High-Five For Friday!

By the time this posts airs I will most certainly be on summer vacation!

For those of you who aren't getting out for awhile, I promise, we are envious of your after-labor-day start schedules! It feels so weird to head back in August when it feels like there's still SO much summer left to enjoy!

But for those of you who have just begun your summer vacation, I send you virtual high-fives! 

Strike that, I'm sending EVERYONE high-fives! It's Friday! 

rsvlts.com

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs for the Five for Friday link up. I love going through my photos & recapping my never-boring weeks. I can't wait to see what adventures lie ahead for me this summer :) I foresee lots of pool time, getting on a fitness schedule, and READING FOR FUN! That last one is something I never seemed to find time to do while I was working on my masters. I have a few books on my Kindle I can't wait to read. Does anyone have any recommendations for great books?

Anyhoo...here's my Five for Friday!

Packing, schmacking.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad FOR the process, just CRABBY about actually having to do it. 

HOPING I'll remember where I put everything. 

VOWING that I'll be more organized next year.

GETTING TOO MUCH SATISFACTION from shredding.

Tell me I'm not alone here! 

While we were packing I tried my hardest to let the kids help. They were so eager & oddly (not so oddly), they had the energy of little Oompa-Loompas. As a few kids helped me clear a bookshelf a boy turned a book over, showed me this photo, and asked: "Is this Jesus?"

Don't laugh, Alisha (I told myself).

"No honey, it's Shel Silverstein"

Hehehe

We had field day this week, too! We all loaded up the buses and headed to the city park. 

We rotated through stations like kickball, obstacle course, bubbles & water games, and we even had a picnic in the pavilion with hot dogs on the grill! So much fun!

These kiddos had found an earthworm. After yelling at everyone in a 5 foot radius to stay away from it (haha) they yanked out a bunch of grass and made it a "home". 

I'm going to miss those little animal-lovers!

I also hosted my first linky! I'm hoping that it will be a fun mid-week celebration of the wild, wacky, and wonderful-ness that is US!

Finally, our school hosted it's annual OSCAR awards ceremony. It was fantastic! We began the tradition after our school reached a milestone "rating" from the state. We want to stress to our students that "Our School Cares About Results". Each time we host it gets better and better. We had special reason to celebrate this year because we were 1 of about 90 schools in our state designated as an "High Progress School of Honor" for our continuous improvement. 

We try to go all-out in our formal wear (you know, gowns, tuxedo t-shirts), we have a spotlight, oscar-y music..the whole 9 yards! The kids even get golden statue awards. This ceremony was especially cool because we honored all of the community members who do so much for our school. Various churches & organizations put lots of time into our school to help our students and staff. It's really wonderful! 

This was the kind of week that was CRAZY-busy, but worth all the mayhem.

I'll be glad to kick back & relax this weekend!

Cue DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince :)

What NOT to do in first grade!

Can I just say HOORAY!

The kids are OUT for the year and after 2:15 tomorrow, I'm out, too!

Holla!

Yesterday on Instagram I posted a picture of a class book that we made this week. 

It was called "What NOT to do in first grade". I told the kiddos it would be a gift to next-year's students to help them make their way through the first grade. At first, they couldn't think of ideas but once I gave a few suggestions they had a BLAST! 

I had them act out their ideas and I took their photos with my phone. I uploaded them to my computer, added text and some backgrounds and we had ourselves a slideshow! They loved it! I'm going to print out the pages & laminate them for the book.

If you're looking for a fun end-of-the-year activity, this worked well for me!

Here are some of the pages:

It's the VERY FIRST Wild, Wacky, Wonderful, Wednesday Link-up!

I'm hosting my FIRST linky party today & I'm pretty excited

It's Wild, Wacky, Wonderful, Wednesday! It's BOTH here on my blog, AND on INSTAGRAM (#wwww)

It's a linky party in which you can share the wild, wacky, and/or wonderful happenings in your classroom and in your life. A mid-week reason to celebrate our every-day-is-different lives!

I'd love for you to link up, too!

Grab the image below, add it to your post, and then link up below!
OR take a photo with Instagram and hashtag it with #wwww

Here's what's been wild, wacky, and wonderful in my room this week:

Wild: Our butterflies finally hatched! We successfully nurtured 6 painted lady caterpillars into 6 beautiful butterflies! Here's a view of our butterfly box. What a great hands-on way to teach about life cycles. My first year, immediately upon releasing the first butterfly, a bird SWOOPED down and ate it!

In front of everyone.

Talk about a teachable moment.

That year, we also learned about the food chain. Hehehe.

Wacky: 

My kids LOVE 3-D anything! The little boy on the left didn't have 3-D glasses so he went to my transparent shapes box, got out red & blue rectangles and made his own! Smart! 

Wonderful:

As I mentioned, our field day was yesterday and it was fantastic! We went to stations where we played on the big playground, played kickball, played corn-hole & frisbee golf- we even had an AWESOME obstacle course! Our field-day committee worked really hard to provide our kids with a fun day and they delivered! After we returned to school we had ice cream sandwiches and watched a movie in the cool air conditioning. It was heavenly to walk into the quiet school after riding on the steamy buses, too! 

Those are just some of the wild, wacky, and wonderful happenings going on in my world.

How about yours?

'

Budding Blog Link-Up

My little ol' blog has less than 200 followers and it's considered a 'budding blog'. Love that title. So cute!

Today I'm linking up with I (heart) Recess for the Budding Blog Linky. 

