Attention, attention please!

Well, in a creative spurt that only took an hour few minutes, I created a new button for my blog.  The old one, well, to be frank Scarlett, sucked.  I made it and thought it was awesome, but after awhile, it just looked blah.  Annnnddd, it didn't really show what my blog was about.


The new and *improved!* button shows that I'm trying.very.hard.to.be.optimistic in a non-optimistic career (at times...let's say, 85% of the time).  My school is in year 2 of year 2 of school improvement (yup, I meant to say year 2 twice...we made AYP don't.get.me.started.on.politics.or.AYP in math last year and are currently in a "holding" year for math) and each year, I feel like the list gets longer while nothing else gives.  It's really hard to focus on the kiddos when you have to piles of irrelevant paperwork.  Who cares if I have to contact a certain number of parents each week (which I do ANYWAYS) and keep up with that?  Does it make me a better teacher if I don't maintain a record?  Seriously?  sigh and defeat But I suppose you do whatcha gotta do.


My button also tells everyone that I teach the awesomest grade EVER.... And I do mean EVER!  2nd grade people....that's where it's at! And having taught 3rd and 5th grade also, I can proudly say that (bahaha).  


Side note:  I saw one of my former students that I had the PRIVILEGE to teach in 2nd AND 5th grade (how lucky!!!).  Now keep in mind I've only taught 7 full years, going into year 8.  I'm 5'7 and I was looking at this beautiful teenager at EYE LEVEL.  WTW?  Hard to believe they grow so quickly (and so freakin' tall!!!)


Then later I saw one of my current second graders and was happy to see that he was still way below eye level, restoring my faith completely.   No heels for this girl....not until PTC.  That's when I bring those puppies out.  All business! Bahah!


Yes this is a very random post, but I think after teaching, all teachers either develop ADD or get it from a contact high.  Seriously.  Having your own children doesn't help either.


And with that, please check out my new button.  Probably won't post again for awhile but I want to wish all a very Merry Christmas.  Enjoy what Santa brings (either watching precious faces or unwrapping your own) and enjoy your family.  




And since Stacy was so kind to me and giving me a shoutout- y'all, we are within like two hours of each other and teach the same grade...too cool!- check out my fellow blogger!

Stacy at 2nd Grade Paradise

She's got a lot of awesome ideas over at her blog, especially on her seating arrangements...go check it out!

Currently...linky par-tay

Well I am taking advantage of a sleeping husband and a grandma babysitting the 2 year old to play on my blog and catch up on my reading.  Poor old Google reader... 


Farley at Oh Boy Fourth Grade is hosting a Currently linky party. I thought I'd join in on the fun. Join in if you can...and if you've never visited Farley, you are in for a treat :)

Hope you can play along!  Happy Sunday and one week 'til Christmas!

Did you think I'd forgotten about you?

Well, the craziness is almost over.  I had to take a mental health day Friday to go visit two separate doctor offices (one for me, ya know, the fun one you go to once a year...) and my daughter's two year check up.  It's sad that those visits were more fun than crowd control at school.  Sheesh.  Whodathunkit right?


I still have two more days to go next week.  Tuesday is going to be our fun day/I give up trying to teach you something/Christmas party.  We are having an ornament exchange.  All the kids (hopefully) bring in a wrapped ornament and they get to pick one to take home.  Sometimes I play Dirty Santa with it, but my kiddos this year don't really have a sense of humor (aka...very immature 7, 8, and 9 year olds) so I don't think they would appreciate the fun.  When I taught 5th grade I did that and the kiddos had a blast.  I had one try to hide her gift in her desk just so it wouldn't get taken by someone else!  Monday I haven't exactly figured out what I'm going to do other than maintain some sense of routine.  I've got some Christmas activities and math graphing that I've prepared for, but hopefully it'll get done.  Anyone have any fun ideas?  


Here is the Reindeer Job Application writing activity that the kiddos did last week.  I have gotten SO many compliments on them.  The kids just BEAM when someone peeks in the door to say how cute they are.  I'm proud of them because this is the first writing project they've had to follow the steps to the writing process.  AND they get a little keepsake for all the hard work.  I really hate to take them down, but pinterest is just floating with cute ideas that I'm sure to use.

We also did the Christmas penguins I found at Amy Lemon's page and the kids really liked making those.  You can see some of the crazy ways they decorated them.  


You can see my classroom has been BLOGIFIED!  (and I absolutely love it!)  I feel  so much better about teaching since I've found all my new friends and ideas out on blogland.  Instead of either scrapping art all together, I've found new ways to incorporate it into my curriculum.  I really think the kids are learning more because it's sticking with them.  So please keep sharing!  And when I get two brain cells clicking in the right direction, I'll try to come up with goodies for you.  


2 more days....

Can we say countdown?

The countdown is on.  On like DONKEY KONG!


