On the Loose with Dr. Seuss

Hey yall! Another chilly day here in Georiga. Ugh...this is so not my fave. I don't think I could ever live in the North. I had to stop at the grocery store, and was literally running in and out because it was so cold. My tootsies were frozen for about 15 minutes after that.

Anywho...

Guess what I spent all day yesterday doing? I'll give you a hint...it has something to do with a famed author and his birthday coming up...

Now, I know that every single one of you knows who I am talking about. I'm pretty sure its a prerequisite to know Dr. Seuss's birthday before getting an elementary teaching degree.

So, yes, I spent all day Saturday working on my Dr. Seuss unit...and its done! Whoo-hoo! It is 19 pages long and packed with literacy activities. It includes: rhyming cards and recording sheet, ABC order cards and recording sheet, grammar sort (nouns, verbs, and adjectives) cards and recording sheet, wordsearch, Cat in the Hat making words, Venn diagram, and Thing 1/Thing 2 writing prompt. Whew.


Click on the picture to pick up a copy from my Teacher's Notebook store. Click here to pick up a copy from my TPT store.

I am really trying to get the word out and build followers in both my stores, so this unit is only $3.00! What a bargain!

My goal for today? Start a St. Patty's Day unit. Wish me luck!

Now, after you go and buy your copy, head on over to see Erin at Creating and Teaching. She is having a giveaway for reaching 500 followers and is giving away this cute mirror!



Isn't it cute??? This would look great in my living room!

Oh, and if you pick up my Dr. Seuss unit, please leave me some love! 

What Do You Hear?

Hey yall! So glad it's Saturday. This was the longest week ever....and the coldest! The temps are in a chilly 30s right now, which may not seem cold to yall, but it is for us Georgians! Especially since this has been the mildest winter in awhile, with high temps in the 60s and low 70s for weeks.

This week, we had tons of fun with our sounds unit. I'm pretty sure that I haven't seen my kids this excited about anything else. And I completely understand, because I love science, too! Beware, this post is loaded with pictures!

We completed vibration stations this week.

Station 1 - Kazoos

Station 2 - Drums



Station 3 - Stick it in Your Ear





Station 4 - Eggs Full of Sound

These were awesome!!! It was super a little noisy, but definitely worth it! I set the timer and gave each group 7 minutes at each station. When the timer went off, they moved on to the next station. Now, I can't take credit for this idea....it came from one of our science resources. However, I did reword and cutesify (is that a word? ha!) the center cards. Click on the picture below to get them.



Yesterday, we played musical bottles!

We talked about pitch and then I showed them a xylophone. We discussed how different notes had different pitches, and why these changed from note to note.



Then I showed them the musical bottles and asked them to predict which bottle had the highest pitch.

My littles are obviously geniuses, since the majority of them guessed right that the blue bottle had the highest pitch. We discussed why the blue bottle had the highest pitch (less water, so it vibrated faster) and I played a few notes for them. Talk about amazing! Their faces really lit up and they were so excited. Then I told them that they were going to make their own songs and would even get to play them on our musical bottles! You would have thought I announced an improptu field trip. Somehow, between all the cheering and squeals, I managed to pass out their pattern strips and they got to coloring.

Then they cut out their pattern strips....



...arranged them into a simple pattern of their choosing...

...and glued them onto a sheet of black construction paper.

We also sang this really cute song about sound, but I can't for the life of me remember the words.

We ran out of time, so they haven't gotten to play their songs yet, but we will do that on Monday.

Okay, this girl is starved! Time for some Cocoa Pebbles :)

Happy weekend!



Love, Love, Love

Hey yall! Thursdays are one of my favorite days of the weeks. Partly because it's so close to Friday, and partly because I don't have carpool duty. But the main reason I love Thursdays is our Thursday night TV line up. NBC anyone? 30 Rock, Parks and Recreation, The Office, and Up All Night? It's like DVR heaven!!! Not to mention that we get to catch up on our Wednesday night shows, like Whitney and Are You There, Chelsea?

Okay, so I am finally finished printing/cutting/laminating our Valentine's Day center activities. Whew...that was a chore. Here they are in all their glory (well, except for the black & white recording sheets) for your viewing pleasure. If you purchase my Lots of Love unit, all the recording sheets are in color :)

Chocolate Covered Fact Families and recording sheet

Sweetheart Graphing and recording sheet

Take Your Sweet Time and recording sheet

Valentine Top It cards

Base Ten Memory Love Match

Sweet Number Stories: courtesy of Abby at Inspired Apple.
These are NOT in my Lots of Love unit.

