"EYE" love AR

Remember when I posted this picture on Instagram and promised a blog post later that week???

 Yeah...apparently I forgot too! I have been busy, busy, busy at my new school and getting back into teaching after a year off.  I can't even express in any way shape or form how much I LOVE teaching again.  I am exhausted and sometimes feel like I don't know what I'm doing but I LOVE my kiddos and LOVE my school!

Back to the reason for this post...Accelerated Reading!  Do you use AR?  My students love AR and I love the ease that the program provides for me. I wanted to reward my student's efforts for those AR points every time they take a quiz so I came up "Eye Love AR." It is a freebie in my TPT store!  I hope you love it! Thanks for following this little blog...apple on!!!

Custom Sign Giveaway!

I love, love, love my QuicKutz silhouette cutter! It has been amazing to have for every project.  Lately I have been making classroom signs for my teacher friends. Now I want to make one for a lucky follower of this blog!

The lucky winner gets to choose two or three colors for their sign.  I will also need to know the winner's school mascot or classroom mascot.  After I get all that info I will design, laminate and mail their custom 8 1/2 X 11 sign! Scroll down to enter!

 

Check out Mrs. Brown's NEW blog....To Second Grade, With Love

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck! I'll announce the winner next week on Thursday.  I'll be back later this week with a freebie for you. Apple on!

Failure and a TPT Update

Time has totally flown by the past week...I have been soooo busy and have barely checked my blog or blog stalked like I usually do!  I wanted to just check in and give a quick update.

I am disappointed as of late...I wasted alot of time working on this...my plan to have my students look for sight words in a bottle rice completely and utterly FAILED.  I don't know if the sight words were too big or if the lamination kept them stuck together but after rolling and shaking the bottle for quite a while I couldn't even see one sight word.  So if anyone out there has any ideas for beautiful rice send them my way...I'd love a new idea!

Next, I want to share some pictures of my new student center in my classroom.  I LOVE the way it turned out.   It may not be pretty looking but it sure is functional. My students can get paper, erasers, writing mats, sharpened pencils, and colored pencils.  Also they put taken away toys, notes to the teacher, broken pencils, eagles (school incentive), box tops, and their backpacks all in this area. It is awesome!

Finally...and not so disappointing...I have updated one of my free products in my TPT store.  If you loved the first monster bag face there are now more funny faces to enjoy!

 

Click here!

       
Apple on!

A Funny, Short Vowels, and a Bulletin Board

I love sharing my first grader's funny moments...here is one from the other day.

S1: "Mrs. C...my mom is pregnant she just found out last night. She took a test."
Me: "That's exciting."
S2: "You mean the kind of test you put in your mouth?"
S1: Stares at S2 and then looks at me
Me: shaking my head no at S1

Student 1 and I seemed to have an understanding that not everyone needs to know how a pregnancy test is taken.  I laughed inside while I was shaking my head.

Well here are some short vowel things I have been working on as I promised! First I have these great Short Vowel Fluency Pages.  I use these pages at the beginning of the school year A LOT.  Here are some ideas...use them to make classroom posters of each vowel as we review/ learn them, use them as an assessment, use them for a reading center (refer to this post), or use them to have your students practice their short vowel fluency. 

Click the picture to get your Short Vowel Fluency Pages!

 Next I have a Blending Words with Short Vowels  power point that includes 10 words for each short vowel and 5 sentences for each short vowel as well...that's 75 total slides!  The red counters move up one at a time at the press of a button.  You can choose the speed that you want your students to say each sound.  Then the arrow shoots across to let the students know when to put the sounds together as a word!  My walk to read class has really benefited from using this daily.

Click either picture to get your Blending Words with Short Vowels!

