September Currently

I have not linked up with Farley for a currently in a long time, so I am pretty excited to do it again this month. 

Listening

I am thankful I get to listen to my children everyday. I know some people do not have that pleasure.

Loving

I am beyond excited about being done with graduate school.  I now get to use my extra time doing other fun things. 

Thinking

I can remember a time when I had to work during every holiday. It is awesome to have holidays off with my children even if we just sit at home in our pajamas and eat junk all day. 

Wanting

I would love to have a cleaning fairy to come in and deep clean my house. It looks pretty clean with a quick glance. Just don't get out the white gloves. 

Needing

There is absolutely nothing I need.

3 Trips

We are not big travelers. Maybe one day...If it ever happens, I would love to visit the Bahamas, Alaska, and Paris. 

I would love to visit the Bahamas because of the beautiful water, warm air, and peaceful nature. 

I watch shows on T.V. about how people live in Alaska. I would never ever want to live there because I do not like cold, but I would love to visit and leave. 

I better want to visit Paris since my ten year old daughter and her friends plan to move there when they are older. 

Go ahead: visit Farley and link up!

Daily 5 Posters~Freebie

Happy Saturday! It's the day of the week that you are likely to find me creating, printing, laminating, and cutting. I absolutely love creating, printing, and laminating. However, I really really really dislike cutting the laminated stuff out! Is there something wrong with me? Maybe I need a personal cutter. :)

We have made it through two and a half weeks of school. Every year, I forget how much independence we have to build in first grade. I have to say that my new little loves are doing a great job with their stamina in Daily 5 reading and writing. I made some new Daily 5 posters and rotation cards. They're free in my TpT store. Click the picture if you'd like to use them.

This is kind of what my center rotation will look like after my kiddos learn all of the rotations. I wrote names on the Group cards. Each day, I will move the group cards down one spot so students have the opportunity to rotate through all 6 areas throughout the week since I do a computer rotation. 

First Grade Welcome Back Pack

Summer has come to an end. I begin school on Monday, and students begin on the 13th. I am ready to meet my new students, but I am not ready to hear that alarm clock go off quite so early each morning. I turn into a night owl during the summer time. I stay up late and sleep late. Getting up between 5:45 and 6:00 will be hard for a little while. I told myself I was going to start going to bed earlier, but it just didn't happen. :)

In preparation for the first week and a half of school, I have created a little pack to help me assess student knowledge of alphabet, colors, numbers, addition, fine motor skills, and writing. If it's something you'd like to check out, you can click on the picture.

Tracking Student Success with Accelerated Reader

Hello all! It has been months since I have been a part of the blogging world. It has been so long that something crazy happened to all of my pictures on my little 'ol blog. I think it is something to do with Picasa or Google+. It's something that I didn't even realize I was using. I'm not going to sweat the small stuff. I'm going to pick up the pieces that are left and move on! :) My goal is to try to blog a little more now that I have finished getting my masters degree. I love reading everyone's ideas, and I enjoy sharing.

I have been working to get things ready for my classroom. I have a small little issue...I keep changing things. I can't seem to help myself. As I learn more and more about making things cuter, I become a bit obsessed with making new stuff.

Anyway, I wanted to share something I made this week. In my classroom, I like to keep track of Accelerated Reader points. My students get very motivated to move their jeep as they earn more points. It is so much fun to watch my students get excited about reading. I hand drew the jeeps, colored them, and cut them out. They are laminated with a magnet on the back, so they will stick to the board. At the beginning of the school year, I will take pictures of my students and print them small enough to tape them to the jeep. If you'd like to use this, I posted it to TpT for free.

Click either picture to check out this freebie! 

New Year's Giveaway

Britney from Taylor-Made Teaching is having a fabulous New Year's Giveaway! There are five packs, so there will be five winners. You can also read about our teacher resolutions while you're there. 

Click on the picture to head to her blog to enter! :) 

Turkey Paintings

We had a nice long uninterrupted afternoon one day last week, so I broke out the paint. Yippee! The kids had a blast. 

I found these directions on Pinterest. Instead of drawing our turkeys, we painted them. We used a sponge brush for the turkey body and q-tips for everything else. 

