Blah Blah Report Cards

If there's one thing in the world I despise more than cleaning bathrooms, it would be filling in report cards. Well, let me re-phrase that- -filling in report card comments. I can plug in grades and grade papers to get these grades all day long, but trying to make each child's comment personalized and from the heart is absolutely exhausting. It's definitely the last thing my mind wants to focus on after giving both dogs a bath, unpacking from our anniversary trip to the farm, and catching up on laundry. If you can't tell I've got a case of the blah blahs tonight. My ususal treatment for the blah blahs is a nice cup of coffee, but seeing as it's already 8:00 caffeine is probably definitely not an option.

If there's one thing that can put some pep in my step it's that spring break is right around the corner (5 days away) and tomorrow is my 1 year wedding anniversary (I get to eat cake)!  I'm not sure how a year can go by so fast because it feels like it was yesterday that I was stressing out over the weather and having everything happen perfectly (which never happens...silly me). I wish I could bring a photo booth into my class for the day. . .but since I can't I've been busy planning for a fun filled week of spring/Easter themed activities. My kids are beyond ready for a break from each other (I'm probably included in that group of people they need a break from too) and I've been ready for spring break for a few weeks now. I love my kids to the moon and back, but I need a week to let my brain rest and to get myself ready for the last stretch before summer break! Since we are about to enjoy a week away from learning my kids will be spending the week reviewing math skills that they demonstrated weaknesses in on our benchmark tests.

I put together a fun little unit called Hippity Hoppity: Easter Math Review to get the party started! While we explore this unit my kids will be practicing telling time to the hour/half hour, solving 2-digit addition/subtraction problems, measuring with non-standard units, and graphing. They'll also be doing some work with fact families, but I'll blog about that later this week. You can grab your copy at my TPT store if you want to get in on the fun with your kids.


I'm going to go ahead and make a prediction that the measuring with jelly beans will be at the top of the list for favorites this week (probably tied with graphing with M&Ms). Food is the way to my kids' hearts and special occassions call for a little sweetness. I'll be back later this week, but until then live, love, teach, and dream about spring break!

Ladies & Gentlemen... A Substitute is in the Room

One of my most recent blogs talked about how I don't like to take days off because of the sub situation. I can only hope and pray (and pray again) that I had someone in my room today that could follow directions and keep my kids doing the same. My sub plans are so detailed that they tell someone what to do in every second of the day. All of the ladies that I teach with leave detailed sub plans too, but still somehow things go coo coo kangaroo up in the building when a sub walks through the door. We've had subs show up in their pajamas (tucked into their boots), with bags of magazines, or not even show up at all. I've had subs give my kids coloring sheets to complete (instead of the work I've planned for them to do) and others have had subs fall asleep. Which leads me to question where exactly they find these candidates that fill in for us.

Anyhow, instead of drinking my coffee and successfully conducting a three ring circus I spent my morning in the dentist office...having cavities filled. I've only had 2 in all of my 28 years until today. . .now the total is up to 4. It was kind of a sad moment even though it technically definitely wasn't my fault (three out of four that I've had were due to a cavity forming underneath the sealant on my molars). Having a cavity filled is probably not a big deal to most people out there. I'm not bothered by the drilling sound at all, but I am bothered by needles && unfortunately getting a cavity filled means numbing medicine admininstered by NEEDLE! (Insert panic attack here).

I may just be the only adult in the entire world that gets this worked up over needles && to be honest I'm not quite sure how this whole "being a mom" thing is going to go in the future when delivering the kid becomes a reality. Thankfully I survived. . .1 hour, 2 fillings, 2 numbing shots, 1 panick attack, and 1 extremeley numb mouth later I was free to enjoy the rest of my day. When I say numb, y'all I could have been drooling all over my face and I would have n.e.v.e.r known. I quickly figured out talking wouldn't be an option and sadly eating wouldn't be one either. What does a starving person with a numb mouth do? Why visit Chick-Fil-A to get a delicious milk shake of course! There's no chewing involved with a milkshake so my tongue and cheeks were safe and my stomach was happy! After a glorious nap my mouth is back to normal and I can finally focus on everything else in my life. Like what I'm going to walk into tomorrow morning (I kid, I kid. . .word has it my substitute did fine).

