Sharing the Christmas Cheer!

Well I didn't think I would have time to do a post before Christmas with all the Christmas parties and celebrations going on, but I am doing this one while Miss M is still sleeping in the morning. Of course, I still cannot get my body off my school schedule...by the way 5:30 am comes too early every morning!


Since I had some time this morning, I decided to look around at some Donors Choose projects and spread a little Christmas cheer by donating to some projects. Even a few dollars goes a long way to fully funding these projects. I hope you will consider giving back as well.

I currently have a couple of projects live on the site if anyone is interested in supporting my classroom. Even a $1 helps and right now I have a dollar for dollar match offer, so every $1 that is donated is actually $2! YAH!

Help Us Get Rooted in Reading!

I am trying to get the books to along with the Rooted in Reading lessons from Amy Lemons.

Dynamic Digital Documentation!

I am trying to get a new and more reliable digital camera for my classroom. I am using a very old digital camera right now and when I want really good pictures bringing in my expensive personal digital camera.

Full Moon...and Christmas Break!

Well it is FINALLY Friday! This has been an extremely tiring week for this teacher. I mean there's nothing like a FULL moon during the week we get out for Christmas break!


In the midst of this CRAZY week, my class has been getting a lot accomplished...most of which has been for the fun of it. Here's a little peek into our week.


This week my kiddos worked hard to make Christmas ornaments for their families. These are a few of the ones we made.

These were some adorable GingerCuties! They came from Miss Mandy on TpT and are FREE! I shrunk the pictures down to 2 per page to make ornaments!

These reindeer came from patterns I have had since I started teaching. They trace the patters on construction paper and then cut and assemble the reindeer. They are always so adorable and every one turns out to be UNIQUE!

A teacher friend of mine came up with the idea to do these tissue paper "stained glass" ornaments this year and the kids LOVED making them. We just used a clipart ornament as the background!

We also reviewed 2 digit addition with regrouping and made these adorable Christmas trees. This Holiday Tree is a freebie on TpT from RaraDT.

I think my favorite thing we made this year was the LOVE card from Simply Kinder (I can't find the link for this one!). The kids dipped their fingerprints in different colors of paint to make the light bulbs for their card. They are absolutely precious!

I hope you enjoyed taking a little peek into my classroom. Now I am off to enjoy my Christmas break - 2 weeks! YAH!! Merry Christmas everyone!

It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Well it is also the most exhausting time of the year for a teacher too! Needless to say life has been busy both in school and at home for the last few weeks. Thankfully everyone in my family seems to be doing better and life has settled back down into a more routine pattern (or at least as much normal as it can be at this time of year!). I only have 2 more school days until Christmas Break! YAH! :)


I wanted to share with you what Krista Wallden is doing to celebrate this special time of year. This year she is giving back to classroom teachers during the month of December. She is giving a set of clipart FREE each week in December with the hopes that we as teachers will give back to other teachers in the form of donating to specific Donors Choose projects. You can donate as little as $1, but think of all the good $1 will do if everyone donated! I think this is a great way to give back and I absolutely LOVE Krista's amazing artistic abilities so I have been all over this one. Please click on the link below to check out all the details:

Krista's Donate to a Cause Freebie #1

School life has been hectic as usual, but I did want to share with you a couple of pictures from last week. We took Miss M to see "Santa Land". This is a home of an older couple. They decorate their whole yard with well over 12,000 Christmas lights and LOTS of lighted Christmas objects. They also have a working mini carousel and train for kids to ride. Then they let families come and visit for FREE. It is absolutely AMAZING! M loved it and squealed the whole time we were there. Oh how I love seeing the wonder and amazement in her sweet eyes! She definitely makes Christmas magical for us!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Cyber Sale 2016 at TpT!

Starting today and running through tomorrow my entire store will be on sale for 2% off for the TpT Cyber Sale. Use the code CYBER2016 to save an additional 10% off! Now is the time to clean off some of those items in your wishlist!

By the way my Alphabet Emergent Readers Bundle is complete with all the letters now!

Fabulous Fall 2016

I just wanted to pop in and share some of Miss M's fall pictures with you. We had a fun afternoon taking these. She is growing up so much and these pictures show off some of her personality. I love them all!

I hope you are all having a fabulous fall 2016! Every day with Miss M is a wonderful day. She is my biggest blessing!

Halloween Fun 2016

If you are looking for some new activities to do this Halloween in your classroom, check out my Pinterest board. There are some fun activities pinned there. As an added bonus, many of them are free too!