We are also during the Even and Odd Love center from Anna over at Crazy for First Grade, but I haven't printed those out yet...darn, thought I was done.

I got my gifts all ready to go for my littles, too!

This is all over pinterest, but it came from Lindsey at the teacher wife. It says "You make my heart GLOW!"

We are going to have a busy day on Tuesday! In the midst of all the fun math centers, we also have a writing craftivity and our card exchange.

Check out my cute door for February.

Isn't it adorable? My February room mom did awesome! And yes, I have a different room mom for each month. More on that later...

Let me leave you with a quick little rant. I had one of my parent volunteers cut out a few of my center cards. Some of them are okay, but some of them look like this.





I mean, really??? Notice the cut across the top. This absolutely almost elicited tears on my part. Is that ridiculous? Would this have bothered any of yall?

Mid Week Randomness

Hey yall! This girl is all kinds of excited, because I am done with my nightly babysitting! Wahoo! I'm telling you what, this past week has been exhausting. So, because my brain is still fried and trying to play catch up, tonight's post is complete randomness.

On Monday, we had all the students bring in an apple from home and we had an apple math day! First, we graphed our apples by color. My littles were super excited to create their own graph paper with rulers! They felt very professional :) Then we measured the circumference of our apples. We also busted out the pan balance, and took turns weighing the different apples.

The last thing we did was make our own apple trees and write number stories. We have been working so hard on comparing number stories and writing number models, so this was perfect for them! I love that they all turned out so different, and my littles did such a great job! It was definitely a proud teaching moment :)



This one made a little bird nest in his tree! So creative.

 I have been so busy this week printing, cutting, and laminating stuff for our Valentine's centers. I wish that I had the time like some of you to do this fun stuff for weeks, but alas, we only get one day. Drats. I'm sure that I have way too much  more stuff planned than I can ever dream of getting to, and I blame that on all of you! I have found too much cute stuff to pass up on! Anyways, this craziness just forced me to have this for breakfast...

And it was soooo worth the calories!

This morning, during our reading centers, I sat on the carpet with a group to do some guided reading. At one point, I noticed that some of my reading girls were making themselves uber cozy. And this is exactly like it should be!

They just looked too cute, so I snapped a quick picture :)

Oh, and I know I'm a little late, but I'm linking up with Farley over at Oh Boy Fourth Grade for her Currently series.

Alright, time for this girl to catch up on some Parenthood and Teen Mom 2.

Happy Wednesday, yall!

Love Note and a Freebie!

Good Sunday morning, yall! Well, its not really good for me, considering I woke up with a cold. Bleck. Stuffy nose, cough, congestion...the works. Good thing I have a day to rest, because I'm going to have to just suck it up and deal with it. This girl cannot take another day off.

But I do have good news! I posted a new item in my TPT and TN shops! I created just a simple Valentine's card for you to give to your students. There are 3 different versions, so you can pick the one that most represents you. These are on sale for $1 right now in both my shops. Click on the picture to get your copy!

Freebie time! My students have really been working hard to learn their addition facts, so I created this little poster to help with the doubles facts! Click on the picture to pick up your copy for free!



And because I'm not feeling so great, and giving stuff away makes me feel better, the first 5 people to comment will get my Love Note for free! Just leave a comment with your email address and which one you would prefer (Caucasian with blonde hair, caucasian with brown hair, or African-American with black hair). Sorry for all you red-heads out there :(

Okay, I'm off to eat some soup and curl up with my remote.

Linky Party and Awards

Happy Saturday, yall! I'm so happy that it's the weekend, but I'm even more happy that I don't have to babysit this weekend! Yippee!!!! Hopefully, my bank account will understand...

Funky First Grade Fun is having a linky party, so I thought I would join in on the fun! Here's what I love:

• I love to watch movies with my hubby.
• I love to read books (place) curled up on my couch with a soft blanket or in the tub.
• I love to shop for shoes!!!!!
• I love to collect shot glasses.
• I love to listen to Widepread Panic, Allman Brothers, Mumford and Sons, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Adele, Dave Matthews.....I could go on and on.
• I love to eat chicken spaghetti and pizza!
• I love to talk about my pups Abby and Dude.
• I love to make cupcakes!
• I love to travel to anywhere really. So excited to travel to Japan over Spring Break!
• I love to teach science!

I don't know how to use the cute document that she has, so it looks pretty boring. Anyway, head on over to Funky First Grade Fun to link up!

