Monday Made It: Meet the Teacher

Happy Monday!  I'm linking up with Tara at 4th Grade Frolics for 

One of Tara's projects a couple of weeks ago was a "Meet the Teacher" board.  I LOVED her idea and wanted to make one for me! :)

I went to Michael's and bought a corkboard and used fun wrapping paper from Hobby Lobby to cover the board.

 Then I hot glued on a 6 foot pink feather boa around the edges.  {After I finished and held the board up, I realized I didn't get the boa glued on very well.  Be sure to use a lot of glue and push the feathers into the glue.}

 I added a hot pink flower and an "H" for my last name.  I used hot glue for attaching both of these.

 I made a little sign and had a bunch of photos of my family and teaching friends.  I put those on various scrapbooking pieces and laminated them.  I stapled everything to the board.

I love how it looks and it's a great way for my new firsties to see me as a person and not just their teacher! :)

I had extra pictures (because how can you choose?!), along with a little bit of space on a nearby wall, so this happened on Friday, even though I had a lot else to do!

Have a great week!  Our kiddos begin on Thursday!

Five for Friday {August 8}

Happy Friday!

It's time for Five for Friday!

I started back yesterday with our first teacher workday.  What a busy two days!  Here's a snapshot of my week!

My husband turned 40 last Friday and I had a surprise party for him on Saturday.  My grandma gave him this over the hill cane!  We had such a great time celebrating with our family and friends!  I am so thankful to God for Josh!

 Went shoe shopping yesterday for school appropriate shoes and I am so excited about these new ones and hope they don't hurt my feet!

 Our faculty is being trained in Responsive Classroom and the school has chosen 3 school wide rules.  A lot of what we teach in first grade at the beginning of the year is character education.  I found this adorable clip art from Educlips this summer, which put a picture with various character qualities.  I love the children who portray these different qualities!

 I had SO much to do this afternoon, but was very distracted.  Instead of putting things away and working on my math group differentiating plans, I put pictures up!

Today is my birthday!  Denise, the kindergarten teacher who is next door to me, has the same birthday!  We went out to lunch today to celebrate!

One of my kiddos last year gave me this adorable owl at the end of the year.  I found these cute flower stems at Michael's over the summer and I love how bright it looks on the corner of my desk!

Have a great weekend!  I am for sure going to enjoy sleeping in tomorrow!

Monday Made It! {August 4}

Happy Monday!

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

My husband's birthday was on Friday and my sister and I spent most of the summer planning a surprise party for him.  I wanted pom poms, but wasn't willing to pay for them, especially when my sister said she knew how to make them!

 First unfold a set of tissue paper.  You will need 10 pieces.  I bought packs at Target.

 Accordion fold the paper back and forth and then tie a long piece of ribbon in the middle.  Be sure you knot it tightly.

 We cut the ends of the paper - we did triangle cuts, but you could round the edges.

 Start in the middle and carefully pull each piece apart.  This takes a little bit of time so the tissue doesn't tear.

Fluff the pieces as you go.

Here's the one I finished!

Here's how they looked.  We decided to try to make a smaller one.  Once we had the pieces of paper unfolded from the package, we cut them down into a square instead of rectangle and then followed all of the steps above.  This made the finished pom pom just a little bit smaller and I actually liked that one best!

After we finished these, I went to the store and got lime green tissue paper to make one for the corner of my bulletin board.  We aren't supposed to have three dimensional things in our classroom, but I hope I can use it on my welcome back board.

Have a great week!

August ... already?!?

The first of August ...

... my husband's birthday

... new school supplies

... a new Currently from Farley at Oh' Boy 4th Grade!

I have enjoyed catching up on some TV shows and finding new ones this summer.  One of my favorites is "Castle."  I bought season five on DVD and it's great!

I was stuck in a rain storm last night and then again this morning while running errands!  I'm glad that now I'm warm and dry inside!

The first friend I made at my school was Melanie.  After teaching in fourth grade for eight years, I was able to move to first and teach with her the last four years.  She was transferred to another school and the first day back is going to be sad without her!

I return on Thursday.  I still have a lot to do before then!  The students return the following Thursday.

On the first day of school I read Chrysanthemum and we do an activity about how words hurt - I have a huge heart cut out of bulletin board paper and the kiddos take turns crumpling it up.  Then we try to smooth it out, but we can never remove all of the wrinkles.  The children take a band aid and "fix" the heart.  This has been a great visual on how what we say can hurt each other.  In math, we play with manipulatives to get it out of their system before we use them correctly.  I did it last year for the first time and very rarely during the year did I need to speak to any of the children about the correct use.

How do you spend the first day?