Spring is in the air!

We are recovering from a very busy weekend...  not that we did much, it was just one of those weekends!  I am finally getting to uploading my Easter Pics...   We had such a fun day.  Here is some of the day in pictures:

Decorating Eggs!

Easter Egg Hunt Loot!

Fancy Updo... (can't turn the pic... sorry!)

And attempted kid pics...

maybe I could photoshop a couple of them together.... 

Yesterday Emelia was playing VERY quietly.  I could just hear her jabber and sing now and then.  When I went to see what she was up too this was my view...

She was playing school! She was reading to her "students" and singing with them.  How a child who has never been can set up something so close- I'll never know!   Maybe teaching is in her blood!    :)

Have a happy week!

Julie

A New Blog....

After blogging for several months, I have decided that it is time to be thinking about what I wanted this blog to become.  So after much thought, (and apparently talking- if you ask my husband!)  I have decided that this is going to be my personal blog...  the one I share about my kids and projects and junk like that.  So I am happy to share my new blog...

FUN! FABULOUS! FIRSTIES!!!

The web address is: http://www.funfabulousfirsties.blogspot.com/  I am excited to be able to share lessons and ideas and freebies through the new blog!  I am getting ready to host my first giveaway next week!  So, all of you that I know personally can follow the adventures of Brady, Emelia and crazy me (and my husband!)   trying to keep up with them without the bother of lessons and freebies.  :)   

I was able to do my FIRST little girl up-do.  I cannot  believe how much fun I had!  Who needs to go on vacation when you can stay home and do your little girl's hair!  :) 

I will upload pics tomorrow! 

Happy Easter!  My kids at different times made me so proud this weekend talking about the true meaning behind Easter-  Gotta LOVE THEM! 

Julie

SPRING BREAK!

Spring Break is halfway over!  My list of things to accomplish is not!  I wonder if if it is common for teachers to overplan every break with a hundred things to get done, or if it is just me? 

I finally got in my order for a grant that I wrote for a Public School Grant Committee.  It is called "Dance to Advance!"  I saw it last June at the technology conference and have been hoping for it since.  It connects to the Interactive Whiteboard and the students have to read the screen and use their feet to answer questions.  Super fun!  The best part is that I can program the questions to fit what I am working on-  now I just need about 6 more hours in my day to make use of all the great resources I have! Not exactly a bad problem to have!  :)   You can take a look at it HERE.

I have been haing a great time with my own kids!  We have been doing art projects and reading and even made a quick trip to visit family in Minnesota.  I found the cutest book at Barnes and Noble called PIGGY BUNNY for Easter.  It is a-dor-a-ble!!!!!   Between that and the Easter Bunny's Assistant we heard of through THEINSPIREDAPPLE we have been reading a ton!  We have also been playing a version of a game I found on FIRSTGRADEBLUESKIES.  Anything to get my kindergartener to practice sight words at home.  "Cause don't you know that you are not supposed to make your kid do schoolwork at home, mom! You only think so because you are a TEACHER!"  Ugh---  I for see some long nights with homework in our future!  So I have to find little ways to "trick" him into practicing without it seeming like work.  The egg game has been fun!  We have also used Angry Birds and taping sight words to bricks.  :)  I found some really cute Star Wars clip art I am working on some review stuff for him too!

I am getting my tickets to the next technology conference this weekend!  It is in San Diego and I am so excited! Besides gettinng to go to one of the best conferences I have ever been to in my life,  I get to take my family on the kids very first plane ride and they are going to swim and relax while I go to the conference.  Then we get to stay a few days and explore!  CAN'T WAIT! You can check it out:   ISTE Conference

I finally was able to see The Hunger Games after trying to find the time to get away for a couple hours.  Worth the wait!

Have a great Easter weekend!

Julie



PEEPS, jelly beans and more jelly beans!

Well, the week before break is finally here!  We are going to spend the week on Easter treats!  The first couple of days we are focusing on PEEPS...  from my Learning with my Peeps unit.   I really love the Technology and Science activities in this unit!   It ties together my favorite things in the classroom-  eating :) - technology- and science!    There are several experiments that you can watch on a computer or Interactive WhiteBoard and  Scientific Method sheets to do.  My kindergartner at home LOVED doing these!  It was really fun!  My students love experiments, so I know they will be a hit!

As if thePeeps aren't enough- Towards the end of the week we are doing Jelly Beans from my Jelly Bean Unit!

Both are for sale in my Teachers Pay Teachers Store!  I also came up with a couple of Jelly bean inspired freebies that are in the store as well.  A number word/number matching activity and a group of Jelly bean themed literacy activities including 2 books for students to make!

 You can go to my store HERE.  I am excited to do the riddle book with my students!  I know they will LOVE IT!  I made a kindergarten version of jelly bean math as well.  I love to make things I can use with my own child and that I can share with his teacher!   

So that is what I have been busy doing this past weekend!  I am so excited to finally get my store going that I am having a

SALE!!!

(anyone who knows me, knows I LOVE A SALE!)

Today went so fast, I could hardly believe it!  Hope the week goes the same way!  Can't wait to spend a little time with my boy and girl!!!  

Hope your week is awesome!!!

Julie

3 days til the weekend, 2 freebies, and 1 more set of report cards til summer break!

