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. 

Listening Center Response Sheets and TpT Stores I've Found

 I have updated another one of my first few products. It's my Listening Center Response Sheets. Much like my Word Work Mega Pack that I talked about updating (here), I use it for the entire school year. This product went from 6 sheets to 20 sheets. I aligned it with the first grade common core standards since that's what I teach, but it can be used in other grades.  It can easily be differentiated for many student ability levels. 

This is what it used to look like. Poor Thang! ha

This is what it looks like now! That cute little flamingo makes me smile. 

 There are a lot of printable options. Primary lines and single lines...Some of the single line sheets have a two per sheet printable option for later in the year when students have really learned how to write on one line. If you purchased this product, please go to your purchases and re-download it for free.

Teachers pay Teachers
Teachers Notebook

Before I go, I want to share a couple of TpT stores that I've found. 

First up is I'm Lovin' Lit. She has amazing prices that don't break the bank, and her work is fabulous! She has a Huge Sellers Bundle with lots of goodies for $5. If you are a creator or want to become a creator, this is a wonderful starter bundle. 

Next up is Primarily Au-Some. I love her fonts. You can download them for free for personal use, but I bought her commercial license for $1.00. Seriously, that's like hitting the Dollar Tree. We all know teachers love the Dollar Tree! As she adds more fonts, her commercial license price will increase. She has increased the price to $2.00, but that's still a great deal. 'Primarily Silly' is a great handwriting font. I love that all of the letters are formed correctly! 

If you'd like to win a copy of my newly updated Listening Response Sheets, leave a comment, and I will pick a winner tomorrow afternoon. 

Emails sent! Thank you for those that commented!

 

Bloglovin'

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I hear that Google Reader is going away as of July 1. After HOURS of trying to fix my RSS feed on Blogger, I have FINALLY been able to claim my blog. I'm so stinkin' excited! Golly! Click that button over there on my sidebar and follow me on Bloglovin'.

Finish the Sentence Freebie

I enjoy seeing my kiddos use their creativity to complete their work. In the beginning of first grade, we work hard on being able to make a complete sentence that makes sense. I'm going to use this center as an introduction to writing complete sentences. It will also help me see who comprehends what they see since their sentence has to match what they see or know about each picture. I thought I'd share it with you all, so I posted it to TpT. Depending on student ability, this center can be used from K-2. I hope you find it useful! 

Click the picture if you'd like check it out. 

Canoeing Fun and Feelings

Hey y'all! If your summer break is here, I hope you're enjoying every minute. If you're still in school, I hope you're surviving the last few days. I know they're busy days!

In my last post, I said I was going to do something fun because I've been working so hard in this class. Well, we did just that! We went on our first canoeing trip. There are two options of going down the spring. You can go on a canoe or in a tube. I think we were the only folks in canoes. We definitely want to go again! 

I shared the pictures on Instagram. My kids were only in the boat long enough to take a picture. I didn't allow my 13 year old to canoe with the girls. Instead, I let him paddle me around for a while. Needless to say, we got stopped by several stumps that were in the water. :)

 We ended our day by getting Sonic shakes after dinner. If you wait until after 8 pm here, they are half price! Yum! 

Onto something school related. 

Let me start by saying that I have fallen in love with Melonheadz clip art!! I have only bought two sets, but I have several sets on my wishlist. 

When I saw the set of clip art for feelings, I knew exactly what I wanted to make with them. 

I have found that most of my first graders have a hard time identifying their feelings or the feelings of a character in a story. I made posters to hang in my classroom to help with the understanding that we/characters can be more than happy or sad. 

 Teachers pay Teachers

Teachers Notebook

There are nine posters with four printable options. You can pick yellow chevron, yellow polka dots, red chevron, or red polka dots. 

I'm printing the yellow set for my room. They are so bright and cheery! I love 'em!  

If you'd like to win a set, leave a comment and your email address. I will pick a winner tomorrow. 

I had my mother-in-law pick a number, so 
Michelle Jaquillard is the winner! Thank you for commenting! :)