11 in 11 linky party!!

So I am LOVING all of these linky parties because it actually gives me a chance to participate in this lovely community since I am incompetent and can't get my you-know-what together to upload my documents!! I also love it because it gives me a chance to get my blog out there because, as you can see, I'm a little lacking in the follower department!

Anyway, enough of my pitty party. I am linking up with Kristin over at A Teeny Tiny Teacher, and Hadar over at Miss Kindergarten for their 11 in 11 linky party!




Here goes:

11. Favorite movie you watched:
This is a really tough one because I am obsessed with movies and saw SO many good movies this year! However, I have to say, my first favorite would have to be The Help.

This honestly miiiight be one of my favorite movies of all time! I read the book this summer and was SO pumped when I heard it was going to be a movie! I seriously spent all summer looking forward to this movie and I was definitely NOT disappointed! I am always nervous about books that become movies because sometimes they turn out realllyyy badly. But this movie matched up almost perfectly with the book and the casting was SENSATIONAL! Ok...you get it. I love this movie. Moving on.

10. Favorite TV series:
Again, another hard one because I have sooo many shows that I watched. And let me tell you, my TV show list is preettyyy comparable to that of a 17 year old girl, so I will go with the least embarrassing one.

Ok so I realize I am WAY behind the times seeing as how this show came out when I was a senior in high school, but I just recently started watching this show last week and fell in L.O.V.E.!!!! My brother has been telling me to watch it for like the past 6 years, but I just never got around to it. So last week while babysitting my amazingly precious nephew, I decided I would start watching season one on their netflix. OH-EM-GEE I am now OBSESSED! I just love how it's a sitcom with all the funny, lighthearted, sometimes dirty humor, but it's also kinda like a drama because the episodes follow each other! And trust me, the LAST thing I need is another show seeing as how I already have like 50 I watch every week. Ok, maybe not 50 but I have at least 2 on every night, {sometimes 3} Except Thursday, that's my night to catch up on all the shows I didn't have time to watch during the week! :) Anyways needless to say, let's add this one to the weekly line up because I LOVE it!!!

9. Favorite restaurant:
Easy. It will and FOREVER be:

My roommates and I literally used to go here like 3 times a week. There was even one girl who worked there that knew me when I came in and knew EXACTLY how much sour cream I liked in my burrito bowl. {Which, let me say, is A LOT} Of course, I love food, so I have a lot of restaurants that I LOVE, but Chipotle will forever be my all time fave...even though starting Monday I am giving it up for 10 months until after the wedding :(

8. Favorite new thing you tried:
SUPER easy! BLOGGING!! I have really enjoyed getting to "know" other teachers in so many different areas and have loved getting so many fun and exciting ideas to try out on my firsties! This has definitely made my year so fun and creative and I look forward to everything that is to come in this sweet little bloggy community! Thanks to everyone who has viewed and commented on my blog to help me feel included! My New Years Resolution is to figure more out so that I can begin to give even half as much as what I have swiped borrowed from everyone! :)

7. Favorite gift you got:
Definitely going to have to go with my most favorite thing in the world....

BOOTS! I am super obsessed with boots and that's basically all I asked for this year! {Besides sweater dresses, my other obsession} I got three pairs for Christmas and bought myself another pair yesterday with a gift card I got! The pair above would have to be my favorite that I received though. My future mother-in-law got me these and I absolutely LOVE them! :)

6. Favorite thing you pinned:

LOVE these! I think these are super cute and I am hoping that my wonderfully talented friend who teaches 6th grade at my school {and who is also making my wedding cake} will love me enough to make these for favors at my wedding! How complicated, messy, impossible, CUTE are those??!

5. Favorite blog post:
This shouldn't be hard seeing as how I don't have that many!
I like my Pumpkin Parade post because I think that idea {Thank you, Lauren is SUPER cute and I am so pleased with how creative my kiddos got with them!!

4. Best accomplishment:
Ok, this is going to sound SUUUPER lame and reflect on how sad my life must be if this is my biggest accomplishment this year, but trust me, this is big for me. Ok, so I'm sure I had other accomplishments this year, but this is the biggest one coming to mind right now. I FINALLY parted ways with all most of my old Vera Bradley purses/wallets. I have a very sick huge obsession with Vera Bradley and have collected an unimaginable amount of it over the years. To most people, this probably wouldn't be a problem, except for the fact that I am super weird and won't reuse a purse after I have exhausted carried it. The other problem is that I have refused to get rid of them, thinking mayyybbeee I'll reuse them someday {I NEVER have}. This has caused for a huuuge mess in the top of my closet. So, this year, I finally couldn't take it anymore, and took them to school and gave/sold them to my co-workers. They loved it, and now my closet is one step closer to being clean! Like I said...seems lame...but huge accomplishment in my world! :)

3. Favorite picture:
Ok, I am going to have to cheat on this one because I take SO many pictures!!!





Sweet baby T :)





2. Favorite memory:
November 4, 2011....When my sweet baby nephew was born!


1. Goal for 2012:
Ohhhh I have many....
Get organized
Eat healthier
Start a TPT store
Learn how to make cute little units and post them on my blog
Get in Shape
The list could go onnnn and onnn!!!


