Summer Bucket List

I'm joining in on the fun and making my Summer Bucket list!  This an ongoing list.  There are too many to write down and bore you all with.  So this is a start!  

My Summer Bucket List...

1.  Packing Up this House!  School is out in 4 days!  The countdown to moving is on.  I have 3 weeks to get my house AND classroom packed up.  Teachers really have it bad.  We have to pack up way too much!  When you are a coaches wife, you end up packing up about every other year!  I can't wait to be with Mr. Coach in Alabama though!  It's 'bout time!

2.  Embarrassing to say, but I have had this pinned for like two years.  I have a slight jewelry obsession.  Mostly necklaces.  But like I always say, you don't look fat in jewelry and can't outgrow it.  Moving into a new place means I get to organize my jewelry in a new way too!  I am going to be on the lookout for this beauty.

3.  READ!  I feel like I never get to read any books during the school year.  I am not talking professional development books either.  I am talking chick-lit, mysteries, anything besides a picture book.  Sometimes you just need to read something for yourself!  I have a list of books that I want to read and can't wait to have some "me time"!

No Pic here, because I haven't gotten the cover done. Procrastinate Much?  Yup. 

4. Finish up my last pack in the Common Core Crazy series!  This one will cover Algebraic Thinking and Operations.  I have been slowly working on it, but have completely lost my mojo.  If you find it, please let me know.  I want to get it done so then I can bundle it all together for a lower price!  

Well that is all I have.  This little blog has been neglected.  I promise it's for a good reason!  That is going to have to wait though!  Until next time friends!

Five for Friday- Champs

Happy Friday friends!  I for one am so excited!  We have 8 days of school left! Say what?  How many days do you have left?  Well I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to bring you some random moments from Room 105. 

 

 

 

1. P.E. Olympic Champs-  Yes, remember last week when I showed you the pic of our Dance Off.  Well the little kiddies pulled it off and we got P.E. Olympics Champions!  It came with a trophy and everything.  I had absolutely nothing to do with them winning, but you better believe I did a little victory dance!  Hey it's the little things!

 

 

2.  I was lucky enough to have my mama in town on Mother's Day!  She seriously is amazing and I have so much fun with her.  Is she not just gorgeous!  Seriously she does not look like she is old enough to have a 30 year old daughter!  I had so much fun celebrating her this past weekend.  We cooked (well she cooked!) and watched movies.  It was perfect!

 

3.  We have been busy learning about Planets and our Solar System.  Let me tell you, my kids had so much fun learning about this stuff.  They had so many questions and it was so thrilling to see their little minds at work.  We got to make up our own planet and then write about it.  The one above said that her planet was made of Love.  Precious souls these littles. 

 

4.  This was from a couple weeks ago, but I forgot to blog about it.  We made our own plant out of construction paper and then labeled it.  I loved how each one of them turned out so different!

 

5.  Sentence Dictation- I leave you with a little funny.  The sentence above was supposed to say, "See the red brace."  But instead she wrote, "See the red bras."  I laughed.  Pretty hard.  It cracks me right up some of the things that they write by mistake. 

 

Well that's it.  I hope to be back soon with something exciting.  This blog is in desperate need of it.  Have a great weekend friends!

Five for Friday+ a FREEBIE!

I truly hope that all you wonderful teachers had a fabulous Teacher Appreciation Week!  I sure did and if you stick with me you can see why at the end of my post!  I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching, "Five for Friday!"  Sorry if this is long winded.  I have a tendency to explain things a bit!

1.  "The big hairy woman ate a little green dinosaur."  First graders crack me right up!  During center time one of my little cuties came and got me so I could see his "hilarious" (his word) sentence!  I laughed out loud.  Hey at least they are building sentences!  This game is called "Silly Sentences".  I got it from Lakeshore and it is a class favorite!

2. P.E. Olympics "Dance Off"- We seriously have the most fun P.E. teacher.  She does P.E. Olympics every year and the kids just LOVE it.  They have class challenges, individual challenges, and finally the dance off.  All the teachers look forward to this every year and we gladly will give up our planning time just so we can see our kids break it down.  I will proudly say that I have got some talented kids who can drop it like it's hot!  

