Thursday, May 23, 2013

Teachers Showing Love for Oklahoma

Ashley at The Teacher's Treasure Chest has gathered some amazing bloggers and asked for their help to support those who are suffering in Oklahoma.  She created this fabulous Teachers Love Oklahoma package.  You can click the picture below to go to her blog and find out how you can help and receive some wonderful products too!




Teacher's Notebook is also supporting the victims of Oklahoma.  You can click on their picture below to make a donation and receive LOTS of goodies!


I stayed at school way too late tonight cleaning out cabinets and packing up for summer!  I'm exhausted...

Hug your kiddos a little tighter tomorrow and have a happy Friday!

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

More Flat Stanley Pics

Here are a couple more of my Flat Stanley pictures that I wanted to share with you!

This is the display that I have in the hallway.  I have added to it as they have come in.  I have a large map and then put up each Flat First Grader with a souvenir.  A couple of my Flat First Graders even brought back Flat Friends of their own!  :)   

This little boy's aunt did an amazing job!  She sent back a large scrapbook FULL of goodies for him from New York City!  We had so much going through all of this.  

Here he is with Flat Teddy Roosevelt at the Grand Canyon!  

This little boy received an entire box of goodies.  The class' favorite was the rattlesnake poop in the small tube on the table.  It was really chocolate covered peanuts, but some of them really thought it was poop!  :)

A lot of my Flat First Graders bring back fabulous pictures of their adventures, but one of the coolest pictures this year was of a boat that was painted with the little girl's name- S.S. Flat C******.  
I guess the boat washed up during a storm and now it's tradition to paint the boat so they painted it in honor of her Flat First Grader.  How cool is that?!?!  :)

If you want to do Flat Stanley activities with your kiddos you can check out my Flat Stanley Pack at my TpT store!  

I hope your end of the year is going well!  Mine is crazy busy!!  

We only have 6 days left!!  This year has gone by sooo fast!  :)

Monday, May 13, 2013

Flat Stanley, Blog Award, and Advice Needed!

It gets harder and harder for me to post on here as we get closer and closer to the end of the year!  Phew!!  

My to-do list is becoming a never-gonna-end list!  :)

If you have followed my blog for awhile you will have heard me talk about Flat Stanley before!  For the last couple of years we have read about Flat Stanley and then enjoyed mailing our Flat First Grade Friends across the country.  

I (meaning my wonderful aide) have recently hung up our Flat Stanley map in the hallway outside our classroom tracking where our Flat First Graders have traveled this year.  My kiddos LOVE hearing about all the adventures our friends go on.  

I really wanted to take more pics today, but my camera battery died.  And then the back-up battery died so I will post more pics later.  
This Flat First Grader traveled to visit her grandparents in Florida.  She brought back a binder full of goodies!  She also brought back a magnet with an alligator on it and a bag of sand!  I was hoping she would send back the entire beach! :)  You can see my cute little flat first grader in the first picture in the upper left corner. 

This Flat First Grader traveled to another first grade class in Virginia.  They have been learning about Flat Stanley this year too and having their own adventures!  They take Flat Stanley home each weekend and record their adventures in their journals.  They even have a Flat Stanley wall!!  This Flat First Grader brought back pencils for our entire class and my kiddos were so excited to get a gift!  

You can have your own Flat Stanley and Flat First Grader adventures next year too!  I have everything you need in my Flat Stanley Pack which you can find in my TpT store.  

I also need to share how excited I am that I was chosen as one of the Top 25 Elementary School Teacher Blogs of 2012!  I know I'm so late with this news, but it's totally worth sharing!!  I have no idea how I got nominated, but I appreciate the recognition.  

And since all 25 blogs are listed in alphabetical order I'm #2!  Woohoo!  :)  

I know...I'm a dork....but, hey- it's the little things, right?!?!  

Now, I need some advice....

We are officially moved into our new house so now the remodeling begins.  We are going to be getting our kitchen done soon.  I have always wanted granite counter tops, but now I'm not so sure.  I didn't realize they had to be sealed every year.  I'm more into the no maintenance counter tops!  

If you have granite counter tops (and you have read this far) can you let me know what your opinion of them is?  I would love to hear!  I've heard quartz is much less maintenance so now I'm kind of leaning that way.  

If you have any expertise in this area, please share!!  :)

Whatever we choose, we need to choose soon!  

Have a great week!  I hope you're all sailing smoothly through these last few weeks!  :)

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Countdown to Summer...with Good Behavior!

I don't know how your kiddos are doing, but mine are definitely feeling the nearness of summer!!

I honestly can't blame them though, because I am too!  

I am going to share my secret with you to encourage good behavior despite the end of the year craziness!  

It's my *STAR* activities and you can find them in my May Activity Pack and End of Year Countdown to Summer!!  This pack includes a countdown to summer with fabulous, but cheap *star* activities.  

Your kiddos who are responsible and shine like stars during the day get to enjoy a fabulous star activity at the end of the day.  Your kiddos who don't follow, or have a temporary memory loss and forget the rules don't get to participate.  

All day long you can walk by our room and hear me say, you better show me 'green' behavior or you won't get to do our star activity at the end of the day!  It's also a great way to reward your kiddos who do try hard everyday to be responsible!  

Here are some pictures of my stars!  


They just hang up on a bulletin board.  We started on day 22 this year.  Sorry it's hard to see the top stars.  The glare was terrible...as is my camera! 

Here's a close up of the stars we haven't turned over yet. 

Here is one of our star activities we have already done.  They LOVE taking their shoes off and it's FREE!  Woohoo!  :)

I had leftover sidewalk chalk from last year so we went outside last week.  It was such a hit that I picked up some more!  

You can click here to go to my TpT store and pick up these star activities.  

The best part is that it's on sale right now too!  Teachers Pay Teachers is showing their appreciation for teachers this week by having a huge sale today and tomorrow!  
Two day sale
Just make sure you type in the code TAD13 when you check out to save up to 28% off!  

Here's wishing you some wonderful *star* behavior in these last few weeks of school!  :)