Bulletin Board BANANZAAAA!

Can I just say...

I love my student teacher!!! Having her there is AMAZING! I don't think I have ever been so organized and on top of things, ever!

Today, I don't know what got into me but I was crazy productive! I got 2 bulletin boards done, along with several other little odds and ends. But I wanted to share my boards with you because, I am obsessed!

First off is my writing bulletin board. We have been talking about the different ways we can write as a writer, so this pinterest inspired bulletin board is now almost complete! : )

Second Board: My Reading Level Achievement. I did something similar with my kids last year and it really encouraged OWNERSHIP with them! They really loved it! So this year I went off of our school mascot: Tigers. So, our theme song is the new Katy Perry song, Roar! I changed the wording a tad and made it apply to reading. I loooove it!

"I've got the eye of the tiger... and you're gonna hear me read!" (yes, I know an "n" is missing... dang auto correct deleted my extra n!!! that will be corrected tomorrow! :)

Do you have any cute/new bulletin boards you've been working??? If so, attach a link and share, I would love to see you're cute ideas!

Happy ALMOST Hump day!

Well, Hello September!

Let me start by saying that I LOVE FIRST GRADE!!! :) I survived my first week in first and let me just say that it's a BREEZE compared to what I am used to this time of year! I giggled as I saw the little ones walking in the hall and thought to myself-- i am in Heaven! :)

Well, I am linking up with Farley from OH Boy 4th Grade for her September Currently. I thought I would try to squeeze in a quick blog post before bed for one of my fav linkys! :)

I also wanted to share that being an insta-addict I am joining CF Classroom in their instagram picture a day for September! You can follow me on instagram...username "hayitsla". You should join up to! Just hashtag #cfclassroom

Lastly-- check out my TPT store! I just posted a cute little book on rules. We have been talking about rules and the importance of rules this week so I thought this book would be a fun way to "wrap up" the unit! 

Hope everyone is loving their year so far! I promise to blog more once life slows down a little, sigh! 

Teacher Week 13': Meet The Teach

It's Teacher Week 2013 Y'all! I am excited to learn more about everyone! I hope y'all all participate in the blog hop! You can join by clicking the button at the very bottom. Now for a little about muwah! :) 

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Teacher Week 2013 & New Product

Happy Sunday! I cannot believe I am saying this but it is officially the last week of summer, and a CRAZY one at that! I have trainings, projects and my best friend in the whole world is getting hitched on Saturday! This gal is hoppin on a plane on Friday morning to the great state of Michigan! (Well I am not sure how GREAT the state is, I've never been there, but I am very excited!)

In honor of the last week of summer I have a few exciting things to share! First of all tomorrow starts Teacher Week!!! I am so excited! You can join the party by clicking the button below. 

The adorable image below has all the deets you need to know to participate in teacher week! :) I will be posting bright and early! Hope you all join in the fun!

In other news, I have posted my August and September writing journals with prompts! I am pretty excited about them! I am going to use them as morning work. My kiddos will start these after writing their learning goals for the day in their planner. You can check it out by clicking the picture below. And... **The 1st 3 people to follow and comment on this blog post can snag this packet for FREE!**

I am shooting to have the October journal finished this week and continue these monthly! I will take 1 grade at the end of the month using the rubric that's included in the pack for a writing grade. The prompts this month are pretty basic, I plan to beef them up a little more as the year goes on but I figured beginning of the year-- let's keep it basic! :) 

In even more news, I am jumping on this bandwagon a little late, but I have been reading The Next Step in Guided Reading I am LOVING this book so far.... like totes love! :) 

I am getting tons of awesome ideas! I am revamping my Readers response journals some, and trying something new! I am going to add some vocabulary pages in the journal, a reading log and a weekly assignment to write and tell me about their reading this week! I am working on some freebies to post this week that go along with my reading, so be on the look out for those! : )

This is a little preview, since room photos are going to be shared later this week...but I just HAD to share my achievement of the day! My word wall has been the BANE of my exsistance for a few weeks now. After 5 attempts I FINALLY got it to look the way I wanted. :) I love it! 

I must get back to my 24 marathon! I read online Jack Bauer is coming back for another season-- I FREAKED OUT! I love love love love me some 24....so I was stoked to hear this news!

Good Luck to everyone that is going back to school tomorrow! :) Hope it's a great day!

busy bee...short & sweet!

PHEW!

