Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

Last Sunday was Dr. Seuss' birthday so we had quite a celebration last week!  

If you had been on Pinterest in the last few weeks then you knew last week was his birthday.  There are some REALLY creative people out there...and I'm so glad they shared their ideas with me!  :)

Most of our activities came from Pinterest.  You can find the links to some Dr. Seuss activities and pictures on my Spring Board *here*.  

I want to share a couple of our pics with you from this week:

We made yummy Cat in the Hat treats and read about Dr. Seuss' life! 

We also read The Lorax, a Dr. Seuss poem, and drew our own Dr. Seuss characters.  

These are the truffala trees we made!  I was hoping to do more with this activity, but it took wayyyyyyy longer than I expected so we wrapped it up as an art project!   :)

I used the *FREE* Photo Grid app to make my first couple of pictures.  I've had the app for awhile, but haven't spent much time with it.  The last couple of weeks I have had lots of fun manipulating my pictures.  It is soooo easy to do and you can add all kinds of features.  

We wrapped up our Dr. Seuss week with some red fish and more Dr. Seuss stories.  One funny little story is that my student teacher was reading Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? and one of my kiddos told her to wait because she wasn't reading all of the animal sounds!  He was teaching her how to do a read aloud and it was so funny!  :)

I hope you had fun celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday!  If you have any other fun Dr. Seuss ideas, I would love to hear about them!  :)
  

Homework FREEBIE and Laminator

Homework is such a tricky thing with first graders. 

I struggle every year on what to do for homework.  Part of me thinks they should do homework every night to help build responsibility and to help them understand the importance of homework and doing well in school.  Then another part of me thinks they're so young and so many of them don't have parents willing or able to help them....so the struggle continues.

Last year I tried something new.  

I had created this Chapter Book and Picture Book Literature Circle Pack a year and a half ago:

There are several jobs for students to do and one of the jobs is Artsy Arnold where my kiddos have to write "My favorite detail is..." and draw a picture of their favorite part of the book or chapter.  I started using this 'job' as homework towards the end of last year since it was something my kiddos could completely do on their own and it meant I didn't have to use a traditional reading log!!  

I loved it!  And my parents did too!  

My kiddos didn't have to just read and get a parent signature anymore.  They had to think about their favorite part of the story, write a sentence about it, and draw a picture.  All on their own!!  :)

This year I decided to start this right at the beginning of the year so I created a reading homework log.  My kiddos will just write the title of the story and draw a picture for now.  I will add more to it as the year goes on.  

You can click on the picture below to download the freebie if you would like to use it:

It's nothing fancy, but it helps my kiddos be more independent and I love that!  

Before I go, I have to share this wonderful laminator I received from MyBinding.  It works wonderfully and I love it!  

It was so easy to use.  I plugged it in, waited a few minutes until the light turned on, placed my papers in the pouches that came with the laminator and sent them through!  So easy!  

I was lucky to try this laminator out and I highly recommend it.  It has done a fabulous job on everything I have sent through it.  You can click *HERE* to go purchase it now!  You won't be sorry!  :)  

A TpT Friend and Vacation Pictures

I was logging into Teachers Pay Teachers the other day and I saw that a friend of mine was mentioned on the homepage!  Jennifer Siderius used to go to my church a few years ago, but has since moved to the east coast with her hubby and they just had their first baby!  

Click on her picture to go to her store and check out her cute goodies!  She works in a school library so if you are a librarian or know one who is looking for materials, make sure you check her store out!  

She has these adorable bookmarks in her store too!  Click the picture to go download them!

We are at the beach this week, but on our way here we stopped to visit a couple historic cities and took some tours.  We rode on this trolley and it was so fun!  It was air conditioned too which was wonderful on that hot day!!  

We like to go to Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives restaurants from the show on the Food Network and this was one of them.  It was definitely one of the nicest ones we've been too and the food was delicious! 

And here is a picture of our beach from the pier down the road.  My two year old nephew has wanted to see a dolphin since we got here and last night we got to see one up close!  It was swimming right by the pier near the shore.  It was so cute seeing my nephew so excited!   :) 

We are now headed to that beautiful beach for another day of fun, sun, and sand!  We are celebrating my other nephew's first birthday today and then some friends are joining us at our house this weekend!  

