Five for Friday and a St. Patty's Day Sale

I am linking up with Doodle Bug's Teaching again for the Five for Friday.. except that my five for Friday is more like seven or eight for Friday... woops!

 This week we were all about some leprechauns! We made leprechaun traps with our 4th grade friends, leprechaun punch (from Deanna Jump's unit- which I LOVE!), and many leprechaun crafts. One of our crafts was the leprechaun glyph.. this is from Deanna Jump's unit but changed up a little for our class :)

 

 Here is a close up of one:

We also made these adorable rainbows with our "If I Found a Pot of Gold.." writing prompt. The rainbows were made from tissue paper and cotton balls- so simple yet they loved it.

 

This week in our art center we painted paper plates and sprinkled them with a little glitter to make festive shamrocks. Sorry the one picture is so dark, my iphone camera is no bueno :) I love our little Easter egg stained glass windows in the background!!

 

 Last but not least, we have been growing sunflowers in our classroom and they have grown so fast!! Several of them are already ready for the top cup to be taken off from the little "greenhouse". We have been writing in our class "Garden Journal" every few days to keep track of the flowers' progress and my little ones are eating it up! Our goal is to take our strong, healthy flowers home over Spring Break to plant in their gardens at home. Here are the steps we came up with as a class for growing sunflowers after reading the story "Zinnia's Flower Garden" (and the informational text in the back of the book if you have Journeys)

I have uploaded my new Supplemental Centers for Journeys Unit 5 packet to TPT. Ya'll bought up the last unit like crazy so I knew I needed to go ahead and make another one for unit 5!! It is on sale from now until Sunday at midnight so go and get it while it's hot :) Have a great weekend!!

Oh. My. Lord. It's MARCH!!!!

I cannot believe it is March already!! I am SO excited about the warmer weather, the longer, sunshinier days, and the fact that Spring Break is just a few weeks away!!

I am probably the last person to link up with Farley for Currently, but oh well :)

 

First of all, how adorable and festive is this Currently?? I love the rainbow and love the beautiful green and white pattern at the bottom-- so cute!

Listening: Why is it that sometimes the sound of absolutely nothing sounds so wonderful?? Something about it is just so relaxing :)

Loving: warmer weather is on the horizon... 67 degrees and sunny here next Sunday.. let's hope it stays that way!!

Thinking: Is it just me or has this school year gone by WAY too fast?? I can't believe our 3rd quarter progress reports went home last week and we will begin report cards so soon. Where has this year gone?!

Wanting: Just about everything in Anthropologie right now... especially this super cute Sunshine-y yellow jacket:

 

It is just so bright and cheery! 

Needing: a pedicure before sandals season begins.. there is nothing cute about my feet right now!

Lately I have become SUPER obsessed with Cherry Coke Zero... it is so delish and the perfect afternoon pick-me-up when my morning coffee is starting to wear off :)

As for pessimistic people.. in the words of Sweet Brown "Ain't nobody got time for that!". 

Have a great afternoon ya'll!

Currently February!

Two posts in one day?!? I completely forgot it was Currently time earlier... time to play catch up!!

 

Listening...  to Hunter Hayes "Wanted". This song makes me so happy! Something about his voice is just so soothing :)

Loving... February already!?! YESSSS! Spring break is only two months away. Where is this year going?!

Thinking... Grad School graduation is right around the corner in May (alright, its not THAT close, but considering how much I still have to do, it feels like it will be here so soon!!). I still have to finish my final research project and lead a professional development at my school on top of the rest of my papers and assignments.

Wanting... to be right HERE right NOW:

Every time I get stressed with school/grad school/wedding planning, I take a look at these pictures and daydream :) It will all be worth it.

Pet Peeves... the giant mess that my apartment is becoming right now. i feel like every time I finish a load of laundry, there are three more waiting. Every time I do the dishes, a whole new stack is waiting on me. It is so hard to stay on top of cleaning sometimes!! Especially when it is at the bottom of my priority list.

New Year's Resolution Linky

Oh my goodness- I feel like I dropped off the face of the blogging earth there for awhile!! The entire month of December absolutely C-R-A-Z-Y! Every single day there was one thing after another to do. If I wasn't staying at school late preparing for lessons/parties/Christmas programs I was rushing off to some sort of wedding appointment- flowers, DJ, cake tastings (ok-- I could actually go to a cake tasting every day of the week and not be sick of it). My desk at school was a disaster and my apartment was even worse- whew! 

I am finally getting back into the swing of things and I am looking forward to 2013... it is gonna be a great year ya'll!! I am soooo looking forward to becoming a Mrs. AND having my Master's Degree.

I saw this adorable linky party from Jen at the Teacher's Cauldron and thought it would be the perfect fun way for me to get back into the mood for school. 