Hooray For Fall!

I don't know about you, but I am super excited that fall is here! This is my favorite season of the year. I love the cooler weather, the changing colors of the leaves, football, and pretty much everything else about fall. Unfortunately here in South Carolina, we don't get too much fall weather until late in October or even November, but I soak it up as much as I can.


Usually each October, my mom, Miss M, and I travel to the mountains of North Carolina to see the beautiful fall leaves. This year due to damages from Hurricane Matthew and some sickness within our family we will not be able to make our annual trip.


As a tribute to my favorite season, I thought I would share some of my fall favorites with you. Some these are freebies I have created while others are paid products. All my fall products in my TpT store are on sale for 20% until Wednesday.


Fall Counting Activity Sheet (Up to 20 objects)
This is a free counting sheet that makes a great morning work or homework sheet.


In Fall Emergent Reader
This is a simple emergent reader for your students. It prints 2 books per page so you just copy and stack them on top of each other. Then cut them in half to make the books.

You can also find some other freebies that I created early in my blogging days by going to this blog post.


Please leave me feedback if you decide to use any of these things in your classroom. Your comments and feedback make me so happy!

Alphabet Emergent Readers Bundle - A Work in Progress!

I haven't posted in a while I know. My personal life as well as school life has been crazy busy since school began. My grandmother fell the week school began and fractured her pelvis in several places so we have had weeks of hospital and rehab. She came home 3 weeks ago and we have been taking turns staying with her as she cannot be left alone. This has meant less creative time for me, but I have managed to create some alphabet emergent readers. I am planning to make the entire alphabet, but have uploaded what I have finished so far.


Each emergent reader has 8-9 pages with two books per page. You can copy and lay them on top of each other and cut on a paper cutter. These are super simple to assemble and print in black and white to save on ink. My kinders loved coloring and reading these! The bundle is currently on sale for $3.00 until it is complete and then the price will increase to $6.00.

Alphabet Emergent Readers GROWING Bundle

Summer 2016 Bucket List Update!

Well I shared my summer bucket list with you on the first day of my summer break and I have neglected my little blog since, but I have been busy with my little family! We have spent lots of time together this summer and it has been wonderful. So here is my update on how I did with my list:

My Summer 2016 Bucket List

1) go camping at Lake Moultrie
We only got to go once, but it was lots of fun!


2) take Miss M to Tweetsie RailRoad to Day Out with Thomas
We went and had a wonderful trip! It was so much fun to see the excitement on her face. She loved it and definitely worth the trip!


3) clean out my closet
Oops! This didn't exactly get done this summer! :( Hopefully I will get to it during the fall.


4) meet Dorothea Benton Frank (again!)
We did get to meet her again and it was FABULOUS!! She is such a nice Southern lady! I bought her new book and she signed it for me which was a great treat as well!


5) organize my pantry
I did this on the first week of summer vacay and it looks so much better now that everything is organized again!


6) go to the beach with Miss M
We did get to go to the beach several times this summer (living only 45 minutes away has its advantages!). Miss M loved playing in the sand and jumping from the waves. Neither of us are fans of swimming in the salt water though!


7) organize the files on my school computer
Actually I started on this one before school got out and was able to finish it pretty early in the summer which left lots of time for playing and doing fun things as a family!


I got a lot of summer reading done as well. Here are some of the books I read this summer:

• Finding Noel by Richard Paul Evans
• Grace by Richard Paul Evans
• The Summer Girls by Mary Alice Monroe
• The Summer Wind by Mary Alice Monroe
• The Summer's End by Mary Alice Monroe
• A Lowcountry Wedding by Mary Alice Monroe
• The Beach House by Mary Alice Monroe
• Swimming Lessons by Mary Alice Monroe
• Beach House Memories by Mary Alice Monroe (I'm actually finishing this one up now!)

I hope you have all had a wonderful summer as well! I have been back at work for a week now and tomorrow morning bright and early I start the new school year with my 2nd graders. Wish me luck!

Summer Break is HERE!!

YAH!!! Yesterday was my last day of school for the 2015-16 school year and I am proud to say that I am officially on Summer Break! As a tribute to my summer vacation, I am sharing my summer bucket list with you.

