Our variety show performance...you don't want to miss this!

This is our first grade team variety show performance! I teach at a very fun school. We are constantly thinking on fun ways to act silly and bond with our students. During the last few week before summer break the teachers of my school choose a day to perform our annual variety show. Each grade level comes up with an act/performance. This year my team decided to spice things up a bit and do a synchronized swimming act.

Oh wait, the last week of school? Report cards are due, field day, award ceremonies, crazy kids....how did you find time to practice? (you might be thinking) Well...that was the tricky part. My dear friend Allison came over to my house on a Sunday afternoon while little man was napping and we choreographed the dance on my front porch in front of a window so we could see our reflection. We were shocked that no cars honked at us...they probably wanted to! Then we had 2 days to teach it to our team...4 teachers and 4 teacher assistants. And this was no easy routine either. They were amazing sports, even though I was at times a drill sergeant  and I leave you with.....

The Mills River Swim Team  (Our act name)
(I'm the one 5th from the right)

I'm still trying to figure out uploading videos so if you missed our school's teacher End of Grade Test motivational video, click here.

Keep your eye out, I'm getting a blog face lift very very soon. It's in the works right now, and I couldn't be more excited!

Motivating Our Students...{with a little teacher music video}!

That's right...its a teacher music video...made by yours truly and performed by all the amazing teachers at my school.This year I was lucky enough to be in charge of  a pep rally to motivate our test taking students. The idea behind it was we wanted K-2 students to be a part of the major testing that was getting ready to occur at our school. So I had the idea of making a motivational video to play right before the pep rally.

With a little help from my hubby writing the lyrics to Miley Cyrus's "Party in the USA", I grabbed the school video camera and stalked all the teachers at my school during their planning. I am so blessed to work in a school with such fun people, because everyone was on board! With this project, I finally learned how to use Windows Movie Maker and recorded the song through a program called Audacity. It took about 2 weeks of diligent work, and it was so worth it! The kids loved seeing their teachers on video acting silly, and it was so great seeing all of us work together for our students.

I think I am going to start this as an annual tradition at our school.Will I make improvements to next year's video? You Bet! Like for one, I won't use my voice...I love to dance, but singing is not my strong suit. I took one for the team this year, but next year when I write another song, I'm getting someone else to sing it!

Let me know what you think and if you have suggestions for me for next year.

Exciting News!

My dear bloggy friends out there in blogland. Oh how I have neglected you. I have lots of fun things to share with you but first I will start with my exciting news....

 

On Friday I was named Henderson County's 2013-2014 Teacher of the Year!

 

The look of pure shock at my principal when I found out!

 

Still in disbelief with absolutely NO speech prepared!

 

After the ceremony, my principal and I headed back to school, only to find that the entire school had lined the halls with posters and were all cheering. It was surreal, unbelievable and of course made me swell with tears. Talk about an emotional roller coaster. It was truly a moment I will remember forever! I'm so blessed with so many amazing people in my life...friends, family, coworkers, and all you amazing blogging teachers who inspire me on a daily basis. Feeling beyond blessed!

 

But let's get back to business. I finally submitted my national board portfolio this month...signed, sealed, delivered (online)...I'M DONE! I also got the test out of the way too. It feel so good to finally be free from spending all of my free time working on it. I'm so excited to be a blogger again.

 

So, without making this the longest post in the world I want to share something real quick.

 

Here are some inspirational candy tags that I made for our 3-5th graders who are taking their End of Grade tests this week. We had a special pep rally for them and each K-2 student wrote a letter to a 3-5 student encouraging them to do well on their test. Along with it we passed out blow pops and these tags:

 

 

To get your free copy click on the picture or click here!

 

You could use this with any test.The kids loved it.

 

I highly recommend having a pep rally with your school to get kids excited and motivated about taking the test. Ours was awesome. I also made a music video with all of the staff at my school. It is a song that I rewrote to "Party in the USA"...except I call it "EOG Test Day". If I can figure out how to upload it, I will post soon!

 

Thanks for hanging in there with me! Blogging is finally a top priority now that boards are over. Haleluiah, amen!!!

