Hello, August!

It's been well over a year since I've done a currently & I will be honest, Farley's monthly currently is one of my favorites!! So, here it goes!

Listening: For the past like 2 weeks, my baby has been a crying binge.  Of course it's always at the most inopportune times for me too.  If I'm cooking dinner, she is crying.  If I'm working out, she's crying.  If I think I am gonna get in a little snooze, well she starts crying.  She wants to be held, fed, or well I have no clue what else she wants. Thankfully she is cute!

Loving: So today was day 8 of my 21 days of the 21 day fix!  If you haven't heard of it, look it up!  Or feel free to ask me about it!  I've never LOVED to workout if I'm being completely honest, but today I found myself AFTER I had already done my workout for the day thinking "man I want to work out again."  It's a mix of cleaning eating and working out, in 8 days I've seen the scale move and my clothes fitting more lose! Be gone baby weight! :)

 Doesn't all this food look yummy!!

I also LOVE my new workout pants!

Thinking: After my sister being a thumb sucker for basically ever.... I knew I would fight a thumb sucker.... but when that's the only thing that seems to calm an always crying baby, I say thumb soothing is a go........ My BFF is super excited because her little man is a thumb sucker too!

Wanting: I have not had a day to myself since... I don't even know.  Well before baby S arrived.  Yes, I've been away by myself one 3 different days for professional development, BUT that is not a day to myself if you know what I mean!  I'm super excited that this week, I will get that!! It's WAY overdue!!

Needing: This year, our school is last on the list for cleaning.  Which means, we go back in 2 weeks for inservice & we may not be able to get back into our room until then.  This teacher is in FREAK. OUT. MODE.  As if setting up the classroom wasn't going to be enough, well I'm moving classrooms after five years, so I'm starting classroom set up again from scratch.  Did I mention I'm freaking out!?!? In the meantime I'm trying to get things done that I can for the classroom at home!  Here is my latest update.

B2S RAK:  I have some sweet treats planned, but I won't go into too much detail because I don't want to give it away! ;)

& of course before I go, I have to share another photo of my Berks!  She made her own pizza last night and loved it!! :)

Happy August!!
PS ... did I mention that this is my 100th blog post!!!! A good way to keep me motivated!! :)

First Week Exhaustion

Oh me, oh my.  Yes, I'm alive.  For the past two weeks, I've been dying to blog... this is my release, I find it relaxing and thoroughly enjoy sharing with others!  However, I am going to be 100% honest when I say that as much as I have wanted to blog, I have not been able to muster up the energy to!  .... and if I'm still being completely honest.... I have been so exhausted that I have hardly even kept up with instagram, facebook, reading some of my favorite bloggers, watching Big Brother & Bold & the Beautiful!  I kid you not, that exhausted!  My poor kid, we get home I cook dinner, maybe do a little painting, and then it's all snuggles together on the couch.  (No, I'm really not complaining about that part, I will take all the snuggles she is willing to give!) I don't know what is so different about the beginning of this year as opposed to others... oh wait.. I don't think there is... I think that I just choose to drown out the memory of the BTS exhaustion each year!  So enough of all that... I'm gonna do a quick re-wind of the past two weeks.

I don't even think I've blogged since the N.Tx Bloggers Meet up!  Check out this great group of ladies.  Thank you again,  Mrs. Patton from Mrs. Patton's Patch and Mrs. Thompson from Adventures in Teaching for hosting this great meet up for us! :)  Oh & thank you to Amy Lemons for sharing this great photo with us!  She saved the day with her fancy schmancy camera! ;)

You should check out the blogs of these sweet ladies:

{Mrs. Richardson's Class, Chalk Talk, The Clements Crew, Step Into 2nd with Mrs.Lemons  

