Remember the Reindeer!!!

The countdown is on!! One week left of school for me, but the week will be packed full of Christmas programs, parties, and progress reports. Fun, but exhausting!! The first graders have been busy with all things Christmas lately. One of the traditions I do at home with my sweet girls is making reindeer food. I found the cutest pack of Christmas clipart and papers and just had to whip something up! I love how my Remember The Reindeer activities turned out! It includes an original poem, mini-book, reindeer food recipe, and baggie toppers! Here's a pic of the smallest size of baggie topper. If you are saving on colored ink, it prints out well in black and white, too!

Grab this cute pack at TPT here! Warm Wishes for a Happy Holiday Season!! Love, Mrs. Baker's Dozen

Five For Friday!!

 

Happy weekend everyone! I'm a little late to the Five For Friday party, but it's all good! ;)

It's been two weeks of school (minus Labor Day) and the last two days have definitely brought my spirits up!  That first week was mighty scary with 20 firsties running around. :)

1. We made it through a complete Daily 5 rotation!!  After increasing our stamina last week with Read to Self and Read to Someone, I couldn't wait any longer.  I had to do it!! So Tuesday we started a complete Daily 5 rotation and I almost ran from the school screaming.  Soooo, I moved my ELA block to the morning when I have more para suppport, and VOILA! Daily 5 success!  With 20 kids, I needed an extra set of eyes to walk around the room, redirecting those kiddos who get distracted.  Because we know that happens, a lot!!

2. Apples, apples, apples!  We started our two week unit over apples and Johnny Appleseed/Tall Tales.  We read apple readers from my new Apple A Day pack (which should be on TPT soon!), and did some awesome apple experiments with the 7th/8th graders in our small school.  Here's a pic of the Apple Eruption experiment I tried out at home with the girls. It was pretty exciting stuff. :)

3. Classroom pictures!! I was so swamped with inservice meetings and my daughter's 7th bday, that I never posted any classroom pictures.  Here are a few:

 My version of the Bravo board, ocean style!  Catch of the Day!

 My writing center from Seusstastic!  Ignore the mess :)

 Classroom library plus student book baskets.

 Morning meeting rug, love my Phonics Flags from A Day in First Grade!

Team labels for my kiddos!

4. This cooler weather today makes me long for pumpkin snickerdoodles and trips to the pumpkin patch! Bring on fall!!

5. Thankful my husband made it home okay from a business trip to Tennessee. <3


Have a great weekend everyone!!!!

Meet The Teacher Linky!!

At the end of a busy day, there is nothing I enjoy more than logging into my blogger account and reading about the ups and downs of teacher life!  I love 'meeting' new teachers and exploring their blog pages full of ideas!!  I am pretty new to the blogging game, so I was so excited to see this linky.  Now more teachers can meet ME, Megan Baker blogger of Mrs. Baker's Dozen!

My school begins August 25th and our class sizes have grown considerably!  Last year's class of 11 has almost doubled this year.  I am now Mrs. Baker's TWO Dozen :) almost....21 is close enough!  I absolutely love seeing everyone's new ideas in their classrooms.  My list of things to do is growing by the day! 

Let's get this linky started!  I grew up in the country with Kansas farmers all around us.  I still do live on the outskirts of town, but I have a paved road. :)  I met my husband in college and fell in love pretty quick!  Here we are on our trip to Hawaii last month.  After 9 years, he still makes my heart beat pretty fast;)

 

My two girlies are 3 and 6, almost 7!  I enjoyed staying at home with them for the first 6 years.  Last year was my first year back in teaching, and I think we ALL needed it!  Love my girls though!

 

 THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS...

Romance novels (may or may not include vampires and other supernatural stuff:), Bath and Body Works lotion (Carried Away is my new fav), Kauai coffee, big bowls of cereal, taking walks with my family, and watching my girls sing and dance.

IF YOU WEREN'T A TEACHER, WHAT WOULD YOU WANT TO BE?

 Hmm, if I wasn't a teacher I would definitely be a children's book author.  I worked on many rough drafts while staying at home with my girls.  I sent out a few letters to some publishers, never heard back, and then lost my nerve. But I love writing and teaching writing to my firsties!

 THREE LITTLE WORDS THAT DESCRIBE YOU.

Compassionate, loyal, funny. 

FINISH THE SENTENCE, "________,  SAID NO TEACHER EVER!!"

"I love tying shoes every five minutes," said no teacher ever!

 IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY AND YOU CAN INVITE ANYONE {DEAD OR ALIVE} TO THE PARTY. WHO ARE YOU INVITING? 

Probably my grandparents!  I'm sure they have lots of stories I haven't heard.

 IF SOMEONE WROTE A BOOK ABOUT YOUR LIFE, WHAT WOULD BE THE TITLE? 

One Crazy Momma :)

YOU GET TO PICK ONE SUPERPOWER. WHAT IS IT? 

Probably the power to fly.  My youngest daughter would prob love that!

WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE QUOTE OR SAYING? 

