Planning for Stations/Centers/Tubs + FREEBIE

So many blog posts I want to write, so little time.

Setting up a classroom is no joke, y'all!

I'll share more at a later time, but God gave me a dream job teaching little firsties.

:) :) :) :) :) :) 

In an effort to plan ahead and prepare well for my kiddos, I have been thinking about stations/centers/tubs quite a bit. Today, over at Teaching Blog Roundup, I'm sharing about how I plan my stations six weeks at a time and keep track of everything!

Head on over to {TBR} to grab your own EDITABLE planning sheet!

Happy planning, friends!

Monday Made It--Chalkboard Style.

Hi there, teacher friends!

It's been quite some time since I've blogged in this little corner of the world wide web! Oops!

A leave of absence wasn't intentional, but I think it matched my season of life. I returned from SE Asia in March and jumped full force into applying for jobs. I job faired, emailed, made phone calls, etc. The search ended (Hallelujah!!!!) and I now have quite the story to tell, but I will save that for a bit later.

Anyways, 

I'm back for Monday Made It because I made something...on a Monday! 

Link up your own project or check out the other projects {here}! Thanks for hosting, Tara!

(#1 and only :) )

Chalkboard paint is such a lovely thing. You can paint just about any surface! One of my friends painted an old globe, another teacher friend brushes paint on the end of clear bins to label the contents with chalk and another friend painted the back of a bookshelf! I love that she didn't let any space of the classroom go to waste, and her kiddos love using the chalkboard for word work! 

Here's a picture of her finished product:

There are just so many great uses for chalkboard paint. So, while I was cruising the Goodwill outlet store, I found this circular piece of wood for $0.89. Perfect for  some chalkboard paint, right?! 

All that you need is paint, a brush, chalk and a rag (not pictured). 

A very important step to creating a chalkboard surface is to prepare the surface (there is a fancy name for this step, but I cannot remember it at this moment). This simply means that you rub chalk all over the surface and wipe away with a rag!

My finished product looks like this!

Still to come: a cute ribbon so that I can hang the chalkboard! I haven't decided on a particular ribbon, so I decided to just post my (almost finished) chalkboard. The plan is to hang it on my door or a wall!

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In unrelated news, have you read or are you reading Guided Math? I am reading through it now and SO excited that {The Primary Gal} is doing a summer book study! Hoping to post some thoughts and reflections in the coming weeks, and looking forward to reading through other teachers' ideas.

Hope you consider joining! Have a blessed day, teachers!

Sunday Funday...on Monday!

So have you heard!?

There is a brand new party on the link-up block--SUNDAY FUNDAY!

{Molly} and {Deirdre} are the happy hosts, and you can link up at either of their blogs!

:)

How cute is their button?!

I'm actually linking up on my Monday (eeps!), but it is still Sunday for many of you. 

Oh dear. It is officially Monday in both places! 

The highlights of my Sunday were church + a little thrifting!

As I was walking to church, one of the precious older ladies spotted me and picked me up! Haha. 

I'm really thankful because it is beginning to get quite toasty over here. April is the hottest month of the entire year and it seems to be approaching pretty quickly!

The message yesterday was on hope...

and guess what my word for 2014 is?!

Yes.

You guessed it!

Hope.

Am I surprised? No way! Because God is good and He knows me.

Then, I checked out a market and did some thrifting!

It may look like junky trash, but oh! So much treasure! I refrained from purchasing the frame, wooden trays, and lovely tin bowl because I just don't think they could make the trip across the ocean.

I ended my Sunday with a little bit of exercise, but that's it for Sunday Funday!

 Love this link-up, gals! 

(and sorry that I'm fashionably late!)

Five for Friday!

Quickly linking up (with 8% battery life remaining) to share five things from my week!

Nuang (one)

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This book is rocking my world:

The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson.

"Bold prayers honor God." Why? Because we need divine intervention. When our prayers and our dreams are so big--bigger than we could ever make happen ourselves--God gets all the glory!

 For big prayers to be answered, God has to show up and we have to give Him credit!

So, I'm dreaming big dreams and asking God for big things. 

Number one on that list? That every child would have access to a quality education in a place where they are safe and loved. It's a dream so big I couldn't possibly do on my own. But God can. 

P.S. That's one of my favorite phrases. "But God..."

Song (two)

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Texan FAIL. 

No explanation necessary, but the Chilean flag looks an awful lot like the Texas flag.

I'm just saying...

Sam (three)

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 My Mom and I are throwing a bridal shower for my best friend and loooooook at the pretty watercolor wreath I found! For FREE right {here}. It looks kind of blurry in the picture below, but it does not look like that in real life. EEEEEEEKS! I love celebrating people.

Si (four)

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I received the sweetest little cards from my kinder kiddos! Typically, cards are not shared on Valentine's Day, but they make up for it by handing out tons and tons of stickers! By the end of the school day, kids are absolutely covered in stickers.

Ha (five)

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This was just a little piece of glory on my walk to school one morning. I love that God uses the sunrise to remind us that His mercies are new each and every morning! Also, I'm beginning to think that sun flares are my love language.

:)

Bonus

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Tomorrow (2.16), I'm posting over at Teaching Blog Roundup about Number Boggle--I shared a snippet with you {here}. I've included links to tons and tons of freebies for your very own Number Boggle bulletin board or individual recording sheets. If you have a chance, check it out on {TBR}!

