Show Us What You Bought! Linky! and something BIG!

Don't you LOVE Michelle's button!! I had to go font buying too! opps!

So I may have spent a tad too much over the past week on bags, shoes, coats sweaters, tops, jeans, coats again...like real bad...

So I actually held off on the cyber sale until today when I kinda panicked that I'd miss something...I'm sure Erica can identify...

In all honesty, I held back! I moved a ton few sets to my wishlist. I mean, how many different Santa's do I need? A LOT OKAY! And I'll tell you this...these clipart clubs are killing me!!! First Krista, now Mel! And I'm sure it'll get worse! I literally have every.single.club Krista does. And that's a lot of weekly clipart!

Melonheadz

Graphics from the Pond

Creative Clips

Digital Paper Designs

 My youngin's are strug-gle-in with place value! They can add and all that jazz, but boy it must be by luck! And the great ability divide is like The Grand Canyon this year, so I'm hoping this little Place Value Detectives will interest all my levels and help me out while we're at it!
I also need these sillies to keep up their skills over break! I think The Winter Break Challenge is just the thing! I'm hoping anyway!
And while they struggle with place value, this girl struggles with fitting in writing! I love Jamie's perfect paragraphs! I used one "lesson" for Halloween and it was a hit!
and you can't go wrong with some good reads and new math stations!

Teaching with a Mountain View

The Brown Bag Teacher

Jamie Rector

Jessica Hursch

Halle from Across the Hall

Oh, and be sure to check the blog tomorrow!!!

and go link up and show off what YOU bought at BlogHoppin'!

A is for A Great Book!

I missed yesterday.

simply out of pure exhaustion.

I should've scheduled my post ahead of time!

Yesterday was our last day of the week, and we know how long those days are!

So here's my A...

Like maybe I'm more thankful for books than the hubs sometimes!

I get in funks when I won't read for pleasure for months, but over this past summer I read all.the.time.

I read all the books I'd been wanting to read and found some new authors along the way!

I read all of Gillian Flynn's books this summer. Well, all THREE...she needs to get on the ball cause I'm addicted! I love them and am frustrated by them all at the same time!

Here's what I read my first month out of school. I LOVE Khaled Hosseini! The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns...ahhhh

I also read a few John Green novels. And I just finished An Abundance of Katherines.  Great teen novels. Looking for Alaska is the best so far. And I read the Divergent trilogy. Great. I always hate finishing series though!

Mindy Kaling brought some humor in between seriousness...
and since school has started I've kept up my reading...

I read Leaving Time and I seriously could not wait to get home everyday and READ! OH! Loved it!
Then I read a John Green novel and was like, um, I need to read another great book! I mean, he's a great author, but it just wasn't a good followup to a great author!
Now I'm reading my 4th Tana French novel.

My little sis got me on to her. She writes crime novels, but they are set in Dublin. The characters and stories are amazing!
Into the Woods and the Likeness are 2 of my favorite books EVER! Esp. Into the Woods. I've never read anything like it!

So that got me wanting to go and read!

Don't forget to link up with Blog Hoppin'!

take me back...what I'm thankful for and notsomuch too!

I'm hooking up with Hope today for Take Me Back Tuesdays! SO I thought it might be fun to go waaay back and repost a "what I'm thankful for" linky and "not thankful for" linky post I did two years ago. As I read through them I realized they hold true-for the most part! But now Lesson Plan SOS is Inspire Me ASAP, I don't like Moscato so much anymore, and my love for all things vampires and Modern Family have waned! 

Before I go congrats to Kerry S, the winner of my Holiday Daze Centers! They are on sale right now though!

{if you aren't downloading Krista's freebies each week, run to TpT!}

***************originally posted on November 24, 2011***************

 

1.  What are you thankful for in your classroom?
hmmm, besides the humor of 7 and 8 year olds, I would have to say my mCLass tablet! When I moved to 2nd grade from 4th I was relieved…NO MORE STANDARDIZED TESTS…but opps! Someone for got to mention I had to do running records monthly, benchmarks in Reading and Math each quarter, not to mention all the other assessments coming down the pike! I was overwhelmed to say the least. Then our school took part in a pilot with mCLass {includes DIBELS and Reading 3D} hallelujah AMEN! Each teacher got a mini laptop with touch screens to do all our assessing on!

