Wild About Words

We spend so much time focusing on "Word Work" in our room.  Although spelling and orthographic development varies from student to student, isn't it nice that all those researchers have mapped out developmental milestones for us to use as guidelines?  Our school uses a lot of resources from Words Their Way, and it really helps us monitor students as they progress through the spelling continuum.  A couple years ago many of us thought, If WE are using this stuff to monitor kids, why don't we teach them how to monitor their OWN progress?  The results were better than we expected.  First, we noticed that many kids were making much smarter "Word Work" choices during Daily Five.  Also, kids were applying their new found knowledge across all content areas.  That is, we weren't just seeing them get better at word work worksheets; we were seeing evidence of new learning during their daily writing, in their math journals, and in their science and social studies writing (Oh, look at the quote at the end of this post!  It totally brings this point home).  It's easier than you think!

First, I set the stage for understanding spelling development.  You've really got to spend time building comfort here.  Chances are, your class is made up of several different types of "thinkers", and you need to make a big deal out of how great and special this is!  I remind them that we are all different.  Just like we all didn't walk, get potty trained (they love this example), ride a bike without training wheels, and lose our first teeth on the same day, we won't all spell the exact same way on the exact same day.  It's not about where you need to be at the end of the road, or even getting to the end first; it's about knowing what part of the road you are on right now, and knowing what to do to get just a tiny bit farther.  It takes me a while to convince a few skeptics in my room, but eventually I have a classroom full of students who feel the sense of relief that comes with understanding their teacher doesn't expect them to move mountains.  Tiny jumps is more like it!

Next, I test the kids using the Words Their Way spelling inventory, but a similar benchmarking system will do just fine.  Most of my first grade students range from the Emergent and Letter Name stage (beginning and ending sounds) to the Within Word Pattern stage (basic understanding of long vowel patterns).  This, along with what the Common Core expects out of first graders, determines the "path" we want first graders to travel throughout the year.  After a quick conference with each student to provide them feedback on their assessment, and to give them one last pep talk, I'm on my way to handing the responsibility over to them!

If you want to try this, the next thing you need to do is decide on a way to give them a visual of their path.  One of my colleagues created a long paper tree branch that stretched across several cupboards in her room.  She divided the branch up into the spelling stages mentioned above.  She simply wrote all of her students' names on cute little owl cutouts, and the kids moved along the branch as they progressed through the continuum.  Some used rocket ships blasting off to different planets.  Others used hot air balloons traveling through clouds.  I used monkeys climbing up a tree.  One thing we ALL had in common, however, was that we had kids who knew where they stood and were comfortable with it, knew what was ahead for them, and knew how to make plans to get to the next stage (smarter Daily Five choices, working with friends with similar goals, etc.).  Above all else, we had kids who knew why spelling development was important, so they worked so hard to improve bit by bit!

This year I wanted to create a display where the students moved horizontally.  I loved their monkey climbin' last year, but moving "up" can sometimes be mistaken for "that person is smarter than me", and that is a feeling I want to avoid at all cost!  I decided on a display that would be more conducive to horizontal movement.

Here's what I came up with...

 First, I bought some of these for 97 cents at WalMart.  They aren't the highest quality item I've ever played with, but they'll do for 97 cents!

Next, I bought some of this in bright green from Dollar Tree.

For around $3 and ZERO hot glue burns (I always burn myself with that darn stuff), I made this display on a few cupboards.

All that's left to do is to name the lily pads.  I just ran out of time!.  Before the first day of school (gulp, next week), mine will be labeled "Letter Sounds and Short Vowels", "Blends and Digraphs", and "Long Vowels".  The students' frogs will hop along this year as they move through the spelling continuum.  Thanks to the large Diet Coke I splurged on before I got to school that day, I came up with a last minute idea that I'm super excited about.  Do you remember my color-coded Word Work area mentioned in this post?  I decided to put a flower on each lily pad that matches the corresponding Word Work activity basket.   For example, the blue baskets contain long vowel activities, and the lily pad with the blue flower represents the "Long Vowels" stage... blue basket+blue flower=kids who know how to pick a smart Word Work choice

Winning!