 

For me, a day off really isn't a day off. I'm constantly in school mode. True, I got to sleep in until 8:00 today, but I was up at 7:00 thinking "Ok the kids are walking into school. . .please let there be someone to greet them!" && I did the same thing all day long. . .oh it's 10:00 they're doing writing. 11:35 already? They're eating. It's crazy. . .or maybe I'm crazy. . .but I'm always thinking about the day as if me thinking about it is going to make everything go as planned. Besides being a maniac today, I've also been working on polishing up my "Hoot, Hoot, Hooray" place value unit to go into my TPT store. We've done plenty of prior lessons on place value, but for the 4th nine weeks of school we start moving into expanded form. I was really worried about how my kids would grasp this, but shockingly they nailed it! It was such an "Aha!" moment for them that they could do "big kid" math and it wouldn't be as hard as they thought it would be. As you could probably guess from the title, this is an owl themed unit packed with stuff to hoot about! I found some cutesy owl books to incorporate literacy into my math lessons. They don't have mathematical concepts within the text, but they do provide the perfect opportunity to quickly review story elements(characters/setting/problem/solution/setting) &&& with math being the first official thing we do with our day it gets my kids pumped up about learning something. The books that I used are included at the end of the unit- -all of the books were purchased from Barnes and Noble or Scholastic and they're super, super cute!

 

One of the books inspired the owl craftivity that is also included in the unit (it also inspired a trip to the craft store for more scrapbook paper)! Here's a closer look at the craft portion of the activity. In other news. . .I've almost been married for an entire year! How does a year go by so fast? Since it rained on our wedding day we didn't get a chance to have a lot of fun with the pictures. There was a small pocket of time to get pictures and to do the whole ceremony outside like we planned so pictures were very formal. I love them all don't get me wrong. Our photographer was awesome and got some amazing shots despite mother nature being a witch, but we aren't the "formal" stiffy stiff couple that the pictures depict. I'm fortunate enough to know a very talented and amazing lady who just happened to be coming down for a Charleston visit this past weekend. She shot our 1 year anniversary pictures and I'm in love, I'm in love and I don't care who knows it! Every picture that she's edited so far has become my new favorite and she's not done yet. I could seriously print them all out, plaster them to all of our remaining wall space, and look like the maniac picture loving fool that I am. But for now, I've got to go to the gym for my weekly training session. . .and by that I completely mean my weekly sweat session where I look like a dodo bird lifting weights and jumping around. Until next time, live, love, teach!

 

The Leprechauns Are Coming!

Yesterday was my 28th birthday and yes, I went to work. Apparently it's pretty common to call in on your special day, but just thinking about making sub plans gives me a headache AND the last time I had a sub (for a legit reason mind you) they never showed up! Our sub system isn't the most reliable process apparently. . .even if somebody shows up it's hit or miss if they actually have any background with children much less teaching. We have a few really awesome ladies that we call all the time, but everyone knows they're great and they're usually booked weeks in advance. My kids were really excited about it being my birthday and I didn't want them to miss out on that excitement with a frumpy dumpy sub being in the room instead of fabulous little OLD me. . .I kid, I kid 28 isn't old I know. My kids (and teacher friends) know me a little too well. ..giant bags of skittles, a huge chocolate bar and a cute coffee cup were pretty much sitting in the store with my name written on them in huge pink flashing letters. My kids were also little sneaky sneakies and made a huge flamingo card for me in art class on Thursday. Too cute! Of course I forgot to take a picture of it before I left, but trust me it was adorable. My mom of course knows me way too well and got me a GIANT cupcake shaped cupcake holder. I love it and am definitely making some "belated" birthday cupcakes to share with my loves...one day. I'm setting off on a new adventure in making everything from scratch (because I'm sickened by the canned frosting lately.  .it just isn't as yummy as icing should be). The husband got me a version of the anchor necklace that I've been wanting and some camo skinny pants (he insisted they would be pure hotness. . .I'm just hoping that I don't look like a hot mess).

Now that one amazing event has passed, it's on to the next thing that March has to offer::: St. Patrick's Day!! So far this week we've been having a lot of holiday themed fun- -read alouds, math activities, and writing. ..they've all been touched by a leprechaun! For math we're working on some activities from my unit: Erin Go Bragh Y'all! It's benchmark week and we're reviewing one last time before we take our summative tests. So far most of my loves are "knocking me socks off"...there are a few that apparently had a sudden case of amnesia, buuuuut such is life. (They'll get next time. . .they have to. . .right??).
Included in this unit are activities to review measuring with non-standard units, telling time to the half hour, solving word problems, graphing, and determining missing addends/subtrahends. All of the activities are inspired by St. Patricks' Day- -they're based on read alouds (of course holiday related). Today we measured with skittles and OH.MY.SHAMROCKS. the world could have ended and they would have still been shrieking with delight. They were stoked (I'm positive it was more so over the possibility of eating their units of measurement than actually measuring, but I'll take what I can get). Paired with the musical stylings of the Irish (thank you Pandora iPhone app), it was an Irish shindig in my class && there's more where that came from. On Friday we're graphing the marshmallows from Lucky Charms because they're so magically delicous. . .not so original, I know, I know, but why re-create the wheel when it rolls so smoothly?!? As always you can grab your copy of the unit at my TPT store if it tickles your fancy.

