Five for Friday

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I cannot believe we have another Five for Friday already! These weeks are just flying by!

Here are a few things that I am thankful for this week!

Last year my boyfriend surprised me by buying me a copy of The Magic School Bus: The Complete Series! This was such an amazing purchase! I love how the booklet is broken into topics. On Thursday, our school went skating and the kids were just all over the place. We had been working hard to learn about habitats earlier in the year and I thought this would be a perfect time to show the episode on Habitats. What a dream class! Everyone was engaged and we had the best discussion afterwards! Mrs. Frizzle has it going on!

I started teaching Youth Yoga through Bridgewater Parks and Rec this week. I had such a great night with my group and I cannot wait to teach it again this Monday coming! I also have my last session for the season with my yoga kids through the local YMCA on Saturday. My Yogis are absolutely wonderful this week and I wish I could show a picture of them because they were so cute doing their poses, but alas, with all the internet

My Scholastic book order arrived on Wednesday. I don't know about you folks, but I always love it when that arrives! I have a guilty pleasure for those picture books and the kids always love the new stories that I find! How about you?

For Christmas I bought myself a necklace and earring frame to hang on my wall. I had given it to my parents to give to me but complained that I probably could have just made myself a DIY one. On Christmas morning, I didn't have a frame to open which was a little bit weird. Well... I went over to their house for supper last night and my dad said he had a surprise for me. They had secretly returned the one I had purchased and my parents had made me one together. They painted the screen so it would match my bedroom, picked out handles to match my colour scheme and made it with a swing door so I can access my earrings easily! I just have to say, I have the BEST parents ever! Thank you!!

Lastly, on Wednesday I had my TPTiversary! It was one year ago that day that I posted my very first item on TPT. It has been a big year with a lot of ups and downs. I continue to struggle to make the sales that I want but I know that I am learning along the way and that is all that matters. I am going to continue to make some quality activities for students and hopefully I will continue to grow my little following. In honour of the big day, I made a little number practice for your students. I have done it with a few of my struggling grade ones and their number knowledge is really coming! Fingers crossed it works for you too!!!

Five for Friday x 2

Hi Everyone!! Last Friday night I didn't have a chance to post so I am taking items from the past two weeks to make up my five for Friday... I figure it is the best way to capture all the great things from last week as well! So here we go...

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Okay! I will admit, although I love science and doing it with the kids, I totally lack imagination when it comes to planning a unit. We were scheduled to start Materials and their Properties after Christmas and I just couldn't choose what to do since it is my first time teaching this grade. So, eventually I found the most amazing unit on TpT from Secondgradealicious. I have been following it pretty closely as it meets our outcomes perfectly and best of all, my students couldn't wait to get started. Here we have some pictures of the stations that they had to run through. I just love it when a lesson goes just as planned!

A teacher at my school showed me these super cool magnetic ten frames that she found online from Really Good Stuff. Well, with the Canadian dollar as bad as it is, and the shipping as expensive as it was, I searched high and dry for it online. Luckily, Scholar's Choice had it right here in Halifax. I cannot tell you how much this has changed my life! The kids actually understand adding and subtracting when I use these! It blows my mind but they love it so much and get so excited when I pull the ten frames out! Happy little learners!!

On Saturday we had a crazy snow storm! It started in the morning and went strong and steady until about ten o'clock at night! I couldn't get over how beautiful it was. Oh and yes, it may have been on a weekend, so no snow day for us, BUT who doesn't love a good day when you are forced to stay home and you can do whatever you want! It was a gem and I was able to finish all my housework and then have lots of time to relax to boot! Couldn't ask for a better start to my weekend!

A good friend of ours was able to get us tickets to go see the Canada vs. USA team for the World Sledge Hockey Tournament that my hometown is hosting. Although neither Tony or I are huge into sports, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We went with a group of our close friends and have to say it was such an entertaining sport. I knew nothing about it and loved to watch the guys skate around. Oh... and CANADA WON in a shoot out!! :) This weekend are the finals so fingers crossed that luck keeps going their way!

Over the past two weeks my students worked so hard to create beautiful 3-D snowmen. I found this idea on Pinterest last year and did it with the primaries that I was teaching. It took several days because of all the steps but my grade ones totally stepped up and did a fantastic job! Wahoo for wonderful art lessons!

Since I chose items over the past two weeks, I have to say it was hard to narrow it down to 5 items. I love this challenge every week because it reminds me to be mindful and to be thankful of all the little, great things that go on throughout our lives. 

Five for Friday

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Last year a lot of really great things happened to me and I have a lot to be thankful for. I can only imagine what 2016 is going to bring and I am ready to take it on with open arms. Here are a list of 5 great things that happened this week.

