Back to School Game!

How is tomorrow already August??

I've been having way too much fun enjoying these summer days with my family to even begin to realize that it's almost time to get in back to school mode!

I had very high hopes of making so many awesome things this summer. Like classroom decor items, mini posters, math and literacy centers, printing, laminating, a BUNCH of TPT products, classroom furniture makeovers.... and the list goes on.

Well, tomorrow is August and I haven't done half of those things, not even close.

Blowing bubbles with my daughter got done though! Multiple times ;) Oh and a whole lotta Target shopping as well. Summer vacation needs to end for the one and only reason that I must stop going to Target! Ha!

But not really though.

While thinking about my back to school plan this week, I remembered a fun game I always do on the first day of school. 

And I thought I'd share it with you all!

All you need for this fun activity are 2-3 rolls of toilet paper. 

Yes, toilet paper. (Don't worry it's fun, I promise!)

Have students unroll the paper and take as many squares as they'd like. Some will take 1 or 2 and some will go all out and grab like 22. Then, have a student take some for you.

Once everyone has paper, ask your students to count the number of squares they have. 

And this is the fun part!

1 square = 1 thing about you

22 squares = 22 things about you (!)

Students always laugh when they realize what they have to do with the squares. I usually go first to break the ice and then students take turns sharing fun facts about them.

It can be as random as 'I love chocolate ice cream' or 'I went to the beach over the summer'.

Whatever they would like to say!

I love this game because it gets everyone talking, helps get rid of first day jitters and you get to know your new students a little better! And for some, a whole lotta better!

There you have it! No prep easy first day activity!

What are some of your favorite back to school games?

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And on a completely unrelated topic, I picked up Gone Girl this morning and I just can't wait to start it! Have any of you read it?

Well that's all for me tonight,

Until next time,

TWEET!, New Project and Giveaway Winner!

Good morning!

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer vacation.

I know I am!

But although I am truly loving every second of my time off, I've gotta say, I can't not think about school. 

Oh well! I guess that's a teacher thing, right?

Before I show you what's been on my teacher mind lately, it's time to announce the winner of the Classroom Friendly Supplies Sharpener Giveaway!

Congratulations to Kathy S!

I hope you love your new sharpener!

Thank you to everyone who has entered! 

Don't forget that Troy is offering a 5% discount to all of you guys 

with code WK9KD (valid until Sept. 6th, 2014).

Don't miss this great opportunity to snag this gem!

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I'm currently in full on planning mode for my 2014-2015 classroom. In an attempt to cut down on purchases (oh my the amount of money I've spent on my classroom over the past 5 years is not even funny! haha!) I will be reusing the bird borders I had 3 years ago. I can't find them online.... I believe they are the old bird collection Carson Dellosa had before releasing the Boho Birds.

Anyways, they still look perfect and I still love birds, so win win.

With that in mind, I started working on a new decor collection.

May I present to you TWEET!

TWEET! Bird Themed Word Wall Letters

For now, I've only made some word wall letters, but more items will be coming soon!

I love the bright colors! This will brighten up any decor for sure :)

I've also purchased some fabric to create a pennant banner to hang over my classroom window.

I've been wanting to make one for such a long time but just never got around to doing it. 

Don't you just love that triangle print?

Hopefully, I will get this done over the next few weeks in order to share with you the final product, sooner rather than later!

Well that's it for me today!

Have a great day everyone!!

Until next time,

Sharpener GIVEAWAY!

It's officially summer break!

The time has come to celebrate with sunny days, pool days, park days, ice cream days, popsicle days, vacation days.... and no alarm days ;)

I'm mostly looking forward to spending some quality time as a family of three. Being a teacher mom is pretty much the best thing ever.

To kick off the summer in style, what better way then to have a 

GIVEAWAY!

Remember my new best friend?

Here's a little reminder:

I'm still realllly in love with this amazing sharpener, who has given every other sharpener in the world a run for their money.

Also, it's given a whole new meaning to the word sharp.

The lovely Troy from Classroom Friendly Supplies (the mastermind behind this sharpener) has offered to give away one sharpener to a lucky reader!!

Yep. She's that awesome!

All you've got to do is use the rafflecopter below to enter. 

(Giveaway opened to US residents only)

Giveaway will run until July 11th 2014.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Troy has also kindly offered a discount code for y'all to enjoy on your purchase.

So if you aren't the lucky winner, or even if you are and would like a second sharpener ;), 

use code WK9KD at checkout for 5% off. Code expires September 6th 2014.

