A day in the life of ME! -- Plus Giveaway!!

I am linking up with Jessica over at Second Grade Nest for her "day in the life of a teacher" linky!  Right now, there is obviously not much teaching going on so this will definitely be a day in the life of a teacher on summer vacation!! :)... Like it is for many of you!

 

Like always, I begin my day with a cup (or 2) of coffee! I jump right on my computer & check my store and blog! Then, I continued to work on Halloween themed literacy and math stations! I tell you what I am getting ahead this year!! During all of this my precious little dog and I play fetch while the other one cuddles up next to me!

 

 

Later in the day my boyfriend pealed me off of my computer and motivated me to go to the gym with him! I have really gotten out of the routine!! Time to get back at it!

Before I work out I always take 3 catalyst and drink a spark! The catalyst basically helps build the muscle and melt fat! <3 it! The other name for it is 'belly and butt be gone."

If you haven't tried advocare products then you are missing out!!

Here is the website for the products!!

 

I put on my perty new shoes and then off to the gym we go! It was chest and shoulders day!!

 

After the workout I have my vanilla protein shake!

 

Then I have a small lunch with my fruit shake and a pb & J! Get dressed, take a cute picture with my boy and off to the mall we go! I found a great deal on a new swim suit! All of my swim suits no longer fit (in a good way)!! :)

 

After we hit the mall we went to PF changes & got chocolate cake to go... came home watched a movie and ate my yummy piece of chocolate cake!!

 

There is the day in the life of me! Not too much going on but it sure was a great day!! :)

 

Don't forget to link up with Jessica to share your day!

 

 

Also, I still have my giveaway going on! Enter for a chance to win 2 items from my store (of your choice)! Two people are going to win!

 

 

 

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

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Five for Friday! 6/28/13

 

Happy Friday everyone! If you've been keeping up with me this week you've seen how stressed I am & you've entered a giveaway & grabbed a freebie! If not the freebie is still available on my blog post from Wednesday!

 

Any who here are my five 'REALLY' random things from my week!

 

1. I have been in my room all week trying to organize files and plan my YEAR with a colleague of mine! We are on week 10 now (Halloween Week)!!
It is kind of a disaster! I organized files according to topic and I am pulling from them while planning for each week. I think that soon these files will be non-existent and I will have my weekly 'themed' files! (That is the hope)

 

2. I moved into a bigger room and I have also been trying to decorate a bit! I went to hobby lobby & purchased some fabrics!

 

 Yes, I may have loved Amy Lemons material that she got! :)

 

Another bulletin board fabric! :)

 

 

3. I also updated my classroom décor and began hanging it up in the classroom along with a few other things!

 

I used my handy dandy laminator! :)

 

 

 I placed the subject cards on a long pocket 'thing' for students to turn in their work this year! I had a terrible time last year always having to organize papers when grading so I am hoping this will help?!

 

I did the magnetic word wall this year! :)

 

This is where I will be writing students learning targets for the day!

 

I also got the alphabet line hung up! I love this one!

 

I am still working the final touches to my décor pack so it is not up yet!

 

4. This week my friend and I laid out at the pool and it began to storm!! She grabbed my phone and took it home with her on accident so I went an entire day and a half with out my phone. My boyfriend & are are long distance right now so we had a few google video dates!

 

 

5. Last but not least I went on a cleaning spree this week and caught up on my favorite show! I also... made the boyfriend dinner one night this week when he came up to visit!

 

Basically, it is chicken parmesan but it is the best ever! You can get the Panko bread crumbs at Kroger!

 

 

Here is the picture of the chicken!! This is seriously the easiest thing to make and take that from me... I can't cook to save my life! :)

 

 

Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of the final result.. I was too hungry! :)

 

Remember... I still have a few more days for my bloglovin' giveaway! Follow me to enter for a chance to win two things of your choice from my store!!

 

 

  

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Have a fabulous weekend!!

