I won!!

Look at what I found in my email box today!!  Gina from Third Grade Tidbits is having a birthday giveaway and I WON!!!  I am so excited!!  I seen to never get enough resources.  If you haven't had a chance you should go and check out her blog!  She has great items to use in the classroom.  Visit her store at http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Gina-S.  

 I can't wait to use my open ended math with my third graders!  I think that it will be a great team-building activity! You should check out Meg Anderson's blog and store to see more about the open-ended math that I chose from her shop!

Whole Brain Teaching

I just finished watching the webcast for the first hour of WBT.  I am so Excited!!!  I can't wait to get into my classroom and try these strategies.
Whole Brain Teaching the First hour
I am going to the webpage to order the FREE e-Book so that I can get started reading it!
I have been following Stephanie at Third Grade Thoughts and her posts on Whole Brain Teaching.
I am super excited about how organized and productive my class is going to be this year!

Training

I just finished a week of Literacy First Training.  It was great training.  I went to the training for pre-k to 2nd 10 years ago and learned a lot.  Since I am moving grades, I needed training for grades 3-6.  I am so glad that I went.
I learned what there is to reading instruction beyond simply learning how to read words.  I feel so much more confident in my ability to test fluency, assess comprehension and how to teach kids to do those things.  I had no idea of what all I didn't know (Lit First calls the unconscious incompetence).  Now I am going to spend some time finishing the CAFE book and getting set up to combine Literacy First and Daily5.  They will compliment each other so much!! I am so excited!!

Busy Weekend!!

I have been so busy getting ready for my new classroom and grade next year.
I broke out my cricut machine and made numbers and backgrounds for my behavior chart and Where are you charts.  I found some really great large gems at dollar tree last week and they worked great!  I glued the numbers to the circles that I made then to the bottom of the gems.  I added magnets and now they look great!  I found that the clear gems worked the best!  I will post pictures when I finish the board.
Well, that inspired me to use my cricut more and my mat was no longer sticky so I needed a new one.  Our local Walmart no longer stocks Cricut products so I started looking online.  My husband said Ebay and helped me start looking.  Well, needless to say, we managed to find much more than just mats.  (Actually the mats were cheaper site to store from Walmart so that is where I got them)  I found cartridges, blades and housing for the blades.  I can't wait until they get here.  I still had to order a couple of things from Wal-Mart.  
Well while we were looking around, I thought of the Daily5 books that I have been wanting to read.  We didn't find them much cheaper on Ebay, so I ordered the e-book for the Daily5 and I have almost finished it!  I am so excited about it!!!  I think this is the answer to my classroom.  I have been struggling with managing the class during testing and small groups just as the sisters did.  I can't wait to finish it and start on the CAFE book.  I have to wait for the second one to arrive because I ordered it print.  
I have been reading a lot of what Stephanie at Third Grade Thoughts has been posting.  She is great!  Here is a link to her page on Daily5 signs and gestures.

She used a lot of whole brain teaching with the daily5.  I love the idea of gestures to help the students to remember the terms and definitions.  

I am off to read more, and create more.  I'll post pictures when I get things finished!

Favorite Pins Friday

I have decided to try to join First Grade Parade
for Favorite Pins Friday.

I have spent most of my week pinning so here are a few of my favorites.
SInce I am new to third grade and tracking and setting AR goals is necessary, I found this at 3rd grade thoughts and loved it!  I am so going to try to use the bookmark idea!


I'm looking for ideas to decorate my new classroom and loved this idea!
I think that I will recover my square cork boards to interest in my room!

muyingenioso.com

And from Kindergarten Teacher Tales

This project I started yesterday.  I am using old Saxon crates that were being discarded to make mine.  I haven't found the perfect fabric yet, so this is a project in progress.  I will post finished product when I get done!

This is going to save me space and time this year!

Indulgy

I'm also going to finally use those cookie sheets that I hate but hate to throw away too!

I am constantly looking for more ideas and pinning so follow me on Pinterest.  There are many other great posts at  First Grade Parade !

Totally Obsessed!!

