Thankful, Stressed, and Ready to Shop

I hope each of you had a very Happy Thanksgiving today!  For those of you that braved the cold and the crowds tonight - I hope you found everything you were shopping for.  I wanted to take a moment to say that I am thankful for my salvation, my family and friends, my health, and for all those wonderful bloggers/TpTers that make my life just a little bit easier.  I am very thankful for my group of kiddos in my class this year too.

My family did something a little different this year.  Instead of cooking, we went out and ate.  We enjoyed the time together and there was no clean-up.  The only down side to this is that you do not have any leftovers to nibble on through the rest of the week.

I have not blogged in a while.  Every time I say I am going to blog more, something always causes me not to.  I think I am just overwhelmed with school and all the changes we have made.  It has been driving me nuts.  Now, I am having surgery on my foot on Wednesday and I will be out of the classroom for 8 weeks.  Talk about STRESSED!  I am a very OCD person, who has everything in the classroom put in a certain spot and I do things a certain way.  To think that a total stranger is going to be in my class, with my stuff, teaching my kiddos is really disturbing.  As of Tuesday afternoon, my principal still hadn't gotten someone to be my certified sub.  There is a chance I may not even get to meet this person before he/she is turned loose in my room with my kids.......this really bothers me and I am going to have to find a way to cope with it.  Not to mention I am going to be missing all the Christmas/Winter activities.  When I told my kiddos on Tuesday, there were some tears, some worried faces, and a lovely little one that told me she did not want me to be her teacher ever again.  She crawled under my reading table and refused to come out.  I was heart broken.  Please remember my class in your prayers over the next eight weeks.

I hope you have your TpT Wish Lists ready for the sale coming up on Monday and Tuesday.  I am putting my entire store on sale for 20% off.  Enjoy shopping!

Surprise Sale!

TpT has hit 100K likes on their Facebook fan page!  They are celebrating with a sale today and tomorrow only!  10% off!!  You can enter the code FB100K and get the 10% off.

I'm also offering 20% off in my store to celebrate!  So, you'll get 28% off when using the code on my products.  Other sellers are joining in on the fun, too!

I don't know about you, but I can really stock up on things I have put on my wishlist now.  

Enjoy shopping!

Nouns and Math Facts Freebies

It has definitely been Monday.  I began getting a cold on Thursday night, but was hoping it would be gone over the weekend.  I was wrong!  I woke up this morning feel really rough and wanted to just crawl back in bed.  I drug myself up to get ready because I knew my kiddos had to take the Reading portion of their Discovery Ed test.  We take the Math portion tomorrow and with the way I am feeling now, I am sure I will feel pretty rough in the morning also. 

After the test today, we did several activities learning about nouns.  My kiddos watched the BrainPop, Jr. video on nouns, I read a cute book about nouns, we listed all the nouns we could name (or that we had room for on our chart), and then I gave the kiddos 4 post-it notes and had them label each one “person”, “place”, “thing”, and “animal.”  Then they had to write an example, illustrate the example, and place it on the poster that it matched.  The kiddos loved doing this and love seeing each other’s examples hanging up.

I found this idea over at The Bubbly Blonde.  Check her out here.

 

Does your district stress the importance of kiddos knowing their basic math facts?  If so, below are two freebies.  One is basic addition facts and the other is basic subtraction facts.  Enjoy!

 

 I hope everyone has a great week.  We have a four day week and then an Inservice Day on Friday full of training.  Sometimes I think I would rather be teaching my kiddos instead of sitting through wonderful training that we all hate enjoy so much. 

 

Excitement and Classroom Photos

I was so excited to get an e-mail saying my new blog design was ready!  Erin at http://creatinganddesigning.blogspot.com did such a wonderful job!  If you are looking for someone to create you a new design, I highly recommend her.  You can check out her blog here:

I have been missing from action, and like everyone else, the start of school has completely wore me out.  My class is very needy this year and I am struggling with it.  On top of a needy group of kiddos, we have a new reading series and our focus has changed so much with fully implementing Common Core.  I am going to share a few pictures of my classroom for everyone to see.  Better later than never, right?

 View from side of room.

 Reading Group/Literacy Center board.  Student wrote their reading goal on the books.

 Cute back to school writing we did the first week.

Homework Club!  I am sad that we have had homework for the past two weeks and I have had about 6 not return theirs, so their number has been removed.  I wish parents valued school and learning.  I feel that each year it get worse.

I hope to be back on Sunday with a freebie!  I plan on resting tomorrow and watching some football with the family!

SALE on TpT

Wow!  I can't believe that it has been 2 1/2 months since I posted.  I had a very busy summer and needed the break.  I will be back to blog about my first week of school soon.  But until then, have you heard?  TeachersPayTeachers is having a sale and I have been filling up my cart.  Have you?

Five for Friday

Summer is here and I have been looking forward to it for so long.  Now that it is here, I was a little lost at times this week.  I have decided to make a To Do List and try to accomplish one thing on it each day.  This way I will feel like I am doing something constructive.

