Five for Friday (Dec. 6th)

So I admit. Sunday night I was in no way ready to return to school. 

The week had went by in a blink! I was out for 5 glorious days. 

I did ZERO teacher related things on my break. It was AMAZING!

To my surprise I had the BEST first week back. EVER. 

5 days down and 10 more to go until Christmas Break. WOOT! WOOT!

My Monday was awesome. I got to get some really awesome CYBER Monday deals. I won't bore you with what I bought my home or my kids. This is what I had to have from the TPT sale :D

 Like a lot of you my Social Studies curriculum calls for some Holiday and Traditions learning and I've had my eye on this since Ms. Kuster put it in her shop on tpt. Check it out! 

I also adore all things from Graphics from the Pond. So I had to get these items. 

    

I swear if I ever win the lotto I will buy everything from Mel's tpt stores. Her graphics and products are too cute! 

Guilty. I really was expecting my students to be off the chain, but those little sweeties suprised me. I was ready to pull out all my tricks to help curb their behavior, but there was no need. Other teachers were just going on and on about how her their students acting like it was a full moon or being already too excited for Christmas. I am so flippin' proud of my 25 firsties. 

They really are the bomb diggity!

We learned about main idea and how to search for details. We made paper plate snowmen and wrote a How to Build a Snowman. We represented numbers to 60. We learned how technology has changed and used timelines. We continued our weather unit and made rain gauges (and it acutally rained)! My firsties totally rocked everything. To top it all off, I benchmarked most of my students reading levels and so many of my firsties are reading J, K,L, M. . . 

We were so busy learning and having fun I have ZERO photos to share! 

I know I am just awful! I need to post photos because their work is getting so CUUUTE and my lil' friends handwriting is looking so much better these days too!  

This happens sometimes. I swear they are doing so much better to stay on task and not do this. This week someone came to my classroom. He just walked right in. He had an iPad in his hands and an official looking badge so I went right on teaching. I figured he was doing a walk through and my admin was fully aware of it. They have a tendency of sending people my way and I've just decided to go with it. 

*SCARY PART* Later, I learn he did not have permission to observe my class and that he was someone from another school district! Apparently, he had been visiting other schools in the area without permission as well! The secretaries now have to be more thorough when issuing vistor's passes. . .

Lastly, I have ZERO voice. No, I'm not sick. I sang all week with 4 of our first grade sections (92 kids) to help us prepare for the our annual Winter Production. We will sing "Up on the Housetop" and "All I want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth". Acapella. I led the students and we sang over and over. Good news is they got the words down and the moves we came up with. 

They are adorable and I just know their parents will love the production. 

That's it for me. Stop back by so you can see when I update with photos! 

December Currently

So I have been a baaaaad blogger lately. I've had some family stuff come up and decided to take a little break from the bloggy world to spend more time with my babies. It has been WONDERFUL. I highly recommend it! So I'm linking up with Farley to catch you up. 

I love Home Alone and I'll watch it over and over all month long. Fun movies like this help me keep merry and bright during the Christmas season. 

I have loved being home all week. Confession #987,789: I have not worked on anything school related (besides pinning on Pinterest. . .he he he) since last Friday. I am so proud of myself. My time has been devoted to my kiddies and I feel awesome about that. 

Back to reality tomorrow, but I'm not sad about it. As Farley would say, I {PUFFY} heart this group of firsties. 

I'm looking forward to making the next 3 weeks magical and as Christmas-y as possible. I really want them to feel like they had an awesome time learning before our Christmas break. 

To get the next 3 weeks to reach AWESOMENESS I'll need to prep the fun stuff. I have a few tricks up my sleeve. I'll be sharing with y'all soon!

I live 6 hours away from my siblings and parents who all live near each other. I am looking forward to spending Christmas with them. My ALL TIME favorite tradition is singing with my sisters. I'm not bragging, but when we sing together it sounds AMAZING. I have 4 sisters and 1 brother. Brother doesn't usually sing with us, but his wife will. I can't wait! 

That's it for me! Link up with Farley. 

Five for Friday on a Sunday and a Freebie!

So the last 3 weeks have been h-e-double hockey sticks! Just so busy. Too many deadlines and not enough hours in the day. I haven't been getting much sleep. If you're a teacher I know that you know exactly how I feel. Some weeks are just like that. So here are some highlights. . .