This was my first full week on my own in my new apartment. Although there were some very emotional days (transitions are hard to adults too), it is so gratifying to come home and have a place to call your own. I built my first fire on my own and was able to keep it going in the "comfortable" zone. I know this may sound pathetic to some but I totally rocked my first week... until my toilet flooded last night and I had to get my friendly neighbourhood handyman to come fix it. Needless to say, my week ended with an adventure.

I started a few different goals for 2016. My first goal was to take time for myself this year and one way I plan on doing that is to read at least a book a month. I have a stack of books that need to be read but unfortunately they are in a box in a pile of boxes that I just haven't unpacked yet. So, I started Me Before You by Jojo Moyes on my iPad this week... and finished it this week. It was such a good book but I have to say that I cried a lot more in that book than I think I have ever cried in a book. Do you ever get the feeling after you finish a good book that something is missing from your life? Well I am totally going through withdrawals of the characters in this one. If you haven't read it yet, go do it. I doubt you will regret it.

I promised myself that I would do some serious food prep in my new place so that things went smoother during the week and that I would have more time for fun things. I should note that I love cooking though so that is totally a fun thing. Anyway, I made some delicious treats including a quinoa salad, spinach salad, and lasagna cupcakes. I nabbed this recipe from my wonderful boyfriend's blog. He really knows his way around the kitchen. These lasagna cupcakes were easy, amazingly delicious and quick to make. I froze a ton of them and now just grab them for in my lunches every now and then. You can check out the recipe here if you wanted to give it a go! He is going to update it this weekend with a new post so stay tuned!!

This was a busy week at school with lots of absences. Maybe that is why I am feeling under the weather? Anyway, needless to say, I thought about taking lots of pictures this week of some of the things we were doing but never got around to a single one. I spent some time teaching them how to play a great new game I found from Primarily Speaking when she posted on Primary Powers. We played "Walk the Plank" to practice our addition strategies and my grade ones loved it! They loved it so much that they were requesting to play when I suggested it later on in the week. I will be adding it to our math stations when we get to them later this month for sure (and I promise to have some pictures as well ;))

I am excited that I got to spend some time making a new bingo game this week. I feel like this one has taken me forever and that if I maybe post promising that it will be posted on my TpT store this week, then it will kick my bum into gear to get it done. Look forward to a post about this, this week! In the meantime, check out the rest of my products at my store!

Another one of my goals this week was to make great use of my blog. So check back soon for an update from my class to yours :) Thanks for reading!

Oh DEER, it's almost Christmas...

Wow! I cannot believe I survived last week! It was crazy from Monday to Friday with so much I could not even begin to know where to share. The week started off foul because I was sick, late for work, ran out of gas, and ran over a squirrel... which caused me to cry a lot on my way to work. We also had our NSTU vote all day on Monday, which was definitely a lot of stress as we had no idea how it would go. It was less than a good day. As all teachers do though, as soon as I got to school I tried to put on my happy face and get through the day! Needless to say, I clearly survived! The rest of the week was not much better with many ups and downs. I will not bore you with the details but instead tell you about the amazing work my grade ones produced! I am so proud of them and how hard they worked.

ARTventurous is a genius with the best art activities. The step-by-step directions are absolutely wonderful and perfect for our little learners. I did this activity last year with my grade primaries and they were able to complete it with no difficulties so I knew I needed to try it out with my wonderful ones. I cannot even begin to explain how proud they are of their creations.

First we followed Artventurous' step-by-step drawing directions. There were some students who had difficulty tracing their hands and as always I had to spend time reminding them to press lightly with their pencil so they would be able to erase. The reindeer took on a complete life of their own. Instead of painting them as Artventurous had suggested, I decided that we needed to work with our crayons. The kids had a great conversation about which colours would work and which wouldn't. I find that my school doesn't have the best brown paints and pastels really smudge so crayons would create the best. I have to say their creativity is really noticeable in their antlers. Check out all the different kinds that they created:

The following day we spent some time painting the background. I decided that it would be a good idea to do any colour except for black. I think they chose some great colours and many of them really pop. Again, I was just so proud of their creations.

Last year I had put the red sparkles on the nose because they wanted to make their reindeer extra special so this year my grade ones wanted to do the same thing. This was something I thought of on my own and I think they turned out pretty darn cute. Check some of their creations out:

 

In the end we posted a bulletin board for all the parents and students to see for the school concert today and tomorrow. Here is a picture of our final class creations. I have to say, they did a wonderful job!

Hello everyone! Sorry it has been so long since I have posted. I swear I have tons of ideas that need to get posted. I promise to get through some of them this week! Things have been crazy as last week was parent teacher, trying to decorate for my favourite time of year, and getting ready to move. For now, I am here to talk about the big TPT Cyber Smile Sale! This is the first time I have ever participated in one of the sales from TPT and I am so excited.

