FREE Five for Friday

Let me sum up my week....tests, tests, tests, tests, tests, wait...did I say tests?  80 DRAs, 80 Reading Screeners, 80 Math Screeners. Yep!  But...they are done!  We are free! Can I get a woot woot!!  My unbelievable team knocked those tests out this week.  We team-taught and tag teamed the tests.  Now we can just hit the ground running on Tuesday.  So my Five for Friday should be 5 pictures of mounds of tests.  But that sounds boring.  Let's try this instead...

1.
 Natalie and I introduced math today with a "Why Do We Need Math?" presentation.  It went really well.  We started with some brainstorming and then jumped right into this Powerpoint.  It is filled with photographs of numbers in our environment.  If you want to try it out, just click on the photo.

I just wish there were some good books that stress why math is so important.  If you know of one...I would love to know the title!!! Please!!

2.
The past couple of years I have read "The Crayon Box That Talked."  It is a quick read but I love the message behind the book--importance of each person being different.  I do a follow up activity where I ask them to color a picture using the box of crayons that I give them.  When they open the box, they find that every crayon is the same color.  I LOVE hearing their reactions to this.  It is so much fun every year.

3.
Maria and I met up at Gabriel Brother's last night with our girls.  They were BEYOND excited to see each other.  I think there was quite a bit of squealing involved.  You never quite know what you might find at Gabe's.  Here's what they found...

4. I saw these...

...in an Etsy shop (click on the image to go there). And now I really want one.  They are so pretty :)  So I entered in the giveaway below in the hopes that I will win one!!!

5.
So I just have to share...on Wednesday, I was in bed at 7.  But I could have fallen asleep at the dinner table if my kids weren't so loud :)  Happy to have three days to recoup from the week!!

Thanks to Doodle Bugs for this great linky!!  I love it.

Pete the Cat FREEBIE!

 We do love Pete!  And so do our firsties.  They enjoyed singing along with "Rockin' My School Shoes" this week.  Maria freshened up a very loved his/her printable from last year.  If your kids love Pete too, just click to grab.  Happy beginning of school!

 Thanks to Ink n Little Things for the border and Gingersnaps for the font.

Excited to link this FREEBIE up!  Happy Monday everyone!

Week One, Juggling Act, and Some Short o's

The first week is officially under my belt.  It was two days professional development/work day and three days with students.  It was a long week and I am still E...X..H..A..U..S..T..E..D.

It is weird.  Every year I seem to forget that I need to "relearn" the juggling act.  Daycare drop off, pick up, school, cooking, cleaning, homework, bath time, being a mom, wife, sister, daughter, friend......(you know I could go on).  This year I added another time sucker into the mix, exercising.  For a million years, I have procrastinated, put it off, not made time, made excuses, just flat out would not exercise.  But this summer I finally found something I like and I am not wanting to give it up. And so it becomes part of the "juggling act" this year.

I missed out on my favorite linky this Friday.  But I still had some randomness from my week to share.

First of all...after a long (but good) work day and a long (but good) Open House night, I came home to this:

That would be my Ruby's hair (4 year old).  Oh that girl!!  So after my first day of school--with kids.  We took a trip to get haircuts.

Our first couple of weeks we teach our firsties whole group.  Sound crazy?  I love it.  Since we are departmentalized...they will have all of the first grade teachers.  We take turns teaching and testing.  We pound out all of our "getting to know you" activities and beginning of the year assessments all together.
I was in charge of the "whole body listener" activity this week.  I read "Falling for Rapunzel."  This book cracks me up.  It is a good illustration of not listening and rhyming (it has some great vocabulary too).

Last year I went over a "whole body listener" poster that we found.  But this year I decided to have the students label my drawing (I read Smarter Charts this summer and I am trying to implement their ideas).

For phonics last year I did a lot of Powerpoints for my struggling readers to teach how sounds work and come together to make words.  When I looked back at some of my posts, the Powerpoints were all over.  My goal this year is to create sheets that correspond to the Powerpoints to get the engagement level up, up, UP!

 I can't wait to see how these sheets work out this year.  If you want it, you can click on the photos.  I will be happy to email it to the first three people to comment on this post.  Just leave your email.

Here goes week two!!! 

Pics of our Rooms and Pic OVERLOAD!

Girls, girls, girls......

It's been awhile. I haven't been doing nothing, I've been busy!  The last two weeks I feel like I lived at school.  My girls and I should have just kept sleeping bags there, but it's all worth it in the end.  :) 
Here is a little peek at our classrooms. 

 Lauren's Room..... She's our newest Curious Firstie Teacher!  She will be teaching SS/Science/Spelling/ and a little calendar.  :)

Her "Smarty Pants" I LOVE these!!!!

 

Our Curious Friend Natalie's Room.  She's the math lady! 

She's using apples this year and they are SUPER cute!

 

Curious Karen's Room.  She changed to Chocolate Polka Dots. I'm a little jealous, I LOVE polka dots!  Our firsties will be reading in here.  :)

 

Her focus board for all four classes.
 

And my room......

Bored yet??????  I have so many more pictures.  :)

I spray painted A LOT this summer.  I have had this vision in my mind about frames and this summer my curious friend Em made my vision come to life.  She purchased frames all summer long, I spray painted them.  I hope they make your heart sing as much as they do mine every time I walk in my room.

What happens when you spray paint for too long. :)

Our drab walls

 

Our frames all laid out.

 

 

Em, hard at work!

 

TA DA.......our FAB walls!!!!!!!

 

Do you not love these walls?????

 

I spray painted these guys too.  :)

 

And these guys...

 

 

 

A little duct tape..... 

 

 

My old Writer's Eye

My "new" writer's eye.  :)

And of course, I can't leave you without showing you these ladies.  :)