First Week Fun with Crayon (FREEBIE) and Guitars

Whew!  This was our first week and I'm still exhausted after sleeping in this morning!  

We had so much fun this week though.  We learned our Whole Brain Teaching rules, practiced for a fire drill, started Daily Five, and made some cute craftivities!  

We read The Crayon Box That Talked during our first class meeting.  I have an autistic student again this year so we had a class discussion on how we are all 'different colors' in our classroom's crayon box and we are all an important color.  

It's a cute story if you've never read it before.  The crayons in the box realize that it takes all the different colors to make a pretty picture.  

I told my kiddos it would be really boring for me if there were 20 Mrs. Seymour's in my class!  It's such a cute story and great to use to show that every kiddo is important.  

After reading this story we made these cute crayon craftivities from Cara Carroll! Click *HERE* to go visit her blog and see all of her crayon color cuteness! My kiddos had so much fun curling their arms and legs.  It's always interesting to see who can follow directions the first week of school with a craft.  :)

 Here's a close up!  Sorry it's sideways!!

We also made guitars this week to go with our Rock Star theme.  I took pictures of my kiddos on the first day and I will hang those up next week between their guitars. 

Click *HERE* to go purchase your own guitar! It's actually an end of the year craft, but I use it at the beginning and at the end of the year.  They say First Grade Rocks right now and at the end of the year they will say First Grade Rocked!  :)  She has included signs up to fifth grade.  

This is my display in the hallway:

 The banner on top says Mrs. Seymour's Rock Stars.  

Here is a close up:

It says First Grade Rocks on the top and I love first grade on the white part.  

Well I'm off to a late breakfast with my dad....his treat!  :)  Then I need to relax after such a long week.  Have a great weekend friends!  

Don't forget you can now follow me on my Facebook Fan Page and Twitter!  I feel so grown up and techy!!  :)

Teacher Tired and Back to School Freebies

All I can say about this quote is AMEN!  

We had a fabulous first day of school today, but I am exhausted!  My little kiddos did great.  Not one asked to go home early or say I miss my mom.  Woohoo!  That's a successful first day right there!  :)

If you don't follow me on facebook, check out my fan page to see my personalized computer backgrounds!  

I have four student computers in my room and I created personalized backgrounds for Open House yesterday.  I number my computers so now I just have it right on the computer and each with a different color.  They are so cute!!  :)

I want to share a couple back to school freebies with you.  This first one isn't mine, but my kiddos loved it!  Kathy over at First Grade a la Carte shared a couple of these puzzles a few weeks ago.  Click the link *here* to go to her blog to download it.  She also came out with a whole pack of puzzles if you want to purchase more!  The kiddos cut out the capital letters and then matched them to the lower case letters....really tells you a lot about what they know on the first day of school.  

We also read The Night Before First Grade by Natasha Wing and used my Night Before First Grade- Back to School Pack.  

One of the activities we did was First Grade Worries.  We discussed what we were nervous about and how/why we weren't nervous anymore.  This little girl was nervous about getting her clip moved down, but realized that if she followed the rules she wouldn't get her clip moved!  :)  

I love her drawing of my curly hair...looks just like me!  And my color 'wheel' is actually a guitar so her picture is very accurate!!  Sorry it's sideways, but it was so cute I had to share!  If you click *here* you can download this page for free.  

It is going to take me awhile to get used to getting up so early again.  I am so tired I hope this post makes sense!!  :)  

Night!  Have a great week!  

I'm on Facebook and B2S Sale!!

I am almost always late to every party.  I try to keep up, but being on time just isn't in my genes.  

I should have done this forever ago, but I am finally on FACEBOOK!!  :)  You can click here to go my Fan Page. 

I have mentioned before that I send out postcards each year to my kiddos and I posted a picture of them yesterday on my Facebook page.  Of course my picture is lopsided, but you can still see them.  I have a Rock Star theme again this year so I thought my postcards were so cute!  

This is one party I will not be late for: Teachers Pay Teachers is having their huge B2S sale on Sunday and Monday!!

My store along with many others will be 20% off and then don't forget to type in the code: BTS13 for another 8% off for a total of 28% off!  

I will be stocking up on a few back to school goodies and some fall goodies to get through the next few months!  

Some of my best sellers that I will be using are:

My kiddos love mailing their Flat First Graders to family and friends across the country!! 

We also have a lot of fun with this pack learning about trade with a book trade and having a Career Day.

This pack will help me get through the first few weeks of school for sure!!  

This pack was a huge hit with my kiddos last year!  You can use these free rewards however you want.  I used them with Class Dojo and my kiddos were so into them all year long!  

I'm off to do a few more things in my classroom before my new little friends come next week.  I will also be doing some serious shopping tonight and emptying my cart tomorrow!!   

Have a great weekend!  :)

August Currently...Late to the Party!

As usual, I'm late to the party!  I'm linking up with Farley for her August Currently.  If you have never linked up, I suggest you click here and go link up!!  

We LOVE our new 3-D TV!  It is soooo cool!  I also love our new furniture!  We have done some remodeling on our new house this summer.  We still have lots to do, but I need a break!!  I love what we have done so far including a cute and fun chalkboard wall.  :)

With school starting in just a couple weeks, I really NEED/WANT/HAVE to get my classroom ready!  I'm totally starting to stress about it!  

I do have to get my annual back to school pedicure though!  

I need to get some new ink cartridges too.  I have soooo many things to print, laminate, and cut out!  

My Back to School must haves are highlighters, postcards, and treats: 

Highlighters- I use them for just about everything.  I grade with them, help kiddos with writing and math, and I use them to write on papers that I put under my document camera.  It shows up so much better than pencil for my kiddos in the back of the room.  

Postcards- I always send postcards to my kiddos the weekend before school starts.  I like saying hello to my kiddos and their families so it's become a tradition!

Treats- I also put out treats for my kiddos on the first day of school.  It's just a few back to school things they might need.  I give them a treat on the first day and the last day.  That has also become a tradition.  :)

Well, I'm off to finish laminating and then getting to bed.  I have some errands to run tomorrow and then I'm going to be spending the next two weeks living in my classroom!!  :)

*FREE* Classroom Behavior Rewards for Successful Classroom Management

I know it's only mid July, but some people are already getting ready for back to school.  

Me?  I'm enjoying my summer a little longer!  :)

I did update my *FREE* Behavior Reward Catalog and wanted to share with you!  I used it all last year and it was a huge hit with my kiddos!  And the best part is that the rewards are free for me!!

I should clarify that this pack is not free, but the rewards for your kiddos are free and that makes my reward system so much easier and cheaper!!   

You can purchase this pack at my TpT store here or my TN store here.  

I have a Rock Star themed classroom so my Behavior Rewards matched that last year.  This summer I decided to add another set that was chevron with matching clip art for everyone to use no matter what your theme!  

This pack is only $4.00 and can be used all year!  Grab it this summer so you're ready to go when school begins.  

I used these rewards with Class Dojo and it was such a success last year for me that I will definitely be doing it again this year!  

You can read about how I implement Class Dojo by clicking *here* to read my post from last fall.  

Since this pack is updated I want to share it!!  The first three people who share their classroom management tips with their email address will get this pack for free!!  

Hope you're enjoying your summer before back to school mode hits!!  :)