First lets start with blogging resolutions, because those are shorter :) I really am hoping to COMPLETE at least 8 posts a month... thats only 2 per week.. totally doable right?? I am also hoping to comment on all of these blogs I stalk frequently look at ;)  I know how happy I get when I get a sweet comment on my blog, so why not make other people smile with a sweet comment? It only takes two minutes of my time and if it makes somebody else happy, then it is totally worth it.

Personal resolutions

Well with my wedding being 195 days, 1 hour, 8 minutes and 10 seconds away (but who's counting??) I am hoping to force myself, yes FORCE myself, to go to yoga at least 3-4 times a week. My fiance and I are both trying to get into better shape so we came up with an idea... the workout jar!

I originally saw this idea on Pinterest and then we modified it to make it a little more competitive, and therefore motivating. 

1. My fiance and I are each going to take out $75 cash in singles (hold the strip club jokes please!) starting January 1st and decorate our own Mason jar. Let's be honest... when I say "decorate" for him, I mean write his name on it in Sharpie. 

2. Then, each time we work out for at least 45 minutes, we get to put $1 in our jar. 

3. By the time we get to our pre-determined date, the person who has the most money in their jar gets to keep the money in BOTH jars and go spend it on something they wouldn't normally spend it on.

This will hopefully work really well for us because we are both super competitive, in a good way. This will motivate us to want to work out more, so we get to put another dollar in that jar. I will let you know how it goes!

My other personal resolution is to keep my head above water for the next 17 weeks before my graduation. It sounds like a long time, but I have a lot of work to do and I know it will go by SUPER fast. Hopefully by being organized and tackling things off my grad school to-do list one week at a time I will be able to do it all without going crazy.

Now it is your turn to go link up!!

12 in 12 Linky Party

My Christmas craziness is finally starting to settle down a little-whew! We had our class Christmas party today and Christmas break is finally within my grasp!! Only a few more days until freedom :) I stumbled across this Linky Party on just about everyone under the sun's blog this week and had to do one. What a fun idea, right?! Here goes...

12. Favorite Movie: Dark Knight Rises- I swear my fiance talked about this movie nonstop for the entire week before it came out... and of course we just HAD to go see it at midnight that night :) It ended up being a really good movie though- with a great twist at the end! I won't give it away in case you haven't seen it yet :)

 

11. Favorite TV Show: Bachelorette-- oh my gosh, no doubts about this one! I still have friends who run into Emily Maynard in Charlotte out at the grocery store or the mall or Target and I haven't seen her yet. I swear I am like the only one who hasn't seen her!

10. Favorite Restaurant- Cowfish Sushi and Burger Bar. This place is close enough for me to walk to and has a great selection of sushi and cheeseburgers (and a little bit of a mix between the two) as well as some great drink specials :) I LOVE their key lime pie martini!

9. Favorite New Thing You Tried- Hot yoga!! I have loved yoga for years but finally tried hot yoga for the first time at the end of the summer and just completely fell in love. Now I can't go back to regular yoga.

8. Favorite Gift You Got- my engagement ring :) Does that count as a gift??

7. Favorite Thing I Pinned- Sight words on cookie sheets. This has come in handy this year! My kids love to use the letter magnets on the cookie sheets and I love watching them practice their sight words

 

Although this one seems pretty appropriate right about now:

6. Favorite Blog Post- I loved doing the Teacher Week blog posts through Blog Hoppin'. Those were so much fun!

5. Best Accomplishment- keeping up a 4.0 in grad school while teaching, tutoring after school AND planning a wedding. I am one busy girl!

4. Favorite Picture- This one is a current one of my little baby Tucker dressed up as Santa Claus. He makes me so happy :)

3. Favorite Memory- Getting engaged!! I have so many great memories from 2012 though, this pick had quite a bit of competition! I was very lucky to have such a great year this year :)

2. Goal for 2013- Graduate with my Master's Degree and GET MARRIED!! Oh, and to do both without going crazy!

1. One Little Word- HAPPINESS

It is so important that we all feel even just a little bit of this everyday, even on the days when you are sick of paperwork, conferences, e-mails, etc. We all have so much to be grateful for and should look at the things that make us happy a little more often

Have a great night ya'll!

Currently December

Yay!! It is finally December! Don't you just love this time of year?? I love blaring my Christmas music in the car and in my apartment while I do chores :) If you haven't already, link up with Farley from Oh Boy Fourth Grade!!

Currently November

I just love linking up with Farley for her Currently linky parties. I was so giddy filling this out thinking that last month as I was doing this- I wasn't even engaged yet :) Who knows how much farther into all this I will be next month!!!

What I Am Thankful For...

I saw this Linky Party on Storie's blog and knew right away that I had to do it. What a wonderful way to kick off the Thanksgiving season right?? Go on over to her blog and check it out!!