My Summer 2016 Bucket List

1) go camping at Lake Moultrie
2) take Miss M to Tweetsie RailRoad to Day Out with Thomas
3) clean out my closet
4) meet Dorothea Benton Frank (again!)
5) organize my pantry
6) go to the beach with Miss M
7) organize the files on my school computer

My Summer Reading List

1) See Me by Nicholas Sparks

2) The Walk Series by Richard Paul Evans

3) All Summer Long by Dorothea Benton Frank

I will let you know how I do on accomplishing these things as I get a chance to do updates this summer. I know I won't be checking in often because I will be spending time with Miss M! I hope you have a wonderful summer as well!

Only 2 More Days of School Year 2015-16!

As I sit here reflecting on this school year, it has not come without its share of challenges. This was my first year teaching 2nd grade in my teaching career. Changing grade levels this year also meant changing who I was working with and losing my wonderful TA who was like a mom to me at school. My class has been rather challenging as well. I have had a very active group with some challenging behavior issues. I loved them all very much, but I am very ready for a break this summer.


In my reflection to this school year, I have composed my #teacherstats and posted this to my Instagram account as well. 

I have taught for 10 1/2 years. I graduated early from college in Dec. 2005 and managed to snag a teaching job at a district about an hour from home for the rest of the school year teaching a first grade class. Then I went back to the school/district where I student taught to teach kindergarten for 2 years. Finally, I came to my current school/district where I have been for 8 years. While I have been here, I have taught 1st grade for 3 years, kindergarten for 4 years, and am now in 2nd grade. It has been a whirlwind and definitely CRAZY at times, but I love teaching my little people!


I am heading off to see our high school graduation this afternoon. The valedictorian tonight was one of my kiddos that I babysat when I was in school and is super precious to me. I am so proud of her accomplishments and can't wait to see her receive her diploma. I would love to hear all about your #teacherstats as well!

Happy Fri-YAH To You!

Happy Fri-YAH to you! We survived another week at this CrAzY time of the school year and for me that means I only have 9 more school days left! YAH! I am super proud of how much my 2nd graders have learned this year, but I am so ready for the summer break to spend with my little one. She is growing up much too quickly and I want to soak up every minute!


As I promised, I wanted to give you a peek at Miss M's 3rd birthday. She chose to do a Thomas the train theme. He is her FAVORITE character!! I went to work trying to come up with some ideas for her party, so here are some pictures of how it turned out. I think it turned out very well if I do say so myself!

Railroad Crossing Signs

Thomas and his snack cars

Chips

Drink station

My girl with her birthday cake

Opening her presents

My little family after the party!

Hope you enjoyed this peek into my home life! Happy Friday everyone!

Lots of Learning about Lifecyles

I love teaching about life cycles every year! This year since I am in 2nd grade, we have lots of science standards that focus on lifecycles. We are currently in the process of growing our caterpillars. My students are excitedly watching them grow daily from the itty, bitty caterpillars that came into our classroom a week ago. They are writing about the lifecycles in their science journals and are so excited to see them create their chrysalises.


I always enjoyed doing these life cycles in kindergarten as well. I was looking over some of the emergent readers I made when I was in kindergarten and decided to give them a face-lift. I think they look much better with the new clipart from Creative Clips. I have posted them in my TpT store for $1.25 each, but ALL of my emergent readers will be on sale this weekend (Friday, Saturday, & Sunday) for 10% off! Click on the links below to purchase:

The Life Cycle of a Butterfly emergent reader

The Life Cycle of a Chicken emergent reader

These books have also been added to my Kindergarten Emergent Readers bundle and the price has increased to reflect these additions. If you purchase this bundle now, you will receive all future updates for FREE even as the price of the bundle continues to increase!

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

This Wednesday, I am sharing my most favorite part of my life: the little one who made me a "Mommy!"


Miss M and I were "twinning" for Mother's Day on Sunday!

Currently #5 of Sweet '16 & a TpT Teacher Appreciation Sale!

Well I missed the April Currently linky because of such a hectic schedule! So now I am joining the FINAL May Currently linky with Farley! I am so sad to see it go because I have met some awesome people through it, but I totally understand! So here's mine:

I can't believe that in 2 weeks my baby will be 3! I am working hard to plan her 3rd birthday but there is just so much to do!


Today and tomorrow TpT is celebrating US as teachers for Teacher Appreciation Week! Everything in my store is 20% off and with the code CELEBRATE, you get another 10% off! Now is the time to clear out some of the clutter in your wishlist! I am working on cleaning mine out! Click on the picture below to head over to my store:

Top O' The Mornin' To You!

