My new template!!

Don't you just love my new template courtesy of Ladybug. Girls got talent :)

Post Your Pets!

Oh my word, I jump at any opportunity to brag about my babies! Thanks Ladybug for giving me an excuse :) 

Meet Kloey (cat) and Oliver (dog)!

Kloey is almost 2 years old. I adopted her from an agency in PetSmart. It was the 4th Petsmart I went to and the second I saw her I knew I had to have her! She's a sweetie pie. It took her a very long time to warm up and enjoy living with us. Her first 2 months were living in an apartment in a busy city and she hated the noises and would hide all day. Kloey came out of her shell when we moved to a nice and quiet suburb. She is strictly a house cat because she is petrified of outside. 

This is Oliver. He has a very chaotic story. Oliver was adopted through Petfinder.com. We adopted him last August. He came from Tennessee. We drove from NY to pick him up in Connecticut. It was a cold and rainy day and we were waiting on line to pick up our new dog off the doggie bus. They couldn't find Oliver because they put him on the wrong bus! So then we drove an hour back into NY to meet the other bus to get our dog. Unfortunately we were told several lies about Oliver prior to adopting him. Oliver was supposedly a year old and full grown. Yea right! We think he was only about 6 months and he more than doubled! We were also told he was a certain breed and the Vet said no way! He came with so many problems and almost 1 year and a couple thousand dollars later I can finally say I love him! He took a lot of work but he's a precious angel. Kloey and Oliver absolutely love each other too which makes it a "happily ever after" ending. 

Magic Eraser really is magic! :D

Thank you to whoever recommended using a Magic Eraser as the actual dry erase board eraser. It truly is magical!! :) I follow so many blogs and websites that I have no idea where I got the idea from. Erasing my white board and laminated items has never been easier. You don't wet the Magic Eraser.. you basically just use it as is. I don't have to press hard or use Expo spray anymore to get my boards and materials clean. LOVE IT!!

St. Patrick's Giveaway and then some..

If you haven't been inspired by Ms. Schroeder yet, I suggest checking out her blog. She's having a giveaway right now on a fun St. Patrick's Day unit. Plus, her blog is full of great ideas :) 


On a different note, we put together our door for March today. The kids put together marching ants and I glued their faces onto the heads. The cute insect cut outs are from the Dollar Tree. The students wrote why they can't wait for Spring on them. I think it turned out cute :)

Leprechauns and Rainbows, Oh My!

I made this version of the popular Snakes and Ladders game but with a differentiated and St. Patrick's Day twist! I want my students working on numbers above 100, so this game board will help them practice. For game pieces you can either use snapping cubes or Lucky Charm marshmallows. I use either 2 dice or 1 die and 1 spinner and have my students add the two numbers together to determine how many spaces they move. We'll be working on subtraction this month, so I'll probably have them roll 2 dice and subtract the smaller number from the larger number. Either way, I know they'll love playing it! Click here to download the file, print, then laminate for durability. Enjoy :)

I'm an Organizational FREAK!

Link Party!

Let me just start by saying I LOVE anything to do with organization. I love to be neat, tidy, organized, and ready. You could say it's OCD. You may have seen these pictures before on my blog, but this time I'll explain my organization tips. 

So this mailbox organizes SO much! I have a small class so the 6 on the left are my students' boxes. The one on the bottom left holds file folders of everything I use weekly/monthly: clip chart sheets, speller's choice, spelling lists, and monthly writing prompts.

The middle section is broken up into the following: 

Birthday- this is where I keep birthday pencils and certificates

Star student- contains certificates and sticker

Awards- this is where I have misc. awards (like reader of the month or caught you being good), 

Forms- right now it's just "while you were absent" cards that I made on Vistaprint

CAFE- the bottom 2 contain various things I use for CAFE and my Fancy Nancy word wall such as sentence strips, checks for understanding, index card strips, sticky notes, etc.

The last section on the right is open for my students to use and they know exactly how I expect everything to be treated and handled. It includes: 

Construction paper

White paper- basically just printer paper

Loose leaf paper

Stationery- usually themed, last month I had Valentine cards, before that Christmas cards. 

Fancy paper- mostly cute paper from the Dollar Tree. 

Envelopes

Writing task cards- changed out monthly. Right now I have St. Patrick task cards that I included in my unit. 

And you'll notice EVERYTHING is labeled. I love labels. My kiddos must too because they pick, pick, pick at them! By now they know messing with my organization is a big no no. 

Again, LABELS :) These are mostly math manipulatives and have a cute little label. The middle row with the blue lids are my word work bins. All 3 bins have identical items and the students take a bin when they choose "word work" in the Daily 5. They include: dry erase crayons, stamps, markers, colored pencils, Wikki sticks, magnetic letters, and chalk. The cookie trays on the bottom are what the students grab if they are using magnetic letters. 

On top you can see my scissor bin, pencils, dry erase markers, dry erase crayons, dry erase erasers, sticky notes, index cards, writer's checklist, and editing pens/pencils.

My library bins are all labeled according to genre. The label also includes a number and the back of each book has a corresponding number. Wow my library stays so organized and clean this way :) 

On my shelf you'll see my teacher binders and papers to file, my CD player and CD's, the students' BEE binders and word study games, and on the bottom are individual book bins. 

Well, I think that's all I have to share right now. My room is so small that I've given up my shoe closet at home to store all my non-essentials like bulletin board materials and craft supplies. On Sundays I grab what I need for the week. If you have any questions about my organizational OCD please ask :)

Synonym Lollipops

My students LOVE this activity. I noticed that it's one of my popular word work game choices. You write the matching synonyms on popsicle sticks then the students match it to the correct top to make a lollipop. Thought I'd share!