Monday Made It :)

Monday is here again :-) Time for me to spend naptimes browsing all of your wonderful ideas so I can add some things to my to-do list!!

This morning, I was looking thru the first few blogs that had linked up with Tara, and came across Stephanie's post in which she shared her latest Vistaprint creations! This reminded me that I, too, had a Groupon just waiting to be used up! So, here are my purchases... they should be on their way to me any day! :)

We still use desktops at school (hope we get laptops soon - my desk is consumed by my monster of a computer monitor!), so I made a mousepad that will make me smile on even the hardest of days :)

These cute little stickers will grace the inside of my personal teacher books (and for-fun books) that I loan out!

These stickers will grace the fronts of my students' shirts on field trip days - you know, in case a kiddo chooses to wander away...! We usually write the info on a blue band to go around their wrist, but this will save me time and are much cuter!

My own lined notebook that coordinates with my lesson plan binder! :) Can't wait to doodle take important notes during meetings this year!

A window cling to put in the middle of the big ol' window I've got in my room... these are our school "rules," and now they'll be displayed cutely!

If you have the itch to create something fun for your classroom and/or home... click the Vistaprint link on the right side of my page and it'll take you right to their site! Have fun!!

There you  have it! I'm excited to see these things land on my doorstep! Link up by clicking Tara's button at the top and share what you've created :)

You can also join in Christina's great VistaPrint Linky below!

Currently July!

I am SUPER excited to be joining in the fun this month... I hope you get the chance to play, too!

Head on over to Oh Boy 4th Grade and link up with Farley... but be sure sure scroll ALL the way down and read her wonderful twist for this Currently :-)



Woohoo!!

Check out what I just ordered! :)

I've been wanting one for a couple of years now, and with seeing so many graet Pinterest ideas out there and now having a baby's nursery to organize and finish decorating... Hubby said I should go for it! Also, there's an AWESOME teacher discount on all of their products, so that sweetened the deal a little bit, too! I can't wait for next week when it arrives!

South Beach!

No, no, not the diet - it's summertime, folks! ;)

I am changing the way I do my classroom's color theme this year... After 7 years, I am kind of sick of the rainbow colors everywhere. I never thought it could happen, but it did! So, I am doing the same thing I've seen lots of teachers considering this summer - balck/white foundation and bursts of color around the room. This way, when I want a change, I just have to change the colors, not all the foundational pieces!

So, where does South Beach come in to play? Well... as I was at Michael's yesterday {for like the 5th time already this summer... I swear baby boy knows when we enter that store and he immediately starts fussing! No, Momma, not again!}, I picked up some more cardstock in the colors I'm using this year for my Brag Board and word wall letters and what nots. I looked closely at the package, and it's called the "South Beach" collection!

The packs come in 12"x12" and 8.5"x11" cardstock sizes, and I'm thinking of all sorts of ways to use them! If you hurry to Michael's this week, they're on sale!

So... if you're doing the "bright colors on a black background" theme in YOUR room this year, you can make it sound super-chic by calling it "South Beach"! :-)

Monday Made It!

It's my favorite bloggy day of the week :-) I can't wait to get looking at all of your great creations so I can steal admire your ideas and want them for myself!



In fact, I've done just that with this week's creations... I loved Tara's ideas of her READ letters and planner divider pages, so I made ones to fit my room. {Check out her original posts about them here and here!}

#1 - READ letters: They are almost complete... I'm still debating on the ribbon that should go across the middle. I'm choosing between a yellow ribbon or a simple white glittery ribbon. Thoughts?

