Some New Blogs and Maybe A Giveaway?

So there may be a giveaway soon here on my blog. I just realized I have almost 200 followers! I've already decided it will be gift cards and I have two places in mind!

Speaking of followers, I found a few blogs looking for more since they are new (well some are new to me anyway!)

First is Kindergarten Kel. She's got some cute stuff and freebies too!

Next is 5th Grade Rocks, 5th Grade Rules. She has great ideas!

Then we have First Grade Frosting. I love, love the blog design. She has great stuff too. And a giveaway going on now that I donated something to!

Now we have A Year of Many Firsts. Love her freebies, pics, and ideas!

So there we have it folks! New blogs to check out, follow, and get ideas (and freebies and units) from! 

18

Time Out Tuesday: Animal Love

Today was like 95% better than yesterday! Thank goodness! Kiddos were sooooo happy to have me back in their class (I've been there many times this school year) and they were really good. A few funny things.

I was at the desk during prep time and I looked out the window and saw a kid running. He looked over, saw me , and then started walking. I don't even have to be outside or near the kid and they obey the teacher lol! And then in the hall, a kinder class walked by and I waved and one shouted, " Hi Mr. T!" Oh goodness. I am not Mr. T. I look nothing like him and I don't say "Pity the fool!" Lol.  And then at writing, a kiddo asked me, "Ms. T, how do you spell DSI?" Um, kiddo, you just spelled it!

Ok, today's TOT (time out Tuesday) topic is animal love. I know I love me some fur babies! I have one, Checkers. After a tough day, she is there to greet me and give me some loving.  And she adores pestering helping me blog. Evidence from yesterday!

Licking while I try to type (that's marker on my hand, not a cut)

Kneading me while I try to type

Looking at me adoringly. Or saying, "Mom, I'm just helping!"

Fur babies can lift our spirits. It's been proven that just petting them for a few minutes can lower your stress! So pet your fur babies! I also love talking about her in class and it helps the kids relate with me. Very helpful especially if it is my first time in the class. Checkers is often a topic for my writing examples in class and the kids love it!

Quick news: My TN store is have a sale for my grand opening. I 3 items on sale and they are now only $0.90!!! Lasts til Saturday!

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Madness Monday and Some News!

OH. MY. WORD. I earned my money today. That's all I'm going to say. Because the growling classroom was madness. Pure and utter madness. And I wouldn't want to terrify you!

A cute moment was when I read books that I brought from home and a kiddo said, "Those books were incredible!" Melt my heart!

Onward to good news. A little bit back I was a winner on Traditions, laughter, and Happily Ever After. Vicky made me a SUPER cute post-it holder, like on Pinterest. I love, love, love it!

Isn't it cute?!?! Love it! And she decorated the package so cute with stickers lol.

I totally needed this after my tough day. It was meant to be, thanks Vicky!

And Tara at 4th Grade Frolics used an idea from my blog post about characters changing in a story and it worked out so great and turned out perfect!

I was invited to something called a Seuss Freeze Flash Mob for Friday after work, but I don't think I'll go because it's about 50 minutes away and by Friday I'll be exhausted. What they plan to do is mill around outside at a shopping place. And then you sit down and read a Dr. Seuss book or pretend to. And then sing happy birthday, and then go on about your business. Sounds fun though!

And finally, my news. I opened a Teachers Notebook Store! I didn't think I would, but it's been on my mind a lot and it seemed like that I was being directed in that way, so I went with it. I have my Dr. Seuss freebies there and a few $1 items. My goal is to make everything $5 and under, because, I do realize what we all make lol. I've got some St. Patty's Day stuff up. Now don't worry, I'll still be doing my Friday Freebies on here. And I'll randomly give away my products too. 

So visit my store! Become a follower! 

I'll give away my St. Patty's Day Word Wall packet to the first 5 people to comment with their e-mail address! Hopefully it'll help make your Monday better! :)

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Home Remedies and Good Movies

I'm not sure how much of this post will be teacher related. Though I guess you could my consider my home remedies educational? Oh and the movie I watched was teacher related! Lol. So yesterday I talked about the home remedies my Oma is demanding I try before my mom talks to her the next time.  So my mom told me I have to steep onions in honey as one remedy (this is the one my Oma told me I had to do) and also boiling potatoes and putting them on my chest. These are both supposed to help my horrible cough.

