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Monday, August 31, 2015

Teacher Week 2015: 5 Facts About Me

It's Monday!!! Today marks Day 5 of kindergarten for me! My Dragons started last Tuesday and they have been rocking it!!
I'm still very much in the healing process so I have come home each day completely wiped out and end up falling asleep on the couch before I head up to bed for the night!! I can't wait until I'm all better and back to normal!
Since I've been so exhausted every day my poor blog has suffered! However, I am excited to be linking up with Blog Hoppin' for their awesome #teacherweek15 link up!!

For each day this week we are given a different topic to blog about. Today is the very first day of the link up, and it's all about ME!! :-)


Five Fun Facts about me!! Here goes!!

I am the proud mommy of an American Pit Bull Terrier. She is what they call a blue brindle, due to the unusual color of her fur. She is my very best friend and loves me so unconditionally!
I can't imagine my life without this incredibly sweet cuddle bug, and I'm so glad she loves snuggling up with me at night. She's the best dog ever and I love her so very much!!

I am a HUGE Baltimore Ravens fan!! Every Friday during the post-season is Purple Friday, and I proudly sport my Ravens gear!
Win or loose, I back the Birds!! Go Purple or Go Home!! :-)

I am a lover of all things Dragon. I have created a whole classroom theme around that love. I tell my kids that dragons work extra hard to solve their problems and that each dragon is different and special in their own way. I tell them that dragons don't worry about getting to the finish line first, they focus on the journey and not the destination.
Here are some of the ways I decorate my classroom each year.
Alphabet line with the vowels in red and two different images for each vowel sound (as well as two different images for the hard and soft sounds for /c/ and /g/.

Labels for their Daily 5 Book Boxes. The label shows them that they can keep books and journals in their book bins, but nothing else!

Schedule tags that incorporate real photographs so my Dragons know what to look for and when.

Number line for 0-20 with sparkly gems representing each number.

Name tags for the hallway work display.

Dragon eggs for the behavior clip chart!!

The list goes on and on!! I love creating new things for my classroom, and I especially love how original and creative I get to be!

I am the proud aunt of a ten-year-old nephew and a 15-month-old niece!
I love them both so much, and my favorite things to do are spend time with them doing all sorts of incredibly fun things! I only have one sister, and we're about five years apart, and I'm so very luck y to call her best friend!!

I was lucky enough to attend a conference where Eric Litwin was presenting. Not only did we all have a wonderful time singing our favorite Pete the Cat songs, but he signed my book!!
It was so much fun watching him sing and dance on stage, and introduce us to his newest characters!
He is an incredibly funny man, and his stories has us all laughing so hard we had tears in our eyes!! If you ever get the chance, I would definitely recommend checking him out live!!

Well, those are five fun facts about me! Swing on over to Blog Hoppin' to see who else has linked up to share!

You can still link up for Spotlight Saturday! I would love for you to participate in this Teacher's Show and Tell!

Saturday, August 29, 2015

Spotlight Saturday 8-29-15

Happy Saturday everyone!! I have survived the first four days of kindergarten!!! I am excited for the new year, and yet completely wiped out!! 
Teaching kindergarten while still very much in the healing process has definitely been trying for me!! I honestly fall asleep on the couch every night as soon as I get home, and today I've spent most of the day snoozing!!! Guess my body needs the rest in order to help the healing process!! 
Anyway, it's time for my

I get so excited to read the different Spotlights of others who have linked up! I'm so glad for this Teacher's Show and Tell where we can help each other to find incredible ideas and products for our classrooms that can make our lives easier and more awesome!

Like most teachers, I am obsessed with different bags and bins I can use for storage. This addiction has led me to become collecting various Thirty-one bags and bins. Recently my Thirty-one representative shared this image with us.
I was immediately intrigued!! I love the Black Playful Parade pattern, and the fact that I could use Sharpies to create my own unique style was just too good to pass up!!

I bought five of the Black Playful Parade Oh Snap Pop-up bins. They looked like this before I started to get creative.

They have snap hooks that can be used to hang them up or to snap them together. I have an idea in mind for ways to use them in my classroom, and as soon as I'm done coloring them I'm going to test it out. If I can get it to work, I'll definitely share pictures with you all!!

I found some awesome Sharpies on sale and scooped them up, because they were huge packs with so many awesome colors!
I got excited about this pack because of the five new colors that it included!!! You know you're a teacher when you get excited about brand new colors of Sharpies!! (Please ignore the Flair pens, I didn't use them to color the bins but this was the only pic of the Sharpies I have!)

