Peek at My Week!

My teaching bestie, Beginnings With Baer and I decided to do a fun 'peek at my week' blog post on Mondays to share the main agenda on our teaching plans for the week!! I love seeing what other teachers do throughout their work week, so why not share what will be happening with my little rays?! Each week brings new ideas, lessons, and chances to bring some excitement into our classrooms! I am excited to get to share a little overview of my week!

MATH

We will be working on addition with totals of 9 and 10 this week. We will be working really hard on creating story problems and using our math strategies to find the answers. Students will be working with partners and small groups this week. One thing I am always trying to do is allow students to choose how they solve math problems the best. Is it easier to use manipulatives, pictures, or does it just pop in your head?? I challenge my kiddos to try to use at least two strategies each problem. One first to find the answer and then another to check the answer. I also try to pair students up with others who use different strategies so they are able to see the math a little differently.

ELA

We will continue to learn about long vowels. This week we will begin long I! My little rays are getting the long vowels a lot better than I thought! We will start by creating a circle map and thinking of words that say the letter 'i' in it. That is always my favorite part because the dialogue my kiddos exchange is amazing!!! We will continue to practice sight words and word families as well. Digraphs are on our agenda and we will be create a digraph anchor chart for each of my kiddos to keep!

SOCIAL STUDIES/SCIENCE

In Science this week we will be learning all about OUTER SPACE! What a fun unit to begin! We will talk about astronauts, do some close reading, talk planets, and do some crafts!! Gaggle has some great videos that explain outer space and has amazing pictures to show the kiddos. We will also be celebrating our 100th day of school, so Friday will be crazy (aka I will need a polar pop or TWO!!!)

WRITING

I love writing!! My kiddos impress me every day with how concentrated they are! We are definitely going to practice sounding out words this week. Last week we did a writing sample and I had a lot of kiddos that 'forgot' how to do it. As soon as I sat down to help them, they remembered. A little review never hurt, right?? ;) We will be writing about if we had an alien and we will do a fun writing activity for 100th day! The responses we get for "When I am 100 I will..." are always so comical!!

Thanks for taking a Peek at My Week!! Be sure to check out Beginnings with Baer's Peek at My Week to see how first grade is rocking it! If you are interested in sharing a peek at your week, leave a comment below!

Sunday Scoop 1/24/2015

Happy Sunday! Time to link up with Teaching Trio for this week's Sunday Scoop!! The weeks are going by so fast and my kiddos are getting so smart! Time may need to slow down a bit.

Have to do:
I have to finalize my 100th day plans! Friday marks 100 days of school! We will have plenty of fun including a 100th day FASHION SHOW! I need to finish some assignments for my Grad School class and work out because Spring Break is right around the corner!!

Hope to do:
My teaching bestie Beginnings with Baer and I have started a new weekly post on Mondays that give you a preview of what we will be working on in our classrooms for the week (Peek at My Week)! We HOPE that there will be some interest into making it a linky because we want to know what others are doing in their class! I also hope to FINALLY get the manicure that has been on my scoop for about two weeks ;)

Love to do:
Start planning for our District's Kindergarten Fair! Last year I got to be on the planning committee for the Kindergarten Fair and learned SO much! This year, I was invited again and am SUPER excited to get even more involved in planning :)


Thanks for checking out my scoop! Make sure to share your scoop and link up with Teaching Trio!!

Peek at My Week!

Happy Monday and MLK Day! 

My teaching bestie, Beginnings With Baer and I decided to do a fun 'peek at my week' blog post on Mondays to share the main agenda on our teaching plans for the week!! I love seeing what other teachers do throughout their work week, so why not share what will be happening with my little rays?! Each week brings new ideas, lessons, and chances to bring some excitement into our classrooms! I am excited to get to share a little overview of my week!

ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS:
In ELA, we will be working on long e! My kiddos have been LOVING anchor charts this year. We have tried to make as many as we can for any topic. Not only is it an amazing resource for them to look at when they are working at stations or independently, but talking about them as a whole group really excites them, challenges them to think about the topic at hand and provide answers, and gives them pride in seeing it hung up!! We will be using our Long E anchor chart to come up with words that have the Long E pattern! We learned all about long A last week and I can't tell you HOW many of my kiddos quickly caught onto it. I had so many reading throughout the day that would stop and frantically raise their hand, "MISS K!! I FOUND A LONG A!!!!!!" My kiddos crack me up <3 We will also be continuing to work on digraphs (of course we have an anchor for that as well!) and word families! The word families have helped their rhyming improve A LOT! I find that they have also given us a lot of confidence in our reading. My little rays have been able to decode words better and now are always eager to get a book in their hand!