Now you've got no reason not to own one!

Good luck everyone!!

And happy summer break!!

Until next time,

For the Love of Sharpening

I am in love.

Big time.

May I introduce to you, the best sharpener you will ever cross paths with:

Sharpener from Classroom Friendly Supplies

This my friends, is pure genius.

If your kiddos are anything like mine, then sharpening pencils is not their forte.

They've got other fortes, obviously, like being motivated to the extreme and wanting to learn all. of. the. time., 

but the sharpening situation, not so much.

First of all, my classroom sharpener is a pain. It's difficult for them to use, it's loud, it doesn't sharpen properly, it basically eats up their pencils and it's not cute.

Then, some of them have personal sharpeners which I'm not a big fan of. 

They break the leads and students drop them on the ground, causing pencil shavings to scatter everywhere, about 50 times a week.

But not anymore!

This pencil sharpener is the best thing that will happen to your classroom.

I received it about a week ago and I am obsessed.

It is perfect. In every way!

First things first, would you take a look at its cuteness level? I mean please.

This pink color was my first choice but all of the colors are gorgeous!

Aside from good looks, this sharpener brings the word sharpen to a whole new level.

It sharpens fast, smoothly, does not break pencils and is easy to clean.

Take a look for yourself.

To clean the sharpener, all you've got to do is take out the clear box, empty it, put it back and voilà!

To deal with my kids' sharpening situation, I now have my students put their pencils in a jar at the end of the day. I then sharpen all of them when they leave and when they come back to school the next morning, a sharper than sharp pencil is waiting for them :)

They are so impressed at how well it sharpens, they actually find excuses to write!
Talk about a happy teacher :)

This sharpener was created by an elementary school teacher, for teachers.  How awesome is that?
Troy from Classroom Friendly Supplies has seriously outdone herself with this little gem. I will never use any other sharpener, thank you very much.

If you already own this sharpener, they you are for sure already in love with it.

If you do not own it, then do yourself a favour and treat your classroom to a new sharpener.

At $24,95 and FREE SHIPPING, this treat is a major bargain!

If you are a fellow Canadian, please take not that Troy does not ship to Canada through her main store. You can, however, order through eBay and pay duty fees to receive it to your home.

Thank you Troy for this amazing new addition to my classroom, I LOVE it!

And now, dear readers, please go ahead and snag your very own sharpener.
Right this second!


Have a great day everyone!

Until next time,

Five for Friday!

Today, I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to bring you FIVE for Friday!!

1. I got a Whiteboard!

 I finally have an interactive whiteboard in my classroom! I received it on Tuesday and it was fully plugged in and functional by Wednesday afternoon. 

I was so excited I could barely teach on Wednesday, after lunch. Needless to say my kiddos only had eyes for the board. So we spent some time discovering it together. You would've thought we were discovering the world wide web for the first time.

I tell ya. Kids (and a teacher!) on Christmas morning. The same.

I let all of the students, one by one, come to the board and write. They signed their name and it was like I'd given them a million dollars.

We did some math problems (because yes I ended up being able to teach) and we had so much fun! I feel like I can do anything and they will LOVE it simply because it's on the board.

Awesomeness.

2. Go Noodle!

Since we got an interactive board, I was finally able to test out GoNoodle.com.

Oh. My. Word.

If you don't know this website, please do yourself a favor and go sign up, right this instant.

GoNoodle is a brain break website that includes a whole bunch of free video brain breaks. You choose a little mascot (we choose McPufferson ;) and the more brain breaks you do, the more levels you can unlock. 

We all know brain breaks are a necessity for the kiddos. The littles need to move!

These are perfect and extremely engaging!

I look forward to using them a LOT in my classroom.

3. Pinspired trick

I found this idea on Pinterest but forgot to pin it and now I can't remember where it was from.

If anyone knows please let me know so I can give proper credit!

When my kiddos work independently, they have a lot of questions and often need to see me. 

If they come to my desk, I end up with 20 students in line, waiting for their turn. During that time, they are either chatting or dancing or dropping their pencil.... basically not doing anything productive.

 If I have them raise their hand, I never know who raised it first, their arm hurts and once again, they aren't being very productive.

Not anymore!

I gave each student a clothespin with their name. When they are working independently and have a question, they pin their pin on a little basket near my desk. When I'm ready for a student, I take the pin, in the correct order, call the student to my desk and help the kiddo. This way, they can keep busy while waiting, time seems to go by much faster for them and everyone is happy! The kids love having a little pin and they are always super happy to use it.