I also had my trusty 24 count Sharpie pack. I now have doubles of most of the colors Sharpie makes, and that's just fine with me!!  You can also see the stash of Oh Snap bins I bought in order to color them all in. I LOVE to color, and this activity got me really excited to try it out!!

After I finished the first one I completely fell in love with it! It was so much fun to color in the pattern, and I got to be as creative as I wanted! Sometimes the colors bled together, but that doesn't detract from the overall awesomeness. It actually makes it more personal. I got so excited after finishing the first one that I immediately opened up another. Guess what I found out??

I quickly realized that each bin was cut from the same pattern of cloth, but each bin was made up of different sections of that cloth. So that means that while each bin definitely matches the other, they are all slightly different depending on where they were cut from the pattern. This made me even more excited, since that meant all of my bins were going to be different and yet would still match each other perfectly!! You can tell what I mean from this picture. Each of these three bins shows the same spot on them, and you can tell how different each pattern is from the other!! Awesomesauce!!!

I'm currently working on finishing up bin 2 of 5. Check out this awesome Fire Flower I made!! Reminds me of playing Super Mario Bros. and getting Mario his Fire Power!!!

I'm really having a great time coloring all of these bins, and it's super relaxing after a long day at work! The marker fumes can be a bit intense, so I would recommend taking several breaks when the smell gets too strong. Also, be careful when coloring in the thinner lines. The marker ink tends to bleed a little bit, and it could seep into a white area near where you're coloring. I don't mind when that happens, because it it just another little piece that makes my bins even more unique!!

What are some of your favorite bins or bags that you use as a teacher? If you're interested in a project like this, I can get you in touch with my Thirty-one rep if you don't have one of your own. There are several black and white patterns you can choose from, and they come on all sorts of different bags and bins. You don't have to get the Oh Snap bins if you don't want them. I have a friend whose daughter got a lunch box and had a great time coloring it in!

Now it's your turn to link up and share the Spotlight with us! Feel free to use either of these Spotlight Saturday images with your post. If the person or company you are Spotlighting has a Facebook page, leave them a message to let them know you Spotlighted them!! 

Rules:
1) You need to spotlight an educational resource that either you have created or you have found from someone else and love! This means you must link up with a blog post you have written putting an activity or idea in the Spotlight. Please do not link directly to a product in Teachers Pay Teachers or Teacher's Notebook or similar sites.
2) If you are Spotlighting a product from your own TPT store or that of another seller, make sure that in your blog post you Spotlight a freebie or a paid product. If you have a freebie and a paid product from the same seller, feel free to use both in your post. If all you have is a freebie, then post about the freebie and how you used it. You can also Spotlight a freebie that someone else created along with a product that you created.
2) Make sure to give credit where credit is due! You will need to include the name of the creator as well as a link to their TPT or Teacher's Notebook store where others can get a copy of the resource as well.
3) Include pictures of the product in your post, either screen shots  or photographs of your kiddos actually using the product. Give us a snapshot, just a brief glimpse into how the product or activity works. Just an image of the cover and one of the pages you have listed in the preview of the activity on TPT would be fine. It gives readers a visual and helps them better understand what your product is all about.
4) Make sure to leave a comment on the post of the two people before your post and the person after. This will help get conversation rolling, and will make sure everyone feels recognized for their efforts!
5) This is not the place to share your frustrations or disappointment with an activity or how you would have done it differently. If you are unsatisfied with your purchase that is a private conversation you need to have with the seller via email. This is not a link up to bash any sellers or their products, and any posts like that WILL BE DELETED!!
6) Follow my blog with Bloglovin' to make sure you are kept up to date on all the latest link up additions. Don't forget to follow my Facebook page too to keep up with all the notifications I send out!
7) To Link Up, you will need to click on the small blue button underneath my closing signature. It is directly under my name on the left hand side of the blog.

Saturday, August 22, 2015

Spotlight Saturday: Fiskars Paper Trimmer

It's time for Spotlight Saturday!! This link up is like a Teacher's Show and Tell, where we get to share our favorite products, resources, activities, ideas, tips, tricks, and anything else we can share with each other to make our classroom lives easier, more awesome, or both!

I'm always so excited to read all about the amazing Spotlights that are shared through this link up each week! You can link up at the end of this post!!


