Meet the Teacher Tuesday? Peek at My Week AND a Bright Idea Blog HOP!

I have been wanting to link up with The Ordinary To Extraordinary Classroom for Meet the Teacher Monday for a few weeks now...and I never get a chance to blog on Monday nights! I am usually just burnt out. So you're going to learn more about me on TUESDAY! :o)

Meet the Teacher (Monday): FAST FIVE!

List 5 Things You Always Keep in Your Purse: (now, I don't have a designated purse...on week days I use only my school bag and on weekends I transfer my wallet...)

1. Lady Products! and in the car, at school, etc...
2. Hand-Sanitizer, usually a wonderful smelling Bath & Body scent to match the season (my favorite has been Autumn Day)
3. Mints!
4. Nail file
5. iPhone

List 5 Things You Love about Yourself:

1. My messy organization
2. My creativity
3. My sense of humor
4. I am always on time
5. If I want something...I normally get it! And I mean that in a good way...I'll work for it or make it happen!

List 5 Things You Do to Keep Yourself Busy:

1. Blog (write, read, browse, stalk...)
2. Read
3. Watch numerous awful and some good TV shows
4. Plan day trips, parties, events, anything to keep the day from being boring!
5. Spend time with my family

List 5 Things that Attract You to the Opposite Sex:

1. Sense of Humor
2. Trustworthiness
3. Ability to Communicate, or at least try and work on it
4. Adventurous 
5. Fun (willingness to do fun things, be funny, silly, sarcastic)

List 5 Things You Want to Accomplish in 2014

1. Run a 10K
2. Lose some pounds, gain some muscle!
3. Move and decorate our new home to feel comfortable
4. Be more patient
5. Possibly, maybe, discuss more with my husband about having a second child...we both want to most days...but there are definitely some days when our dear Addy gives us a run for our money...literally, and she will be in K next year...no more daycare payments? Sounds good, but we'll see what 2014 has to bring! 

Could it be? No SNOW DAYS or ICE DAYS or FREEZE DAYS this week? We'll see...tomorrow there is freezing rain in the forecast...but I am convinced that the temperature will not drop low enough for a delay or closing. For those of you having a snow day tomorrow, ENJOY!

It might not be the most creative or amazing idea...but it does save a lot of time untangling headphone cords and dealing with too many students at the listening center. I use individual cd players (I pick them up at the local thrift store for $2-3 each) so that each students can take a bag with one, a book and the CD and bring it to their seat. It doesn't limit how many students can be at listening center as long as you can find a few cd players. I put a note out to parents and they sent in old ones too!

Again, not the most complicated and creative idea...but is does make copying a lot easier to manage and carry back to your room. I took this idea from another colleague at school. I keep my copy paper in it and whenever I have something that I want to copy, I will slip it in the bin so that I have everything in one place when I get time to copy. (Bought mine at Wal-Mart, also at Target)

 

And lastly, HAND SIGNALS! It makes answering questions a lot easier to manage! Especially when I am with a small group, on the phone, talking with another adult, etc. I can just scan the room and see what my students needs are. 

AND FINALLY...(I know, thought this post was never going to end, huh?)

CONGRATULATIONS to Andrea over at Reading Toward the Stars, the winner of one of my February Holiday Packs! I need to get going on a new pack soon!

February Currently and February Holidays PACKS!!

Listening: A friend of mine from NY has a radio show on Sunday afternoons and they play music from documentaries, commercials, and movies. The radio station is WIOX 91.3, but you tune in and listen to THE LISTEN on Sundays from 2-3pm. Today they were playing music from their favorite Super Bowl commercials. 

Loving: Okay, so it's a love/hate thing...but bottom line, everyone likes a day off. We've used 8 snow days and have had a few 2hr delays here in NOVA...now we are supposed to get anywhere's from 2-6 inches across our county. I am hoping they call it today so that we can enjoy the super bowl and the yummy oreo cookie shooters that I made!

Thinking: SPRING BREAK...booked at the beach with a few of our friends. Topsail Island, NC. We've been there several times before, but usually not until mid August. But the Farmer's Almanac says that April in NC should be warmer than usual. Now, I am just hoping that our county applies for a snow day waiver because of this insanely crazy winter we've had and that we don't have to make up all the days we have gone over...because I have a feeling the winter is no where near being over...and we're already on STORM "N". 

Wanting: To successfully complete the 3 week challenge that my hubs and I are going to start tomorrow. For 3 weeks we are going to not drink anything but water (and coffee for me), exercise 3x a week, and eliminate carbs after lunch. Kind of a little detox for us. 