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Throwback Thursday Part 2!

Can I just tell you that I am a huge stress ball right now? My boyfriend of 6 years and I have lived apart this entire year because he found a job an hour away from my job. So, needless to say we were really excited for next year because we were going to live together! YAY! Well... let's just say that in-between of where I work and where he works is nothing but cornfields and cows! We don't want to live in-between forever so we need to rent until I find a position in Columbus, Ohio. Well, we found a cute town with a college in it! So, we thought perfect!! There will definitely be places to rent there! Well... we were so wrong! There is nothing!!

 

We looked at one house thing but let me just put a very vivid picture in your mind of what this place looked & smelled like! Walls were warped, water in the ceiling, floors were not flat, no cabinet doors on the cabinets, no stove (um I'm not buying the house), random tall deck in the back yard, toilet in a closet (insert question mark), sink in the middle of a big room (bathroom sink), no dryer... the renter was taking the washer, gross bathroom and to top it all of the place smelled of pure cat urine! Oh.. and the renter NEVER cleaned it after a couple of 30 years moved out!

That house is our only choice!... um... I think I will NOT be living there!

 

Right now I feel like this...

Okay.. I will keep you updated with that situation! Now, onto THROWBACK THURSDAY! This reminds me of football night for some reason! :)

 

 

This post is from April 17!

It was all about dinosaurs!!! My favorite week I had in first grade with my kiddos!

 

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This week my kids learned about dinosaurs & prepositions and all I have to say is that you have to do this activity! I hid dinosaur bones throughout my room and students had to find four of them that were located in four different places and write a sentence with a noun, preposition then noun. There was a catch though... they were not aloud to use 'on.' They had to think of other prepositions to use! They were so engaged and had so much fun!

 

 

When I first taught prepositions I used a student and put a dinosaur bone in different places around him. They had a ball and there were tons of laughs! I like to make things silly! :)
After that I pulled out 'Tuffy the T-rex' who we also used for describing.
Students cut and glued small pictures around him and came up with sentences using prepositions.

 

This week we read a variety of books about dinosaurs with a focus on T-rex and Triceratops. Students brought in books from home to add to the dinosaur collection I brought in from the library!

 

 The students and I filled out bubble maps of facts and then students gathered up their favorite facts and did an informational writing. They did such a great job. Here they are! :)

 

 

 

 To end our Dinosaur unit the students were 'paleontologists!' They used tools to dig chocolate chips out of the cookies. They worked so hard that they were all covered in cookie crumbs! After the activity we talked about how messy paleontologists must be when they are finished! Before we did the dig activity we watched the fossils video on brainpopjr.com. It is a great way to get discussion going!

 

Also, don't forget to enter my giveaway! Two people will be winning their choice of two products from my store!

 

 

Follow me on bloglovin'

 

 

 



a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

 

Remember, none of my followers followed over? Somehow 70 of you were following my fluttering in first grade blog even though that no longer exists? Very, very sad face!: :(

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Happy Wednesday bloggy friends! Bloglovin' has literally taken over the blog world this past week! We are all doing everything we can to prepare for the switch and to make sure you are still following us when we make the switch!

 

 

**None of my follower have carried over so be sure to click above to follow me**

 

To prepare and for the big switch I am linking up with Collaboration Cuties for the Bloglovin' giveaway!! There are a ton of blogs linking up so definitely check out and follow everyone's blogs! The more blogs you follow the more freebies * ideas you get!! (That's how I look at it anyway!!) ;)

 

I will choose TWO winners and they two winners get to choose any TWO items from my store!

 Can you tell that my favorite number is 2?! :)

 

 

 

 



a Rafflecopter giveaway

Now, just because I love my followers & you for following my on Bloglovin' I want to offer you a freebie from my store! :)

 

Click on the picture below for a station from my Sizzling into Summer hands on literacy stations!

 

 

Happy Lovin'!

