Five For Friday

I love linking up with Kacey at Doodle Bugs Teaching for her Five for Friday!  This week has been so busy, and I am glad it is finally Friday!



1. If you've been following me for a while, you know that I took a leap and moved outside of the classroom into a Instructional Facilitator role.  This has been so challenging for me and has proven to be a difficult transition.  I was beginning to think I was never going to gain my teacher's respect, trust, understanding that they could use and abuse me.  It happened this week!  I had several veteran teachers ask me to model in their room next week!!!!  SCORE!  I did 2 models this week for some of my newbies and it was awesome and I can't wait to do more next week.

2. I attended a Pampered Chef party last weekend and got the burning sensation to begin selling.  Well ladies and gentleman, I decided to take the plunge!!!!  I will be having my launch party on March 7.  I must confess I am just as nervous as I am excited!  All this is about to be mine!!!!  I'm going to be cooking up a storm!

3. Our new small groups started two weeks ago and let me just tell you, this one is GREAT!  We are doing Beth Moore's Believing God and boy is my faith being stretched and tested.  Before doing this study, I thought I had faith, but I now realize, I was just scratching the surface. 

4. One of my sweet Kindergarten teachers sells Thirty One products and gave me a free bag to show her thankfulness for helping her this year!  Shut the front door!!!!!  How awesome was that??  This is the keep it caddy in one of the new prints for this season.  Love It!

5. Lastly, this week has  been super long and ended on a not so great note.  One of my teachers has been telling me since the beginning of the year that no matter how bad things seem, I am always so optimistic and happy (are we sure she is talking about me?????) She even gave me a nickname....Rainbow Brite!  This instantly makes me feel better, even on the worst day.  Today she told me that in my job I am my own island, but my island is in their lake, and they (teachers) love me!  Who can ask for more???

That's my Five for Friday!  Head over and link up with Kacey!

Wicked Weather, Technology Fun and a Freebie!

This weather is Cray-Cray!  Here in the good ol' NC we usually have a Winter season that involves a few good snows (by southern standards). It is nothing like your northern peeps who are still digging out!!!  We have had the craziest Winter this year.

 Here is a sample week: Monday 65, Tuesday 32 snowy, Wednesday 70, Thursday 45, Friday 60.  OK so maybe it isn't as bad as I put out there, but it has been a rollercoaster of temperatures.  Because of this I have been deathly ill sick for the past 2 weeks.  I am finally getting it over, but it has been slow going!  My girls both had a sinus infection last week when I took them to the Dr.  As if that wasn't bad enough, Raegan had a double ear infection and Kenley had an eye infection.  Now they are calling for MORE WINTER WEATHER!!!!!!  Stop the madness!!!!

In other teachery news, I have had a great week.  Let's hope Friday doesn't ruin it!  I completed a guided reading model for one of my newer teachers and it was so awesome to get back to teaching.  I showed her how to add the 5 domains of reading (phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, reading comprehension) to each group lesson and still keep it at 15 min.  She was way impressed at what she could  accomplish.  Success!!!

This week at our staff meeting our Tech Facilitator showed us how we could use an activity called Paper Slide in retelling across the curriculum.  We used the NC Essential Standards for 1st grade for Plants.  She gave us a poem that discussed the parts of the plant.  We then each drew a "slide" on paper that represented a part of the plant.  Using a digital camera, we created a creative way to retell the main points of what we read.  It should have sound, but it doesn't, so you can make it up as it's playing!  What a cool way to retell!!

 

I am also working on a new St. Patty's Day Math Games pack.  It might should be done next week!!  It will include subitizing tasks, one to one correspondence, Number and Addition Bump and who knows what other games.  In the mean time, I have a freebie to share with you!  Please enjoy Initial Sound Go Fish.

Head over to my TpT or TN to pick this freebie up!

Pampered What!!!

FYI this post is totally not teacher related!!  One of my best mommy friends asked me to attend a cooking demonstration where we would learn how to make freezer meals ahead of time for like 2 weeks at a time.  Being a mother of twin 2 year olds, I said sign me up!!!!  The demo was Saturday and she forgot to mention it was PAMPERED CHEF!!!!  I must confess I am a self proclaimed connoisseur of all things Pampered Chef  PC!  As we were sitting in our cooking demo, I was flipping through the book and showing my best mommy friend BMF all the products I already own.  I began thinking of how fun it would be to sell this stuff!  What the world!!!!!

I already had my marketing presentation in mind to convince the hubs to let me do it.  The discounted free product, the fancy trips, extra income.  What's not to love??????  So I am obviously in need of a reality check and you are just the ones to do it for me!  I am looking for the good, bad and ugly of doing PC.  Give it to me straight .....BE HONEST!  If I am crazy, tell me so!  If any of you have experience in this type of thing, I would love your feedback.

Oh, we did walk away with 10 freezer recipes to use, so it was a total success!  Freezer meals, check, measuring spoons I needed, check, possible extra income, possibly!