A student left and my class was down to 23 again, but then 3 more showed up and I'm up to 26 kids. No aide or intern teacher yet. I'm actually liking it. I have 12 girls and 14 boys and I just love them to pieces. My classroom is getting a mini makeover to accommodate everyone. Pics coming soon.

I got a grant from Pets in the Classroom. Now I need to get my fish. I did this one on a whim and I'm so excited to get this.  I have had other animals in my room that I purchased on my own. I feel so happy to not have to do that this time. I'll have a longer post when I make my purchases and after my kiddies have seen them.

Our PE staff is excellent. They are always finding ways to keep us moving. As a school we participate in Fast Feet Friday. Each section competes against the others in a grade level for trophies 2 Friday's a month during our students' PE time. To get our community involved families are invited to participate and help us win one the trophies. And the competitive teachers like me join their students. We have team names. My class is Chickadee Jubilee because my theme is Boho birds. I used to use Winged Wild Things when my classroom theme was Where the Wild Things (Learn) Are.
Anywho, we won the "guest" trophy again. My little ones were ecstatic!

Our Dyslexia Staff put on a competition this week. They gave clues about a different famous person who has dyslexia every morning during the announcements. Teachers were to send in their guesses in on paper everyday this week by 9 a.m. We were very excited to find out that we won! We were treated to a movie and popcorn. Here are 24 of my 26 kidlets enjoying their popcorn and movie. 2 of my littles were at speech so they got to go later.

Lastly, after 9 week benchmark testing in all subjects all day, Friday night was our annual fall festival. Each grade level had to man 2 game and 1 food booth. We had a "pin the nose on the pumpkin booth" and "bobbing for apples." Our Fall Festival is a way to fundraise for our field trips. Overall, we had a great turn out. Our teachers looked like zombies after a 12 hour day. Hopefully, we have earned enough for our first field trip. Here's a pic of our posters before the Festival began.

That's it for me. Be sure to check up on my TPT store. Check this little diddy out.

I have started to post freebies there. I plan on adding more products. I'm inputting grades and uploading freebies sounds like a funner thing to do. . . 

I can't believe the first nine weeks is over.

A freebie!

So it took forever, but I finally managed to get ONE freebie secured and uploaded. Good grief! I hope you can use it. Please leave positive feedback if you do. Thanks!

I will post more, but tonight is lesson planning night for me. I'm going to try to have another freebie or two ready for you. . . Any requests?

Technical difficulties!

Still trying to figure out what happened to my ADOBE software. A friend is looking into why its not protecting graphics and fonts on the freebies I'm trying to upload. Once she's okayed them I will post to TPT store. Sorry for the wait.

New Blog Design

My little blog got some love from the talented Christi Fultz from Design by Christi. I am so happy with how it turned out. I feel the need for a celebration. Swing by for some freebies this weekend when I have a moment to catch my breath from this busy, busy week!

October Currently

I'm linking up with Farley for the October Currently . . .

Listening: So I got an email from Netflix that Season 8 of How I Met Your Mother was available. This show is so bad! I love it (after the kids are in bed of course)! I'm listening to that as I work on some last minute stuff for tomorrow's PD. I'm training our kinder and first grade teachers in Math.

Loving: The 6th week of school because my firsties are on it. They have come so far already! I'm excited to see what the school year will bring. 

Thinking: Go to bed! I have been sleeping so heavy and so much lately. My usual 4-5 hours of sleep have turned into 7 or 8 hours! I think it's sooooo weird. I kind of like it! 

Wanting: I'm also finding myself craving sweets. It doesn't help that during the fall people bust out their awesome dessert recipes and fair foods! I'm trying my best to stay away from it all . . .

Needing: More energy. I have been a BAAAAD girl. I need to get back into my workout groove. I know if I get back on a set workout schedule my energy will come back. 

Trick-I don't remember how I found this site, but it's called 

www.smartappsforkids.com

I suscribed to their emails and have gotten quite a few FREE apps they've recommended.

Night-night! Can't wait to read up on all of you. Don't forget to link up.

Five for Friday

Time for my favorite linky party. I'm sooo exhaustipated though so I'll be brief.

Anyone else feeling this week?
I think I went to bed early everyday all week and if you know me you know that this is NOT normal! I usually run best on 4-5 hours of sleep. I've been getting 7-8 hours all week! WHAT!?

I finally finished TPRI testing (right after WRAP testing) my 24 kiddies. I am so ready for testing to be over. Can I get an AMEN!? I love teaching, but if we could go without testing that would great! Wednesday we test our littles our district math benchmark. . . BLEH!