#2 - Lesson Plan book divider pages: These will go into plastic sleeves and into my 3-ring binder that I made last year {here}. The papers are from the April Showers collection from Just So Scrappy, the font is from Kevin & Amanda, and the frame is from the wonderful 3am Teacher! You can click on any of the pictures below to download a PDF for yourself if you like :) {Ok, Blogger was freaking out on me, and only 2 of the pics are linked... sorry!!}

I've got some great plans and ideas for the rest of the summer as far as creating goes... I've got a toolbox on its way to me (our Lowe's was all sold out!); I have crates waiting to have seats added to them; I have the advent boxes that can be turned into letter storage ready to be painted; I have notecards ready to make and send out to welcome my kids; I have foam board ready for a "my first day of first grade" frame! Whew! I've been a busy little shopper this weekend... And my guest room has been TAKEN OVER!

 

 

Our school's theme is rock 'n roll/rockstar stuff this coming year. I found these great guitar shapes that I am going to have my kiddos decorate the first week of school with their table teams or a buddy or something... I'm still thinking that over, but I'm sure they'll love the glitter glue and poms! I'm going to pick up some other fun sticky items for them, too!

 

I'm also linking up with Ladybug's Teacher Files to share my June shopping... I'm sure I'll have a bit  more to share during the July edition...!! :-) I love summer!! Click the pic to share your shopping fun!

What I'm Thinkin' Thursday!

{Warning... this is going to be such a random post! I am just gonna put things in writing that are floating around my head.} :)

- I can't wait for the inevitable "Back to School" linky parties where we all share classroom pics, daily schedules, etc. There are SO many cute theme ideas floating around, and I can't wait to see them!

- There is NOTHING good on non-cable TV once "The Chew" is over at 1:00!

- I love Clinton Kelly!

- My TV dilemma will be solved, however, after July 9th, when "Good Afternoon America" debuts! :)

- I am really looking forward to back to school sales in order to purchase new borders and knickknacks for my new room decor... I'm thinking to a basic black and white foundation with splashes of color. Then I can change my colors whenever I want to, and it won't be too much money! I've had the same rainbow of colors for all of my 7 years, and I am excited for a change.

- Along with decor change, I'm thinking of moving around my furniture. Anyone else draw out lots and lots of ideas before finally settling on what's perfect??

- I reeeeeally want a Silhouette Cameo. So badly. Sigh.

- I've come to LOVE McDonald's Sweet Tea. Yummmm... in fact, hubby just called to say he's on his way home, and I asked him to pick one up for me as he drove by McD's! Can't wait :)

- Even more than McD's Sweet Tea, I am LOVING my baby's sweet smiles! He just started this weekend, and I get the best ones when he's on his changing table and I'm making crazy silly faces at him! So fun!

So.. since you were so gracious to read this far, I want to read what YOU are Thinkin' this Thursday! Link up with me and share with us all what's on your mind. Every once in a while, we all need a brain dump, right?? :)

Monday Made It! (a day late...)

Well, if there's one thing I've learned this summer about having a new baby around - there is NO getting things done on MY schedule! This sweet boy rules the roost :) When he's hungry, I feed him. When he's cranky, I soothe him. When he's tired, I put him to sleep. When he's sleeping...I blog-stalk and pin away clean or rest. ;)

So, needless to say, I haven't been nearly as productive with school stuff as I was hoping to be this week... so I have more digital stuff to share instead of hands-on projects. Oh well - these need to get done, too! And they don't require me toting my baby around to multiple stores looking for the perfect pieces for my projects!

#1 - Pacing Guides for the year:

I have made these for all 4 quarters, but need to meet with my great teamies in order to decide which order we want to teach our math skills in next year. We also need to come up with many more "for fun" topics! I just plugged in the main holidays and whatnot. I was inspired by this post by Made for 1st Grade:

{find source here}

#2 - First Day Magnet saying:

I typed this up really quickly to have ready for the first day of school. I will print them on colored cardstock and have my kiddos attach them to a clothespin with their picture, just as seen in my inspiration pin:



{find source here - sorry this doesn't lead right to her post... it's what showed up when I pinned it! But, this way, you can read through her great blog :)}

Link up with Tara on Mondays (or Tuesdays...) to show off your great ideas!

Made it Monday!

