Knock, Knock...Anyone Home?

Yup, it's been 8 months since I last posted anything.  Obviously, blogging took a place on the back burner to make room for other things.  But have no fear, I'm back!  I've made it a goal to post at least once a week, but anything will be better than what I was doing!  As you probably already know many people are making the switch to Bloglovin in preparation for when Google Reader goes away.  You have until July 1st to get your list of favorite reads switched...that's Monday, people!  Use the button on the sidebar to quickly add my blog to your list!


<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/9103199/?claim=ku5ndaeebw5">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

You Have My Vote!

I've had a long list of things I wanted to blog about that's been piling up until I could find a free moment.  The last couple of days' events have taken over that list.  I guess you'll have to wait to hear about our Halloween fun until next year.  So, enjoy a small portion of my daily life.  I tell you, these kids keep me on my toes!

Yesterday we were busy assembling a story about Presidents and the Election.  The pages didn't come in order and so I was trying {with little luck} to instruct 17 kiddos about the correct order for their books.  After the first run-through with a success of only 4 correctly-ordered books we started over.  It wasn't until the end of the second set of directions that one of my sweet kids said, "Ms. Schlimgen is page 6 supposed to come after page 5?"  Ummm...excuse me???  Yes.  There were page numbers.  That I didn't see.  THANK YOU sweet 6 year old for pointing that out.  O.M.G.  I told myself there were only a few minutes left in the day and I was just tired.  {Are you laughing yet?}  And yes, we left our pages out of order because I didn't want to rip the staples out of the ones that were already correctly put together in the wrong order.

In the spirit of election we held our own little election today.  We read 3 fabulous books about elections; Grace For President, My Teacher For President, and Duck For President.  After reading our stories we voted to decide who should be the next President.  I'm happy to report that yes, I did win.  However, the Duck still managed to get 5 of our 17 votes.  Really???  The DUCK got 5 votes????  You little munchkins will be getting extra homework tomorrow.  Kidding.  :)

And the one that takes the award for cutest story this week...I was doing a writing conference today with one of my kiddos.  His story was called "My Teacher".  I just knew it was going to be a good story with a title like that!  As I read the story he helped me to decode his fabulous first grade spelling...My teacher is goofy.  My teacher is fun.  My teacher is nice.  I really wasn't sure what the last page said so I asked him to read it to me.  The sweet little one turned bright red and said "My teacher is BEAUTIFUL!"  Want to know how to melt my heart?  That's how!  Totally made my day.  Thanks, kiddo.  :)

Here's to hoping the rest of the week is as good as the first part was! 

You know you talk about school too much when...

On Saturday night we went to one of our favorite local restaurants for dinner and some fun.  You know, the kind of fun that doesn't involve IEPs, Common Core, or recess duty.  {Read:  Adult Beverages.}  In the middle of all of this fun I was texting one of my friends, who is also a teacher.  My text had NOTHING to do with school.  She had asked how the race was that I ran that day.  You can read about how that went here.  When texting her back I wrote "The run was great!"  Here's the problem.  My phone auto-corrected the word run to RTI!  Are you kidding me!?!?!?  I don't think phones are supposed to recognize RTI as an actual word.  Apparently mine does though.  Proof that I spend all too much time talking about school.  I absolutely love my job, but even my phone realizes I spend too much time on school and not enough time running!  Ok, point taken, trusty phone.  I will go for a run...tomorrow.  Tonight I have school work to do!

19 Days And Already Sick?!?!?

How is it possible that on day 19 I was already home sick???  I know every teacher is guaranteed to get sick at some point throughout the year and I seem to have a non-existent immune system, so it should come as no surprise with how sniffly nosed my kiddos have been, but really?  I couldn't even make it to day 20?  And not only sick, but in bed for 2 days and on the couch for the 3rd and missed a day of school sick.  Luckily it hit me on a Friday so I didn't actually miss that much time with my kids.  Remember that 3rd teacher I told you about?  Totally a life saver since she already knows what happens in my room so I didn't feel the need to write down every last detail on my sub plans before leaving to go home for some R&R.  Yes, I drove all the way to school on Friday with determination to make it through the day.  I was 5 minutes into my 35 minute drive when I realized there was no way that was happening

Big thanks to my loving fiance who made multiple trips to the store to get supplies for every last home remedy cure I could think of and yet another trip for orange juice and candy pumpkins.  Nothing will make you feel better faster than candy pumpkins!  And in case you're wondering, the only thing putting garlic and olive oil on your feet will do is make your mouth taste like garlic and make your house smell so bad you want to throw up.  I don't recommend it.