There's a little bit more to this, but it will be easier when I have actual kids in class!  More to come...

“Never confuse movement with action.” 

― Ernest Hemingway

The Daily Five- The [Right] Choice

I have been using the Daily Five in my room for quite a few years now, and  I still love it.  I love the sense of ownership it fosters for the students.  It's a great day when you see a 6 year old take charge of his own learning by making choices during Daily Five that will help him work on specific literacy goals (many of which he set for himself- yay).  Over the years I have found that my classes seem to be made up like this:
80%: I got this, Mrs. Mahar!  I'll make smart Daily Five choices for life!
10%: Help me a little bit, Mrs. Mahar and I'll learn to make smart Daily Five choices for life!
10%: Daily what now?   Never mind, I'm just going to go draw puppies in my notebook!

It's that last 10% that has haunted me year after year, and that's why I came up with these guys...

I plan on hanging these near my Work on Writing and Word Work stations as a way of guaranteeing that all kids will at least do something academic during these two Daily Five choices.  I'm thinking something quick and dirty here; something that they can complete in 2 or 3 minutes and then move on to the activity of their choosing.  I've got a few ideas, but this is where you come in...

What would you write on these lines?  Give me some ideas for "need to" activities, and I'll give you a set of these posters.  While you're at it, tell me what your favorite thing about the Daily Five is!  How have you made it work in your room?

Have a great day!

“It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” 
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Fact Fanatic- How Do YOU Get One?

I have spent the last few years working on a multi-county team of Kindergarten through 12th grade teachers working on the Common Core math standards.  We have spent countless hours digging in to the standards to get the best possible picture of what each and every one expects the students to know and be able to do.  What an eye-opening experience!  When you really start looking, you start to notice all of the Common Core's different verbs:  demonstrate, distinguish, identify, compose, describe, and the list goes on and on. Knowing what student work needs to look like by demonstrating vs. distinguishing, for example, really gives you a clearer picture of how you should be teaching the standard.

 After immersing ourselves in the standards, we began to develop clarifying document sheets for each of them.  Each sheet lists the standard, highlights the vocabulary, lists the "I can" statements involved, and details the Mathematical Practices, the Depth of Knowledge (DOK) level, and examples of what the standard looks like.  You can actually see those documents here.  I have spent so many hours with my first grade group, and we have had so many great discussions.  Perhaps the most lengthy and [maybe] heated discussions revolved around the word "fluency".  What pops into your head when you hear this word in terms of mathematics?  For some of us it involved a time frame.  Kids should know how to solve _____ problems in _____ minutes. For others it meant solving the problem with ease. I don't care how long it takes them, I just want to see some type of strategy.   I am so curious to hear about your thoughts!

Regardless of which "fluency team" you're on, chances are you would really like it if your students practiced math facts more frequently.  I took a quick peek at the standards, and realized that Kindergarten through third grade all have specific fluency standards (This really was a quick peek; there are probably more grade levels with specific fluency standards):

Kindergarten: http://www.corestandards.org/Math/Content/K/OA/A/5/

First Grade:    http://www.corestandards.org/Math/Content/1/OA/C/6/

Second Grade: http://www.corestandards.org/Math/Content/2/OA/B/2/

Third Grade: http://www.corestandards.org/Math/Content/3/NBT/A/2/

I created this sheet to send home with my first graders.  You can get it for FREE today at my TpT Store if you like it.  

I just started this last year, and it really seemed to help.  I know that some parents are extremely uncomfortable and/or intimidated by some of the things we ask them to do at home, but I have found that math fact practice is something that most parents feel comfortable with.  This year I want to make it even better, and I'm looking for your help.  If you or your school uses some type of incentive slip for math fact practice, do you have any advice?  How do you make it powerful?

Enjoy your day!  My first official day of school is on Monday, so I'm trying to enjoy every last minute of sitting in my jammies and drinking coffee until way too late in the morning...or afternoon (only sometimes- don't judge me).

By the way, our Common Core team was named "Hair on Fire" from the very beginning.  The core developers of the team brought up the book, Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire:  The Methods and Madness Inside Room 56 by Rafe Esquith, and the name of our team was born.  This quote is perfect...

