January 2016 Pinterest Pick 3 Linky

 I am linking up with PAWSitively Teaching, Just Reed, and Inspired Owl's Corner for their Pinterest Pick 3 Linky.  

I love finding things on pinterest and being able to see what others have found as well.   Here are a few of my favorite pins for January:

This is a cute and fun writing activity for the kids to make up some New Year's Resolutions.  

This is a great Martin Luther King, Jr. Day activity:

This would be fun to do on a cold day-make a snow storm in a jar.

Make sure you link up and share your favorite pins for January!

Too Many Linky Parties...



...not enough days in the week...

Anyone else feeling that way?

There are so many great linky parties right now that I want to get in on, so I'm combining this post.

First...Favorite Pins Friday! Click the pics to take you to the original posts...and if you want to follow along with me on Pinterest, just click the cute little button in the sidebar.

Chick-Fil-A (copycat) sauce? Yes, please. I haven't tried it yet. Tried my own version once and couldn't come close so we will see... Chick-Fil-A is pretty new to our area (about 45 minutes away from me). The place is always packed and I am totally addicted to their sauce.

Silly Sentences!

I have been saving a bag of these plastic eggs since I went back to school to become a teacher - PERFECT!
 

Okay, you caught me. This one links back to our blog, but I *love* this quote and had to add it to my inspirational sayings board. :-)

 

Also, linking up for Win, Loss, and a Thing of Cost.

 

 

 

Win:

 

Hubby is an automotive technician. After running errands all day, my car wouldn't start after my final stop before returning home. He fixed me right up! :-)

 

Loss:

 

I think I had a gall bladder attack (dr. is doing tests) on Saturday and haven't felt great since...but hey, I've lost 5 pounds. Could that be a win?

 

Cost:

 

Sight Word Packs! Click the picture to check them out:

 

 

 Super Sight Words Packs are perfect for practicing those important sight words!!! I have made one for each level of the DOLCH sight words.

Pack Includes:

Suggestions for Use page

**Clickable** Table of Contents - CTRL + Click will take you where you need to be within the document so you don't have to scroll through to find the page you are looking for.

Sight Word Check List

Flashcards - Two options – one is a full set of the words and the other is a full page of each word. We found many times our students struggle with the same words and wanted the option of printing an entire of page of one word.

Bang! Game Cards

Word Work Pages - Students practice reading the words, tracing the words, and finally writing the words. Available in ball and stick or D'nealian font.

And finally, what pack would be complete without an “I Have, Who Has” game?

 Happy Friday!

Favorite Pins Friday!

Well, I've never linked up for Five for Friday because I always forget to take pictures, but I have no problem remembering to pin! Here's some of my favorites from this week:

 

I can't stand water bottles on the desk, so when I saw this I was so excited! I wonder how much those things cost??? Rules of the linky party say to link to original post--not Pinterest--but this first one is just a link to the picture.

 

 

 

Could I be this organized? Seems like a great idea to keep me accountable to the standards...

 

 

I really like the idea of having "team supplies" this year. In the past, each student has had a math cubbie in one area (high traffic when we need to get manipulatives), the whiteboards have all been in one area, pencils, etc. It seems putting them at each group would be a time saver--that is if I can stand for them to be in groups! I admit I resorted to rows a lot with my talkative group last year!

Okay on to more organization... I did enter a giveaway to win $50 to erincondren.com but I'm forming a back-up plan if I don't win. Ha! This site has links to printables galore - weekly planners, cleaning planners, and meal planners. I also pinned some fitness planning printables, but the link doesn't take me to them. :-(

 

 

Is anyone else guilty of spending more time planning to be organized than actually doing it? Just saying...

 

Food! I normally pin a lot more recipes, but I have been "being good" this week and that included not looking at good food on Pinterest! Hee hee... Just didn't need the temptation! Here's the last recipe I pinned though--looks yummy!

 

 

 

House! We are so close to diving into our laundry room project... I'm thinking a version of these cabinets would be perfect!

 

 

 

Now for a couple of inspirational sayings I love...

 

 

This pin goes to some advertisement page...

Your turn! Go link up with Cara at The First Grade Parade. :-)

 

 

 

 

Room Setup

Last time I blogged, I told you about all my broken items.  I am glad to say that right now my dishwasher, washer, and computer are all working again!!!   :-)  I did have to break down and order a new cell phone.  I have to wait about a week for it, but I was sure glad to have the majority of things working again!  YAY!

In the meantime, I have been pondering how I will be setting up my classroom this coming year.  I am more of a traditional individual that likes the desks in rows.  Last year, I branched out and changed the seating around a little bit and had more of teams/groups.  I liked that there was a lot more room when they were sitting in teams/groups.  Although, I really like the rows because they are working more independently that way.  As I was looking on pinterest for ideas, I found this neat site:

http://www.theschoolsupplyaddict.com/room-setup.html

It has a lot of different ways to set up your classroom.  I'm checking it out and would also love to here how you have set up your classroom and what way has worked the best for you. 

