Back to School Sale!!

Get ready to go shopping!!! On Aug 18 & 19 it's tpt's back to school sale and everything in my store is 20% off. Plus with the code: BTS13 you get an extra 10%. I'm so stinkin excited!

 

thanks Krista for the sign!

Here is a quick look at some of my favorite products in my little store. Click on the picture to preview on tpt.

 



 

First is my best selling product. This is the easiest and funnest way to teach little minds about the Constitution. Read my post about it here. Love, love, love this little mini unit.

 

Next is my Unit on how neighborhoods and communities have changed. It includes fun ideas on how to create a Pioneer Day from long ago in your classroom. My students LOVED this last year!

Who doesn't love snowmen? This adorable writing activity has everything you need to create this. Seriously...all you do is press print. It would also be a great sub emergency lesson to have on hands. I got amazing stories and my students were thrilled to create their own melted snowman.

This resource includes an amazing and adorable craft to help your students skip count. It also has math tub ideas and practice/assessment sheets. My students refer to skippy all year!

 

And I have lots more for FREE in my store. And if you like what you see, follow my store for lots more activities coming soon. {Last year I worked on getting my national board certification so it really slowed my tpt products down}.

 

 

Enjoy shopping tomorrow!!!

 

 

 

Back to School Freebies!

It's back to school time!!! Teachers in our county start back on Monday. Of course I'm going through the normal roller coaster of emotions that all of us go through at this time each year...excited, sad, excited, nervous, excited, overwhelmed...

 

 

I've been working on a few things that I want to share with you.

 

The first is a back to school gift that I  am using with my kids this year. I bought a big pack of suckers for cheap and made these SWEET labels.

 

Click on the pic to get these labels for free.

 

The next is a sign that I made for my classroom bathroom. I think I said this a thousand times last year so maybe a poster in the bathroom will help them remember. Here's hoping...

 

Click on the pic to get it free.

 

And last I made a power point presentation to run while students are in my room for meet the teacher. Sweet Aimee from Primarily Speaking created this little adorable power point template for free. Go to her blog to get yours too. Here is what I did with mine.

 

Don't you love the letter to the students? I got the idea from this pin.

The font I used is KG Lego House.

I also wrote a post last year about more meet the teacher and back to school ideas. Click here to read about it.

 

Good luck!

 

 



Teacher Week: Classroom Tour

I'm linking up with blog hoppin for teacher week!

 

Today is the 'ol classroom tour. I love looking at other teacher's amazing classrooms so this is going to be my favorite day.

 

Before I begin with mine, keep in mind that our students don't come for another two weeks...so my room still has some polishing until she shines just right, but here is what I have so far.

 

Photos are taken on my phone...so quality is not so much. sorry!

 

 

Here is where I house all my word work activities.

 

This  is my door going out into the hall. I have my helper for the day chart, behavior clip chart, how we get home chart, and baskets for BEE books.

Here's a look at ALL my cabinets...aren't they amazing? And every single one of them is jam packed FULL!  

Here is where I organize papers. This is where students turn in completed papers and where they come to get new clean paper in different forms.  

Just a quick shot of the back of my classroom. My teacher assistant desk is on the far left then I have two tables for small groups.

This is a peek at the front of my room. My desk is on the far right, along with my Letterland alphabet chart with each character, my birthday board, calendar, and book case to hold student book boxes.

Here's where I teach calendar. Letterland users...if you look at the far right you will see  how I organize my Letterland character cards for live reading and spelling. It makes teaching this so much more efficient. I highly recommend making one. All it's missing is the Letterland header.  

I gave myself a lot of room to write those I can statements this year!

Here's my math wall and how I am organizing my math tubs this year. Did you notice how all of my tubs are mismatched? I worried about it for a split sec before Nickers (my husband) put a stop to my spending. Oh well, maybe next year. I did print off new labels though.  

I also changed my alphabet this year. Instead of having a separate word wall that my students NEVER used...I combined my alphabet chart {which they use a ton} along with my word wall. Now everything is at the front of the room. I'm so excited about this change! 

And I love those hand signal cues! 

Here's the reading area. Needs a rug or something. And maybe oooonnnneeee more book shelf.

 

The rest is a work in progress. I don't think I'll ever be done tweaking and perfecting this room. I'm sure you all feel the same way.

 

Thanks so much for visiting! I can't wait to see your sweet home away from home too!!!

Teacher Week '13- Let's talk about me Monday

Hi Everyone!!! Let's start off with a fun fact...

I used to be a cheerleader for Appalachian State University.

(I'm the third one from the left) 

These are my cheering besties...we called ourselves the hot tamales because it was our fav candy. You know in college when you eat real healthy. We LIVED off of hot tamale candy.

 

One year the football team made it to a Southern Conference...in Charleston. We loved to do stunts everywhere! I had to dig deep for this one...funny how I couldn't find one of us at an actual game. I'm the flyer on the very top...the one who doesn't have good form on her arms...(you fellow cheerleaders know you were thinking that!) ha ha

Ok, now for a real introduction....

This is me with the sweetest little baby boy on the planet. He is the center of my world!

 

 

And these two boys are the loves of my life! {Captain Hook and Peter Pan...minus their hats!}

 

Which brings me to this guy. We met in college, fell in love and have been married for 7 years. So thankful for how supportive he is. Love him to pieces.

I am crazy about my family. And I'm crazy about being a teacher. Family and teaching...my two passions in life. That's it...I'm pretty simple. Now you know me. :) 

 

 

This year I was awarded with the incredible honor of being named Teacher of the Year not only for my school but for my county! It was a true shock and a surreal moment. I've never been so humbled, and speechless! It's pretty hard to make a speech when your heart is beating out of your chest! So excited for the next level and so very happy to have friends like you to help me through it.