Well, down to 2% so I must go. Link up if you get a chance! Would love to hear about your week. :) 

Have a wonderful weekend!!

Throwback to the 100th Day of School!

Stopping in to say hi and celebrate the 100th day of school, Throwback Thursday style! 

In SE Asia, the school year is set up differently, so the 100th day has come and gone (and I'm not sure that they really make note of it). That just means that I'll have to take advantage of TBT and live vicariously through all of your posts! 

I just read about {Molly's} 100th day of school and I wish I was in her class! Too much fun.

:)

Side note: President's Day is just around the corner and if you are looking for a little something, I have a "Presidential Patterns" freebie that you can check out {here}.

Back to the 100th day. I posted this last January and cannot wait to celebrate again! 

Originally posted on January 7, 2013

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The 100th day of school is one of my favorite celebrations--so much joy!

Last year, my kids were greeted by this little banner hanging in the doorway 

and they were SO surprised!

Our entire day was devoted to celebrating one hundred days of school--

math stations, literacy stations, writing, etc. 

Here are a couple of things that we did last year in the classroom:

We made ourselves at 100! 

The kiddos were quite creative and I love how each one was unique. 

The idea was not my own, but I did trace a head and the little shoulders onto a manilla folder.

I checked on Pinterest to see where the idea came from, and here it is!

My kids (and I) LOVED this activity and I will definitely be using this activity for many years to come!

After crafting, the kiddos wrote about themselves at 100--love.

The left picture is me at 100, and the right is one of my little guys at 100. Look at his tie--so creative!

100th Day trailmix, allergy friendly for the littles. 

The kids gathered 10 of each item (10 items total) and kept it in a Ziploc baggie as an after school snack. I found the sorting sheet here!
It is a part of Rachelle's {what the teacher wants} 100's Day Activities pack and it is FREE.

Score.

I also cut the numbers 1, 0, and 0 out on the dicut machine at school and had the littles create a picture using the three numbers.
My example was a snorkeler with goggles and a snorkel {she was pretty cute, if I do say so myself!}, and the kids came up with some HILARIOUS pictures.
The idea was from my Mentor Teacher, and I will definitely be using it again!

I found a picture! Kind of.

At the very bottom is my little snorkeler with the two zeros turned sideways and used as goggles. What you are unable to see, bummer, is her cute snorkel made with the number one!

Well I only have pictures of those few activities, sad, but we had tons of other fun!
We read books about the 100th day of school and the number 100.
The kiddos wrote their own books about the number 100.
At a math station, they flipped a coin one hundred times and counted to see whether they had more Heads or Tails.
One of the literacy stations had them brainstorming a list of 100 words that they could read.
So much learning--and so much fun!!

The day is soon approaching and I hope that you can find some cute ideas--there are plenty out there!
Happy 100th day of school!

Labeling with Sticky Notes.

I first saw this idea at {Mrs. Lee's Kindergarten} and have been waiting to use it for months!

Well, I actually found it while browsing Pinterest as part of some professional development.

:)

Just kidding about the professional development. Pinterest should totally be PD, though!

Anyways, she got the idea from {Abby} and I simply tucked the idea away until I found the right time. FINALLY, the perfect moment arrived.

Julie used the activity to teach labeling, but I used it in my Kindergarten EFL class. 

My little Kinder babies are just beginning to learn English (having barely learned their first language!), so we were working on some basics and labeling the parts of the body. 

This activity followed some singing and dancing, Pictionary, and other activities used as we were learning the parts of the body. We took turns labeling each other and they got a kick out of labeling me. The Kinder kiddos were loving the activity and I can't wait to use it again! 

It is a really simple idea that only requires sticky notes and a writing utensil, 

but it is really powerful for the learners. 

Pinterest, Julie, and Abby for the win. Thanks, gals!

Hip Hip Hooray! It's (oops--no longer) Friday!

For the first time in a long long time, I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to share five things from my week! 

This past weekend, a dream of mine came true!! I played with, pet, and rode an Asian elephant! Y'all, they are soooooooooo cute!!!!! Look at her little smile!

Much of my after school time was spent exploring my new city, and I stumbled upon an antique store that my kitchen-loving heart ADORES. I've been there a couple of times now (all this week! :)) and cannot wait to make a souvenir purchase. My hesitation is the lack of room in my suitcase!

For math club this week, we played Boggle with numbers! The kiddos loved it! Math club has members from the first, second, and third grade classes, so I found number boggle to be a marvelous way to differentiate. After we had worked whole group with a boggle board that contained only digits one through five, we moved up to ten, continuing to work as a group. There were students jumping out of their seat, kneeling at my feet, and doing the "please-call-on-me-don't-you-see-my-hand-waving-frantically?!" dance! We ended club with one last board that students worked on individually. 

Number Boggle for the win! 

Pictured below are the individual Boggle boards. Hopefully you can see it! 

Some of my friends told me about a dialect quiz published by the NY times, so I took {this} quiz and it was hilarious! My results were spot on. I'm a Southern girl, through and through. If you have a couple of free minutes, this quiz is definitely worth your time! 

And, the REALLY big news from this week is that I am almost finished with job applications! Employment 2014, here I come (hopefully!!)!

:)

Any helpful hints for resume writing, interviewing, and the like?!? All help is very much appreciated.

:)

Have a happy weekend!