One Year!

It's been almost a WHOLE year since I last blogged. May things have changed in this past year. I am no longer a First grade teacher. This will be my 2nd year teaching 2nd grade. I still don't know how I feel about it. I really LOVED first grade.

I just moved to a new home. I have been living here for 2 weeks now and completely love it. It is twice as big as my old home. Here are few pictures:

 

Front of the house

 

Kitchen

 

Living Room (family room is on the other side of the wall)

 Master Bedroom

 1 of 3 Bathrooms

 Backyard

I am totally in love with my new home.  It is my dream home. I am looking forward to hosting during the holidays, especially during Christmas! My girls totally love getting in the pool. It's funny how the hubby and I did not want a two story home or a pool and that's exactly what we ended up with. But we are all enjoying this awesome house.

I am so bummed out that summer vacation is ending. I have 3 staff development days next week. School officially starts on Monday the 18th. When do you all start?

Keeping Busy!

I am still waiting for school to start. Our start date has changed a few times as our NEW school is still being built!

So in the meantime, I have tried to keep myself busy by completing some projects that got set aside after my dad past away.

Here are some pictures of things I've completed in the last few weeks.

Teacher Toolbox

Teacher Binder

Drawers

Word Work Bins

Word Wall Headings

Student Numbers

 

Pointers to Read

So here's what I've managed to complete. It's not much but it's kept me busy. I hope that those of you who already started are having a great time with your new students.

Can't Stop Thinking of Him

June 4 was my last day of school. I was so excited. My family and I had plans to go to Disney World. We wanted to take my parents with us. Then 2 days later I find myself heading to Las Vegas instead. Not what you're thinking. I wasn't there to have fun. My father's job relocated to Vegas about 10 years ago. I went to Vegas because he was hospitalized. First they thought it was pancreatitis. Then they thought he had stones. Either of these would have been fine. My dad past away 7 days later. On the day he died, we found out he had Lymphoma. It was the WORST day ever. We had NO clue. He had lived with Lymphoma Non-Hodgekins for over 10 years. When he died, he had  a HUGE stomach. The cancer had burst and spread all over. 

I usually don't share personal information like this on the internet, but I can't stop thinking about him. Those days I spent with him in the hospital. It was HORRIBLE to see him like that. I won't go into details, but it was so sad and painful to watch what he went through. I keep having flashbacks of those days.

And now it's time to get ready for the new school year and it's SO hard to concentrate. I am extremely anxious as I will be teaching a new grade level and I feel completely LOST! To top it off, our school is being built and its completion has been delayed. We were suppose to start on the 19th of August. Now we will start on September 2nd.

Thank you if you got to the bottom of the page. I guess I needed to get it off my chest.

Back to School Exclusive

Head Over to Teacher's Toolkit to learn about this awesome Back to School Exclusive. Lots of FREEBIES!

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I. Am. Done!

 I am officially on vacation!

Today was my last day as a first grade teacher :( I now get to plan for 2nd grade!!! I am so excited!

31 Days Left

Can you believe it!?!?! I only have 31 more days of school left!!! I am so EXCITED!!! This has been the TOUGHEST year ever and I've been teaching first grade for 11 years. Let's just say 1 student can CHANGE everything.

I guess it's time to start thinking about a new "name" and look since I will be teaching 2nd grade....YIKES! Any ideas for a new name? I'm stumped.

2nd Grade!!!!!

So I recently found out I will be teaching 2nd grade next school year! Say what!?!?! I have been a first grade teacher for 11 years. That's ALL I know and absolutely LOVE it. But I think it is time for change. New curriculum and new team. I am so NERVOUS but also super EXCITED! My brain is already going crazy and the OCD in me wants to start prepping for next year. CRAZY, I know! I still have to finish this year. And to top it all off, I will be moving schools. Well, our school is technically two schools on 1 campus. We are year round, but will become traditional. So K-2 finally found a new campus. It is currently being built and hopefully will be done in August/early September. So I need to pack, finish the year, do report cards, CUMS, and prep for a new grade!