MATH:
We will be continuing with subtraction this week! We have already introduced subtraction from numbers 1-8 so this week will introduce the numbers 9 and 10. We will be doing a lot of story problems and hands on learning for this concept! We like to use linking cubes, counters, and other manipulatives as we practice our story problems and number sentences! When I start each lesson, we review with some prompting questions:

1- What is subtraction?

2- How is subtraction different from addition?

3- What are some strategies we can use to find our subtraction answers?

4- Who can give me a subtraction story problem?

Subtraction bowling is a HUGE hit when we start talking about subtraction from 10! I plan to have a lot of partner work with enlarged number bonds, number lines, dice, and white boards, and giving my little rays the chance to work together and 'coach' each other through story problems and number sentences.

SOCIAL STUDIES/SCIENCE:
Since we only have one block for Social Studies and Science, we switch off depending on the topic. This week, I will be using Tuesday and Wednesday to finish up MLK and Thursday and Friday for penguins! We talked about Martin Luther King Jr. last week and discussed what he did for our country. We watched a short clip from Kid President, but this week I plan to dig a little deeper! We will be using graphic organizers to help us track all the information we will be learning about! To finish up our unit, we will record OUR dreams next to MLK's! In science, we will discuss PENGUINS! I love me some cute little penguins. We will use Scholastic's "Let's Find Out!" resources to learn about where penguins live, their lifecycle, and more! We will also read "Tacky the Penguin", make a character map to describe Tacky, and make a Tacky the Penguin Craftivity! I got some of my ideas from A Spoonful of Learning and the Tacky the Penguin Craftivity from Live, Love, Laugh, Kindergarten.

WRITING:
I love pushing my little babes to write, write, write! The more we write, the more confident and excited my kiddos get to produce their own writing. In room 103, we are ALL authors ;) This week we will be working on personal narratives. How perfect does this tie into MLK????? After reading about what he did for justice, my little rays will write about a time when we felt that we were treated unfair and how we felt. We will be learning about his dreams and then making a craft with OUR dreams. In science, we will review what we have learned about penguins and write about what we would do if we were penguins :) By now, we are prepping ourselves for FIRST GRADE (wait, time slow down!! I don't want my rays to leave me!!) so we practice our first grade writing, which really gets my kiddos to take their time and do their best!

Thanks for checking out my Peek at My Week!! If you have any feedback, comments, or would like to potentially participate in a LINK UP next Monday, LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW :) Make sure you check out Beginnings with Baer's Peek at My Week!

Sunday Scoop: 1/17/16

Okay ya'll, I am getting a little worried at how fast these weeks are flying by! Trying not to blink as much because time is going too fast! However, it is Sunday and there is nothing better than a Sunday on a three day weekend!! There is also nothing better to DO on a Sunday (especially a FREEZING Sunday) than link up with Teaching Trio for Sunday Scoop!!!

Have to Do: I have to finish my 100th Day plans! How crazy is it that we are so close to 100 days of school?!? Our 100th day will be Friday, January 29th. Prepare for the crazy!!! I have to start Grad School this week! What is more fun than teaching at a school all day???? Answer: going BACK to school during the night ;) I also have to decide what hairstyle I am going to go with because these long locks are dragging your girl down! To chop, chop, chop or to go with just a trim???

Hope to Do: I hope to relax and tackle my to do list on my day off! I also hope to FINALLY get a manicure. It has been like, 4 weeks since I decided to treat myself and I have YET to make an appointment. Hopefully can check that off by the end of the week ;)

Love to Do: I will LOVE snuggling up on the couch all day Sunday/Monday because it will be too cold for this girl to be outdoors. Netflix will be my go-to along with some caffeine! 

Thanks for checking out my scoop!! Be sure to head back to Teaching Trio to link up and share!!!

Stay warm, friends!!!!!

Sunday Scoop- 1/10/16

Well, the first week back to school after winter break has come and gone, AND I AM ALIVE!! I was thrilled to get back to my schedule and my little rays, but not knowing if we were in for a crazy, high-energy week was a bit scary! I have to say, this might have been our best week EVER. Seriously. Our new room set up, morning routine, and incentive system were instant hits! The behavior was minimum but the fun was MAXIMUM! So with week one out of the way, I am thrilled to start week two! Before the work week begins, however, it is time to link up with The Teaching Trio for Sunday Scoop!