So a chopped onion got put in a tupperware and honey drizzled over. Then it's supposed to sit for 12 hours or so until the honey juices the onion. Okay yes, this sounds awful and if you are laughing, that's fine because I've been laughing the whole time too! I took a teaspoon of my onion-honey juice and I pinched my nose. Because if I pinch my nose, I won't be able to taste the juice. I decided to hold my nose for a bit, hoping to escape the taste. Letting go, my mouth had a bit of onion taste, but it was kind of sweet. And it only lasted a few seconds. Not too bad.

Off to remedy number two, the potatoes. Boiled the potatoes, mashed them a little and put them in a ziploc bag. I also put a towel in between because boy was it hot. Which is the whole point of it. Something about the heat I guess. And I watched a movie on Hallmark called " Beyond the Blackboard", which is based on a true story. The teacher wrote a book and then they based the movie off of it. It's about a new teacher and they give her a teaching position at a homeless shelter. Her room is ...well a room. And her kids are hungry and mean and untrusting. The movie goes on about the fight she puts up for the kids and the bond that grows. I loved the movie!

And you should have seen me with the bag of potatoes on my chest. I would look down at it and laugh. Hey if I got hungry, I could just open the bag and eat mashed potatoes lol :)

I do think my cough has lessened though. Is it bad I'm dreading tomorrow? Back to the growling class, but all day. Then Tuesday and Wednesday I'm in the same first grade classroom. And Friday I'm in 4th grade. Which I'm super excited that I'm working on Dr. Shoosh's birthday. Thursday is the only open day so far, but I'm sure something will pop up. When other subs ask me how much I work, I hate to say it because I found out most of them only get 1-2 days a week. And here I am 3-5.  I can't help it if I get requested! Lol. I know I shouldn't feel guilty about that. Well, hope you all had a great weekend and have a great week! I think I may go watch Breaking Dawn part 1 on the dvd I just bought. Or Coraline. I just read that book to a 4th grade class and saw the dvd real cheap at Wal-mart.

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Snow, Sun, and Sniffles Saturday

It was raining. Then there was snow mixed in. Then sun. Yep, Oregon weather is nutso! That darn cold I had is now at week 2 and the cough started a few days ago. My Oma in Germany (Oma means grandma) told  my mom to tell me that I need to boil potatoes, mash them and put them on my chest. Um yeah...ok. Then she said something about cooking onions and honey for 12 hours and I take a teaspoon full. Again, um yeah ok. I still remember one time in middle school I had a really high fever and my Oma told my mom to put raw eggs mixed with stuff and put it on my soles of my feet and wrap it in plastic wrap and a towel. Somehow, it did bring my fever down. Do you use home remedies like this? Or is it just my Oma? Lol :)

I saw this cute bulletin board at one of the schools I subbed for. Same school that had the circus theme. Well the city has having this hug reading contest for February. They started it last year. The whole city and all the schools are trying 5 million pages. So the schools are trying to promote it and one school made this adorable bulletin board.

Each cookie stands for 5,000 pages

Each grade gets their own cookie

Cookie Monster has a huge cookie jar and cookies.

As you can tell from the cookie jar, kindergarten has read a ton! Cookie Monster is mad out of cotton balls that have been painted blue.

Also teaching related, is the Pinterest talk. Apparently in the fine print, you are saying that the photos you pin are yours. Laura Candler talks about it on her blog and I am linking up to it, in the linky party giving permission to pin any of my stuff (blog, things I created on Pinterest, or my TN store) :)

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Friday Freebie: Dr. You-know-who's Mini-Unit

Haha! So there BLOPS (blog cops)! No bloggy jail for me! I didn't say the dude's name in my title :) I feel like saying the-doctor-who-shall-not-be-named name. Yay!

