Preventing the Summer Slide

Summer is here!
    The time that we all treasure...being able to sleep in a little bit, leisurely eating your lunch, and going to the restroom whenever you need! Ahhhhh....precious summer!
    Sometimes my summer isn't so leisurely - I've got a 6 and 9 year old at home and, let's be honest, I feel like I spend half of my time refereeing their fights. You guys know what I'm talking about! They love each other, but...they are definitely siblings! ;)
    After our first week at home of unstructured, do-what-you-want summer my kids were driving me bananas! The second week, we implemented chores/homework that my kids have to do before getting any screen time/ going to the pool in the afternoon.
    I had a few leftover scraps from a chalkboard that I had cut down last summer and these work perfectly for the chore list. You could use a whiteboard, too. I wrote "TO DO" on one side of the clothespins and "DONE" on the other side so it's visual for us to see.

We're a month into summer now, and Luke's reading has continued to grow, and Ella is practicing skills every day to keep her from losing too much of what she gained this past year. I wouldn't have it any other way! :D

Halloween with Oriental Trading

It is *almost* my favorite time of the year! As soon as football season comes around, school is settling in, and the weather begins to cool it is time to put out the fall decor around the house! I was so excited to find out that Oriental Trading has some adorable goodies for the house at such a reasonable price!

Y'all. When the little Frankenstein and skeleton pillows came in I nearly swooned! They. are. adorable! My original plan was to put them in my classroom reading corner, but these little stars needed a place more front and center! The little witch, too! SO cute!

The web is the perfect touch to liven up our mantle! I *may* be borrowing these goodies to decorate my booth at our school's Octoberfest this year ;)

I also snagged up this cute little bowling set. I plan to play some writing games with them during RTI.

*Disclaimer:  This post contains information about products that were sent to me by Oriental Trading for review.  Regardless of this, I picked out the items and all opinions in this post are 100% my own opinion.

Writing Process Interactive Notebook

Now that a few weeks have passed in school, I'm able to take a little breath and share a few things with you! The back-to-school newness is wearing off and I'm *almost* back in "school shape." My feet aren't killing me every day anymore, just occasionally. ;)

We spent the first week of school brainstorming alllll the ideas for writing using my little writing workshop printables pack.

Once we were more comfortable with the idea of doing journal writing, we dug right into the writing process! I'm so proud of my littles and how much they've already grown in our few weeks together!

Snag this little interactive notebook FREEBIE here! 

Back to School with Oriental Trading

Hey, y'all!

I've been working in my classroom the past couple of days to get things ready before we officially go back to alllllll the meetings school for teachers. Who's with me here?! We all know it's hard to get into your room once you actually start back!

Since changing last year from Kindergarten to fourth, it's taken me a little while to figure out how I wanted to do materials and such. I finally figured out I want to have caddies with community supplies for highlighters, dry-erase erasers, and scissors. My students don't always have these supplies on hand and it's a big pain to shuffle back and forth to get everything out! Problem solved!

Look what I found on Oriental Trading! These little caddies are perfect, and how CUTE are the little paw erasers?? {Our mascot is a tiger, so we've got paws all over the school!}

I discovered Oriental Trading's Wish List over the summer - such a clever way to let parents know what you could use in your classroom! Take a peek at mine {HERE}I'm going to share mine on my teacher webpage through my school. Our parents are wonderful about helping out!

So, hop over to Oriental Trading to create your own wishlist! I bet you'll be surprised with how many school supplies they offer!

*Disclaimer:  This post contains information about products that were sent to me by Oriental Trading for review.  Regardless of this, I picked out the items and all opinions in this post are 100% my own opinion.

Back to School Writing

The beginning of a new year comes with so much excitement! I love getting started with writing workshop in my classroom! Here are a few things that I like to include the first few weeks for "getting to know you" activities.

Using these prompts is a great way for students to share what makes them unique (I like to quiz-quiz-trade with these prompts so students can share with their peers without feeling the pressure of sharing with a large group)

Once your students have finished several of these pages in their notebooks, they will have a great resource for topics to write about! It makes generating ideas for journaling so easy!

Click on any of the pictures to see the packet!

Photo slideshow generated with Smilebox

Monday Made It - Absent Work Folder FREEBIE!

Happy Monday, friends!

I'm joining Tara for Monday Made It this week! I'm starting to get a little nostalgic about school starting back...I mean, the school supplies are out at Target, people! I'm not quite ready yet, but my battery is definitely at least halfway charged now!

Last year was my first year to fourth grade. I LOVED the challenge of a new grade and teaching 110 kids, but all year I definitely felt like I didn't quite "have it together." I kept telling myself it would be easier next year, and I know it will be! I'll be prepared for my students this year (or try to be! HA!)

Something that my teammates do is pass around a make-up work folder for students who are absent. When you have 5 classes and then the flu goes around the school....these will DEFINITELY be used.

I made these little folders into an EDITABLE FREEBIE so that you can make your life easier, too! I printed the sheets on Avery shipping labels that are 8 1/2x11, but you could just as easily print, laminate, and then tape to the front of your folder. The file is editable so you can put your name on the front cover and then type out the subjects you need on the insert page.

My second MMI is a lightbox! I LOVE this new classroom trend...I'm already working on printing out a bunch of little sayings and quotes for my classroom!

Nouns {FREEBIE included!}

Hi friends!
Now that I've taken a little breather in June - {we had birthday parties for both of my kids - so you know what kind of a "breather" that is ;)} I'm ready to hit the ground running for July! Teaching nouns is one of the first things we start content with in the beginning of the school year, so I put together a little packet of printables, interactive notebook pages, and games to use when we start back!

Scroll all the way to the bottom for a little freebie! 

My teammate had a cute game like this for prepositional phrases that my kids went crazy over (I ended up laminating them and putting them in free station baskets)

Click HERE or on the picture above to grab this page from the packet as a preview. I hope you enjoy!