The Versatile Blogger

I received The Versatile Blogger award from Tammy at Mrs. Flickinger's Butterfly Oasis Kristen at A Day in First Grade. I am so honored! 

The rules of the award are as follows: 

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you.

2. Include a link to their site.

3. Include the award image in your post.

4. Give 7 random facts about yourself.

5. Nominate 15 other bloggers for the award.

6. When nominating, include a link to their site

7. Let the other bloggers know they've been nominated.


Now for 7 random facts about myself:


1. I am newly engaged, but I'm still not sure when we're getting married. Might be the year 2014. We still have to find somewhere to live and get things in order. It's been a crazy year, and 2013 won't be any less crazy!  

2. I am Teacher of the Year at my school this year.


3. I will be a first grade team leader this year (VERY nervous about this... especially with all the new Common Core!). 


4. I love oranges.


5. I live and teach in the small town of Leesburg, Georgia. Hometown of Luke Bryan, Phillip Phillips, and Buster Posey. 

6. I have recently become obsessed with the TV series 24. I started watching it on Netflix last week and now I can't stop! Love me some Jack Bauer! I'm on season 3 now. 

7. I love Diet Sunkist and Coke Zero, but I'm trying to stay away from it by drinking more water. 

Now I'm going to break a few rules. Since there are so many that have already been awarded this award, I'm going to skip rules number 5-7. Go ahead... call me a rule breaker. I can take it :)


Thanks again Tammy and Kristen. So glad you joined in on the Daily 5 obsession with me.


Honored,

Daily 5 Creations

Just wanted to share a few Daily 5 creations I have made. They were for purchase, but had to be taken down due to copyright issues. I have since reposted these creations as freebies with a blurb about "The Sisters" attached (as detailed by TPT). 

Daily 5 Choice Cards (with stripes and chevron patterns) 

Daily 5 Choice Checklist for Students 

The clipart for both freebies matches to ensure students mark the correct Daily. 

Please comment if you are able to use these or have any suggestions.

Have a fabulous Tuesday!

My Classroom (as I left it...)

Before I leave my classroom for summer break each year, I take pictures of my mess so I can remember what I have to work with over the summer. Figured I'd share them with you guys. Please ignore the mess...

This is my classroom library now. Not sure if my students will have enough room to see the books they want to choose for Daily 5. Might change out the cubbies for shelves. 

Classroom library area.

It usually has a large rug, lamp, and 2 camping chairs in it as well. 

The view from the front corner of my room.  

My writing station (I've really got to fix this area up, but I'm not sure how to just yet.) 

My "teacher corner" and guided reading boxes for each group (with the stars). 

Workstation board and Math wall.

The workstation board area will house my Daily 5 choice chart.

Going to change the math wall into my CAFE board, FACES of a Reader. 

Calendar area. Might be changing this up a bit. 

Cubbies where students keep their book bags.  

Teacher's Helper, Common Core Standards, and Essential Questions posters.

I've got so many ideas for my classroom that I'm having a hard time choosing the ones I actually want to do. I also want to implement Daily 5/CAFE, math BUILD boxes (somehow tying them in with Guided Math possibly), and the new Common Core standards with new units in both math and language arts. On top of that, I was chosen as Teacher of the Year at my school (huge honor!), which means I get the privilege of writing a paper about myself... something I can't stand. I've got bullet points listed of things I want to write about under each topic, but I just can't make myself write the actual paper. 

Procrastination has set in... somethin' fierce! There are way too many book studies and Pinterest things to pin!

Have a great Friday!

Daily 5 Linky Parties

It's been way too long since I posted on my blog! So sorry about that, but I got slightly caught up with other priorities and let my blog posting slide.

I wanted to post in order to let others know about the great Daily 5 linky parties going on in blog land. Tammy over at Live, Love, Laugh is focusing on Kindergarten, while Mel D. over at Seusstastic Classroom Inspirations is focusing on grades 1-3. I am, of course, following them both and getting some GREAT ideas! I had already read the book previously in the year, but am rereading with these ladies and hoping to incorporate Daily 5 in my classroom in the fall. I've already got a few pages of notes and things to create/change in my classroom. 

I hope you are able to get some ideas from these fabulous women as well. I have so many ideas for my classroom next year, and these linky parties just continue adding things to my list... but I LOVE it! 

I hope to begin posting again once I wrap my head around a few things and get back my focus. My mind is everywhere this summer! 

Hope you are having a fabulous Wednesday!

Christmas Center Packet

My Christmas center packet is FINALLY finished! WooHoo! I have a free preview available at my TPT store where you can also purchase the entire packet. 