Before I get to the freebie, let me tell you that I am so thankful I subbed only a 1/2 day this morning. The two kinder classes I subbed for were WILD. Like picture animals from a zoo trapped in a classroom. There was barking like a seal(as in kid with a very bad cough), myna birds (teacher, he did this, she did that tattling), and snarling lions (both me and the kids). I mean come on, when I blow the whistle at recess, it means line up. Not 'let's go play more and oh, Ms. T is coming, so let's go up the slide'. Ms. T was not happy this morning. And I have them on Monday *sigh*. On the bright side, I got my paycheck today, woohoo!

Ok freebie time.

Click the pic for your link!

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It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's...Tomatoes?

Ohhhh today. *sigh* Honeymoon phase was OVER today lol. They were good for the most part. We did the retelling wheel that I posted yesterday. Writing, reading, calendar, and finally lunch. The morning took forever. We were stuck with each other for 2 hours and 40  minutes, no break until lunch. After lunch was about 40 minutes for math, then specials, then ESOL, then I had 50 minutes left of the day. Afternoon was QUICK.

Well they came back from ESOL and snack was handed out. Today it happened to be cherry tomatoes. All the kids were eating them and then it happened. I saw a red missile  tomato. And then one from the other direction. I had a resource teacher in the room who was talking to me about how one of my kiddos who was fine for me, was acting up for her. So I had a witness of the tomatoes. And she pulled them all (4, because 1 admitted and we didn't know who threw the other, but there were 3 boys so she took them all) and they came back awhile later, heads hanging in shame and handed me cards. Cute apology cards.

Each card had flowers on the front. This one was too cute!

And if you can't read it (but it's pretty good handwriting and she must have given them a form of what to write) it says: Dear Ms. T,

I am sorry for throwing tomatoes to the book shelf. I wll be more respectful.

Sincerely Jacob R.

I forgave them. How could I not? I mean, they drew me flowers. I haven't had flowers from a guy since college! And they were funny again with their sayings. One kiddo at math time was putting together something and stopped and his friend asked why. "I like to do different things. That's just the guy I am!"  There was something else that I was cracking up at but darn it, I forgot what it was. I need to write them down! I did yesterday lol.

So here's to tomorrow being Friday! Hopefully my kinder class tomorrow will be good. I'm in the growling kinder class lol.

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Oh What a Day!

Oh the joys of being a sub lol. I get up early every day, whether I have a job or not. I had a job booked today for the last few weeks. I was rushing around today, running late. I'm almost to work and my cell rings. I pull into a parking lot and answer my phone (it's illegal in my state to talk on cells while driving and good thing I did, I saw a state trooper. Although he was in line at Dutch Bros. lol) and find out my job was cancelled. That I've had lined up for several weeks.  *sigh* But then she says she has a 1/2 day for me, so I gladly take that! Then I'm almost out of the parking lot and she says, sorry I'm cancelling that too.

Then I get home, settled in and was writing this blog post. But the phone rang. They needed me somewhere else. For a whole day and the lady needs me tomorrow too! And another teacher saw me and said she couldn't remember my sub number so she was happy I was there and now I have a 1/2 day for March :)

It's always interesting subbing for a Russian class though. Only one school in the district has Russian classrooms. I kind of understand how non English speakers feel when thrown in to English only because everything on the wall and 98% of the books were Russian. And the kids' names. Yikes! But she wrote their names in Russian and English. And the kids speak pretty good English. And they are soooo cute!

A few of them said some funny stuff today. One said, "Ms. T, did you know today is Ash Webster?" I smiled and nodded (Wednesday kiddo, Ash Wednesday). And then I was reading The Three Bears.  I was being good because yesterday they read The 3 Little Pigs so I wanted to give them a text to text connection. Which they totally got!

So I'm reading it and it comes to a picture of the 3 bears in their beds. And  a kiddo raised their hand, " Ms. T, why is the mama not in the same bed as the papa?"

Moment of panic in my head but not on my face and another kiddo raises their hand. She answers, "That's cuz the papa is so big, there is no room for the mama. And he snores and is too loud for her." Oh. my. goodness.  Toooooo presh!  And I eagerly nodded my head.