We're working on a super cute writing assignment as well. . .again nothing original, but it never fails to deliver h-i-l-a-r-i-o-u-s responses: How to Catch a Leprechaun! During their sharing/brainstorming time I overheard one of my cuties telling his share partner that he was going to trick the leprechaun into coming close by asking him if he wanted to go fishing. Tomorrow is our editing day where I will be helping them read through their stories and edit them. I can't wait to read what they've been working on. Friday will be our final draft and craftivity day. I'll share pictures when the hard work (and clean up of said hard work) is complete. We're also working on editing sentences (forever and always) with the help of the Lucky Sentences pack. Their summative assessment for punctuation went amazingly well- -all but 2 got a perfect score (they don't quite get the difference between telling and asking sentences yet, but we're working on it). In small groups we're playing the high frequency word game "Shamrock." It's played like the well known game BOOM! where the kids pick a card and read the word. If they read the word correctly they get to keep their word card. If they read it incorrectly or can't read it, I tell them the word (they repeat it) and it goes on the bottom of the deck of cards. If they pull a Shamrock card they have to turn in all of their cards to me. The player at the end of the game with the most cards is the winner. I love it because it doesn't necessarily mean the "best" reader wins every time. They love it because they get to scream shamrock out in their goofiest voice. It's the perfect combination- -they beg me to play it and what could be better than kids wanting to practice reading tricky words? Nothing. . .well maybe spring break.

In my other part of my life (the not teaching portion) I've been kicking butt in the gym. By that I mean 1 day's worth of kicking butt. . .and I'm going to be as stiff as road kill tomorrow morning (day 2 is always the worst)! I've also gotten back to my love of painting. There are few things as calming as painting. I'm no Picasso (in fact he would probably be disgusted at what I call painting), but it's all good. I started out painting picture frames and was pretty obsessed with it for a while. Then it evolved into painting wooden signs. I discovered TPT (and my love for Publisher) and painting took a back seat. However, one of my teaching friends that is the coffee to my creamer wanted a sign for her classroom and I finally found the inspiration and color selection that was perfect. This is: "Shake Your Tail Feathers" (I forgot to mention that I like to give them cheesy names). Every time I paint a new design it becomes my favorite and I am in LOVE with hers.

I've also been trying to cook more and I've got some pretty yummy looking stuffed chicken, spinach and cheese shells in the oven that are ready to get in my belly!They've been calling my name for a few weeks now- -I finally decided to try them out && let the cheese into my life sooooo until next time, live, love, && of course, TEACH!

Ice Cream Inventions

With the end of the school year quickly approaching, I needed a fun topic and I needed it fast. What better topic than ice cream? Everybody loves it and there are endless possibilities for fun classroom activities. When I announced that we would be talking about ice cream and having a sundae party at the end of the week, my lovelies were beyond excited. For the end of the school year to be so close (3 days and counting) my kids worked hard and created some of their best work. To start the unit we watched an "EyeWonder" Video on how ice cream is made. My lovlies were assigned to be reporters. This meant that they were responsible for writing down three interesting facts from the video. . .another sneaky trick that teachers use to get their kids to pay attention without fussing at them. :)

After watching the video, we shared our interesting facts with each other. The kids really enjoyed sharing their facts and hearing what their classmates found interesting. I created a cute form for them to record their interesting ice cream facts.

The next part of the lesson provided practice on comparing and contrasting. My lovelies were given two sticky notes (a pink and a yellow). They then participated in a taste testing of two types of ice cream: Cookies and Cream & Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. As they tasted each flavor, the recorded descriptive words and their thoughts about each flavor on the sticky notes. They each filled out this cute compare and contrast sheet using their notes. It was incredible to see how serious they took the assignment. Food is truly the way to their hearts! :)

For the next portion of the lesson, we read the book Ice Cream Larry by Daniel Pinkwater. The kids loved the story and the illustrations. My lovelies and I began to compare ourselves to the book's main character Larry. Their responses to this activity were equally impressive as their responses from the taste testing activity.