Be sure to link up your blog & giveaway!

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$1.00 Deals Linky Party! *My Kind of Party* ;)

Hey bloggy friends! Have you seen this linky?! I am linking up with Literacy without Worksheets!

 

 

I am so excited to be joining it because it includes my favorite thing of all time! AWESOME DEALS! I have a few dollar deals of my own in my tpt store! I love going to tpt shops and finding items for just $1.00! So, here are mine!

Remember, I only have two more days of 20% of my sale and my dollar deals are cent deals right now! Can't beat it right?! Here are my dollar deals!!

 

 

Included in this packet are 15 pages of sentence scramblers for first grade or struggling second graders...or advanced kinders!

 

This is a short I real and nonsense word sort! I made this for a farm theme I will be doing this year during my short I week! It would definitely work for any other week! :)

 

There are my dollar deals!!!

 

I will also share a few others with you since I know you can't check out unless you have $3.00 in your cart!

 

These are just cents more than a dollar (so they count right?!)

 

 

This is only $1.60 until Thursday! You get 25 pages of sentences to fix!

 

This packet helps to introduce and practice fact families with a station included!

 

Remember if you are a follower of mine you probably didn't transfer over as a follower to BlogLovin' so remember to click below to follow me there when google reader decides to be no more! :(

 

 

I promise that very soon I will have a much better blog post!

 

I am working on making weekly plans & stations... and decorating my room!

I will be sharing my weekly plans with you along with items I bought to get me through the first HALF of the year!! Crazy!!

 

 

I want to end this post with this... I just found it and it is a great pick me up...

I have been working my little paatooty off on this blog & tpt products... I feel like their good.. (I hope) & hopefully soon... everything will eventually begin to take off... :) 

 

Have a fantastic night. :)

 

 



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Wish listed items Linky!!

 

I am linking up on this beautiful day with Classroom Connections for this fab linky!

The purpose is to post the item that is most wish listed at my store.

This item beats all others in my store by a LONG stretch and I hope it is something you can use!

 

In honor of this linky I am throwing a SALE on ALL items in my store!

That is 20% off of everything... & I had a few things already discounted!

 

Anyway.. now onto what you came here for!

 

My most wish listed item is the AI & AY Station and Lesson Activities!

 

 

 

 

Let me just promise you... students LOVE these activities! I had mine asking to bring out the magnifying glass activity over & over again!

 

 

Also, a note before this post ends. I used to have a blog named: 'Fluttering in first grade."

Well, it is no more because a fab blogger had the same name and I thought it was only right to change mine since I am new.

SO, I am bring this to your attention because for some reason on BLOGLOVIN everyone is following my other blog and not this one?

 It is very strange because I completely transferred this blog in its place.

 

So, just be sure to follow THIS blog on Bloglovin' if you want to continue or begin following me!!

 

 

Happy Bloggin'!!

 

 

 

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New Teacher Tips!!

 

Okay... So, I have seen this linky running around in blog land lately and have been reading all of the great tips & boy have I learned a lot. I am a new teacher & as many of you know I just finished my first year! As a newbie myself, I do have advice for NEW, NEW teachers that I learned from my first year... here it is! ;)

 

1. FOLLOW AS MANY BLOGS AS YOU CAN!! Read, read and read some more about classroom management, lesson planning and station rotations before you begin school! Having a classroom management plan BEFORE school starts is so important and STICKING to it is so important!

 

2. Find a lesson plan template that works best for you and try to create a routine each week with your lessons so kids know what to expect. Kids like routine and messing with the schedule will throw them off (trust me)!!

 

I always looked at Erica Bohrer's lesson plans to help guide my own.

Mrs. Wills has a wonderful linky during the school year where teachers link up and show you their plans. I cannot tell you how much this helped me! I struggled with this a lot for some reason.