This week I am Spotlighting my FAVORITE getting-ready-for-school helper! It's that time of year when I am headed back to school and need to get all sorts of different things printed, laminated, and cut out. Last summer I found this little gem in the crafting aisle of Wal-Mart. This is my Fiskars SureCut Scrapbooking Paper Trimmer, and I LOVE IT!!! It is so incredibly perfect to use when trimming papers that have straight lines, even when they are laminated!

This little beauty is a HUGE help when I'm cutting things out for the classroom! I used this to cut out and trim up my number line, alphabet line, shape posters, and so much more!! This cutter is so easy to use! All you do is place the page under the metal bar and line up where you want to trim, then slide then handle up or down. The blade slices right through laminated cardstock, construction paper, and scrapbook paper. It's perfect for trimming up the edges of papers or slicing pages in half. Best of all, it gives you a straight line each and every time!! I'm not one of those blessed people who can cut a straight line. Like, at all. I always end up getting all slanted at the end.

It really helps me save time when cutting things out, like these welcome cards for my Dragons. It only took a few quick slices to get these cut apart and trimmed up!! I would definitely 100% recommend this to anyone who ever has to cut out something on a straight line!!

I also use it to trim down different things I use around the room, like locker tags and hallway work display tags. That made it a bit easier to cut everything out. Once I had it trimmed down to a more manageable size, I could then cut it out with scissors. I'm on the lookout for a really great pair of scissors, so if you have some suggestions I'd love for you to leave them in the comments!!

Now it's your turn!! Link up and share your favorite products, tips, tricks, and anything else that we could use in our classrooms to make life a little bit easier, more awesome, or both!
Feel free to use either of the Spotlight Saturday images to help advertise your post! Read the rules below and then link up to share your Spotlight!!

Rules:
1) You need to spotlight an educational resource that either you have created or you have found from someone else and love! This means you must link up with a blog post you have written putting an activity or idea in the Spotlight. Please do not link directly to a product in Teachers Pay Teachers or Teacher's Notebook or similar sites.
2) If you are Spotlighting a product from your own TPT store or that of another seller, make sure that in your blog post you Spotlight a freebie or a paid product. If you have a freebie and a paid product from the same seller, feel free to use both in your post. If all you have is a freebie, then post about the freebie and how you used it. You can also Spotlight a freebie that someone else created along with a product that you created.
2) Make sure to give credit where credit is due! You will need to include the name of the creator as well as a link to their TPT or Teacher's Notebook store where others can get a copy of the resource as well.
3) Include pictures of the product in your post, either screen shots  or photographs of your kiddos actually using the product. Give us a snapshot, just a brief glimpse into how the product or activity works. Just an image of the cover and one of the pages you have listed in the preview of the activity on TPT would be fine. It gives readers a visual and helps them better understand what your product is all about.
4) Make sure to leave a comment on the post of the two people before your post and the person after. This will help get conversation rolling, and will make sure everyone feels recognized for their efforts!
5) This is not the place to share your frustrations or disappointment with an activity or how you would have done it differently. If you are unsatisfied with your purchase that is a private conversation you need to have with the seller via email. This is not a link up to bash any sellers or their products, and any posts like that WILL BE DELETED!!
6) Follow my blog with Bloglovin' to make sure you are kept up to date on all the latest link up additions. Don't forget to follow my Facebook page too to keep up with all the notifications I send out!
7) To Link Up, you will need to click on the small blue button underneath my closing signature. It is directly under my name on the left hand side of the blog.

Friday, August 21, 2015

Five for Friday

It's Friday!! Today is Day 5 of my official back to school year. My kiddos come on Tuesday. 
I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for her Five for Friday link up! This is a link up where we get to share five random things from our week. Ready for my randomness?


My doctor's note said I could come back to work on Monday, so I was finally able to get into my classroom. I hadn't been inside since the accident in January. When it was time to pack rooms up at the end of the year, I was still unable to walk. Luckily my long-term sub was given a whole day to pack up my room for me. I'm so grateful for all her hard work...but I don't know where anything is!! 

Here's what my room looked like when I got in on Monday. My storage closet was cleaned during the summer, so everything from my closet came out and onto the tables. 
I am SO INCREDIBLY LUCKY to have had the help of an amazing lady, the para educator for a student in grade 2. She was so wonderful and pretty much did all of the hard work in my room! Since I still can't climb or lift, she did all of the hard work! She got all of that stuff back into the closet and moved all of the furniture AND covered the bulletin boards!!! How amazing is that??? She is one incredible lady, and I am so lucky to call her friend!! 