Speaking of the 3 Bears, we did a retell of the story. And it was in a graphic organizer I've never seen before but worked well. It's a pie/pizza/wheel. And each section is a different part of the story and I even noticed kiddos using transition words like first, second! Yay them!

Here's a freebie that I whipped up for you of their organizer: CLICK ME!

And another great retelling...so yesterday I read Sheila Rae the Brave by Kevin Henkes to the kiddos. I paused, asked for predictions, connections, thoughts, etc. Then at the end we did a summary as a class. Title, author, characters, setting, events, resolution/conclusion, author's message, and author's purpose.

They then got a folded piece of paper in thirds so there were  two flaps in the front. On the inside they drew a line in the middle. On top they wrote how Sheila acted and how here feelings were in the beginning of the story. The bottom was how her feelings and actions changed by the end. And on the front they drew Sheila. After they draw and color her, if you open it, you see her feelings on the inside. Brilliant!

These both are great for retelling ! So that was my day. And I got a last laugh as a kid asked me if it was time to 'dress up and go home'. Meaning, coats and backpack. Cute!

14

Dr. Seuss TBA Giveaway and more!

If you love Dr. Seuss as much as you do (I know Jen does!) you'll love this week on TBA. It's Dr. Seuss week!!! And today starts off with a BIG giveaway. There are 19 sponsors giving stuff away and I'm one of them! You have until Friday to enter :) Plus all week is Seuss-tastic good stuff!

Don't forget to link up any behavior/classroom management stuff in my linky party! Restore my faith in hosting linky parties people! Lol :)

And finally, Heather over at Heather's Heart is looking for 50 new followers. And she'll donate $1 for every one of those new followers to a shelter. So if you aren't following her already, you should! She has cute freebies and is soooo sweet!

So that's it folks! A big giveaway, a linky party, and some new followers for Heather :)

I almost forgot to say we had excitement at the baby shower. I was getting out of the car when I saw one of my cop friends. I waved hi until I saw he had his taser out and then was shouting behind the fence of where my friend was holding my other friend's baby shower. Then I heard sirens and a mention of a police dog. I booked it into my friend's house and told her to lock all the doors. So she did. And we saw cops, several of them. And walking behind my friend's house. Turns out there was a break in next door and two people ran and ditched bags. In the end, the bags and both people were found. Heartbreakingly, they had stolen a wedding ring from a man and it was his wife's who had just passed away. Glad they caught the bad guys! Entertaining for us being in lock down though hahaha :)

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Babies, Cricut, and Behavior

Don't you just love it when you wake up with a headache? I'm supposed to sleep in on the weekend, not be up early with a headache! It feels a little better now which is good because in a few hours I have my friend's baby shower to go to.

So all we know is that it will be a boy and the theme is monkeys. She is sworn by her husband not to share the baby's name. All she can say is that it is two names combined but not 'weird' but not 'common'. What does that mean? Billy-joe? Billy-bob? Ahh I can't wait til Stewart Little is born! Oh, their last name is Stewart so we've dubbed the baby Stewart Little. Cute huh?

This is what I made:

It says treasure, little one, boy, tiny toes, and snips and snails. Remember the design I got off of Pinterest? I had a limit of what I could  fit in without it looking crowded and I love how it turned out!

Finished product in the frame :)

Baby card I made.

Alright, so it seems a ton of you loved the idea I found on Pinterest. And decided I'd try my hand again at a linky party.....so here it is. Link up anything related to behavior/classroom management or behavior incentives.   

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New Blogs and a Behavior Incentive

Ok, I saw this awesome behavior incentive on Pinterest today! I'm excited about it because it is something that I could totally do as a sub!

From Something To Chirp About blog!

