Testing..123

First of all, YAY for being the winner of Rebecca's St. Patrick's Day Giveaway!! I got to pick anything I wanted from the FABULOUS TpT stores of:

Rebecca from Darlin' In First
Abby from The Inspired Apple
Amanda from One Extra Degree
and
Gladys from Teaching in High Heels

I got some excellent units and am SO excited to use them!! I will definitely post links once I receive them all! :)


Ok, so this is a quick test to see if I have actually figured out how to upload my documents on here. As I said before, I now have a working computer, but there is just one thing I am lacking in order to get my TPT store up and running: TIME!!! Things have been so crazy around here lately with school, dance competitions, the upcoming recital, wedding stuff, and a few things in my life I cannot yet mention that are in the works. ;) So I am using literally my only free time {my prep time} to test this out. Your feedback is definitely MUCH needed and appreciated on this one!! I can't haven't had the time to figure out how to work google docs, so I am trying scribd. For a test I am just going to upload my most simple and generic contractions worksheet that I use as a recording sheet for one of my literacy centers. Also, for some reason, the cute font didn't save. You all probably think I am the most incapable and ridiculous person in the world as I see all of these AMAZING units and other things being posted, but next week is Spring Break, and I am hoping to get to that point when I actually have some free time!! Anyway, for a plain, boring contraction worksheet.....click here.

Once again, feedback is much appreciated!! What am I doing wrong?? HELP!!!! :)

Thank you! You guys are awesome!

Much love,

Hooray for Working Computers! Annnnnddd a Freebie {Kinda}

First of all, I have to make a very exciting announcement! My laptop is fixed and I finally have a working computer again!! WOO HOO!!! I am officially in the process of setting up a TPT store and uploading LOTS of my goodies! Mostly freebies to start out with so please please please stay tuned and pleeeeease spread the word! I am still fairly new so I am know I am not very popular, so if you guys could get my name out there that'd be great! :)


As for tonight's post...I am starting my new workout tomorrow at 4:30am so I'm gonna leave this one short and sweet so I can get to B.E.D.!


As I may have already mentioned, I have a HUUUUGE range in reading this year as far as my high kids and my lower kids. I have 2 students who are reading at a 4th grade level, and some who couldn't even read the word "lost" today. My biggest struggle this year has been challenging my high kiddos without overwhelming my lower sweeties and leaving them out in the dust. So for the month of March we have been participating in a challenge. Once {sometimes twice} a week I pass out seasonal poems for them to put in their binders. This gives them something to look at or read during transitional/down time, and also helps them practice fluency at school or home. Last week I gave them a poem entitled "Where is Spring?" The poem is at school and I do not know the author off the top of my head! :)
I gave them each the opportunity to memorize this poem before April 8th, and all who do get to participate in an ice cream party with myself and all the other winners! Now, of course they don't HAVE to do it, but they have been so excited that I only have 3 more left to go and the challenge has been going on since this past Wednesday! They were so excited to hear about this and I am pumped that we have already had so many participants! I am hoping for a whole class ice cream party! :)

I will upload the poem itself as well as the parent letter I sent home some other time this week!

So that's all I got for tonight, but I hope you enjoyed it!

much love,

My kind-of-alomst-sorta Friday

Hello my sweet teacher loves! I want to say thank you to all who gave their fabulous words of wisdom on how to help with the storm victims in our area. Our fifth grade teacher has not been back to school all week, but we have collected enough items such as clothes, food, toiletries, legos/games for the boys, school supplies, etc... to get them back on their feet for now. They have a house to stay in until they build their new one, and the two boys came back to school today, so it seems as though things are looking up! We are also collecting money as a school to try to send their whole family on a vacation over Spring Break. I think this is a TREMENDOUS idea and give props to my wonderful co-workers who thought of/organized it!

Anyhoo, today was kiiiind of like Friday for me...why?? I am going to be out tomorrow and Friday! Why would I put myself through the torture of gathering things for a sub you ask? Well....if you want the short list:

1. We have not had a snow day all winter.
2. My fiance is on spring break from nursing school
3. We have not had a snow day all winter.
4. My fiance and I barely get to see each other due to our conflicting schedules.
5. We have not had a snow day all winter.
6. My fiance and I are taking a {very small} mini-vacation to Cincinnati and then Belterra overnight
7. Did I mention we have NOT had a snow day ALL WINTER?!?

Now, I know you West-Coast warm weather people are probably laughing at me and my lack-of-snow day whining, but believe me, when you get used to AT LEAST 5 or 6 unexpected days off a year, a snow-day-less winter is absolute TORTURE! Especially because the kids are W-I-L-D.

