Currently ~ October!

Hey y'all!

You know, I just l-o-v-e fall. The football, the festivals, and the family gatherings aplenty, all happen during this wonderful season. However, there is one eensy-weensy thing I don't like about fall. The weather. 

While others are enjoying the changing colors of leaves and the joys of throwing on a cute jacket and boots, we get to try out stronger strengths of deodorant and pile on heaps of hair spray or gel to keep the frizz at bay. 

{Not to mention our nightly prayers for no hurricanes to visit us.}

I mean, does it really have to be 90 degrees outside? We are melting.

I'd be thrilled with 80 degrees. Just not 90 (with Florida humidity, too.)

I can't complain, too much, though. I love all of the other seasons. I DO live in paradise.

Anyway, we've been having lots of fun in our classroom the past few weeks.

I started pulling reading groups with both the Firsties and K kids.

Kindergarten reading groups are SO much fun. They just love sitting with me ALL to themselves.

Also, my teamie, Kelly, and I spent two weeks on our Apple unit because we had so many activities for just one week. We culminated the unit with Sarah Cooley's Apple Tasting Party. What a blast! I'll share more about that later.

~~~~~~Now onto something FUN!~~~~~

It is the beginning of the month, which means it is time for Farley's famous CURRENTLY Linky Party!

Here is mine for October:

I'll just explain some of my topics:

*Loving - Cara featured one of my anchor charts on her fabulous blog, The First Grade Parade! Words cannot express how excited and honored I feel about this. I could die happy now! Also, (and this is not nearly as exciting) I bought a new pair of purple cords and I love them SO much. They are cute and comfy. Perfect teacher pants!

*Thinking - Lesson planning has never taken me so long to do before this year. The CCSS and teaching K and 1 are both a huge undertaking. Our leadership team has strongly advised us to NOT use our Reading Series. Which would have been manageable, if I was only teaching one grade. But teaching two grades and pretty much inventing my own curriculum, including all of the advised RIGOR, has been very time consuming!

*Needing - Our district remade the report cards to reflect the CCSS and it is not teacher or parent friendly. I have NO IDEA how I am going to explain it to my parents. I don't even understand why they picked some topics and not others. I'm very frustrated with it totally. You should see it. Blech!

*Book - Inside a House That is Haunted, by Alyssa Satin Capucilli. This is a fun book to read aloud and to listen to the audio version. 

Also, everyone loves Tedd Arnold's illustrations.

Well, that's it for now, but I'll be back...

Groovy Fonts!

So, let's just ignore the fact that I haven't blogged since the beginning of the month.

I am still here and I've made it to Day 26 of school.

I think these 26 days have aged me at least three years, but I am still alive and teaching.

The aneurism and/or heart attack hasn't happened.

These are all positives. I'm taking what I can get.

Also, apparently, most of the bloggers that I adore and stalk all have wonderful, magnificent, precious classes. 

Now, I don't know EXACTLY where y'all teach, but I think I need to move there.

There was a teacher at my school (she retired last year) who, every year, would say, "I have the BEST class!" 

I used to be sooo jealous of her and her wonderful classes. Then, I looked at the students in her class. I had taught some of them or had heard about them. And let's just say, some of them didn't have "best behavior" reputations. I got to thinking, how is it possible for her to have the BEST class with kids I know aren't angels?

It's all perspective. She didn't have the BEST cookie-cutter class in the school; she just had a great attitude.

I think of her and her wonderful spirit every beginning of the year when I'm feeling like a crummy teacher who has the most difficult class.

I'm a realist, so I won't flat-out say I have the most wonderfully behaved class in the nation.

However, they are really funny and we laugh a lot. I never know what will happen next with these 33 kiddos.

Having said that, my biggest struggles this year aren't really the kids.

It is that I am teaching 2 grade levels (and inclusion) with pretty much no curriculum or support.

And that is the reason I haven't had the desire to blog. I am exhausted from planning lessons, finding texts, and learning as much as I can about kindergartners, autism and other disabilities.

Recently, I am kinda sorta getting myself into a somewhat normal routine. 

I have been able to read a few blogs here and there, and occasionally I'll take a peek at the lovely pins found on Pinterest.