Well thanks for stopping by you guys! I know I said I probably wouldn't be posting on here much but I couldn't pass up this linky party!! Head on over to Kristin and Hadar's blogs and link up!!

Wishing you all a very happy, safe, and SUPER fun New Year!! :)

Much love,

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all had a great holiday and got to spend lots of time with friends and family. I had an AWESOME two days and am so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family in my life.
This is just a quick post to link up with Caitlin over at Ms. Preppy and tell all about her Holly Bloggy Christmas that I participated in! I had so much fun with this, from entering all the giveaways to sending my present to my secret pal, to opening my AMAZING present yesterday from my super awesome secret pal! I have to give a HUGE shoutout to my girl Rachelle over at What the Teacher Wants for her AWESOME present she sent me!

I can't wait to put this up in my classroom and am just AMAZED at how talented she is! I can only imagine how time consuming this was to make! This is super cute and my kiddos are going to love oohing and ahhing at it everyday! Especially my girls! :) Thanks again Rachelle!

And a HUGE thanks goes out to Caitlin and Sarah for organizing this whole thing! I am sure it was A LOT of work and I think it was a huge success! Thanks again girls, I had so much fun with it!!

So, since we are {hopefully} all on Christmas break this week, I will be taking a little break from my teaching blog. However, now that Christmas is over and New Years is just around the corner...the wedding planning will officially begin. So you can check out my new blog Soon to be Mrs. C for all of the updates!!
Thanks so much for all of your support and I hope you guys had a fantastic Christmas and a very Happy New Year!!

Much love,

WHEW!!!

So...I am FINALLLLLLY out for break!! And let me tell you, it is a MUCH needed break! Not that I don't love my job, students, or school...but a nice long vacation will definitely rejuvenate my nerves and allow me to be much more tolerable for the next semester. Yesterday was our Christmas party and let me just say...I felt as though a small hurricane blew through my room. It all started right after lunch when we had a SUPER awkward speaker come in and talk to our kids about being in Afghanistan. Now, he would have been humerous had he been speaking to a group of college or even high school students, but for K-6...totally inappropriate. So that was super uncomfortable, and then coming back to the classroom was when the chaotic mess  party began. We had an overwhelming amount of treats sent in, so you know the kiddos were WOUND.UP. I definitely couldn't have gotten through the madness without my super awesome parent volunteers. They broke the kiddos up into groups and did 4 different stations.
I have to give a HUGE shout out to my girl Rachelle over at What the Teacher Wants, for sharing her gifts for her Parent Volunteers. This was a HUUUUGE life saver as I have some really kick-butt room moms and other moms who come in to help! Thanks again Rachelle!
 It all worked out great, except for the following:
 1. The speaker took for-freaking-ever, so we were in a HUGE rush trying to get everything done..and let me tell you, hurry and 6-7 year olds DO NOT mix well.
 2. I accidentally forgot to go down to the fridge and get one of my student's treats he brought in, and he had a melt down at dismissal when he realized it.
3. the room was a H-O-T M-E-S-S when it was over

But the real icing on the cake was this. Are you ready for it? I KNOW you will love this one.
I had a parent send in 16 UNSTUFFED treat bags, and 16 ring pops for ME to put in the bags. {Because I had all the time in the world to do that} Here's the best part.... I HAVE 18 KIDS IN MY CLASS!!! I only put the number of kids in our class on all THREE of my notes about the party I sent home at three DIFFERENT times. Now how in the WORLD was I supposed to tell 2 FIRST GRADERS, "Oh, sorry kids, you two don't get one!"
Yea...REAL awesome. Needless to say those treat bags/ring pops are still in my supply closet. Thank goodness the little girl didn't notice!

Ok, whew. Sorry, I just had to vent.
All in all, the party was a success, it was just CUH-RAY-ZEE. And to top it all off, my little girl I told you guys about left. :( Yesterday was her last day and I couldn't even get the words out when I gave her the little present we made for her. The real kicker though was her little brother. He is in Kindergarten and is the sweetest little thing you will ever see. So at dismissal, in the lobby, he comes up to me in his little pajamas (we had a school-wide pajama day) and says, in the CUTEST little hispanic accent, "Miss Sims I will mees you", and gives me the biggest hug ever. Broke my heart!! So obviously I was a mess after school.
Let's just say...a break will be superrrr nice.

