Long time, no see

I haven't posted in quite some time...and trust me, I am really mad at myself for it.  Posting more often will definitely be a goal of mine.  In my defense, I have been busy.  In addition to the normal hustle and bustle that is being a teacher, I have taken on a few additional projects.

First- The holiday spirit came upon me and my family and we thought that it would be an excellent idea to really focus on giving this year.  In order to do this, we spent our entire Thanksgiving break painting Christmas signs to sell.  What does this have to do with giving, you ask?  Well, we are not keeping a penny of what we earned.  That's right.  We are giving it all away and it feels great!  Here are some of our little creations.

Second- I started an art club at school for 4th and 5th graders.  They are awesome!  I am so used to my first grade kiddos that having an older bunch with me sent a shock through my system.  They have really jumped right in and let me tell you...I have some gifted little artists!

Of course...I needed to get my house ready for the holidays as well.  This is Miss Kitty anxiously awaiting Santa Claus (she's a little early...and yes, I am a crazy cat lady).

We have also been working like crazy on an awesome Christmas unit for Teachers Pay Teachers.  This thing has everything!  My favorite is a cute (yet informational) Holidays Around the World Passport.  I can't wait to use it!  Click on the picture to get yourself a copy.

Thanks and see you real soon!

Just Call Me Crazy...

Oh my, oh my...one word to describe my school year so far would be "crazy."  Not because of the kids - my kids are WONDERFUL this year - I'm serious...just call me spoiled.  It is just that I have so many of them!  I have 24 firsties this year (we usually have between 16 and 20, so this is quite the difference).  My classroom is jam-packed!  I made myself a promise at the beginning of the school year that I wouldn't let the number of students change the way that I normally teach (keep in mind that I am the "artsy," "project-oriented" teacher).  Whew!  Needless to say, I'm worn out!  Here are some pics of the craziness that is my classroom:

We start off they year by learning the seven continents, the oceans, and all of the places that we live.  As a culminating activity, we made paper mache globes.  Here we are on the first day adding paper mache to our balloons.

 

Here they are drying.

 

 After a few days of "dry time," we added the blue paint for our oceans.

We added tissue paper die-cuts of the continents with glue...labeled them...then threw on a coat of Mod Podge.  This is the finished product:

It was quite the project, but it was totally worth it!

One of the other activities that my kids absolutely adore is working on our number scrolls.  I have no idea why they love this as much as they do...but oh my word, they cannot get enough of them!  All I do is give them a blank hundred's chart wrapped around a paper towel roll.  They fill in their charts and glue more on as they go.  I have kids that have done all of their numbers 0-2000 and we are only in October!

I also have a few pictures from one of my sweet friends in the county.  Here are some of her kids working on our Pumpkin Day Activity Pack.  So cute!  Thanks for sharing!

You can check out our Pumpkin Day Activity Pack here:

We also have a brand-spanking-new Halloween unit that is fabulous (if I do say so myself).  This unit has 121 pages of reading, language arts, and math activities.  I can't wait to start them with my firsties.  Many of the activities can easily be used in kindergarten and second grade.

I hope that you are having a great year!

Keeping us on our toes...

Oh my.  That is all that I have to say.  Today was crazy...let me tell you about it.

First of all, it was the day after a holiday.  This automatically makes things hectic because you are trying to cram two days worth of stuff into one.  With that being said, my kids were fantastic.  They were working hard and getting things finished.  We were just humming right along.  I was thinking to myself, "Wow, I can't believe how great the day is going!"

Then came the intercom announcement.

I don't know how things work at your school...but someone coming over the intercom with an all call in the middle of the day is NEVER good.  Case in point-we were being evacuated.  This was not your typical "Boys and girls...this is a drill."  It was "Teachers...get your students and exit the building immediately."  That will shake things up a bit.  So Mrs. Alexander (my para) and I gathered up our 23 closest friends (one was absent) and headed out.  I'm not going to lie...I was a tad freaked out, but I'm the teacher (which also means I'm an actress) and I calmly led my kids out for what would be about 45 minutes of evacuation time.  Y'all, my kids were amazing.  They sat, waited calmly and quietly, played some Rock, Paper, Scissors, and made the best out of the situation.  I am one proud teacher.  Of course it did happen right around dismissal and it did start raining the minute we were cleared to come back in...so that added an element of fun as well.

Turns out that a construction crew hit a gas line right beside our school.  Eventually we were cleared to come back in and everyone made it home safely.  Whew...crazy.  There is no such thing as a calm Tuesday after a three day weekend.