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Monday, December 31, 2012

Fitness... ah!!!


I am the least coordinated person you will ever meet. I tried a Zumba class once and walked about after 5 minutes because I can't move my upper body and my legs at the same time ;) I do enjoy the Power class at my old gym. Now that I can fit it into my schedule I plan to rejoin in January. I have also started Weigh Watchers with my sister-in-law. I vow to finally get the "baby" weight off... can I still call it baby weight if he is 5????





2013

I hope that everyone has a safe and happy new year!!!



Sunday, December 30, 2012

Down Time... what's that???

Today's linky party is hosted by Amy at Step Into 2nd Grade with Lemon's.



 I feel like always need to be doing something. Whether it is cutting out materials for school while catching up on Grey's Anatomy or Chicago Fire or checking my emil while eating my breakfast. Here a re few New Year's Resolution's for down time...


 I am going to spend more time "playing" with this handsome little man. We do a lot together but I don't get down and just play because I feel like I have so many other things that need to be done.


I am going to read more on the brand new NOOK HD that I just got for Christmas. 

I am going to learn how to use this... I had a Cricut and sold it to buy a cameo. I love what little I have done with it and can't wait to do more.





Saturday, December 29, 2012

Professional Growth & TpT

Today's Linky host is Amanda at One Extra Degree Make sure to stop by and enter the giveaway!



I finished all the extra units that I needed to move up on the pay scale in my district this last summer and I am beginning to feel like I am missing something. This is the first time since starting college that I have not been taking some sort of course for units after completing my BA and receiving my teaching credential. I have talked with my hubby about working on my Masters but we decided that it would be best to wait until our son is a little older and some (hopefully all) of the student loans that I have are paid off. 

So... my New Years Resolution for Professional Growth is to to read a few books and keep on learning. This year our school moved over to Common Core in math and we will fully implement Common Core in Language Arts beginning the 2013-2014 school year. WOW! Is Common Core WAY different from the old California State Standards. But I do have o say that I am already in love with CC. I was involved in several workshops for math this past summer so I am feeling a little nervous about language arts. I have been looking on amazon and have narrowed it down to a few. Now I need to decided... Any suggestions???



I am part of a Literacy Task Force of my county and at our last meeting we were given this book. I have only read a few pages but I found it very informative. I will keep you posted on how it is. I am also going to have to report back to my staff and share parts of the book... Not my favorite thing to do. You can put me in a room with 100 kids and I can act a fool. Put my in a room with 15 of my peers and I babble.

Side Note:
I have been working most of the day on finishing up some editing on my "Rocket Words" to put on TpT. It will be my first! I am getting excited and nervous. Hoping to have it complete by the end of the year ;) It has been a lot of work... making sure I have all the appropriate licences to sell and give freebies, creating a sellers account with TpT, etc. Stay tuned...




Friday, December 28, 2012

Linky Party!

Ok, so this is my first Linky Party. I have been following the lovely and super talented ladies from Growing Kinders and Primary Graffiti for about a year now. So here goes...

Since I am a day behind I will post on my techno and organization goals.

TECHNOLOGY...
Our district is very supportive when it comes to technology. I have a bank of 6 computers in my room. I have an ELMO (document camera) and an Interwrite Board. I use them every single day but I don't feel like I am using them to their full capabilities. I would love to take some of the activities that I have purchased from TpT and make them interacted on my Interwrite Board for my students. I do a lot of the teaching and using the technology. I would love to put it in my students hands. I would also like to find some other websites for my students to use on the computers during group time. Right now the only one we are using in starfall.com and my kids love it but I think they are getting a little bored.

I have created several activities and have shared them with my colleagues. I would like to put them on TpT and share them with everyone else... But I think they need a little work before they are ready. Soon...

ORGANIZATION...
A few years ago I moved into the the room of a retiring teacher. She left EVERYTHING!!! I am still weeding out what I thought I would use but have realized I don't/won't. I would love to get to the last cupboard and get ride of all the teaching stuff that is 100 years old and so out of date ;) I would also like to organize my math materials better. We use the Envision program and I have acquired extra materials to fill the "holes" and I need to organize them better. I have a binder for each topic and overheads that I had created for when we didn't have the Interwrite Boards. Now I use my board for all my math instuction so I have no need for the old black and white overheads. I think I can down size from 20 binders... Plus a few of our topics will change next year with CA moving to Common Core.

I would also like to finish organizing all my center activities into these boxes that I bought at Michaels. I use them for all my scrapbooking stuff and decided to get some for my classroom. I like how nicely they stack in my cupboards. 

I have a student teacher from January 8th-March 1st so I am hoping to get my math organized during his solo weeks ;)



Saturday, December 22, 2012

Snowflakes for Sandy Hook

We will be making snowflakes when we return on January 8th. Will you?