So let me leave you with this little question...what would YOU do if a parent in your room sent in treats for a party and didnt send the right number?

I realize that being a second year teacher, this is probably the mildest thing to go wrong, but I am just curious to see if anyone else would have handled it better because let me tell you, I am lucky she didn't notice because if she had, things would have gone a liiiiitttllle differently. So please please please let me know what you would have done in the situation because I would just love hearing all of your feedback and ideas!!

I hope you guys are enjoying your breaks, or in some cases, last few days of school... I know you guys all need a break just as much, if not more than I do! Much Love to all!!



P.S. You should definitely head on over to visit Hope at Second Grade Shenanigans. She is hosting an awesome giveaway so go check it out!! :)

Currently December

Hello out there! I hope you are all enjoying your breaks as I am slaving over report cards, wrapping presents for my kids, and stringing ribbon through 18 ornaments that I immediately regretted doing as soon as I started!!!

Ok...I'm done venting...I am just soooo ready for a break! Can you tell?

So today was pretty much a whirlwind, as all we did was just play catch up on the things we didn't get done yesterday. There are just not enough hours in the day to get everything accomplished!! (Not that I want to add any on or anything, don't get me wrong!)

So tomorrow is our last day and I am super pumped because we have so many fun things planned! In the morning we are having a school wide sing along which is always cute! Then first grade is having a pajama party and watching the Polar Express while drinking hot cocoa, {of course!} In the afternoon we are having our Christmas party and my awesome parent volunteers are coming in to do stations again! This worked out so well with the Halloween party so I am very excited to see what fun activities they have come up with once again! Tomorrow will also be a sad day. One of my firsties is moving back to Mexico so tomorrow is her last day. :( I can't even tell you how sad this makes me because she is the SWEETEST little thing on Earth! So at the end of the day we will have a little send off for her. I had the kids sign a pillowcase for her so she can always have it to remember her first grade family by!

Ok...so enough rambling...on to the real reason for this post!! So pumped I finally figured out how to use one of Farley's templates so I can participate in the linky party!! :) Thanks so much to Jen from The Teacher's Cauldron for teaching me how to do it!!

So head on over to Farley's page and link up!

Stay tuned I will have pictures of our way cute Christmas activities we have planned for tomorrow! :)
Enjoy your breaks, or if you are still in school like me, have a great last day!!

Giveaway winner, Liebster award, and Three days to go!

Here I go, getting behind again!! I have SO much to blog about today so please bear with me as this will most likely be an extremely long post!

So from the looks of it, almost EVERYONE is now out of school this for Christmas break! Not us! We have to go threeeeee stinking days next week! :( This is the longest we've EVER had to go before break! I am however happy that this will give me more time to fit in some fun Christmas activities! We have already done so many fun things, and this past Wednesday was our Christmas program so you know the kiddos were CUH-RAYYYY-ZEEEEE! Today I wanted to share a few things that we have been doing so far. Last week we started our Christmas Countdown Santas. These are a fun craft the kiddos love to do to keep track of how many days we have left of school before break!

I have no idea why my pictures always end up sideways, and of course have no idea how to flip them, so I apologize as you tilt your necks to make sense of this!

This is one of my favorite things to do with my kiddos because not only do they love it, but it also decreases the amount of times a day I have to hear "Miss Sims, is it our last day before break yet???" I actually free handed the template for the hat and the face and just cut them out a few at a time, so I don't have anything to upload. I used manilla drawing paper for the face and just drew a semi-circle. For the hat I used red construction paper and just made the best hat shape I can come up with, but I have to say it turned out looking a little more like an elf's hat than I had anticipated... :/

For the beard I actually used a snowman template that we did last year and cut off the bottom. The circles were already drawn on the snowman and I had the kids fill in the numbers, starting with number 13 and counting down. We added pillow fluff to the top of the hat and for the little puff ball on the tip. I hang them on the chalk ledge in the front of the room for them to look at each day. Every morning I give them a cotton ball and they cover up the next number. We do this every day until the last day and then I let them take them home.

Yesterday one of the 2nd grade teachers and I teamed up for a fun little Christmas stations party with our two classes. This was so much fun and gave the classes a chance to mingle and collaborate. It also allowed the second graders to feel like "big kids" and become role models for my little firsties!