Vday Love

This Valentine's day may go down in the books as one of my faves!  The hubs and I decided we were going to get up early and make breakfast together.  Instead of waking me up, that sweet hubby of mine let me sleep in and began the cooking himself!  Yes, he is a keeper!!!!  He made me delicious crepes filled with Nutella and strawberries and topped off with  powdered sugar and whipped cream.  2 words: Da Licious!!!  (yes it is good enough to be 2 words!)

The hubs carved that large strawberry into the shape of a heart!

We gave the girls a crepe without Nutella.  Kenley loved the whipped cream and Raegan loved the strawberries.  

I then got my awesome gift from the hubs!  Something you must know about me is, I LIKE OLD STUFF! There I said it and its out in the open, judge if you must!!!  

My obsession is looking for new things that have an 'old' look to them.  I have filled my house with just such stuff.  It is my dream to one day have a brand new house that looks like an old 1800's farmhouse.  Did I just loose a few of you???  I hope not!  Anywho, the hubs visited my favorite primitive store and picked up these candlesticks!  I also got some candles that are on timers.  They come on at the same time each day! (that's not very primitive, huh!)

This is the first year I have not had a class of my own to celebrate Vday with and I was a little sad.  Instead I was able to visit all the classes and participate in many parties...SCORE!  Our school sold Candy Grams to raise money for a new playground and guess who got one....Your's truly! A kindergartner named Trevor sent it to me!  It really made my day and I almost cried when I saw it.  

To help share the love with my teachers and let them know how much I appreciate what they do for the kiddos, I made them a Valentine.  I used this awesome freebie from it is what it is, attached Starburst, and passed them out today.  Easy, Peasy!

If you are looking for other freebies for next year, check out this link.  I made these glowsticks for my kiddos last year..

My night is just going to keep getting better.  Instead of going out into the craze filled restaurants, we opted to stay in and have a steak dinner at home.  So not only do I get to avoid all the cray crays, its also cheaper!!!  I am also making Applebee's Blondies (my fav!) using a copycat recipe.  Here's hoping it is as good!  If you want this recipe, click here!

We are going to top off our romantic night at home by watching the movie, What to Expect When Your Expecting.  I have high expectations for this one, so if you've seen it and it doesn't meet those, please don't share with me!  

I will leave you with one last pic of my sweet girls playing with their daddy while the grill was heating up.

Hope you have been shown lots of love today.  What Vday plans do you have?

My Reading Go-Tos

Kenley woke up this morning feeling sicky, so no church for us.  I am sitting on the couch watching listening to HGTVs Love It or List It (I might be an addict to all things HGTV) and working on my guided reading lesson plans for this week.  I am so excited to be modeling guided reading for one of our newbie first grade teachers!  This is one of my favorite thing about my new position!

Our school has 2 new technology resources to use for reading planning.  If you are struggling with finding resources that align with CCSS and keep your kiddos interested, keep reading!

The first resource is Reading A-Z.  This site is my go to for guided reading planning.  It is seriously the busy teacher's best friend!  The site includes books for all levels aa-Z and most books can be created as a wordless book for the youngest readers.

 

I use the 5 domains of reading (phonemic awareness, phonics, vocab, fluency, reading comprehension) in each of my reading lessons, and Reading A-Z doesn't disappoint!  Each book comes with a complete teacher lesson plan that covers all the components.  You can even search by CCSS to find books/lessons that align with a specific standard.  

This resource also allows you to project the books and resources on an interactive whiteboard, which makes this product perfect for shared reading or even centers as well.  

My next reading go-to is Big Universe . This is a new resource to me and I am still learning about all it has to offer.  

Unlike Reading A-Z, this site promotes books online only, there is no print option.  But they have worked with lots of well known publishers to use their books on their site.  BU has over 5,000 titles that you can search based on skill, level, and content.  It is mostly non-fiction with is great for CCSS.

This is just a sample of some titles that are available.

When you open up a book to read, you have the controls at the bottom of the page. My favorite thing about reading these books online, is the pages turn like a book (I know, dork!)  While all there books can't be read aloud, they do have a large selection that do have this option.  

These are great for using during shared reading, guided reading and read aloud.  Another amazing feature of this program is the ability to add student names to each teacher's class.  Each teacher can establish reading levels for the student's "bookshelf" which tells the program which levels the student can choose from.  After reading a book with the class, the teacher can also assign this book to individual students.  This is a great addition to the Daily Five rotations.  

What are your Reading Go-Tos????

Super Sunday Sale!!!!!

Its time for the Super Bowl, which means its time for 2 great sales! While all the guys (and girls) are watching the BIG game, I will be stocking up on great products at a discount!

I already have several things I want to purchase but this could get dangerous! I have been eyeing the letter sorts and color by sight word from the Moffatt Girls for a while now. I am sure I will find lots of other stuff to buy! Shhhhh, don't tell the hubs!

My Teacher Notebook Store is 30% off today and my TpT store is 20% plus if you use the code you get at extra % off!

I hope you have fun stocking up on all your must haves! What is that one thing you plan to buy?