Unshakeable Summer Book Club

This summer I am participating in the "Unshakeable" book study hosted by the author Angela Watson and Frankie Robinson.  You can join the facebook group through Angela's Cornerstone website.  There is also a book study of this book being hosted by Tales of a First Grade Teacher, Adventures in Teaching, ELA Everyday, First Grade Found Me, and Sweet and Sassy in Second. 

I joined this book study to refresh, reflect, and be ready to respond with passion and purpose in my classroom this fall.

I am starting a new job this next school year as a 4th - 6th grade Gifted Specialist.  I have been teaching 6th - 8th Science for the last 3 years and K-2 before that.  I feel like my journey has been a zig-zag leading me back to the elementary classroom where I started and I love to be.

I love how this book starts. I felt like I was sitting down chatting with my best friend in her living room.  The tone is warm and encouraging. The theme of the first chapter is to be your own, authentic, passionate self; connect and create relationships with your students; and manage your energy, investing in your personal life so you can renew and have more to share with your students.

My friend, Christina, recently described teaching by saying, "It's not the words on the page, it's the actor on the stage."

A great classroom is 100% dependent on the teacher. So the "teacher" needs to not only schedule time teaching tasks but also for hobbies, family, and the things that renew the body, physically, mentally, and spiritually.

In chapter 2, Angela outlines how to be efficient with your time and develop productive routines that enable you to create the space in your life for your passions outside of teaching. Being strategically efficient, protects our energy, allows time for ourselves, and in return makes us better in the classroom.

I know that when I make time for family activities, reading a book that is not for professional development, getting together with friends, going to movies, and relaxing, I am a happier teacher - and if the teacher ain't happy...

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pancakes and time to renew, recharge, and get inspired

I hope your family had an awesome day full of fun and relaxation on the 4th of July.  My daughter took this picture of her fruity 4th of July pancake and I just love it!

I am taking the Clutter Free Classroom's Week 1 Challenge this week to do some thing relaxing and focus on recharging for the upcoming school year.  I have done some binge TV watching and we are headed to a local resort for a one-night stay-cation on Tuesday.

Then it's off to Las Vegas, early, early Thursday morning for the TPT Conference 2015!  I didn't go last year and am so excited to meet the presenters, teachers, bloggers, sellers, and more. I just signed up a couple of days ago and there is still space available if you are like me and have wanted to go but for one reason or another did not make the decision earlier and have not registered yet. 

Join me in making this your month to renew, recharge, and get inspired for the next school year! 

Flowers for Mom - Mother's Day Card, Coupons, Poems, and Craft

Mother's Day is just a week away and what better way to help your students celebrate their mom, aunt, or grandma than by giving them flowers and love notes.

My student's moms have been so happy to get this child-made flower bouquet filled with flower shaped coupons and a special card made just for them.  The download includes all patterns, coupons, poems, and cards for Mom, Aunt, or Grandma as well as pictures of completed project.

Your student's will enjoy writing what is special about their Mom, Aunt, or Grandma in the card they personalize and making "flowers" with special coupon or note tokens of love! 

To make this with your students, click HERE to go to my TpT store.
Click HERE to go to my Teacher's Notebook Store.

Have fun teaching,

Spring Bird Nests and Friends

I hope your April is off to a great start!  We have a new house guest in our front door wreath, a House Finch.  She has made a little nest in our wreath and laid 5 eggs.  The family and I are excited to see little baby chicks sometime soon!

 

Stop by and visit this group of bloggers who are sharing a giveaway together.  Click on the picture to link to Katie with Teacher to the Core, who put together this group of bloggers giveaway and from there you can visit all of these fabulous bloggers.

Have fun teaching,

Read Every Day Challenge Chart

Are you looking for a way to motivate your students to end the year strong as avid readers?

Last year, I made this chart to track my students daily reading and encourage them to read 100 books.  For my kiddos reading larger books, they could count every 20 minutes they read as a book.  It worked like a charm last year and the kids stay motivated and as a class we earned an ice cream party when we got to 100 books.  I also gave individual prizes for the most books read.  

 One of my teaching buddy wanted to encourage her students to read 1000 pages, so I made that option also.  Her second grade class read over 10,000 pages!  They were on fire!

Click on the picture to download your free chart and tracking sheets.  I hope your class loves it too.

How do you encourage your students to read?

Have fun teaching,

You're One of My Favorite Peeps

I was browsing through Pinterest this week and was overcome with all of the cute, cute "Peeps" ideas.  I never knew Peeps were so versatile.  Here are some of my favorite pics:

Source: blog.scrapaholics.com via Pamela on Pinterest

Source: womansday.com via Pamela on Pinterest

Source: keyingredient.com via Pamela on Pinterest

I was looking for a nice little Easter gift for my kid's teachers and here is my humble adaptation of a Peeps gift.

If you would like a copy of the labels I made they are FREE.  Just click below:

  Favorite Peep

What is your favorite use of Peeps?

Have fun teaching,

Spring Flowers and Poetry Go Together

I just wanted to share our spring flowers bulletin board from last year.  We wrote poems on tulip-shaped paper and I just loved this bulletin board.  This year I made a writing packet that includes the tulip writing paper.  I wrote about it in a post a few days ago.  If you would like to see that post and the packet you can see it HERE.

Are you enjoying Spring?  I start spring break at 1:00 pm today!

Have fun teaching,

It's Spring! Literacy and Math Centers

I love how independent firsties are in the Spring.  They have the routine down, they are feeling like very big kids, they help each other, and they can do centers independently!  Yeh!

Plus our Spring Break is next week!  After Spring Break we only have 7 weeks of school left.  I know it is going to fly.

I have put together some Spring Literacy and Math centers aligned with CCSS to practice making words with beginning and ending digraphs, making real and nonsense words, counting to 120 and adding to numbers by 10.  

They are all fun, independent games and activities that your firsties will love.

I will send this FREE to the first three people who comment with their email addresses.

Click on the picture to link to my TpT store.

When is your Spring Break and how many weeks of school do you have left?

Have fun teaching,