We had three different stations. The first station just consisted of holiday books and cutting out their hands on brown paper for another station. This one they did independently at their seats. I ran the second station where the kiddos got to make a yummy snack! We used upside down ice cream cones and let the kids spread green frosting (white frosting with green food coloring) all around it. When they finished that they got to roll their iced cone in a sprinkle color of their choice. This made a very cute (and very delcious) Christmas tree! Of course, things got crazy/messy with this station so the kiddos had all eaten theirs before I got a chance to snap a photo!

The third station was my favorite. The second grade teacher had the kids use oats and glitter to make "reindeer food". The glitter is so that the reindeer will be able to see it from the sky on Christmas Eve. :) Then they decorated a brown paper bag to look like Rudolf and used their cut out hands as the antlers. They glued the cute little poem in the middle and stapled the bag of reindeer food to the back. I can remember doing this when I was little and absolutely LOVED it! The kiddos were so excited to take it home and sprinkle it on their lawns on Christmas Eve for Rudolf!! :)

I normally punch a hole where that little circle is and tie it from the antlers, but we ran out of time so we just glued it this year! I also normally use red pom poms for the nose, but ran out and didn't realize it until yesterday morning!

Ok so my second order of business is to express how EXCITED I am that I won day 11 of Farley's 12 Days of Christmas Giveaway! Thank you so much to Natale and Rachelle from What the Teacher Wants for giving away two things each from each of their TPT stores!! I am so excited, but of course haven't had a chance to sit down and look through and figure out what I want! Thanks once again to Natale and Rachelle and of course to Farley for hosting the Giveaway!! You guys are AWESOME!!

My final order of business involves thanking another blogger friend of mine! I want to say thanks so much to Lisa from Connecting the Dots for awarding me the Liebster award!

This award is for "new" bloggers, and its goal is to spotlight up-and-coming blogs with less than 200 followers.  If awarded, you must:

Copy and paste the award on your blog

Thank the giver and link back to them

Reveal YOUR top five picks and leave a comment letting them know

 

So here are my five picks for the award!

A Little Kinder Told Me So

Teaching With Love In Heels

Classroom Confetti

Fun-Key Spanish For First Grade

Dual Kinder Teacher

Thanks again to Lisa for the award!

 

Ok so that about does it for today, but I do have ONE more order of business...

As if I am not behind enough on this blog, I have created a new one to post updates about the progress of my wedding! So head on over to Soon to be Mrs. C and check it out!!

I hope everyone is enjoying the start of their Christmas break, pray for me as I stick out these last three days!! AHHH!!! I have soooo many cute things coming up this week so stay tuned and I will {hopefully} post lots of pictures!! :)

Much Love!

Holy Moly!!

Can you believe it?? Two posts in 3 days!! Check me out!! :)

I cannot believe how quickly the holiday season is coming along! I want it to slow down so I can have more fun with my firsties, but at the same time I am SOOOOO ready for Christmas break!! My kiddies have been W-I-L-D this week and to add to the chaos, our power went out yesterday!! We were in the middle of watching Rudolf to follow up with an activity and all of a sudden...BOOM the lights, tv, computers...everything goes blank!! I am sure you can imagine the insanity that broke loose! Thankfully, it was toward the end of the day so I didn't have to calm them down for that long...(not that it would have worked anyway :))

Anyway, my real reason for this post is to promote a giveaway at a new blog, Classroom Confetti. She is a student teacher and new blogger and since I can definitely relate, I thought I would help her out!! So go over and check her blog out and her fantastic giveaway!!




And yes, I have great news! I think I have figured out how to get some of my work on here! Stay tuned this week and hopefully I will have it all up and running! If not, there will definitely be pictures so stay tuned anyway! :)
Have a great rest of the weekend and a fun last few days with your Holiday Crazed kiddies! I know I will! :)

Sunshine Award, and Holiday Excitement!

Ok my posts are getting closer together so that IS a good sign...but I'm still not where I want to be!! I have been learning a little more about uploading everything though so hopefully I will be up and running with fun ideas in NO time! Hopefully before the Christmas season is over because I love love LOVE this time of year and would love to share my cute crafts with all of you!!

I am also SUPER excited about this giveaway Farley at Oh Boy Fourth Grade and all the other FABULOUS bloggers are doing! These ladies are all super amazing and I am so greatful they are going to such great lengths to give away such awesome freebies!! So head on over to Farley's page and check it out because it is TRULY a spectacular giveaway!!



Ok so my next order of business.....The Sunshine Award.

I cannot even belieeeeve I was awarded this because in my opinion my blog is nowhere NEAR worthy of an award. However I am still very very greatful to Andi at Pencils, Glue, and Tying Shoes for awarding me this award. I promise I will make this place much more worthy of it over Christmas break when I have tonnnns of time! :) Thanks again Andi!