Needless to say, I am taking the next two days off to spend time with my fiance, and steal a couple of snow days from this unecessarily warm winter! I am going in tomorrow morning until 9 though because the other first grade class (who I teach religion to) is having their first Mass tomorrow. We have Church once a week and each class takes turns reading the parts and being in "charge" of the Mass. Last week was my class's turn, and they did SOOOO good! This week is my partner teacher's class, and since I am their religion teacher, I had to plan the Mass. So I am going in for Mass and then I am splitting! I do hate missing school for several reasons, but I found the most wonderful invention that makes me feel a weeeee bit better about leaving. My girl Rachelle posted a unit on her TPT store, called The Substitute Survival Kit and let me tell you, I feel SO much more prepared now! I have been wanting to organize something like this for quite a while now, so HUGE props to Rachelle for beating me to the punch!


I also have to give a big thank you to Katie Smith over at First is a Fairytale who awarded me the One Lovely Blog Award! Thank you so much Katie, you are so sweet!

Here are the rules:
1. Link back to the blogger who gave it to you.
2. Pass the award on to 15 other lovely bloggers.
3. Follow the person who sent it to you.

So, here are the One Lovely Blog Award winners that I have chosen:
Chalk Talk: A Kindergarten Blog
Queen of the First Grade Jungle
Teacher Bits and Bobs


Ok, so I know that is nowhere NEAR 15, but it is WAY past my bedtime and even though I don't have to teach tomorrow, I have to get up at the same time!! I will most definitely type more tomorrrow!!!

Much love,

March! Yay!!

Hello teacher loves! I cannot tell you how excited I am that February is FINALLY over and March is here!! Even though we've had a mild, not to mention SNOWLESS winter, (which I am NOT happy about btw!) I am definitely ready for some light at the end of the dreary January/February no-break-in-sight tunnel.
Yesterday we celebrated one of my favorite days at school, Dr. Seuss Day! We paired up with one of the second grade classes, and had a FUN-TAB-ULOUS Dr. Seuss Birthday Party! We had so much fun! I got to steal use a TON of cute ideas from TPT! Erica Bohrer's activities were a life saver! She had so many cute literacy activities in her Seusstastic Literature Response Activities packet, that we almost didn't have time to fit them all in this week! I absolutely LOVED the Horton activity! You guys should definitely check it out! :) I also got a way cute packet from my girl Rachelle. Her Centers For March 2nd unit helped furnish my entire literacy centers this week! The kiddos loved it!!

We also got to have some yummy treats at our party! The second grade teacher and I brought in these two super cute pinterest-inspired snacks! We had so much fun with it!

Green Eggs and Ham! (The "ham" is two pretzel sticks, and we got bigger marshmallows than what the website called for, so they were a litttttle large!)


Of course I am a loser and didn't get a picture, but here is the picture from pinterest. It looked somewhat like this, except I put the whole thing into a big "fish" bowl instead of individual cups!

And of course, to end our party successfully, we got to watch one of my FAVORITE movies!

LOVE IT!! Got it for 6.00 at Kroger! So excited!! :)



So that about sums up our way fun, and super successful Dr. Seuss Party! I love this day, and am so excited that I now have so many cute and creative lessons to share thanks to so many amazing teachers!!

Now, I wanted to end this post on a more serious note. Yesterday we had some very serious and violent storms in our area. If you live in the Ohio/Kentucky/Indiana area, I am sure you have already heard about it. My town did not get hit directly, but it affected several people at our school. A neighboring town got hit really hard, lost their high school. and several houses disappeared. I believe one person died in that town as well. Our fifth grade teacher lives in another neighboring town that got hit pretty badly, and lost everything. She and her two boys were in their tornado shelter, and their entire house got blown away, with them still in it. She and the boys and her husband are all ok, which is the most important thing, but my heart just breaks for them. I can't even begin to imagine what they are going through, and will be going through for quite some time. Also, one of the teachers at our High School lost her husband and house in the tornado all at once. I don't know all of the details, and really don't know the teacher that well, but my heart breaks for her as well.

So, I am calling on you wonderful, caring, sweet people to help me out. All of your thoughts and prayers would definitely be appreciated at this terrible time. Also, I want to do something for these women but don't really know what to do or how to go about it. Does anyone have any advice? This is such a devastating tragedy and I would love to do something to help, but I just don't know what to do. Any advice you guys might have for me would be MUCHO appreciated, and of course, your thoughts and prayers always help!

I hope you guys had a wonderful Dr. Seuss Day as well, and I look forward to reading about and seeing all of your fun activities for this wonderful day as well! Have a great weekend!

Much love,