Breaking Up, Blessed, & Creating

I have been having an ongoing love/hate relationship with my current blog design and layout, SO I'm breaking up with it to begin a new relationship with a brand new blog design by  Blogs Fit for a Queen and I'm beyond excited...BUT it is going to be at least until September until I start my new relationship.  Eeekk! I'm certain that a makeover will want me to visit this little ole blog of mine more often and share all of the awesome things that go on in my classroom with the help of my awesome co-workers.

Like many of you, I too have officially began putting my classroom back into working order, which is a HUGE mission...especially since we are to take everything off of the walls, bulletin boards, shelves,...

Basically I pack everything up in June and begin unpacking it in July.  It certainly takes more than a few In-service days to get a classroom ready for a new school year.  Getting my classroom ready for a new group of nuggets makes my heart happy.  I love it!!   During this past school year {like many years}, my dear teaching partners and I would always talk about what we're going to do differently next year, how will we dive into our new math and reading series, how will we decorate our quad, what will we dress as for Halloween {that is important}, how will we work our math centers, how are we going to fit everything in...a teacher's brain never stops!  I'm SO very fortunate to have amazing co-works that are incredible to work with, collaborate with, and have on-going group texts {that contain no less than 30 Emoji icons} at all hours {except during school hours}.  Really, I have the best of both worlds…I enjoy these ladies so much in and out of school.  J 

And because I have been working in my classroom with my two trusty sidekicks…I have been keeping Dairy Queen in business.  That’s right, I pay my kids with some DQ to ensure that I have a few productive hours of work. 

 

 

Now that they are 9 and 6, I can give them small jobs to do.  My oldest wants to help so much and my youngest would much rather play at the LEGO table or watch a movie {as long as he is occupied, I'm a happy mom}.  I'm a bit OCD when it comes to my classroom, because its my home away from home and I like for everything to have a place.  I just wish I could get my kids on board with that at home.       

 

While working in my classroom, I got inspired to create a few goodies to add to my classroom walls and I have a few more in the works.  First up, I created sight word cards that go with the 2014 Houghton Mifflin Journeys reading series.  I intended to use the cards for games and activities, but then decided to add them to my word wall.

  

 

You can grab your copy here.

 

I love using poems, chants, and songs to get skills and concepts into little minds.  Even and odd numbers go to the farm and meet Old McDonald.

 

 

 

You can grab your copy here.

I'll be back soon with a great freebie and some random ramblings of my life. :)

 

Do you Scoot?

Do you Scoot?  Scoot activities make my teacher heart happy.  It is very rare for me to ever be sitting at my desk during the school day.  I remember my last student teacher saying, "You never sit down!  I absolutely love giving my kiddos lots of opportunities to get their shakes out.  Let's be honest if I give them the opportunity to get up and move around, then chances are they won't feel so inclined to leave the carpet for a random tissue.  I use Scoot activities across all content areas and my first graders love it.  I created three Math Scoots with a twist...these Math Scoots aren't just find a scoot card around the room and write the answer on your response sheet.  I added some scootin' exercises that are to be completed before leaving the card and moving onto the next.  Go Noodle meets Scoot!  Here's a preview...

   

Missing Numbers

 

 Greater Than, Less Than, Equal to

 

1 and 10 More/Less Than

 

I hope you SCOOT on over and visit my TpT shop to grab a copy.  Happy Teaching! 



The WRITE Stuff

I am always wanting to make everything I pin on Pinterest, I mean seriously don't you wish you could complete just ten or so projects on your boards??  My new hashtag should be #suckedinbypinterest  When I came across this sweet burlap banner...

I knew I either had to get to the craft store ASAP and make it for my classroom {in my free time} or I could make a cardstock version.  Well, turns out that the cardstock version is going to have to do...for now.  Feel free to go grab "The Write Stuff" pencil banner in my TpT store...its a freebie.  I'm going to add my banner to my writing wall.

So, with my comeback to the blogging world, I decided to open up my own TpT shop.  A few of my dear teaching partners have told me that I should open up a store and after much thought, I decided to go for it!  I'm certainly no where and I mean NO WHERE in the realm of the "BIG Names", but I'm just being me and hoping along the way I can help other teachers the way that I have been helped by visiting TpT.  I'm not going to be fearful of not feeling like I'm good enough to do this, again I'm just being me and not trying to replicate others.  I'll e-mail a copy of my "Pop the Balloon" addition game free to the first person to tell me the name of the movie this quote is from.  Be sure to leave your e-mail in the comments.

"All right, now listen up because I'm only going to say this once. Fear is a four-letter word ladies. You want to go pee pee in your big boy slacks, keep it to yourself. It's make your mama proud time."

Happy Teaching! ~Diary of a First Grade Teacher

I'm making a comeback...

It has been well over two years since I blogged last and after too long of a hiatus, I'm going to make a comeback on this little blog of mine.  Why haven't I blogged in over two years???  Well, you all know that life happens and priorities change.  One of the last posts I wrote back in 2011 questioned how you {bloggers} do it and by do it, I mean how do you find the time to balance being the best at being a parent, partner, teacher, sister, aunt, and friend to all of those that mean the most to you AND find time to inspire through blogging?  Well, I still haven't found the exact answer to that one.  When I first began my journey into the blogging world, I certainly had no idea how inspired I would become by my frequent visits to other teaching blogs.  I hope that I am able to inspire and help others the way that many of you have helped me.  This blog will be undergoing a much needed makeover.  I hope you stop back and join me on my comeback.