4. Mother's Day

Mother's Day is this Sunday (my second Mother's Day! :) so we worked on some gifts for moms this week. 

First, we made some gift certificates. 

Students choose gifts such as doing the dishes, giving a massage, preparing breakfast, etc. It was so sweet.

Then, we made Teri's ice cream cones.

Of course, I forgot to take a picture but they looked super cute!

Got to love A Cupcake for the Teacher!

5. TPT Sale

And finally, I shopped the TPT sale!

I got some graphics and some cute craftivities.

Here is a look at some of my favorite new graphics:

I got these kidlets from Ashley Hughes.

These space cuties from EducaSong

These punctation kids from From the Pond

That's it for me tonight!

Have a great weekend everyone!

And Happy Mother's Day to all the mommies out there!

Until next time,

Easter Eggs and a Freebie!

Good evening everyone!

How is it April 9th already? Time is flying by, I tell ya.

My baby turned one this past Friday which is a definite indicator that time really is flying by. How did this even happen? It feels like yesterday we were finding out we were pregnant and today, we've got a toddler crawling all over the place, almost walking ;) 

LOVE this little bundle of joy!

It's also been a whole month since I've gone back to work and it feels like that was only a few days ago. It must mean I'm in good company!

And I am!

My students are such sweethearts I feel so lucky to be their teacher. They are always happy and eager to learn. They give me hugs and drawings which just warms my heart on the daily.

Last week, I picked up some Easter goodies for my kiddos (ok and maybe a few Cadbury eggs for me... but that's not the point!) at Target and decided to get these:

I bought 4 bags of 48 eggs. I just love the gorgeous colors! 

(and I also got the adorable pink bin for 7 bucks. Yes please!)

I figured I could use these for a bunch of different things, both in math and in language arts.

I've only used them once but I fully intend on using them some more and then some more again, long after Easter has come and gone. 

I mean, eggs are a yearlong product right?

I gave each group of 2 students a bunch of eggs. They opened them in order to use half eggs. This way we had double the quantity and they weren't rolling all over the place. I then gave them a number which they had to represent with the eggs. When they had ten, they would put them over each other, making a little tower. Therefore, the number 32 would be represented with 3 towers and two eggs.

Students had a BLAST. They thought this was the coolest idea since the iPad and have been begging me to do it again ever since.

How I love first graders!

I want to use the eggs again for a synonym hunt as well as for a punctuation activity.

I'll be sure to share when we do!

Do you use Easter eggs in your classroom? 

I'd love to hear what you do with them!

Also, if you're looking for a fun activities to do with your kiddos, you can grab my 

Easter Class Book Freebie!

Class books are always a fun activity that is easy to put together.

Grab it here!

Well that's it for me today.

Talk to you soon!

And don't forget to come find me on Pinterest :)

Until next time,

spring products and latest pins!

Hey everyone!

I hope you all had a great Monday!

Temps are starting to slowly warm up here, although we had a few centimeters of snow over the weekend. 

Not cool.

But I feel like today we finally got our first glimpse of spring! And it's about time.

Everybody is in need of some sunshine over here!

I'm fully planning on wearing a yellow shirt tomorrow in an attempt to bring the sun out.

And when that doesn't work, then maybe these will:

Spring Centers: Spring Themed Literacy Activities

I made these last year and now that I'm finally teaching first grade, I'd love to make a first grade pack, in French, for my current kiddos. 

These spring centers are geared towards second grade or third grade revision.

April Word Work

I finished this pack over the weekend. Word work is great for morning work or for early finishers.

I wanted this pack to be uploaded much sooner but apparently being a working mama means time on my computer is limited! Ha! ;)

Head on over to my store to pick these up!

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I also wanted to share some recent pins I've fallen in love with.

I love this Easter reward system! Target has loads of Easter eggs with cute pastel colors at really low prices making this a fun and cheap way to bring a little Easter joy into the classroom!

We are currently learning about verbs and I fell in love with this simple yet adorable anchor chart. I pretty much attempted to recreate it for my kiddos and it looks pretty good. However, I'm extremely bad when it comes to drawing so I didn't even try to draw the cute little people. 

So words and doodles it is!

How fun is this idea for synonyms?

LOVE!

And finally, would you take a look at this gorgeous classroom?!

Oh my word!

