Cutest Idea Ever!

Okay friends, I came across this idea tonight while I was searching on Classroom Freebies. I stumbled upon one of my favorite blogs and I found this idea from The Inspired Apple. I honestly think it might be the cutest idea ever. Get ready....

The Candy Corn Bandit.  Read her blog for the details. I'm also becoming a little seasonally overboard in the classroom and I honestly can't wait to get this going in my classroom!!

So thankful for the land of blogging!!!

Teacher Post: Freebies!

For my teacher pals:

I'm finishing up our unit on place value and money, so I and this little flippie as a final review for my kiddos. Here it is for you if you want it!

We are also studying stars and constellations. I created this flippie as a "study buddy" for them to write about the stars' size, brightness, and patterns in hopes that they will be able to tell me about them on the assessment (fingers crossed).

I hope you enjoy and that they make your lives a tad bit easier.

Stayed tuned, I just found a recipe for Reese's fudge pie and I might just have to make that this weekend. I'll be sure to post if I do. :)

Teacher Post: Accelerated Reader

It's been a while since I've posted something from my life as a teacher, so I thought I'd let you guys know about something I've been doing in my classroom this week.

I'm not a big pusher for Accelerated Reader. It's fine, it doesn't hurt anyone to answer a few questions about a book they've read. But, I run into a number of problems with it.

One- I have children who don't read books carefully, or at all and march their happy tails to the computer to fail test, after test, after test. Boo...

Two- I have students become so competitive with the program that the point of the program gets lost in the desire to beat their friends/enemies...

Three- I have children who could care less if they have 100 points or 0.5...

Well, we started reading a new chapter book this week, The Candy Corn Contest, by Patricia Giff.

It is an adorable little book that my kiddos are loving. Anyway, in the story the classroom has an estimation jar full of candy corn and every time they read a page in their library book, they get to make a guess.

So, we now have a candy corn filled estimation jar. But to motivate AR, and to tie in with the theme of the book, my students can only make guesses when they PASS an AR test. This has helped with problems 1 and 3. I simply don't know what to do about number 2. Number 2 really doesn't bother me. I'm a competitive person by nature, too. :) But I guess I wouldn't be fulfilling my teacherly duty if I didn't say that the competitiveness did bother me. HA!

I gave each student in my room a little scorecard to keep up with. I wrote their names and their beginning point value. Each time they passed a test, they could write down their new point value and turn in an estimation.

Friends, these kids have been reading fools this week and I'm loving it!! They have stacks of books on the corners of their desks to read for early finisher tasks and it really has been so much fun for me and for them.

I just hope I can keep them this motivated to read after the book is finished. Please share your ideas for keeping up with Accelerated Reader and what motivates your students.

Is anyone else going crazy?

So, the countdown has begun and it seems as if all my teaching buds have school on the brain. I'm going to be honest and admit that part of me likes it. I like having a deadline. I like decorating my classroom and making things look cutesy. I'll pass on the meetings. Please, for the love of Pete, just let me work in my classroom. The back-to-school craziness is so busy! After 7 years of this you would think I would have it somewhat together, but I think I've told my husband every year, "This is just too much, I'll never be ready".

And somehow, I'm always ready for those sweet babies to walk through my door.

And because school is what has been keeping me up at night searching the internet for cute ideas, I wanted to share my new favorite teacher blogger from Sunny Days in Second Grade. She uses cute fonts and cute graphics and for those of you that know me, you know that is my thing.

And so it begins...

I did something I shouldn't have done today...

I looked at a calendar.

Yes, I looked at a calendar and it made it clear that my time at home is ticking away. That makes me sad for two reasons.
1 - I haven't had nearly enough time with my girls and my summer "to-do's" are still piled way high.
2 - I haven't been to the school once and that makes me have a little panic attack inside because of the mountain of "to-do's" I have waiting for me there.

And so it begins...I printed supply lists, welcome letters, and lots of labels today. Three things out of a gazillion.

Progress, right?

Here is a new blog that my friend at Precious Perks introduced me to. This teacher, Mrs. Bainbridge, is my go-to source for all things cutesy!

On a happy note, this little love bug started sitting up by herself. Gosh, she is just the sweetest thing!!!

And here she is being "loved on" by her big sis!