On Tuesday we had a county-wide professional development day. Monday night I cleaned out my 'teacher bag', since I'd need it for the PD session. I was a bit surprised at what I found.

In the large outer pocket of my bag I found some glass shards from the windows of my car. I'm glad I looked inside before I just stuck my hand in the pocket!

On Wednesday we had some school-wide meetings and got to meet with our team for some planning. My team and I spent time getting ready for our kindergarten entry conferences. We got all of the various papers copied and sorted, ready to sit down with parents/guardians and explain various county, school, and classroom policies. 

Here's the table where I meet with the parents. I have everything sorted and ready to go! 

While I talk to my kiddos' parents, they will be working on an activity where they're tearing up bits of construction paper to fill up an outline of their name. I got this idea AND editable name tag templates from the incredibly creative Jackie at Pocket of Preschool!! This comes from her incredible FREEBIE in her TPT store, Editable Name Cards!


Our school has a Social Committee, which is responsible for for planning different teacher get-togethers as well as plenty of other amazing things for the teachers and staff of the school. One of the things they do every year is host a Secret Pal Exchange.

We fill out a simple form and then after everyone has signed up we pull names. That person becomes our Secret Pal for the year, and we use the information sheet to plan out different little surprises and gifts throughout the year. Little things to remind each other how awesome we are and that we're doing a great job. I love this, and can't wait to participate again this year!!

I managed to get a bit more accomplished with my Feedback Freebie Challenge!!
I am so close to getting down to zero!! I was honestly hoping to get done to zero before school started, because I knew things were going to get crazy hectic and I wouldn't have as much time! However, I will get it down to zero in the next few weeks!!

How has your week been? Have you headed back to school yet or are you enjoying summer still? I'd love to hear what you are up to in the comments!
You can check out who else has linked up for Five for Friday, and you can link up too!

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Must Read Monday (on a Tuesday): Beginning of the Year Books

I know it's Tuesday, but it's the very last Must Read Monday linky party of the summer!! I HAD to link up!! Yesterday was my first official day back to work since the accident in January, so when I finally got home I was exhausted and in pain. I took my happy self right to bed at 8:00!!
Today I am linking up with Kindergarten Planet and The Kindergarten Connection for their Must Read Monday link up! Today is the last one of the summer and I couldn't miss it!!

Each week we were given a topic and asked to share our favorite books that went with that topic. This week, this very last week, we are sharing our favorite Beginning of the Year/Back to School books. Here are four of my very favorites!!

Adventure Annie Goes to Kindergarten by Tony Buzzeo is a really great book to use during the beginning of the year. Adventure Annie is a very energetic, very independent young lady. She insists on having her way, even when what she's doing goes against the rules. At first, Annie has a hard time following the kindergarten rules. However, at the end of the story Annie becomes quite the hero and earns the trust of her teacher!

DJ Steinberg's Kindergarten, Here I Come! is another favorite to read during the beginning of the year. This book begins with the first-day jitters every kindergarten has and travels through the kindergarten year. Many different kindergarten milestones are discussed, including the 100th day and the last day of school. It's a great book to help kindergarteners understand what to expect from their year in kindergarten.

Kindergarten Rocks! by Katie Davis is a good book to help address the fears kindergarteners have during the beginning of the year. Before school even begins, Dexter is a kindergarten expert. His older sister told him all about it. 
Dexter isn't scared to start school, but his stuffed dog Rufus is TERRIFIED of starting kindergarten. Dexter-I mean Rufus-is very scared of what kindergarten will bring, but he soon learns that kindergarten actually rocks!

One of my all time favorites would have to be First Day Jitters by Julie Dannenberg. I love this story because there is such a twist at the ending, the kindergarteners are always amazed at the ending. Sarah Jane Hartwell is starting a new year at a new school and doesn't know anyone there or anything about the school. She just knows it's going to be awful, and she doesn't want to go at all. With much prodding and prompting from Mr. Hartwell, Sarah Jane eventually pulls herself together and goes to school. Once there she is befriended by Mrs. Burton, who is a huge help with Sarah Jane's transition to the new school. There is such a twist at the ending that the kinders always get such a huge kick out of it!!


I hope you enjoyed reading about my favorite beginning of the year books! I have had such an amazingly wonderful time with this link up, I am really sad to see it end!! I hope it comes back next summer, because I just love to talk about books! If you want to read about more beginning of the year books, make sure to hop on over and see who else has linked up!