July Currently

This is officially my first time participating in Farley's Currently!

Every month I tell myself that I'm going to do it and then the next thing I know the month has passed me by! Yikes! I was not going to let that happen to me again! So without out further adieu...

So here is what's currently on my mind:

Listening- I love Spotify! I have so many different playlists created and lately it's either been my workout playlist or my Summa, Summa, Summa Time playlist that I started last summer. I just keep adding to it. I could listen to music all day long, and with summer time here, that's typically what I've been doing. It keeps me from spending hours watching TV! 

Loving- I've never been one to enjoy exercising, but this summer I've found a new love/passion for it. The first thing I do when I get up in the morning is put on my workout clothes and head out for a 2+ mile walk around my neighborhood. It's been the only way I can truly start my day this summer and I get done way before it gets too warm or humid. Except today the sun was pretty intense! 3 days out of the week, my boyfriend and I have been heading to the gym and I am actually LOVING it! I think it's helping that he is there with me and we are encouraging one another! 

Thinking- One of my summer projects is to finally get my home office together and organized how I want it to be. We've lived in our house for just about 3 years now and I still have not found a home for everything or made my office as cozy and organized as I would like it to be. I finally decided on furniture that I want to put in here, so now I have to decide on what color I want to paint that walls. I'm not the best at narrowing down my choices so I'm just going to have to pick 1 or 2 colors and go with it! 

Wanting- I have a list of different things I want to create for TPT & for my classroom theme next year, but just have not had the creative mojo to get something together. I know it will get there, I just have to make it a part of my daily To-Do List and then it will get done. I don't want to wait until August to start creating. 

Needing- With the summer heat and humidity along with working out everyday I just haven't had time to go get my hair done professionally. I think a day of self-pampering is in order soon! I also need to change my nail polish color. It's a bright pink now, but I'm ready to change it! 

4th Plans- I'll be heading to my grandparents house for their annual 4th of July BBQ then I'll catch fireworks at the Blue Crabs Stadium right down the street from my house. I live so close to it, that I could actually just sit in my backyard and see them, but there are some trees and houses that are blocking our full view! So we'll just walk around the corner from our house so we can get the full view. 


Well there you have it! I've officially joined the Currently craze! That was so much fun! I can't wait to read what everyone else is currently up to and participate in the next one! 

Until Next Time...

Have Fun in the Sun! 

And the Winner is…

Hello there everyone! Sorry I took so long to announce my winner. My student teacher left this week and I got to get back in the trenches of teaching full time again, with less than 20 days left of school!!! Did I mention there was also a full moon this week, so my firsties were loads of fun!!!  

Without further adieu the lucky winner of all of these fabulous, not yet released goodies from Creative Teaching Press is…

 

Drumroll…

CONGRATULATIONS BREANNE!!! You will get an email from CTP soon so that they can get your goodies out to you!!

Breanne doesn’t have to be the only person to get her hands on these products hot of the press!! Everything from the Back to School release is due in the CTP warehouse ANY DAY now!!! You are hearing about it FIRST and you can be one of the FIRST to get your order! Even better, CTP hasn’t even announced it to the public yet, so you get an exclusive first chance! So what are you waiting for! Head on over to CTP’s website and place your order! Can’t wait to see how you incorporate the new products into your classrooms!

Be sure to stop back by later this week! I’ll be sharing some of the gifts we gave to my student teacher along with some new products in my TPT store!

Have wonderful Sunday and start to your week!

Until Next Time…

Have FUN Learning & Teaching!!

CTP Back To School Exclusive Sneak Peek & A Giveaway

Happy Teacher’s Appreciation Week to all of  my fellow educators!! I hope that all of you are each shown how much you are truly appreciated, not just this week, but each and everyday!

I’m back again to share some more sneaks of the new goodies being released very soon by Creative Teaching Press! You will only be able to gain a sneak peek from bloggers with the blog button below!

I said it before and I’ll say it again! You are going to absolutely LOVE the new items that they have coming out! Here are some of the items that I fell in love with immediately!

  

    

These are some of the fabulous borders. I love the patterns & colors!

I’m loving the Math GNOMe management system! This is going to be such a useful tool and will be great in holding students accountable for their learning.

                     

                    

These 5 Star Posters will be a great reminder for kiddos in your classroom of all that they CAN do!

I’m obsessed with chevron, but I know many others are in love with the entire mustache phenomenon. Don’t worry, CTP has you covered! Check out this fabulous mustache themed bulletin board set!

I mustache you, do you love it?  

Last but not least are these amazing Inspire U posters! I loved these the moment that I saw them! Talk about building a positive and motivating classroom environment. These will definitely help you to accomplish that and so much more!

To see more of the fabulous products from the BTS release head on over HERE

Don’t you just love all of these goodies! What’s that you say, you would really like to own all of this! Well have I got some news for you! CTP is allowing me to giveaway ALL of the items I’ve previewed to one lucky follower!! All you have to do is enter using the Rafflecopter below and a winner will be announced next week! So what are you waiting for… go get your entries in!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

 

An InLinkz Link-up

 

Until Next Time…

Have FUN Learning & Teaching!

Shhh…Can You Keep A Secret?!?

 

It’s your lucky day!! I’ve been given the opportunity to be a part of an exclusive group of amazing bloggers who have the chance to share some new Back to School products coming out from Creative Teaching Press!!

There are so many great products coming out for Back to School season and I can’t wait to be able to share more of them with you! For now, you are getting an EXCLUSIVE Sneak peak at a couple of the products that will be available very soon!

