Last minute FREEBIE

Here is a last minute writing paper.  

After reading "The Cat in the Hat" I am having my students complete this little paper.  The prompt I am using is "What would you do if you had a Thing 1 and Thing 2?"

Snag it here or you can grab it at my TPT store for FREE! :)

Thing1-2 Writing

Leap Year!

Stop by HERE! :)

Thanks for the love!

I couldn't wait!

The cloudy and freezing weather helped to keep me inside all day watching some Lifetime and getting my mini unit DONE! So without further ado my 

"There was an Old Lady" mini unit!

 Click HERE to head to my TPT store!

I don't know about you and your sweet kiddos but mine absolutely LOVE the "There was an Old Lady" series! They seriously can't get enough. They continuously BEG me to get more copies so they can each have a book in their book luggage to read during Daily Five {apparently they think I have a money tree in my backyard}!  We recently did a author's study and compared all the books.  I know my kiddos are going to go bananas when they see the newest book! :)

I hope you all enjoy!  This TPT thing has me feeling all kinds of emotions.  I started my little store to try and earn some money for my sweet little family and to share goodies that I have created for my own classroom. I'm nervous as to if it's going to be worth it or not.  My dream is to hopefully one day get the "cuteness" factor down pat like my "idols" Cara, Deanna, Abby, Anna, Christie, Reagan, Kristin, and SOOOO many more!  We'll see how it goes! :)

Thank you for all your kind words and support!

Seusstastical Words {Freebie}

I can NOT believe that Dr. Seuss' birthday is next week.  I will be celebrating with St. Patrick's Day activities in two weeks {mini unit coming SOON}. AND spring break will be here in three weeks!  This year is flying soaring by at light speed!! 

Does anyone else feel this way? My goodness!

To celebrate the man who create stories with silly nonsense words and brought fun to learning rhyming words here is a little freebie!  You can snag it by clicking HERE.  

  
Side note: I was emailed by a couple people wanting to know how I created the picture for my number line extravaganza {to show multiple pages from my file}.  I'm sure there's an easier way, however, this is the only way I know how.  I simply took screen shots of the pages I wanted to feature in my preview picture.  Then I put those screen shots onto a powerpoint slide {you can use Word also}. THEN I took a screen shot picture of the slide I created and uploaded the picture onto my blog.  Phew! Sounds like a lot but it's really rather easy.  To take a screen shot you hold down control, shift, and four at the same time.  Then highlight over what you want to take a screen shot of and it will automatically place the picture on your desktop.  
Does that make sense?!  I hope that is helpful to those who were curious.  Let me know if I need to explain in it in another way.  I can sometimes get a little too "wordy." :)

On a more random note: I'm not sure how the weather is where you live but this entire last week has been in the high 70's until this morning when I got smacked in the face with a wind chill that made it feel like it was in the 30's!!!  Okay Mr. Groundhog... I'm tired of this weather! I'm ready for sun, sand, and a tan! :)

Happy Saturday!

Oh my goodness...I did it!!

I opened up my very own TPT store and added my very first packet!

I am so ecstatic I can barely contain myself! :)

For over two years and 71 purchased products later, I have been a BIG supporter of TPT and the whole idea behind giving back to teachers who have taken time out of their busy lives to create instructional materials that are appealing to the eye...for both me and my sweet kiddos!  Since I have put so much into "snagging" others goodies, I thought I should put myself to work and make a few of my own.

My first packet is all on number lines.  Math has been a huge subject for me this year, in that I have put lots of time and effort into becoming a better math teacher.  With that, I got into using Math Workstations.  I found that number lines were such an easy way to differentiate and review basic math concepts. PLUS they can be used ALL YEAR LONG.  Suh-weet! I have been using these plain old boring number lines that had no "flair" to them what-so-ever.

Then, I had the pleasure of listening to my sweet, dear "idol" Kim Adsit and had the AHA moment to soup my plain boring number lines up!

Here's a preview of my 51 page packet.  It contains 12 different themed number lines and comes equipped with directions and ways to differentiate.

Since I am OVER THE MOON excited about my accomplishment, I don't want to bask in the glee of this packet alone...I wanna share the joy with you.

SO...I will be giving away this awesome little packet to the first three people to respond!!! Make sure to leave me your email addy!  

And let me know what you think?!:)

 

How I met my hubbers {linky party}

My hubbers is amazing! Truly the best. I'm not being biast or anything.  It's just how it is. :)

How we met is somewhat of a Lifetime movie!

We met at the ripe age of 18. But it's not one of those high school sweetheart deals.  When we met we lived in separate states.  I lived in Ocala.  He lived in Boston.  Here's the catcher.... we didn't meet in person! aaahhhh!  Okay here it goes.  Grab a glass of wine, beer, lemonade, water, whatever you prefer and maybe a tissue.

hahaha.  This is not the year we met but it's circa 2005...3 years after we met.  I can't find my OLD stuff.  Okay.  So I had just graduated high school and just enrolled into my first semester at a community college.  Mark {that's my hubby} just moved to Boston to live with his older sister. Side note: he was from Tallahassee...where we now live.

The clincher: our parents went to high school and college together!!!  My mother and his father were close friends and grew up right down the street from one another.  At there 25th high school reunion they all reconnected.  