Astronauts and a FREEBIE!

I will be teaching Unit 5 Week 1 of CA Treasures in a few weeks. Here are two thinking maps I made to go with the week's theme.

 

I haven't decided which of the two I want to do, but either one will help students with their writing. One of these thinking maps will be attached to this cute craftivity.

It is a craft from Abby Mulins at The Inspired Apple. I LOVE her stuff! You need to check out her website if you haven't already.

Click on the thinking maps above for your copy!

Frog and Toad

I can not believe how long it has been since I last posted. Life has been so busy with two girls, work, and a house to manage.

Here is something I wanted to share. I teach CA Treasures and will be reading The Kite next week. We also use Thinking Maps at my school so I made this flow map to go with the story.

The students will first sequence the pictures. Then will write about what happened at the beginning, middle and end of the story. This is my sample.

UPDATE: I no longer have this map saved on my computer. We have been given new computers and I had to get rid of all my 1st grade files as I moved to 2nd grade and the new computer has less memory :(

Recipe Linky Party

I know it has been a few months. But now with two kids, a husband, and work, live is BUSY!

Anyway, this post is to share a recipe I tried today. I am joining Fun For First Linky Party. These are apple enchiladas. They were a hit with the Family.

The recipe is simple and can be found at Cornfed Momma.

Come share your favorite recipe at Fun for First.

Open House 2011-2012

Hi All,

I'm finally able to share my classroom photos. So here is what my room looked during Open House at the end of May.

Here was my door.

We made these for Earth Day.

Our Astronauts to go with Treasures Unit 5.

Math project with "space" theme.

Scientist I found online. Also to go with Treasures. 

Writing about Benjamin Franklin. Unit 5 Treasures.

Flower water colors. This was done with our wonderful Art teacher. Then we wrote about flowers to go with our Science chapter.

Flower fact families.

Plant activity.

Habitats writing. 

Patriotic symbols. 

More math projects.

Dollar Tree Finds

Hello Friends!

Look at what I found! They are super cute, right?!?! Now my problem! What do I do with them....Any ideas?? They are large, about 13 inches tall.

Good Bye!

Tomorrow is my last day of school!!!!! I am so excited to spend my vacation with my little darlings. After tomorrow I should have a little more SPARE time (yeah right!) to post some pictures of this year's Open House. So stay tuned!

Cinco de Mayo!

Made these great sombreros today with our 5th grade buddies. We had so much fun!

Sub Tub

I was lucky enough to get a free Sub Tub Packet from Terri @ The Creative Apple. Her Sub Tub is awesome. Anyone subbing for you will knows exactly what to do. Terri provides you with EVERYTHING you need such as forms and labels to make your tub complete! Head out and purchase one for your classroom. Find it here.

A Precious Gift!

So my little angel has arrived. She was born February 7th at 5:50 p.m. It was a surprise as her due date was February 21st. My little cutie was 6 lbs. 15 ounces and 19 inches long.

She is the sweetest little baby. I am completely in love with her. Her big sister also can't get enough of her.

Chinese New Year

So tomorrow is Chinese New Year and my kids are SO excited to celebrate. We will be doing a couple of things through out the week. Our reading program, Treasures, also has a paired selection that the kids will be reading this Thursday so it is perfect! We will start by making a Zodiac wreath. It will look something like this.

 

You can purchase this at Oriental Trading.

Then on Thursday after we read our paired selection, we will complete the following writing activity. 

I hope I remember to post some pictures of the what the projects look like this year. Then Tuesday we celebrate 100th day of school! What a fun week!!!!!!

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day!

Yesterday, my students got to work with their big buddies again. This time our theme was Martin Luther King, Jr. We read them a story and then they have to complete the following bubble map.

After they completed the bubble map, we did the following TLC project. The kids had so much fun and many of them were interesting....LOL!

A Year in Pictures

So I thought it would be fun to join in the fun. I am linking up to Runde's Room Linky Party. Here are some of my favorite blog pictures of 2011!

This free photo collage made with Smilebox