Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Happy Tuesday!

Hi Everybody!
I feel so out of the loop, I've been missing from the bloggy world for soooo long! Well, just since Wednesday but it seems like forever!
I had an absolutely awful day yesterday but today was a new day AND guess what came in??? Yup! You guessed it, my interactive whiteboard!  See that big box?? It has all of my excitement just waiting inside for me! lol. Now, I need to get it up, get it on and start playing!
Oh, and look around my classroom, it may look a little different after the install! I'M SO GIDDY! I can't wait.
So that awful day? Oh my!! It... was... a... doozy!!!! I was such a mess that I left my desk looking like this...
MESSY!! I think my desk will look a little different after the whiteboard install also. It is a big jumbled mess!
I had a new para professional come in to my classroom yesterday to work with my students and, remember D? Yeah, he didn't think that having someone new was such a great idea so he decided not to come into the classroom. And he decided to take off his clothes, again. And he screamed for a long time. He has the strongest lungs ever! hehe. AND it was picture day which meant that our daily schedule was out of whack because we had be on standby for pictures all morning. To sum it all up, it was awful. BUT today was definitely a new day! Our new paraprofessional didn't get scared away and she did an absolutely wonderful job with all of the students today. I left school with so many successes!
We taught Left & Right today and, as you know, this is a tough concept for these little guys. I totally forgot to take pictures, I'm really needing to work on that. The whole class went on a scavenger hunt around the school to find all of the shapes on our list... We could only go on this hunt if we knew our Left and Right! (well, everyone went but I said this anyway to keep them on their toes!) We found one shape, stood in line in front of it and then found out how to get to the next shape.
Me: "Here is the pink rectangle! We need to find the green triangle next. To find the green triangle, we need to turn left!"
Class: "Left is this way!" (1/4 of them pointing to the right)
Me:"Ok everyone, point the the LEFT... no, LEFT... your other hand... YES! LEFT! Let's go!"
I carried my Left and Right signs with me and used them to help with the directions. You can find the signs in my Math Posters Set OR leave me a comment and I'll send you them for FREE! You can kinda see them in the first picture on this post but hey, if you don't like them, at least they are free! lol.
Next thing on the list? I have a new item on TPT! During our story times, or any time I pick up a book in front of my class, I ask the students about the front cover, back cover, spine, author and illustrator... Now I have some cute posters and cards to go with that! I plan to post the posters and use the cards to pull and ask students. I may call some kids up, choose a card and tell me about that part of the book... The set is just $2!

Do you like the font I used in this picture??? Rowdy in Room 300 has some adorable fonts available on her blog... check it out!

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Dictionaries, Numbers and Freebies!

Hi Friends!
So if you read my post yesterday, you should know that today was a successful day with everyone keeping their clothes on!! Woo Hoo!! If you didn't read my post yesterday, you HAVE to read about my day.

Has anyone seen that new spot on TPT called New Product Requests? I find it on the My Sales page. Well I was looking at my TpT account the other day (because I track that thing like noone's business) and I started reading some of them. I was scrolling through and thinking, "Nope! Not an 8th grade teacher. Nope! Not a science teacher. Nope! I don't have any of my own clip art to sell. Nope! Can't do that. Hey! I can do that! That seems easy peesy!" So I emailed the person who requested it, told her my info, crossed my fingers that she didn't send me a virus and started creating for her! I asked her questions about specifics, she gave me an idea to go by and that was that. I created the Student Dictionaries for her and it was exactly what she needed! I was so excited that I could help her AND even more excited that I could sell it to her. She showed me what she was looking at purchasing and I saved her about $75 so we both scored. Thanks TpT!
Want one? I'll send the first 3 peeps to comment one for $ free.99. Just leave your name and email and tell me you want a dictionary... but wait! There's more...

I also wanted to show you all the number books we have been working on in class. 




These have been my favorite this year! We always work on numbers and number formation for a long time and these books have been wonderful! There is one for each number where they are counting, writing and saying the numbers 0-10 repeatedly. We broke the book up into pieces and started with 0-2 then moved on to 3-5 and now we are working on 6-10. It has been really great too because the students have the routine down on how to complete the task so I can really focus on the formation of the numbers. They love it and so do I! We use cute poems to go with the numbers and the Handwriting Without Tears formations. HWT is a great handwriting curriculum that really focuses on the fine motor movement of letters. Love it!
I have this on my TpT store as well.
 Want one of these? Be one of the first three to comment and this baby is all yours!

Ok one more time... Comment if you want a dictionary, comment if you want a number book or comment because you love me and my blog! lol. Let me know which you want!

