5 Ideas You Can Use to Start your Schoolyear Off Right

Hello again! Are you ready? They're coming...sooner than you think...soon, your classroom will be full...of...children! I hope you're having lots of success getting everything ready for the new children in your class. Maybe some are moving up from a younger class; maybe they're brand-new.  It's always a nervous time for teachers as we prepare lessons and materials,...

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Happy "Admit You're Happy" month!

Hello, all! I hope you're having a great summer so far!  Are you planning for the next school year? Wondering what your kids will be like? Stressing about your boss? Well, in the immortal words of Douglas Adams: You'll get there! *************************** Today I found out that August is "Admit You're Happy Month." This seems like an odd concept at first....

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Congress Has a Bucket, Too

As a teacher, you face many issues: conflicting regulations, Common Core, low pay. You may be wondering if there's anything you can do about it. I'm here to remind you that everyone has a voice! Have you ever read the book How Full is Your Bucket to your kids? If not, you should. It's a wonderful book about how compliments and kind actions fill someone's happiness bucket throughout the day. One kindness may not seem like much, but eventually they...

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Potato Salad and Risk

Hello, all! I hope you're having a great summer so far. My organization has come to a grinding halt; it seems there's always an emergency in the classroom these days. You know how it goes. We lost a few students to kindergarten, so we'll have lower numbers next week and hopefully I'll have some time then. How many of you have heard of Danger and his potato salad? It's the...

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"In Summerrr!"

Hello, all! First of all, I apologize for getting "In Summer" stuck in your head for those that have listened to Frozen on repeat like our class has. For the past 3 months. Every. Single. Day.  I hope you're having a great summer, whether you're with kids or not. And if you're going on any field trips, I feel your pain; best of luck to you.  I'm going to have...

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Aloha!

Source: discoverhawaiitours.tumblr.com Well, this is it, everyone: the last week of school before our summer program starts!  This means that I'll be blogging a little less since I won't be planning this summer. I'm going to use the time to work on my TpT shop and keep you posted on happenings and ramblings in general. Look for a freebie soon! This time of...

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Look! A Classroom Post! An exploration of plants

Hello, all! Is this a hard time of year for you? I know I usually start feeling a little overwhelmed. Transition meetings, increased energy from the kids, and just a general feeling of denouement from the rest of the year (thanks, English concentration!) It's hard to stay motivated. So we talked about plants! I have a black thumb; the daisy in one of the pictures is...

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Call to Action

Hello! A post about my latest classroom activities is coming, I promise. This past week I've had meetings with my boss, parents, and a staff meeting. Plus I've been calling UNC and bothering them about how I can afford school. I decided that it's not really feasible this time around and will try again in 2(!) years, when the program's offered again. And now for something...

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Get great products and help me get my Master's!

Hello all! Yes, this is a sob story. It's also a great opportunity for you to get customized products and a shameless attempt at begging :) If you want, you can skip this post and I'll have a regular classroom post up soon. The good news is, I've been accepted into the graduate teaching program at UNC Chapel Hill. It's a Master's of Education focusing on Early Childhood,...

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I'm an introvert and a teacher. (And that's ok.)

Hello all! I've been doing some introspection this week and thought I'd share my thoughts with you. I'm an introvert, through and through. Put me in front of a crowd and I love it. Organized notes, shiny pictures, sharing my experience: I love it. But put me in a one-on-one conversation or a party situation and I freeze up like a deer in headlights. This has made being...

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Come Fly with Me!

Hello all! First, here's a midweek pick-me-up from Frank Sinatra: I know I was quiet last week. I was recovering from vacation and finding my groove. I've also been crocheting a bit more lately as I've had some ideas from the beach!  So I didn't take many pictures last week. We talked about wheels and how they make cars go. We looked at the differences between a truck and a racecar, then drew a fast car. The students had to tell us why...

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Post Number 50! Let's Celebrate with Rainbows!

50 posts already!  This blog has grown a bit since the first post and I hope it will keep growing. Thanks for all your support!  So it's been a busy week! My last post talked about teamwork. We continued rainbows this week and had a few surprises. My favorite part of the week was making the Cloud in a Bottle. I got this fabulous idea from Pinterest and we...

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There's no "i" in "team," but there are an "m" and an "e"

First, an exciting announcement: I've been accepted into the Master's of Education program at UNC Chapel Hill! It's focused on classrooms that include children with disabilities or are in low-income families. I can't wait to share everything I'm learning with you!  Of course this also means my posts might become more sporadic starting in May and they might be shorter,...

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Pets!

It's Dr. Seuss week this week and I have a great freebie in Spanish and English on TeachersPayTeachers! I'm hoping it will inspire parents to read with their kids; I'll let you know next week. We got off schedule this week due to snow and an ice storm that knocked out power in my town and the ones surrounding it, so hopefully next week I'll have some great items to share as...

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Midweek cheer

Hello all, Sorry I've been neglecting this blog lately.  I've been: working on an IEP for a picky parent. Trying to get my Personal Statement together so I can apply to grad school (2-3 pages single spaced).  Catching up from snow days with parent letters in both English and Spanish. Whew! So I heard some good advice today and thought I'd share it. It's March,...

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SALE!

Hello, all! TeachersPayTeachers is having a big sale Feb. 27-28.  As a bonus, lots of teachers (including me) are opting to let you get an additional 20% off of products. Don't be shy; if you don't see something you want or if you want a bundle, just ask. Click the giant picture below: ...

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We Got the Blues (and we love it!)

Hello, all! Well, it's Thursday. 1 more day until Friday. To help you get through, let me introduce you to one of my favorite pieces of music: Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin. Don't be put off by the length; leave it on in the background as you read and browse. Listen to that soaring clarinet in the beginning. Doesn't it just lift your spirit? Make you feel just a little...

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A Red Letter Day

Hello all, Valentine's Day is one of my favorite holidays to share with the kids. Recently I looked through my sensory table resources and saw an idea for a monochromatic sensory bin. Nothing groundbreaking, to be sure, but I spiced it up a little bit and thought I'd share. Sensory tables are great for exploration, but my class is very task-oriented. Some children simply...

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Mythical Magic

I love having a flexible curriculum! If you're ever stuck for ideas, just ask your class what they want to learn about. Mine said "monsters." We had just finished up our Ocean topic, so my first thought was "Sea monsters." Then I started brainstorming. Obviously, we couldn't talk about zombies or real monsters, but we could talk about mythical animals. We had a lot of fun,...

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