Easel Situation Please Help! :)

So I FINALLY got my first easel and I'm soooo excited, even though it takes up most of my room! Except I'm struggling with figuring out how the chart paper is supposed to go. It seems kind of like a hassle to flip pages. Can anyone describe how to put the paper on the rings or send me a picture (I don't think you can post pictures as a comment so via email is just fine). Please please help so I can enjoy my new toy!! :D 

Differentiation Daily

I just found myself on this website. I've never heard of it before but there is some other great ideas on it too! Check it out :)

Homophone Friday!

If you haven't checked out my guest blog yet on Once Upon a Time in First Grade doooo it! :)

I also made these last night. I think they're super cute! It's a homophone matching game!



A Big Thanks and a Great Giveaway!

First of all, I got my Vera Bradley change purse today. A HUGE shout out to Mrs. Farley. I won her giveaway last week :) 

If you're not sick of giveaways, because who can be sick of free stuff??!! head on over to Mrs. Schroeder's blog because she's giving away one of those freakin' awesome electronic butterflies and a unit. One of my students brought one of those butterfly jars in and I SCREAMED because 1. I'm petrified of butterflies and 2. It looks soooo real!

Good luck :) 

Did you see this great giveaway?

Did you all see this oh so cute giveaway over at one of my favorite blogs?? Kris has adorable ideas and that canopy she has up for grabs is a-dor-able! 

On a side note, I will be guest blogging for Gladys on Friday! I'm all kinds of excited :) I think I'm going to post about the miraculous vocabulary development currently going on in my classroom. It's like music to my ears... la la la la la! 

Easter Math Centers and Giveaway Winner

Here are pictures and samples of what is in my new Easter Math Centers. It's only $5.00 on Teachers Pay Teachers. I love it because now my math centers are covered for the next 4 weeks :) My students love games and activities for centers and this is what is included: 

Jelly bean estimation
Graphing by 1's
Graphing by 2's
Jelly bean fractions
Carrot measurement with jelly beans
Carrot measurement to the nearest inch
Carrot measurement to the nearest half inch
Money game
Addition bump
Subtraction bump
Bingo board
Mystery number game
Easter egg word problems
Greater than less than carrots

But Ms. A you don't have to worry about purchasing it because you won the giveaway so email me! Whooo :)

*Easter Math Center Giveaway*

Good morning! I am almost finished with my Easter math center activities. Before I post them on TpT I thought I'd give the opportunity to win it. It's about 10 centers that can easily be differentiated for K-2 students. They are in color so they're intended to be printed and laminated and reused year after year :) 

This will be a quick giveaway because I plan on announcing the winner tomorrow by 3PM Eastern time along with photos of the centers in action. You can enter 3 times by doing the following: 

1. Commenting that you follow my blog

2. Follow and comment that you follow my TpT store

3. Blog about the giveaway in your blog using my button on the right hand side.

A Busy Week of Learning and Fun!

I was thrilled to hear that my students' favorite part of the day was the St. Patrick's Day Unit that I created and they absolutely love the math centers from that unit, so I'm keeping them for another week until my Easter Unit is ready to go!

Here is the latest phonics graphic organizer. My kids went crazy over this guy!

The clouds add a nice touch to the classroom. We're studying weather right now. 

A few weeks ago the students learned about symmetry in math. I had them create symmetrical paintings just by squeezing paint onto cardstock then folding it in half. Then for writing I had the students write a story about their painting. They were incredibly creative! I told them short stories, but I still got some 6 pagers which is fantastic ;) They were enthusiastic about this project!

You really want to see my "nest"? Ok... you asked for it!

I decided to participate in Mrs. Farley's link party probably just to embarrass myself ;)

For those of you who have been following me for a while, you've seen the photos of my classroom.. it's the size of a bathroom. This shelf is basically the only place I can store "my" stuff and I only get 2 shelves. The very top just houses some assessment materials, the second to last shelf has paper to file and binders for data and curriculum information. The other shelves are student materials.The REAL nesting is done at home... 

