Five for Friday: Enjoying life!

The this has been a fun, but busy week! After I got my LRP and syllabi figured out for next year, I felt so much more at ease. I had to make some last minute changes, but I am excited to start planning for next year. 

But in the meantime, I am enjoying EVERY minute with my sweet boys. I think I love it even more because I get to KEEP being with them next year. I love that I can still pursue teaching, yet get to be at home more! 

{one}

This weekend my brother-in-law got married! While Will was busy with groomsmen stuff, the boys and I enjoyed a day in Charleston! They loved the water taxi, and I got lots of new ideas for fun things when they are a little older.

Then we headed to the SC Aquarium (free for teachers!). The Madagascar exhibit was lots of fun, especially when the lemurs came over to say hello. We had lots of fun seeing all the fish too! ;)

{two}

In the evening we enjoyed a fun and fabulous wedding! I'm not going to say how much I had to bribe the boys to keep their boy ties on ;), but there were LOTS of treats in my bag to help! 

{three}

I reached 100 followers this week! I know some people may hit these milestones a lot more quickly, but I was proud all the same.  Blogging this past year has been a great outlet for me and the point I was at in my teaching. And now that I split my time between some fun preschool activities at home, and 3rd grade Literature, Writing, and History for 2 days a week, I am looking forward to continuing to share my inquiries and creating resources to help me, and hopefully others too!

{four}

Earlier this week, I wrote about some schedule cards I made for us at home. It has helped us get up and moving quicker in the mornings and Alex loves planning out our day.  You can check them out here!

{five}

One of the things I have LOVED about watching my boys grow is the fact that I get to see new learning everyday! Isn't it such an amazing thing! What makes me really excited about being at home with them is the fact that I can really build that sense of wonder and inquiry into them. My goal for Alex is to help him learn as much as possible, but in a way that he doesn't even realize it. 

Lately he has been into mazes. He asked for a maze book one afternoon, so I found some on the internet and printed them off, and stapled them into a little book. 

It is so interesting to me to realize that he is building his problem solving skills by retracing his path until he got back to the right one!

Early Childhood education is so fascinating to me! Having taught first grade will always be a gift because I got to see the reading process unfold in front of me, but now to watch language, number sense, problem-solving skills, (and so much more) develop in my 2 and 4 year old is also so beautiful.
It makes me just love being an educator and a parent! :) It also makes me want to keep exploring so many more avenues of education. So much to keep learning! I love it!

Linking up with Kacey's Five for Friday! 

Inquiring our way through Preschool!

When summer hits I usually try to come up with some kind of schedule of fun things so we all don't go crazy over the summer, get stuck in a rut watching TV, or get TOO overwhelmed by boredom.

I also believe though, in giving myself some grace because summer is usually when I am exhausted from the school year too! And then there are the days, like after a fun-filled wedding weekend, that we all stay in our pajamas until dinner time and then get dressed so we can go on a walk. 

But this summer I was thinking that SUMMER was not going to completely end. We will only have 2 days a week of going to school, so we need to keep up some routines for the year too...

Thats when I decided to make us some schedule cards! Inside I was thinking that it was a little ridiculous, I mean, do I need to have our day that organized, BUT, I love/crave schedule and organization so I thought that this would help.

And...they have been wonderful! Alex has loved using them from day one. Its the first thing he does in the morning and he likes to talk about his ideas at bed too! If he is needing something to do, or wanting to watch TV, we usually check out the fridge for different ideas. Sometimes I will put up specific ones, but during the summer, we put up whatever we feel like! Kids definitely crave schedule too, especially ones like Alex! ;)

Check out the schedule cards here!

Five for Friday: Enjoying Summer!

Just another week of summer! It's kind of fun to do Five for Friday during the summer to see all the fun random things we are up too. :)

{one}

Yep, I live with a bunch of super heroes! Will is definitely a super hero dad! Liam at 2 can pretty much name all of the super heroes and Alex will forever be batman. Love these boys and the great summer we have been having!

{two}

Speaking of superheroes...

My brother-in-law shared these family photos we took on our family vacation in Ohio. Please look at my child, front and center in the striped shirt...

What possesses him to do things like this!?! He is such a character! 

{three}

This is NOT a number you want to see in the middle of summer in SC! Our AC broke JUST before I was going to have my teammates over for sushi! Great timing...

But, Oh. My. Goodness.
Seeing these ladies again did my heart good. Its been a busy summer for all of us, but we have a blast making sushi and talking about life. It was good. :)

{four}

My brother-in-law is getting married so I was making the boys try on their outfits... because I just finished making them some bow ties....

Poor Liam. I didn't give him enough time after his nap. He was NOT a happy camper, but hopefully we will stay this clean for the wedding... I have some serious bribing that is going to go on to make sure they keep those bow ties on! ;)

{five}

Its definitely a challenge to plan for something you have never taught! My mind has been racing with all that I need to teach and getting it down on paper... its definitely been a process. You can go here to read about what my big plans for the year are! 

It's hard to believe we are almost in the middle of July! I am excited about the wedding we have this weekend. It will be fun to see lots of family and share in their special day! Hope you are all enjoying your summer! :)

Be sure to check out what other teacher's are up to over at Kacey's Five for Friday!

Inquiring my way through 3rd grade Long Range Plans...

I thought I would spend more time creating this summer, but I'm realizing it's hard to create when I am still trying to figure out what things should look like. 

We are required to turn in long range plans by next week, so I have been spending time over the last couple of weeks figuring out what things should look like. Even though the ones I turn in our pretty basic, I am still realizing that I need to think through what standards we will cover and when, AND making sure that I can mesh Reading and Writing together.