Today I saw a pin, that led me to a site, that I believe some of you may have read or already heard about. (Click here to go to the website.)

I guess there is an app for the iPad that allows the user to create fonts?!

Well, the above linked website houses all of the created/shared fonts.

I was in Free Font Heaven!

Below are some of my favorites that I downloaded. 

The names of the fonts are listed under each phrase.

I am pretty sure the Rowdy, Maddening, and Gingersnap fonts are from fellow bloggers, but I am not positive.

Nevertheless, they are awesome, and I can't wait to use them!

It's the little things...

P.S. My new CHRISTMAS Pete the Cat book came today. It is SO cute!
Why isn't Christmas tomorrow?????

Happy Tuesday!

CurRenTly - SePteMbeR!

Happy September, folks!

I'm taking a break from hours and hours of tedious school stuff to participate in one of my favorite Linky Parties - CurRenTly!

From the looks of my Currently, I am chin deep in school work and stress!

First of all, why is it that my air conditioning in my car works fine during the winter and spring, but blows hot air during the summer and fall? What a pain in the butt!

Also, if the CCSS have been around for a while now, why is it that we are so unprepared?

Thank goodness, for you all and your TPT stores because I am struggling.

My favorites are pretty easy ones:  1) I couldn't live without my laptop.  {Good news - I'm finally caught up with my Google Reader. PTL!}

2) My cats are always around to make me feel loved and are pretty entertaining.

3) Candy - and lots of it please. My chocolate fever is at an all time high.

Please join Farley's party and don't forget to follow the rule of three.

169 days until Summer Vacation!

Back to School

Hello strangers!

Boy, have I missed you all.

So, ya'll know better than anyone how crazy busy the first few weeks of school can be.

Well, pile that back to school busyness on top of a new grade level, new standards, new daily requirements, NO curriculum, AND no training for all of this and you have one VETERAN teacher in survival mode.

Needless to say, I just haven't had any spare time to blog, read blogs, and enjoy the loveliness that is the bloggy community.

 I am super excited for this three day weekend. I need time to breathe!

It's a heart attack or an aneurism. One of them is bound to happen. I kid. (not really,ha!)

The first ten days of school have come and gone and we have been very productive.

I am a reading teacher for 1st graders and Kindergartners now.

 I have my Kinders in the morning for an hour and forty five minutes, and I have my Firsties for homeroom and in the afternoon for two hours.

This means my Reading Workshop time needs to be balanced and time on task is imperative.

The powers that be expect a well-oiled machine by now, but for me, right now it's all about the basics. Rules, routines, social skills, and learning how to be a student and a friend. 

All of this is super important in any classroom, but I feel it to be especially important for our class because a third of the students are special needs kids. Tolerance, acceptance, and patience, three things we are all working on!

Already, I have had to be very stern with some of my students who haven't been as kind and patient to my special needs students. I am hoping this behavior is curbed now and not something I have to address all year long. Anyone have any good ideas, lessons, or links on this topic?

My kinders are so stinkin' cute. They are little sponges and pick up on every little thing (at least, some of them do...) that I do. So, I have amped up my dramatic side for these guys and they eat it up! I feel like Mrs. Frizzle.

As you may know, I have been using the Daily 5 management system with my first graders for many years now and I just love it.

This year is no different, except, I am trying it with my kindergartners, too. 

My first graders are up to 10 minutes on Read to Self and Work on Writing and the kinders are up to 4 minutes on just Read to Self. It's a work in progress, folks.

Here are a few pictures of our practice time:

Kinders

They LOVE Pete the Cat!

Firsties

On a side note: 

I am so thrilled to have purchased Kim Adsit's Unit 1 for Readers Workshop.

I really had no clue what to do with the kinders. I wasn't sure what was too easy, too hard, or too soon. Her unit is helping me gage where my k's are and how to help them learn how to be life long Book Lovers. I am sooooo thankful for this unit!

On the job training, I tell ya!

Not too much to share for now, but I'm working on it.

I hope you all have a wonderful Labor Day weekend!

and

Go Gators!

Wait Cards for Easy Transitions

Oh summer, why don't you last forever?

