Five For Fraturday!

It's Five For Friday (plus one day) and SPRING BREAKKKKK!!!  I'm beyond excited for this week of rest I've needed for so long.  Even if it's an extra 30 min of sleep in the morning, I'm totally grateful!

We celebrated St. Paddy's Day a little early in the classroom.  I tried the shrinking leprechaun hats from Mrs. Miner's Monkey Business and they totally worked!  Came out soooo cute and the kids loved it!

Our first grade friends are getting into a friendship funk....too much tattling, too much whining, and too much rudeness going around.  So when we get back from break, we will be starting the Friendship Rainbow.  This freebie will be in my store soon!  

I'm all jazzed about my new succulents!  I love my mint-colored pot and plan to plant these babies soon!

Anyone else love Easter candy??  I'm all about those Reese's PB eggs...gimme gimme gimme!!

My Complete Core: Play Ball pack is on sale this weekend in honor of my fav team, KC Royals!  The first three people to comment on my blog below, will get the pack for FREE.  Yes free!!!  

Enjoy the weekend!!!

Five For Friday!! Just a little late.....

Happy weekend to everyone!  I'm so excited for this link, I have lots to chat about! :)

February is packed full of so many opportunities for fun stuff, I just can't fit it all in!  BUT, I made sure I am ready for President's Day with a new product.  I started looking at the TPT items I was creating and thought to myself, what if I added directions, word for word, to create a full blown lesson 
plan for me and others??  And aligned them to Common Core standards??  I loved the idea and this is my first installment of "The Complete Core".  Each Complete Core will have detailed lessons and activities aligned to standards, plus extra fun stuff for things like reading/math stations, and of course, the Daily 5.  I hope you can check it out here!

I love to read!  I mean I L.O.V.E. to read.  My favorite is romance and my favorite author is getting ready to publish her newest book.  Guess who got to read it early and write a review???  MEEE!  I was so excited!  I'm the lucky duck who gets to read it before it comes out and I get to gush over her writing.  Pretty good deal.  

So this is "With Every Heartbeat" by Linda Kage.  It is the fourth book of her Forbidden Men series.  Forbidden is a good word in the world of romance novels, trust me.  All of her books take place in college, a great spot for finding true love and good ol' drama.  The men in her book are gorgeously described, and unfortunately for the women, they are 'forbidden'.  But that's what makes her books so good you are up at midnight still reading!!! whoops....  Make sure you stop by her Facebook page and blog to score some sweet Forbidden men gift items.  She gives away some awesome loot!  Plus, for the next few weeks until the big release of her new book, the prior novels will be on sale!!  A little romance for Valentine's Day doesn't hurt anyone. :)

Linda Kage

Hallelujah!  The sun is shining!  That's all.....

My hubby's bday is is a few days and I have a few tricks up my sleeve for him...hehehe.  He will be surprised! :) 

Finally, my students were so excited after recess yesterday.  They saw a meadowlark and were ecstatic!  One boy even said, "It had a yellow tummy, just like you said Mrs. Baker!"  *cutest thing ever*  I will surprise them with my knowledge once in awhile :)

FIVE FOR FRIDAY!!

Woo Hoo!!  The weekend is here and so is Five For Friday!  This week at school was a little rough, I was recovering from the 'flu bug' or whatever that stinker was.  So besides by hacking cough and sleepy eyes, I was truckin' right along.

Sunday was my birthday!  Happy 32nd bday to my twin and I. :)  Here we are on our family summer vaca to good ol' Branson.  We twins get a little goofy sometimes.  Love her!

Kansas Day was yesterday and we had a ball!!  I was in *LOVE* with my kiddos knowledge of KS facts!  They were especially enthralled with the history of Amelia Earhart.  We also have a little one named Amelia, so she got some pretty excited looks and questions, "Are you named after Amelia Earhart?!!!"  Not a bad question....

I'm ready for a change!!  I definitely need to brighten up my dining room.  My dark red curtains need to hit the road and I'm thinking about these.... What do you think?

http://www.target.com/p/threshold-farrah-fretwork-curtain-panel/-/A-14258182#prodSlot=_1_1

ORRRRR

http://www.target.com/p/threshold-climbing-vine-curtain-panel/-/A-14282014#prodSlot=_1_8

January is over, February is here, and best of all, spring is coming!  Since I work at a charter school centered around agricultural education, we are blessed to have a greenhouse.  Seeds are ordered and my first graders are ready to get their little hands dirty, all 44 of them :)

After the second 9 weeks, I was disappointed in the kiddo's checklist scores when it came to place value.  So I whipped up a quick pack of what else but....Super Place Value Heroes!  We did a few activities today and the kids loved them!  I believe the most popular activities were the board game and the super hero seal craftivity.  I have to admit, that one is pretty darn *CUTE* :)  I made my super 'M' for the kiddos and they got a kick out of discovering my real name isn't just Mrs. Baker.  You can snatch it up and enjoy with your class here.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Place-Value-Heroes-1679821

Five For Friday!

Happy happy Friday!  

It's already the middle of January and I'm loving my teaching topics this month!  Snowmen, penguins, Martin Luther King, Jr., and of course, Kansas Day!!  We love our sweet, squarish state! (squarish is a word, right? :)  I remember reading "Little House on the Prairie" to my firsties last year....yikes!  That read aloud lasted more than a month!  I think we were all ready for a nice Junie B. Jones after that biggie.

This past week was our snowmen week and we had a blast making snowman pics with shreds of paper (thank u pinterest), completing some nice directional writing pieces on how to build a snowman (Olaf was everywhere!), and introducing symmetry using snowmen.  That has to be the best way for my kiddos to understand symmetry, make a symmetrical snowman!  We also dove into my new freebie, Snowman Book Companion Pack.  Get it at TPT here.

The flu bug slammed my daughter's school this past week and thankfully, she didn't get it....but she did get a nice case of strep throat. :(  My Lily bug is better and no one has caught it. Yet.

I'm going to Jam it up this weekend!  These are my fav Jamberry nails and I love them!  They look great over a bright red polish.  

It's one week until my birthday, so let's have a sale!!  My TPT store will be 20% off tomorrow until Monday!  Check it here!

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!!!!