 

 

Currently October

It's time for another Currently with Farley from Oh Boy! Fourth Grade! Here is my Currently October:

 

This is supposed to be a day to sleep in a little bit for me because I head to Atlanta for my sister's wedding. Unfortunately I am so used to waking up at 5:30 (and so is my dog Tucker) that we both ended up waking up early anyway. It is nice to sit and relax while I drink my cup of coffee and type up my Currently post on a Thursday morning though! It is like a flashback to summer- ahh the good ol days...

But I am SOO excited for the wedding!! My big sister is getting married- WOOHOO!! I will post pictures for sure!

Have a good day ya'll :)

Monday Made It!

I have finally gotten around to making my first Monday Made It! This past week I made paper clip holders for myself and a few other teachers at my school. I started by buying the little tiny pots from Michael's that are $0.69 and paint markers that were significantly more expensive (boo!). Here they are below with step by step pictures!

Behavior Management Linky and Back-to-School Night Handout

When I saw this Behavior Management Linky I knew I just couldn't pass it up! My behavior management systems help with promoting good behavior in a positive way AND they are educational!! WOOHOO! In our class we have two behavior management systems: one for each individual student and one for each table. The individual student behavior management is our "Hopping in the right direction" system with magnetic frogs on our chalkboard (covered with bulletin board paper).

Each student has a frog with their number labeled on it. Every day each frog starts on the blue lily pad (the middle one). As the day goes on, if a students makes a good choice they get to "hop" their frog. When they hop, they move one lily pad to the left (this also helps with teaching left and right-- which can be so tricky!!) When they get told to "hop" enough times that they reach the purple flowered lily pad, they earn a sticker for their monthly sticker chart. The object is to get as many stickers on your monthly sticker chart as possible. When a student breaks a rule or is not following teacher directions, they have to "drop" their frog. A "dropped" frog makes it harder for them to get to purple and earn stickers, but it is still possible. If a student makes it all the way to the lily pad that is the furthest on the right, they have to pull a sticker off their monthly sticker chart (remember, the object is to have as many stickers on that monthly chart as possible... you'll read why below!!).

The table behavior management is a little different. This is to mostly reward tables who are consistently following directions and working at an appropriate noise level. When a table is following directions, they earn a tally. When the table earns 5 tallies they get an automatic sticker on their monthly chart for every tally afterwards. So 5 tallies = 1 sticker, 6 tallies = 2 stickers, 7 tallies= 3 stickers and so on. This helps my little kinders become VERY familiar with making tallies.

 

It is kind of hard to see in this picture but this is an old picture of monthly sticker charts up under our Smartboard. This was March and there are Shamrocks on the sticker charts.

Now you're probably wondering why it is so important to have all these stickers on our monthly sticker chart right?? Well on the last school day of each month, we count up how many stickers each child has earned. For every sticker a child has earned, they get one pretend penny to go shopping in our class "PENNY STORE". The prizes are usually items from the Dollar Store, dollar section of Target, etc. The students get so excited about this and it teaches them about the value of different coins because we trade out their pennies for higher coins. 

Now it's your turn to go link up!! 

But before I go, I wanted to upload pics of my Back-to-School Night handout I am giving the parents in case anyone wants to take a peek. If you want me to e-mail you a copy that you can edit, leave me your email address in a comment below. 

Hopefully this can be of some use to a few of you!

Back to School Linky Party

I stumbled across this Linky Party this morning from Kindergarten Lifestyle and couldn't pass it up! I have been reading other blogs from teachers who have already had the first day and I just can't wait! That'll be me on Wednesday! But until then, I need to focus all of my attention on Meet the Teacher Night which is TOMORROW and I am sooo not ready!! I will get there though and I will definitely post pictures and some of the Back to School documents I give the parents from Meet the Teacher night. But until then... Linky Party! I can't wait to see all of the other posts from this, I feel like there could be a lot of really funny ones!! 

Ok, your turn! Head on over and link up!

Hallway Bulletin Board and Linky Party

This week we started back with our BTS meetings and oh my goodness am I excited or what?!?! Getting my class list was like opening a present on Christmas morning. This year I only have 14 little sweeties to start (I've been told to expect a few more that are having issues with getting their paperwork in though). I was excited to see some of the unique names! Every year at the beginning of the year, we start off with the story Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and so I figured I would start off my hallway bulletin board with a Chicka Chicka theme! Here it is:

I hope you're all enjoying the back to school madness as well. On Monday we have our Meet the Teacher Night and I will upload all of the paperwork I give to them in case ya'll want them too. 

Now onto the 5 Things I Miss About Summer Linky Party. This Linky Party is from the Joy of Kindergarten and even though I am excited for school to start back up, I will certainly be missing quite a few things about summer!! 

1. Having the time to go to my morning yoga classes!! I will certainly miss starting the day being healthy by going to yoga with one of my best friends. I would need to start going to class at 5:00 am in order to be back in time to get ready for school and that it just a wee bit too early for me. 

