Linking Up: Ten Things I Want To Do This Summer

Happy Saturday to you! I am linking up with the fabulous Mrs. Jump for her Ten Things I Want to Do This Summer linky party. School is “unofficially” over for me as my students’ last day was last Thursday. Our district tacked on two PD days tomorrow and Tuesday, so I’ll be home free after that. Although I miss my students, I am excited to get a break and do a few things like…

1. Go to a nice beach: I live near the coast but the beaches here are not as pretty as the picture above of a beach in Florida. I went to Panama City Beach years ago and I loved being near the beach. I need my husband to take me…like, right now!

2. Try out my Pinterest recipes: I have pinned so many delicious recipes on Pinterest but I can never find the time (except maybe on weekends) to try them. My goal is to try a new recipe every other week. My mom loves to try new recipes too so she’ll be my advisor and guinea pig.

3. Go to the movies: Life with a baby, work, and a husband with a busy work schedule leaves little room for going out on dates…(aww, insert sad face here). I just told my husband that he needs to take me on a few dates. We love going to the movies, so I’m hoping that since one of us has slowed down a bit we can visit this place a little more often.

4. Work on TpT products: This is a big one for me because I have so many ideas that I started, but haven’t been able to finish. I want to crank out these products to get teachers ready for the new school year.

5. Have a successful kids camp: This year, I will be trying (again) to teach a few classes at our local college.Every year, they hold a kids college where kids can take classes on a variety of leisure subjects (cooking, dance) and also school subjects. I tried at another college last year, but it didn’t quite work out. I’m teaching a kindergarten readiness class, an iPad class, and a reader’s theatre class. I’m excited, but nervous.

6. Sleep in: I mean, this is pretty self-explanatory. And yes, I do plan on sleeping just like a baby!

7. Spend more time with my baby: He’s growing up so fast! He’ll be two in a few months. He loves being out and about, so we’ll spend some mommy-son time together throughout the summer. Aww, that’s him as a newborn. Look at his little toes!

8. Work out more: I have been on-again and off-again with working out. This summer I will have more time to devote to working out on my elliptical in my home. I have also used My Fitness Pal with much success, but if I’m going to be cooking my Pinterest recipes I’ll have to throw that out of the window. I think the main thing is that I need daily exercise of some sort to keep the weight off. Also, I can have the occasionally unhealthy meal, as long as it’s not every day.

9. Visit with my peeps: This is a picture of my mom and my best friend during my bridal photo shoot a few years ago. My mom and I stay in the same area, and she and I like to do lunch dates anytime that I have inservice days or days of while school is going on. Now that summer is here, we can have more lunch dates together. The other person in this picture is my best friend. She moved two hours away last year, and I miss her. I hope that we can have a girls weekend this summer.

10. Spend more time with my husband: I saved the best for last. As I mentioned before, we are both super busy all the time, and I just want us to have more “us” time while I’m off this summer.

Those are my top ten things I want to do this summer. Make sure you check out my TpT store tomorrow. My entire store will be on sale to celebrate Memorial Day!

Linking Up: May Currently PLUS Sale Announcement, Product Promotion, & Giveaway

It’s time for Currently again with Farley. Plus there’s a huge sale going on soon and I have a little giveaway for my updated product. This girl is on fire! Lets go…

Listening: I have watched more of the Disney Junior channel than regular “grown up” channels. It’s so bad that I find myself turning to Disney Junior even when the baby is not around. Seriously?!

Loving: It’s such a true statement that teachers are more excited about holidays and summer than the students. It’s not that we don’t love our job, it’s just that we put our hearts and souls into it for 9 months and at the end we are exhausted. All of the mom’s know how it gets when you were in the 9th month of pregnancy…it’s like get this baby out of me! For teacher’s it’s like get ME and these students out of here!

Thinking: This week I will DIBELS testing students in our school for two days. The next day, I have a day-long professional development event. I hate being out of the class that long because the kids get a little wild. And at this time, with the school year winding down, I need a couple of more grades. I can’t do that if I’m not in the room…sigh.

Wanting: Don’t we all need some extra cash?

Needing: My car is so dirty, and it’s white. Enough said.

Surprise: I have two wonderful blogging friends that I’d like for you to check out. The first is Sarah Mackey at Mackey’s Classroom. Sarah was like the first person that I really connected with when I started blogging and we’ve been talking ever since. The second person is Misty at Krazy About Teaching. Misty is a wonderful teacher and blogger from my area. We’ve met only once, but I feel like we’re good friends already. She has so many awesome ideas especially involving technology.

Don’t forget to stop by my TpT store May 6th and 7th because I will be participating in the sitewide Teacher’s Appreciation Sale. Look for my updated products like my Telling Time Mega Pack! This is a product that has been in my store for a very long time and it was in need of a facelift. I updated the cover pages and activities and even added some new things. I finished it just in time for our unit on time this week.

Speaking of my Telling Time Mega Pack, I’m going to give two of them away for free. All you have to do is leave a comment telling me what skill you are teaching in math right now along with your email and enter the Rafflecopter giveaway below. I’ll announce the winners tomorrow afternoon!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Linking Up: Currently & New Products

I’m linking up with Farley again for Currently, so here goes…

I have some cool new products in my TpT store as well. It’s called So Dolchy! and it is a collection of Dolch Word practice sheets. These would be perfect for your students who need extra practice with their sight words.
 