I am excited about this. If the whole class is doing great, a piece gets added, but if they are off task, a part comes off. As a sub, I could say that if he gets completed, then they have 15 minutes of free time at the end of the day or something like that. Oh I am excited lol :)

Now for some new blogs that I've discovered and love :)

Teachery Tidbits is a cute blog :) Natalie has some cute units and ideas. And when she gets 100 followers, she'll have a giveaway with a Target giftcard!!! We all love Target right? Click her button to get to her blog :)

Another cute blog is Awesome in First! Annie and Melissa trying to get to 50 followers and will be giving away a $20 gift card to TpT (another favorite, right?) They are super close and could use some more followers. They have some super cute freebies too! Click their button to go to their blog :)

Tomorrow is my friend's baby shower and I can't wait! I made her a cute baby card, I made her a cute subway art for the baby's room, and got the baby some clothes. I also got a pair of sunglasses. That is one of my baby shower trademarks I guess you could say. And it's funny because then people expect me to get their baby a pair, so I can't disappoint! Lol :) I'll post pics of the things I made tomorrow :) Have a great weekend everyone!

23

Pick Up Sticks, Jenga, and Math

My mind is swirling. With thoughts of today and thoughts of things to invent and math. Today was a so-so day in 4th grade. Sent a kid to the office, had two kids sent to the office during lunch (someone tattled that they were fighting) and wrote down some names for the teacher. And they have a field trip tomorrow, poor teacher.

I get to spend the next three days in the same class, which will be a 2nd grade class. That makes it nice, some stability.

While I was in 1st grade a few weeks back, one of the most squirreliest kids was focused on pick-up sticks. She and two kids placed the sticks on top of each other and tried taking them off one by one and not make any move. Which got me thinking of how to use that for education. I couldn't think of anything but another thought popped into my head.

Now I'm sure it's been done before and I'm not the first to invent it, but I ran this idea by another teacher today who thought this was a brilliant idea and said he and I should collaborate and create a game (he has an art background and actually knows someone who invents games/art stuff so now I have a connection!).

Jenga blocks! Put math equations on them and the kids solve them as they take a block off. You could have them record their answers/equations on a sheet too. You can use this in literacy too. Write high frequency words or sentences on the Jenga blocks and have them record them.

Or you could have theme questions on the blocks. Or you could have the kids do it in reverse and read the block first and then build the tower. I'm thinking labels or stickers would totally work, in case you want to swap out the stickers and not write on the block. And I know that thrift stores have Jenga blocks a lot.

Something like this for literacy.

Something like this for math.

And the recording sheet could be lines or if you label the bricks  A, B, C then have lettered lines.

Ahhh the ideas! Have you seen this done before? Do you do this? Or am I just nuts? Lol.

8

Wednesday...

Anyone else ever run out of titles for their posts? I feel like I might be repeating myself if I do 'wacky Wednesday" or something like that. So Wednesday it is lol.

Sugar rush? Nope. Sugar crash? Not really. They were surprisingly good. Like I give instructions and they do it the first time good. 4th grade by the way :) They did wonderful in ESOL and in writing for an hour, they were quiet! And math, they were focused! And were sad when it was time for lunch because they wanted to keep going. And math again after lunch, swell! About 2:00 when we did theme/science, a little chatty, but they were still working and I totally took it. I mean school is done at 2:40, we clean up at 2:35, so 35 of chatting but doing science and Ms. T having a massive nosebleed, sure. Yes, massive. Like almost 10 tissues massive. The kids were so sweet and kept going on with their work.

Oh and they did something super fun in math. They had a grid labeled A-K on the bottom and 1-8 on the side. And then G1 had to be green, and A7 was 1/2 black and 1/2 white. Some squares were 4 colors. At the end, the grid made a picture of a pilgrim and a turkey. Kind of random since it was just Valentine's but the kids were ENTHRALLED with it. They noticed that some squares had to be angles or fractions of color. Plus they were doing coordinates.   That may be something I look into doing for a freebie.

Side note...I had to collect permission slips today for permission for kids to do state testing on a Saturday. The school decided that it would be less disruptive and make less schedule scrambling if they tested on a Saturday. Have you ever heard of this? They also told kids that if they come to the Saturday testing, they get popcorn and some other treat. If the kids cannot make it, they have to do testing some other scheduled weekday. I thought this was odd, but understood why they were doing this.

Oh and I saw the cutest Valentine made of 5 hearts to make Clifford!  A heart face, black heart nose, heart in 1/2 for ears, heart chin/mouth, and heart tongue. I took a pic on my iPhone (so in love with my phone!)