First up, is this 5 Star Reader Common Core Poster! This is going to be such a great resource in so many classes!!

My next sneak peak is the New Moroccan Nights Straight Border! I absolutely LOVE this design!

Which of these 2 sneaks can you see yourself using in your classroom next year?

Stay tuned for more goodies and giveaways from Creative Teaching Press! You are not going to want to miss it!  

Click on the image below to hop on over to the Penniless Teacher to see her CTP sneak peek!

Until Next Time…

Have Fun Learning!

What Time Is It?

It’s SPRING BREAK time!! This break couldn’t have come at a better time! It is much needed and I’m looking forward to spending the week catching up on some things that I’ve been putting off, such as blogging (hangs head in shame), and hanging out with my new nephew who was born less than a week ago!  

We’ve had a busy start to spring in our classroom, including learning all about telling time! Lucky for me, I had some wonderful goodies sent to me from Creative Teaching Press, which included some blank analog clocks. These came in handy for having my students review not only how to read an analog clock to the hour and half hour, but they were able to draw right on them, using a dry erase marker that is!

My kiddos had so much fun showing me that they were beginning to master this skill. I have a group set placed in each of my table bins and whenever we have some down time, I just tell my kiddos to whip out their clocks and give them a random time to represent.

Some other ways that I think that these could be used is to have the clocks taped to students desks and have them write one of their peers names at a specific number. When doing partner work, students could be told that your “appointment” at 9:00 is your partner for this activity. At least it would take a little pressure off you of having to assign partners. Of course you’d still have to keep an eye on those 2 students that you always try your best to keep apart.

What are some other ways that you could use these clocks in your classroom?

Want to snag these for your own classroom? Be sure to stop on over at CTP to grab them up!

I’ve got some pretty exciting things coming up in the next couple of weeks! Can’t wait to share!  

Until Next Time…

Remember to Always Have Fun Learning!

Can You Believe I’m Blogging & Weather Tracking Makeover!!

This year has been going so wonderful!! So much so, that I seem to have neglected my blog for long periods of time. Every year, I say to myself that I’m going to devote time to blog at least once a week, and then that turns into once after several months! LOL! I really will attempt to do much better.

I was so fortunate to be given an opportunity to try some products from the amazing company Creative Teaching Press with my kiddos! This is after several, and I do mean SEVERAL snow days this winter! I cannot wait for this dreadful season to be over and I don’t want to hear the word SNOW for the rest of this year!

Once I received all of my goodies from CTP, I had to really think about how I wanted to utilize them in my classroom. After seeing the weather icons, I knew that I instantly wanted to change how we were recording our daily weather. Prior to the new fun method, we were recording the weather in a laminated book that was being held together by binder rings, and then several pages had to be reinforced with clear hole punch reinforcements. This is what happens when you’ve been using the same book for several years and many first graders have been taking such great care of the book!

The pending arrival of spring, prompted me to create a weather tracker that was not only going to be easy to manage, but cute as well! Let’s face it, if it doesn’t look good, especially in first grade, the kids are not going to be as engaged. At least that’s what I’ve learned with my class this year! They are all about things looking fun, bright, and cute!

I used the CTP Chevron Solids to create little pockets. I used fonts from KG Fonts, frames from Lovin Lit and the weather clipart is from the amazingly talented Melonheadz Illustrating.

To create the weather sticks I used the 1” Weather Mini Designer Cuts. Each stick contains one icon.

Each day, students will put a weather stick into the correct pocket and then use tally marks to record what the weather was like for that day. At the end of the month, we will be able to quickly see which form of weather we experienced the most.

This is our first week formally using this new system and I can already tell you that my students are LOVING it! They were excited to watch me put all of the components together and they were even more excited when they finally had a chance to use it.  I loved how easy it was to assemble and make the products fit the needs of my classroom. I’m so glad that I decided to utilize the products in the manner that I have, because they were just the right size to fit in the space that I have on my board without being overbearing.

Now I have some leftovers, because I didn’t use it all, so I’m thinking of other creative ways to put the products to use!

If you are interested in adding these wonderful products to your classroom be sure to head on over to Creative Teaching Press to grab them up!  

Until Next Time….

Remember to Have Fun Learning!!

August Slant Box

I've been so extremely busy and exhausted when I get home each night that I haven't had a chance to blog about the wonderful box of goodies that my SLANT box partner sent to me. 

Slant box is a wonderful idea that is coordinated by the awesome Jameson over at Lessons With Coffee. It is a monthly themed exchange. You are paired with 2 teachers each time you sign up. One will send a box to you and the other is the person that you will send a box to. September sign-ups are over but be sure to be on the lookout for the October sign-up so that you can join in on the fun!

One of my August SLANT box partners was Bobbie! The theme was "My Favorite Things..."! Bobbie did a great job of finding things that were perfect for me! 

I'm addicted to tumblers, so of course I loved this instantly!! :-) I also have become slightly obsessed with all things chevron so I cannot wait to give the chevron tape a try. Now just to figure out what to use it for. The Spider-Man pens are perfect for our school wide superhero theme this year. I am always in need of post it's and ironically I've never had any that have my initial. Lol! Of course I love bright colors so the bright neon sharpies are fantastic. Last but not least was the nail polish! I love, love, love this color! I of course had to use it immediately and give myself a mani & pedi!! 

Thanks so much Bobbie for all of the wonderful goodies!! It was some of the happiest mail I've received in a while!! 

Until Next Time....

Remember to Have Fun Learning!