Flying High in First Grade, Adventures in Teaching, Mrs. Patton's Patch

Kreative in Kinder, My Silly Firsties, In That Room... Adventures in Second

Hey, it's Jade!, Just Tinkerin' Around,  Saddle Up for Second Grade

First Grade Glitter and Giggles, Smitten With First, 3rd Grade's a Hoot

The Teacher Garden iHeart Second Grade, Maneuvering the Middle

Sweet-n-Sassy in 2nd, Winging it in Fourth}

We started back two weeks ago today!  This year my team is the SMALLEST I think it has been in the past 4 years, only six of us.   However, I have to say that these girls make my day, everyday!! :)

Left to Right: Marilyn, Diana, Sam, Becca, Me, & Kristin

Please excuse the fuzziness of the photo... Apparently my phone didn't deem it necessary to focus! I meant to snag a couple other pictures that we took throughout the week, but ehhhh 2 weeks passed and I still didn't get to snag a copy! Womp, womp.

The week went by SUPER quick, we learned lots of new things, some that are on my to-do list to share with YOU, in a later post of course! :)  Meet the teacher went great!! I had all but 3 of my 24 show up... Yes, you read that right TWENTY-FOUR! Here is the set-up before students arrived!

The first several days came and went, there was a lot of repetition, repeating, organizing, and practicing!  I managed to squeeze in a few of my favorite books, a few new books, and some great reviewing of previous learning!  My kids are totally rocking some of the concepts we are reviewing & while it is a HUGE class, I know it's going to be a great year... or well I'm crossing my fingers! ;)  Here are a few snapshots from our week!

 We are trying to make our science journal a little more interactive this year, so when a Becca, one of my teammates found the interactive science notebook from the Science Penguin, she snatched it up with some additional licenses during the big TPT sale!  I'm loving it already!

 My kids LOVED sharing their All About Me books they did for their first week of "homework."

After spending some time talking about vowels and consonants, we began to talk about CVC words! 

If you remember from my earlier posts in August, my school's theme this year is camping!  On Tuesday, we had a  "campfire" in my classroom.  I turned off all the lights and the students sat around in a circle.  Each student went around, shared their name, something they are good at, and then cracked their glow stick.  By the end it "campfire" area looked really cool & the kids LOVED it! :)

I'm thinking we will have campfires throughout the year, but probably just end up passing around a couple of glowsticks rather than each student having their own!

In writing, we started our list of stories by doing "Apples, peaches, pumpkin pie, you've got a story, so do I!"  I learned this great chant & lesson from Melissa Leach from Leach Teach!  Let me tell you, this is my second year doing this... & the kids L-O-V-E it! :)  If we didn't do the chant before I asked them to get started, they most definitely reminded me!!! I love that they are in 2nd grade and still love this cute & silly stuff! Makes my heart happy!

I felt as though we had to jump right on into the learning/reviewing & didn't have too much time for "fun" stuff.  So on Friday, I decided to bust out the watercolors & let the kids make some artwork using their name for the hallway!! Most all of the pictures turned out cute & it added a lot of color to our bulletin board in the hallway! :)

As I mentioned already, this last week was exhausting. 

It was the sweet & salty that got me through this week!!  Some of my former parents dropped off some sweet flowers for me on the first day back!  This family seriously makes my heart melt!  Last year when my attic fell through the garage... they brought me flowers and they are always giving my sweet treats, just because! :) The E-Card... Well when I saw it... It was a perfect depiction of EVERY.SINGLE. DAY last week!  The picture of B was a good interpretation of her nightly exhaustion, "ay momma, ay!" It is her sweet snuggles that get me through the night!  && When I realized Starbucks brought back my most favorite of favorite drinks, I knew Friday was gonna be a good day!  I am in LOVE with the salted caramel mocha frap!  If you haven't tried it, you're missing out!

And ... Because I can't help but to share a few more of the never ending photos!  The top left picture is probably one of the funniest to me... mostly because there were multiple nights last week that we got home and I see her laying on the dining room like this as I am cooking dinner.  She wasn't shy about doing it at a friends house either, which is where the above picture was taken!  Ice cream was also a must to get us through the week.  Oh & some retail therapy to help drown the exhaustion of the week out this weekend! :)  As you can tell, I'm really going to be in trouble when she is older.  She is a pro at shopping already!

