Almost Spring Break!

Yay! This title makes me happy. :) Mainly because I am going HOME! Which I thought I would share with all of you. I finally am ready to move back home to good old Dallas, Texas. I moved for college 8 years ago, and y'all I am ready to be Texan again. I miss being close to my parents, and my family. So, I have been on the job hunt in the Dallas area. It has been slow coming because teacher jobs are hard to come by right now. :( I am still trying to stay strong, and know that whatever happens is part of the plan! If you have any advice let me know bloggy friends!

Anyway, a little update of some classroom happenings....

We did once upon a rainy day writing. These turned out really cute. {When ever I actually have time I will be making this into a writing mini-unit. I promise!}

Love that he said mario kart!

AND!!! We got us some butterflies!!! Funny story, I was keeping the habitat behind my desk while they were still caterpillars and I was fussing at some for being back there. HA. Then, I realized it was because a butterfly was emerging! I apologized, no worries. Then, we got to watch!

They thought it was the coolest thing. I did forget however they release that meconium stuff, which in butterflies is red and I had a few crying thinking it was bleeding. Welcome to first grade. :)

Last but not least we went on a field trip to see the Lorax today! It was so much fun! I highly suggest doing this if your local theater takes field trips!

I will admit, I wanted to sneak into the Hunger Games to see it for the THIRD time. Speaking of which I am deep into Catching Fire, so I am going to go have fun with the kindle!

blog love :)

It's my party, and I'll have a sale if I want to!

It is my 26th year on this planet! To celebrate I am having a 20% off sale on everything in my TPT store! Woohoo!!

Click on the {hopefully} gluten free cake to go to my store!

anchor charts, bugs, and the Lorax

BUGS! Everywhere in the classroom right now are bugs! We are studying them in science, and my littles love it and I am grossed out. We have been using Deanna Jump's amazing insect unit. Here are our dragonflies we made.

We also have visitors in our classroom...

Yep, I bought us some caterpillars. I have to admit I am pretty excited to watch these little guys become butterflies. Along with our little guys we read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" this week and used it with our reading skill. It was plot. 

I drew it myself! HA

In other news I finally finished my Lorax door! Thanks CVS for taking six years to develop my pictures...grrrrr.

And here are some anchor charts from the week!

words that end in -y but sound like e

telling time

Along with the -y ending words we made some jelly jars with those words to reinforce our thinking!

Makes me want a sandwich....

Guest blogging!

I am over at Teaching in High Heels today! The lovely Gladys is having a bunch of teachers come and blog with her! Go check it out! I wrote about my math tub time!

Crazy weather craftivity and venn diagram!

Here is the activity we did today with our venn diagram. We compared and contrasted the books "The Day it Rained Hearts" and "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs". We read both of the book then filled out this:

Weather Stories Venn Diagram

Just for you! Then we did this craftivity I came up with five minutes before! :) (How often does this happen to you?!)

Also, have y'all heard of Marley Lilly?! If you love you some monograms go and check out their site! I got a fleece vest from them with my initials and it has been a staple in my winter wardrobe. 

I want this little number for this summer!

Also, they have the CUTEST iPhone covers! It even has a little pocket in the back for your cards! So smart!

Click below to go and check them out!

Celeb sighting and anchor charts...and a freebie!

I am watching Real Housewives of OC right now, these woman be crazy. But, I love trash television so I am eating it up. :)

Sorry I have been gone, I have been trying to keep on schedule with my compositions so I can actually graduate in May? 

So STORY! Prepare yourself! I went to work at a coffee shop on Saturday, and then had an appointment for my hair. Well, I needed to pick up some book at Barnes and Noble that I reserved and went in to La Madeline to pick up some food to go. They are next door to each other so it was bueno. Well, I walk into La Madeline to make my order, and there is a precious little girl sitting in front of the bakery with her Dad in front of her. I say out loud (as I do a lot) "She is so pretty!" Dad turns around and it is......

TOM FREAKING CRUISE! I flipping lost my breath. He smiled at me and then went back to, yes SURI. No wonder I thought she was beautiful. So, I am beside myself deciding not to bother them and order my food after the lady in front of me finished and who is that you ask?

YEP KATIE HOLMES. Y'all I saw the whole dang family. I just stood there in shock. They got their stuff and left shortly after, since people were starting to be obnoxious. CRAZY! I found out he is filming a movie in Baton Rouge right now. We seem to be the city for movies right now. I am okay with this!

In teacher news! Here are a few anchor charts I made recently:

ay and ai sort and compare & contrast

The Cat in the Hat and drawing conclusions

Thanks Abby! Loved this activity!

An oldie but a goodie!

We are reading these two books, and comparing and contrasting them.

I also made these little hands recently to help my kiddos out with counting by 5's. Mainly for counting money. These made it easier. I did an activity like this at the beginning of the year where they cut out their own hands, and those went home. So these are up on my board now!

And for you!

Counting Hands

Thanks for sticking with me to the end! Also, noticed I am almost at 400 followers (what?!) Y'all like reading my nonsense? Well, I would LOVE to do a giveaway for it...I am thinking giftcard?

Happy Tuesday!

I hate scissors, and scissors hate me.

Raise your hand if you kinda don't like cutting out all that laminate?? ME ME RIGHT HERE!!

I am so over it, and I know I am not alone out there. I love buying all new units and having new activities but sometimes the thought of laminating (not so bad) and then cutting it all out (ughhhhh) makes me discouraged. I am not kidding, last time I did this all by myself, my cutting hand went NUMB. Yes, I was thinking I pinched a nerve in my stupid hand. All due to cutting out laminate. 

Boo. hiss. 

So, I had dinner with my teacher mentor a couple of weeks ago (love) and she mentioned that when she taught at another school she would put things she needed to have cut out in a brown envelope with scissors and send it home with a child.....SO PARENTS COULD CUT IT OUT. G to the enius. 

I feel dumb for not thinking of this before, but I have some SUPER awesome parents that always ask how to help out and I never know what to say!? (Kelly Clarkson's Miss Independent just ran through my head, yes I have a control issue sometimes) So, this was perfect. 

I first sent home a note explaining and asking if it was okay. All of them said YES! Yesterday I prepared the packets with a giant new pocket chart activity I needed cut out (Ms. Simoneaux's Silly Sentences!) and sent it on it's merry way home with five of my kiddos. 

Here is what it looks like:

 

What I put inside!

I got all of them back today (yes, all the next day) completely cut out. :) If I could make a million smiley faces I would. Smileys would win! Now, I can focus on showing them the activity instead of being a scissor maniac, while trying to do attendance and run a small group. 

If you are looking for some help in this department I highly recommend this, or if you just want some parental involvement ideas!

I am currently in NOLA (again) to take my last certification test. Hopefully, I will be certified in another state soon....:) Wish me luck!