Anyone else feel like they're fighting a losing battle?  Cause this girl does.  Next Tuesday can't get here quickly enough.  Although....{happy dance!} I am taking off Friday to take little girl for a checkup and me for a checkup....darn if it didn't fall on a Friday {wink!} So two more days for me this week.  Just have to write sub plans which I absolutely HATE.  Can't they just read my mind?? :)


My kiddos just finished their first big writing project of the year.  We have really been working hard to learn how to write sentences with a capital letter AND the correct endmark AND have it make sense AND not a run-on that has about 50 ANDS in it like this sentence does.  Thanks to all of my many hours on pinterest and blog hopping, I found a really, really, reallllllly cute writing activity - Reindeer Job Application from What the Teacher Wants and the kiddos were so excited to actually get to work on all of the steps to the writing process.  They even got to "conference" with *gasp* "the Teacher" before they wrote their final draft.  I took pictures but my phone just died and I won't can't get up to get the charger to get the pics off my phone.  I'll post them tomorrow along with some of their qualifications. Some of them are pretty darn cute....swift like an eagle is one I remember off the top of my frazzled head.  I was very proud of their hard work.  AND.....I've gotten lots of compliments on their work.  That never hurts either :)


So, until tomorrow my dearies :)


Hang in there.

Patterns and a freebie!

Anyone else about to go slam crazy at their class?  Mine are so wild today!  I can't keep them occupied...grrrrrr!  I hate to be a Scrooge but I'm looking at my behavior chart right now and I have 3 students on red, 4 on yellow, and one across the hall in a different class because students was RACING.TO.THE.BOOKSHELF not once, not twice, but three times.  I watched student.  I counted to five. %& I.counted.to.five.again. !#@$% I.COUNTED.TO.FIVE.AGAIN. *&^(*@&#(^!*#& :)


I had just finished with a really cute lesson on patterns.  This is a review from 1st grade so it went really well and the kiddos picked right up on it.  We made a foldable and folded a piece of paper into fourths.  Then we labeled each box with AB, ABB, ABA, and ABC patterns and drew an example of each with Christmas themed pictures.  


Well, since inspiration helps to calm my frazzled, frayed, and {insert.other.synonym.here} nerves, while my kiddos were finishing up extending their patterns, I made this freebie to share with you, AND to celebrate hitting 20 awesome, fantabulous followers!  I know 20 is small potatoes compared to some blogs, but for 2 months into this journey, I am excited!  Y'all know how to make a girl feel appreciated!  


So, here's your freebie.  

And two questions.....


How are your classes handling the rapid decline to Christmas break?  What are you doing to tame the wild beasts?  Lump of coal in the stocking seems a little outdated lol.  


Ugh...faculty meeting in 30.  I can do it....I can do it.....Can I do it??? :)

Christmas M&M Math fun

Yesterday, my kiddos did an awesome math lesson using M&Ms.  Anytime you can do math and chocolate together is wonderful in my book.  They were super excited when they saw me measuring out candy in Ziploc bags.

One of my co-workers and friend :) found this activity on TPT and asked if I thought our grade level would like to do it....heck yes!  As previously stated, chocolate and math?  Can't go wrong.... except maybe adding some coffee, but ya know, dealing with 7 and 8 year olds!

Anywho, if you like the looks of this activity, head on over to TPT and download it.  The best part (cue the heavenly choirs of angels singing....) is it's FREE!  Not a dime!  

Christmas M&Ms Graphing and Place Value Activity by Johanna Tackitt

Count out 3 groups of 10 and pick a number between 0-9 for the square.  I had more in the bag but that was our treat!

Then we drew our candy inside the circles and square.

My copy done on the document camera!  Good place value review.

Then we sorted by color to make our tally chart and get ready for our graphs.

We made a pictograph and a bar graph.  Since we had so many M&Ms, we had to make our pictograph M&Ms equal two instead of one!  Someone forgot that our key was by 2!  A VERY hard skill to do when the graph is already made, but to make a student recreate that....sheesh....still practicing that one :)

We finished off by looking at our data and coming up with two facts that we could prove using our data.  The sentence starters really helped!

The kids really liked this activity, especially when I told them they could eat the M&Ms after they were done.  I used the Christmas mini-M&Ms from the baking aisle because they were lots cheaper per bag and the kids could work with "more" M&Ms and practice with a higher 2 digit number rather than just a number in the teens.  They thought the little ones were "cute".  

Try this if you can, I think you'll like it.  And, if you are a SA like me (sugaraholic anonymous) you won't want to keep these bags around too long.  I had to do it Monday so I wouldn't eat the whole two bags I bought on Sunday!  

My latest creation

The other night I was complaining (sorry) about how restless I was, needed some creative outlet, blah, blah, whine, whine.  Well, needless to say I got over it pretty quickly.  You know how you feel better after you just say something online outloud?  Well, that was me.  Thanks for listening.


I put my restlessness to good use and created something for my TPT and TN stores.  I'd like to share it with you if you can use it.  

Christmas Tree Homophones

There are two literacy station games- one match up with recording sheet, and the other dominoes.  I hope this is something you can use :)

Click {here} to purchase from my TPT store.

Click {here} to purchase from my TN store.

Working on some other goodies this weekend, too.  Loving this creative outlet :)  Y'all have a great weekend!!  *Think Snow*