First off, a bunch of sellers have decided to share their old school photos from when they were in school. I think it is absolutely brilliant and am so excited to share mine with you. This is my photo from when I was in grade two! Gotta love the braided/crimped look!

For two days only, TPT is having a Cyber Smile Sale! You can get anywhere to 28% off some great products for your classroom! If you are new to TPT, here is how it works:

1) Find a product that works for you!
2) Put it in your cart!
3) Get ready to check out and put in your redemption code of "SMILE."
4) When you have paid and received your product, don't forget to go back and rate it so that you can earn FREE credits towards future TPT purchases!

Everything in my store is on sale so take a peek and see if there is anything you like!

Here are links to my most popular items:

Number Bingo 1-10

Number Bingo 1-20

Also, if you have any ideas for future products you would like to see, comment below and let me know what you think! I would love to hear from you!

Thanks and happy shopping :)

Five for Friday

Hey folks! Well it is Friday the 13th and we all made it through. I figure there is no better way to start this blog than linking up with the blog Doodle Bugs Teaching and her five for Friday party!! Five for Friday is a linky party where teachers post about five random things from their week. And ladies and gentlemen, mine are certainly random this week! Let's get started!

My amazing week began by having my blog totally redesigned by A Little Peace of Africa. I signed up in the middle of October and was counting down the days until the big reveal. I am so impressed and keep coming back to check to see what it looks like. I love the colours and the themes. I cannot say 'Thank You' enough... but maybe one more time! Thank you!!!

This past weekend I went to see an amazing little apartment in my hometown. I am excited to announce that I am signing the lease (hope this doesn't jinx it) and will be moving in in December. It has been awhile since I have lived out on my own but am so excited to take the plunge again. Just think of all the decorating possibilities! I have a feeling that there will be lonely days ahead but I cannot wait to come home from work to a place that is my own. The apartment is the perfect next step and where I am in my life. I am excited to see where it takes me!!

I was really slack on taking photos this week. There were tons of exciting things happening at school from the Remembrance Day ceremony, to Bus Evacuation Drill, to Lock Down Drills and Mad Science presentations. Needless to say, it was a great week to be on top of my game and completing my report cards at least 4 days before they were due. I can honestly say that I know all about procrastination. It is the name of my game most years when it comes to these. This year I am job sharing with a lovely teacher and she is far from a procrastinator. With her help, we completed them early and I was able to celebrate that accomplishment! Thank you!

What photos I did take this week were today during my math stations. I have made it my goal this year to make these a reality, regularly. So far this year I have made it through three or four rounds. Along with math stations, I have been working on my guided math practices. They are coming along and I am excited to say they are something I look forward to everyday. Right now we are working on number sense goals such as estimation and counting to 100. My grade ones worked so hard today to complete these! We did skip counting puzzles, missing numbers and matching number cards. Needless to say, their independence during these stations has certainly made me a proud teacher this week.

Lastly, my favourite part of my week was Coco Chanel. My mom and dad's dog has got to be the cutest little puppy. Actually, this week I taught Yoga to my little group of kiddos and one of the little boys reminded me that his dog was not a puppy, but a small dog. So correction: Coco has got to be the cutest dog. My parents were away for a part of the week so I was taking care of her. Coming home everyday to her excited prance always brought a smile to my face, even when the day was hard. Last night, she even chased the geese off of our yard. She definitely makes a good guard dog :)

Thanks everyone for reading! I will update with a post about our art lesson on Monday! We ran out of time today with everything that was happening so students are excited to get started next week on their creativity!

See you soon! :)

I'm so excited, and I just can't hide it...

Hi everyone!

I just wanted to make a quick post to explain how excited I am about my new blog layout. I have been hesitant towards posting anything during the transition but now that it has taken place, I am definitely going to be sending you updates here and there. I already have my post all planned out for tomorrow so get excited for a wonderful grade one art piece, as long as things go as planned ;).

I have been tossing around the idea of a blog for months. I took an Assistive Technology course this summer for my Masters and we were asked to regularly post to a blog as a part of our final grade. It seemed easy enough but I had little, to no, experience with one in the classroom. Next, a friend (Mme. Andrea at Maternelle avec Mme Andrea) suggested Laine at A Little Peace of Africa and I was completely sold right away. If you are considering getting a blog for yourself, I definitely suggest you check out her website. Laine has amazing ideas and is so incredibly creative. It was an easy process and I cannot wait to continue to post about my products and what my lovelies create in our classroom.

So without further ado, please stay in contact. Comment below if there is something you want to see and most importantly, visit frequently! I cannot wait to share with you soon!