I hope you all had a 3 day weekend & that you enjoyed it as much as I did!! I'm looking forward to the fact that it is only a 4 day work week!! I can do it, I can do it.  ;)

Sunday Smorgasbord

Oh me, oh my. What a hectic week!!  I'm linking up with Michelle over at Fabulous in First again today!

My week started off with an amazing PD session, we made interactive math notebooks!! They kept us BUSY cutting, gluing, taping, cutting, laminating, stapling, and creating ... ALL DAY!!!

 

I can't wait to share some of the amazingness of this with you all....but I have decided that it will be a slow sharing process.  I'm going to share it as I create mine with my class & then attach what I can as freebies to all of you! 

I was able to get into my classroom this week, too!!  I feel like I was able to get a lot accomplished.... however, I still have SO. MUCH. MORE. to do!! 

 

Please excuse the messiness of those cubbies!!! Remember I have to COMPLETELY pack up everything in my room, so I store in every nook & cranny!   I was able to get both of my back wall bulletin boards covered & ready to go!! I generally leave the bulletin boards empty until we make anchor charts to fill them up with!!! I did however add the alphabet for my word wall!!

Fun Fact: You can get twin flat sheets at Wal-Mart for $4 that work great for bulletin boards!! 

We have massive back wall bulletin boards as you can see & the flat sheet side ways fits it PERFECTLY!!! I mean when you think about the cost of fabric by the yard... You save TONS!!!

If you've never used hand signals, you're missing out!!  Last year I made signs for hand signals & refusing to look back on the idea!!  They worked amazing & because I decided to change things around a bit, I created new ones this year!! You can grab them FREE as a Facebook Fan for a limited time!! :)

One of my baby brothers played in the Super Series World Series this week... which means we watched A LOT of baseball!!!! They did great & even were able to play one of their final games at the Dell Diamond!! 

I also created & uploaded .... probably OVER a week ago..... one of my newest units, Snapshots Through the Year!  It is probably one of the things I am most excited about doing with my kids this year!!  I just now seem to be getting around to sharing about it!!

The idea behind this unit was to have a place for students, teacher, and parents to be able to see where they started the year and ended the year.  Students can see their progress with writing, handwriting, and their artistic abilities over the course of the year by using this.  While I have no intention of grading this, I think it is going to end up being a great little memory book for students & their parents!!

There are covers for Kinder through 5th and each grade has 5 different types of covers.  There is one with just the shape of a childs body, no hair.  Then there are two girl and two boy versions.  You can get as specific or as generic as you want with these.  The kids will end up designing the faces and coloring the hair to make it look like their self.

There are monthly pages with a special back to school and summer version.  With each month there is a polaroid style frame for students to share something special that month, these things range from their favorite new piece of school supplies to their best friend.  Each month is different & requires different things for students to write about and share.

I've also included a snapshot page for students to fill out about their teacher.  Like the covers there are 5 versions, however the snapshots are different than the kids! :)

And to add a little fun & a few pages they can fill out throughout the year or at the end of the year, I added a few more pages about important people around school, field trips, field day, favorite memories, and autographs.

You can get this unit in my TPT store by clicking here, it is on Sale until Wednesday! 

I hope this wasn't too scrambled up for you!! ;)  Happy Sunday!

"If you've been handed it....

YOU CAN HANDLE IT!"

 Seriously... I have been meaning to/wanting to post for weeks now... Obviously, I am just now getting around to it.

 I don't remember the last two years being quite as stressful in the beginning, but I am reminding myself, that if I have been handed it... I can handle it! I also have to remember that my attitude about the situation(s) play a huge role in how things turn out! :) Therefore.... I am making the BEST of everything, remembering that I CAN in fact handle it, and that it will all be ok! Whew!

 My kids this year, well they are nothing short of wonderful. I really believe that every year, I have been blessed with a great class. I have definitely had my pests, pain in the you know whats, troubled children, but I think those become my favorite kiddos secretly. This year is in full swing, it's hard to believe that progress reports went home already this past week. Here are a few updated pictures from my room and things we have been doing!

