50 Follower Giveaway!!!

I am so appreciative and thankful for all of the support that I have received for my little blog!!  And I am happy to say that I will be having my Giveaway!! It will start today and the winner will be announced on Saturday, April 7th.

So here is what you could win:

My experiment book

 You caught me doing something great PUNCH CARDS

And your choice of anything you want from my TPT or TN store.


SPOILER ALERT!**********************************************

 I have already talked to Ian from My Rubber Stamp about my next Giveaway! Some of you may recognize his work from Farleys blog.  I just love his creative stamp designs and I think every teacher needs a sweet customized stamp from him.

My favorite right now is the Green Owl - WHO did AWESOME???  YOU DID!!! Get this awesomeness signed and returned!!!

So part of my 50 follower giveaway is finding out what kind of stamp YOU would want,  so that I can get the details sorted out with Ian for my next giveaway (I really love planning ahead). 


Now the important part.....Here are the ways you can enter my Giveaway:
1. Leave me a comment that you follow my blog
2. Leave a comment that you blogged about my giveaway 
3. Leave me a comment that you follow my TPT store
4. Leave me a comment that you follow my TN shop
5. Leave me a comment on what kind of rubber stamp you would like for my next giveaway

That is 5 different ways you can enter your name into my giveaway draw!!

Remember to leave a separate comment for each entry (along with your email) so that you have more chances to win!!

Good luck :)

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

I am sooo sooo soooooo excited because I won Misty's 31 Bag Giveaway!! I have been wanting a 31 teaching bag for a loooong time, so I could barely control my excitement as I found out the great news.

I happened to be minding my own business shopping for some organizational items for my closet at Canadian Tire (I am in a MAJOR spring cleaning/CDO mood, the Clutter Free Classroom would be proud).  Then my mad search for the prefect shoe organizer had to be put on hold because I received an email from Misty.  Of course she didn't tell me that I won in the email.... that would be tooo simple... she sent me a "code" so that I could find out for myself on her blog (she is seriously funny).  Well, needless to say I was soo excited that I left Canadian Tire without purchasing anything (Thank you Misty, my bank account really appreciates it). 

I also can't wait to share my before and after pictures of my "CDO" project.  I am sure it is going to take me a little bit longer.... but I will absolutely love it when it is done. 

Have a wonderful Friday night,

March Madness!!

Professional Development.....

Sometimes I hear those two words and want to hide, scream, jump for joy because I can learn something new.  In my short time being a professional teacher I have discovered ONE important fact that I want all newbie teachers to learn quicker than I did.

Are you listening??

If you want the really good PD sessions at the conferences..... you need to get there early and if need be push other teachers out of their chairs, scream and yell if you don't get in, skip earlier sessions.  I saw an amazing lady talk about her carpet lesson idea and I definitely wanted to learn more so I put her on my list of must go to conferences.  Sadly a lot of other teachers thought the same thing as me and even though I got there 15 minutes early, it was standing room only.

Needless to say, I learned my lesson.  Next time I will come prepared (to kick and shout)!!

Any who, one great thing that I took away from this conference was Box Cars and One Eyed Jacks.  These ladies have published several books that use games in order to teach math.  This was perfect for me because my Professional Development Project for the year was "How can mathematical games affect student engagement and math learning?".  So I was hooked! I also loved that these books only require dice, cards, and some teacher created materials (so thrifty me was happy that I didn't have to spend too much money on additional resources).

Here is one  game that I have used and loved, if you want to learn more or have questions you can check out their website or email me.

Make 20: 
This is for Grades 1-3 and requires the students to do addition and subtraction up to 20 and understand odd and even numbers.  You can have 2-4 players and all you need is some cards (ace to 5 for Grade 1, or ace to 9 for Grade 2 and 3), paper and a pencil.  Using the game board (there is one already made in the back of the book, you can download one from the website, or you can use mine), students start at 10 and try and make their way to 0 or 20.  Each player turns over one card from the deck, if it is an odd card the player must subtract and move back the number of spaces indicated on the card.  If it is an even number they must add and move forward the number of spaces indicated on the card.  The first player to get exactly to twenty or zero is the winner.

 This is a super easy game to teach, and a fun way to play with number lines, addition and subtraction, and odd and even numbers. The only problem I had with this game was that some students found themselves "outside" of the game board if they got a lot of even or odd numbers in a row.  My rule was that if they were stuck a number for example 1, they would have to wait until they got an ace or an even number to move them forward.  If they got a 3, they wouldn't move into the negatives, instead they would miss a turn. 

Also...

As a way to celebrate the end of March and the start of April I am having a March Madness TPT & TN sale!!!! Everything in my stores will be 20% off until March 30th. 

Guess WHOOOO is almost at a Giveaway!!