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.

William Butler Yeats

Stick to the Program

Ok, so my SPELLING SUPER PACK is finally done and available at my TpT Store.  Phew!  That baby took me a while to finish because...er...um...ok, fine- I'm a teeny tiny bit of a perfectionist.  

Enough about that, however.  The real purpose of this post is to fill you in on how this lil program changed spelling instruction in my room.  The history- I struggled with spelling instruction for many reasons.  I feel that spelling instruction should be authentic (as in right in the moment of writing) and individualized (because I always have SO many different achievement levels in my room).  On the other hand, trying to make everything authentic and individualized for each student would be impossible.  Seriously, I actually tried it one year and it did not take long for kids to start falling through the cracks.  My solution....develop a spelling program that has predictable weekly lists, BUT also provides the opportunity for differentiation AND (while I'm at it) throw in some opportunities for family involvement and student goal setting.  

Here's what I did.  I took the first 125 words on the Dolch Sight Words List and divided it by five (you can find a great resource here).  I gave each list a color name.  No real thought went into the color names, by the way.  I just happened to see a pack of stickers in the checkout lane at the grocery story and they had pink, blue, orange, purple, and green star stickers.  Next, I made a star like this for every student...

Five points, five lists- a match made in heaven.

The next thing I did was create a bulletin board like this...

Cute, huh?  I will explain the streamers later!

Now the hard part...getting the students to believe in spelling development.  Luckily, first graders are naturally curious, so on the first day of school it takes about 4.2 seconds for the first little cutie to ask, "Teacher, what's that for?"  Ha!  Hooked!  They're mine!  I use the next few minutes to explain the program using as many life-changing nouns and verbs as possible, all the while making spelling this magical and mystical being until they are literally begging me to do something...anything...that has to do with spelling.  Ok, really they just get a little excited and then ask when lunch is, but it's a start.

 Here's the gist of what I tell them:

• We have five lists of 25 words to cover this year.  At the end of the year you will be able to say, "I can read and spell 125 words!"
• I will send the whole list home at the beginning of each unit.  You can tell me when you are ready to be tested, or you can just go week by week with the rest of the class (differentiation) and I'll test you at the end of the unit.
• To help you practice our 5 weekly words, I will send home a "Fridge Facts" sheet for you to hang on your refrigerator.  
• When you master an entire list (via a spelling test AND evidence by me that you're actually using the words correctly in your daily writing) you get to add a sticker to your "Spelling Star" that coordinates with the list you mastered, and we will also celebrate your hard work by cheering and clapping because spelling is SUCH a big deal!
• I will also give you an award certificate to take home and show your parents, AND you will get to stand on your chair to announce that you've met your goal. (I so wish I had a picture of this because it is "goosebumps awesome".)  Many read the goal right off their award certificate.

 See?  It's right there on the certificate!

Pretty soon the stars start to look like this...Man, they'll work hard for those little stickers!

Here are a few other things you should know:

Differentiation for Advanced Students:

As I mentioned previously, I tell the kids that they can tell me they're ready to be tested at any time  (Check out the "I'm Ready to Be Tested" section in this post).  Most kids just go with the flow of the class and learn the words five at a time each week.  Some, however, get the entire unit list on a Friday and then ask to be tested the following Monday.  I'm pretty sure these kids don't leave their bedrooms and/or drive their parents absolutely crazy over the weekend, but who cares!  That's awesome!  If they do happen to master the list, then they get all the kudos and hurrahs mentioned above.  For the rest of that unit, I engage these kids in something more appropriate for their achievement level (more on that, as well as what to do to help kids practice those words they just can't seem to master in future posts) during our regular spelling time.  

Differentiation for Struggling Students:

In some of my previous posts, I've mentioned that I teach in a full-inclusion/co-taught classroom.  My students range from cognitively impaired or learning disabled aaaaaaall the way up to advanced...as in Oh, Geez!  What am I going to do with YOU? advanced.  In my mind there would be nothing worse than seeing your classmates' stars fill up with stickers only to have yours sit empty because you you just can't master that many words at a time no matter how hard you try.  Here's what I came up with to handle this dilemma:

• I took the first 25 words on the Pre-Primer list only and divided those words by five. 
• I gave each of those lists a color name (just like the original lists).
• I created modified versions of all the take-home and practice materials.
• Each week these students still sit for the mini-lesson on the 5 words from the original word list, but when they go off to do individual seat work I provide them with materials that go along with their modified list.