This is my real "nest." I leave school ASAP to plop down and work there for a couple of hours. So yes, I am THAT teacher that leaves at 3:30 BUT only to work in my comfort zone! 

So this is a shoe closet converted into my classroom storage closet. Poor shoes :( This is mostly extra supplies and craft materials. It was organized in August but so much more has piled up since then. The point of the clear craft tub was for me to see what I have in there.. not so much. 

This is the "office" in my apartment. The real office is my couch.. this is more or less a storage area. The white baskets, fabric cube, and blue tub are all school/teacher related. What a mess!

Ooohh.. this picture doesn't look so bad! The bottom shelf is all professional books, the top shelf has about 20 packages of .01 loose leaf paper, and the purple crates contain more professional development items. Oh and that toolbox is wonderful. I keep all my "most used" materials in there and just grab it when I'm creating projects in the living room by my office couch. 

This is my desk that NEVER gets used. I store stuff on top of it, obviously. The clear bins are mostly die cuts, paper, markers, glue, etc. 

Can I just tell you how vulnerable I feel right now. Everyone describes me as the most organized person they know because that's how I like my living and working environments, however, since I don't go in the "office" it doesn't bother me. I will tell you this... when I finally own a home I WILL have my very own office with lots of built in storage and it will be so neat and perfect. Promise. 

Water Cycle!

So here it is!! I don't have much wall space in my room, so it's an interactive trifold bulletin board! My students absolutely love it :)

The right hand side has a description of evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and collection. The terms in green are on velcro and the students have to stick it onto the correct location. 

Students will be able to explain the water cycle by using their bracelets! 

You can get the bulletin board printouts (not the scenery. that is card stock),  3 labs, an assessment, and the water cycle bracelet, on sale for $2.00 here!

P.S. Didn't I work hard on this??? <3

Disclosure: Fiancé not included!

P.S.S When I started blogging a few months ago I didn't think 198 people would ever follow me!! 2 more followers and I'll host a giftcard giveaway :)

BEST resource EVER!

Is this not the most amazing resource ever?! I posted it on What the Teacher Wants blog last night, but figured I would post it on my blog too. It's made planning for computer and extending my lessons MUCH easier. Thank to to the creator :)

P.S. I have some pretty amazing water cycle pictures coming soon! My finance and I are building an interactive bulletin board as I type (well I'm blogging and he's creating!). His Law School is on break right now, so why not put his creativity to work ;)

The Antonyms Go Marching

I got my idea for this from Ms. M. I made up an antonym song that goes to the tune of "The Ants Go Marching" (at least I think I made it up. I didn't find it online.. I just started singing it in the shower one morning and went with it!). It went a little like this: 

The antonyms go marching one by one hurrah, hurrah. 

The antonyms go marching one by one hurrah, hurrah. 

::insert 4 sets of antonyms. The kids came up with them:: 

clean and dirty

high and low

good and bad

yes and no

And they all go marching down to the ground 

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!

Then repeat with two by two, etc. with 4 different antonyms. 
My kids totally ATE this up. 

Then they traced their feet, cut it out, and wrote their antonyms and drew a picture. 

Phonics Graphic Organizers

I've been meaning to get around to posting these, but wanted to wait to see if my students were indeed making progress ;) My students are VERY visual so I've been doing a lot of graphic organizers with them. Let me tell you, they refer to them while they're reading and writing and it seems to be clicking! So here are the photos. I try to come up with cutesy ways for remembering sounds since phonics can be really tricky!



TpT St. Patrick's Sale!

To celebrate my new template,hopefully last snow day of the year, and in honor of St. Patrick's Day, everything in my TpT store is marked down 10% including my already marked down St. Patrick's Day Unit! Sale ends Thursday so check it out :) Thank you for your support!