Sunday Scoop - New Linky!

Aahh! I stumbled upon a new linky today and I am so excited! I love linkies! This one is called Sunday Scoop and every Sunday you can link up and write 3 things that you have to do, 3 things that you hope to do, and 1 thing that you're happy to do. I am very excited to do the first one!

Head on over to Teaching Trio and link up your own Sunday Scoop!

Michelle

Five for Friday...Better Late Than Never!

Hello there! It's been a long time since I have visited my blog. I have been so busy with moving, setting up my classroom, and school starting that I just have not had the time to dedicate to my blog or my TPT store. With that being said, I am now going to try to blog more frequently now that things have settled down and we are in the swing of things at school. So here we go!

I recently ordered a Scotch Thermal Laminator when it was the Amazon deal of the day. It was quite a steal, if you ask me. It finally came in the mail! But I'm still waiting on the laminating pouches...

In  my classroom, we were reading some Splat the Cat books. These books are so funny and the students really enjoyed them! I decided to read Secret Agent Splat in order to discuss main idea and details. I then found this item on TPT...

And it was perfect! My students loved making the duck craft to go along with all of Splat's ducks. They made their "Missing" poster to go along with it. I then hung them in the hallway (sorry, no pictures). It was great to see the different ways that they decorated their ducks and it was great to see because I love ducks! They're my favorite!

Have you ever heard of Stitch Fix?!? I recently placed my first order with this website and I am super excited! It is like having a personal shopper and you don't even have to leave your house! You get to choose the styles and types of clothing that you like, place your order, and voila! The clothes come right to your door and you can also return them for free. I placed an order for my first five items and they should arrive on September 10. I will post about what I got when it gets here!

I have recently become a board game fanatic, courtesy of my husband. Among other games, our newest favorite is Power Grid. This game has many different rules, but changes each time the game is played, which makes it more fun and interesting. Even when we're only playing with each other, we can always end up with a different end result. I love games that challenge the mind, and this one definitely makes me think!

Check out the description here on Amazon! I highly recommend it!

http://www.amazon.com/Rio-Grande-Games-RGG240-Power/dp/B0007YDBLE

Stay tuned for a blog post about my new sight word strategy!!!

Have a great long weekend!

Michelle

Five For Friday (June 20, 2014)

I have had quite the busy week! As you can see, I haven't posted since last week's Five for Friday. I have been traveling for a week and today was the first day that I was able to sit down and blog. Hopefully next week I can get in some other posts and join a few other linkies. We'll see. But for now, here is my Five for Friday:

I mentioned that I had been traveling. I visited 8 states since this past Saturday. I left my apartment in Indiana on Saturday and then traveled all the way down to Texas to move into my new apartment where I will be living soon!

Here are just a few of the places that I had visited.

During one of our many stops on the road, we ate at an Outback Steakhouse. I don't go there very often but they had an amazing dessert! I didn't realize I was a cheesecake person until I devoured this:

Mmmmmmm!

I'm heading out today to buy my copy of The Daily 5 Second Edition! I can't wait to read it and implement the Daily 5 in my new first grade classroom. It worked great with my kinders last year and I can only hope for the same results this year! Plus, I love reading and deepening my knowledge on various topics. The Daily 5 is one topic that I am very passionate about. I think it will be an essential part of my day.

I made peanut butter and chocolate cookies! YUM!! I must really be into food this week with all of the food posts. :)

I'm thinking I might get this adorable turquoise chevron alphabet for my classroom next year. I love chevron and I love this color. Enough said. They are by Carrie Lutz and you can find them here.

Enjoy your week!

Michelle

Another Five for Friday!

This is my second time linking up with Doodlebugs Teaching for Five for Friday! I have never linked up to the same event more than once, so this is very exciting!

I am currently in the midst of my summer reading. My first book? The Fault in Our Stars! I'm really trying to read it before I go and see the movie. I have a pretty long car trip coming up, so my goal is to have it done by the time I get back.

Last week I posted about GoNoodle and how great it is for brain breaks. This week I would like to share another computer program, Xtramath. This program is basically just flash cards that the students complete every day on the computer. The program tracks their progress and their mastery of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts. I have students in Kindergarten who were able to master all of their addition facts because of this program. It is a great resource for any elementary teacher or for any student who does not know their math facts fluently. Also, the best part, it's FREE! I also have students who complete the program at home. I kept a graph for the students to color every time they mastered 5% of their facts. It was a great motivator.

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of listening to Tara West's presentation on guided reading over at her blog, Little Minds at Work. It was very informative about the guided reading process and she included some great activities that can be used in your groups. I was definitely jotting down some notes while I was watching so that I could come back to them later in the summer! I highly recommend it!

I ordered my Erin Condren Life Planner 2014-2015!! This is my first one and I am so excited to use it! I can't wait to be all organized :)

I'm definitely thinking about chevron for my classroom theme next year. I wanted to go with a more decorative theme, as opposed to a topic theme, like the Kinder'garden' theme I had last year. I'm moving on to first grade, so perhaps my room could also use a face lift. Here are a couple of things that have caught my eye.

This Behavior Chart from A Cupcake for the Teacher

I absolutely LOVE this job chart from the Clutter-Free Classroom!

And, I'm even trying to make my own chevron word wall letters and possibly table numbers. Stay tuned!

Well that's it, there are my 5 for today! Until next week!

Michelle

Monday Meet Me

I stumbled upon this summer linky and decided that it would be a great opportunity to share a little bit about myself.

Hop on over to The Teaching Tribune so we can meet you!

Happy Monday!

Michelle

Five For Friday!

I decided that it was time for my first linky party...so I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching this week for Five for Friday! Here we go!

Go Noodle! This website has amazing brain breaks that get the students up and moving. They get a class mascot and every time they exercise for a certain amount of time, their mascot gets bigger. The students get so excited to see him grow! I would highly recommend this website for younger grades. And best of all, it's free! www.gonoodle.com

During one of the last weeks of school we studied plants. In order for the students to fully understand what the stem does for a plant, we colored celery stalks. Celery is a stem and I wanted the students to see that once the celery was placed in the colored water, it would start to change colors because the stem carries the water to the rest of the plant. Very interesting, to say the least. And the students loved it!

A few weeks ago, I went to Kenosha with my family and we visited the Jelly Belly Factory in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin. It was awesome! We toured the factory in a little train and then got to taste and purchase various candies produced by Jelly Belly!

The last day of Kindergarten! I read this book to my students on the second to last day of Kindergarten because our last day is field day. The students really enjoyed listening to it. We made connections with what the students were doing in the book and what they had done in our classroom. I then surprised them by giving them each their very own copy of the book with a message from me! They were so excited that they were even reading them in the car line on their way out the door! Thank you Scholastic for a great $1 book!

Sweet Summertime :)

Michelle