When these kids get their sticker, absolutely no one in class even knows there was a modification.

Incentives:

Aside from the reward certificates and getting to stand on their chairs, we throw a "color party" when every student masters an entire list.  When the students all master the Pink List, for example, I purchase a few different pink snacks.  A little hot pink punch, pink glazed animal crackers, and pink gumballs go a loooooong way.  We spend a few extra minutes at our normal snack time toasting, cheering, and congratulating each other.

Then, we do one more thing...
Remember those streamers on the Spelling Stars bulletin board?

My teaching partner Angie came up with this clever idea...we tear off the color of the list they all mastered and hang it in our doorway under a sign that says, "Ask us about learning to spell 25 new words!"  Every guest that walks into our room is brushed by our streamer, which always prompts that person to ask all about it.  I get to stand back and gush (and sometimes tear up) as one student fills the guest in on the class' awesomeness.

I hope this is useful to you.  I just love how it all works now.  I can't wait to do it again this year, especially with my new and improved materials! It's sorta hard to explain all the nitty gritty details, so leave a comment if you have questions.

“Yours is the light by which my spirit's born: - you are my sun, my moon, and all my stars.” 
― E.E. Cummings 

A Spelling Star

One of the other posts I'm working on is ALL about how my grade level team and I introduce and practice sight words. Together we created, tweaked, field tested, cut and pasted, edited and rearranged, and eventually fell in love with our own system which we named "Spelling Stars".  In a nutshell, we took the first 125 words from the Dolch Sight Word List and gave sets of 25 words color names (pink, blue, orange, purple, and green).  I promise I will tell you later all about how this has helped changed sight word instruction in the BEST-EST way, but for now here's a sneak peak of what I'm working on for this year.  

Once a student masters a particular list (via an end of unit spelling test AND me noticing evidence of correct use in daily writing) we make a SUPER BIG DEAL about it in class.  One of the many things we do to recognize the student's hard work is stand up and cheer as that particular friend comes up to accept an award like this...

This particular award is for the Pink List.
There are 4 more lists to master:  blue, orange, purple, and green

Toward the end of the year many students master all FIVE lists.  We make an even BIGGER deal about this in class.  The rest of the kids all stand and cheer as the student comes up to receive one of these babies!  

It is truly amazing how hard kids will work for one of these!  I bring in the "big dog" (a.k.a our sweet lil principal) to sign this one.  

Oh, guys... I seriously feel like I'm teasing you with this!  Spelling Stars has soooooo much more to it.  You will love it...PROMISE!!  More to come very soon.

Ok, so normally I end my posts with a quote, but this was just too perfect not to sign off with!
Courtest of:  this place right here

Like the graphics and fonts I used?  Check these guys out!

her, or her, or her!

A Few New Things

Ok, so now on to the new stuff I am trying this year!  Reinventing and tweaking seem to be never ending for me.  How about you?  It is really important to me that "systems" in my room are quick and easy, and also meaningful.  I pay attention to student behaviors during independent seat work, group and partner work, transitions, and our whole group time at the carpet area.  I tune in to their voice level, how easy it is for them to gather and return classroom materials, their attentiveness, and the overall "flow" of the room.  Many times I like what I see (and hear), but sometimes I don't.  I spend some time over the next few days trying to target what it is that's "broken".  I've learned over the years to not rush in and "throw the baby out with the bathwater".  Sometimes students are just going to have off days due to exciting upcoming events like assemblies and field trips, holidays, and I SWEAR this is true...phases of the moon.  Have you noticed the "full moon" phenomenon?  If you have, PLEASE leave a comment.  The point is, I give myself to study them and pinpoint exactly what's wrong.  That's where some creative thinking, along with a little help from my blogging and Pinterest friends come in.