Ok so on to my award responsibilities...

1. Thank the person who gave this award and write a post about it.

2. Answer the following questions below.

3. Pass the award to 10-12 fabulous bloggers, link their blogs, and let them know you awarded them

Q and A:

1. Favorite Color?

Pink and Yellow will always have my heart as my fave colors<3

...Buuuut I do love black and gray most when it comes to clothing!

2. Favorite Animal?

I love a lot of different animals, but hands down dogs would have to be my absolute fave!

3. Favorite Number?

5 all the way! Or 55..I'm not picky :)

4. Favorite drink?

Well I am a soft drink fanatic...so pretty much any type of soda, except I'm not such a Mountain Dew or Root Beer fan. I mostly stick to Coke but love all soft drinks. Seriously, I drink Cokes like most people breathe. I have probably at least 4 or 5 a day...which is not something I am proud of but yes, it is definitely a fact!
I also absolutely love love LOVE margaritas. Especially in the summer, but make no mistake, I love them ALL YEAR ROUND!

5. Facebook or Twitter?

Obviously blogger should be an option! I never hopped on the Twitter bandwagon, so I guess I would have to say Facebook. However, I am not Facebooks biggest fan these days either. There are too many changes way too often and I am getting sooooo sick of reading about peoples every moves. Suuuuuper annoying.

6. Passion?

Well teaching is definitely my main passion in life and has been since I was 11. I love everything about it. But I also have a strong strong strong passion for music. I grew up with two music loving parents and relate everything in my life to songs. I love {almost} all types of music. I am always singing or quoting songs in everything I do. I even remember certain years or events by what songs were popular at the time....weird I know, but I think you get the picture...I love music :)

7. Giving or Getting Presents?

Definitely giving. While getting presents is always nice, there is nothing I love more than giving presents to my family and friends. I love Christmas shopping and coming up with ideas to get for everyone. The hardest part is waiting. I always want to give my gifts as soon as I buy them! I love seeing their reactions when they open them! :)

8. Favorite Day?

Well I feel the two most obvious/commn responses are always birthdays and Christmas. While I do love my birthday, it is always a little bit of a downer because it is in late July so that always means summer is coming to an end....Christmas is definitely my favorite time of year, as I love love LOVE the season, decorations,

Ok, so now I'm passing this award on to the following blogs:
Erica Bohrer's First Grade
First Grade O.W.L.S.
The Teacher Wife
Frogs in First
School Girl Style
Castles and Crayons
A Teeny Tiny Teacher
Just Add Clipart
A Teacher's Treasure
Fabulous in First

Stay tuned for more holiday fun ideas once I get everything figured out! Thanks again to Andi for the award! :)

Stressed and Slacking, but Oh So Thankful!

So I know, two weeks have snuck by me AGAIN with no posts. This time, though, it is because of my technological deficiencies! I am usually really good with figuring out technology and things on computers, but I cannot for the life of me figure out how to upload some of my freebies I wanted to share with you! I am hoping this linky party will help get my blog on the map so maybe I can get a blog tutor!! LOL!
Things have been so crazy around here and I am so sorry I keep ignoring my blog responsibilities! I haven't even had time to stalk my favorite blogs!! So of course I was late to the linky party, but I still wanted to link up with Rachelle at What the Teacher Wants to write what I am thankful for! I also just saw Oh Boy Fourth Grade's linky party and wanted to link up with her! So check them both out! :)
 From about October 1-December 25 is my absolute FAVORITE time of year, and I have a LOT to be thankful for! So here goes!

1.  What are you thankful for in your classroom?
I am thankful for my 18 kiddos who make everyday in my classroom exciting, challenging, and fun! They certainly keep me on my toes, but they are so sweet and are the reasons I LOVE my job! :)

2. What person are you most thankful for?
I have so many great people in my life that I am so thankful for {my family, including my gorgeous new nephew, my amazing fiance, my best friends, my coworkers, etc...) But this Thanksgiving the person  I am most thankful for is my little sister Becca. She is home from college for the holidays and I can't tell you how much I have enjoyed having her home! (Yes, I still live with my parents, but not for much longer!) She is my best friend and we are always joking around and acting silly together. This is her first year away at college, and while I knew I would miss her, I never realized it would be this much!! I am very thankful to have such a sweet, fun, and CRAZY sister in my life! :)

 3. What 3 blogs are you most thankful for?
This is a tough one because there are SO many blogs that have helped me out since I joined this world! But I would have to say recently my three would have to be:

The Inspired Apple
I just LOVE looking at at all of Abby's fun new creations, and dreamuing of the day that I could ever make anchor posters like hers (which is never! LOL) She is so creative and comes up with the best ideas! I have also bought so many goodies from her TPT store that have been HUGE life savers! Her Oh So Thankful November Unit got me through the entire month of November (especially this week with only having three days!) My kiddos LOVED all of it and I am so thankful to have found such amazingly creative resources!