I am exhausted! Maybe I will actually fall asleep at a decent time :) I have a very "intense" (so I am told) training tomorrow for instructional rounds. I am VERY excited about this opportunity! I filled out a questionnaire and was chosen for this by my new principal! It's a district initiative where every school comes up with a "problem of practice". This is basically objectives the school as a whole are focusing on targeting and improving. We really began this last year and I was fortunate to participate in internal rounds (only your school) so I am looking forward to learning more about the process and participating on a larger scale! All that to say... I NEED to get to finishing my assigned reading from this juicy book.

I wanted to share an item I will be putting in my store tomorrow, hopefully! It's all finished for the most part! :) In the morning's when my kiddos come in I have them copy their objectives for the day in their planner. After they copy the objectives I want them to get out their morning journal and complete the prompt provided. I am going to try to stay on top of this for the year! Monthly journals that include the cover, writing page, prompts and rubric. I will take a grade once a month for writing looking over their journals. I need to finish the rubric and add it before I post the finished product. I am really happy with how they turned out and hope you take some time to check it out. I think my kids are going to enjoy them! Of course, I kept the months of August/September pretty basic with the prompt... come October, it's on!! (ease into this routine a bit!) 

Anyway- look at me, I am making a blogging comeback! Stay tuned tomorrow for the finished product!! 

Back to School Bash!

I am totally loving this B2SB giveaway party!!! :)  A lot of my faves are putting this on and I am so excited to share, if you haven't checked it out... get on it! (even though that takes away the likely hood of me winning! ha) 

Look at that 2 posts in one day! SHOCKER!

August Currently...

It's August... Already? :( The tears are about start flowing!!! It's such a bitter sweet feeling. I feel like time is about to start flying. EEK! 

So, I am linking up with Farley from Oh' Boy 4th grade, a little late but... better late than never?! :) 

1. So, I started watching Orange Is The New Black on netflix. I have flown through all of my usual go to shows this summer so I had to find something new. I am a fan of the show!! I am only on the second episode though, so well see... I am intrigued. 

2. no words necessary....

3. Thinking.... well, we went out last night and had a blast! Needless to say, I was a bum all day... slept most of the day. 

4. I have been having an itch for a printer! I am looking at this HP one... maybe itll be a little back to school gift to myself?! :)

5. I hate worrying about finances! Such a stress...hence, I would love to win the lottery and not worry about money. problem solved!! :)

I've been working on my learning targets for my first grade class. We have to post "i can" statements every day covering the objectives we are teaching. I am hoping I am done with them at some point this week! :) 

OK, back to my show! If you haven't watched it... check it out on netflix! 

Oh...and hop over and link up!

Excited to share....

I am very excited to share (and shocked that I hadn't yet) That I will be moving up to first grade with my kiddos this next school year!!! =) I have been a little MIA between that change, helping with interviews, summer school and I am just now getting to relax and enjoy summer.... if you want to call it relaxing. :P

I am SUPER excited about this new chapter in my teaching life-- and even more excited that I get to do it with my kiddos from this past year. I will however no longer get to be self contained, which is a HUGE bummer, but can't get everything you want in life I guess??? I will be teaching Reading, Writing, Word Study and Social Studies and have a pretty awesome partner doing the Math and Science! : )  I have been a busy bee working on some new units and management materials! I posted this word wall packet in my TPT store earlier this week, so you should hop on over and check it out! :)

In other news... I start my 2nd 24 day challenge tomorrow. I am READY!!! I have not been eating too healthy at all this summer, so I am ready to cleanse and get feeling good. :)

TPT Sale!!

Be sure that you check out this awesome sale! Happy Teacher's Appreciation week! :) Hope you are made to feel special!

While you're shopping you should stop by my store and check out my Space unit! You can get to my store by clicking the picture below!

Hope everyone has a fantastic Tuesday!

5 for Friday!

Well, I am linking up for the first time ever with Doodle Bugs teaching on their five for friday linky party! =)

 1. I left work after the kiddos left and I went to enjoy this BEAUTIFUL day at the dog park with my favorite guy, Dakota! :) He's currently passed out napping now.

2. My dinner tonight. I am participating in the Advocare 24 day challenge with some girlfriends from work. Typically a few of us go to our favorite watering hole on Friday's after work but I am being good and sticking with the cleanse. This is my water (pretending it's a beer) and my chili (pretending it is wings and cheese fries!)