I am super excited because I am almost at my FIRST EVEEER giveaway!! I have been planning my 50 and 100 follower giveaway for a little bit now and I am SUPER excited that I am almost there.  I am so proud that my little blog has such dedicated followers (that always make me giggle with their cute and supporting comments).

So here is my sneak peak at my 50 follower giveaway!!

The lucky winner will recieve:

A copy of My Experiment Book:

 This can be used with any science experiment from Grade 2-5! It contains a title page, templates for the students to record their: materials, variables (independent, controlled, and dependent), prediction, observations, conclusion, and future experiments.
 
A copy of my "You Caught Me Doing Something GREAT!" Positive behavior punch card

This package includes 10 different themed punch cards. 

Can you tell I am a little excited???

I will post more details about my giveaway once I reach the 50 follower mark!

My new blogging home!!

Did you see what I did??????

I have been admiring soo many beautiful blogs that Erika from The Honey Bunch has designed, so I decided to have a blog makeover.  I now feel pampered, refreshed, and relaxed because I really didn't have to do anything (it was like I spent the day at the spa).  Thanks to Misty at Think, Wonder, &Teach for helping me pick out a design package (she made it sooo easy), and Erika for taking over my blog making it soooo beautiful.

I suggest checking out both of these ladies blogs if you haven't already.

Misty has also created a new blog called 3-6 Free Resources and it is ammmmazing!!! I love that it puts all of the great things for these grades on one site (and some of my resources have been posted on this site too).  This is also designed by the one and only Erika!

Erika also has a brand new blog dedicated to her designs, it is called The Honey Bunch Blog Design.
You can find out a lot of information and drool over other blogs on this site.

 So a special thank you and virtual hug to Erika and Misty!! I appreciate your help with my little blog.

Ethan and Aunties Craft Day

These are the days that I LOVE being an Auntie.  I got to spend the afternoon with my nephew and we made our Easter craft.  He is officially an expert at painting with his hands (his day care has already taught him the routine! He keeps his hand flat, lets you paint it, and then he places it on the paper without any fuss).  I think he was really proud of the Easter Chic he made :)

 I put one in a frame for his Mommy and Daddy!

I also finished my Classy Redneck Quilt over the weekend.  It is really big and heavy so I had a hard time taking a picture of it.

 My doggy, Ola, has decided that this quilt is the best thing ever!  She is always curled up in it.

Harry Wong

Now I am sure most of you have heard about this man, Harry Wong, the author of The First Days of School (How to be an Effective Teacher).  I became familiar with this book about 4 years ago when I first began my education degree.  I still use this book as a resource and I would be a little embarrassed to show you my copy because it is an unorganized mess (I have sticky notes everywhere!). 




Some of the most useful things that I have utilized from this book is setting up clear routines.

When I was a student teacher I made the assumption that routines are very important in elementary, but then these routines fizzle away when you reach high school.  As a substitute teacher now, I have come to the conclusion that Harry is always right.  I still need the routines, even with the bigger kiddos.  And I have faced the facts, even though the kiddos are bigger, they still thrive under routine and structure and prefer having a class where classroom management is strong.


So here are some things that I have done to ensure that my routine is clear.

1. I post my daily schedule every day. This reduces the number of students that come to me and ask... "What are we doing next??" or "What are we doing today?" or "Do we have art and gym today? Please Please???".

2. I post bell work on the white board.  In this case I had the students work on Daily 5.  However I mix it up with the following:
- math word questions
- fun riddles
- newspaper board writing
- "to do"/"catch up" time
- etc 

3.  I post my handful of helpers.  I found this tool really helpful in the lower grades, and almost every class I visit now seems to use this tool as well.  The helpers that I always have are:
- Calendar/Special student of the day
- Messenger (if anything needs to go to the office)
- Line Leader (they are in charge of leading the class)
- Line Caboose (they made sure every student makes it to the destination)
- Helpers (these students are great for turning off the lights, handing out papers, opening/closing the blinds, etc.)


4.  I try to be consistent with my expectations.  Before I let the class start the lesson I always take extra time to review my expectations of their work, my expectations for their behavior, and their expectations for me! I let the class tell me this instead of me rambling on... plus I love to hear "We should be making level 4 work, that means we should be taking our time to add the icing, sprinkles, and candle!", "We expect that YOU should help us when we need it!!" (this is always cute every time). 

Those are the 4 major things that I do to establish a consistent routine in my classroom.  As a substitute teacher this can be difficult if some of these things are not already established.  However, when they are established it makes my life A LOT easier because the students do not feel like their routine is out of order without their classroom teacher there (and I don't hear "this isnt how Ms/Mr.... does it" as often).

So what do you do to keep routines consistent in your classroom??