Perfection.

If you're not following me on Pinterest (and considering my number of followers you probably aren't! haha!) , you can come and find me! :)

Have a great week everyone!

Until next time,

A quick look at our week

Happy Friday!

I have now officially completed my second week as a first grade teacher.

I LOOOOOOOVE first grade!

I'm so happy with my choice to move to the little ones and I'm having so much fun!

This week we looked at missing addends as well as statistics.

Missing addends were a little difficult.

We worked really hard on them but I still feel we need to work on them some more.

I found a SALUTE game idea on a blog this week (I can not remember which one!!! If you know, please let me know so I can give proper credit!) which I will try next week. I feel like students learn much better when they are having fun and so I'm hoping this will help clarify the concept for my munchkins.

Statistics was a blast. 

Students had fun doing surveys and graphing their results.

I had fun using my scented makers to make huge graphs.

Ah! The things that will make a teacher happy! :)

We also talked about food groups.

I love that some of them thought chicken was a food group. 

You know, as in chicken nuggets, chicken breasts, chicken wings, etc.

The big chicken group.

Adorbs!

I also read Moose! to them. An awesome book by the one and only Robert Munsch.

The students thought it was hilarious.

You would've thought someone was tickling them non stop the whole time! 

I choose this book because my classroom is decorated with Moose and Friends and I thought it was fitting. 

Have you ever read this book?

And finally (because this post is beyond random, I feel like one extra random topic fits right in ;), I must share a great resource I found this week from Scholar's Choice.

They are offering a bunch of Daily 5 freebies!

Student handouts, checklists, parent handouts, mini classroom posters...

Click HERE to check it out!

I'm not doing the Daily 5 this year but I do plan on doing them next year!

I'm currently in the process of reading information about how to incorporate them in a classroom, finding resources, reading the book, etc.

That's all for me my friends!

I'd like to give a quick shout-out to people who have either commented or contacted me through email to offer their help, if ever needed, with learning all about first grade. 

You are all so great and I want to thank you :)

Have a great weekend and I hope you are enjoying the beginning of SPRING!!

Until next time,

St-Patrick's Day!

Wow!

My first week back to work is almost over.

I'm so in love with my new students and really loving first grade!

More on that in a later post.

I'm dropping in really quick to let you know you can pick up my Shamrocks and Leprechauns Literacy Activities in my TPT store if you want some fun activities for tomorrow and Monday. 

Time to go green you guys! (If you haven't already!)

A few of these activities can easily be adapted to whole group activities or morning work if you don't have the prep time for centers :)

Click here to grab your copy.

Are you wearing something green on Monday? I would really want to but I'm struggling with finding something green in my wardrobe. Apparently, green is not my go-to! Ha!

I'll talk to you all very soon!!!

Until next time,

Almost there!

I come to you tonight with some McDonald's cookies in hand and The Pabs on my TV screen (I haven't gotten around to watching The Women Tell All yet so I'm catching up!). 

I know. Perfect evening.

And much needed may I add. I am beyond exhausted by this past week!

I went to school every single day to prepare my classroom for my munchkins coming back next Tuesday. Last Monday, I thought I would never be done on time but I'm proud to say I'm fully prepared! My boyfriend did come and help me though. THANK YOU!!

I had so much fun doing all of this! This is my first time teaching grade 1 and I could scream it from the rooftop because I'm just that happy. Don't get me wrong, I loved grade 6 and had so much fun teaching it but I've been wanting to teach the little ones for quite some time and I can't wait to do so!

So this week I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned. While cleaning, I found some things that couldn't get in the garbage fast enough (why I keep some of the things I do is beyond me) and some amazing gems, like an old Scrabble game. I'm talking girl on the cover wearing a scrunchie kind of old. I plan on keeping the letters for literacy centers. Score!

I also found another literacy center gem.

Friends, please stop everything you are doing right this second and run to Target to pick these up:

$3 stamps. They don't come with ink but for that price, I'd say they are still an amazing deal!

So many great center ideas come to mind!!

I also snagged some gold alphabet stickers that I'm sure could also be used for centers. 

And they were $1. Yes please.

I hope you all had a great Spring Break!

And if yours started today, then enjoy the next week!

Until next time,

March currently!

I haven't done one of these in a while and I'm so excited to be linking up this month!

So here we go:

Listening: The Voice (Canada) is on in the background but I'm not watching it. Should I be though? I used to looove American Idol but for some reason have never been drawn to The Voice.  