 My example

Here are a few student paintings. They all turned out so different and so cute!

We still have two more school days before we get out for Thanksgiving Break. I decided I would let them write about what they would do if they had their own turkey. 

Would they keep it as a pet? Would they cook it? I think it will be fun to hear what they have to say. 

I {think} you can click on the picture to snag them from Google Docs. If not, I need more practice working with Google Drive! :)

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Gobble! Gooble!

Pumpkins

I love apples, pumpkins, changing leave colors, cooler weather, and the smell outside. I love everything about fall. 

Next week, we are going to learn about pumpkins. I bought a pumpkin, so we will get to watch pumpkin seeds sprout. I did this activity last year, and my students loved it. This is what the small pumpkin looked like after sprouting. I'm pretty excited because I bought a big pumpkin to use this year. I hope we can get it to sprout before fall break. 

I did a much needed update to my Pumpkin Unit. It includes life cycle posters, reading, math, writing, and science. Click the picture to see more. 

I really want to win!

Hi guys! Blogging is something I just haven't gotten around to lately. Beginning school, grad school, and life have taken over. We've been in school two weeks, and this teacher is just plain tired. We have modeled and practiced procedures and Daily 5, so I can't wait to be in full swing with our reading program next week. I've taken tons of pictures, but I'm posting them on my classroom Facebook page for parents to see. I'd love to be able to see some of the things my personal children do each week, so I hope parents enjoy the pictures I post. 

Anyway, Rae over at Mindful Rambles is giving away a pencil sharpener from Classroom Friendly Supplies. I NEED the new pink one. Our school supplied us with those nice pencil sharpeners that cost $100. Can you guess that two have torn up, and I'm on my third one?! 

Look at her...she would look beautiful sitting in my classroom!!

Since it's Labor Day weekend, I'm having a TpT sale. Everything is 20% off.
Teachers pay Teachers

WELCOME Poster Freebie

Hi all! It's been forever since I've blogged. I'm sure you all know how life takes over. If you've followed me or read my blog, you know how much I hated driving an hour to work and an hour home everyday. I did that for 3 years, and my husband had done it for a year. Well, guess what? No more!! Yayy! It all happened very quickly, but with His grace, we rented our home and found a rental that happens to be very close to our jobs. We literally found out in a day and a half that we were moving. I told ya it was fast! Between packing, unpacking, my grad class, and other life stuff, I stayed pretty busy! 

Now that I have everything settled into our rental, I figure I better get back into school mode. I think I might go work in my room some next week since we're so close! Oh! That's exciting! :)

To get some decoration ideas going, I've been searching Pinterest. I found a saying painted on a wall that I loved. It didn't link to anything but a picture, so I don't know where it came from. If you know, please let me know, and I will give proper credit. Anyway, I made a few cute posters with the saying. I absolutely love it! You can click on any picture and download them for FREE if you'd like to use them!

Currently

Technically, I'm a little early to the party, but I feel late since everyone is already linking up.

Listening

It never fails, when my hubs tries to go to sleep, our girls feel the need to aggravate him. He wouldn't want it any other way though!

Loving

During the school year, I have a bed time just like my kids. Some nights, I even go to bed when my kids do. During the summer, I enjoy staying up late and sleeping late. My children are in the stage of life that they like to do the same, so it works great for all of us! 

Thinking

What was I thinking by starting grad school during the summer??!! I'm sure  it really was a good idea, but there's a lot of work to be done. We had to come home from the beach a day early because I had an assignment to complete. 

Wanting

There's a stray pup that has made himself at home on our porch. He is barking at everything as if he really is at home!

Needing

I stress over everything! It's giving me gray hair! Seriously! I must realize that stressing is not helping me!

Tips, Tricks, or Hints

Live, Laugh, Love. It's pretty simple stuff that we sometimes forget to do when other things take our time. 

Now, go join the party and link up with Farley!

Before I leave, I want to share a few of the pictures from the beach this past week. 

When we left, it started raining. It didn't matter because we were going rain or shine! 

I'm glad we did because it was beautiful. We got in a lot of beach time, pool time, and some shopping. 

These guys are 3/4 of my heart. We had to leave the other 1/4 at home because he had to work.