Currently: September

I can’t believe it is already September! I need to change my school calendar tomorrow! Time is just flying by! This will be my third week of school already. I know a lot of bloggers are just going back to school this week. GOOD LUCK!! You’ll be great! Watch Kid President he always cheers me up and gives me inspiration for the day.

LISTENING: I’m listening to Wheel of Fortune and watching people win wonderful vacations and money. Blah. Not my choice of TV but hubs has the remote right now. It also comes on after Jeopardy which hubs is a HUGE fan of. He prides himself on knowing the answers. Honestly it makes me feel uneducated. Who are these people? Who were their teachers?

LOVING: The 3 day weekend was exactly what I needed!! I got a lot of R & R in which was much needed after being sick and the pure exhaustion from the first two weeks of school. I read two books and started a third.  I read If I Stay and the sequel book. Then I started reading Big Little Lies today. Easy fun reads. I also got to watch three college football games on Saturday! I watched the UCF game way earlier in the morning-8:30 a.m. true fan right here. We had a big breakfast (eggs, bacon, sausage, frech toast, pastiers, fruit) and watched the game which was played in Ireland. I also watched the Navy/Ohio State game. My brother played football for Navy when he went to college. Then we watched the Alabama game at a gender reveal party. It’s a girl! Our sweet friend’s are going to be amazing parents to a baby girl. She is going to have style and lots of shoes. Today we went to the beach for five hours. It was super relaxing to listen to the waves and read in my chair.

THINKING: Now I’m thinking of going back to school tomorrow. I checked my work e-mail and reminded myself of what I need to do tomorrow with my kids. We use the Accelerated Reader (AR) program at my school and the whole website changed. I need to STAR test my kids this week in reading and math but first I need to figured out all the changes.

WANTING: The home improvements in my house to be done! My husband is doing a great job repainting our bathroom and fixing things around the house. But I would really like for the projects to be done. With that being said….we have so many other projects we still need to do. It never ends when you own a home.

NEEDING: To clean up the kitchen and put away dinner before I get way too comfortable on the couch.

3 TRIPS: This is my favorite part! My first trip would be to the Greek Islands. I have always wanted to go but it is expensive! It looks beautiful and have pinned a million places I want to visit there. The beaches look incredible!

My next trip I would love to go on is Hawaii and we are actually planning a trip to go there next summer! My brother and his family live there now. I can’t wait to visit them and see my nephew. It will be his first birthday when we visit.

My last trip would be to Napa. I love California, wine, food, and mild weather. I think this would be a great relaxing vacation for me.

I hope everyone has a great 4 day week!

Five for Friday { Second Week}

 This was quite the week! I was sick all week long. It started with a sore throat and then just got worse. I felt like I was hit with a pile of bricks. As you all know you can't take off the second week of school...the kids just aren't ready....so I stuck it out everyday. I had throat spray and plenty of over the counter meds to get to me through the day. Oooh was I tired though! Most days I came home at 4:30 and slept until 8, got up and ate, and went back to bed by 9:30. This weekend is going to be full of relaxation!  I can't wait to sleep in tomorrow!

My kids were really getting into the routine this week and our reading block in the morning was wonderful. My students were building their reading stamina and started using our reading computer program MyLexia. I even got to do some sight word assessments because they were doing so well! It makes me so happy to see them practicing their reading, falling in love with reading, and trying hard.

The afternoon was a hot mess though. My kids weren't really going with go math. I don't know if it's just that the math is too hard or they are done listening. I know they aren't very focused though so I need to get them up and moving with more cooperative learning. I tried using manipulatives, different colors for marking on their papers, smart board lessons, videos, etc... to hold their attention but most of the students were easily distracted or in another world. I will have to be more intentional when planning my math lessons for this class. 

We were all into labeling this week! We labeled a fisherman, chef, birthday girl, a boy, and our five senses. I've been using Writing Work Stations by Deedee Wills to teach my kids about labeling and work on writing in centers. I use the same writing paper for work on writing. The kids love the repetition of the same kind of paper: labeling, lists, cards, notes, and story writing paper. The themes change but the format stays the same. My first graders last year loved it! 

