Currently...July Edition

July is almost upon us and this is my 2nd linky that I am participating in.... I have linked up with Oh' Boy 4th Grade's Currently Linky Party as a way to break out of my blogging shell! I am still *new* to the blogging world and just getting to know some fabulous bloggers and have seen these "Currently" posts and decided to join in! Fun times! So as I posted in the Doodle Bugs linky... I have been getting up pretty early this week and will be next week and almost every weekend for the rest of the summer... *sigh*

Anyhow, we are obsessed with the Big Bang Theory! Brian and I  (when he's home) watch it every night and crack up hysterically! 

My favourite character is Dr. Sheldon Cooper. Here are some of his greatest moments!

LOVING.-- Ginger Dressing! I so could drink it with a straw!!!Although I am not much of a salad eater, I do LOVE salads in the summer because they are cool and refreshing and I recently went to Publix and bought a salad kit with ginger dressing and now I am hooked--again! I go through this every summer!

THINKING.... I don't know about you but I am the kind of person that cannot turn school off-- well sometimes. I did this week-- kinda, sorta, maybe! It was in the back of my brain but with all this waking up early it just wasn't in the forefront of my mind (although if you do follow me on Pinterest you will know I was pinning away!! That counts, right? LOL!). I was thinking that I need to start working on my Wizard of Oz room decor! I was on TPT and saw so many CUTE back to school classroom decor and while it is all lovely, I need something to fit what I need for my room. So I am still in the creative processes of thinking what I need to create for an Oz inspired room. I know that it will be rainbow and chevron and of course infused with the Oz characters! Also, I was thinking I need a tan! Seems funny that an already brown person needs a tan and the answer is YES! I do! My upper thighs don't quite match my legs... So I guess I can catch up on my work at the beach!

I really want to go here! I have never been! Have you? There are so many places I want to go and this is one! You would think with Brian being a pilot we could go anywhere! Not so much! Nope! Anyhow...a girl can dream.... One day....We are on lockdown for a few weeks (jury summons-- moan, grown, hiss) so it's a BIG BUMMER!!!

So, I was thinking that if I wasn't a teacher... what would I do? Honestly, I would love to be a decorator or a party planner! I love to decorate and plan! Hence, the need to decorate the boys' rooms and bathroom. They are growing up and need the decor to go with it. Here are some pic inspirations I found: 

Both boys love Star Wars and the Avengers! I think they would be happy with either. Mommy would be happy going here for my inspiration:

I could live there! They have those little room motifs, a cafeteria, TV's... Seriously, they have EVERYTHING! 

And lastly, my one blogging tip I have learned is that I have to be me in everything I do. I have just started out in blogging (I started out in March), creating and selling products products (well, not really-- I have always created them just have not sold them on TPT but I am slowly but surely putting them up. My girlfriends at school crack on me when they see my flashdrive with my bajillion files on them-- all potential TPT units!!), joining groups/blogs, and if I have to give advice to someone starting out: be authentic! Always strive to be true to you and that in blogging you are creating an extension of yourself and your classroom in the hopes of sharing ideas, stories (the good, bad, and ugly). My personality shines through my blog and that is really how I am in person-- although I think my humour and candor is a bit dampened in words... Catch me in person and you will see the difference! Haha!

I hope that you have stayed with my this long and enjoyed reading my "Currently"! I look forward to getting to know some of you! 

Five for Friday! but I am a day late.... Oh well!!!

Well.... it my edition of Five for Friday Saturday edition! I tell you that I have been worn and ton this week for sure!!!! This is SUMMER, right? This week I have been waking up at 6-6:30 every morning to do swim lessons with my monkeys this week!

1. This is one of Gabriel at the family pool-- the one from swim lessons did not download correctly so I will have to retake it next week! We have been contemplating swim lessons for a while now and bit the bullet and signed them up for lessons at the YMCA and Gabriel has done so well! Aidan-- not so much! Day 1 was good... Days 2 and 3 were a disaster! He's 4 and I think he's just young and fearful. Nothing like a crying and screaming kid at the YMCA! 

2. T-Ball anyone? Another reason for my waking up early! We have begun the t-ball and baseball years! Aidan will be joining big brother next year! 

3. See this cute cat? This is my Skippy! Skippyjon Jones Hamlin! I have been working on re-litter training him. We are at our wits end! He has been peeing in the sink and pooping on the floor! It has been a battle. He is a young cat and not sick so I have been on poop patrol! Pray for me! LOL!

