Award and Freebie

Miss Sara at Miss Elementary awarded me The Versatile Blogger Award!

Thank you so much for the award!

Here are the seven rules to follow when receiving this award:

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you.
2. Include a link to their blog.
3. Include the award image in your post.
4. Give 7 random facts about yourself.
5. Nominate 15 other bloggers for the award. for the sake of time I'm probably going to do less!
6. When nominating, include a link to their blog.
7. Let other bloggers know they've been nominated.


My 7 Random Facts

1.  My dog is named Bernice after the Miranda Lambert Song White Liar

2.  I raise angus cattle and all of mine are named after I love Lucy characters.  I even had one named Bobalou!

3.  I absolutely do not like cooking! I will do the dishes I just hate to cook!

4.  I LOVE HELLO KITTY.  Yes I am 26 years old but something about her just makes me happy.

5. I am left handed and I am not crafty by any means. 

6.  I love ice cream I could eat it for every meal!

7.  I LOVE HARRY POTTER AND TWILIGHT I went to HP World last summer :) I even have hand drawn shoes!


I'm going to nominate Haley @ Following Optimism


 

Miss T At Journey of a Substitute Teacher

  

Kelley at Buggy for 2nd grade

  

Ladies your blogs are fabulous!  That is all I'm going to pick due to lack of time!

 

 

I wanted to quickly share a freebie I made that I'm going to use to post how my kids are going home.  I'm going to attach a clothespin with the childs name and the bus number they ride written on it to make it easier for subs.

 

You can grab it by clicking on the picture below!

 

 

 

I hope everyone had a restful weekend!

 

 

June...where did you go? and a FREEBIE

The month of June has disappeared way too quickly!  I have no idea where it went. I received school board approval last Thursday so I am officially employed by my newish school :)  I've been trying to work in my new classroom.  I am not a very good organizer and I have lots of what Farley calls *squirrel* moments and I leave in the middle of something to start something totally new and that has nothing to do with what I was currently doing.  I need someone to keep me on track! 

I was in the great city of Amarillo for a few days and my mom and I did tons I mean TONS of shopping.  I found lots of new items for my classroom of course I found jars at Big Lot that have fake fireflies in them but they light up and fly around!  I need to video them and show them to you because they are AWESOME.  They also have butterflies if your classroom has any of that. 

My mom and I hit up Goodwill and The Thrift Shop that benefits the blind look at these goodies:

I found 30 books!  The most I paid for a book out of this stack was 50 cents for a hardback all of the paperbacks were 30 cents!  I found 10 Junie B. Jones Books!  I would say I had a very successful Goodwill/Thrift Store experience.  I was amazed at all of the goodies I found.  I'm sure all of you experienced teachers have been there before and know about this little gem but for those of us newbies its definitely something to regularly look into :)

I was shopping at Kohls and I heard on the loud speaker that their Kohls Cares book was SKIPPYJON JONES!  I was so excited and then found out that each of these hardback books were five dollars (I was really excited since I bought a paperback one for 6.99 earlier that day needless to say that went back to the store).  You could also take home your very own SkippyJon for five bucks too how could I pass that up!?

 

I also went to a few used book stores and a Hastings where I found a few items but to me these were my best deals!  I think I consider the Kohl's one a good deal just because I LOVE SkippyJon Jones!!

On my LONG car ride home today I made some birthday certificates.  I am going to put them up on my birthday board by my desk so hopefully I will be better about remembering birthdays!  I was horrible about them last year...I think  I just had a lot on my plate!  I am putting a copy for you in my TPT Store just click the pic. below to grab yours!

I would like to end with a question this week.  Where do you find your "bargain books" for your class library?

So busy!

I apologize I have been MIA yet again and I haven't been making worksheets or anything either!  I have been so wrapped up in the moving, and workshops that I have neglected the fun stuff of the summer!