I found out that my principal will be my evaluator this year. Sometimes it is the assistant principal...I had him last year. I get two informal observations and one formal each year. My principal loves the use of white boards, differentiating, cooperative learning, and interactive notebooks in the classroom. I currently use all of these so I'm ready to go for any observation. I just started using interactive notebooks though and I'm loving the results. I used a comprehension graphic organizer this week. I use Teaching With Love and Laughter's Interactive Notebooks for Journeys. Next week I'm going to start math interactive notebooks. 

Hope you have an amazing long weekend with college football starting and Monday off! 

Go Knights! 

Raise the Parr

Please help "Raise the Parr" and purchase one or more of these 5 amazing bundles. A teacher and mother Renee Parr passed away suddenly this summer from a cardiac arrhythmia. As teachers supporting fellow teachers, we hope to bless her husband Zach and their daughter Avery with 100% of the proceeds of these products. There are many bloggers and seller who donated to help this cause so please take a look at the bundles and consider purchases one. Thanks for considering donating to help a teacher's family.

First Week Back {Five for Friday}

It was my first week back to school. I can describe it in one word exhausting! I have lots of little wiggly worms and active firsties.

Thank goodness for Go Noodle! If you haven't signed up for Go Noodle do it right now! It will help you re focus your students which they need so much at the beginning of the year. My new students love it! They ask if they can "grow their monster" and "play the noodle videos." Right now their favorite brain break is the Dinosaur Stomp and the Happy song because of the minions.

We read so much this week. I think my kids defiantly have figured out my love of reading. We've read so many back to school books! I've started my kids with read to self. They are very excited to start and go over our anchor charts. They have built up five minutes of stamina. Yes, after five days five minutes. I'm trying but like I said a wiggle bunch. The biggest things we are working on and keep re visiting is staying in one spot the and reading the whole time. Here they are finding good spot in the classroom and reading.

My students wrote "We are excited about first grade because..." this week. They have so many great responses. They love their school, riding the bus, art, new friends, not being the youngest in school anymore, and their teacher. I got this cute bus pattern from First Grade Blue Skies: BUStin' into School craft. I made it a little bit easier for my kids and didn't give them all the pieces. We made it our own. :) 

I was not home much this week but when I was this real frog was always hanging around on my side door. Every morning and evening when I came home he was in the same spot. I thought it was funny since I had a frog theme going on in my room. Frogs are following me everywhere! 

 Friday hasn't looked so good in three months! I was super happy to finish out the week with my kids. I wore this shirt with school supplies on it today. I love my job and I couldn't imagine my life without teaching kids! I also couldn't imagine better co-workers! I love the teachers I work with. One of my co-workers passed out fortune cookies to everyone this morning. This saying "The real kindness comes from within you." is great for the first week of school. We're focusing kindness during our social studies time and of course all day with rules and procedures.

Have a great weekend blogging buddies! Hope you had a wonderful week! 

Classroom Reveal 2014

I've worked countless hours to get my room ready for the year. I'm very excited to finally show you pictures of my room. All of my frog decor is from Schoolgirl Style.

I had my meet the teacher this past Thursday. I had 16 out of 18 students come to meet the teacher. I met another one of my students the next day and another was on vacation. It was a very interesting meet the teacher. One student did a cart wheel, one threw a fit, several parents warned me about their students, and a parent asked for my personal number so she could text me. Never a dull moment being a teacher. I'm so happy to start school back. I think it will be a great year! 

Welcome to my room! 

Overview pictures of my room.

My guided reading table and desk area. This is one of my favorite spots in my room. The next pictures is a close up of my strategy board. I got these from Hope King.

My table baskets full of supplies and mat materials.

My class library and reading spot. 

My lily pad table numbers.

Hop into first grade! Ready for my kids and meet the teacher! I had a folder full of information for the parents and a chevron bag full of treats for the kids.

My behavior chart, word work area, word wall, and calendar area.

Close up of my word wall.

Close up of my calendar. I can't remember where I got the polka dot calendar pieces.

Just added our positive behavior system posters and basket to my entry way.

This is my writing area and job board. Some of the posters are from The First Grade Parade and the board is inspired by her.

My birthday area I will put my kids pictures up here after the first week. 

These are my turn in baskets and daily paperwork. Here's to hoping I'm ready for the first day of school tomorrow! I'll be back to tell you all about my week!