Just when I was getting used to my carefree schedule, I'm back to work. 

This is my 13th year teaching and EVERY year I feel nervous, anxious, and slightly depressed about back to school. We had Orientation tonight and about half of my class came to meet their new teacher. I wish it had been more, but half is better than a third. As always, I had many of my former students come by, too {which I LOVE!}

Along with my new role of being the reading teacher for K's and 1's, my partner and I are also the inclusion teachers. This is very new to me, too. I've had learning disabled students before but never the title. No training either, so I will be learning the tricks of the trade along the way {which seems to be the case with everything in education right now - sink or swim.}

Our wonderful OT therapist gave me this great idea for my littles who don't finish their work in a timely manner and need to transition. It's called the "WAIT" card. You tell them that it is time for (whatever) and they need to leave their work for later. You lay the "WAIT" card on top of their work, and it is a visual reminder to help them move on.

Apparently, this is a management tip the Self-Contained classrooms use all the time successfully with their students. I am all about management tips, so I whipped up some "Wait" cards for my team teacher and myself.

Click on the picture to download the file!

I could have used these with my perfectionists!

Well, I have to make this post brief because we are curriculum mapping tomorrow, and I need to study up! Due to our switch to the Common Core standards, we are moving away from the reading series and bringing on that informational text. But what? and when? Those are the questions!

Happy Thursday!

Monday Made It

I am so sad. This was my last care-free weekend... AND I took total advantage of it. 

The husband and I spent a lot of time together. We spent so much time together, he'll be happy that I am back to school this week!

I really hope this isn't my last Monday Made It for a while, but I am afraid it might be.

I've been hearing some nasty rumors about new curriculum requirements this year.

Requirements that will likely eat-up most of my free time. Boo!

Venting Alert--->WHY do we pay money hand over fist to publishing companies, if I have to spend my hours supplementing???<---Sorry, I needed to let that out.

Anyway, I'm just a little nervous about the expectations that are surrounded by Common Core. I've been to two workshops regarding Common Core already, and they were NOT helpful at all. They just reminded me of how much more work I'm going to have to do.

We shall see...

Enough of that boring stuff and on to my "Made It's"

1) First, I found a bunch of really cool stuff to spruce up my classroom. I spent a lot of time printing, cutting, laminating, and cutting again, but it was well worth it!

My pile of laminating to cut.

After about three hours, all of it was cut and organized. Ya!

 Here's a list of what is what:

*Binder Covers from the WONDERFUL Rachelle at What the Teacher Wants. They are editable, so I was able to make covers for everything! Yee-haw

*Welcome Pennant from Vickie at Mrs. Plant's Press. It's free and totally cute! Love it!

*CAFE headers for my bulletin board from Rachel at The Tattooed Teacher. I don't have a Wizard of Oz theme but these are so darlin' I couldn't pass them up. Plus, The Wizard of Oz is on the list of Exemplar Texts, that makes it totally relevant. :)

*Visual Directions cue cards for my little guys from Tiffani at Time 4 Kindergarten. These will be good to refer to while they are working.

*Fabulous Firsties Mega Word Work cards - Mrs. Mabe has created a fantastic set of Word Work cards. These will be great for myself and my part-time aid (if I actually get one - Lord help me!) who will be working with my inclusion students. Thanks!

*Abby's Ready to Read unit is fabulous for beginning of the year activities that will carry over throughout the year.

*Writing Station Starter Kit from Teri at A Cupcake For the Teacher. I was so happy to pick this up. It is perfect for independent writing time.

I put together my Writing Station board, and I am so pleased with how it turned out.

I hope my kiddos like it as much as I do!

I hung my Welcome Pennant above my Daily 5 I-Charts.

I've redone my I-Charts so they will be ready for me to fill in with my students responses.

We will complete the   I-charts on large chart paper, and then I'll convert the responses over to these smaller charts. We'll refer to these charts throughout the year. {Especially around the holidays!}

My new CAFE headers

The Visual Directions Cue Cards

