Classroom Rug Giveaway

Friends, Lori from Teaching with Love and Laughter is having a wonderful giveaway.  Visit her site to enter to win a new classroom rug :)  I have my fingers crossed cause Lord knows my classroom rug has seen better days. 


Happy Teaching,

Mother's Day Candles

I am in LOVE with the Mother's Day gift that my class did this year!  A friend of mine teaches K and she shared a photo on FB the other night of the candles that her Littles were making.  Instantly I knew that this was our craft for our moms too! I purchased small white pillar candles at Dollar Tree.  You could possibly get them cheaper.  I didn't have time to shop around for the best deal.   Today the Littles decorated a small strip of tissue paper.  It was very little prep work. :)  I had already cut the paper to the size needed to fit around the candles. You will want to cut the paper smaller than the height of the candle.  It's easier to maneuver that way.  You will also want to make sure that they have paper underneath the tissue paper.  The marker WILL bleed through the thin tissue paper!    We used regular old Crayola markers to decorate our paper.  Tonight, I wrapped the tissue paper around the candles and used my blow dryer to slightly melt the candle.  This allowed the tissue paper to adhere to the candle.  It was easy.  I used the low setting and it worked like a charm. It did take a little bit of time, but it was worth it.  

Happy Teaching,

It's been FOREVER... (winter freebie)

Well, I just haven't been a consistent blogger this year!  I have good intentions, but goodness gracious, I just have been lacking in the motivation department. 

One of my Littles is quite the handful and after a day with him, I almost always feel like kicking my feet up and having a glass of wine. 

I hope that I can be a more regular with my posts.  I have a lot of ideas that I want to share. Some school related and some not.   I will start with the not :) 

I bought a frame at Goodwill for $3.00 a couple months back.  I finally got around to making a bulletin board out it.  After a little spray paint and attaching some free cork that I was given, my board is finished.  I also have been into all things burlap lately.  Here are a couple of my projects:

As for school, I created a Winter Word Bank for my Littles to access during Writing Workshop.  Head  *HERE* if you want to pick up your copy.

Have a BLESSED day!

Counting On (math strategy) and a freebie.

In my room, we have been spending a lot of time learning and practicing the count on strategy.  Most of my Littles can do this, but I still have a few that struggle with holding on to the larger number and counting on.  They are counting all.  Here's something that we are doing to practice this skill:

 

 

The big number cards came with my Math Expressions curriculum and they have the number on one side and the dots on the back that correspond.  I just used our whiteboards for the plus and equal signs. We start out by telling an addition story problems.  Then 4 students create the equation with the cards.  My Littles love to be the "one" chosen to solve the equation.  They must:

 

We also have been using this little game in our math intervention time this week.  It's called Odd and Even Sum Snakes.  One partner has even numbers and the other has odd numbers.  They take turns rolling 2 dice or 1 die and 1 number cube and add them.  When they use the number cube it is easy for them to practice counting on :)  Anywho, the idea of this game is to X-tinguish all your snakes with X's  :)  I laminate my boards and the Littles use dry erase markers.  Grab you free copy here!

 

And Lastly, here is our finished schema chart about pumpkins.  After reading several informational texts about pumpkins, we added our new schema in the form of leaves.  The Littles seemed most impressed that there are in fact BLUE pumpkins.  They thought that was super cool.



Have a blessed week,

November Currently

It's November!  That means it's time for a new Currently Linky party hosted by Farley.

Here's my Currently:



Listening:  The wind has been blowing like crazy all day!  I am so thankful that we haven't lost power.  But, I live in western WA and it is that time of year that this (and rain) happens a lot.  One of my facebook friends put it best:  Goodbye sunshine.  See you on July 5th. 

Loving:  I love TV.  My newest favorite is the show The Blacklist on NBC.  James Spadder plays bad oh so good!  He is a criminal mastermind that is working with the FBI to catch the worst of the worst criminals. 

 

 

 

Thinking:  My sweet hubby's birthday falls on Thanksgiving this year.  I don't know what I will get him.  Ideas?

 

Wanting:  Next week's lesson plans completed...no explanation need :) 

 

Needing:  Cooking breakfast on Saturday morning is a tradition in our house.  I don't do it any other day unless it's a holiday or my parents are visiting.  I also cooked lunch too.  Now, my kitchen needs to be tidied up.  I hate doing the dishes.  My hubby usually does them if I cook, but poor thing had to work this afternoon.  I'll get to it in a bit....

 



A Yummy Pin:  Chocolate Gravy...I know some of you might be thinking WHAT?!?!  I grew up in MS and I love chocolate gravy.  I love it on biscuits or dunking a doughnut into it.  It is really delicious!  This pin says that you could eat it with eggs...I wouldn't suggest it.  That sounds gross!  But, it is a great accompaniment to a wonderful carb of your choice.  Here's the link to the pin :)

 

 

 

Have a blessed night and enjoy falling back :)

 





Classroom photos, bats, pumpkins, oh my!