3.  Assistant Principal/ High School Boys Head Basketball Coach/ Fill-in Lunch Lady

Our sweet lunch ladies were short-handed the other day and asked our A.P. to help them out.  He was a little too excited about doing it.  He stopped in my classroom to tell me that he was doing it and he was so excited.  Well during our lunch the firefighters came to do one of the spontaneous drills.  So here is our A.P. directing everyone.  It was a pretty humorous day!

4.  Bear- This is the face that I have to stare at everyday when I am getting ready for work.  Seriously.  Is this not just the saddest, cutest face you have ever seen.  I always tell him I will be back later.  I don't think he believes me.  

5.  Teacher Appreciation-  I don't need gifts to let me know that I mean a lot to my kids, but man it sure does feel nice!  But really, I feel appreciated everyday of the year with all the handmade pictures, flowers picked at recess and all those other little gifts we receive.  But this was sure a nice "happy"!

6.  Flying home- I got to visit Mr. Coach last weekend.  The countdown is on... in about a month I will finally be living in the same place as my sweet hubs again.  School is almost out and that means I get to move!  Still haven't found a job yet so please please pray that I will get something soon!

Here is a freebie I offered last week but just in case you missed it!

Click on the pic to go to my store to get it!

I know that was actually 6 things but it was a pretty packed week and I couldn't leave anything out!  I hope everyone got a lot of wonderful things at the Teacher Appreciation Sale.  I had a few things bought from my store.  Still working on new things and trying my hardest to get my name out there!  Hope everyone has a great weekend friends!  

Teacher Appreciation Sale!

Here's to you Teachers!  Yes, you!  The one that is wiping snot off faces.  The one that has to eat in 10 minutes flat.  The one who spends half her salary at the Dollar Tree and Target.  The one that works weekends to get everything just right.  The one that LOVES her students more than anything and treats them as if they were her own, all 25 of them.  Here's to YOU!  

Teachers everywhere and Teachers Pay Teachers is offering an amazing site wide SALE!  Find some fabulous goodies to get you through the last few weeks of school or sock up on some wonderful products for the beginning of the year!  Click any of the buttons below to be taken directly to my store!

All of the following packs are Common Core aligned.  It has been so hard for me to find resources to use to teach the common core standards.  I'm talking assessments, homework, supplemental activities.  These packs address just that!  They are seriously so fantastic.  They are TEACHER TIMESAVERS! 

Included: Vocabulary Cards, Task Cards, Group Activities, Partner Games, Formative Assessments, Assessments, Homework sheets, supplemental worksheets!  

Included: Practice Pages, Assessments, Center Activities, Partner Games, Interactive Games and so much more!

Included: 120's boards of all varieties, Partner Games, Formative Assessments, Center Activities, Practice Pages, Supplemental Activities and so much more!  

I do hope that you will check out my store friends.  I appreciate all of you and your hard work as teachers! 

Here's to YOU friends!

Common Core Crazy- Measurement and Data!!!! Posted!

My 3rd Pack in the Common Core Crazy series is COMPLETE!  Phew... I am tired!  I love how this baby turned out!  It has so many fun activities in it!  Are you tired of not having exactly what you want to teach the Common Core Standards? In this pack you will find a ton of useful and engaging activities for your little ones. Common Core Crazy- Measurement and Data is a Supplemental Resource that was created in hopes that it would make your lesson planning a little bit easier!


Inside you will find:
Activities to go along with ALL strands 1.MD.1, 1.MD.2, 1.MD.3, 1.MD.4 covering, measurement, clocks, graphs galore!
Partner Activities
Whole Group Activities
Activities that can be used for centers
Matching
Supplemental sheets for practice, morning work, or homework
Assessments


Here is a little sneak peek!

In the preview you can see that I even include a little Mustache Measuring Activity!  Too Much Fun!  Your littles are sure to LOVE all the activities inside!  Go on and head on over to my shop to check it out.  You won't regret it!

Here is a little freebie for you if you stuck with me!  It's just 1 of the fun activities from my pack!  Just click on the pic!

I will give this amazing unit away to the first 2 people to PIN this activity and then come back and comment WITH the link!  

Five for Friday! Ready for the Weekend

 I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching Five for Friday!  This has seriously felt like the longest week.  I am in much need of some R&R!  Going to try to make this quick.  I have been under the weather all week with a respiratory infection!  Yuck! 