Have a great week! 

Moving Forward and Bucket List

So I won't talk much about this issue because it makes me sad.  Most of you know that Crystal took another position for next year.  We finished up our school year and on Friday the staff gave her a gift and our wonderful music teacher prepared a song about her using some ideas that I gave him.  Well, the song was supposed to be funny (and it was) but we all ended up crying by the end of it.  I will miss her a lot, but we have become great friends and will remain in contact and of course continue our blog together! 

 

We have linked up with some bloggy friends, First Grade at Last, A Cupcake for the Teacher, Miss Kindergarten, and A Modern Teacher to share a summer bucket list: Join us and share your bucket list for the summer as well!

 

 

http://www.miss-kindergarten.com/2013/05/my-summer-bucket-list-linky-party.html

 

1.  SLEEP

 

2.  Check out this neat way of arranging desks in the room.  I found it on pinterest and plan on spending some time thinking of how I will arrange my room and what materials I will need for it. 

 

 

http://pinterest.com/pin/244320348507431849/

 

 3.  Hmmmm......I have been thinking awhile about making these for my groups.  We will see....
 

http://pinterest.com/pin/148970700144167236/

4.  Visit friends in Denver, Colorado

 

 

5.  Cat Sit.......My mother has a rescue for cats and has many cats that she takes in and adopts out to good homes......want to adopt one LOL!  Anyways, every summer she thinks she needs a vacation for some reason :-) and I get to go help take care of these cats for about a week......after a day of it I am usually extremely tired.  I don't know how she does it but she does and she does a great job with it!  Those cats are spoiled beyond belief!!

This is me after a day of helping with all the cats!!  LOL!

 

6.  I have a lot of home improvement/crafts that I would love to do this summer.  I always do have a lot that I want to do, but don't seem to get many of them done.  But, this is one that I would like to accomplish this summer if possible.  Found this on pinterest and thought it would be great to do in our unfinished basement.  (Pinterest is wonderful!) 

 

http://pinterest.com/pin/244320348507307955/

 

Hope you join us in the linky party....love to hear what your bucket list is for this summer! 

 

Have a great week and a huge thank you to all of our soldiers!  Kristi

 

 

Update on Checklist and Timer

YAY!  It is working!  I love the checklist and timer......well I guess I should say that it worked 3 out of 4 days.  I left fairly early for me (4:30-5:00) three of the days and then the last day, I didn't even set the timer because I knew that there would be no way I would be able to get out of there by the time the timer went off.  Of course some of it may be that we only had 4 days this week and the last day was an in service day.  So, I had to be done with everything a day early. 

So, once again thanks to all for the great ideas and I'm glad that I started doing this.  I feel more organized and I stay on task (for the most part LOL)!  

Since it was going well at school, I decided that I was going to make a checklist at home as well.  I only did the checklist this week without the timer.  I believe that I will need to add the timer next week because I think the timer makes me move faster (the checklist that I had daily at home took me quite awhile each night to get done-so I think the timer will make it go faster).  I will say that by Friday evening, I had my house all clean, dishes done, laundry done (and actually put away) and groceries done!  I felt like I actually had a weekend where I could just lounge and do things that I really wanted to do (like check out pinterest LOL)!

Hope all of you had a great weekend and have a great week!  Kristi

10 Frame Fun and I Love Pinterest!

I just love Pinterest! Today we talked about ten frames and I used some ideas that I copied right off of that wonderful site.

Here’s a peek:

 

I couldn’t find the original “Pinspiration” for this, but the kids loved the idea of getting to paint the dots instead of coloring or using counters. Also, it was a perfect motivator for my students to get their FIRST EVER Math Box (Everyday Math) done. Those can be horrible, but my firsties were so motivated to paint they worked hard – well, most of them. J

I also used this idea to introduce the concept of Ten-Frames, but I forgot to take pictures during the lesson. You tape two ten frames on your floor and use the kiddos as counters. They loved it – anything to be up and moving!

I, on the other hand, was ready for them to settle back into their seats and work on the Math Box and painting ten frames page. Ha ha!

Have a great evening!

Crystal

"Whoo, hoooo" and a FREEBIE!

“Whoooo, hoooooo!”

Aren’t these owls cute??? I found the idea on Pinterest here.

Last week, we worked on the ou/ow sound so we decided to make these cute owls for our Extra Fun Thing today! The kids had a blast making them. We painted then took a short extra recess for them to dry before gluing the eyes, nose, and wings on to them. Everyone that saw them complimented on how cute they were.