Loving: Students (and teachers!) are on Spring Break this week which means I have the entire week to go to school and prepare my classroom. I have purchased a bunch of new things and I am so excited to see it all put together. I am a little nervous though because I feel like 5 days is not even close to being enough but it'll have to do! I'll try to work at lightning speed! :)

Thinking: Sophia officially started daycare last week but only went twice, for an hour at a time. This week we will be doing half days and the following week, when my boyfriend and I go back to work, she'll be doing full days. Hello mom anxiety!!! Leaving my baby girl is by far one of the most difficult things I've ever had to do. Thank the Lord that I absolutely adore my job which is making this process a little less hard since I'm going back to something I love. But boy oh boy will I miss her :(

Wanting: Being a new mom and a fresh manicure do not generally go hand in hand. At least I don't think so?! My nails have been looking beyond blah for the last few months and I really want to just paint my nails quickly to make my hands more presentable. I'm thinking Essie's Sugar Daddy :) I love this color as it makes your nails look natural but put together. I do believe I will wait a few days though because manicured nails will not survive a classroom decor/organization extravaganza!

Needing: I laminated like crazy last week and I now need to cut everything.  Our dining table currently looks like a mini version of my classroom. Oops. I will say that my boyfriend surprised me on Friday by secretly cutting all of my numbers from 1-100 and then surprising me them. Love him!

???: Can you guess my question? Leave your guesses in the comments section!

Have a great week everyone!

SALE!

Oh how I love a good TPT sale!

Just in time for my return to work, TPT and a whole bunch of awesome sellers are throwing a great sale this Thursday and Friday!

Get up to 28% off!

My whole store will be 20% off and if you use code TPT3, you get an additional 10% off. 

Here is a look at what you might want to get your hands on :

March Word Work

Prepare for St-Patrick's Day with Shamrocks and Leprechauns!

In need of new centers? Maybe purchasing these Spring Literacy Centers will make the cold and the snow go away? Ha! If not, I'm sure they'll put a smile on your kiddos' faces :)

Spring Centers Math Edition

And it's never too early to plan ahead right? You can stock up on come literacy centers for April with my We heart the Earth Literacy Center Activities!

I'll be sure to stock up on some clipart and fun activities for my return! I'm thinking Easter craftivities!!

Enjoy the sale!
Shop HERE :)

Until next time,

purchases and my latest word work

It's Friday!

This means one more week has gone by and there are only 2 weeks left until I go back to work.

Eeek!

Double Eeek!!

I went shopping for some new supplies yesterday and my boyfriend was patient enough to follow me around Target and be my official cart filler.

I ended up not spending all that much which is pretty unheard of for any teacher in a Target. Ha!

This just means I'll have to go back soon because I don't feel like I got enough... but that's neither here nor there!

Here's a look at what I picked up:

-A pack of sticky letters. some jewel stickers and some Mr. Sketch markers. 

I will probably use the letters for bulletin board titles. The jewels are for my clip chart behavior system (visit A Cupcake for the Teacher to see how I plan on using these) and I wanted the Mr. Markers because I like them better than big Sharpies when it comes to writing on chart tablets or posters.

-A big back of stickers which I will most probably use as rewards. These were $1.50!

-A desk calendar. Can you believe I've never used one of these?? After seeing many colleagues and bloggers use them, I figured I might as well give it a try! I like that I will be able to see my month at a glance. I also love that I will spend a whole lotta time decorating it!

-A notebook. Isn't it pretty? I fell in love with this notebook and a teacher can never have too many so I just got it.

-Would you look at these gorgeous lanterns? Oh my word! They have stripes and polka dots!! I've been wanting some paper lanterns for a while and these are just perfect! I can not wait to hang these.

-I also got some little stools from IKEA which I scored for $5. If you follow me on Instagram (@misselementaryblog) then you've already seen them. (and if you're not following me then come find me! :) They were cheaper since they'd been used before but they are in perfect condition. Fine by me! I'm thinking these will be perfect for my reading corner.

I also purchased a Caramel Macchiato while at Target but I'm sure this doesn't count as teacher supplies... or does it? ;)

In other news, I've just upload my newest pack to TPT:

March Word Work

This pack is a set of 15 printables with a fun MARCH theme!

Use them for early finishers, centers, group work, sub planning, morning work.... they pretty much serve any purpose!

Pick up your copy HERE!

Have a great weekend everyone!!

Until next time,