THEN a year later {2002...while I was in my first semester of college and in journalism class} I needed a newspaper to complete one of my projects.  So my mom grabbed the paper, started looking through it and noticed a picture of a boy skateboarding.  Then she recognized the name.  OMG! It was my {now} hubby! haha...she sent his dad an email immediately to verify.  How his picture ended up in our newspaper in a different county 2 hours away is beyond me!  But there it was and me being the "extreme sports" kinda chic I was then was in "love!" :)

SO...his dad and my mom gave us each others emails and AIM names...YEA...remember AOL Instant Messenger. HA!  One day I saw his name pop up on AIM and sent him a message.  

LITERALLY....the rest is history.  That was the beginning of August.  He flew me up to Boston to meet him in person on October 11, 2002.  We did the whole running to one another in the airport and kissing.  It was all romantic at the age of 18.  By December, we were both moving to Tallahassee so that we could live in the same town.  We broke up 80 million times for the next five years before we decided to make it official.  

I love my husband more now than I ever have.  We are about to hit our five year wedding anniversary in June and our 10 year anniversary of "being together" in October.

Here's our Christmas pic:

We're really bad about taking pics together.

I've loved reading every one's stories of how they met their sweeties.  Link up at Mrs. B's blog to join in on the love fest!!! :)  Happy FRIDAY!

will you be mine

I am so glad today is over. Another 364 days and we'll be right back here again.  The sugar highs.  The tears (when we don't get "that" card). The 'down' from coming off our sugar high. The love.  The hugs. The sweetness between friends.  The endless pile of chocolates on my teacher's desk.  The humbling cards. The list goes on and on!!!

I had a wonderful day.  I laughed.  I cried.  I blew my nose 1,000,000 times. I chugged loads of Dayquil.  I had a BLAST!

I am blessed to have such wonderful friends and family that surround me and feel even more blessed to have all of you 'back me up!'  My Valentine's Day {at school} was splended with all the awesome activities that I 'stole' from all of you wonderful ladies!

I am in the works of an awesome math packet and am so excited to finally accomplish something! ha!

Much love to you and yours!

Currently I am...

I heart Farley and her "Currently" linky parties!  They are such a great and fun way to see a snippet of fellow bloggers days/lives! :)  

Here ya go:

Hmm....Should I have spelled "who's"....whose?!?!  haha!!

Also, my 'needing' list could've been A. LOT. LONGER. But I thought that would sum up my day, week, YEAR! :)

If you haven't already, first become a follower of Farley at 'Oh Boy Fourth Grade blog because she is HI-larious, adorable, and has such amazing ideas!  Then link up {HERE} and play along!

I also can NOT wait for the Bachelor to come on, then RHOBH, and THEN get to read about Kristin has to say about it all {most of which I completely agree with and often thought THE EXACT SAME THING when watching} at A Teeny Tiny Teacher! That girl cracks me up.

Well, Monday's over! woohoo! 

Objectives.

So this year has been ALL about objectives and rubrics and the 'showing' of them.

Over the summer I purchase Deanna Jump's common core standard packet because I liked the idea of having something that I could interchange when needed and something that seemed kid friendly and easy for parents to see, read, and understand.  Then I went to Kim Adsit's conference {have I mentioned how amazing this woman is}.  I had more "aha" moments at her conference than I have had in, lets just say, awhile!  She began speaking about objectives and how in her district everything had to have a "purpose" for why it was there.  For instance she couldn't have the students names on the wall without their being some sort of purpose or objective.  SO to overstep the hoopla she typed up questions to show an essential question/objectives.  Next to her names on the wall she posted the essential question, "Do we know our friends names?"  BRILLIANT I say!  

side note: isn't it kind of sad that kindergarten and first grade has to 'limit' their crafts and "fun" stuff?!

So here are some pics and explanations:

 The above picture is showing my math standard that I was teaching that lesson and the essential question.  What Kim showed us at her conference, and what I later did, was that for each of her lessons she had the benchmark/standard listed with the essential question.  Then, not only are her administrators happy that they can see it plain as day and they see it being used with students, but the students really get an idea of what they're learning!

I went ahead and snagged two small chart paper tablets and wrote all the standards and questions for the next month worth of lessons.  I will be laminating them and putting them into a more organized order/fashion so that they're readily available and accessible next year {and the years to come}.

This is also a great way to check for understanding with your kiddos.  Instead of my kids writing on their papers a rubric score stating whether they understand or not mine put a finger close to their heart before they break up into independent work.  For example, if someone understands the math/writing/reading concepts and feels confident in completing their work independently they hold up one finger close to their heart.  If they mostly understand but have a question, they hold up a two, and if they don't really get it and need extra practice/help they hold up a three.  What I love is that it's "close to their heart" so nobody else can see it.  We also talk alot about how everyone learns differently so my kids don't bat an eye with being honest with themselves.

The following picture is just to show you how I have my common core standards posted.  This is my 'parent info' door.  It's also great for when we have people dropping in who want to ask certain questions regarding our schedule, etc... they can just check out our door!

Well there you have it.  In a nutshell.  Or not.  How do you display your objectives?