What the Teacher Wants
I have gotten so many ideas from this blog and have already put so much of it to good use! These ladies are so talented and always have the cutest clipart on their worksheets, center ideas, etc... Rachelle's TPT store has also been a life saver! I use her Reading Responses like every week in my reading centers!


A Teeny Tiny Teacher
I am absolutely OBSESSED with reading Kristin's blog updates. They are not only helpful and informative, but also SOOOO funny! I have gotten so many cute ideas from here, and just love reading to see what she has to say each day!

4. What guilty pleasure are you most thankful for?

I have to say, I have two. My main guilty (well really, not so guilty) please that I cannot live without would have to be Target. I could spend days upon days in that place. I grew up going with my mom all the tine, but my obsession just fully formed about three years ago. When I was in college, my roommate and I would go three to four times a week, just to walk around and look at ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING! I just love their clothes, accessories, and housewares sections, but we would find ourselves in every single department, looking and stuff we would never need! When I graduated, I moved back to my hometown, which is where I currently teach. Are you ready for this? WE DON'T HAVE A TARGET HERE! I live in a very small town and the closest targets are 45 minutes and an hour away!! I was experiencing major withdrawals when I first moved back, but I go to visit my college friends so much, and 45 minutes really isn't that far when a trip to Target is involved! :)


My other {extremely} guilty pleasure would have to be the show, Pretty Little Liars on ABC Family. I know, I know. I am 24 years old, still watching a show targeted toward 16-17 year olds. I can't help it! From the first episode I was hooked! It has such an interesting mystery involved and I love watching it to try to piece the puzzle together each week! It's currently in between seasons, and comes back in January! I can't wait! I know, I'm ridiculous! :)

5. What are you most thankful for?

 So ordinarily I would say sweater dresses and boots, seeing as how as soon as the weather starts to cool, that is all you will see me in! :) However, this Thanksgiving I am going to talk a little more seriously. Our town has just suffered a huge tradgedy. A 17 year old boy was just killed in a terrible car accident about a week ago. Living in such a small close-knit community, this has affected so many people in such a tragic way. While I did not personally know him, a lot of people I am close with and care about did and are devastated. My heart breaks for them and I have been doing everything I can to be a shoulder to lean on during this difficult time. My thoughts and prayers are forever with his mother, family, and good friends. This has definitely put a lot into perspective for me. The cliche response when someone asks you what you are thankful for is to say "friends, family, life, good health, etc..." However, this year I am TRULY thankful to be so blessed with all of the amazing people in my life, and just thankful that I am alive and well and have such a great life. I am truly counting my blessings this year, because you never know how quickly they can be taken away.

Ok, so enough of my rambling! I really enjoyed reading what everyone is thankful for this year! I hope eveyone enjoys the rest of their weekend, and if anyone could offer assistance to help me get some freebies on here, as well as a TPT store started, I would really appreciate it! :)
Thanks!






 






 



Pumpkin Parade and Seeking Advice

Ok I know this is a day late, but as promised, here are my pictures from our Pumpkin parade! I think this is the absolute cutest project ever and all of my co-workers at my school fell in love with the idea as well! I have to give huge props to the parents who helped make these possible because let me tell you I would NEVER be able to come up with something as cool as some of these!! Anyway, here are a few cuties I thought I would share with you! There is more detailed descrption on Lauren's site Just Add Clipart, along with a parent letter to send home! Thanks again Lauren, and I hope you guys have as much fun looking at these as I did! :)

Being the huge Harry Potter nerd that I am, this was obviously one of my faves :)

See, I told you I would eventually get my life together! Ok, so it's still not quite what I would call "together", but its coming along! :) As if I'm not crazy enough, I am in the process of trying to ghet a TPT store together so once again, I have to cry out, HELP!! How does everyone make all these cute little worksheets and graphic organizers with such great fonts and clipart? Also, how do you get them uploaded? As you can see, my follower list is looking a little slim, so please spread the word! I would absolutely love some advice!! I am definitely hoping to get some of my work on here to share with you all and become an official part of the bloggy community!! Thanks so much and happy Thursday!:)

Slacker!!!!