Have to do: I have to finish laundry (this seems to be a recurring 'have to'), lesson plans, and shop for warmer clothes (UGH the snow and low temperatures have finally come).

Hope to do: READ! It has been a goal for me to read a book a week as a way to unwind and take my mind off of school before work. It is DEFINITELY something I will continue to do ;)  I also hope to get a manicure because last week it did not work out!!

Happy to do: I will be happy to celebrate one of my high school friend's birthdays! Sometimes it is nice to take a break from the job and reminisce on the old days (aka 6 years ago)

Thanks for checking out my scoop!! Be sure to head back to The Teaching Trio to link up and share yours!!

Twin Tuesday: 2016 Goals!

Out with the old, in with the new!!! Here we are starting a new year of adventures, happy thoughts, and positive minds and there isn't anyone I would rather do it with than my teaching bestie Beginnings With Baer!!! Speaking of, what a perfect opportunity to do a Twin Tuesday post!!! After getting out blog and insta schedules set, we talked about what kind of topics we could do, and with it being the first Tuesday of January, what better topic than our Goals for 2016!!!!

I like to think of this as a list of goals rather than resolutions. To me, the word goal gives me motivation, empowerment, and excitement. I am driven to reach that goal, whether personal, professional, etc. because I KNOW I can do it! The first part to setting goals is to make them achievable. I am obviously not going to make a goal that I get married, because let's be real, I am SINGLE AS A PRINGLE! Jokes aside, if the goal isn't attainable, what drive is there to get it done?? So here is a list of SOME of my goals heading into the 2016 year :)

PROFESSIONAL GOALS:

1. Be Organized- MUCH easier said than done! I have made it a goal to keep myself organized and on to of things so I am not at school at 6:30 in the morning until 7 at night! I don't want to spend all my hours after school and on the weekends catching up on things I haven't gotten to. I have made myself a schedule for the work week that I hope keeps me on track and working more efficiently! I also am going to keep two separate planners. One planner will be for work, the other for my social media scheduling. I need to keep to separate planners because I get so cluttered and than lose track of time! I am making it a goal to keep these planners up to date and ORGANIZED!

2. Be ME- I have this problem of liking everything I see on Pinterest or on Insta and immediately think I should try it out. When your try to juggle 100 balls, what is going to happen?! I'll give you a hint *it isn't pretty!!* There is nothing wrong with liking and loving all the things that you see posted, but they aren't all meant for your classroom and especially not all at once. Trying too many new things at once is going to lead to an unsuccessful turnout. I have come to realize that if there is something I am DYING to try, than go for it!!! But liking an idea doesn't mean I have to try it!

3. Social Media- I am making the statement now, SO HOLD ME TO IT, to stick with my posting schedules and be ACTIVE on my social media platforms. It is a goal to post on Instagram EVERY DAY! That may seem like a lot, but one post on instagram really takes about 1-2 minutes! And is even easier when you plan what kind of post you want to do. I want to make sure that I post pictures of all aspects of our learning! I love being able to scroll through my instagram page and look at the progress my kiddos have made and to see their own growth! I mean they were just BABIES a few months ago!! I also need to be WAY more active on this blog! I love writing and expressing myself, but seem to let time slip away and with that time follows my motivation. Well not anymore!!!!! I plan to be posting at least 3 times a week (if not more!) to start with. I want to make sure that I am keeping up with my goals because since starting this blog I have felt so refreshed, so happy, and so reflective!

 

4. Positive Vibes ONLY- I am going to do my absolute best to steer clear from the negative vibes that float around in a school. I want to keep myself healthy both mind and body, and to do that, I am sticking to happy thoughts and positive mindset! Everyone has a bad day, trust me, I KNOW, but I do not want to dwell in it. I want to stand tall, feel good, and be my best. I want to LAUGH and SMILE. Plain and simple: I want to ENJOY THE DAY!