I have been brainstorming which I'm sure is a good thing.  I'm adjusting my clothespin system from a form of losing recess to being a positive thing to where they can move to a positive level if they go above and beyond that day.  I'm going to try to celebrate the positive a little more :)

I finally made a decision about classroom decorations and I decided on these cute little owls from Trend Enterprises.  I LOVE THEM!  I knew that I was meant to have them when I looked in the packs and decorations and there were FIREFLIES!  I was sold and I knew that it was meant to be :)



I'm thinking about hanging twinkle lights from my ceiling to maybe give the illusion of fireflies on the ceiling or even stars...I've also seen something on pinterest to put tissue paper in mason jars and use the battery powered tea lights maybe that will give the illusion as well.  We've also found baby food jars and are looking into glow in the dark paint so each kid could have their own "firefly jar."  I'm also looking into bright colored lanterns to hang from the ceiling I just can't decide about those. 

I received the keys to my new classroom yesterday and I am just waiting for the wax to dry so I can move in and get started!  I want to have my room decorated before I even start teacher inservice week in August.  I feel better whenever I have everything taken care of before then.

I attended a workshop over Writer's workshop and I enjoyed it!  I know if I enjoyed making all of the little things for my notebook my kids will too.  I'm looking forward to incorporating my multi-sensory grammar with it.  Are any of you using writer's workshop in your classroom?  Do you have any successful experiences to share? 

I know I probably keep on promising this but I nearly know I will have stuff to share once  I get a little more settled in and my life slows down a bit.  I haven't really even had time to stalk anyone in awhile :(

Have a wonderful week! 

Pen Pals

I feel like I have been running around like a chicken with their head cut off.  It has been a crazy summer and I can't believe the month of June is officially over.  Next week is my last week in my house so I am trying to finalize moving items, attend workshops, and try to squeeze in time for various other things that are on my to-do list. 

I hate when I attend workshops because I always end up spending $$ down the line.  I just bought 4 new books for my classroom to use this year and I am beyond excited.  I'm going to see if I can come up with a few things to share once the books come in.  Hopefully I have time to do that with preparing for a new classroom and all that goes along with that. 

I have been thinking today during these workshops and I have been thinking about pen pals.  I did this last year with my Mon-"stars" but as luck would have it I am not employed by the school that my class were pen pals with.  So I am wondering would any of my blogging friends like to start being pen-pals with my class next school year?  You wouldn't believe how excited a kid gets over having "mail."  Just leave me a comment or e-mail me and maybe we can get the ball rolling on that.

Did I mention I also got a new laptop!?  I am way too excited about this.  I think I am more fascinated with the web cam than any other feature on it.  I've never had one or used one before so it is a very new experience for me. 

I hope everyone is doing well and I promise to have some freebies or other ideas for you soon! 

SO EXCITED!

The big news is, is that I am moving!  Not moving grades moving schools as in an hour away from my current position.  It's not officially official..yet but all I am waiting on is school board approval.  I am going back to the school where I taught computers as an aide for my first year.  I am excited and scared about this new adventure but mainly excited.  I'm going to have a team!  I will have someone to bounce ideas off of (you never realize how important this is until you don't have one).  I'm very excited for this next chapter of my life..not to mention the man-friend is now only 10 minutes away!

Our school theme is ignite and of course I want to be different.  Our team is doing fireworks in our end of the hallway.  In our classrooms we can do our own thing and to be different I chose fireflies.  I was looking around for ideas etc. and I couldn't find any cute clip art.  For some reason this lovely lady was the first one to pop into my head!  I love her stuff and she's hilarious!  Michelle at The 3AM Teacher is going to do some fireflies and other insects for me!  I'm so excited! Click on her button below and you can see some of her great work!  If you click here it will take you right to her TPT store!



  

I went to Petco and picked up my Bearded Dragon habitat yesterday with my grant from Pets in the Classroom.  It was 179.99 with my coupon I received the habitat for FREE! I felt like I was a big winner on extreme couponing!  Next when it is closer to the end of July I am going to purchase the Bearded Dragon for 50% off.  I'm slightly nervous about this critter but I'm excited about what it will bring to my classroom. 

 

My classroom is packed up I have 3 weeks until I can move into my new one more than likely.  Now I have to focus on packing up my house and saying some goodbyes.  Saying goodbye to my cheerleaders will be the toughest.  I'm going to miss them and the rest of the students at my school but sometimes you have to do what is best for you. 

 

Have a great weekend!