2. What person are you most thankful for?
I have to go with the obvious answer here-my hubby. We’ve had the highest highs and lowest lows, but we have always made it through. Our little family started over 12 years ago {we were very young parents!} Even when one is mad beyond belief, we can get each other laughing. He compliments my sarcasm and passion for life in every way. And yes, we are quite silly.

I am also thankful for my work friends whop also happen to be real friends, too. We have a blast laughing, crying, complaining, and building each other up! No one has made me a better teacher than them!

3. What 3 blogs are you most thankful for?
OooEee…I would have to say 
For amazing lessons I always keep up with Amy Lemons. I love all her fun with construction paper crafts! That girl must have tons! Her stuff is amazing, free, and just right for my 2nd graders.

For sweetness, Amanda Nickerson. That girl is a doll. She has great positive posts, great ideas, and always responds to my nagging questions.

For a-ma-zing units, ideas, gorgeous work that I love to use I always go to Lesson Plan SOS ladies. Everything they put out rocks!

I also have just become somewhat addicted to What the Teacher Wants, and have always loved First Grade Parade. Cara must be an alien or something. I simply don’t know how she does it. And I adore Abby’s humor over at the Inspired Apple, and I love the sweetness and creativity over at The Teacher Wife, too!

4. What guilty pleasure are you most thankful for?
Oh many things I feel a little guilty for…Hmmm, let me count the ways. 1. iPhone 2. Pinterest 3. Modern Family 4. vampires {more Sookie than Twilight} 5. sleep 6. Uggs 7. J. Crew 8. Pier 1 9. Bravo TV 10. stupid movies to watch my my hubs
5. What are you most thankful for? 
In addition to funky fonts, cute clipart, PowerPoint {thanks to Cara}, Windows Live Writer, TpT, the joy of creating things all by myself and the pain to get there, Celexa, no gray hairs or wrinkles…yet, and Moscato Barefoot Bubbly champagne…
oh, I will let the pictures do some talking here

{matchbox cars in my shoes…love him}

{My oldest’s undying love for rules…see…he even copyrighted the brand names on our grocery list-love him}

{potty training with technology…this boy can downright command my iPhone}

{my middle man’s blonde locks…swoon-love him}

{sisterly love…ok-we were a little silly after dinner here!}

And now for what I am NOT thankful for…hahaha. I love this idea from First Grade Blue Skies..I love sarcasm!
1. Boogers and farts in the classroom-they are abundant…
2. anything on my extensive pet peeve list like unmotivated professionals, gritty food, and the word “gist”
3. zits-HELLO I’m 30! Not 13!
4. Size 9 feet on a 5 ft body…there’s a mistake here
5. my lack of cleaning, cooking, and organizational skills that I swear to improve one day
and...what an open scent disc from Bath and Body Works will do to wood...arrggh

That’s it! I hope you all have a great Turkey Day!! 

five for friday {september 27}

iiiiiittttt's Friday! and I need to be posting more, but boy do I forget how hard it is in the beginning of the year! So I'm linking up with Kacey again for five for friday!

It's been an up and down week to say the least.
but I'm still loving this class so it's all good!

today we made our first snazzy snack. My teammie found this recipe for granola apple moons online. It may be the best snack we've made in 4 years! So good! You cannot go wrong with apples, PB, and chocolate-even if it has granola on it! and our rule is to make the snack, you write the recipe. We make a recipe book for the end of the year to send home full of snacks they can make on their own during summer break. You can get my recipe book here.

My package from Old Navy came in the mail...do you see a trend!

This was Tuesday night's dinner...cake and beer...true story. Tuesday was bad...not with the kiddos, but just not good...

Our entire district's server went down over the weekend. Now they may not be a big deal to some, but that means no access to your files. No downloading from TpT because the virus scan is on the server, too. ugh. 