Christmas Time - Math and Literacy Centers

A Week of Spider Fun

This week during Writer's Workshop, it was all about those creepy, crawly 8-legged arachnids. Spiders had my students going "spider crazy." This was our first "focused" informational writing. In other words, I didn't let my students choose what animal to write about like usual. I pretty much told them we were all going to write about spiders this week. While I was a little nervous about giving them only one topic, they did an amazing job! I read books about spiders, showed pictures of spiders, watched movies about spiders, etc... we were ALL about spiders! I just wanted to share a few pictures of the things we did.

I read the book Spiders by Gail Gibbons and filled out this fantastic chart with the students. I read over the questions first, and told the students to listen for the answers. As I was reading, they would raise their hands when they heard an answer. They used these charts while they were writing their books.

We also created a Can Have Are chart about spiders so the students could reference it while they were writing.

Please ignore my handwriting... 

Instead of using the chart idea, my amazing classroom neighbor, Mrs. Murdock, made a spider chart of a different fashion. It looks amazing! She gave each group of students a "leg" and had them write facts that they learned from one of the spider books. 

Our completed spider books and hallway display! They did an amazing job! 

We needed a bigger web!

Adorable! 

 (I traced a plain old paper plate to get the size of the spider I wanted, then I cut lined paper to fit inside.) 

I wish I would've taken a picture of some of my students' completed pages of their books. 

If you have not written about spiders yet, I suggest you write about them soon. The kiddos LOVED them!

Check out my Pinterest Halloween board for a few more spider ideas you can use.  

Have a fabulous weekend bloggie friends! 

Halloween Candy Corn

We made our candy corn sun catchers today and they turned out really cute! They look so good in my classroom windows.

Here's what we did...
1. I placed a sheet of contact paper and a black outline on each student's desk (see previous post for a link to Lindsey's blog).
2. I gave the students the orange, yellow, and white tissue paper squares and let them "go to town" creating their candy corn.
3. Students *carefully* cut out their candy corn.
4. Hung them in our windows and gawked at our new Halloween decorations.

Here are a few pictures.

The finished product (before he cut it out). 

I really wish I could show you his face because he is chEEEEsin' in this picture! 

He was so proud! 

The kiddos did a great job and they turned out really good. 

(Please ignore the dirty window and the awful view we have.)

Check out The Teacher Wife for the patterns and a tutorial for the way she completed this project. 

Have a great night,

TGIalmostF

Hallelujah that tomorrow is Friday! My school had Open House and PTO Tuesday night, so this week has seemed to drag by. Isn't that how it always goes?!!?

Since Fridays are usually easy-going days, I like to do a fun craft or activity with my students. Tomorrow we are going to create candy corn "sun catchers" like the ones on The Teacher Wife. 

However, after trying to make a sample to show my kids, I decided to make them a little differently. 

I'm going  to use Lindsey's templates, but use contact paper instead of wax paper and an iron.

Guess we'll see how it goes tomorrow. 

If it's not TOO crazy while we're making them tomorrow, I'll try to take some pictures and share them with you.

Have a fantastic night! 

Fall-Fabulous Giveaway

The ladies over at First Grade Fanatics are hosting a giveaway in celebration of their new items available on TPT. The packets are so stinkin' cute, I couldn't wait to enter the giveaway in hopes of winning them!
Go check them out!

So Honored!

I have been nominated for 2 awards by the lovely Tammy over at Klinger Cafe! I feel so honored (I'm new to the whole "blogging" thing and am just trying to keep my head above water!) I have been nominated for the Blog on Fire Award and the Versatile Blogger Award.

Being nominated means I get to share 7 things about myself and share 10 of my top blogs (most of which have already been nominated, but I have lots of choices due to all the "awesome-ness" in BlogLand!)
1. I have been trying to give up sugary drinks and just stick to water, but that's so hard when getting up at 5:30 every morning! Sometimes I just can't turn down my diet sunkist!
2. I live and teach in country singer Luke Bryan's  hometown of Leesburg, GA.
3. I have been dating the same guy for 5 years... still no ring. No hurry!
4. I cannot read a book during the school year. I fall asleep before finishing a paragraph! (Still not sure how I got my Master's last year with all the reading/writing I had to do!)
5. Fall is my favorite time of year. Cool weather, the smell of freshly dug peanuts (South Georgia girl here!), white cotton fields, bonfires, etc. How could you NOT love fall?!?!?!
6. I love crime dramas on TV. Law and Order:SVU, NCIS, Criminal Minds, Rizzoli and Isles, The Closer, etc. Can't get enough of them!
7. I am only 5 feet tall and have a younger sister that is taller than me. (She also tans more easily than me!) Not fair!

A few of my Top 10 Blogs: (I only have 124 blogs on my Google Reader!)
Fabulous in First
Pirates Life for Us
Castles and Crayons
Schoolgirl Style
Schroeder Page
The Adventures of Miss Elisabeth
Plug and Plan
Sailing Through First Grade
Ms. Preppy
Persnickety Pickles

Thanks so much for the honor Tammy!