Since I will be the reading teacher for a class of Kinders and Firsties, I will need two sets of Daily 5 pocket charts for our three daily rounds. When I first started the Daily 5 about six years ago, I had purchased the Target Dollar Spot pocket charts and used these choice cards. This system works really well for me, so I went out to Target and got some more charts. I hung them under my first set of charts and learned that they are made much smaller then my old charts! Oh no, my cards won't fit. Nothing is easy!

I had to make a new set of smaller cards.

First three rows are the smaller set for my Kinders and the last three rows are the normal sized cards for my Firsties. Click on the picture to pick up the smaller set of cards. 

Also, I had a request for a smaller sized 'Brainstorm Vocabulary' poster printable to fit on a file folder and here it is...

Click on the picture to get the document.

The first part is the large poster board version and the second part is the file folder version.

You'll need to use wittle Post-its.

My sister, Jill, has been very busy, too. She redid her classroom theme and has been working hard at hunting down anything in teal and brown.

She made an adorable frame for pictures.

(Please excuse the cell phone pictures, I had to steal these from her texts to me!)

interchangeable labels for our special days

our wonderful SEVENTH grade model, Molly

She made me a frame, too. I'm so lucky :)

We have also added Kristin's Quiet Creature. I think he looks like a llama.

Can I tell you how much I'm loving TPT's sale? 

I love it this much <------------------------------------------------------------------------>!

My wishlist has gotten a lot smaller with my new purchases. Yippers!

I may not have my own TPT store to promote for the sale, but Jill does. :)

She has some awesome science fair projects available for super cheap.

Here's a link to her store. Click {HERE}

Please go and check out everyone else's Made It"s while you still have time!

Thanks again, Tara!

Y'all have a great week!

Monday Made It

It's Monday.

Which means we have another entry for Tara's Awesome Linky Party, Monday Made It.

Holy Guacamole!

Alright, so school has not officially started and I'm already knee-deep and a week behind.

Busy, busy, busy, I was with workshops, meetings, and Kindergarten Camp.

Oh ya, we had a big 'ol Kinder Camp last week, and I got to meet a handful of my soon-to-be babies. All I have to say about it is... I was T-I-R-E-D by three o'clock!

Also, I'm going to apologize to y'all now, too, because I have been a terrible blogger and follower. I have so many unread posts on my Google Reader that I am officially afraid to open it. Yikes! Didn't somebody have a Resolution Linky Party going on right now?

Well, I've already FAILED at the whole "Time Management" resolution I always make.

In order to feel like I have accomplished something for last week, I was on a project making marathon yesterday.

Of course, almost all of my projects were courtesy of you awesome bloggers out there!

Thank you!!!

1. 'How Do We Get Home' Clip Chart by Krista Carlson from The Second Grade Superkids blog.

*Maybe this will help me keep track of my students better {fingers crossed.}

 2. Five Finger Hand Signals by Run! Miss Neslon's Got the Camera blog.

*I love these! They are so bright and cheery. Need to find a spot for them...hmmm....

3. Whole Brain Teaching's Super Improvers Wall Headers by Little Minds at Work blog.

*I can't wait to hang this up in my room. It is so cute!

As you know, I use W.B.T. in my classroom and the Super Improvers Wall will be a new addition for me. It is a great way to reinforce positive behavior.

4. Brain Breaks Cards and Sticks by The Sweet Life of Third Grade blog and Keep Calm and Teach On blog.

*I've included Harry Kindergarten sticks because my kids LOVE Harry Kindergarten!

They are over the moon to dance to one of his YouTube videos.

5. Reading Comprehension Posters courtesy of Kim Adsit's website.

I just love these, too. I've been meaning to make some of these for some time now. They'll be great to use during guided reading groups.

*Use Post-Its to complete the charts again and again!

6. A little chevron art for the wall.

*I started quilling {paper rolling.} Not great, but it was fun and I could do it! However, taping off the canvas was really flipping difficult. Don't look too closely at it!

7. Last, two little elves left me four seat crate covers at my front door. Merry Christmas to me! Okay, it was my sister and my dad who made them for me. I didn't even know about it. What a nice surprise. :)

*Here are some 'before they were crate seats' pics courtesy of an elf:

Well, it's late and I still have a ton more to do before my Common Core workshops this week.

More time tick-tick-ticking away...

Happy Monday!