I loved stalking all of the great ideas I found over at 4th Grade Frolics last week for Tara's first Made it Monday Linky Party! I wanted to join in the fun this week, although it's nothing too crazy or creative!

Here is my inspiration:

{Click the picture to take you to the original post}

Here's how I made it my own!

{The background paper is from melstampz.blogspot.com. She has TONS of cute free papers/backgrounds!!}

I thought it was so important that I borrow these words of affirmation for my kiddos - I teach at a Title 1 school, and many of my students have dealt with more stuff in their lives than I have in my almost 29 years! I want to make sure that when they are in my room, they know they are loved and valued. I will frame this in a white frame and display it somewhere that is visible at all times throughout our day!

If you like what you see and would like a personalized PDF for yourself, feel free to leave me a comment with your email address and last name - I'll change it and send your way! :-)

Next week, I hope to have a more hands-on activity to link up with... go check out all of the other great ideas and maybe you'll be inspired, too!!





Next Year's Tweaks Linky Fun!

Well, hello, world!! I've missed you :-)

Brenda over at Primary Inspired is hosting a linky party that all of us can most definitely relate to right now - what are you going to do differently next year in your classroom?!? I don't know about you, but I have been thinking ahead for a couple months now, and here are some things I hope to switch up so I can be the best teacher possibly for my little firsties next year!

1) BLOG MORE! As you can see, I've let this wonderful habit seriously slip over the past several months. Lots of that has to do with the fact that we were preparing and welcoming our sweet baby boy, so my priorities were a little different. Now that he's here, I want to get back into creating and sharing and stalking!!

{If you'd like to see more pics of my sweetie, check out our family blog: Scoma Life}

2) Behavior System - I've always had a class that consists of some suuuper sweet kiddos that are great role models... and I've always had one or two special gifts that try my patience daily, and have even caused us to evacuate the room due to student safety from time to time. I'd love to start acknowledging the "good" kiddos more than I need to redirect the ones who struggle to make good choices. In order to do this, I've been hanging out on Pinterest and have found some pretty good places to start!



{link found here}

{link found here}

{link found here}

3) Have more fun in the classroom! Hopefully with the new behavior focus, we will have more time for fun... and with 25 little first graders in one room, I think we'll need a little laughter vacation every once in a while! :)

4) Daily 5 - I really want to work on trying to incorporate some of these aspects into my day. I can't follow everything due to how our school works our Guided Reading and literacy block, but I can try to do some of it!

Well, there you have it! We'll see how I do now that it's in writing ;)

Link up and join in the party! Who knows, you may inspire me to try something I haven't thought of!

Big News!!

Oh, friends!! It has been *gulp* over 2 MONTHS since I've last posted! I have missed you all so very much, but... there's this little blessing that's been taking over all of my time :-)

That's right!! Meet my little "pumpkin"! The above pic was taken at 6 weeks, and today I hit the 15 week mark... so Pumpkin is significantly larger and more human-looking ;) Man, oh, man - this little wonder has been sucking the life out of me every day and making me too tired to even THINK about stalking blogland, let alone typing my own posts!! However, we have turned the corner, and my energy is back - just in time for the holidays!

I am hoping to get back into the habit of my nightly blog searches... I can't even begin to think about everything I missed while sleeping on the couch and growing a baby! Just wanted to say hello again to all of you lovelies and that I can't wait to dive back into the FUN!

I hope you all have had a wonderful Thanksgiving break... I know I have, and now I'm ready for the next 3 1/2 weeks until we hit the halfway mark of the school year! I can't wait to have some holiday fun with my little kiddos.

To kick-off my new beginning, there will be a sale going on in my TpT store from NOW thru tomorrow for Cyber Monday! Please stop by and browse around a bit! Click the pic to hop over!

PS - Can I tell you how fun it was to create something new... even if it was just this silly little notice of my sale!