Needing: I found out yesterday morning that I have an ear infection! I went to urgent care and the doctor said it was most likely due to a virus I had earlier this week, which would explain my awful sore throat. I can feel the liquid in my ear :-/

2 truths and a fib: 

#1 YES! I am a wedding planner. During my senior year of college I planned/coordinated my first wedding and since have been doing it as a side job during the summer. 

#2 I WISH! I have not made $10,000 on Tpt, not yet anyways....about half way there!

#3 YES! I have taught all grades from K-6, except fourth. I did work as a TA in fourth grade for about a month, but that's it. 

...and now for my February Holiday PACKS! I created a TpT pack of the 100th day, Valentine's and President's Day a few weeks ago. I haven't sold any yet :o( I cannot seem to get it show up in searches on TpT either, so I decided to break them all up as individual packs and then link the bundle from each. 

and here is the bundle

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck to you! Thanks for stopping in...

Visual Plans for January...what a month!

January has been quite a month in Northern Virginia...5 "snow" days and two days with two hour delays, bringing my county to ZERO days (or hours is how they do it here) left. How crazy is that? Temperatures below zero with the wind chill...the day we had a freeze day, it was -11 during the hours that the kids get picked up at the bus stop. I am from upstate NY, so these days off were bogus to me. I remember standing out side with so many layers that I could barely walk up the steps of the bus. My dad built me a small shed that looked like an outhouse. It had a bench in it so that me and my cousins, who lived next door, could get out of the wind on really cold days. Anyways...with this storm in the south right now we might get 1-2 inches tonight. We'll see! 

Well, how about Peek at my Month!

I don't have plans from the first week on January, because they were absolutely useless! We were one of the only counties in our area that had to go back for Th/F and then we wound up having a snow day on Friday! 

The above lesson plans are a full week...yes they are! BUT, I was out Monday with my daughter who had bronchitis and then Friday our first grade team had a full day of planning that had been rescheduled from our first snow day of the year on January 3rd. 

And I have started including a new page of lesson plans that shows which trade books that I get daily worksheets out of. Daily Language Review from Evan Moor is one that I used in second and third grade for morning work. My first grade team decided to start using it for the last two quarters of the year. I think it will really help with their writing and to prepare them for the grade to come with the routine.

There will be some changes taking place in my first grade class over the next couple of weeks in addition to using Daily Language Review. We begin the year with word family spelling lists with five additional sight words from the high frequency list. The word families were very easy for my first graders, so I am happy to move on to Words Their Way sorts. 

We will also start using a color behavioral chart that goes beyond green to Quality Student. I have created many behavioral charts for my TpT store, but I feel that my students would benefit from using only red, yellow, green and blue. I created punch cards at the beginning of the year and had so much on my plate with behavioral issues and getting to learn the curriculum that I did not use them the way I wanted to. So my goal is to use them with the chart and with mini competitions in the classroom to hopefully improve behaviors and academics. I have been pushing my students to write with their neatest handwriting and so I think the first competition will be to produce something with their best handwriting. Other competitions that I have in my mind are spellings bees and flash card fact rounds. 

Until Currently for February...I imagine I won't be getting around to blogging at all the rest of the week since report cards are due! 

Happy New Year! Currently and a New Activity Pack!

Happy New Year to all! I can't believe that we are writing 2014 already...oh how the time flies!

Short recap of my holiday break...

NY, family, friends, four or five Christmases, colds, sneezing, lots of sleeping in, walks in the woods, rang in the New Year, back to VA, one day of school (Thursday), SNOW DAY (Friday) = 3 day weekend, and a new holiday themed pack for TpT!

This is going to be a short post, because I have been on the computer a lot today finishing my pack and my shows are about to begin (The Bachelor at 8pm and Downton Abbey at 9pm!)

Currently with Farley over at Oh' Boy 4th Grade

Listening...I went back and counted that I have used General Hospital for at least three of my currently's in 2013...I had like 10 on the DVR that I had to catch up on...watching the last one right now!

Loving...2014 is looking to be a great year! We are saving money, looking forward to nice tax return, working towards a healthier lifestyle, moving into a single family home, friends and family in NY over the summer, and Addyson starting Kindergarten in September (OMG!)

Thinking...that the snow day we had on Friday was our 1st grade team planning day...and on Thursday the outlook for a snow day wasn't too clear, so I left all of my stuff in school. But I did make lesson plans for a sub for Friday so I guess I can use those tomorrow. Hoping our team planning day is rescheduled for this week.  

Wanting...another week off...I mean who doesn't? Once I start back up again, I am sure I'll get into the routine, but it sure has been nice spending time with my husband and daughter. 

Needing...to start my New Year regimen! It is all planned out, lunch made for the week, dinner planned for the week, motivational wall is up, and my husband is ON BOARD! We both want to lose between 20-30 lbs and doing it together will hopefully be good for us. 