Problem:  Daily Five "Word Work" materials area is messy, bogged down, and unorganized.

Solution:  Create a color-coordinated basket system so students not only know which materials are most appropriate for their current goal, but also how to keep the area organized.

I absolutely love The Daily Five.  One of my kiddos' favorite choices is "Word Work".  As mentioned in one of my previous posts, "A Few of My Favorites", my students learn very quickly how to set goals for themselves in all academic areas, including phonics (and sometimes phonemic awareness) goals. 

My goals for Word Work:

1.  Students enjoy playing with fun and meaningful games and activities.

2.  Students choose games and activities that are appropriate for their own personal goals (not too easy/too hard...think Goldilocks here).

3.  Students know what to do when they are missing parts or pieces.

4.  Students can clean up quickly and quietly, and they know exactly how to put their materials away.

5.  Teacher gets 15-20 minutes of blissful, completely uninterrupted time to work with small groups because her students are so darn efficient and independent!

Here's what I came up with...

My word work area is now color coordinated.  The red baskets contain materials ranging from beginning and ending sounds to short vowels.  The blue baskets house blends and digraphs materials. The blue baskets are for long vowel activities.  The type of basket is a big deal in this system, too.  The baskets on the far left (with handles) house multiple materials.  The handle baskets are meant to be pulled out so the students can choose one or two baggies.  All of the other baskets are meant to be grabbed from the shelf, as they contain just one game or activity.  No more stuffing baggies where ever they might fit.  No more putting materials in the wrong spot!

*Tip:  Have a designated "Missing Pieces" spot in your room.  When kids find parts or pieces on the floor throughout the day, they simply put them in the Missing Pieces spot (and not in a random bag or basket that you won't find until they graduate).  This tip is a life saver!  You know what it's like when you've just settled in to start your small group during The Daily Five and some little...sweetie...comes up to you and whines, "Mrs. Mahaaaaaaaar, I can't find the diiiiiiiiice to this game."  Ugh!  With a Missing Pieces spot, the students know to just check there and move on.  If the piece is there...great! If it's not...well, I haven't seen it either, so either pick a new choice or decide if you can still do the activity without it!

Problem: Not enough bulletin board space for all my cool stuff!

Solution:  Make my own for less than $10!

My new classroom is UH-MAY-ZING (word misspelled for dramatic effect), but it is really short on bulletin boards.  I need one for math, spelling, our Cafe Menu, birthdays, and our weekly focus goals.  My new room only had 3 bulletin boards, so I had to be creative!

I moved my Cafe Menu to the cupboards.  I think I'm gonna like it!  I found cute Daily Five and Cafe signs here.

 With a home for all of the others, that left me with birthdays.  I decided to make my own using this cool stuff...

I bought mine at Walmart, but I think you can find it pretty much anywhere.

First, my little assistant helped me put a dab of hot glue in each corner.  The cork came with adhesive tabs, but they looked like the "These won't come off until you're collecting social security-Maintenance is going to black list you forever" kind of tabs, so I just stuck with hot glue.  If this board ever needs to come down it will only require a little bit of elbow grease.

Next, I just stuck them up on the wall!  Originally, I was going to make it bigger, but then I kind of liked its quaint lil presence.  

I covered it with a black vinyl tablecloth (Thanks, Dollar Tree for all of your lovely tablecloth colors). Do you do this?  I LOVE IT!  No more fading.

Last, a cute border.  It's as good as I can get it right now because I have to wait until the first day of school to take their cute little pictures.  I'll post all that cuteness later!

"Being organized isn't about getting rid of everything you own or trying to become a different person; it's about living the way you want to live, but better."

Andrew Mellen

A Few of My Favorite Things

I got a few more things done in my classroom today.  Do any of you feel like there's always just ONE MORE THING you can do to get your classroom ready for a new group of kiddos?  I thought I'd use this post to share a few of my favorite tried and true tips, tricks, displays, and procedures with you.