Ahhh so cute!

0

Happy______day and Time Out Tuesday!

Ok it's ____ in my title because today is not only Valentine's Day, it's my state's birthday! Happy Birthday Oregon :) 153 years old...wow, wouldn't want to put all the candles on or blow them out!

I figured I wouldn't sub today, I mean, who would want to  miss their classes' V-Day party? Well I know a few teachers that might lol. I am subbing tomorrow though and I'm already dreading the sugar rush/crash! Thank goodness it's also late start so hopefully that helps.

Ok, Time Out Tuesday... of course has to be about love! And I found THE perfect quote. A blend of love and education.

A loving heart is the beginning of all knowledge.
Thomas Carlyle


Fantastic right? Yeah I love it! It makes total sense too. If you have a loving, caring heart, then you are able to understand more and accept more. 


I can live without money, but I cannot live without love.
Judy Garland

Love this quote too. Everyone needs a little bit of loving! Even the most awful people. And we know them. I know you do. I do...so you know what? If you see them today, give them a little extra love. Maybe they'll show it back.


And speaking of love, I have a new blog I love. She rocks, seriously!  And she made a Dr. Seuss clip art set that as soon as I saw sneak peeks yesterday, knew I had to have. And as soon as I saw it was available on TpT, yep I bought it. And it's worth it. Ok, now to share her blog... The 3 am Teacher. Love the title, love her stuff, love her blog, love everything! And help the girl out, she is close to 100 followers. So show the girl some loving!

6

Chunking, Sounds, Sniffles, and More

The sniffles part belongs to me. I have the sniffles, or rather the stuffed-upness that is kind of going around. At least I didn't catch the flu going around! So I'm taking today off so I don't get any worse and hopefully get a bit better.

In exciting news (that'd be the 'more') part, I got me an iPhone! Wooo! So you know how I said that my phone was shutting off? Now I don't have to worry about that anymore. And AT&T had a killer deal and I was allowed to upgrade the max amount and got a 3G for $0.99. That's right, 99 cents! I went with the 3G, not because the 4G was $99.99, but because the 4G has a glass side on the back and knowing me, that'd be cracked within a day. And it's the most reported problem, the breaking.  Not much difference except for speed the guy said.

Ok, now on to sounds and chunking. I absolutely adore subbing for this one first grade teacher. Love her kids, love her lessons, and love her room. So inviting! And she has a new addition that I just had to share with you!

I don't know if you can tell but the kiddos' pictures, they are forming the sound in their mouth. So "sh" he has his finger up. Then sounds with 'sh' are put below it. "Th" her mouth and tongue are formed. And "ch" has his mouth ready. For 'ou' she has a bandaid. Sooooo cute! And the best part is the kiddos use this all the time. When they are writing, they look over there. Or one reading center was to get their book box and with a sticky note, write all the 'ing', 'er', 'ch', 'th', 'ou' words they could and they LOVE it!

There is also this cute wall area about authors:

And the rubber band for stretching out words...love it! Sometimes she gives them a rubber band and they stretch it during writing time :)

6

Sunny Sunday and Cricut Crafts

The sun is shining, yay! The plan for today is...nothing. Though my room does need a good cleaning, especially after unpacking from the trip. I'm also working on two freebies (yay!) for March and are Seuss related. One is almost done and the other is done! I feel like I'm ahead of the game woohoo!

Now I have some really sweet friends. I mean REALLY sweet. And one of them went and bought me something for my Cricut! Just because and also because she knew I was looking for this:

And the one she bought was sparkly...does she know me or what?

I am so excited about this! Now I can get rid of my Cricut cases if  I want and can be more organized! Hmm maybe that's what I'll do today, work on Cricut stuff. I think I mentioned this before, but  my friend is having a baby shower next week and I want to make a canvas or photo frame for her and it will have different sayings like "tiny toes", "mommy's boy" and other cute baby stuff like that.

I picked most of the same words. I also made a heart and star too.

And in following suit I joined Kindergarten Lifestyle's linky party:

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