Friday, December 21, 2012

SNOW!!!!! And more!

The first day of winter and we got SNOW! My little kiddos were soooooo excited about the snow that we just had to go out and explore!

 Our playground.
Can we please just throw one snowball??
  YUM!!!


There was just enough snow to stick to everything but the roads and get the kids super excited on our last day before vacation.

More...
This week we decorated our cinnamon applesauce gingerbread ornaments, made magic reindeer food, and decorated our gift bags to look like gingerbread houses.






 Magic Reindeer to sprinkle on the lawn.
 Reindeer food we got to eat :)

 This is one tired teacher who is so ready for a vacation! I hope that all my littles enjoy their vacation and have a wonderful Christmas. I am looking forward to our return in January. There is something about January in first grade. That little light bulbs turns on and everything we have been working on up to this points clicks. It is my favorite time of the year.

I am going to enjoy my morning coffee in my pink personalized travel coffee mug that one of my sweet little girls gave me for Christmas!! After sleeping in that is :)






Thursday, December 13, 2012

Cinnamon Applesauce Ornament Success!

Yesterday I attempted to make cinnamon applesauce ornaments with my kiddos and apparently there are different types of cinnamon and I was using the wrong one. So, I made an early morning stop by the store on my way to school to buy the right kind of cinnamon. I mixed up the ingredients and was happy. My kiddos were super excited and my room smells super yummy!
Now, if I can shake this cold that is creeping up on me I will have a great ornament making Friday!



Wednesday, December 12, 2012

12-12-12 CRAZY Day!!

Today was a weird day! My kiddos were a little out of sorts. My really good kiddos were constantly talking and not getting work down. My normally naught ones were ok. Then I attempted make our cinnamon and applesauce gingerbread men ornaments today and they DID NOT turn out. I tried adding more apples sauce then more cinnamon, then more applesauce... I ended up tossing the whole batch. Then a friend of mine said not to use the Siagon Cinnamon because apparently it is a little more granular so it won't adhere like plain ground cinnamon. Will try again tomorrow with regular cinnamon. When the day was finally over and I was able to take a breath I remembered that it was my turn to attend the monthly PTO meeting. Needless to say it has been a LONG day.
This picture pretty much sums up my day!





Monday, December 10, 2012

Santa's Stuck Cont.

I am having a hard time fitting in all my fun Christmas lessons. I need an extra week to teach before vacation... did I just say I needed another week before vacation? I take it back!! I CAN fit it all in and I will ;) Here is one of my favorites.

My lil kiddos loved the store Santa's Stuck by Rhonda Gowler Greene. After reading we talked about what they would do if Santa was stuck in their chimney. Here are a few of their responses.





 This lil one wrote two pages and I forgot to take a pic of the second page.


Today we wrote letters to Santa. I can't wait to finish reading their drafts.  



Monday, December 3, 2012

Santa's Stuck

Santa's Stuck! A CraftivityWe will be reading Santa's Stuck by Rhonda Gowler Greene later this week. I read this book last year and created a last minute, hand drawn craftivity. Today I was exploring on TpT and found this super cute craftivity. So, we will be using this freebie instead ;)

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Santas-Stuck-A-Craftivity



Saturday, December 1, 2012

New Look!

THANK YOU Emily with Blogaholic Designs! She did am amazing job designing my new look! I am in love with the cute lil' owls. There is a link at the bottom of my page if you would like to take a look at her stuff! 



Friday, November 16, 2012

UNDER CONSTRUCTION!

I am currently working on revamping my blog and posting regularly. My goal is to have it up and fulling running by the first of the new year. I can't believe that it is already Thanksgiving next week. I will be working on school stuff a little this week. I really need to get into my classroom and move my students around. They are getting way to comfortable next to their table partners ;) I hope to post pictures of the cute lil soldiers that we made for Veterans day thanks to Deanna Jumps super cute unit!



Saturday, June 30, 2012
I have been following several First Grade blogs since last summer and I finally got up enough guts to start my own. I am still working on creating some of my own stuff but I thought that it would be fun to share some of the things that I have found and used from some of the wonderful ladies that I have been following. I will take pictures and share my classroom set up and design as I work on it. I will be going into my room on Monday to get started. All of my furniture is moved to one side of the room because the janitors just finished waxing my floors. I have got my work cut out for me.


In between working on my classroom and spending some time with my little man I will be working on some stuff that I am creating to go along with Macmillian/McGraw-Hill's California Treasures program.  Please follow me for some awesome supplements for sight word and spelling practice. I have found that there are A LOT of extras to go along with Treasures from several other states but none for California. At first I thought that they couldn't be that different between states but when it comes to the sight word lists and spelling words it is. So, I can't wait to share what I have come up with.