 



Colorful Classroom

Want to know how to safely hang stuff from your ceiling? Read on and your classroom can look like this:

 

There is no safe way to hang child work and fun decorations from the ceiling of your classroom...according to your local fire marshall. Each year we try, each year we are busted. So sadly year to year I have restrained from this fun and happy classroom look. That is until this weekend. I recently bought Reagan's Rainbow Namebow and was determined to hang these adorable acrostic poems. So I headed to Walmart and bought fishing wire and command hooks, and called in the hubs for help.

 

 

I have 21 students so I decided to make three lines going the length of my classroom. I put each command hook as close to the ceiling as possible and I tied a loop in one end and hooked it, stretched the wire across the room and pulled the wire to my desired tension. Be careful not to make it too loose because the wire will droop when you add student work...I only used a slight droop in mine. Then I made another loop and put it on the other hook and voila, it was ready. Super easy and super affordable! Now I can add student work all throughout the year to make my classroom cute, bright, and cheerful...without worrying about breaking the rules for fire safety codes.



Have a great week! One more until it's spring break for me!

I ♥ Valentines Day!

First of all I want to apologize for not blogging more consistently. The last blog post I wrote was (gasp) a month ago!! I am getting so close to finishing my national boards and since I depleted our savings to do it, I really NEED to get this on the first go round. But, in the meantime, I love to do little things to release all of that creativity that is bursting to come out. So, I took yesterday off from national boards and made some Valentines!

 

 

Here is what I came up with for my little handsome. He loves his cars, trucks, and tractors, so I wanted to make personal valentines from him for all of his little friends at daycare. {Did I mention that he is not even 2 yet?...we all know that this is more for mommies fun, and I'm so happy to do it!} Click here or on the picture to get it for free. You could use it for the little boys in your classroom, or for your own sweet baby to use for their valentines!

And this is what I made for my students. I got the idea here. The best part about these valentines are you can buy a pack of 15 glow sticks for $1.00! I got mine at Michaels. So wonderful for us teachers on a budget.

Thanks for letting me share some fun. Now it's back to national board work.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Sneezy the Snowman Writing Craftivity!!

This week is all about snowman books, crafts and activities. I'll be testing students all week long...Reading 3D style {is it the middle of the year already??} so I wanted something fun for the kids to do at the end of each day this week. One idea I came up with while sipping tea and looking at pintrest this morning is the idea of the melted snowman. The melted snowman cookies I've been seeing look delicious and so stinkin cute. So, thinking about snowman books, I paired Sneezy the Snowman with this little craft and writing activity.

Click here for your copy!

Here is the book {in case you aren't familiar with it}

 

This is a look at some of the other adorable snowman crafts my students will be making this week!

 

 
Snowman math...from The First Grade Parade


And these adorable girl and boy snowmen from First Grade Blue Skies!

I can't wait to decorate my walls with all these happy little snowmen.

 

 

 

Celebrating the New Year!

Here is what I'm really looking forward to in 2013!

 

Become a national board certified teacher!

That's right, I'm going through the process right now. I'm hoping to pass it on my first try so I'm working really hard. Wish me luck!!

 

Become pregnant with our second child!

I want my little handsome to have a sibling to play with that is close to his age. Also a reason I want to be nationally certified...daycare is so expensive.

 

Potty train little man!

That's a goal for this summer after he turns 2 in May.

 

Create amazing science and social studies units!

I already have two uploaded on tpt and two in the works. I want great lessons that I can use again next year, and I want to stop putting these two subjects on the back burner. They are important!

 

Start a play group!

This one is mainly for the summer. I already have fabulous ideas and I want my little handsome to have lots of friends to play with.

 

Ok, I have lots more but I guess these are the biggest and most exciting ones.

 

So school starts back on Wednesday {boo!}. Here is how I'm planning on celebrating New Years with my students.

 

I plan on reading these two books throughout the day. One during our comprehension read-a-loud and the other during social studies:

 

This is a great story about practice and persistence to reach your goals.

 

 This is a great book that explains what a resolution is and how to make one.

 

Then we will fill out this graphic organizer as a class to get those creative juices flowing.

 

 

 

Next we will fill out our own graphic organizer to attach to our craftivity (below).

 

 



You can find this printable here.

 

 

Then we will make this adorable craftivity from the lesson plan diva. Find this resource here.

 

 

We are also going to count down the new year backwards from 60 using this! I'm hoping to time it at the last minute before the bell rings and have party horns from the dollar store for students to blow!

 

Happy New Year Everyone!!!