Finally I wanted to share my new bulletin board that I have to show off my students work. I dyed clothespins for a little over a day in some food coloring, vinegar, and water.  After they were dry I hot glued tacks to the back and wall-LA!  Now I have clips for all my students work and I won't need to use a stapler!  I do have to warn you to make sure you measure out a 13X13 square for every clip to hang at the top of.  If you don't your student's papers won't fit both directions and also you might have to go to the art room and measure out more paper and move your border after you have already put it up...irritating I tell you.  I plan to pin the objectives associated with our work on the star clip in the top right corner.

orginal idea found here

Apple on!  Back to work tomorrow!  I love Mondays!

Bulletin Boards- TBA's Open House Week

When I linked up with TBA and knew I would have to post about my bulletin boards my reaction was...uh-oh.  When it comes to bulletin boards...I'm not so good at them.  I always have ideas that I want to use but I never have the time to actually use those ideas!  I always have a bulletin board at the beginning of the school year so I thought I would post pictures of my back to school bulletin boards from all 6 years (so far) of teaching.

 1st year of teaching...so dull...boring...blah

2nd year...a little better...those dang popcorn kernels were a pain to cut though!

3rd year...now enter the silhouette digital craft cutter from QuicKutz...one of the best Christmas presents a teacher could ever receive! My QuicKutz machine cut the stars and the letters.  Isn't that awesome?! The border around this one was created by my students and I have done this activity every year since.  Each kiddo gets one strip of manila card stock about 3x12 or 3x9 depending on the amount of room I had.  They write their name HUGE and decorate it however they want.  This border stays up all year.

4th year...hmmm...can't find the picture but I think it was similar to my 3rd year.

5th year...more help from my QuicKutz craft cutter and the owls are by Carson Dellosa! The student created border had not yet been made.

6th year...added another tree to have more space for more kiddos.  The student created border had not yet been made.

One of my favorite bulletin boards isn't actually a board at all!  At the end of the year we study the lives of the Ancient Romans.  The students are given a take home project for homework where they create an Ancient Roman shield.   The parents and the kids really get into this.  We have a feast and go all out for the end of the year.  Here are some pictures of some shields that the kids have made for the past two years.

Aren't those awesome?  I love how they really get into project based learning.

ONNNNEEEEE more for the road.  Last year we decorated our door for Love of Reading week.  Each kid made a pocket and answered a question about the story on their traced out hands.  We won first place with this door!  Do you have door decorating contests at your school?

Have a good  night...it's almost the weekend! Head back tomorrow for some freebies!  Apple on!

TBA's Classroom Pictures Tuesday

Apple on!

First Week Back

I had my first week back with my kiddos this last week....boy, am I tired!  Things have been moving slowly for my class and I know they will pick up soon but I always forget how much they don't know at the beginning of first grade.  They seem like a good group but they can sure run their mouths!  I think I'm going to make a rule that when I am talking...no one else is allowed to!  What do you do to ensure your students are listening to you?

I have a powerpoint/ worksheet math combo for sale in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. Go and check it out!


Here are some pictures of my classroom all ready for the kids...of course now it is being well used and it is a little more dirty...err...cluttered...umm...blessed with students stuff everywhere.

 Thanks for reading!  Apple on!

Classroom Prep

I have been heading into my classroom since Monday...the kiddos won't show up until August 6th.
Here's what the hallway outside my door looks like....I will put the kiddos names on the same owls.  Owls are very popular right now....and I just think they are super cute!

  I have been doing some fun prep things at home as well...These are going to be my students reading eyes/ space man.  This helps those little angels that don't like to follow along with their finger while we are reading.  It also helps the kids that forgettheirspaces between their words.

 had to dye 

I also made a calm down bottle...I got the inspiration after I saw this on Pinterest.  I suppose it's okay if the glitter settles on the top and the bottom.  I may or may not have washed a ton of glitter down my sink in the process of making this.

I am pretty overwhelmed with all of things I need to do.  I find myself gravitating towards the fun things...and leaving the not so fun  more necessary and essential things for last. How is your classroom coming along?

Thanks for reading!  Apple on!