So I made it through yet another grading period and could not be more thrilled!  I have been so nervous about this round of assessments, but it turned out way better than I thought!  So yay!  Tomorrow is my little one's preschool screening.  How can they grow so quickly!?  I can't wait to share this milestone with her.    3 more days until the weeked!  It felt like today was Wednesday, so I am all thrown off...  missed a special yesterday (first time EVER)  sheesh---  I think it is just time for a Spring Break!!!

So we are in the midst of all things spring and Easterish...  I LOVED the Reindeer Applications I found through PINTEREST and decided to come up with one for an Easter Bunny...  I found one on a Kindergarten blog, but needed to step it up a bit...  so I combined a bunch of ideas and came up with this...

Here is the link...  Bunny Help Wanted

I took the kids pictures with Bunny Ears to hang with them in the hall and they are all too precious!!!  My favorite sentence a student wrote was "I can hop with a basket real good!"  How hilarious!  Love how they got into it!!!

The other freebie of the day is a little throwback from our state testing...  we cheered on our third grade buddies by giving them some kind of note and treat for the day.  Here is our PEEPS inspired treat:

You can download it from this link: Somebunny Special...

The graphics are from www.scrappindoodles.com  love them! 

The borders are Ellie Lash from That Girl...  love her blog!

Finished the whole Hungry Games Trilogy!   Now what???  

Have a great night!

Julie

Leprechauns and all that fun stuff!

What a fun busy weekend!  My kids spent the last two days trying to find "evidence" of Leprechauns in our house.  I spent the last two days trying to find our house!  My husband worked all weekend, so it became the perfect time to get out warmer weather clothes and go through the kid's rooms and put toys we don't play with anymore into the garage sale bins.  It feels so good to purge, but wow, how do we end up with all this stuff!  and the amount of Happy Meal toys..wowza...  I'm thinkin we need a whole lot more of home cookin!  I also found some time to put the finishing touches on my next Packet...  I am in the process of gathering Math Center activities that I have been making for the new Common Core Standards this year.  I have to say I am LOVING Common Core so far!  We have so much more time to work on concepts and I am impressed with how well the students understand so much more deeply---  and all of them are getting it because we spend so much more time on them in centers.    This is how I run my math centers:

3 times a week I have about an hour (give or take) and I try to get in 4 fifteen minute centers. 

Center 1: they get to go on computers.  I make them do Xtra Math first and then they can do ABCya.com or Kid's College.  Xtra Math is great for math fluency, takes about 5 min after rhe initial 20 min testing, gives me information about what they are acomplishing, and (THE BEST PART!)  it is FREE!  Gotta love it!  I also signed my own kindergartener up to do this at home.  It is great because I can send home their pin numbers and they can work at home.  I get to see both home and school scores!  LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!
Center 2: Some kind of math fluency game.  It is either on the whiteboard or a small group work.  I have about 10 I use all year and just change up the facts.  It really helps with managing the center. 
Center 3: a game or activity that goes with the main concept I am working with.  Sometimes I sit with the group and help, sometimes I pull students from another center to remediate or get in some extentions and sometimes I test students one on one for our district assessments that require it.
Center 4:  This one is the wild card...  sometimes I give the students the manipulatives we will be using for the next concept and let them play however they want with them.  Sometimes you just have to use the pattern blocks to make a wall or a really long snake out of the unifix cubes!  I find that giving my students "play" time with the manipulatives, the novelty is gone when it comes time to use them and they say on task better.  Sometimes I will put out something and let them make their own explorations...  a scale and a bunch of objects, that kind of thing...  then I make them draw and write about what they did.  I have a few listening centers I have made that go with math skills and this would be the center for doing that as well.  It is kind of the "whatever I need it to be'" center.

That being said,  here is my first bunch of activities I would use in Center 3...

I just uploaded it into my Teachers Pay Teachers Store.  You can download it here!

The other project I have been working on is finishing up the Hunger Games Trilogy!  I decided that I have been out of the loop for too many of these big crazes and I was ready to jump in.  and YUCK!  I cannot even believe how horrible the premise is for these books!  Yet, I cannot put them down!!!  I just can't wait to see what will happen next!  Not exactly the "feel good" happy, inspiring books I am usually drawn to, that is for sure.  I read the 1st one in a day, the 2nd last night and finished it today and I am about 60 pages into the next!  I do read fast...  so off to learn more about the MOCKINGJAY!!!  

Have a great week!

Julie

Sunshine! Glorious Sunshine!

I can't even imagine how we went from winter to this incredible weather!  Yesterday morning when my class was graphing our weather for the month, I noticed the day that was marked for snow and asked the kids if that was a mistake!  We even checked weather.com to make sure!  Wow!  That hasn't been that long!  So I spent my day working on changing out winter to spring for my kids clothes...  quite a job!  It is one of my least favorite jobs because I get so sad that they will never wear any of my favorites again!  I did get out the new I bought on clearance last summer and am pretty excited about the new wardrobes! 

I have also been working on my new unit to put on Teachers Pay Teachers...  it is a set of Comparing Numbers Math centers/ tub activities that my students have been loving!  Hopefully I will be getting that out by the end of the weekend! 

Here is an example of one of our sight word activities we have been doing.  I made it out of a punchball from the dollar store.  (they come in 3's)  I was excited when we were reading yesterday because one of my strugglers said excitedly:  "This word was on our sight word ball!" and then he said it.  There is hope yet!

I just use a sharpie to add on the words that our traditionally hard from our list.  (I do throw in a couple of easier ones too so it isn't so overwhelming!!!) 

So I am off to blow bubbles with the kids!  Love these sunny rays!

Julie