The Pre-Primer and Primer versions are in my store now. I will add the First, Second, and Third grade versions to my store later. Each pack contains all of the words in the Dolch word set and costs on $5 dollars. I will give the FIRST person to comment below with their email a set of both for free. If you miss being first, you can still download the preview packs at my store to get a free practice sheet.


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Linking Up: Currently, Plus a Classroom Freebie

Happy Sunday to you all! Are you enjoying your extra hour of sleep today thanks to Daylight Savings Time? I know I am! Today I’m linking up with Farley for Currently, and I am also sharing a classroom freebie.

Here’s my Currently for November…enjoy!

I am currently listening to the Hobbit and the Lorax. I’m watching the Hobbit and little man is watching the Lorax, but I can hear it. It is seriously his favorite movie and he’s just a baby. I am currently loving the extra hour of sleep due to DST. I feel like I have a lot of time to do things today. The downside is that it’ll get darker earlier. I am currently thinking that I need to finish grading papers. I think that is a #teacherproblem! I am currently wanting a new car. I think that I have outgrown my small car, and I need to step up to an SUV. I’m thinking…a Ford Explorer? One of the first vehicles I drove as a teenager was an OLD Explorer, but they look so fancy now! I am currently needing a personal assistant. Don’t we all! A yummy pin was not hard to find. I love Pinterest and I have a whole board dedicated to food (sad, but true). So, I just picked one of my faves.

It’s Baked French Toast by the Pioneer Woman! YUM. You can find website with the recipe from the original pinner here, and you can find the original recipe from the Pioneer Woman here.

So, In my classroom, during center rotations, I have student that is designated as the center monitor. During our rotations, I am at my teacher table, and the other students are in their centers. If a student has a question, they know that they must ask the center monitor. Sometimes the monitor can answer the question and sometimes the center monitor has to ask me. My students know that the center monitor is the only person that is allowed to come to my teacher table to ask a question. Well…it had been working fine, but I noticed that I was answering TONS of questions during our rotations. Many of these questions could wait until later, or the students should have known what to do. Another problem is that my center monitor would be working so hard in their center that they would forget to look up and see who was raising their hands for help. So, I had to constantly call the monitor’s name to go help people. Ultimately, I wasn’t giving my small group the attention they needed and that is a big problem. To remedy this problem, I created these center monitor statement cards.

The cards have statements that the students can present to the center monitor. When they need the center monitor, they will choose a card and write their names on it. Then they will place the card in a special box that I gave to my monitor. The monitor will know that someone needs help, and she can go to him or her without me having to tell them. I also created this poster. I posted this poster in the area where I have the statement cards set up. And as the poster states, if my students have a question that is not on the cards, it can wait! I am going to be trying this out on Monday. I think it will really help me reduce the amount of time that I spend away from my teacher table. In the freebie, you will have all of the cards that I used above, and I’ve also included blank copies just in case you’d like to come up with your own. You can download this freebie here and please leave me some comment love if you enjoyed it!

Linking Up: Freebie Friday, Write Around the Room

I’m linking up today with TBA’s Freebie Friday with my product Write Around the Room with Capital Letters. Here’s what you’ll find inside of this freebie.

First, you will find these nice little cards. Each card has a capital letter on it. At the bottom right of each card, you will see a number. This number corresponds with the recording sheet below.

The other thing that is included is a recording sheet. This is what the students will use as the they navigate the classroom. I’ve also included an answer key for quick checking.

 

So…how does this work? To begin, you will print the cards and place them around the classroom. Next, you will give each student a recording sheet. Your students will search the classroom for the letters. When they find a card, they will write down the letter on the card next to the number on the card. For example, John finds the card with the letter “E.” On the right-hand corner of that card is the number 5. John will write the letter “E” next to the number 5 on his recording sheet.

 

Of course you will have to give good instructions and model it for your students, but they will definitely enjoy doing this activity. It addresses CCSS RF.K.1d, but this would be a fun activity for first grade teachers during the beginning of the year. They can use this activity to refresh their students’ memory about their letters.

 

Grab this freebie at my store HERE and leave me a nice comment! If you love the freebie and wish to have more practice with the alphabet, you can get the full version which includes this freebie HERE.

 

 

Linking Up: Currently

Oh yes, I’m doing two posts in a day! I finally went back to my classroom today. I haven’t been all summer (oops)! To add to that, I’m moving down the hall. So, I have plenty to do. If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll see that I have nothing done yet. I’m getting to it slowly but surely, y’all.

Today, I’m linking up with Farley for her monthly Currently.

Listening: I love the show Chopped on the Food Network! It’s so intense! My little toes is out talking it though. He has learned how to scream…much to my dismay lol

Loving: Walking into my classroom today gave me lots of inspiration. I’m ready to tackle some no-sew curtains and a teacher toolbox. Additionally, I have some ideas for new products to create.

Thinking: So I ate breakfast this morning, but got caught up working in my classroom and missed lunch. What am I gonna eat?

Wanting: Yea so SaintsMan works too late for my taste but…hey!

Needing: I always feel like I have to do this! One pile of clothes goes down and another one builds. I think there are little gremlins or something finding clothes for me to constantly wash.

Must Haves: I always have some kind of welcome treat for my kids (I won’t insert my shameless product plug here, *cough cough*). The first week of school always exhausts me because summer is so laid back and lazy. I’m making myself go to bed earlier so that I can get into the groove. A smile is a must and comfy shoes…c’mon now! My Sperry’s are my go-to casual meets professional meets comfy shoe!

That’s all folks!