First, this magnetic 100 Chart.  I've had this baby since my first year of teaching in 2000, and boy has it ever proven to be a loyal friend.  Seriously, if you can possibly find or create one of these, it is so worth it!  Each card has a little magnet on the back (it didn't take that long) so I can take groups of numbers off the chart and stick 'em right on the whiteboard.  It makes number patterns, ordering numbers, and ALL counting standards so much easier to teach. Also,  I rearranged my chart last year so it started with zero.  It's so much easier for the kids to understand patterns this way.

Do you see that little sign in the window?  It says "I am ready to be tested!".  My kids use it to tell me they are ready to be retested on any goal they didn't quite master the first time around.  I'm a huge fan of feedback after any type of formative or summative assessment.  It takes a couple weeks of coaching, but it isn't long before I start hearing, "Yes!  I only got four wrong!"  Next thing I know, they run off and make a plan (most of the time with each other) to practice the skills we discussed during our conference.  When they're ready, they put their name on a sticky note and put it on the window.  And let me tell ya, they're pretty persistent about scheduling a time to meet with me!  Kids taking charge of their own learning.  Winning!

So this picture is really about the "I am ready to be tested" poster, but check out those curtains!  Aren't they cute?

Before I can expect my kiddos to turn into little goal setting (and reaching) superstars, I have to incorporate the expectations of the standards in a kid-friendly, manageable, BIG FAT DEAL sort of way.  This board is perfect for displaying classroom goals.  Each week I display our five sight words, the newest reading strategy, a writing goal, a math goal, a science or social studies goal, and one mathematical practice from the Common Core (check out this link to see the super-cute mathematical practices posters I use, and check out my TpT Store for the "I can" cards I use for writing).  Some of these cards stay up for longer than a week, while others get swapped out at the end of the week for new ones.  "Old" math, mathematical practice (I call them "Math Behaviors" with the kids), and writing cards get moved to their permanent home on the Math and Writing bulletin boards.  The spelling words get added to our Word Wall. The reading strategy gets added to our Cafe Menu.  This board is displayed right at our carpet area, so it is highly visible.  The goal is to get students (even our youngest) to talk about, work with, and deeply understand the standards.  Trust me...it really works.

P.S.  My posts always end with a quote...check out what good ol' Einstein said about deep understanding!

This board keeps students focused on the week's goals!

I head back to school next week.  I can hardly believe it!  I am trying a few new things this year and I can't wait to get started.

If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.

Albert Einstein

On the Road Again

I teach in a PreK-2nd grade building that uses a co-teaching model to offer full inclusion of all of our students with IEPs.  That is, we have no self-contained special education classrooms in our building.  All of our kiddos are together in regular education classrooms all day-every day, and the special education teacher pushes in to co-teach with my teaching partner and I (and ALL the other inclusion teachers in my school).  There are A LOT of benefits to this (I'm sure you'll hear me talk about it a lot this school year), but this post is really about why (and how) I moved my classroom.

In an effort to make life easier for our poor, harried special education teacher, and to deliver the best, most targeted instruction we could, my teaching partner and I decided to go "all in" and embrace a true co-teaching model.  In other words...Your kids are my kids, and my kids are your kids!  In order to do this, however, we needed to be "geographically" closer to each other in the building so we could experiment with grouping kids strategically for Daily Five and Math. When the classroom next to my teaching partner became available, I asked to move. I was SO excited...until I realized just how much work was ahead of me.

Do you want to know something about 99.9% of teachers?  WE ARE PACK RATS! All of us!  Don't even try to deny it.  Sure, you might not be one of those "I have a collection of 300 toilet paper tubes-I just rented my third storage unit-I buy 25 of everything because you just never know" kind of pack rats, but chances are you're at the very least a stuffer- an "I'll keep that just in case" kind of pack rat.  I prefer to call myself an "Organized and Purposeful Pack Rat", but I digress.  I moved into a classroom formerly inhabited by a teacher who got hired a week (seriously, a WEEK) before school started a few years ago.  Do you want to know what happens when a brand new teacher (as in FRESH out of college) has to get an entire classroom ready the week before school starts?  You guessed it...Every teacher in the building gives this poor soul a little of this and a little of that, and you end up having junk, I mean treasured hand-me-downs from 15 different [well-intentioned] teachers.  

