January Pick 3 Linky Party

Today I am linking up with The Inspired Owl for January's Pick 3 Linky Party!

 I am so excited about this linky party since I love Pinterest! Here's my top three for January.

I just purchased a new journal to use to write these verses each day. I love the idea of spending time writing the verses while working to commit them to memory and just meditate on them daily.

 

I love this snowman rhyming activity! I have them printed, laminated, cut, magnets on the back, and in bags ready to go for next week's centers! I teach a combination first/second class this year. My first graders will be working on these in their center rotations.

I found this glyph the other day and have it ready to go. I love the differentiated aspect for having the children write about their snowman!

Click HERE or on the linky image at the top of the post to find other January Pinterest Picks! Have a great month!

Pinterest Party is My Monday Made It!

Happy Monday!

I am linking up with Tara at 4th Grade Frolics for my

Several of my teacher friends and I have Pinterest parties several times a year.  One of the teachers has a pool, so we "saved" her party until the summer so we can enjoy the water along with our crafts!

Debbie, our host, went to Lowe's and purchased an 8' x 4' board and had it cut down to clipboard size.  She had scrapbooking paper and a lot of Mod Podge for us to make clipboards!

Here are my pages for my first clipboard.  Use Mod Podge to cover one side of the clipboard and cover it with one piece of scrapbooking paper.  Fold the edges of the paper over to seal the edges of the board.  Then Mod Podge the front of the board and place the second piece of paper.  For this board, I had the yellow on the back with the plaid on front, accented by the owls.

 I used a scrap from the yellow paper to trim and cover one side of a binder clip.  The clip was then hot glued to the top center to make the clip part of the clipboard!

 My first clipboard.

 The second clipboard has bright blue paper on the back with this adorable owl paper on the front!  Debbie found all different kinds of clips to use and I loved how this yellow one matched a few of the owls.

Have you seen some of our other Pinterest party projects?  Check out the links here!

coaster project - I had extra supplies at home and put these coasters together to take in to school for my desk and reading table

pumpkin project

bows

card project

Have a great week!

Five for Friday {January 17}

TGIF!  I am linking up with Kacey for my Five for Friday!

We have had a busy week - we went to school all 5 days and didn't have any 2 hour delays!

 

Our science lessons are about winter and various animals.  Can't skip penguins!  A few of our favorite books:

 



 and a few of our activities 

 

we continue to work on skip counting and counting backwards with number picture puzzles

Several of us from school have a Pinterest party about once every six weeks.  This was my turn to host, but since I live so far from the school, my friend Brittany opened up her home for us.  We made snowmen from bottle caps and coasters.  Can't have a party without some yummy food!

 Instructions for the bottle cap snowmen ...
... use nail art polish to draw buttons and a face on the inside of bottle caps

... hot glue gun the three bottle caps to a small piece of ribbon and then glue the bottle caps together to make it stable

... wrap a piece of ribbon around and glue it together to make it look like a scarf and glue a button on top; we attached a magnet to the back of the middle bottle cap to have on our refrigerators, but you can also loop ribbon on the top to make it into an ornament

I am having a Jamberry online party!  Here's my first attempt.  If you're interested, click here.


 Have a great weekend!

 

Five for Friday {11-15-13}

So glad that today is Friday!  It has been a crazy long week and I don't think I could make it another day!  But ... since it's Friday, it is time to link up with Kacey at Doodle Bugs Teaching for my Five for Friday!



 

We had the carpet installed in most of the basement this week!  For those of you who don't know, our basement flooded on July 31st due to a problem with the construction we had going on at the house.  It's taken so long because of dealing with other people's insurance companies, but I'm thrilled with how it looks!

 

I have this thing with buttons right now ... it started when I began working on our sort and classify unit for math.

 

Then the tubs of buttons turned into crazy fun with sorting and making different rules for how to sort.

The table scatter from the dollar section at Target - I waited until after Halloween and got the packets for thirty cents!

Here's a couple of our activities for sort and classify.  I found these next two activities from Crazy for First Grade.  She has great ideas for sorting and classifying, including some online games!

These are the books and cassette tape I pulled for the listening center this week.  What a blast from the past!  One of my kiddos came to me in a panic because at the end of one of the books he saw coloring.  Laughing, I told him that I did it when I was about his age!

 

 I have been using Jodi Southard's Reading Comprehension Notebooks in two of my reading groups.  The first grade one, pictured here, is used in my group reading on grade level, and I also purchased her second grade one for my above level firsties.  I hope she creates more!  It's a quick way to assess comprehension, both fiction and nonfiction!



Tonight was our first Pinterest party of the year!  Several of us from school started this last year - we each take a turn with a craft and food, all found on Pinterest.  Tonight we used fall themed scrapbooking paper to create pumpkins.  I look forward to our evenings together!



 

Be sure to check out Kacey's blog to read other Five for Friday posts!  Have a great weekend!

 

November ... already?!

CaNnOt believe that is it already November!  Today I am linking up with Farley at Oh' Boy 4th Grade for my November Currently.

 

 

 

Loving and Thinking go together this month -

at the end of July we were having our basement resealed because of a lot of flooding every time it rained .. this meant the construction over took our front yard for what we thought would be a week to ten days, but because of problems they encountered, it lasted ten weeks and during that time a water line burst and our finished basement flooded - with about six inches of water everywhere. 

 

We now have the front yard finished (grass planted and it is growing, new sidewalk poured, & new bushes and tree planted and mulched) and are working on the inside where we lost flooring and furniture.  The carpet has been purchased and will be put in hopefully next week and today we are ordering the laminate flooring for the kitchenette and hallway.

 

My mom kept a box of special things when I was growing up and when the basement flooded, I thought that box was destroyed.  Last night I found some of the things, including my baby book and birthday cards from family - my great-grandmother who died in 1988 and my grandparents - I have just one grandma still living.  Finding these just touched my heart last night.

 

Wanting - wouldn't it be nice to have an extra day each weekend?!

 

Yummy Pin - peanut butter cup S'mores bars from

I have made these several times and they disappear almost immediately.  These are my favorite cookie bars ... ever.

 

Happy November!

 

summer school update, Pinterest party, & Book Talk Thursday

Yesterday was the last day of our summer school program.  Did you hear me sing for joy?!  I wanted something special for our math session, so we played "I Spy" using addition sentences.

 

Yesterday was also our pinterest party day!  My friend Brittany makes bows and she taught us several kinds.  Here's a picture of one of my bows.

 

Today I am linking up with my friend Andrea, at Reading Toward the Stars! for Book Talk Thursday.

 

My book for this week is called I Need My Monster, by Amanda Noll.

 

One of my sweet firsties purchased this book for me last year during one of our Book Fairs.  Our primary children read this book in library classes because it was a Virginia's Reader Choice book.

 

The story is about a little boy who, when heading to bed one night, finds a note from the monster who lives there, that he is on vacation to go fishing.  The boy doesn't know how he will get to sleep without Gabe being there.  Other monsters show up to try to scare the boy, but none of them are able to accomplish the task.  It's a cute story, especially if you love monsters! 

 

Happy reading!