Thank you! And "All on the Map"

You guys are so wonderful at lifting a girl's spirits! Your comments and emails to me about my previous post really helped me know I'm not the only one out there who's so frustrated with the way teaching is heading. Some days, I am jealous of those of you who get to teach reading centers, but I don't even have that option with the way our schedule is set up. My kiddos don't go to centers, and they have no down time throughout the day when they aren't being directly instructed by a teacher. One of these days, I'll figure out a time when I can get these first graders into some fun activities where they can explore their learning a bit!! :-)

In other news... Here is the latest in my set of StoryTown activity printables! Click the pic to check out this packet that works with Lesson 6, studying the -all chunk!

Hope you all had a relaxing weekend! Have a tremendous week... may it be the best one yet! :)

Creativity in Teaching...

Alright, y'all... I gotta be honest with you! I am W.O.R.N. out this week!! My kiddos seemed to have taken several steps forward in the past couple of weeks, but then the past couple of days, they've gone a little backwards, and I'm so tired :( Anyone else out there experiencing this same kinda slump?? Honeymoon's officially over, I guess!

While I'm being honest, I have to ask you guys...
Are you allowed to use those wonderful, God-given creative genes of yours in your teaching? Not just your management style, but your curriculum, also? Because, this year, I feel so squelched in that area. It breaks my heart to have all of these great ideas {many of which come from your FABULOUS blogs!!} that I know my kiddos would just die for, but I'm unable to use them!!

Instead, I turn the page each day in our basal... and teach it as it's written - with "fidelity." {Sometimes that word makes me shudder a bit...} And now, we have a new pilot/Common Core math curriculum to follow, as well. It's written by the folks at the Board Office, along with a handful of classroom teachers. Once again, I turn the page and teach what's given to us. I did find out this week that we have a bit of flexibility in this math thing, but not as much as I'd like. Thankfully my principal is creative herself, and she encourages us as much as she can!

So... my question to you: How do you do it?!? How do you follow the rules, yet still fulfill that inner desire to be creative and help your kiddos learn as much as you know they can by creating lessons that are tailored to them and their learning styles??

I'm feeling a bit saddened this year... this isn't what I signed up for when I decided in 4th grade to become a wonderful teacher someday.

A Weekend for Remembering

Hey you guys! I hope you have had a relaxing weekend and enjoyed your time with family :-)

This was not my ideal weekend, that’s for sure. Saturday evening, a colleague and myself went to the funeral of a 3 month-old little brother of a student of mine. Little Gavin was remembered in a very touching ceremony in which his mom and dad both spoke of the hopes and dreams that they had for their only son. Throughout the entire service, my little girl was just bawling, and it broke my heart, y’all. I am so glad I went, so she could see I care about her and her family. I let her know we missed her so much in class, and she said she’s ready to come back. We’ll see her tomorrow, and I will be greeting her with the biggest hug.

Then today, I, along with all of you, couldn’t help but travel back in time to ten years ago. TEN YEARS AGO. Holy moly. I remember like it was yesterday…

I was a freshman at Oklahoma Baptist University, and I was set to meet a buddy in the lobby so we could travel to breakfast. As I walked into the common room, my RD was watching the events unfold on TV. Unknowingly, I asked,

“What movie are you watching?”
”It’s not a movie… it’s really happening.”

Woah. My friend came in and we traveled in confusion to the cafeteria. In there, the big screen was showing footage, and we witnessed the 2nd plane hit. To say I was scared and disturbed is an understatement.

We walked in silence to our class (classes hadn’t been canceled yet, but they were shortly), where I was to take my first test of college ever – in government, none the less. My professor still had us take the test.

And I FAILED. But I didn’t care. My dad was on business in Atlanta and I needed to make sure he was okay. Since airports had shut down, he was unable to fly home, so his business buddies all decided to “steal” their rental car and drive it back to Kansas City. He was telling me of stopping off at Cracker Barrel and plugging in his phone {along with all of the others traveling home} on the hearth of their fireplace. But, he made it home, and my family was safe.