The good news is I was finally able to upload a couple more things to Teachers Pay Teachers!  One is a reading log.  I'm trying something new this year and giving my kiddos a bingo board each week.  Each square has a different fun choice on it for a way to read.  Completing a bingo will earn them a prize.  There are also boxes at the bottom for those who don't want to participate but still need to read.  They can check off the boxes instead.  The other item is a different list of ways to practice spelling words for each month.  The best news of the weekend?  I already made 60 cents!  WOOO HOO.  Ok, I laughed too BUT it's 60 more cents than I had on Thursday!

Off and Running

We are off and running in first grade land and loving every minute of it.  My kiddos are settling into our normal routine and seem to be loving everything I put in front of them.  I LOVE that first graders are young enough to still think that their teacher is one of the coolest people they know no matter how dorky I act.  At least that's what I tell myself.  :)

I am feeling super lucky this year to have a third teacher that floats between our 2 classrooms.  Our enrollment was high enough to put us over the class size limit for the SAGE program we receive funding for.  It is SO nice to have that second pair of hands and eyes in our classrooms to help out.  I'm afraid we'll be a little spoiled and won't know what to do with ourselves next year!  It's amazing what just one more person can do to help your classroom run smoothly.  Do you think I can convince her to be a full time volunteer next year???

I've stumbled across a few things this year that are totally saving me from total classroom chaos.  Minor things that are making a HUGE impact in keeping my kiddos engaged and our classroom running smoothly.  Not that my classroom was chaos before, but these few things definitely help to keep us moving along.

The first one is our Smarty Pants awards.  I think this came from Babbling Abby.  Each time a kid gives a super smart answer they get a little slip of paper that says "I'm a Smarty Pants!" and get a Smarties candy.  I think she prints hers as stickers, but I decided to save my labels.  You want to see 19 little hands shoot in the air with an answer?  Start handing out Smarty Pants!  I don't use them every time I ask a question, but often enough to keep it exciting.

Whole Brain Teaching has been another life saver.  I'm not even going to pretend to be an expert in this since I really only watched a couple of You Tube videos, but the mirror, teach, smiles/frowns, class, and hands and eyes have become a huge part of our day.  They keep my kiddos on their toes and engaged.  I'm loving it!  Check it out.

I have more, but I'll wait until I have some more pictures to share.  Enjoy your weekend!

{Almost} Back to School

Hi Everyone!  I'm about to start my last weekend before school starts.  Instead of actually working on checking off that mile long to-do list, I'm going shopping and to the spa with my mom and sister!  I guess school will just have to wait.  :)

Since we haven't actually started our school year, I don't have any pictures to post, but I wanted to share one of my favorite back-to-school activities and books.  There's a great party happening at Blog Hoppin' and of course I waited until the last minute to join!

I am a HUGE fan of the David Shannon books.  You can find them at The Clever School Teacher.  I linked No, David! for you HERE.  They are great for back to school for a couple of reasons.  Aside from my kiddos finding them absolutely hilarious, most of them can read the books.  It's a great confidence builder as we start our Reader's Workshop.  After reading a few of the David books we talk about school and what we should and shouldn't do.  Last year we made a class book called "No  First Grader, Yes First Grader".  I know this idea came from someone, somewhere but I have to apologize...I'm not sure who or where.  My team member gave me a copy and I don't have the original source.  If it was you, please let me know!!!  Each child thought of something they shouldn't do at school, then thought of an appropriate alternative.  No running in the halls, yes to walking in the halls.  Then, they illustrated their page and we put them all together.  It was a great way to review school rules, incorporate some writing, make some connections to the books we had just read, and an adorable little keepsake from our first week of school!

To those of you who have already started school, I hope you're having a GREAT year.  To all of my Wisconsin friends and others who haven't started just yet, have a GREAT last weekend of summer and a GREAT start to your school year!

Freebie Friday!

Happy last day of Teacher Week!  It's been fun linking up with all of the other teachers out there.  It forced me to learn some things about blogging too, which is always a good thing!

 

I started a Teachers Pay Teachers store the other day and would LOVE some followers.  I know that the things I have on there so far aren't super exciting but hey, they're all free so they can't be too bad, right?!?!  As soon as I actually get around to making plans for the start of the school year I'm sure I'll have a few more things to put out there.  Check out my store by clicking HERE.

 

 

Thanks for reading this week!  Come back often!