 

 

I am admittedly a BLOG stalker... I am addicted to TPT .... and have recently begun making my own things to sell on TPT!  Two of my favorites are Amy Lemons and Hope King... If you haven't checked them out... YOU NEED TO!!  I don't even want to think about all the things I have bought from these two ladies and the amount of money I have spent....

Like I said... I recently have been making some of my own things.  My best seller as of now is my clip chart shown three pictures up... It has the printables for the chart, the parent letter explaining the chart, discipline letters, and reward coupons!   Here are a preview of my latest!

This is my latest FREEBIE!  It's just a quick little math center I created to review greater than, less than, and equal to.  It gives the numbers in several forms, including pictorial and expanded notation.  There are also two sets of greater than, less than, and equal to signs, one set has the words, one set doesn't.  This will allow you to differentiate with higher and lower students who are still struggling with identifying the signs.

This is my latest unit, Haunting Halloween Math Centers, I have created and uploaded to TPT.  They are math centers for October, they review everything from addition, subtraction, fact families, doubles, place value, and comparing numbers.  My kids loved the Olympic Math Centers I had for the first month of school, I suspect they will enjoy these just the same! :)

Lastly, here are a few of the lastest pictures of Miss.B and I.  Aunt Lindsey came for a visit last weekend, we sure had missed her!! B is into everything, being little miss independent, but also very affectionate....My favorite is when she comes up to me to give me kisses without me having to ask for them!! :)


Life is good.

Kelli

Hi ho, hi ho....

It's off to work we go!  Well.... I technically have one more day until the madness of back to school really sets in, but to be honest my brain has been back for weeks now!

I have spent several days in my classroom and it is almost ready for my new munchkins to arrive! I am absolutely in LOVE with my theme of the Olympics this year.  It is the first time I've actually done a whole classroom theme, bulletin boards, table signs, word wall, and basically all decorations around the room.  Yes, I realize the Olympics are now over (don't remind me), but it will be fresh on their mind, encourage lots of teamwork, and I just think the idea is overall just FUN!  :)


So here is a preview of my room!

This is my bulletin board outside of the classroom, I'm so happy with how it turned out, my favorite part are the cute little torches I made! Once I have my student's names I will write them on stars and add them to the board.

Up close of the torch!

I have become obsessed with the idea I found on pinterest.... CRINKLE BORDER! Genius idea, it didn't take that long, gives the boards an awesome pop, plus I saved about $20 by not having to buy new boarder! I'm all about saving the money, that is a lot of diapers! :)

My word wall, I'm pretty proud of myself and the things I have created for my room this year Don't mind the wall only being halfway completed in this picture, it is now all the way done and ready for words to be added!

My classroom library, still a work in progress. I decided to make all new book box labels. I've done a ridiculous amount of reorganization in my room this year!

  I also made this, my "where are we" poster, chevron obsessed!

Another one of my pinterest ideas... I think this is going to be my new best friend this year, no more searching for this and searching for that.... I hope...

I also made the cute little signs, each group of tables is a "team"... so I have a swimming team, equestrian team, canoeing team, fencing, and eh boxing team I think! I think the kids are going to love them, too! They get to pick their team, well for the first few days at least! :)

Yet, another pinterest idea....We will be doing writer's notebooks this year, check out my previous post to learn more about it. Anyway, instead of allowing the students to decorate theirs to the extreme I did, I made it a little easier. I just cut paper to fit onto the cover and then used a dab of hot glue on the back cover, stuck in a piece of ribbon, and vuala they now have a bookmark too! :) I will let them use stickers, crayons, markers, etc to decorate the covers.

My principal asked me to mentor one of our new teachers this year, so I made her this cute, survival/welcome basket!

It is hard to believe that school is about to start, where has my summer gone?! It makes me super sad to think I won't be able to spend everyday, all day with my sweet baby! I don't have much of a choice though... plus I really do love my job! :)

Here is a little picture of my weepublican after her nap today! :)

Ekkk, I just love her so much!! Kelli Ann