Ok, so technically it is afternoon, but I wanted an Irish saying for my blog title! I am currently trying to finish up my grading for the 3rd nine weeks, but I wanted to pop over and share with you some fun activities I have created over the years for my kindergarten class for St. Patrick's Day. You may be able to use them tomorrow or file them away for another year.


Leprechaun Color By Sight Word Sheet: FREE
This is a sheet I created to have my kinders review the sight words with, she, make and good. It is a great morning work activity.


Leaping Leprechauns Unit: $2
This is a unit filled with St. Patrick's Day activities. For ELA, there are activities practicing syllables, sight words, and CVC words. For math, there activities practicing numbers, ordering by size, and addition. It is normally $5 but I have it on sale through tomorrow afternoon for $2.


What's In the Shamrock? CVC Sheet: FREE
This is a sheet I created where the students have to write the CVC word for the picture in each shamrock. It is a great independent activity to see what they know.


Shamrock Syllable Sorting Game: FREE
This is a game I used in small groups to practice clapping the syllables in a word. I printed the cards on cardstock and laminated for durability. Then the kids used them by identifying the picture, clapping the syllables and putting the card under the correct number. There is also a FREE recording sheet.

St. Patrick's Day Counting Sheet: FREE

This sheet is a quick way to informally assess counting up to 20 objects.

I hope you found something here you can use for tomorrow's fun GREEN day. Don't forget to leave me some feedback & comment LOVE if you download any of these and wear your GREEN tomorrow! Happy St. Patrick's day everyone!

Read Across America Week 2016

This past week was one of my favorite weeks of the school year. I simply LOVE teaching about Dr. Seuss and all of his wonderful books. He makes me want to read more to my students and this week we have had so many read-alouds.


My class did our first directed drawing of The Cat in the Hat from First Grade Blue Skies and they were so excited. I think they were precious!

Our school also participated in Read Across America Week 2016 by having 3 school spirit days starting on Dr. Seuss's birthday on Wednesday. I got some birthday hats from Dollar Tree for my students to wear and another wonderful teacher friend of mine made these adorable shirts for us to wear. She made our panda mascot wearing a Seuss hat and she put a different Seuss quote on the back of each person's shirt. I LOVE mine and I can wear it every year!

Thursday we celebrated Fox in Socks by wearing silly, crazy socks! I wore these silly apple socks! I rolled up my pant legs so you could see them better. I posted this picture on Thursday on Instagram which I am LOVING using since I can post it quickly!

Friday we celebrated our favorite Seuss characters. I dressed as The Cat in the Hat and my kiddos LOVED it! I had a couple of Things show up for school along with another Cat in the Hat. I also had a Sneetch and a couple of Foxes in Socks. They were precious!

Hope you had a great Read Across America week! Have a great rest of your weekend!

Currently #3 of Sweet '16

It is the beginning of a new month so that means it is time for me to link up with Farley for her fun Currently linky for March! I know I am a little late to this party but here goes my March Currently:

Listening: I love the quiet of my classroom when all my students have gone home for the weekend. It is something to savor for sure since I have such a talkative group this year!


Loving: I have had such a great time this week with Read Across America week. I always love teaching with Dr. Seuss but this year the whole school got involved and we did 3 days of school spirit (Wed. - birthday hats for Dr. Seuss's birthday; Thurs. - silly socks for Fox in Socks; Fri. - favorite Dr. Seuss character day). I will be blogging about it this weekend so check back.


Thinking: I can't believe that today is mine and the hub's 10th wedding anniversary!!


Wanting: I have been dreaming about a vacation with my family. I think we may have to plan a little getaway for Spring Break 2016! We definitely need some time to do some fun things together!


Needing: I NEED Spring Break 2016 to hurry up! We still have 14 school days left until SB2016 but who's counting?!


Polling Site: I am so thankful that our school is no longer used as a polling site and when we vote we are out of school usually.


Now head over to Farley's blog to read other Currently posts!

Five for Friday - Feb. 19, 2016

Today I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for her Five for Friday linky party. This was a short week for us with having the President's Day holiday off from school on Monday, but there was still lots happening this week. So here's a peek at my week:

I am working on acquiring a new blog design and name that will be more fitting of my current role. I have decided to rename my blog: Palmetto State Primary to show that I have taught and am teaching the primary grades in our school. I chose Palmetto State since that is the nickname for South Carolina (my state!). You will start seeing this name as the watermarks on my photos so don't be too surprised when you do! I hope to have a new design on my blog soon so please keep checking back!