Wowzers!  I dropped off the blogging train....hard!  I have been a faithful follower of my favorite blogs, but I have been lacking in the "want to write" department.

My year is getting better with my class.  I love them but they exhaust me :)  As mentioned in my last blog, my year has gotten off to a rocky start.  I am slowly finding my groove with my challenging Little this year.  PTSD, RAD and possible Asperber's...no joke folks!  But, we are hanging in there and riding the daily rollercoaster that changes directions...often!

I never showed any classroom photos this year so I am going to start with a few of those and then I will show some of our newer projects that we have been hard at work doing.

 And my favorite spot...my small group area :)  That tikki bar is the best $30 garage sale find ever!

Last week, we went batty.  The Littles loved adding to their schema and learning about the mysterious creatures.  We spent a lot of time using the book Stellaluna.  We used it to make predictions, sequence, and practice writing about story elements.  Here we wrote about the beginning, middle and end of the story.  I saw this on another blog and for the life of me I can't remember which one.

Here's our display outside the classroom.  It has our sequenced Stellaluna bats, our KWL chart and our bat facts writing. 

This week, we are about all things pumpkin!  Here are our Crazy Pumpkins .  The Littles thought it was hilarious that I kept telling them that their pumpkins were crazy as they were making them. 

 

Our Pumpkin Schema Chart:

We are also focusing on schema this week.  Here is our class chart that we are adding to each day this week about our schema.

I sure hope your Halloween week is going great so far.  I am feeling so blessed that our district planned a teacher workshop day on Friday....genius! 

Lastly, here's my favorite guy cheesing it up like usual.  I am so thankful for him!!!!

Have a blessed week!

Rough Start to School

Wow...I didn't mean to be gone from my blog for this long!  I have been reading, but writing has been something that I am not motivated to do.  To be honest, I have been a little depressed with the start of this school year.  I keep reading about how everyone LOVES their classes and well...I am having a hard time.

This year I have 24 Littles.  Well, so far at least I have 24 Littles.  My school population has increased over 100 since last year and there are some talks of splits and other classes being considered to help our overload status.  I am not in overload at 24.  When #25 comes along, then I will be up for some paraeducator support. 

One of my Littles has some extreme issues.  The kind that require a one on one to help with immediate behavior intervention.  I have known that I was that lucky teacher since the end of last year.  I thought about switching schools if that lets you know the severity of what was to unfold this year!  In the end, I came to a peace that I was supposed to do this.  It was a supernatural, Jesus inspired peace because let me tell you, I WOULD NEVER HAVE CHOSEN it. 

Loud and aggressive behavior are his norm and it makes the other Littles (and me) nervous.  Lots of labels can be suggested for this behavior and believe me, I ache that someone has to live like that! 

Last Friday was our second day of school and I left really questioning my career, my influence, my skills....my world.  Saturday arrived and I slept almost all day.  I have NEVER felt so defeated and unsure of myself.  Thankfully, I have an AMAZING husband!  He let me shout and vent and be a little ridiculous.  Slowly over last weekend, I knew that I was focusing on 1 and neglecting to realize that I have 23 other Littles that need me too!  I am not saying that I feel the need to neglect that 1, but I need to have a perspective that includes everyone! 

So, by Tuesday, I start feeling like my normal self again and ready to inspire a younger generation.  Tuesday was a great day.  Wednesday was pretty good too.  I even felt like going to community group that night.  I am a part of a ladies group and we meet each Wednesday evening to pray, encourage and dig deeper into what our pastor shares each Sunday.  I left feeling loved.

Now I don't know about you but I have conversations with myself in the shower.  Sometimes I pretend to be bold and tell someone how I am *really* feeling.  Sometimes, I hash out past conversations and sometimes I try to pump myself up for the day.  I know I am weird :)  Well, Thursday morning, I was trying to realistically look at how I handle my classroom and the thought occurred to me:  "I am his teacher.  I don't have to love him."  For the whole morning, I just kept telling myself this and I actually thought I had had a revelation about how my year would be survived.

I got into my car that morning and began my short commute to work.  I was feeling so proud of my "revelation" and had a serious case of "pat yourself on the back for being so smart!"  Then, I flipped my radio on.  In an instant, God reminded me of HIM.  HIS MISSION.  HIS HEARTBEAT.  This song was playing:



I couldn't help but be completely awed by God' timing.  He spoke so clearly that morning.  I thought I had figured out a plan for survival...for myself.  If I removed my vulnerable emotions, I might make it.  I had completely forgotten that without LOVE, everything I do is NOTHING!  The world is filled with sin and we are called to LOVE and to share His LOVE through it all!  That means through.  IT. ALL! 


I know that my year will be challenging and I will learn a lot about myself.  I hope through it all I am a living example of His love. 



Have a blessed day,