4. We love ice cream! I swear that this has become our daily treat almost every day! It's a food group, right?

5. Lastly, Happy 39th birthday to my dear husband! His birthday is tomorrow (the 30th). He is working and will not be with us (he is a pilot) so we celebrated with the boys early. 

This was an absolutely non-academic post. I decided to give my brain a bit of a break. I haven't forgotten about my 100 follower celebration-- just didn't give it top priority this week.... Still working on something fabulous!  

 Enjoy the rest of your weekend and week! 

And the winners are.... and 100 followers! Yay!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Congrats ladies! Please check your e-mail boxes for your file! If you are still interested, you can pick up my packet on my TPT store. Click on the picture to take you there.

Also, I am so excited because I finally hit 100 followers! So excited! I started this blog as a way to reach out to other teachers and share in my adventures (the good and the bad-- not every school day is roses and rainbows and then there are other days when it is too good to be true! ) and to share resources/ideas with you! When I look at other teaching blogs-- that's what we do! I LOVE it! I am working on something fun for my 100 followers so stay tuned! 

Thanks again so much! Love to you!

Mustaches! Mustaches!

Happy Friday!!! But what does it matter to me? I'm on summer break! Hopefully the majority of you are too! I used to (when school was in session) look forward to Friday's and do our Friday tradition on the Limbo dance with my class.... well...that can wait for next school year! Anyhow, really quickly I have to tell you that I have a sickness... I have school on the brain!! Yes, it's a terrible sickness to have but the most important side effect is that all of my fabulous followers and wonderful colleagues benefit from it! I just posted my new unit for back to school:

Click on the preview to take you to my store! And to give you a a great start to your year, I will be giving away 2 packets to 2 lucky followers! All you have to do to enter  is like my facebook page and be a follower! Easy-peasy!! Winners will be announced Tuesday! Just enter the rafflecopter below: 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good Luck! 

A New Linky on Classroom Management and Other Things!

I am linking up with Ashley Reed from Just Reed this mid-week to share in my Top 10 Pins in Classroom Management! I know that I already shared in how my grade level shares in our classroom behavior but we also input some other great ideas and then some! As I was looking at my Pinterest board... Everything First Grade! (click on the words to take you there-- I seriously need to organize my boards better but sometimes I get so pin-happy that I can't help myself!), here are some pins that I have either already incorporated or will do this year!

1. Voice Levels: I know that this concept seems really simple, but I love how they give it a numerical value and assign it a phrase like "Silence is Golden" or my personal favourite, "Spy Talk". In my classroom, I have the plain old red, yellow, and green circles and that's about it. I like this and think I will post this up in the front of my classroom in addition to my coloured circles. 

teachingforfameandmoney.blogspot.com

2. Hand Signals: Loving the "Hand Jive" vibe to this poster and love it as a display for kids. I use hand signals in my classroom (different than these) and find them so useful. I especially like the "I understand/I don't understand" which is especially helpful for our ESOL/ESL kids.

rainbowswithinreach.blogspot.com

3. Behaviour Beads: Similar to bucket fillers. I like this idea as they earn beads for being bucket fillers and at the end of the week they can make a bracelet. Bling-bling!!

rainbowswithinreach.blogspot.com

4. Bucket Filler Necklace: Goes along with the idea of the buckets... Students wear a necklace for being bucket fillers! Kids really love getting noticed for the great things they do! Like I always tell my kiddos when coaching others on a task... "We want to encourage, not discourage!"

seusstastic classroom

5. Fun Attention Grabbers: CLASS!!! Yes!!! LOL! I am always looking for fun ways that get their attention other than the clapping out a rhythm, "Give me 5", "1-2-3, eyes on me!"... Here are some other cute ways, as I am sure you might have some other ones too!

6. Brain Breaks! Yes! Even I need them. One of my favourite ones to do is the Just Dance Wii ones on youtube (like the one I have here because I love Maroon 5 and Adam Levine!). They are fun to do and like anything on the internet, preview them first! Go ahead and play the video-- you know you want to move like Jagger!!! Really, it's a great dance video! No ones looking!! LOL! 

 If the dance craze is not your thang, then I do have some brain break cards that I have printed, cut, and laminated that I have hanging on my whiteboard on a key ring. 

numberonepencils.blogspot.com

7. Behaviour Coupons: I really like the idea of behaviour coupons for the classroom. I don't know about you, but sometimes I feel that treasure box/candy jar can get boring and not only that but I feel like kids get way too much material things and these simple, low to no cost (my husband would be so happy, happy, happy if I spent less money on my classroom-- can I get an Amen?) coupons are a great way to reinforce good behaviour with little effort on our part other than printing and cutting them out! Fabulous!!!