I'm off to the beach to enjoy my last couple days of vacation!!  :)

Teacher's Notebook Store and Summer Fun

This week I finally opened up my Teacher's Notebook store!  I only have a few of my products there so far so everything is 50% off until I can get all of my products loaded!  

You can stock up for next year really quickly and get a great deal!  :)  

Click on the picture below to go to my Teacher's Notebook store or on the gadget to the right!  

Last night we had some summer fun!  We went to a Cleveland Indians Game and had soooo much fun.  It was dollar dog night (hotdogs are only $1) and there were fireworks after the game.  

The best part...the Indians won....at the bottom of the 9th inning.  It was so exciting.  And the cotton candy I had was delicious!  Nothing like feeling like a kid again!! :)

We were right behind the dugouts.  I just now noticed the guy down in front holding up his fingers- #1! 

 The fireworks were great!  Some were actually set off on the field.  

Here's the grand finale!  

My brother is in charge of our church's state camp and it starts tomorrow.  This year he has recruited my mom and I to help with registration so I'm off to do laundry and pack.  

He LOVES working with these middle school aged kiddos.  It's not my passion, but it will be fun to help!  My heart is with the little ones!  

Have a great Father's Day weekend!  

Father's Day Pics, Freebie, and a Giveaway!

I know Father's Day doesn't happen during the school year for most so we celebrated a little early this year.

We made these adorable Father's Day cards from Crayonbox Learning.  You can click on the picture to go download this adorable FREEBIE!  

I  know that many kiddos don't live with, have, or know their dads so we made it "Celebrate the Great Men in our Lives Day" so we could include grandpas, uncles, and brothers too.  

If you're already out of school you can pin this or save it for next year.  My kiddos had so much fun with it!  Here are some pics: 

These fish are in school colors!

This kiddo wanted to make sure Dad looked on the back of the fish and included a little note that said 'look underneath me".  

On the back it said "I love you Dad"...adorable!  :)

This little boy's card made me laugh so hard!  He explained to his dad that it wasn't Father's Day yet, but his teacher was making him write this card!  I will so miss him next year!  :)

This turned out to be a great way to keep this kiddo focused on cutting and not chatting.  He thought it was hilarious that I passed out his fish on his head.  He even managed to walk to the trash can with it there!  

This is my Night Before Father's Day pack that I have for sale in my TpT store!  If you would like to use this pack this year or next year, leave a comment with your email below and I will send it to the first 3 people who do!  

I have included other templates for the Father's Day book to include grandpa's, step-dad's, and uncles too!  

Enjoy!  And, Happy Early Father's Day!  :)

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!  :)

Daily Cafe Conference in Chicago!

We had so much fun in Chicago last weekend attending the Daily Cafe conference!  I haven't had a chance to post yet so here's our weekend in pictures...with some funny details along the way.  

I was in shock when I got into our Toyota Yaris rental car and saw the dashboard empty behind the steering wheel!  The speedometer was in the middle of the dashboard.  That was so strange!  And about 20 minutes into the trip I realized there was no cruise control.  I was very sad about that considering I had a 7 hour drive each way!  

STOPE HOUP
I thought this was a different language and then realized it was really just store hours with some missing letters!! 

 

The 2 Sisters were going to be in this room!  This was the night before the conference started.  We were so excited just to see the sign on the door so we had to take pictures.  
They are famous after all!  :)  

  

Me hanging out in front of the School of Rock!  My kiddos are Rock Stars this year so I had to pose in front of this shop.  

Hinsdale was an adorable town. We caught the train here into the city.  It was such a cute little town.  And the weather was beautiful!

Chicago...one of my favorite cities!  

This is my teaching friend Christina posing in front of The Bean in Millenium Park.  It is so much fun to take pictures here! 

Me at Millenium Park.  I had absolutely no trouble sitting up there either!  :)

Our deep dish pizza experience!  It was yummy, but we both decided we like our hometown Ohio pizza better!!