3. Being on this cleanse.... I hear you have lots of energy... well, that energy hasn't hit me yet so I am already tucked into bed about to watch one of my favorite shows, New Girl! =)

4. I am just plain proud of this... and theres lots of day left!! 

5. This is the blog my lovely teacher friends and I are writing while we do the challenge. Come check us out, we could use some followers/love/support =) (click the photo for the link to the blog!)

Happy Friday everyone! :)

overdue freebie!

Click the photo to download my roll it/write it freebie!

using 2 die: 1 numeral dice and 1 (1,2,3) dot dice students can practice counting on and building their addition strategies! :) My kiddos LOVE this game!

Keep up with our teacher advocate 24 day challenge here!!!

Currently...and....24 day challenge!

Hello!

Well, I feel like I have said this on every post "recently" but I have been MIA! Life is crazy this year. New administration is exhausting, just figuring things out. Student teachers=awesome but exhausting... which leads me into my point... I am exhausted... and the last thing I have felt like doing once I am home is to look at a computer! : ( So I have neglected my blog.

However, I am attempting a comeback!   (more on that to come)

First off- April Currently...

A few of my favorite teacher friends and I are doing the advocate 24 day challenge together. Today was our first day and I am stoked! I feel great and am really excited to see the results in the end. Hop on over to our blog to follow us, join us, grab some recipes, and see what works for us! It's BRAND new, and it's 6 of us blogging! Hope you come follow us, there may or may not be an advocare give away coming soon so be on the look out! WARNING: the layout is awful, and a work in progress-- don't judge just yet! :) 

visit us HERE

That's all I have for you tonight, but I have some great freebies that I need to upload... tomorrow perhaps! :) Happy Tuesday! 

February Update, Rollit-Write It Freebie to come!

Wow! Where has February gone? I was doing so good with my updates, and then the madness that is February hit and I have been MIA. To top it off I started The Shred diet with a friend from work, so my energy is currently running a little low-- and I am about to hit up Turbo Kick Boxing!!! AHH!

Unfortunately, I do not have much to post about at the moment... but here is a look at my week!!

We are celebrating Presidents Day-- ALL week! Today we learned about Washington, tomorrow will be Lincoln and then we will compare the 2 on Wednesday. We will wrap up the week talking about American Symbols. Most of this can be found in the fabulous Deanna Jump's unit: America.

In Math we started our Shapes unit- yes, it's February and Investigations holds off on shapes until now? Not my FAV thing but it is what it is! We just wrapped up some addition/subtraction (and will continue to work on it as the year progresses) and I have got a few fabulous games that my kiddos LOVE to share with you.

Roll It/Write it Game board/recording sheet

All you need is a number dice

and a 1,2,3 dot dice

This game works with kids on the "counting on" strategy. I teach my kids to focus on the yellow number dice and use that as their starting number...then count on 1, 2, or 3 whatever they rolled with the dot dice. This has really helped my kiddos move from counting all to counting on! I will upload and share a **FREEBIE** of this with you tomorrow!! =)

Other things to look forward to this week:
-Happy Healthy Heart Mini Unit for National Heart Month
- Shapes activities
- America posts

Hope everyone has had a fabulous Monday.

Guided Reading Lesson Plans

Happy Monday!

I was working on my lesson plans for GR this week and finally decide to change the page I use up. I was using a page per group per day. It was getting a little ridiculous! SO i decided to squeeze it all into one nice little spread sheet. :) Make life more simple. I group my kiddos by "color" so I have blue, green, purple, yellow, orange, etc. group.

You can download it for free on my TpT store just by clicking the picture!

the font is from A Cupcake for the Teacher and you can download here.... it is definately one of my favorites =)

We began our Arctic Animal & Non Fiction unit today. The kids LOVE this unit and so do I!! Here are a few photos from anchor chart mania today!

on our way out today the kids had to tell me what "stuck" with them from penguins today =)
they're so smart! We will use the penguin to label the parts tomorrow.

we read a non fiction book and watched a few national geographic short videos on penguins and completed out Can/Have/Are anchor chart. They then did their own individual page that will go in their non fiction book. 

We started talking about NF text features today. We talked about the TOC - how it helps you and where to find it. 

Tomorrow we are going to focus on photographs and captions. Here are the anchor charts below.

Stay tuned tomorrow for another Freebie for counting on in math! It is out of my winter unit that is in the works.

Have a great evening!! =)