Memory/Tradition...even though I usually complain about how hectic our holidays are between going back and forth and visiting friends back in NY, I love it! I can't imagine the day when we don't go back to NY to celebrate the holidays...but then on the other hand I think about Addy and how if we always travel, Santa will never really come to her house. Traditions will change, I'm sure, over the next few years...but the memories of our New York holidays will always stay close to my heart. <3 Home <3

And I leave you with my new activity pack...

...AND because I am feeling generous...and it's the New Year...the first 14 people to comment will get the pack for FREE! To qualify, I need you to 1) leave a comment below, 2) include your e-mail address, 3) be a kind teacher and proof it for me, 4) PIN it on Pinterest using the three holiday names.

Gotta love Snow DAYS (yes, two!) and a Peek at my (short) Week!

We are on snow day #2 here in Northern VA. Not like the snow day's we are used to in upstate NY. My fellow NYer's just laugh at our snow days, but I am not going to complain for sure! I've had to change my visual plans twice, but that's okay too. A nice short week with a field trip, followed by our week leading up to Winter Break will fly right by and then it's back to NY for the holidays. 

And for my holiday gift to my students for next week before break...SNOWMAN SOUP! Found several different photos of this idea on PINTEREST (this one is from Coley's Corner, click photo for original post). I have cute little Christmas bags from the Dollar Tree, a pack of cocoa, mini marshmallows, a mini candy cane and Hershey milk chocolate chips. Not sure if I will make my own labels or get them from someone else. We'll see! I'll post my final products next week when I make them along with some photos from our Polar Express Days!

Happy Holidays: December Currently & Visual Plans

...I am a little later than usually for Currently, with Farley, but here it is!  

Listening: My husband came home from the store with Mortal Instruments from RedBox, so we are giving it a try. Not sure how I feel about it just yet. 

Loving: I had my first observation of the school year, I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous about it. I have always had good observations, but my class of 28 has surely given me a run for my money. I invited my principal in for guided reading and Daily 5 and the kiddos were ANGELS! I was so proud of them. She left my a note on my desk complimenting my lessons, my students and then said YOU ARE AWESOME! That just made my day! 

Thinking: I was all excited that I got the majority of my Christmas shopping done between Black Friday and Cyber Monday...that is until my four year told me she didn't need her own "iPad". Elf on the Shelf, ours name is Jefferson, has just started visiting our house and I told her to tell him what she wanted for Christmas. Just to see what she thought about the idea, I said told to ask for her own "iPad" in which she replies no. Well that just chapped my buns, especially since I had just ordered a Kindle Fire HD for $119!!! Seriously, saved $50 on the price and thought it was a great idea since she is always using our real iPad. So I cancelled the order. She is in the stage right now where when she doesn't want something, she gets cranky. So I guess it's out to find more pink Princess, Barbie and other things this weekend!

Wanting: As you know, if you already follow my blog, my husband and I are originally from NY. Our friends and family are back in NY celebrating the usual pre-holiday festivities and I am missing home. We stayed in VA for Thanksgiving because we did a lot of traveling this summer and early fall. Plus, my parents were in Wyoming and we planned a Friends Giving. This is the first year we missed Thanksgiving Eve out with our friends...and I am missing the girls ugly sweater/white elephant party...but new traditions in the making. VA is really starting to feel like our new "home". 

Needing: Not sure explaining here...I just need a pamper me day. 

Favorite Tradition: Watching National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation with my parents. We have been watching this movie since I was a little girl, as far back as I can remember. It is HILARIOUS! And I want to buy this shirt from Kohl's to wear this holiday season:

And here are my Visual Plans for this week as well...(two birds, one stone!)

I'll be honest...I was waiting to do Currently because I am in the middle of creating a Christmas Centers Packet and a Holiday Packet of worksheets, but I just don't have the time or motivation to finish them. It's odd because I was like this last December too. I made a Thanksgiving packet last year and this year, tried to finish a Christmas packet both last year and this year...but no such luck yet. I do however have my Polar Express packets available in my TpT store...

  v

Check them out! And because it is the holiday season, I am feeling fabulous because of my observation and I have nothing new to share with you...the first five people to comment will get one of above packets for FREE! All you need to do is the following: 

• PIN the cover on Pinterest with my blog address and Polar Express in the comment 
• Follow me on my blog and blog lovin' if you aren't already
• Leave your e-mail in the comment so I know where to send the packet (and tell me which one you prefer)

HAPPY HOLIDAYS! Not sure if I will be bloggin' again until I am officially on WINTER BREAK (December 20th is our last day...and YES, we have to go back on January 2nd and 3rd...don't get me started!)