Since we were off from school on Monday, I got to spend the whole day with my little princess. We had a nice relaxing day and even went to lunch at Chick-Fil-A (her favorite place to eat...and play!). We also got to feed the ducks and geese at the pond behind Chick-Fil-A which is what she is doing in this picture. She could stand there and feed them all day I think but eventually we ran out of bread!

This week our classroom has continued to study biographies. My students are loving learning all about other people's lives. This week we have focused on learning about presidents. Each day we have studied a different president by reading a biography about him. Then we created an anchor chart together of what they learned. I premade the anchor charts and laminated them at the suggestion of Step Into Second. Then my students added what they had learned on sticky notes to the anchor chart. These have been pretty amazing and I am so proud of what they have learned.

To extend my students' learning about biographies, each of my students has chosen a famous American to do a mini-biography project on. They are LOVING these! They have chose presidents, famous inventors, and even a few famous, positive athletes. I hope to have a finished product to share with you soon.

Finally, I made the plunge this week and joined the other teachers using Instagram. I am excited and nervous about where this new journey will lead. If you are on Instagram, please leave me your link so I can follow you too. I have learned so much from other wonderful teachers like you! Please hop over and follow me on Instagram too if can.

@palmettostateprimary
#teachersofinstagram
#iteachtoo

Now head on over to Doodle Bugs Teaching blog to see all the other weekly round-up posts from this week! Have a great weekend friends!

I Made the Plunge!

Well I finally made the plunge and I have become a member of another rapidly growing area of social media: Instagram!

I have seen how many teachers use it in their classroom and as a part of the blogging community and I decided that I would try it out too! I hope that I don't make too many mistakes in my postings, but I wanted to be able to share more from my classroom with other teachers and I don't always have time to make a long blog post. Instagram gives me the opportunity to share a quick picture that I snap with the teaching community and get some feedback as well.


I made my first post Monday about an anchor chart we created in our classroom on President Obama since we are learning about presidents this week. My students loved watching a 5 minute biography on his life from Bio.com and then they were each given a sticky note to write one fact they learned. I was amazed at how much they got from such a short video! I hope you will hop on over to see it and follow me too!

@palmettostateprimary

BTW: I used my new blog name (which is in the works) as my account name since it is more descriptive of my actual teaching role since I have taught kindergarten and 1st grade and am currently teaching 2nd grade.
#teachersofinstagram
#iteachtoo

Five for Friday - Feb. 12, 2016

Today I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for her Five for Friday linky party. This week has been BUSY but aren't they all!

Tuesday was the 102nd Day of School so our 2nd grade team decided to celebrate this special day! We used the 102 Dalmatians Disney movie as our inspiration. Everything I did was based on the Dalmatians theme. My 2nd graders really enjoyed all the fun activities and I did too (even though I was exhausted by the time the day was over!).

Our school has implemented the use of Daily 3 for our math block since we returned from Christmas break and my kiddos are jumping right in. They love using our classroom iPads that I got through Donors Choose to practice math facts on MobyMax. I use this as part of my Math By Myself. I am just getting my feet wet with Daily 3 so I would love any input I can get from teachers who have more experience with Daily 3! I especially need to know what are the "go-to" apps for math on your iPads.

My kiddos have just found the new books I got through a Donors Choose grant after Christmas. All of these books are on their reading levels and are nonfiction which is what they have been asking for over and over again! They absolutely LOVE reading them and sharing what they have learned. These have definitely been a favorite among my boys especially for their book baskets.

I made these for my kiddos for Valentine's Day. I thought they were so cute and so CHEAP! I got a pack of 20 Glow Stick bracelets at the Dollar Tree for $1 and then I printed the cute labels from The Teacher Wife for FREE! I love that they are not candy as well since it cuts down on my kiddos eating so many sweets!

Today we will Valentine's Day in my classroom since the holiday is on Sunday this year. Let's just say there has been candy everywhere in my room today! We are planning to party at 1:00 today with pizza, cupcakes, juice boxes and lots of other goodies! Of course it was lots of fun with lots of treats but I am glad it is Friday afternoon and time for a long weekend!

**For my kindergarten friends who have made it to the end of this post with me, I am putting my Lots of Love unit on sale through Sunday night for $1.00. This is normally a $5.00 unit so pick it up while it is on sale if you are interested in saving it for next year.

Now head on over to Doodle Bugs Teaching blog to see all the other photos from this week! Have a great weekend!