2. Oh my goodness I don't even want to think about what I'm going to do when my little sister goes back to college. The end of my summer means that the end of her summer is just around the corner. This is a picture from a painting class we took together this summer.

3. I have already said this one a few times but I will definitely miss my sweet little pup Tucker!! I signed him up to go to a Doggy Daycare so he will at least be having fun a few days a week while I am at work and not all alone in my apartment- thank goodness!

4. Having the time to read for fun rather than for school or for grad school. I am already looking forward to Thanksgiving break just so I have the time to leisurely read a book (oh, and the fact that we will be going to visit my little sister at college in HAWAII!! Ahh!!)

5. And last but definitely not least, I will miss just RELAXING. This is definitely something I take for granted a little bit about mid way through the summer and I miss big time once the school year starts back up. 

Alright, now it's your turn! Head on over to Joy of Kindergarten to link up!!!

Back to School Linky Party!

While blog hopping around I stumbled across this Linky Party from Mrs. Shope's class and thought it was a fun little party for the back to school season!! I'm sure my list will be incredibly long compared to others!

1. Bring in my freshly cleaned carpets to lay on my tile floor- which gets so dirty so fast!

2. Hang up my borders- I am doing double borders this year and am so excited! It is ridiculous how something so small makes me so happy hah

3. Finish cleaning/re-sewing chair pockets

4. Hang up window decorations

5. Organize my hundreds of stickers I have collected over the years- does anyone have a good suggestions for this?? I have soooo many and want to find a good way to keep them separated by theme.

6. Put together parent packets for Meet the Teacher night

7. Prepare pencil pouches

8. Put up my hallway bulletin board. This year I am doing a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom theme that I saw on Pinterest.

9. Finish my first week of planning

Woohoo- That wasn't as bad as I thought! Go ahead and link up and make your own to-do list!!

Tell me more, Tell me more!

When I saw this adorable linky party on Mrs. Lemons blog (which I can now add to my list of blogs I am obsessed with) I just had to jump right on it! An excuse to share pictures of things I love? Yes, PLEASE! So without further ado, Tell me more, Tell me more!

1. I am 100% terrified of bugs. I scream and run and act completely ridiculous yet when I was little I used to be able to pick them up with my bare hands as if they were nothing. What happened to me?!? Has that happened to anyone else?? 

2. Possessionista is one of my favorite blogs to stalk. I love knowing where all the pretty clothes they wear on my favorite TV shows come from!

3. I got to go to Harry Potter World this year at Universal Studios and had an absolute blast! The Butterbeer is to die for. If you ever go, you MUST get the Butterbeer!!

4. I LOVE yoga, especially during the school year. It is the perfect way for me to keep my body healthy and keep from going insane with all the stress of school. I haven't tried hot yoga yet but just found a yoga studio close to my apartment that does it and will be starting as soon as I get back from my vacation. Which leads me to number 5...


5. I leave for ALASKA tomorrow!! Woohoo!! I have never been there and I am going on a cruise. I am so excited to see and do things I have never done before! Don't worry, many pictures will be posted!!


6. Living in Charlotte and being a fan of the Bachelor/Bachelorette has turned me into a little bit of an Emily Maynard stalker. For those of you who don't live in Charlotte- don't judge, I promise I am not the only one! Yet everyone else around me seems to see her out in public. Two friends saw her at the mall on two DIFFERENT days, another friend teaches at her daughter's school and saw her at carpool, my sister saw her at Target... sheesh! One day maybe I will get to see her!

7. I love the Bachelor/Bachelorette, Modern Family, Pretty Little Liars and Law and Order:SVU. Yes, they are all very different but I love them all equally!!

8. In case you haven't figured this out already, I am beyond obsessed with Pinterest. It is scary how much time I can spend on Pinterest pinning school ideas and not get bored!! My favorite categories are education (of course), home decor, food and drink, and women's apparel.

9. I love to read for fun and my most recent book obsession was the Hunger Games. If you haven't read it yet, you need to ASAP! I read all three of them in one week, during the school year while taking grad school classes at the same time. They were that good. I seriously could not wait to get home from school to read them (yes, I realize how nerdy that sounds!).


10. My sweet dog Tucker is the current love of my life, I think my boyfriend may be starting to get a little jealous!! I will miss spending all day, every day with him when I go back to school in just a few weeks.

Ok, now it's your turn! Link up with Mrs. Lemons and share your "Tell me more, Tell me more!"

P.S. I just posted a new lesson on TPT that is a cute touchy-feely student made book on the story of Creation for all my other teacher friends that teach in Christian schools. There is an adorable little surprise for what the students do on the last page. It is guaranteed to make parents smile (and don't we all love that?!?) Click on the button on the right to go see it!