But to Plan B, we needed some extra measurement practice {we only intro how to find "partners" in line segments right now} so I had them measure books in a book order. I typed up a quick recording sheet during read to self, printed, and away we went! Unfortunately, I couldn't save it but I will post it free soon. 

I love seeing my work in others' rooms...especially when they are like teacher all-stars! Jen asked a few weeks ago if she could use my genre posters in a new file. Um...yes! Here's a sneak peek!

Happy Friday!

currently and my first fan freebie!

It's September
Not sure what happened to August, but it's September
I went back to work (with kiddos) last Monday and it was pretty great.
They seem much more "moldable" than last year's kiddos!
So other than needing twice the amount of nightly zzzz's, I have no complaints!
But thanks Farley for reminding me it's September!

As usual, it's pretty self-explanatory

But our air is out upstairs. Like it's 87 degrees in my bedroom right now. I have to sleep with covers touching my chin, so it's hard. But there's only one couch downstairs and I'm not a couch sleeper! or an alone sleeper...

I am so ecstatic about figuring out the fan freebie on facebook! For now, there's not a cute picture on the tab, but it is THERE! and a big thanks to Ashley for explaining it in layman's terms!

So if you're a fan, go snag it! It was my teaching partner's idea after she saw my kids making an all about me pennant {newsletter freebie from Christina} and thought it would be cute if they were to create multiple ones, display for Open House in two weeks, and have them to hang up at home. I love how they turned out!

and isn't that cat adorable! It's from Ninja Lady!

I've got to get into the groove of centers. I have two literacy blocks this year. During the 2 hour one I'll be doing guided reading. Then I have another 70 minute block. Right now I'm using it to introduce Daily 5, but when we get going, I'd like to have centers while I pull specific kiddos. It's just a matter of motivation for me!

I hate to cook. Really hate it. But we cannot eat out every night forever! And I'd love to have someone come and clean each week. I am really considering it! Yes, I'm that lazy!

They need haircuts, no explaining needed! But I'm sure someone will need to go into Target for something! ;)

I cannot wear any of my pants, seriously I am not just making this up. I know being back at work will help, but I am like a ravenous hyena when I get home. I can binge with the best, but purging is not really for me. So, I'm taking an apple to eat on the ride home and going to either do a liquid diet or drink slimfast. I told hubby I was doing a liquid diet this week. He said sure, I'll support you but you know if you see fries, you'll eat one. I scoffed. And as soon as he went upstairs I downed a bag of mini kit kats.

I cannot wait to read some good currentlys!
and be on the lookout for this...

an exhausted five for fraturday...win $200!

It's a back to school Five for Friday!

I survived my first week back.

I went to bed by 8pm for the past 3 nights!

Like Abby said, there ain't no tired like teacher tired!

this is from Amy's Let's get Started pack. I love it for the first weeks of math

we are up to 11:45:04! Yes, we count up to the tenth of a second! Every second counts! When we beat 10 minutes we did a little Despicable Me Just Dance! When we beat 11 minutes, we danced on our desks! Thanks C. Jayne Teach for that little gem! fyi-I have a student with a prosthetic leg...he danced on his desk too! melt my heart

I love Amanda Gregory's Back to School Buddies file! I used this Pal Ponderings interview after we discuss how to listen to each other. They have to go back and forth taking turns and record their friend's answers to the questions.

I got into a minor bump up on Thursday afternoon. Poor kid! Let's hope his insurance pulls through...boo!

Day 2 of school and I was already wearing glasses and hair was pulled back! I try to expose the kids to everyway I may wear my hair the first week of school! Lots of combos: ponytail with contacts, ponytail with glasses, hair down with contacts, hair down with glasses, hair curled with glasses, hair curled with contacts! That way I won't have to hear reactions later on!

and if you've read this far...you deserve a chance to win! 10 winners will win a 200$ giftcard to one of these stores...come on J. Crew!! Madewell! Anthropologie!! TARGET!!

click here to enter!