The questions are....

1. Why did you start blogging?

I started blogging after taking a summer course at a local college in 2011. During the course we had time to explore teaching blogs and I fell in love with all the collaboration! I was so impressed that people were just SHARING their stuff. Then I thought to myself- THAT'S HOW IT SHOULD BE! 

I was inspired! I signed up for a blog during that course but didn't really maintain it. Last year I got a new blog design, started my TPT store, and began sharing what I was doing. 

The results have been wonderful! Love to meet new people & gather so much inspiration from fellow teachers!

2. What is your favorite subject to teach and why?

I love to teach reading. I am such a book-lover! Especially children's books. I'd like to think that comes through as I am teaching. I have a massive classroom library and love sharing new & favorite books with my students.

3. Describe your teaching style.

I am pretty laid-back. I try to incorporate humor into practically everything I do. I like to lead the students to the answer or concept, rather than giving it to them. I make them work for their knowledge. I also consider myself very hands-on, which was my favorite kind of teacher when I was young.

4. Give three interesting facts about you.

1. I twitch my toe when I watch t.v. or when I'm nervous. Most of the time I don't even know that I'm doing it. Sometimes when a show is particularly intense my toes will wiggle like crazy! 

2. I could eat Mexican food any time- even for breakfast! 

3. When I was 21 I went to Cairo, Egypt and opened a Big Boy Restaurant. 

It was an amazing experience and I'm so glad that I had the chance to do it!

5. Do you have a TpT store? If yes, post the link :)

I do have a TPT store! One of my goals this summer is to build it up! 

You can find it HERE

What a fun linky! Can't wait to check out some more "budding blogs"!

Also: Don't forget about my first LINKY PARTY that starts on Wednesday! I can't wait to see what everyone will be sharing! Remember, anything wild, wacky, or wonderful!

Inspiration Nation :)

It's my last school-Sunday-night!

This time next week I'll be staying up late (well, maybe) and NOT worrying about lesson plans, alphabet countdown, or assessments. Bring THAT on!

Tonight I'm linking up with LaToya at Flying Into First Grade for her weekly Let's Get Acquainted Linky

This week's topic is about our blogging buddies. I get so much inspiration from fellow bloggers. I owe so many of my projects, materials, and ideas to fellow teacher-bloggers. Teachers are a special breed.
We can collaborate like NO OTHER! 

Here are two of my favorite teacher bloggers:

1. Sarah from Primarily Au-Some

Sarah and I went to the same college for our undergraduate degrees and through the course of our studies we became friends. We shared frustrations about student teaching & projects as well as celebrating successes in our classrooms. I was excited to learn that Sarah had recently started a blog & TPT store.
She just started a network of Teacher Made Freebies that is fantastic! Check it out!

2. Kimberley at First In Maine



While I don't know Kimberley personally, I like to follow her blog. The first thing that caught my eye was that she was from Maine. I grew up in Maine and the state & it's people hold a very special place in my heart.
I admire Kimberley's eagerness to learn & her love of reading.
Check out her blog. It's adorable!

Tonight I'm also linking up with Fifth in the Middle and their FANTASTIC link up of state blogs. I would love to be able to someday meet up with fellow Ohio bloggers like me.

Well, tomorrow is my school's city park day. We'll participate in kickball, basketball, cornhole & disc golf, water balloons, playground, complete with a cook-out lunch & ice cream sandwiches when we return to school! The weatherman forecasts 88 and feeling like mid-August.
We had a frost advisory last Monday.
Welcome to Ohio!
Have a great week, everyone!

Camp Out Fun & A FREEBIE!

It's almost summer which means that we're already getting out our camping gear for another fun season! Luckily, our friends share in our love of bonfires, camping, and general roughing-it-but-not-really-roughing-it.  They're always willing participants to head out, set up tents, & have a great time! 

Who says the grownups get to have all the fun?

A camping theme would also be so much fun in a classroom! Setting up a tent for reading with sleeping bags or maybe even a hammock? Talking about (or making) camp food like s'mores & hot dogs.

Showing the kiddos that it doesn't take a ton of electronics to have a good time!

That was the inspiration for my Camp Out packet.

Check it out in my TPT Store!

....and there's a FREEBIE!

Camping themed (+2 and +3) Roll-the-Dice Games

My kiddos LOVE to play roll-the-dice and the addition of having to add 2 or 3 to their total was a great way to practice adding 3 numbers together. Often I would encourage them to grab a dry-erase board and marker to work out their problems. I would also encourage them to use counters if needed.

Woohoo! It's almost summer!

Also: Don't forget about my Wild, Wacky, Wonderful, Wedensday linky party starting this week! It's my first linky party and I"m SO excited for people to join in! 

Hope I'll see you there!

Happy Sunday, everyone! 

Introducing: Wild, Wacky, Wonderful Wednesday!

I'm excitedly stepping into uncharted waters:

I'm starting my first linky party called: Wild, Wacky, Wonderful Wednesday and it debuts on May 22nd!

I hope that it serves as a fun mid-week link-up where we can share the wild, wacky, and/or wonderful things going on in our classrooms and lives.

I don't know about you, but Wednesday is kind of a hard day for me. It's not really close to the weekend, but it's not fresh & new like a Monday, either.The week is in full-swing and depending on what's going on, I could sometimes use a little encouragement. A reason to celebrate!

Come and join the party, every Wednesday, at First Grade Follies!

Can't wait to see you there!