 

I have had 7 years of teaching experience. 1 year in 2nd, 3 years in 3rd, and 3 years in 1st and looking forward to many many more years of teaching!

 

Here is one more fun fact about me...Hi, my name is Meghan and I am a Disney junkie! I LOVE Disney World. In fact, I have been so many times, I can't even count. It's kind of our family's thing. We used to go several times a year when I was a kid but now that I'm a responsible adult, we only make it there once or twice a year...at Christmas and Halloween! Check back with me in October and I will post pictures of us in costume...I'll even back date and show you what we've been the past two years! We always stay at the campground, Fort Wilderness. Just love it! Baby boy's first trip was when he was 5 months old! {I was a blond back then!}

 

Thanks so much for visiting me! Be sure to link up. I can't wait to get to know you!!!

 

 

 

 

Helper of the Day

Do you want to know the easiest way in the world to determine classroom helpers and jobs? It's called helper of the day. That's right, one student for the whole day is the line leader and my helper for any and everything that I need during the day. {For example: passing out papers, running to the office, taking a book back to a teacher that I borrowed it from, grabbing something we forgot off the playground...etc}

 

I used to have classroom jobs that were cute and changed each week. It worked great for a while but then students kept forgetting their job, or would fight over a job...someone would do someone elses...they would be absent, etc. It just didn't work for me. So I made my life really really easy and started using this fool proof system.

 

 

 

I make a big chart that hangs by my door with everyone's name on it and use a clothespin to mark who the helper of the day is. I start at the top and move down the list each day. I can't tell you how much I love this method. And the best part is it is EASY!

 

Hope this helps those of you like me who can't keep 10 classroom jobs straight each week, or who doesn't have time/find time to keep up with it.

 

If you have a better or similar idea I'd love to hear about it.   

 



Science/Social Studies Unit Outline

A few weeks ago I shared a template to help make a unit outline for science and social studies standards....or really whatever you want to make a unit outline for. Well today I met with my first grade team...the first time all summer...and we talked for FOREVER. (yay!) One of the many things we discussed is our new schedule for the year (it always changes doesn't it?) and I shared this little unit outline for science and SS this year. They agreed so I'm ready to share it with you.

The red is the Unit to correlate with our standards in science and social studies and the blue are the holidays because those are also in our curriculum and lets be honest...we gotta stick in those fun learning crafts and activities that are so much fun to do with holidays somewhere. I'm still working on making all of my science and social studies activities available for you but here are the ones that I use to teach for Constitution Day and History.  Click here and here to check them out! By the end of the summer I should have my Rocks and Minerals unit ready with Civics and Governance close behind.

 

Here is a rough draft of our schedule this year: (just in case it might help you make yours)

8:20-8:40 Calendar

8:40-9:15 Phonics (Letterland)

9:15-10:00 Comprehension & Writing

10:00-10:10 Snack

10:10-11:00 Specials

11:00-12:00 Daily Five Literacy &Reading Intervention

12:00-12:10 Class bathroom break, prep for lunch

12:10-1:15 Lunch and Recess

1:15-2:15 Math

2:15-2:55 Science/ Social Studies

2:55 Dismissal

 

Only 4 more weeks until school starts for us. I'll be back to post everything that I'm doing to prepare. So much work to do! We just got our keys back today so it's go time!!!

 

 

 

Back to school bulletin board ideas

One of my favorite summer activities is thinking of my back to school bulletin board! I'm not one of those teachers that makes it easy on herself and uses the same one every year. I wish that I could do that and be satisfied, but I love creating them too much! I've been thinking about it for a while now and I finally have my idea. After my new blog design I'm a little inspired with ice cream so my bulletin board is going to be:

"Here's the Scoop on Mrs. Farmer's Sweet First Graders!"

After a little searching online I found this amazing one and will use it for inspiration when creating mine.



I love the awning and how she did the words "scoop" and "sweet"! She also has a great template for the ice cream cones...all for free! Just click on the picture to go to her website.

I plan on doing something a little more with the ice cream cones. My title will be "Here's the Scoop..." so each day the kids will add a new scoop to their ice cream cone with information about themselves. Some ideas I'm kicking around are...family members, hobbies, pets, favorite subject, something they did on summer break, and color in their favorite ice cream flavor. Since the first day of school is on a Monday, I will probably have one for each day of the week. And I'm pretty sure that the last one will be their favorite flavor, topped to look something like this:


The chocolate syrup is actually brown tempera paint in a condiment squeeze bottle. Love the cotton balls and sprinkles...oh wait, and the cherry on top!!!

As their gift for meet the teacher, I found a few things that I just love:
      
S'mores treats and ice cream bubbles...maybe with a tag that says, This year will be so sweet! I'll share when I make them. Of course this will go along with magic confetti!

If you are interested in an ice cream back to school bulletin, I thought of some other good titles:
"Here's the scoop...1st grade is a real treat"
"Ms. _____'s first graders are sweet!"
"1st grade is scoops of fun"
"Scooping up a great year"
"Here's the scoop...we're a great class"

And here are the bulletin boards that I have done over the past few years...this of course was before I was a blogger so unfortunately I was not good about taking pictures back then.

2010: "Here We Grow Again" I put pictures of the kids faces inside of flowers!
2011: "Let's Set Sail for 1st Grade"...Mrs. Jump inspired pirate ship...it was so cute! I had little pirate bears on a huge pirate ship.
2012: "Let's Kick Off to a Great Year"...football inspired {since this was last year, I did have a picture}. Read more about this one here.

I would love to hear what you are thinking about for your back to school bulletin board. Leave me a comment here or on my facebook page!