Here is the link to my visuals! They're not as good but I am hoping this changes next year! I am still learning! :)

 

 

 

 

3.Also, learning to set up stations and how to run them was the hardest thing for me. Thank goodness for my bloggy friends or else my stations would have been an absolute disaster! Find a way that you want to set up your stations, prepare them early and correlate them to the theme!

 

I took my station rotation system from Deanna Jump. I don't do it exactly... but very similar. I added second stations to my rotation because I teach first. I don't yet have a post on my stations but I will once school begins! :) Here is the link to hers.

 

 

4. Try your best to organize! As a new teacher it is so hard to know how to organize your items. All I can say is have file folders ready and as soon as someone hands your something throw it in a file folder and label it & put it away. DO not loose precious items!

 

5. Get to know your students and treasure every moment that you have with them. Your beginning years fly by in a flash and it is a blurr. Treasure your moments and have conversations with your kids. They love you and don't let the time you have with them slip by.

 

6. Don't try to teach like anyone else. Teach like you and don't let others tell you your ideas are bad... that is why we all have separate classrooms. Do what works for you & make sure you students are learning. If you classroom is working and your students are improving then you're fine!

 

There are a few of the things I will be doing differently this year. My first year of teaching was so tough and boy was it a learning experience but I loved it. I chose the PERFECT profession for me & I hope you have a fantastic year!

 

Happy Teaching!

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Throw Back Thursday!!

I am linking up tonight with Cara's throwback Thursday! I haven't been blogging long so I did not have many 'good' blog posts to choose from... but, I did decided on a lesson I did towards the end of the school year! It was by far my favorite lesson that I did all year! It is one I am going to create a pack for Tpt but haven't quite made it to that yet! Anyway.... Here is the throwback!

 

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Our week in first grade was all about the zoo! Sadly, I failed at taking good pictures of all of the action but I will show you what I got & try to explain it the best I can!

 

Last Friday I asked students to fill out a form and write down their three favorite zoo animals that they would like to study. After students wrote down their favorites I split students into groups depending on the zoo animal in which they wanted to study. I created this black poster & when they walked in the door Monday morning they were so excited!!

 

Each group had a bag full of books and a research packet like you see below.

 

My class loves to share what they learn so to help them with this and make it still educational I told students they each could share one cool fact a day that they found about their animal. I had stickies available on the board and they could take one and put it in their animals bubbles. The kids loved reading these!

 

 When students were finished gathering information on different topics I taught them how to combine certain information to form a topic. We had a pre-writing sheet that helped them first organize their thoughts which made it very easy to organize their paragraphs!

 

 Next, I got students on the computer to type up their paragraphs! They made expert necklaces where they stored their typed up information. They were to wear these expert necklaces to the zoo and share their information with their group members when they got to their animal!

 Sadly, the weather in good ol' Ohio called for thunderstorms so we did not make it to the zoo today... so my colleagues and I knew we had to make it into a fun day so the kids weren't too sad. We had a scavenger hunt!! We made booklets, hats and binoculars! Kids had so much fun!! Then we brought in pop-corn and four different movies. Kids got to pick a any one of the teachers room to watch a movie!! Very fun day for kids and teachers!

 When we found out we couldn't go to the zoo I had the kids write their parents a note about it since I couldn't make it to the copier to write up a note and make copies! Read below to see what it said! (another teacher did type up a more professional note with details about why we canceled but not what we were doing)

 

I can't wait to get this packet together for you all!

 

 

Right now I am trucking away with literacy and math stations! My team and I have met all week and we have 6 weeks planned so far and I am making stations for us that go right along with the concepts we are covering! I just finished my fall one tonight & guess what?!! I have it discounted! There are a whopping 11 stations in the packet! PERFECT for firsties & great for whole group kindergarten lessons! I would also use this for any second graders who need intervention!

 

Here is the link to it if you want to check it out!

 

 

Next up... Halloween literacy stations are in the works now! :)

 

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