This was a day that changed our forevers. I will never forget.

Hug your kids. Love your family. Have a great week, everyone!

I’m trying something new…

A few months back, Cara at The First Grade Parade suggested switching over to Windows Live Writer to create blog posts. I decided tonight (instead of working on more school stuff) to give it a whirl!

So far, so good… What about you guys?? Do you still use Blogger or did you get sick of it like I did! It seemed to give me so many problems, so I quit! :-) I’m loving how there’s a toolbar up here that looks like I’m typing in Word or Power Point! I’m so comfortable with those programs, that this just makes sense!

Thanks, Cara, for the suggestion!

Also, I think I LOVE short weeks! Every week should be 4 little days with a  long 3 day weekend… don’t you think?!? We seemed to get a lot accomplished this week, and my kiddos had a treeeeee-mendous day today! I love it when I can enjoy a nice {competitive} game of Memory with two of my little beauties during indoor recess… PS – they totally kicked. my. tail. !!On another note, tomorrow evening I’m attending the funeral for the little baby brother of my student that passed away this week; I’m going with her Kindergarten teacher. I’m pretty sure this will be unlike any service I’ve ever attended… I’ve never been to a service for anyone that wasn’t an adult. So sad. :(

My heart hurts.

Well, folks, I heard of some news this morning that I have never had to deal with before. One of my beautiful little girls' little adorable baby brother passed away suddenly yesterday.

We know no details.. she wasn't at school today (we only found out because Mom called the office this morning with the quick explanation of why my darling was going to be absent), but she will probably be back tomorrow.

After the shock and tears passed this morning, my head couldn't stop spinning... poor family! Poor little 6-year-old big sister who is left not understanding why her 5 month old baby brother is gone. I cannot even imagine, you guys.

What are your suggestions? How do I handle this and the questions that will come from my class tomorrow? How do I let this little one know I am here for her and it's okay to cry and be angry and take it easy? I've had parents pass away while I've had their child, but never a sibling and never so suddenly.  My heart is hurting for everyone involved, and I can't wait to give my student a great big hug... it's all I know I can offer her for sure right now.

Welcome to the New Me!

Ok, maybe not the new "me", per say, but the new blog for me! :-)

{I don't know about y'all, but this Tuesday-seems-like-a-Monday thing wore me O.U.T. today! Needless to say, the evening will consist of TV, blog-stalking, and my oversized chair. And maybe my "puppy", Lucy. Maybe.}

Thanks to Jenn and her hubby over at Dream Team Designs, this page has a new look that is ALL me. And no one else will have it, so I won't think I'm going crazy when I click someone's link and I see my freebie layout... haha!



If you are in the market for a new look, whether it's a personal blog or a teaching blog or whatever, definitely check out Dream Team designs... they are an incredible pair to work with and, as you can see, they do wonderful work! While you're checking them out, be sure to stop by Jenn's teaching blog - she's such an incredible inspiration!


Lastly, if you've been SOOO kind as to add my blog button to your sidebar, would you mind changing over to my new pretty button? Pretty please? If you do, please let me know in a comment and I'll be SURE to add your button to my bloggy-blog, also. Thank you kindly!

Made Me Smile!! :-)

I hope this post finds y'all fully enjoying your day off today! If you live close to KC, you are also enjoying some BEA-U-TIFUL weather! Finally :-)

As I was watching the Criminal Minds marathon on A&E while cozying up with a blanket {yes, a blanket!!} while the curtains blew in the breeze, my phone alerted me that I had an email. I was nominated by sweet Nicole @ First Grade OWLs as one of her Top 10 Blogs! This made me smile, friends!

Here are some of my favorite blogs (many of whom have already been nominated, I'm sure, but I'll try to pick some new ones!!)... check them out and say hello!!

Primary Perspective

(there was no blog button here!)

Lastly... stay tuned for a WONDERFUL new look coming my way V.E.R.Y. soon! Eeeek!  :-)