We cover 4 novels a year and teach a lot of our skills through those as frameworks for genre etc. This year my novels are Because of Winn-Dixie, The Hundred Dresses, Encyclopedia Brown, and (hopefully) Frindle. 

     

I plan on spending the first two novels digging into story basics and building comprehension skills. I am hoping to use this reading skills packet I made last year, and eventually adding some interactive notebook pages to match. Encyclopedia Brown I hope to start introducing some nonfiction skills, and Frindle will be back into comprehension and vocabulary. 

Thats the ROUGH plan! Subject to change for sure! :)

Constantly making lists of thoughts and ideas! ;)

For writing, I need to teach the 6 traits, so that is providing my framework, focusing on each trait more in depth, but using some ideas from Lucy Calkins Units of Study for third grade to do that. Basically during the first two novels we will focus on Narrative while dicussing the traits of Ideas, Voice, and Word Choice. We will move in to informational text while reading Encyclopedia Brown, and then move into persuasive writing while we read Frindle. And focusing on Organization and Sentence Fluency during the last two, with conventions throughout! 

I'm using Evan Moor's 6 Trait Writing for 3rd grade - we will do a couple lessons at school and then they will do the rest of the week at home.

I'm looking forward to trying a couple of author studies during writing as well. I am thinking Patricia Polacco (during voice and word choice) and Gail Gibbons when we start working on informational text. I only am with these kids for two mornings a week, so I am not sure how much I will accomplish, but I would love to attempt digging deep into writing with those authors! 

We will wrap up the year with a unit of fairy tales for both Writing and Reading! :)

Any third grade teachers have any great resources they like to use? Thoughts on the essentials of third grade? Please share! :) 

Five for Friday: Hello July!

This summer is a mix of planning for my two mornings a weeks as a 3rd grade teacher and planning for what the days with two boys will look like. :) Not that we are feeling more normal after all of our busy travels, I have been able to put more effort into all the things that need to get done for the rest of the summer! 

Here's a taste of what went on this week! 

{one}

the best part of baking is getting to lick the spoon. :)

{two} 

Alex loves to pull out the math tub. As I have been sorting through the remnants of my first grade life, I have found a lot of great math activities and Alex has had fun using them!

I love listening to him count and talk about needing "one more". He also puts the bears in patterns!

This was my favorite yard sale find ever! I could do pattern blocks all day! :) I want to have a little structure in our day, while making sure that learning stays fun, so this is a great way to do it!

{three}

more time at home means more time to sort through the seven years of classroom STUFF that is currently residing in my spare room. Of course as I went through the books, I barely got rid of any, but Liam and Alex have already loved reading the new books. One box is making its way to my yard sale pile. Mostly because it was duplicates, or not favorites! ;)

I am a major office supply addict. I have a million sharpies, and pens of all kinds! Combining it has kind of been a challenge, but its getting there! My house has been getting a good clean as I figure out what things add in from my classroom and then what needs to be added to the yard sale pile! 

{four}
I'm trying to navigate the world of third grade as I write my Long Range Plans for Reading and Writing.  I enjoy planning ahead, but it's also hard to think through everything when I have never taught it before. I will work closely with the 4th and 5th grade teachers, so that is helpful, but I have to do it bits at a time or I get really frustrated! I am looking forward to when I can start to see all the pieces come together once the school year starts.

{five}
I thought the July 4th celebrations needed to start with a SALE! My store will be 20% today through Sunday! Click on the picture to head to my store. Be sure to check out the back to school category too for lots of great resources to get you started off on the right foot!

I'm linking up with Kacey's Five for Friday! Be sure to check out how all the other teachers are spending their summer! I know lots of people are getting ready for some fun in Vegas! Maybe one day! ;)

4th of July Sale!

My TPT store is on sale this weekend to add to your July 4th celebrations!

Check out some of these products to help get your year started off on the right foot!

Click on the pictures for more details!

Classroom job signs

Agenda circles! These coordinate perfectly with the classroom jobs! :)

teacher planners

Around the World Factbooks

Decoding Strategy pack!

Reading Comprehension posters

Writing Resources

Go HERE to see all my Back to School Products!

And be sure to download some of the freebies as well! ;)

Currently July

It's July! That means it's time for Farley's Currently! :) 

{listening}

I love it when i find a new show on netflix. I love murder/crime dramas, and British accents are always a plus so Death in Paradise is perfect! ;) But it takes place in the Caribbean, so it makes me want to be next to the beach!

{loving} 

After a busy June (read about it here), its been nice to have a lazy week at home, except of course, how lazy can you be with two kiddos at home! 

{thinking}

Next year I am teaching 3rd grade in a new setting! Today I did some work to redesign my blog to match! :) I have been meeting with some of the teachers I will be working with to plan out some stuff so my brain has been running a mile a minute! It's a part time position, so I am looking forward to some preschool fun at home too! 

{wanting}

I have a whole list of projects to work on to get ready for next year, but I am having so much trouble focusing on one thing too long. I work on a little bit here and there, but my boys are taking up lots of attention (and rightly so!) I need to figure out how to manage my time and our days a little bit better, especially with lots more time at home next year!

{needing}

I REALLY need to get into an exercise routine. And I can't use the hot weather as an excuse! Now that we are done traveling and I can start building some routines that are not just summer based, I need to get on track!!

{All Star} 

I love being able to help others. If I have a resource, I love to pass it along--ideas, strategies, making treats for the hallway. I always feel happier when I can be a help to others! I think that is why I have enjoyed selling on TPTs too, because I get to see how sometime I make has helped others! :)

Hopefully in July I will actually find time to start blogging more too! The break from everything has been needed, but I've been thinking about lots of things in THIRD grade that I am looking forward to sharing! I need to start connecting with some more 3rd grade teachers too, so I can get more ideas!