The joy I had upon entering the room for the first time was quickly replaced by terror as I slowly started opening cupboard upon cupboard of [insert your preferred word for clutter here]!  To quote my favorite lil animated fish from "Finding Nemo", "Good feelings gone!"  Don't get me wrong, there was a lot of great stuff as well; it was just overshadowed by copious amounts of...well, you know.  Long story short, I pulled up my sleeves, came up with an action plan, and went on a hunt for the nearest flatbed or cart. Well, as many of you know, a school in midsummer closely resembles a ghost town.  And while I didn't actually see any tumbleweeds, I couldn't find a flatbed or cart either.  Those that know me understand that once I make up my mind to do something, I'll get it done somehow.  I once made a late night decision to move our treadmill from the basement to our bedroom.  You know, so I would use it more often.  Sigh...  I wasn't going to let the fact that I was home alone stop me, so I dragged that sucker up the basement stairs, through my kitchen, and into my bedroom ALL BY MYSELF!  Needless to say, I did NOT work out that night.  When my husband came home he said I was nuts.  He says I'm stubborn- I say I'm determined! The point is, I don't let obstacles get in my way...unless I'm out of coffee creamer, and then I cry like a baby.

Think, Jen, think!  I quickly came up with an idea...THE LOST AND FOUND CART! This all-purpose, I'll do whatever you need me to do, friend on wheels quickly became my lifeline over the next several days.  I moved my entire room by myself with my new BFF...this guy right here...

"Though she be but little, she is fierce."  -William Shakespeare

After a few days of hard word, a little bit of cursing under my breath, and one [still] bruised knee, I moved into my new home.  I'm ready to rock.  My teaching partner and and I, along with our co-teacher are going to have one amazing year. I can't wait to tell you all about it.

A panoramic view of my new room.  It's not really this big, but panorama is the only way I could fit it all in!  I love how everything has come together so far.  Close-ups coming soon!

One more thing, I couldn't have done it without this little cutie.  This is our youngest son, who we've affectionately dubbed Dizzy.  This guy helped me so much!

“There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me.” 
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

My Favorite Time of Year

I feel like I can make the best out of every season, but man, oh man do I LOVE fall.  Winter is beautiful (Don't ask what Michigan was like last winter, however), spring is filled with hope and sunshine and new life, and summer is...well, summer just plain rocks when you're a teacher- no explanation needed, right?  But fall brings football, crock pots, my AMAZING tall black boots, and BACK TO SCHOOL!  I have always loved this time of year.  Ask my mom!  She'll tell you I've always been excited to go back to school. Seriously, is there anything better than the smell of a new box of crayons?  Well, maybe coffee, but new crayons are a very close second.  Love it!  Being a teacher for fifteen years hasn't changed that feeling at all.  I love getting my classroom ready.  I stalk dollar stores, Walmart, and Pinterest religously.  Ridiculously maybe?  I so enjoy buying things and creating ways to use them that absolutely NO ONE but a teacher would possibly think of.  But most of all, I start thinking about my new group of firsties.  Although I know a few of them from passing in the halls last year, most of them are complete strangers to me.  I find myself praying for them, praying for our year together, and getting really exctied about being the teacher they need and deserve.  Aside from all of that, this is what I've been up to the last few days as the last couple weeks of my summer break dwindle down.

I worked on this parent handbook from Somer Bizzle that requires no gluing or cutting!  I think my parents will love this!  I'm going to glue a magnet on the back so they can hang it right on the refrigerator!







I also whipped up a few goodies for some of our first grade writing standards.  
I made this Five Star Sentence anchor chart with coordinating "I can" cards. We use "I can" statements A LOT in my room.  They are perfect for goal setting.  More to come on that later.  The Five Star Sentence is a great way to review some of the basic concepts of sentence writing.  

I also made anchor charts, "I can" cards, and vocabulary cards for the three types of first grade Common Core writing (narrative, informational, and opinion).  Check them out at my TpT Store!

Here's a preview...

I'll post pictures soon of how things turned out after my big move to my new classroom.  It's a funny story actually.  It involves me, our good ol' Lost and Found cart, and lots of stubborness...I mean determination.

"Teaching is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire."  William Butler Yeats