You can also check out Sensational Seconds' giveaway... She's giving away a laminator!!! Head over a check it out...

Be back tomorrow friends!

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

You HAVE to hear about my day!

Hi Friends!
Seriously, I have to tell you all about my day because what. a. doozy!
Oh, Ryan! Thanks, running around my classroom and your mind can be quite exhausting.
I started my day running late because I wanted to make sure that I packed myself a lunch and a snack AND I wanted to make sure that I had breakfast. So, I was running a little bit late but that's okay, I'll still be there on time, just not as early as I wanted to. Then I got in my car. No gas. Great. Now I'm 15 minutes later than I want to be. I text my co-teacher to make sure that my classroom door was unlocked because I told my student teacher that I would be at school by 7:45 everyday and that was not happening today! The door was unlocked and she got in fine. In fact, she even took my chairs down and fixed up the carpets for me. So nice. The day begins with 7 8 adults in my classroom. Me, my co-teacher, 2 paraprofessionals, 1 new paraprofessional observing before she starts, a field work student, my student teacher and a parent volunteer. That's a LOT of people. That's a LOT of tall people. lol. So that was a disaster for one of my students. Let's call him D. D had 1 person working with him, 3 people watching them. He was not having it! D was putting on a show for everyone watching, it was called "The Watch Me Get Out of Working Show." So that was that. Today was a short day so our schedule was funky and the D wasn't having that either. We went on... Finished centers, did our SuperKids lesson, discussed C, O and G, O being a vowel... then we went to the library... fine... then I found out that there was an assembly after lunch. Crap! I haven't even taught my math lesson yet. UGH! Lunch goes as fast as it comes and then it's time for the assembly. An assembly about a fundraiser. UGH! Assemblies with kindergarteners are never fun AND it was a packed house. So packed that 2 of my students were scared because of the noise and chaos around. Then we head back to class, 30 minutes wasted... I praise the kids for sitting so nicely and now we have 20 minutes to start and finish our math lesson, pack up our things and count up our marbles and head home. So I start the math lesson. Remember D? Well he didn't want to do this math lesson so he decided that he wouldn't and he began to tantrum. D is a bright student who is more than capable of completing all tasks despite his disability. Remember "The Watch Me Get Out of Working Show"? well, it was back on. This time with screaming. I am teaching my math lesson, trying to at least, and the rest of my students are just a little distracted. We have been working through these type of distractions so they are practically un-phased  by the screaming. We continue with the math lesson...
Me: "Around the tree, around the tree, that's the way to make a three. You try it."
Class: (quietly to themselves) "around the tree, around the tree..."
We continue through the number 5. Then it begins.
D is screaming and my replacement para (oh yeah, my afternoon para called out today, double ugh!) is trying her best to get him to come back to join the class. Then E hears his screaming and begins to scream. The rest of the class is trying their very best to continue with me. D really wants to sit in a bean bag but he has to complete a number first. He doesn't like that idea so he screams. E screams too. The rest of the class carries on. D is still upset so he takes off his shoes and socks (which often happens). The rest of the class carries on. My para decides that the bean bags are too much of  a distraction so she takes them next door to be out of sight. The class carries on. As she does this D takes off ALL OF HIS CLOTHES!! All of them! This NEVER happens! D begins to run around the classroom. I catch him. Pick him up and take him to the para professional, demand that he put his clothes on and walk back to teach the rest of the lesson. The rest of the class is TOTALLY DISTRACTED!!! Oh my goodness. D had all of his clothes off, E was screaming each time D screamed, kids were trying to pack up their stuff and I'm trying to keep the class's attention! Can I remind you that this was within a 20 minute time block? OH MY!!!!! The rest of the class did a great job of keeping their attention on me. They were really respectful of the frustration that D was going through. I could see them glancing through the corners of their eyes but I couldn't blame them. This afternoon was a hot mess. I have to laugh about it now. I wonder what my students are going to say about their day today...
lol... I need a foot rub, a drink and a hug.

Good news though... my rock star student teacher from last year just got offered a long term sub position at my school!!! (Congrats Sandra! Start looking up those 3rd grade standards!) We talked about having her guest blog here to talk about her Adventures of a Substitute Teacher! I'm excited about that.

Ok friends, I hope that reading about my day made you feel a little better about yours. Oh! No! Wait one more thing! During all of this craziness, my sandal broke!
 Do you see that it is ripped there where the toe is? So, while D was screaming and disrobing and E was screaming and my students were losing their homework from the classroom to their backpacks, I was limping trying to make sure my foot didn't fall out of my sandals!! I was so sad. These were my favorite!!
Fingers crossing for a better day tomorrow, with everyone's clothes on. lol.