I have decided to link up with Five for Friday and feature a few pictures from the last few days of school and then a few from what I've done this week.

Last week we had popsicles three days in a row.  The kids loved celebrating the end of school this way.

 This is what my classroom looked like on Thursday.  The kids last day was Wednesday. We had a half-day on Friday and I just sat there watching the clock waiting to go home.

 I just love this bag!  One of my sweet parents gave it to me.  It is made out of seat belts.  I can't wait to take it to the beach in a few weeks.

 This week me and my son met some friends downtown at a splashpad and playground for a little fun.  It was very crowded, but we still had fun!

 Here is my little one.  He said the water was too cold at first, but he finally got wet.

I have been able to mark the following things off of my To Do List already this week:  oil change, purchase little man a new bed, apply for little man a new social security card (our adoption was final in December, but never made it down to do during school), clean out little man's room to get ready for his bed to be delivered, and tomorrow I am having new tires put on my car.  I guess I have been busier this week than I thought.  

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TpT Teacher Appreciation Sale and Mini Math Unit

I am so excited for the TpT Teacher Appreciation Sale.  I have loaded up my cart with so many units that I am so excited to use...even if many of them are for next year.  Have you started loading up your cart?  What are you planning on purchasing?

I had been working on a summer themed math unit, but never got around to finishing it.  I am listing it as is for now...there is only 5 centers finished.  I will add to it in the future when I get motivated.  I think that with the end of the school year approaching so fast, I am just burnt out.  Here are a few pictures of the mini math unit.

 I will give this mini unit away to the first three people that leave a comment and tell me what you are most excited about purchasing during the TpT sale.  Don't forget to leave your e-mail address in your comment.

Teacher Appreciation Sale on TpT

Everything in my store is on sale!

 

Thanks Beth from Zip-a-dee Designs for the cute graphic! 

 

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!

Instagram and Testing

 It is crazy how Instagram has taken over the blog world.  I was hesitant to create an account because that would just put something else to do, lol.  I don't blog regularly like I should...am I going to be able to do Instagram.

Well, then I saw all the fun everyone was having and had to join in!

My username is: @swingingthrough2ndgrade if you want to come along for the ride. If you are an Instagrammer, leave your username in the comments so I can follow you!

Today was day 1 of testing - we have 3 more days to go.  I am glad that I didn't have to spend this past weekend writing lesson plans because I was a very busy person.  My best friend's daughter, who I have helped raise as my own, went to her senior prom.  I was blessed that she wanted me by her side through everything.  I'm going to leave you with a few pictures that I took of the day.

      I love the picture above.  My son, who is her best friend, was having a talk with her date.

April Currently and Freebie

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!  Has anyone been watching The Bible series that has been on the History Channel?  I'm behind everyone else and have only watch the first few episodes.  Today after church, I was watching it with my two sons and I was truly blessed to hear my oldest, who turns 20 in a few weeks, tell me what happens in his own words before it showed it.  I have tried very hard to keep him in church growing up but never realized how Bible knowledgeable he was.  I asked him when and how he had learned all those stories and he replied, "Mom, you raised me right - in church."  How blessed I am for God to have entrusted me with two wonderful sons while we are here on Earth.  

I am linking up with Farley and the April Currently.

Stop by and link up. 

I have posted a freebie of writing paper for the spring.  Stop by and pick it up if you would like.

Spring Cleaning Sale

Anyone up for a Spring Cleaning Sale?  

I am throwing a SALE in my TpT store Saturday and Sunday - 20% off everything. 

Thanks, Krista, for this amazing graphic!!

I have added a new unit to my TpT store - Bubblegum Literacy Centers.  Below is a preview.

I am off to enjoy my last few days of Spring Break!  We go back to school on Tuesday.  The family and I are in Nashville for a few days and I am excited to go shopping and sight seeing...even if it is raining here today.  I hope to be back in a few days with pictures from our trip.

Blessed

Sorry friends for me being MIA for a while.  There has been so much going on in my life, I hate to admit it, but blogging was not my top priority.  I'm hoping things are getting back to normal - but I can't guarantee it.

A little history about me:

I was a paralegal for a law firm for about 6 years or so and then I decided to follow my dream and go back to school and get my teaching degree.  I LOVE teaching!  In the past month or two I have been questioning whether or not I was doing what God wanted me to do.  After a lot of time kneeling on my knees in prayer, I got my answer last night. 

See, yesterday in class we did this cute activity

found at:  http://theteacherwife.blogspot.com/2013/03/who-is-worth-more-to-you-than-gold.html

I loved how they turned out.  Here are some...

 

This is the one that helped me tremendously.  "Jesus and God are worth more to me than gold because they will love me no matter what."

This is the message I got from his mom on Facebook before I went to bed last night

Let me just say - I felt like God was shaking me, telling me not to doubt.  I am so blessed to be able to love each one of my students on a daily basis.  God is good!  I thank Him daily for my valleys...because without them I would not have any mountain tops.

Maybe now I can start blogging and working on things for my TpT store, which I have neglected for so long. 

Goodnight friends and God Bless!