindness I see and discipline the not so kind things I see I turn to my Kindness Counts Box! Anytime I see someone being kind I will write that child's name on a kindness counts slip! The slip of paper then goes into my Kindness Counts Box. Other students can write kindness counts slips to other students if they help them. (They do run it by me before they write a slip so one student doesnt write ten slips for the same act of kindness) Each week on Friday I pick a slip and the student who gets picked can choose from the treasure box (pencils, erasers etc) or eating lunch with me, eating lunch with a buddy, bring a stuffed animal to class for the day etc! This has really helped the positivity in my classroom!

The class I have this year has really responded to this method! I do think however not every class might so I am so glad to be getting SO many good ideas from this Linky (in case I get a class that this doesn't work in!!) 
 


Friday, April 5, 2013

5 for Friday!

WHOO! My first 5 for Friday! Next week I know to take more pictures so I can actually show what I am talking about! Check out Doodle Bugs Teaching to link up =)

One:
This week I took a major step in packing! I always feel really good getting things started even though the move is still 2 months away. We just found out we won't be in GA long before we have to now head to KY/TN (the base is right on the border). We will only be in GA for 7 months. This means a few things for me...I guess I will not be getting a full time teaching job for the next school year because we are not there long enough. So.. hopefully I will tutor some. I am however excited to be a stay at home mommy for 7 months and work on lots of creating!! I will keep yall updated but that is the current plan for now. (it will probably change haha)


Two:
Measurement is done! We finished up our measurement unit today! I was very pleased on how everyone did on their test =)! This was one of my favorite things we did this week! They loved using the egg ruler since we just had Easter. 
 

Three:
Loving Blogging =) I am still just so excited I finally started! 

Four:
Text Talk-I love using Text Talk (Isabel Beck). My favorite part is when the kiddos start using the words in their everyday talk. Yesterday I read Tough Boris by Mem Fox! It has awesome vocabulary and amazing illustrations. Of course the boys LOVED the pirate theme. I did Text Talk with the words Fearless, Greedy, and Massive.

Five:
Excited to start my Earth Day activities next week! You can check it out here if you are interested in seeing what I came up with =) 


Most excited to see how these 2 activities go:

The Craftivity-I think its going to be so cute!

And the scattergories game!

Happy Friday Yall!!
 



Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Happy Wednesday!

Happy Wednesday everyone! Hope you guys had a great day at school! I actually had to stay home last minute with my sicky son =( poor little guy! But it was nice getting to cuddle with him all day since he never cuddles anymore it was sweet. He turned 18 months old today =) 

Now to a super fun Linky...Head over to  First Grade Smiles !! She posted an awesome linky that she called Let's Talk About Blogs, Baby!

Heres mine!

You might not be able to read it so here are my answers!

Why do you choose to follow a certain blog? 
So I follow blogs for a few reasons! One being that I love to see what they post about and what they come up with on TPT! Another reason is because I think they are really funny and love to see what they are doing in their classrooms!

When you leave comments do you expect a reply?
So whenever someone comments on my blog I have it emailed to me! Since I am still small I try and comment on their responses! I don’t expect a response at all but of course its so fun to get them and get to know other bloogers better!

What is your favorite thing about reading other blogs?
My favorite thing is getting great ideas I can use in my classroom and getting to see how that person runs things and get to know them better! Freebies and Giveaways are also fun to participate in! Oh an Linky Parties =)

What turns you off?
Umm I cant think of to much that turns me off! Its all so new and fun right now!

Do you follow any blogs by email?
I don’t I just look on my blogger page which shows all the blogs I follow to see what bloggers have just posted!

My Question!: How do people get a hyperlink back to their blog when you comment on someone's post?
 
So I had this question when I first started so I did some googling and found this site that helped me so much! All you have to do is fill in your info and you will have your link! Check it out: http://www.hyperlinkcode.com/make-hyperlink.php

 Have a great night!!! Link Up!

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Lets Get Acquainted!

Well I want to get to know all of yall out there better so here is a little more about me with Flying Into First 's Lets Get Acquainted Linky Party!!


This week is all about our Favorite Things!

My favorite place to shop:

Loft!!! (rumor has it that tomorrow, Wednesday, the whole store will be 50% off...this is a problem)


Favorite TV Show:

This is slightly embarrassing but i LOVE Duck Dynasty I find it so funny!


Favorite Sweet Treat:

Particularly fond of Moose Tracks Ice Cream :)  I don't eat sweets that often but I love me some good ice cream!

Favorite Food:

Gahh I just love all kinds of foods. Seriously love Pizza, a good Caesar Salad, Steak etc etc and I LOVE Chinese food...PF Change Chicken Lettuce Wraps to be specific =)


Favorite Restaurant:

Well besides PF Changes I also love the Sweet Water Tavern. They have the best Ahi Tuna Salad!





Link Up!!



VA Blogger!

So I saw on the blog Fifth in the Middle those awesome I'm a ____ (enter your state) blogger and totally wanted one! Since we do move often (in June we are moving from VA to GA) I think it will be fun to keep changing my blogging state!

Chick on the button (to the right---->) to link to the site to get your own state button!!

Monday, April 1, 2013

Back to School!

So today was our first day back from spring break! Spring Break was so wonderful. I got to spend the whole week with my little guy which I just cherished so much! I got a lot packed for our upcoming move in June which was good too. Anyways...school went pretty well today for the first day back! I introduced some simple geometry terms and we did word study. In our county Mondays are short days so I feel like I am always cramming on Mondays! 

I am SO excited to be getting into blogging and as such I feel like the cool thing to do is


Here is my very first Currently =)