1. My girls!  I have the best group of friends.  There are 9 of us that have been best friends since high school.  We were seriously inseparable.  We all went to different colleges but have kept in touch.  Most of them still live in Plano/Dallas Texas where we grew up.  Only 3 of us live elsewhere.  We all got together last weekend for our Kristi's wedding.  It is wonderful because we can pick up right where we left off.  We have been through so much together, heartache, marriages, deaths, births, and everything else.  These girls are my world and I am so thankful for them!

2. PICTURE DAY!  Class picture day.  I dread it EVERY year.  I feel like a giant next to my 1st graders.  It seems like every picture I have ever taken I look pregnant.  I'm not.  I have got to get better posture.  Last year I made the photographer let me see the picture and then proceeded to have her retake it.  Ha!  Here's to hoping this year's will be fabulous!

3.  3D Shapes galore!  This week we have been reviewing the Common Core standard for Geometry.  For this last Module in TLI we have to cover ALL standards before our test.  It's seriously insane to cram it all in.  But luckily my kids have remembered it all!  We used Kelley Dolling from the Teacher Idea Factory's 3D Shapes Pack.  It is so incredible.  It is so jam packed with fun activities that we couldn't get to everything!  I can't wait to use it next year during the month that we teach shapes because 1 week is so not enough!  We also used my Geometry Common Core Crazy Pack (Click on the pic to check out my pack!  The kids loved making their 3D shapes booklet and we even did a little assessment today that they aced!  #proudteacher

4.  Face Time.  I am so thankful for Face Time.  (So is our dog Bear)  Being away from Mr. Coach while I am finishing my year in Arkansas and he is coaching his little heart out in Alabama is so hard.  I love being able to see his cute face (Mr. Coach's that is.  I cut him out because it wasn't the most flattering pic! Haha) makes my day and makes it just a little bit easier!

5.  Reading Buddies.  These littles make my heart go thumpity-thump.  These pictures Melt. My. Heart.  Some of my littles have come so far in reading.  They cannot wait to read chapter books and ask me constantly.  So today we did just that!  I let them have reading time and I just loved watching them relax with a good book.  I may or may not have taken that time to grade some papers.  Um, I mean do intervention.  =)

Well that's all I got!  I hope that you are all having a fabulous week friends!  Enjoy your weekend!  I am resting up and getting ready to see Mr. Coach next weekend!  Eeek!  Can't wait!

Finger Spies--Guided Reading

Let's talk a little about Guided Reading.  I am all about making it fun for the kids if I can.  I have used the witchy pointer fingers, patterned tongue depressors and many others for pointing out the words as they read.  But I am always looking for new ways to get my littles excited about reading.

So a few weeks back I came across this post.  If you don't know Krista Wallden, you are missing out.  She makes the most incredible clip art!  I love all of her images, especially the "Put on a Happy Face" collection that she made to be put on an clip art!  Genius I tell you!  It is currently on my "Wish List" on TPT.

Anyway back to the post.  She found the cutest "Finger Spies" at the Dollar Tree.  After I read her post I literally hopped in my car and went to both Dollar Trees in town looking for these babies!  I was able to snag up 9 of them.  Enough for my small groups with a few left over in case they break.  Take a look at them below!

My littles just LOVE to use these things.  They are P-E-R-F-E-C-T for guided reading.  

I mean seriously.  How much cuter can it get?!

They come in a package of 1 and the package looks like this.  They were near the front of the store on a little stand in a box.  I thought I throw that in there because I seriously did laps around the stores before I finally found them!

At my school we don't use a basal.  We follow the Balanced Literacy Approach and it is basically up to the teacher to decide what they want to use.  We DRA our students at the beginning and the end of the year.  Based on the outcome this is how we pick our books for the kids to read during their groups.  We have an amazing book room that has oodles of books to choose from.  I have 25 students in my class and the differences between all of them are across the board.  So I have 6 groups.  I know it sounds nuts, but it is the only way that works for me.  My two high groups I don't meet with as often because they can do a lot of the reading and comprehension work independently thankfully.  I will send home 2 new books a week.  My kids always have at least 2 books in their book bags to practice reading nightly.  Parents are "supposed" to initial it nightly but that doesn't always happen.  I am never satisfied however with how I do my groups, and I am always wanting to improve them in a way if I can.

I am curious to see how other teachers do their guided reading.  What do you use for the readers?  Do you follow a certain plan?  I would love to hear from you friends!