Everything happens for a reason.

WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE RESOURCE THAT YOU'VE CREATED IN YOUR TPT SHOP? 

I've only created a few items, but my new favorite is my Meet The Firsties back to school pack!  I can't wait to use it the first week of school!

 

  

 SHARE SOMETHING WE MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT YOU! 

I have a twin sister named Anna!  You may also call us Meganna :)

It's been fun guys! Have a great back to school week!! 

 

 

Meet the Teacher Linky

 

 

A Week in Paradise + Swimming Through Sight Words Pack!

Hello world!!  Soooo, I've been a bit busy lately.  Busy laying on the beach, busy snorkeling, and MAYBE busy drinking Mai Tai after Mai Tai.  This has been a GOOD kind of busy.  Hawaii was incredible!  A total tropical adventure!  A week was plenty long though, I missed my baby girls!  Here are some interesting pics.  One of my and my handsome hubby, and the next one is the fire-throwing Hawaiian man from the luau we went to.  My husband told him to give me a hug. Oh my lord, I about died!  Sooo embarrassing!  He was pretty awesome though! :)  *kinda sweaty* lmao

I'm so excited about my newest pack, Swimming Through Sight Words!  We use the Fry word list at my school, so all of the words, phrases, and sentences are included.  Every student gets an underwater scene and go through levels of Fry words, phrases, and sentences.  Every time they complete a level, they get to add a super cute ocean creature to their ocean scene.  The adorable clip art by Krista Walden from Creative Clips, totally makes this pack!  My favorite is the jellyfish :)  Here's the link if you'd like to grab it on sale!  

Swimming Through Sight Words

ALOHA!!!!

Monday Made It with Wipe Off Morning Work

It's Monday Made It time!! I *barely* made it :)  Big thanks to Tara at 4th Grade Frolics for this awesome linkup.

Last year I used some awesome morning work I purchased off of TPT.  It covered everything and I loved it.  But with my class coming in this year, I just KNOW it won't work.  My upcoming class has so many different learning abilities that my lovely morning work packs would take forever to finish.


So I started to think of some ways to get quick review, independent work, and cheap materials all rolled into one.  Here's what I came up with:

On my Daily Focus Wall I will have our sight words of the day, focus words (vocab), and number of the day.  The last page is just a 'helper' page.  I printed off the worksheets, glued them to one manila file folder (the kind u can find a ton of at school!) and laminated, so PRESTO its dry erase!!

I plan on creating a new pack every month, so that the skills vary.  I'm excited to have something quick and independent for my little ones :)  Have a great week!!

Sparkling Desk Awards for your neat and tidy kiddos!

Last year I had a super tiny class and I mean *tiny* as in 7 kids!!  Four more transferred in, but 11 to end the year is stillllll tiny!!  Out of my 11, I had three very neat and tidy students.  Their desks were organized and spotless, a beautiful sight to see.  I know y'all have kiddos like this and they need some recognition!






Last year our class mascot was Baby Dolphin, a small stuffed dolphin that matched our ocean classroom theme perfectly.  This year I've moved rooms and added more colors to my underwater oasis, so we will introduce some new mascots.  I purchased Pout Pout Fish and his Octopus friend at Kohls when the books were on sale.  I think it was last year sometime.  I love the check-out aisle at Kohls!  You cannot beat $5 books + characters to match!!  So after lunch or specials, the tidy students would return to find Baby Dolphin and some smarties on their desk. Their faces were always a riot!  They played along so well, thanking Baby Dolphin and the other non-tidy kids, well, you could tell they were contemplating their messy situations.  :)  It's a super fun and easy way to recognize and encourage kids to keep a clean desk.

 Here are some pics of my new mascots for this year PLUS a FREEBIE I whipped up.  Print these Sparkling Desk Awards out on cardstock and laminate to use over and over again!!

Wordless Wednesday + *late* Monday Made It!!

Happy happy Wednesday everyone!  I have a houseful of girls (two are mine, two look like me but aren't mine) and clothes, makeup, accessories, My Little Ponies are flying everywhere!  Now is the time for a blog post, right?

Let's link up with Wordless Wednesday and Monday Made It!!

 

My Monday Made It is dedicated to my dear eldest bro, he just turned the big 4-0!  Our big family celebrated his bday (along with my other brother and father) in Branson, MO.  I took his love of Jack Daniels and with the help of my sister-in-law and twin sis, we created a JD masterpiece!!

The bucket is from Hobby Lobby for $5.99 and it even has a cool chalkboard stripe around the middle!  I created the JD look alike stickers with chalkboard frames from the lovely Krista Wallden and chalkboard flourishes from Pink Pueblo.  The goodies are mini liquor bottles, lottery tickets, cigars, and stuff my brother will need while he gets older :) good ol' beano, denture whitener, etc.  It was one fun weekend!





Next up, Wordless Wednesday!!!  Does anyone else feel like my Claire Bear here?

This is my girl on the last day of swimming.  Love those floaties :)  Enjoy your sweet summer everyone!!