I have some exciting news....I have been awarded my first bloggy awards! And not just one, but two! That definitely put a smile on my face :)

The first one is the Versatile Blog Award, given to me by Andrea from Cheers to School. She is a substitute teacher who is currently looking for a teaching job. Keeping my fingers crossed for you, girl! Thanks so much for thinking of me!!!

So here are the rules for accepting the award:

• Thank the award winner.
• Tell 7 things about yourself.
• Pass this award along to 15 newly discovered blogs.
• Tell them about the award!

So here goes:

1. I have a major girl crush on Grace Potter from Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. If you don't know who she is, you are missing out. She has an amazing voice and is beautiful to boot! Go buy their newest CD. You can thank me later :)

2. My nephew is about to turn 21 next week. Now, in case you haven't read my introduction post, I am soon to be 27. I am actually closer in age to my nephew than I am to my sister. He is such an amazing person and I love him very much! I am sooo proud of the person that he has become. Love you, kid!
3. In high school, I used to change my toenail polish daily to match my outfits. Now, I'm lucky if I change my polish once every 3 months! Poor neglected tootsies :(
4. My second older sister and I were both born in Germany, though 14 years apart and in different cities.
5. I used to speak Flemish, which is the language primarily spoken in Belgium. In kindergarten, I went half day to a Belgian school, and half day to an American school. Apparently, I was pretty quiet for the first few months at school, and then one day just started speaking fluent Flemish. Can I still speak it? Not one word.
6. I have never had a cavity in my life. But....I am starting to have a little tooth pain, so if I find out I have one now, I am going to be super sad.
7. I am heir to a basket fortune. Well, one of 5 heirs. My mother sells the very pricey Longaberger baskets and has so many that she's lost count. I mean, she probably has six figures worth of baskets. I also have quite a few in my collection, probably worth a thousand or two.

I will be back tomorrow with my picks for the award. This girl is getting sleepy....

The second award is the Leibster award. This award is for bloggers with 200 followers or less, and was given to me by Kim at First Grade Journal. She is another first grade teacher and always has such cute ideas! Make sure to check her out! Thanks so much, Kim!!!

And here are the rules for that award:

• Thank the award presenter and post a link back to their blog.
• Put the award on my blog.
• Pick 5 blogs with less than 200 followers,let them know about the award, and encourage them to pass it on.

So I am nomating these ladies for this award.

• All Things Katherine
• Forever in First
• The Daily Alphabet
• Wild About Second Grade
• Cheers to School

Go check em out, yall! Okay, that's enough from me. I'm off to watch 50/50 with the hubs!

T.I.R.E.D

Hey yall! Whew, it has been a loooonnnnng week. Sorry I have been MIA, but things have just been crazy hectic this week. This has been my schedule for the past week:

• 7-4 Work, work, work. Teach, teach, teach. Mold, mold, mold.
• 4:30-5:15 Scarf down something for dinner. This week has been full of frozen dinners...eck.
• 5:15-9:30 Drive, babysit, drive.
• 9:31 Pass out.

Soo....you see where my lack of posting comes from :)

And I still have 5 more days of this just waiting for me...yay. I just keep reminding myself money, money, money.

Moving on. We had some fun stuff going on this week, along with some not so fun some benchmark testing. Does anybody else have to take benchmark tests 4 times a year for both reading and math? These are not my favorite days. Mainly because its mandatory for the whole school to be silent for 2 hours...and we all know how well that works out. My littles always finish their tests within the first hour, so then I have to keep them quietly occupied for the next hour. Hmm...better stop before I get myself in trouble :)

On Monday, we had a guest speaker come and talk to us about sound. She is a parent of one of my former students and works as a sound engineer. I'm not sure the littles were as fascinated by her presentation as I was, but they did seem to enjoy watching popcorn jump from sound vibrations.

We also explored sound with a tuning fork. Ever use one of those before? Neither had I, but boy was it fun! It was pretty neat to actually feel the sound vibrations, and then when I hit the fork and touched it to a glass of water, the water sprayed everywhere! My firsties pretty much thought it was the most awesome thing ever...and I might tend to agree :)

Yesterday, we read 3 different groundhog day books:

They really liked all these books, but they especially loved Substitute Groundhog. It might have had something to do with my Texan armadillo accent...

After we read the books, we discussed burrows and hibernation. Then we made these adorable groundhogs, stolen from Cara at The First Grade Parade. She is amazing, isn't she? I mean, why come up with my own activity when she already has an adorable one, right? They turned out super cute. See for yourself.

Alright, well, this girl is off to the Cheesecake Factory :) Happy Friday, yall!

P.S. I was nominated for 2 differeny bloggy awards...whoo-hoo! I promise to be back tomorrow to accept and share!