Holy moly I cannot believe it's been almost 2 weeks since I have posted!! I have been super busy with school, as Halloween festivities came and went, as well as other exciting things going on! We finally booked a venue and date for the wedding, and I will OFFICIALLY be a wife on October 13, 2012! I am so excited! AND, as if that wasn't enough excitement to handle, my first nephew was just born on Friday! He is the sweetest thing I have ever seen and I have been obsessed ever since!! Needless to say, I have been super crazy with everything going on and I am so sorry I have been such a slacker!

Now, back to the real reason for this thing. I hope everyone had a great time with all of their Halloween parties/activities/fun! From the looks of it, there are some incredibly adorable ideas floating around that I can't wait to swipe for next year! :) I had such a great time with my firsties during all of our festivities! Our Halloween party was a success thanks to some super fabulous mom volunteers! We had a great afternoon full of fun activities broken up into stations, super cute costumes, and of COURSE, some yummy treats! We also got a chance to do our Pumpkin Parade on Halloween! I snagged this idea from Lauren over at Just Add Clipart, and just fell in LOVE! My kiddos got SO into this! I will post pictures tomorrow I promise! Thanks to Lauren for such a cute and creative idea! :)

This week we are back in the swing of things and starting in on some of our early November activities. I just bought the Oh So Thankful Actvitiy Pack For November from Abby's TPT store and I am SO excited to start it next week! There are some crazy cute ideas in there and totally worth the money! A big thank you goes out to her! I will definitely post pictures tomorrow, I just wanted to let you guys know that I am alive, and I promise to get this thing into shape! Also, any feedback you can give would still be greatly appreciated, and I am still looking for a creative fix to my chatty/messy children problem, so any advice would be fabulous!! Have a great Tuesday, and I will definitely post pictures tomorrow! :)

HELP!!

Ok so I have been terrible about updating this thing, but I still cant figure out how to upload my documents onto here successfully!! I have attempted like 6 posts already and it never works out, and with all the craziness of teaching, as well as trying to get a venue for the wedding reception booked, I haven't really had much time to sit down and fool with it!! I will get the hang of it I promise! However, I do have to ask all of you fabulous and creative teachers out there for some advice! My group this year is a very chatty one. At first it was nothing out of the ordinary and I could normally calm or quiet them down pretty easily, but now they are getting a little excesive with it and don't seem to care who tells them to queiet down or how many time they have to be told. They just keep on going like no one is in the room! Does anyone have any fun or clever incentive or consequence systems to help keep this under control? My smiley face chart and incentive charts only seem to work on a few choice kiddos, and I hate to have to keep punishing the whole class when there are a few who really are trying to follow the rules! So if any of you have any advice, I would GREATLY appreciate it!!
I have also been having a problem with their tidyness at the end of the day. I even have "sweeper" as one of my classroom jobs, but I still come back into the classroom after dismissal to pencil shavings, broken crayons, scraps, and other various objects all over the floor! So, once again my wise and creative blog friends, please PLEASE help me out if you have any clever ideas on how to manage this. I have a few incentives I have tried, but nothing seems to work!! Any and all feedback would be greatly appreciated!! :) I promise promise PROMISE I will post lots of cute and fun ideas that we have been working on really soon! Thank you so much for any help you can offer and I hope you have a great end to your week! I am sure you are all looking forward to the weekend just as much as I am!! :)

Fall Break and Blog makeover!!

Well my friends I managed to get through parent teacher conferences in one piece! I am officially now on fall break and while I LOVE my job, I have to say it was MUCH needed!! As you can see I m in the process of a new blog makeover!! I am still not quite sure how to navigate everything, so any feedbac you could give would be much appreciated!! I promise I will have much more teacher related and fun ideas on here once I get used to everything. Once again, any feedback you could offer to help get my blog going would be absolutely fabulous!!
Okay, one more thing that has absolutely nothing to do with teaching...

Remember that wonderful boyfriend that I mentioned who helped me cut all my pieces out for my door? Well he is now my wonderful FIANCE!! We got engaged last night and I couldn't be happier!! So now in addition to the craziness of being a first grade teacher, I now have a wedding to plan in the middle of it!!! But I am so excited about it! Anyways, I just had to get that out there!
So please let me know if you have any helpful feedback to help get my blog up and running!
Thanks and happy weekend!!!