In the book, Larry is a polar bear who eats a lot of ice cream at an ice cream shop. This draws the attention of a businessman (I. Berg) who comes to see Larry. Larry and I. Berg have serveral meetings, but nobody knows what they are about. At the end of the story it is revealed that Larry helped I. Berg create a new line of ice cream called "Larry Bars." This book provided the perfect opening for our writing/art activity. I told my lovelies that they would each be creating their very own new ice cream flavor. They were told to write about the name, the flavors of the ice cream and how they would package it. After the writing process was completed, they made their new flavor ice cream with construction paper, crayons and markers. They had an absolute blast making their ice cream cones! I was blown away by how much thought they put into the creation of their new ice cream flavor. Some of my favorites included: Worm Pie (cake batter and gummy worms), Blueberry Blue (blueberry ice cream with blue berry cobbler bites), Strawberry Chocolate Skittles, and Cinnamon Cookie Dough.

♥ Ms. Lee

Life is Sweet

While cleaning out my file cabinets for next year, I found all of the cute letters and pictures that were in my "sunshine" file from my kids this year. Looking through the file made me realize once again that teaching is truly the best job in the world! It isn't always easy getting up at 5:30 and diffusing the fights of eight year olds all day long, but knowing that I've made a difference in their lives is worth more than any high paying desk job could ever be. Over the years as I've followed my original group of lovelies from Pre-K to second grade, their notes have gotten longer and their pictures have gotten more detailed. I know because I've saved them all. If I could give one piece of advice to new teachers, it would be to start your own sunshine file. Save the notes, letters, and pictures that are given to you and look through them every now and then. It really is a great feeling to be loved by twenty three little ones. . .some love you so much that they give you gigantic, delicious cupcakes!

And sometimes you'll love them so much that you will bake and hand ice twenty three flamingo cookies for part of their end of the year gift. Life is what you make it. . .so why not make it sweet!

♥ Ms. Lee

Under the Sea

Before our big trip to the aquarium, we started studying about the ocean and all of the animals that call it home. My lovlies have become very interested in research, so what could be better than an ocean animal research project for them to dig into? Each of my kids got to pick an ocean animal that they were interested in learning more about. They researched these animals and recorded their facts in their writing journals. At the end of the researching period, the kids recorded all of their information in fabulous fact books. All of the books turned out so good it was hard to pick just one for a picture. . .so I picked three!

They did such a great job that I absolutely couldn't stop there. . .so they wrote about an under the sea adventure and made super cute divers to hold up their work.

♥ Ms. Lee

Leaping Leprechauns

St. Patrick's Day has always been one of my favorite holidays. As a kid I absolutely couldn't wait to get to school to see what mischief the little green men had caused. Now that I'm a teacher, I try my hardest to ensure that my kids will have the same fond memories of St. Patrick's Day that I have due to the creativity and dedication of my teachers. Before the big day, my kids wrote about how they would catch the leprechaun. Of course there was an art project involved. . .the kids created their very own leprechauns to hold their plans up for everyone to see. It was amazing to see each child's personality reflected in their leprechauns.

♥ Ms. Lee

Homophone Hares

We have all found ourselves tricked by homophones at one time or another. We all know how confusing they can be and if they're confusing for adults, imagine how scary they are for kids. One of our spelling units involved homophone pairs. I've seen the homophone "pears" activity, but I wanted to do something different. It was a few weeks before spring break could arrive and my kids definitely had spring fever. After talking about homophones and playing homophone matching games, I decided to have my kids create "homophone hares." They turned out absoutely adorable and the kids had a blast making them.

My kids had so much fun making their homophone hares that I decided to make a few center activities that they could use during the small group portion of our day.

♥ Ms. Lee

Spring has Sprung

Spring is always an amazing time of the year when you are a teacher. Spring Break is right around the corner and there are endless opportunities for cute and fun learning activities.
Frogs, bees, butterflies and bunnies are a few of the spring time topics that filled our spring days with fun and sunshine!

I am a HUGE believer in incorporating art as much as possible within the classroom. My excitement for art activities is apparently contagious because my kids are always super pumped to do the hard work if they know an art activity is going to follow it. I've found over the years that kids will do their best work when they are excited about the assignment and art projects are my excitement pills.

Better Late than Never

Before this school year started I had BIG plans to start and keep up with a classroom blog. I knew it was going to be an ambitious goal with the final year of grad school and teaching full time, but little did I know that this school year had some impressive surprises in store for me.

First surprise:
Two weeks before school started, I was told that I would be moving from first grade to second grade.

Second surprise:
The last two semesters of grad school were INSANE...I can probably type a paper with my eyes closed and I've found myself citing research in our PLCs. I've turned into "that girl."

Third surprise:
I got engaged and quickly became obssessed with wedding related topics.


Needless to say, I never got around to keeping up with a blog. . .but now that the year is coming to an end, grad school is finished, and wedding planning is ahead of schedule I figured it was the perfect time to start this project up!