Turkey, Teachers Pay Teachers and Silly Faces

Happy Thanksgiving! Here in Canada we had the day off today for our Thanksgiving. I had an absolutely wonderful weekend with both sides of my family. As we all know, a teacher's work is never done and so I did go into the school today for a few hours. This week is going to be out of the ordinary with Grade Testing and Interim Reports due, so I decided to do a unit on learning our colour sight words. I am super passionate about early literacy and I want my kiddos, especially my Grade 1's, to feel success when they are reading. They can read so few words at this point, but colours are "big" words that add so much to a sentence...so I really want my kiddos to know them! I created a unit that has tons of repetitive activities so that there can be quick mastery. I want this to run like clockwork, and it will perhaps (FINGERS CROSSED) allow me to do some reading assessments as they work. Our Guided Reading program, and literacy centers are starting quickly and I feel like I need more information before I can do my reading groups!

For my colour unit I am using tons of great resources I found on Teachers Pay Teachers, and some of my own. Let me just take a moment to GIVE THANKS for TPT...I know that's a funny thing to be thankful for, but this teacher is so thankful! My class of 29 Grade 1/2 students who range in level from Pre-K to Grade 4 (I KNOW!!!) take A LOT of planning, preparation and differentiation. (I LOVE AND AM SO THANKFUL FOR THEM THOUGH!) I SO appreciate Teachers Pay Teachers and their wealth of "FREE" activities, which allows me to download pre-done activities. Today I also found out that there is a new blog called "Freebielicious", which has tons of great contributors always posting freebies...LOVE THIS!! I can't wait to start downloading some of these great activities. YAWN...I am sleepy, so I best call it a night as 5:30 am comes EARLY!

Oh, I do want to end with some hysterical pictures from a let's-make-silly-faces marathon with my niece and nephew...I just love them!

 

 

 ...and a nice one of me and my hunny!

Love,

Classroom Reveal...a month late :)

Well it has been a long time coming, but here are just a FEW pictures of my classroom. I will let them speak for themselves, but honestly the classroom already looks different. There is artwork up, my behaviour clip chart and the desks are in rows (my kiddos are learning how to listen!). It is a work in progress, but I have to say that my long days are made bearable by my colourful, polka dot room!!

Here is what I walked into at the beginning of the summer...an empty room!!

I got this desk FREE off of Craigslist! It was a 1960's teacher desk. Sam sanded it down and we stained it with a much darker stain, I just LOVE it!! 

My door out to the courtyard...it was in desperate need of painting! 

I painted out all the green and maroon black. Lots of people had doubts, but I had a vision in mind and I was determined to see it through!

My empty wall, ready for all my Morning Meeting stuff...

 

 

I still need to add my number line at the bottom and my Canadian Coin posters. This is my Morning Meeting/Math Focus wall.

This corner already looks a little different, but you get the idea. The bins hold my toys, and the yellow bench was made by Sam. My kiddos wait with anticipation every morning to see who Mrs. Bell chooses out of the bin to sit on the bench for the day.

Our rules, which are the Whole Brain Teaching rules, are posted on the wall and we recite them, with actions every day!

My word wall...which will soon be filled with sight and spelling words.

 Library and Supplies corner

 

Each month we will focus on a different characteristic of God...this month, to match with our Apple theme, we look at God as Creator. I need to frame this out still, but it works for now.

The cloakroom, it looks so much better in black. Next year I will tackle the inside and benches.

My clip chart hangs under the tissue paper flowers right now. I will post later about my clip chart and the WONDERS it works in my classroom! Do you see all the curriculum books...too many lol :)

Hand-in buckets, centers, games and puzzles.

My desk...it is much cleaner, organized and cuter now!

Well, there it is! I will try to share more photos of the updates, but my life as a new Grade 1/2 teacher is as busy as ever :)

Love,

The Start of Something New

Well here it is, my first teaching blog. I am joining the ranks of hundreds of other teachers who share what they do on a daily basis with the "world wide web." I have known for a long time that I wanted to do a blog of my first year (at least) in my own classroom, and I can hardly believe it is here! Let me give you a little background about me. I am 27 years old and have been with the most wonderful man for 11 years. If you do the math that means we got together when I was 16 years old! We got married July 8, 2006, and it has been an adventure every step of the way!

My hubby is trained as a Youth Pastor, but is "playing" with tools until God shows us our next ministry opportunity. We are goofy, mushy with each other, laugh a lot, and are in-love as ever...sigh, I just love him!

 Being Goofy...

 

Being Mushy...

We don't have children of our own yet, but we do have 2 nieces and 2 nephews that we are IN LOVE with! They light up our life, and make us giggle and laugh at the funny things they do!

Isaiah just turned ONE, and he is my sister and brother-in-law's baby boy! 

Sam's brother and his wife have three little ones, Sarah (4), Isaac (2) and Leah (5 months). The things they say are hysterical...they are the funniest kids...really!

 

She loves to pose!

Listening to Uncle Sam read "Dooby, Dooby Moo" in funny voices.

 

This was taken when Leah was still NEW, but I just love the picture!

Okay, back to the whole teaching thing lol :) Since I was young, the only thing I remember ever wanting to be, was a teacher. I made my sister play school with me all the time, and I would give her pretend spelling tests and mark her work...anyone else do the same? So when I graduated from the University of British Columbia in November 2009 it was truly a life-long dream coming true.

 My sister and I at my Graduation from UBC.

The past three years I have done several different jobs related to education: personal tutor, special education assistant, learning assistance teacher and teacher-on-call...but I was still holding out hope that one day I would get my coveted Grade 1 or early primary classroom. Well, this past May I was hired for a Grade 1/2 classroom and the rest is history!! This summer has been filled with daydreaming about teaching strategies, PINTEREST, painting, preparing lessons, cutting out millions of letters and shapes on my Cricut, and happy dances because I get to teach 27 little ones this Fall! If you are a fellow teacher, I hope you can relate to that giddiness that comes when you create an awesome lesson, purchase new read-alouds or download an amazing freebie from Teachers Pay Teachers...isn't it awesome to be passionate about our jobs?

In the next couple weeks I will be blogging many of the preparations I have been doing in my classroom. I have painted, scrubbed and made an empty classroom feel like home (almost, it is not quite done LOL), and I can't wait to share it with you!

With Love,