My students are just too precious. We got to change matter this week with heat. They have LOVED every minute. We also melted crayons, chocolate chips, and butter. . .  Pretty much anything we could make a mess with.

I need to get better at remembering to take photos during the school day . . .

We made sensory poems and my students totally rocked them! It helps that we had already covered our 5 senses in science. I literally gave them one example and they WANTED to try it.
My example:
                            June is yellow.
                            It looks like fun in the sun.
                            It smells like fresh cut grass.
                            It tastes like popsicles. 
                            It sounds like kids laughing.
                            June feels like sliding down a water slide. 
My little firsties chose their own month and their ideas were so creative. This one brought tears to my eyes. . .

I dislike having a sub with a capital H.  .  . but there was no way around it. I was invited to attend a math workshop with the one and only, Kim Sutton. I know most people usually love her or hate her, I love all the loot I get when I go. 

Ha Ha I use it all in my classroom and I got to go with most of our vertical math team so it was fun. The sub, by the way, did not follow directions. At. all. (UGH)

And lastly, my oldest will be 8 years old on Monday. (SIGH) 

Wish I could keep my little princess little for longer. 

We are celebrating tomorrow so I better get some sleep. 

Don't forget to link up!

-Sandy 

Five for Friday. . .Saturday Edition

Time to link up again with Doodle Bugs Teaching. 

So here's what's been going on in my neck of the woods . . . 

Monday was 16 de septiembre, Mexico's Independence Day. Since we are in a border city and a majority of our school population is of Mexican descent, we celebrated their heritage with the bilingual program. Check out the goodies and a couple of my cuties! 

Tuesday was Constitution Day and my kids loved learning about the Constitution. We had help! 

We took it old school . . .

I'm always amazed when littles see old cartoons like this and LOVE it just as much as I did as a kid.

We also subtracted, but first we had to learn a song just in time for Talk Like a Pirate Day (Sept. 19th). . .

Too cute right? My kids love it. I love using music and movement to get my little firsties excited about math. I need to make a math songbook using the songs we sing during our calendar math morning warm up time and offer it as a freebie to you (making a mental note of that). It really helps get our day started and I wouldn't want to start my day any other way. I loved that I heard it sung by my littles during the day all week.

I also won an incredible resource from Teach123. I am so excited to use this with my littles.

Friday we had a school day out for the kids and professional development day for teachers. Remember I said I'm team leader this year? Guess what I got . . .

Finally, a perk for my new role. It's a chrome book. I'm going to play with it all weekend to figure this bad boy out. If anyone has any experience do share!

And lastly, remember that P.O. I've had for WEEKS. . . I finally got to use it! I'm labeling them now with levels and AR and what not.

That's it for me. Off to play with my kiddies and my new toy. I am totally grateful for my 24 firsties and another great week for the books. Happy World Gratitude Day to all of you! Happy Weekend folks!

-Sandy

Monday Made It and a Freebie!

Linking up with Tara for this month's

I've seen so many 'READ' signs on Pinterest and Instagram I decided to hit up Hobby Lobby for some materials. I chose colors from my color scheme this year. I'll always use green and blue because they are my go to colors, they're easy to find in decor, and they're supposed to be calming. I just added yellow and red this year. I want pops of these colors, but not a whole lot because they seem to get my kidlets riled up.

I bought chipboard letters (each letter was .99 cents because they were half-off). acrylic paint (about a dollar each),  mod podge (glossy), and brushes. I don't trust myself to make any cute designs with duct or washi tape. I just painted and mod podged-is that a word?-for the glossy sheen. I might add something to the letters, but I'm not sure what yet. Maybe one of you can give me ideas? That would be helpful. As is, I think they're pretty spiffy. I can't wait to add ribbon and hang them up in my library area. I'm going to use aqua ribbon since it's another color in my scheme.

Color names from l to r-

apple orchard, true blue, school bus yellow, and true red

Well, I finally mustered up the courage to upload to TPT. I figured anyone could use a free story map or two, right? I'll be using these in my classroom this week and I hope some of you will be too. I have other freebies to upload and I may do so very soon. Check it out and tell me what you think. Any advice or critiques are appreciated. I'd appreciate any positive feedback on TPT! Go ahead and follow me too. There's more to come!

(click here for your download)

I'm off to check out the other blogs. Don't forget to link up!
-Sandy