Behavior Coupons with a QR code!!! So, not only do they get a behavior coupon, but now they get to scan it!! Way cool in my book! 

classroomfreebies.blogspot.com

8. Brownie Points: I used to do a chain link in my class and each link represented whenever my class earned a compliment or were just extra fabulous. This is another cute and fun way!

9. RESPECT: Aretha sang it best! I am big believer in respect in the classroom (aren't we all??) and I saw these cute kids by whimsyworkshop.blogspot.com and thought what a cute way to help with the beginning of the year and classroom management and behavior! 

10. What to do? What to do? I like this visual post for the whiteboard or chalkboard that shows students what materials they need and what they "can" and "cannot" do. 

firstgradeglitterandgiggles.blogspot.com

I hope this gave you some new ideas that you can pin and use! I am working on some printables for my Wizard of Oz room and I am so excited! I just finished and will be uploading a new getting to know you packet on TPT-- I Mustache You a Question-- Getting to Know You Questions and Activities! I was a *little* obsessed with the mustache thing after reading the book "Mustache" by Mac Barnett with my boys and had to make a little something to with it.

And so, if you managed to stay with my this far.... here is a little freebie for you from my new packet... It is from the activity:

Click on the picture to take you there! It is just one page of 3 from this particular packet!

Enjoy! 

An Apple A Day Linky on Classroom Management

This week's focus is classroom management. Remember in education classes, they always said to have eyes in the back of your head?

No? That certainly is not me, although the kids will ask and whisper "How did she know?" As Uncle Si from my newest TV obsession, Duck Dynasty would say, "Hey! We was all young once!"

So, for this week's discussion, I am going to re-visit my previous post on how my grade level handles classroom management.  Click on the picture to take you there! I know that when I have a tough day, I just go to my happy place and...

Have a great Sunday and can't wait to hear your classroom management techniques and systems!

It's a Linky Party! Classroom Decor!

Let me start off with my classroom this year! My theme was "First Grade Goes to Hollywood!" and I loved it.....for three years! I had it all! Popcorn boxes for pencil holder, tickets, movie reels, their tables were named after famous old time movie stars ("The Duke" table, 'Elvis" table, etc...",  their jobs were jobs that were jobs on a movie set, movie posters galore, the classroom rules were "Takes", etc.... It was fun while it lasted! It was a colourful and fun room indeed. 

 Here are some pictures of my classroom this year...

That was the old... and now the new!!!

Classroom decor is something that always helps me start the year off on the right foot! Well, in this upcoming school year's case, a pair of these:

while I sing this song:

You guessed it! My classroom decor/theme is The Wizard of Oz. I am so excited to launch this theme this year. I had this theme in my head even before the newest Oz movie came out. 

Desk Organization:

My desks are organized in groups of 4/5 so that I can use Kagan structures with my class but I had planned on hanging hot air balloons and numbering them:

Classroom Decor

Chevron! I think I may have a slight obsession at the moment! I currently don't have any pictures of my room with chevron as I had to take down my room which was a Hollywood theme but I do plan on putting chevron in my room in various rainbow colours to go with the "Over the Rainbow" theme.Actually, I am eyeing Schoolgirl Style's "Learn Colorfully" Rainbow Chevron theme for my room!! It's FABULOUS!!! If only I can convince Brian, my dear husband of how fabulous it is, too!!

Hallway

Follow the Yellow Brick Road!!! I plan on having a yellow brick road on "Meet the Teacher" leading up to my room with the "Wicked Witch of the East" scene by my door. I basically wanted my portion of the hallway to look like Munchkinland so I will have giant flowers on the wall and various quotes from the movie on the wall. On my door, I am thinking a yellow brick road with Emerald City at the top and the names of my class on the bricks or just boy/girl cut outs on the yellow brick road leading up to Emerald City. 

Classroom Management

I know that this is another topic and I will go into that in more detail later but I think I can really use the characters to help with character education and that is one of my pet projects this summer to create posters for character education, classroom expectations, classroom signs-- all Wizard of Oz themed. 

Hopefully, you have an "idea" of what my room will look like for next year. Still in the process of thinking of creative ideas so I may add to this link! Let me know what you think or if you have ideas of your own!

I also have a Pinterest board for all the ideas I find! Click on the image to take you there!:

Be sure to check out the other links for more great classroom decoration ideas!