Visual Plans and THANK ful For Linky Parties!

WOW! The 3-day weekend sure did go by back. Had a few outings including a birthday party and baptism to fill our weekend with friends and family. I also had a chance to make a couple new TpT products...and as always...be one of the first five people to comment and you can choose which monthly addition practice packet you would like to have as a freebie!

JUST A COUPLE OF LINKY PARTIES!

I love when the bloggers that I follow create new linky parties. This week I am linking up with Blog Hoppin' for We are THANKful for...

TIME-SAVERS: Both my husband I are teachers...we like to be at school at least an hour early in hopes that we can both get home and pick up our daughter Addy by 4:30pm. Well that barely ever happens, especially the first nine weeks. So we rely on the crockpot for several meals a week. It is pretty amazing to only have to put the ingredients in and then come home to a wonderful smell and dinner already prepared! 

My other time-saver is TeachersPayTeachers! It truly is a teacher's best friend. Not only does it save time so that I do not have to re-invent the wheel, it is always a great little money maker!

Stop in tomorrow for some HELPFUL Hints! Especially if you are just dying to know how I make my TpT products!

WHOA! Lots of things going on in the post, but I just want to get them all done tonight! Let me leave you with a few things...

Happy Birthday to those in the Marine Corp! I hope that everyone was able to take a second today to remember those that have fought for us and that are still fighting for our freedoms. Veteran's Day is a welcome day off, but let's not forget why!

Make sure you go check out the AMAZING giveaways going on over at one of the blogs (and 14 others!) I follow. They are giving away 3 $100 gift cards (Amazon, TpT and Target) and each of the 15 bloggers that are hosting the giveaway have their own giveaways on their own blogs (think Starbucks, more Amazon, TpT products, Home Depot, Michaels, etc.!!)

Last but not least...I leave you with what I am most THANKFUL for...My Family!

Visual Plans and Autumn Literacy Bundle!

Well I have been QUITE busy today with creating a new TpT bundle and my visual plans...phew...I am exhausted! Good thing I don't have students back in the classroom until Wednesday! I have been looking forward to this week since school began and I realized how much more I should have done over the summer. So tomorrow I will be spending the majority of the day printing, laminating, and sorting my new literacy centers including the 10 from my new TpT bundle: Autumn Math and Literacy Centers Bundle!

Which includes the following 10 centers:

...and because I am so tired...I leave you with my visual plans and nothing more for today...

Oh, AND I watched my first Hallmark holiday movie today...A rerun from last year, but I love it!

and of course, as I always do...the first FIVE people to comment with get the new TpT bundle for free...you'll be able to check it out, preview it and let me know if it needs any edits!

Happy Halloween & November Currently!

 I CAN'T believe that it is November already...went to the store today and of course there are Christmas things EVERYWHERE! But, I have to say that I am super excited about Thanksgiving and the holiday season! The smells, the family and friends, the food (oh boy I better start running more!). So because it is November, of course I am linking up with Farley from Oh Boy 4th Grade for Currently...

Listening: Always General Hospital! But I created my currently earlier today, so now I am listening to The Heat with Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy...hilarious!

Loving: Today was the kick off on the Hallmark Channel for holiday movies! I have a bunch all ready to record to my DVR and a couple of my girlfriends are coming over tomorrow night to watch one!

Thinking: My calendar wall is A MaZing, I have to say.  It reminds me of doing calendar when I was in school, but it takes up A LOT of space. I don't have much wall space and the only bulletin board in the front of the room is used for calendar. I was thinking about moving to an electronic version. Any thoughts?

Wanting: I need to change my room around. My colleague on my team decided to get rid of her teacher desk because she didn't really use it. Honestly, mine just collects paperwork and photos. So I thought about moving it out and doing some rearranging during our teacher work day on Monday. My room is so small with 28 students that I would love to have more space!

Needing: A full day of planning with my team. We have a 45 minute planning period every day, but we ALWAYS have meetings of some kind. We all come into school by 7:30am (students come in at 8:45), but we just have so much to do that we don't have a lot of time to plan. Our weekly meeting usually is packed full of business talk instead of planning. I would LOVE to have an extra plan period once a six day cycle. And I think my students should be in the computer lab or library during that time.

A Yummy Pin from:

Might have to make these for our 2nd Annual Friends-Giving!

And I leave you with a little peek at our Halloween!

Visual Plans, Pumpkins and Field Trip

I am a little late with my visual plans for this week, but they have changed a few times. This week we were focusing on pumpkins due to our field trip to Hartland Orchard (apples are becoming out of season so they also do pumpkins). Check out Mrs. Will's Visual Plans and link up!

And here are some photos from our field trip and our pumpkin activities...

Here is the summary of our Earth and Space Relationship experiment intro week...we basically talked about the difference between day and night and how the sun heats up the Earth. We never got a chance to do the flashlight activity, so we will be wrapping up that unit next week in our short 3 day week.

And I will leave you with a photo of Addy's preK homework...kind of crazy that this is something that they want her to do, along with 10 other worksheets...and sight words (yea, I said sight words)!

Peek at my Week and Last Week's Activities!

I can't believe that it is the start of the 8th week of school. Things are really starting to come together, especially since I have been creating visual plans (thanks to Mrs. Wills!) I enjoy making the visual plans, I love how colorful they are, I display them on my desk in case administration stops in, and they keep me organized!

So here is a peek at my week...which is starting off with a substitute teacher, because my little girl is home sick. 

If you have not been over to visit Mrs. Wills blog, you need! I have been struggling with my literacy centers since moving from 3rd grade to 1st, especially with organization of the rotations. This past week, she posted this: How Do You...Stations Questions Answered (I hope). I am going to give her workstations chart a try. It seems pretty simple, only moving the cards down once a day. This could be the final key to my guided reading/literacy centers block!

My first graders had a great time with our Friday FunDay centered around apples. Here are some photos:

Here is NOVA, we were lucky to spend the weekend with my parents, who came to visit from NY. My daughter is lucky to have two sets of amazing grandparents who do anything and everything for her and us. Here are a few pictures from our weekend...