S.E.E.D. Binders

Hello Everyone!! Hope your weekend has been as fabulous as mine, with this BEAUTIFUL fall weather we are having here in Indiana! I have been so busy stalking everyone else's blog in my spare time (which is very limited of course), that I haven't taken the time to post my own!! I thought since I am new around these parts I would take a few more posts to show you the basics of my classroom, and then I can show you all the fun cute activities we do! Today's post is going to be all about the love of my life, our S.E.E.D. binders. Some of you may know them as M.O.O.S.E. binders. I snagged this idea from the teacher website http://www.smithsroom.com/moose.htm. The S.E.E.D. is a 2" three ring binder that contains valuable information  for us to reference at all times. It is a great way to keep my kiddos, parents, and (especially myself) organized. This has been the best thing I could have ever done for my classroom! The parents LOVE them, and they are eally easy for the kiddos to transport and keep up with. Mrs. Smith's site has all of the particulars, as well as printables for you to use as your own. There are also TON of acronyms to choose from that will fit with your personal classroom theme. I use S.E.E.D. because of our garden theme, and it stands for Student Excellence and Efficiency Daily. Here is a quick run through of our S.E.E.D. Binders.

Materials needed for each binder:
*A 2" three ring binder (I started this last year second semester and used a 1", and it got waaaayyy too full, and that was only for half the year!!)
* A HEAVY DUTY three way hole punch!
* Sheet protectors, or page dividers
* A plastic ziploc bag
* a pencil zipper pouch
* Incentive charts (optional)
* Homework or take home folder (whatever you normally use to transport homework and other papers back and forth)
*5 sheets of loose leaf notebook paper.
* All of the other contents are completely up to you. You can customize it to fit your school, classroom, and curricular information.
Here is a quick preview of how mine are assembled. Let me know if you would like copies of any of this stuff, and I will upload it for you! :) Enjoy!!

The front of our binders - I got the cover on teachersclubhouse.com - LOVE it!!!

This is our homework incentive chart, located on the inside cover of the binder. I laminated them, of course, and for every day they bring in their homework, and have their daily assignment page signed by a parent, they get a checkmark. When they forget something, I give them an X. When they get 5 checkmarks in a row, they get to pick a small toy from the prize box. If they fill up the enitre chart wih checkmarks, they get to draw a card from our incentive box. These are bigger prizes such as getting to sit at the teacher's desk for the day, taking their shoes off during class time, being a helper in another classroom, etc...

This is where the overview page is located. This tells my parents everything about what their child's binder contains. The master letter is located at Mrs. Smith's site listed above, but you can tailor it to fit your classroom needs.

Next we have the pencil pouch, I had my kiddos bring them as part of their school supplies, as well as the binder itself. This little compartment is for all of our math and vocbulary flash cards. We keep our vocabulary words on a word ring, but you would be surprised at how many kiddos still seem to misplace them! This is a great way for them to keep up with their flashcards, and also to keep them looking decent all year long! (Well, as decent as they can look being in the care of 6 and 7 year olds :))

The ziploc baggie is for any money they may need to bring to school. Lunch money, field trip money, book fair, you name it!

This is our daily assignment page. Every morning when they come in, they are responsible for copying down the homework that we have for that night. The first couple weeks were rough, but it has really helped them become more responsible, as well as neater writers. The column next to it is where their behavior for the day goes. We use the smiley face pocket chart, so they can draw the color of smiley face they got for the day. If they moved past green, I usually write a brief description of why underneath. Parents love this because they get to monitor their child's behavior everyday, instead of receiving a surprise phone call from the teacher reporting that their child misbehaved that day!

This is the where the notes between myself and the parents are located. I don't know about you guys, but I have some parents that I never see other than open house and parent teacher conferences, so this is a GREAT way to keep in constant contact with all parents. I have my parents date their notes, so that I know when it was written, and I have them initial the notes I write to them, so I know they read them, even if no response is necessary.

This is where we keep our bi weekly lunch menu, so the kiddos know what we're having ahead of time, in case they want to pack their lunch! (If you look closely, you can see this little darling wrote "bring" next to the lunches she didn't like! LOL)

This is where our classroom rules are located. I put them inside of a sheet protector, so that they stay in good shape! 

The other side of the sheet protector includes my contact information, and a brief desription of the best way to get a hold of me.

This is our poetry section. One of my favorite parts! I pass out poems once to twice a week. I try to use as many seasonal poems to match the month/holiday as I can, but every once in a while I stick some anytime poems in there too! This really helps broaden their knowledge of poems and songs, and also gives them something to do when they have finished an independent task and are waiting for the next step.

Last but not least is where our homework folder goes.

I hope you enjoyed this little peek at our S.E.E.D. binders. Like I said, I HIGHLY recommend them! If you have any questions or would like any of the materials, let me know!!

I am finally off to bed! I need to rest up for this craxy week coming up. We have parent-teacher conferences Monday and Tuesday, but Thursday starts FALL BREAK!!  We only get two days this year, which is a bit of a bummer compared to the 3 days we got last year, and the whole week to TWO weeks the public schools are getting, but a break is a break and I will still take it!! Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and I promise I will get my life together and start posting more!! :)