If you have visited our TPT store, you know that we have made a lot of I Have, Who Has games. We started with just our reading series (Treasures) sight words and then branched off to make some with the sounds that we work on in first grade. We just finished Unit 5 in our reading series and I had the Unit 5 words handy for the last five weeks. When we had a few minutes before recess or specials, I would hand out the cards and we would play. The kids love playing and started to master the words early on in the unit. We even started timing ourselves to see if we could get faster and faster. That really made them pay attention!  I have been working on some of the games that I will use at the beginning of the year next year and just finished the short a game. You can grab it for FREE here. If you enjoy it, don't forget to leave us some feedback! ;-)

I don’t know about you all, but this week has been LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGG! Kristi says I shouldn’t complain because I was only here 2 ½ days (took off for my son's track meet and then a doctor's appointment) but it felt like so much more. The kids are really getting anxious for the end of school. We have 25 more days!

Have a blessed weekend! Rest up if you can!!!

Crystal

NTR - Command Center and Home Management Binder

NTR - Get it? Not Teaching Related... But KEEP reading because this has definitely helped this busy teacher at home! And it is Spring Break so I am at home this week - not teaching. :-)

I started using this organization system on January 1st and I LOVE it! Every time I talk about it, I have a lot of questions and it is hard to describe so I thought blogging about it and posting pictures would help. We come into our house through the dining room so each day "stuff" would get dumped on the table, then when it was time for dinner, the "stuff" would get moved to my desk and possibly never seen again. LOL! In my defense, the desk is out of the way and I rarely have time to walk by it, let alone sit there for a few minutes to organize.

Anyway, found the idea for a home management binder on Pinterest (love it!) over Christmas Break and I got busy searching for how to create one that would work for me. First, I have a "Command Center." Funny name, I know, but my super organized 12 year old son loves to call it that! Here's a pic:

See how pretty it is? My hubby was a little horrified as I explained what I wanted to do because he didn't understand how a "Command Center" could be pretty - and we really don't like anything on the kitchen counter. You'll notice the calendar next to the Command Center - it has all of our activities written on it so I know what is going on from day to day and where we need to be. Inside the Command Center is where the 'magic' happens. Take a peek:

The Home Management Binder is at the front, followed by some hanging file folders. I made these based on the 'stuff' that piles up at our house. Mine are labeled: To File (later moved to filing cabinet when I have time), Projects (household - requested by hubby once he got into my system), Taxes (it is that time of year so I could just drop it all in the file as it came in the mail), Coupons/Ads, and 4-H.

On to the Binder...

Cute cover just for fun. :-) Mine has a picture of the kiddos and Matthew 6:33-34 (one of my favorite scriptures). You can also see the tabbed dividers on the side. Mine say: To Do, Cleaning, Meals, Schoool, Kids, and Bills. These dividers have the half pockets - very important!

Before the first tab, I have an Important Phone Numbers page where I typed up the numbers for family, friends, doctors, etc. That got rid of a lot of magnets and sticky notes on the side of the fridge!

The To Do tab has a "Daily Docket" that I found on Simplemom.net. I used this at first, but I don't anymore - found it was simpler just to check my calendar each day rather than rewrite but you may want to check it out. I put mine into page protectors and used a Vis-A-Vis so I could erase and start again each week.

The Cleaning tab has one of my favorite things! It is a Weekly Cleaning Checklist. I saw the one from Simplemom.net and made one that fit our home a little better. It is also in a page protector. I pull the binder out on Saturday mornings and we all get busy. My kids (10 and 12) love to mark a job off when accomplished. They know we aren't going to do anything fun until it is all done so they move quickly from job to job. I don't even have to say anything!

The Meals tab has a two week planner that I created with tables in Microsoft Word. I just plan dinners and make my grocery list from here. You can see that I will swap meals if I don't feel like having something one night, etc. My thought was to reuse these and have a grocery list to go with each one, but we are so busy in the evenings that I plan a lot of my meals based on how much time I have to cook that night so I haven't been able to do that yet. Tuesday may be a night at home one week and not the next...

Another favorite - the School tab. You know all those notes you get from the school and you need to keep for a week or two? Well, they no longer hang on my fridge. I keep them all here - along with the school lunch calendar. This has actually saved me money! Before the binder, the kids would eat school lunch almost every day because they would forget to look ahead and ran out of time to make their lunches in the morning. Now they have to "sign-up" to take their lunch. See below:

They check the binder the night before and if they signed up to take their lunch, they gather as much as they can before going to bed...makes for a much more relaxed morning. Now that they actually plan ahead, I am spending WAY LESS money on school lunches and a sack lunch is cheaper so it is a WIN-WIN.

I also have a Kids tab. This is for anything of theirs that is not school related such as Master's Club schedules or notes from church, etc.

Finally, the Bills tab... As the bills come in the mail, they are placed in the pocket divider. Behind that I have page protectors that hold extra checks, mailing labels, envelopes, etc. Then I have a calendar that I print and write when I will pay all of our monthly bills. Behind the calendar, I have my "checkbook" register (we use notebook paper because we rarely use checks anymore). I love this system for my bills because I can just pull out the binder and everything I need is right there.

Well, if you've stuck with me this long, I apologize for the length of the post! Hopefully it will be worth it to someone! I know I have had ZERO clutter on my table since I started using this system, my house is cleaner, and it has saved me money. LOVE IT! :-)

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Crystal