Check out this give away!

Check out the fab give away that Nicole is having!  Win a personal laminater!  Whoop!  Whoop!   Thanks Rowdy in Room 300!!

Keep on Truckin'

We are truckin into our third week of school.  Wow!  The beginning of the year is exhausting!  I have 31 little cuties, they all showed up:-)  Yesterday was 106 degrees!  That is just not right!  Stinky, sweaty, clammy, little first graders everywhere!  EEEwwwww!

So far I am loving Daily 5.  We have been working on building stamina and it is going quite slow.  We are finally up to 10 minutes.  Ugh!  This week I need to intro "check for understanding" and "work on writing".

Back to School Night was super:-)  Unfortunately we made a last minute change to the day and I was missing 6 parents.  The rest were awesome!  I can't believe I talked for 45 minutes!  Holy Moly!

I'm so excited that we are starting to receive alphabet letters in the mail from the "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" letter exchange.  Chrissy from First Grade Found me did an AMAZING job organizing!  Thank you so much, Chrissy!

This week we will celebrate the last day of summer.  I hope that means an end to 100 degree weather!  On Friday we will eat watermelon and write about it.  I also read and sing "Down By the Bay" and do a class rewrite for a class book.  I should post that for you, huh:-)

Have a fab weekend!

Classroom Reveal 2012

OMG!  It's been soooo long since my last blog!

I visited my parents in Indiana:-)  Such a nice time and got to see my nephew, Logan, and my brother, Rhett, too.  That is always a treat:-)  My brother was a trooper and even went in the teacher supply store in Evansville, Indiana with me to look for ladybug and bee stuff.  What a guy!  My mom took me shopping for school clothes! How awesome is that...to be 50 and have your mommy still take you school clothes shopping!  I love Christopher Banks and we don't have those in So. Ca.

After many hours of labor (labor of love of course), my classroom is ready!!!  YeeHaw!!  My hubby, daughter, and her boyfriend were lifesavers!  I couldn't have done it without them.  My son goes to college at Boise State and I'm sure he is just heartbroken that he missed all the fun of working in my classroom.  NOT!

So here's some pics of my room for 2012-2013 school year.  I am ready to go with 31 little cuties:-)

This wall is gigantic!!  It contains my Word Wall, CAFE Menu, Calendar, and space above for student work.  I have no idea how I'm going to hang work up that high but I'll worry about that later.  I have a feeling it will involve a ladder and my hubby...shhhhhhh..don't tell him!  By the way, thanks to the "Hanging Hero" bulletin board tool for helping us get those bulletin boards straight!  Check it out in my TpT store!

Closeup of the CAFE Menu.  I love those bees! 

Calendar

That's the carpet area for group meetings and story time.  The wagon will hold the headphones and listening posts when I get that started.  The headphones hang on the side.  The little doggy in my chair is Wrinkles.  He is a puppet. He's been in first grade for 15 years and still can't say the ABC's or count correctly!!  

Around the corner from the Word Wall is my library.  This is new this year and I am CRRRRRRRazy about it!  Cozy and cute!!  Above the library is a writing reference wall with commonly confused words, written expression, and a rate-your-writing poster.

My desk area.  Wouldn't it be nice if it stayed that neat and tidy!  

My table for guided reading, assessments, small group instruction, etc.  The focus wall is behind it.  My turtle, Franklin, is in the cage:-)  A few years ago I found out that Franklin is a girl!  Oh well!!  I don't think she minds.  Sometimes I call him/her Frankie.

This is taken from my group meeting area looking toward the smart board.  I  L-O-V-E that thing!  What did I ever do without it!  That reminds me...I need to go make a flip chart!  Rats!  I thought my work was done!

Have a fantastic Labor Day!  

Teacher Read Alouds Linky

I'm joining in on the linky party over at Teaching Happily Ever After.    I'm a first grader so I like all of the Mercy Watson stories.  That little pig is awesome!  If you haven't read any Mercy stories you HAVE to right now!  And the illustrations are amazing!  I used to read Junie B. Jones a lot but got a little tired of having to explain her behavior:-)  She is a riot though.  What's your favorite read aloud?  I would love to get some new ideas for this year.  

Thanks, Staples!

I headed over to Staples today to get some colored ink (wonder why I'm running out?) and got this little goody bag for Teacher Appreciation Day:-)  Not worth a trip just for that but a great bonus since I was there already!  Inside the bag was a notebook, highlighter, index cards, binder clips, and a pad of Post Its:-)  I love free stuff:-)  And, the notebooks were 50 cents so I got two, pink and turquoise.  Hubby asks "What are those for?"  Fair question...but a dumb one...my reply "They're pink and turquoise.  No other reason needed!"  Hubby rolls eyes and laughs:-)  He's catching on!  

Back to School Sale!

Visit I Love First Grade for a list of my friends that are having sales!  

Don't forget to shop the TpT Back to School Sale tomorrow and Monday!  My digital products will be marked down 20%!  Use the code in the box above and save an additional 10% off the sale price.  That's a savings of 28%!  Woohoo!!
Here are some of my favorite products for fall that you might want to check out.  Thanks for stopping by! Deana

Cutesify!!

Cutesify:  To take something plain and make it cute!!  
So, here is a picture of what we usually are given to use to collect Box Tops.  It's functional and practical,  doesn't take up much space, and is cost effective.  














Of course after seeing all of the cuteness on the wonderful teacher blogs I visit, I had to cutesify my Box Top collection container a bit.  Here's the result........

Will I get more Box Tops this year?  I don't know.  But I do know that I luuuuvvv this can:-)  Hubby thinks I'm a little nuts because I bugged him every morning to see if the can was empty yet.  Haha!  I soaked the can all day in dishwasher soap...now it smells like dishsoap and coffee!