I got on the computer this morning to check my email and Pintrest (of course!) for a few minutes.  That was 3 1/2 hours ago!!
While looking at the recommendations from Pintrest, I ran across a fabulous blog!  Stephanie at 3rdGradeThoughts has so many wonderful ideas!  I just keep finding more and more.  If you are like me, homework is a nightmare and Stephanie has a great plan that I am going to try this year.  Here is a link to her Star homework post Star homework model.  Check out her blog to see some more of her fabulous ideas!  She has lots of freebies and a terrific teacher store on TPT and Teachers Notebook.

Saying Goodbye

I went back to my old school today to show the other ladies what I left that they may want.  It was so great to see Tammy and Glenda.  I wish that Kayla would have made it.  I enjoyed the visit but it reminded me how much I am going to miss everyone.  I almost broke down when Glenda and I hugged as we left.  It will be so hard not to see her everyday.
We  (Glenda and I) decided that we definitely need to get together with our husbands - maybe once a  month??  It would be really great if that really happened.
When I left, Shayla (my daughter) and I went to Hobby Lobby to look for things for my classroom then to Dollar Tree.  At Dollar Tree, I found some great glass gems to use on my behavior chart and where are you chart.  I am going to break out the Circuit machine and cut out some numbers to glue on the bottom then magnets to make them magnetic.  I think that it will be really cute.  I was looking for fabric at Hobby Lobby but didn't find exactly what I wanted.  I guess that I need to get a piece of my border and take it with me.  I'm really having a hard time finding the dot colors that I am looking for on a black background.  I may go with black with white dots and accent with the other colors but I haven't made that decision permanent yet.
Shayla and I went to SAMs to pick up some things for home.  While I was there, I got mats to use as my group rug.  I think that they will be great because I can add or take away squares as needed and I can change the shape of the mat.  They are grey on one side and each block is a solid color on the other - red, green, blue, yellow!  They will go great with my color scheme.
I also ran in to one of our students from last year.  I had to give her a big hug.  It was so good to see her.  I told her that Glenda and I were changing schools and she seemed a little sad.  I told her we would miss them all so much.  (another almost tear time!!)

TPT Birthday Giveaway

Haley O'Connor & K. Almaraz Birthday Giveaway!

Our Teachers Pay Teachers stores are 1 year old!  Join us in celebrating the fun by entering in our great giveaways :)

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My first Linky

I'm going to try to post to a link once I figure it out.  I might finally have it!  The original linky I started to join expired so here's the next one.  It is from Flying Into First.

Get aquatinted linky - my favorite teacher

 

I'm linking up with Flying Into First Grade again this week to "Get Acquainted" with my fellow bloggers and followers. 

I have a hard time narrowing my favorite teacher to one, so here are my top two.
1.  Mrs. Leverett in first grade. She is the first teacher I really remember. Mrs. Leverets was my first grade teacher.  I can remember making a "book worm" all the way around the room. We had a head and then added a body part for the books we read. It seems we didn't read quite as much in first grade back in the early 1970's. I remember reading 100 books and that 100 was one of the top numbers. I really expected my first graders to read at least 100 books each year to be successful!  Oh, how times change!
2.  My sixth grade teacher was the first male teacher I had. Mr. Holmes__??? (really have I gotten so old that his name escapes me?!). He taught us so many important life lessons. We had a classroom store that we ran and actually made the items for the store. We painted ceramic figures, learned how to do Hodge Podge? (we took pictures from magazines, wrapping paper etc and glued them to plaster plaques and then painted them with Modge Podge (at least that's what I remember)).
We also broke into teams and taught lessons to the class including quizzes etc.  I can remember going into first or second grade classes and teaching them about the digestive system.  We entertained the school with some science skits and our "haunted house" st Halloween. We (or he) also dissected a chicken (I think) in class. Thanks to Mr. Holmes I developed a love for teaching and a fascination with science.

I hope to get better at this blogging stuff so I can spend time doing it instead of days trying to figure it out!

Changes abound!

Since I am changing schools and grades this year, I had to change my blog from Incredible First Grade to My Adventures as an Elementary Teacher.  That should cover any other changes I make (I hope none but who knows).  I am moving from inner city (72 mile commute) to a rural school (28 mile commute).  I have loved the last 10 years but it is time to make a change and have more time at home.  This must have been the time to do it.  Everything fell into place just right!
I am excited about my new adventure and hope to keep this blog going better than last year!