We had to get Best Friend bracelets to commemorate our special weekend!  We had told our kiddos that we were tight and BFF's now so the bracelet was a necessity!  

Chicago at night.  

This is Christina and I posing after the conference with The 2 Sisters!!  We got our picture taken with them and their autographs!  I told them they were like Rock Stars in the teaching world!  I'm sure they already knew that though.  The conference was great and was totally worth being exhausted this past week after lots of driving and not much sleep.  :)

For attending the conference we got a year long subscription to The 2 Sister's website here.  I would highly recommend purchasing this if you are able to.  It is definitely worth it for all of the resources available.  

Something The Sisters highly recommend is one on one conferencing during their reading block.  Christina and I chatted all the way home about how to make this work in our classrooms.  While at the conference they shared their newest creation called Pensieve.  

This program is amazing!  I use my iPad while I read with each student one on one for about 5 minutes.  It's been an eye opening experience to see how beneficial it is to meet with students individually even for a short time.  My kiddos who have a hard time staying on task for any length of time in a reading group are really benefiting from this.  

The Sisters shared that research has shown that kiddos can only stay on task with higher level learning for however many minutes they are old.  So if a kiddo is 6 years old they will be able to attend to higher level learning for about 5-8 minutes at most.  

Last week I began meeting with my reading groups for the first 8-10 minutes of a Daily Five round and then I met with students individually for the next 10 minutes.  The Pensieve program allows you to set up your meetings whether they are one on one or small groups and then you can type notes and give your kiddos a rating for how they're doing.  

I am totally in love with it!  :)  

This was the biggest thing I learned from the conference.  Overall, the Daily Cafe conference was great.  So was our shopping time in downtown Chicago!  It's always exciting to be around so many teachers.  And it was so cool to meet The 2 Sisters!  :)

I highly recommend the opportunity if ever get the chance!  

Home Sweet Home...with Pictures!

There is no place like home!


I am finally back home from vacation.  It was so fun, but it's good to be home.  


We flew out of Portland at 5:30 am Saturday morning, but didn't get home until after midnight Saturday night because of layovers, delays and the time difference.  


Since we had to be at the airport so early on Saturday, we didn't get a hotel room Friday night.  Instead we stayed out sightseeing as long as we could and then went to the airport and spent the night.  Just to let you know, you don't get much sleep in an airport!  :)


Needless to say, I was beyond exhausted Saturday night when I got home.  


I think I'm still suffering from jet lag.  Yesterday was a blur.  


Tomorrow, I'm back in the school groove!  I have so much to do, I'm starting to get nervous!!  :)


Before I go, I wanted to share some pictures with you.  I absolutely LOVE the west.  I'm very jealous of those of you who live in the Rockies.  They are amazing!


I've only posted a few so I'm doing you all a big favor because I took A TON of pictures....like over a couple thousand!!  I go crazy with my digital photos.  I think I'm a digital photo hoarder!  :)

This is Crater Lake in Oregon.  The water is sooo blue.  It's just beautiful.  And, yes that white stuff is snow!

Crater Lake Lodge where we stayed.  Our room was the manager's suite and was very nice.  

The only picture I got of the Washington state sign, my 48th state. 

Near Mount Baker in Washington.  This was taken July 23 and they were still plowing the roads.  The summit of Mount Baker got 6 inches of snow the night before this.  

San Juan Islands in Washington.  I LOVE the rocky coast.  

This is off Cape Flattery, the most northwestern point in the US.  Again, I LOVE the rocky coast.  

And these beautiful caves.  We never saw them, but could hear lots of bats inside.  

This is Rialto Beach.  I've not read the Twilight books, but there were all kinds of stores and signs advertising  the Twilight Series.  

Here is a tour bus at the beach.  We also went to Forks, Washington.  They were proud of their fame!  :)

Well, I'm off to finish my laundry and maybe take a nap.  I'm still so tired!  We drove thousands of miles around Oregon and Washington trying to do and see as much as we could in a week.  

I need to rest up for all the back to school fun I have to get ready for!!