PERSONAL GOALS:

1. Drink water- If you know me, you know that Diet Dr. Pepper runs through my veins! They say our body is made up of , I would place a bet that mine is filled with the carbonated beverage I so lovingly call "soda"<3 I mean my kiddos know something is up if they don't see a Polar Pop on my desk in the morning!! This year I really need to drink more water! As an avid runner, I have experienced the light-headedness and dizziness that not drinking water can cause, yet I haven't learned. NOT THIS YEAR! I am going to have my morning soda because, well, I don't want to scare my little rays, but after that it is allllll water for this girl! Except for the occasional "get-me-through-the-day-before-my-hair-falls-out soda";)

2. Eat better- Oy vey! The dreaded "New year, new me" thing. For me, eating better isn't necessarily because I eat a lot of bad food, but I have poor eating habits! My family isn't big eaters, so meals are something that aren't important! I rarely eat breakfast, usually snack on some crackers or Goldfish for lunch, and for dinner just eat a baked potato. This year I want to start meal prepping each Sunday. By cooking my food and getting it ready for the week ahead, I am going to be more likely to eat and meet my nutritional needs :)

3. Keep a budget- Lord Almighty can I get an AMEN!!! I mean, if you are a teacher, you know that money doesn't grow on trees! I realized after my first year teaching that there was just no way I could afford to spend as much money as I had spent on my classroom. Likewise, I was spending money material things that I simply didn't need! ear I am ready to keep a strict monthly budget and save myself plenty of money! 

4. Pray more, worry less! I need a shirt that says this. NO JOKE. I cannot thing of a more simple and meaningful phrase to use as a motto for this year. I am very strong in my faith and have found so much peace and happiness in my relationship with God. Through every difficultly in life, He has been there. God will never lead you on a path that he is not on. Remembering that everything happens for a reason brings ease into my thoughts. If you know me, you know I am an anxious person and a very big worrier. I have a tendency to think about the 'what-ifs' and need to remind myself that everything will be okay. By not worrying and placing my trust in the Lord, I am more enlightened, more at peace, and more thankful. Every night before I go to bed, I say my prayers and the last line I say is the same, "Lord, please help me to remember what is truly important in life. Help me want to be who you want me to be." I have never felt more confident in myself than when I am reminded that I am living for Him. I hope that I can continue to grow more Christlike this year.


Happy 2016, my friends! What are some of your goals?! Be sure to head over to Beginnings with Baer to check out her goals :)

Sunday Scoop-1/3/16

Happy first Sunday of the New Year! It was a busy end of the year with all of the holidays, LOTS of family time, new excitements, and a massive power outage!!!! Ringing in the New Year, I am ready for a positive, exciting year full of pushing myself and taking risks! What better way to start the first full week of January than by linking up with The Teaching Trio for Sunday Scoop!

Have to do:

Lessons plans! First week back with kiddos starts Tuesday, so I need to finish my plans up! I also have to get my January box out of storage and take it to school with me so I can get stations ready for the week. And lastly, MAKE A BUDGET. I did a pretty good job last year saving money but would love to do an even better job this year! 

Hope to do:

I hope to get a manicure some time this week! This girl's nails are in some dire need of some pampering! I also hope to survive the week since it will be the first time back in two weeks!!!

Love to do:

Read a book. I would love to head to the library and choose a book to read this week for relaxation and winding down. I love reading and I think incorporating a book a week to help unwind after a day would be awesome!

Thanks for checking out my Sunday Scoop! What are your haves, hopes, and loves?! Make sure to head back on over to The Teaching Trio to share and link up :)

January Currently!

Well HELLO!! I feel like the months are FLYING by!!! Looking at the calendar, I can't believe we are already starting January! With the first of every month comes the fun link up hosted by Farley for CURRENTLY!!

Right now I am listening to Friends. I have kind of been on a Friends Netflix binge this break. I find myself cracking up more and more at Chandler and Ross! Let's be honest, the show NEVER gets old!!

Loving- I am loving this two week break from school!! I have been able to hang out with my puppy and family a lot and catch up on some sleep! Two weeks is enough though, I am eager to see my little rays!!

Thinking- I am currently thinking about all that I have to do this weekend. Also about how good cinnamon rolls sound right now. Come to think of it, I believe I have some in the fridge! Hello breakfast ;)

Wanting- A shopping spree for some new winter clothes would be just lovely ;) A girl can never have too many clothes, right??

Needing- Sunshine. With our power outage and stormy days, we have not had too much vitamin D! I am a girl who needs a little bit of sunshine to get through the day. Also, if spring wanted to hurry up, I wouldn't be sad!!

One Word: BLISS. I have this feeling of overwhelming bliss right now. I am so grateful for the time I have gotten to spend with my family over break, all of the love I get from my little rays on a daily basis (which I can't wait to get back to!) and I just feel at peace! I am ready to start 2016 off with positive thoughts and a happy heart :)


Well there ya have it! I hope everyone has had happy holidays and AN AMAZING START TO THEIR NEW YEAR! Let's all KICK SOME BOOTY!! Don't forget head on over to Farley's page to grab the blank image and link back up and share what YOU are up to!!