April Currently! {My First!!}

Woah! Where is the year going?! Tomorrow is APRIL 1st!!! I'm kind of glad we have a building inservice tomorrow so I won't have to hear all of those April Fools jokes allllll day long! Haha! Well I am super tired, but I wanted to get this posted tonight so I will head straight to it! Here is my first Currently with Farley.

* Since my husband and I got home from a weekend with the family, we've both been chilling on the couch and enjoying some quiet time. For me, I am enjoying a little country music to help me wind down for the night. 

* I'm loving all the family time!! We've gone home to see my parents the past two weekends. Last weekend was for my dad's birthday and of course this weekend for Easter! I love spending time with my family! Even though they only live about an hour and 45 minutes away, we don't get to see them too often.

* I'm thinking what I think just about EVERY Sunday evening, haha! The weekends always fly by!

* I just told my husband on the way home tonight that I'm ready for our summer schedule! I love staying up late, going on long walks around town, and if we end up on his sister's porch it doesn't matter how long we stay! I LOVE SUMMER! I WANT SUMMER!! :)

* After all the yummy food today, it is definitely time for me to get my rear in gear! My teaching partner is a Zumba instructor and she's helping put on a 90 Day Fitness Challenge. I am doing it to hold myself more accountable for what I do and eat. You get so many points a day for healthy eating, exercise, sleep, drinking water, etc. 90 days is a LONG time, but I hope this will help motivate me because when it comes to stuff like that, it is hard to motivate myself...unfortunately!

* My advice for creating things is to have fun with it and make it YOU! I haven't been doing this long, but I love making things. I always try to make things that I know will be useful in my classroom and of course I have to make it cute too! It's just FUN, so enjoy it! That's the best advice I have from this newbie! :)

Alright, this girl is off to get her 8 hours of sleep in! I've got to start this challenge off on the right foot! Have a SUPER week and go link up with Farley! 

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Spring Has Sprung! {Sale, Random 5, & a Freebie}

It is finally starting to feel like spring here....well for a few days at least! YAY! :) Because of that and Easter that is coming up this weekend, I am throwing a 15% off sale at my TpT store and linking up with Lovely Literacy & More. The sale will run from 3/30-3/31 on my store, so be sure to go check it out and get those items off of your wish list! 

Button from Lovely Literacy & More Blog.

I am also linking up with Doodle Bug's Five for Friday. 

Here are my five random things to share about this week...

1. It was the first week back after spring break.....enough said!!! Haha! :)

2. I got to see these lovely people last weekend for my dad's birthday celebration AND I get to see them again this weekend for Easter!! You could say I'm a wee bit excited!! 

3. My classroom orders came in and it was like Christmas!! My students and I were super excited about our new dry erase crayons! They are so cool and work much better on laminated activities than dry erase markers. They don't leave behind a glow of the color after erasing! I highly recommend them.

4. We had our career day yesterday and the kids came to school dressed up like what they want to be when they grow up. We also had parents come in at the end of the day to share their careers. Our first parent was a midwife and after sharing her scrubs and what she wears when the baby comes, it was time for questions. Can you imagine what was going through their little minds? Two out of the three questions were about how and where the babies come out. Haha, it was pretty priceless! :)

5. We wrote about what we wanted to be when we grow up and made little people to go with them. It turned out to be more of a project than I had pictured, but it's all about the experience right?! Now I know, too! The writing was pretty cute though! 

"I will be a teacher when I grow up because it's cool."

If you'd like your own free copy of this writing sheet, click here to download it!

Happy Easter everyone!! Don't forget to check out the sale at my store!! Have a good one!

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Is It SPRING Yet?! {Noun Game & Giveaway!}

I really enjoyed last week's "Let's Get Acquainted Linky Party" by Latoya didn't you?! It's so fun to get to know other bloggers through these games, so of course I've got to link up again! Plus, you will find an awesome giveaway at the end of the post that I was asked to contribute to! 

Click on the picture to go link up and view others!

Now for this week's game - The Noun Game! With this game, you simply just name your favorite person, place, thing, and animal. So, here it goes!

#person

This is hard to pick just one because I love my family so much, but I would say my favorite person is my husband! He is so supportive, caring, silly, passionate, the list could go on and on! I'm such a lucky girl to be married to a guy like him! 

#place

I have only been to the beach twice! Crazy, I know, but I love it! It is such a peaceful place and when I'm there, I don't worry about much else. This was my view of the beach in Punta Cana last summer. If I had to pick a place I go to regularly, I would probably say my bed! Haha, this girl loves her sleep!! :)

#thing

My favorite thing right now is my new MacBook Pro computer. I was so anxious to get it and be able to create new things on it.

#animal

I love giraffes! They are such interesting animals! Look at this little guy's long tongue on the pole! They are just beautiful! :)

Now for the giveaway I mentioned earlier...the amazing Mrs. Pauley is hosting a Spring Fever Giveaway. Many awesome bloggers are a part of the giveaway and I'm honored to be one of them. You have the chance to win my Kindergarten Common Core Math Vocabulary Posters, but hurry the giveaway ends at midnight on Saturday, March 31st!

a Rafflecopter giveaway  

This giveaway is perfect for what I'm feeling right now! We went back to school today after a week off for spring break and we had to have recess inside due to the COLD! UGHH!! I am soooo ready for spring! How about you?!

Oh, one more thing! I wanted to give another shout-out to another blogger friend, Christy over at Teaching Tales Along the Yellow Brick Road. She was so sweet to give me some blog lovin' and I really appreciate it. She is a fellow Kansan and we now live in the same town because our husbands are both from there. We also had a few classes together in college, so it was sweet of her to think of me! Go check her out, she still has a mega giveaway going on!

Have a great week! Now it's time for this tired teacher to head to bed! It's so hard to go back to school after a long break!

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Five for Friday: A Spring Breakin' & My Truths!

Holy moly! It's already Friday?! This week of spring break flew wayyy too fast! Anyway, it's time to link up again for Doodle Bugs Teaching Five for Friday! 

1. Let's start with revealing the truths from last Sunday's post here.

1. I attended the same school from Pre-K through my senior year of high school. TRUTH

I guess I should have made that a little more clear. I wasn't in the same school building for all those years, but I did go to the same school. We were a small school district and all of our school buildings were on the same piece of land. K-8 were in one building and the high school in another building. I've grown up in the same house and community until I graduated from high school!

2. I have traveled outside of the country 3 times in my life. LIE

I have only traveled outside of the country 2 times in my life. Once was for our honeymoon in Riviera Maya, Mexico and then last summer we took a trip to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. I didn't travel much at all as a kid, so I get to experience all of these new places together with my husband! I love it! :)

3. I originally went to college to become an interior designer. TRUTH

When I was in elementary school, I always wanted to be a teacher. In fact, my younger sister (who was in kindergarten when I was in 5th grade) was my student. I would be teaching her skills that were just below 5th grade level and I loved to grade papers! Haha! I was such a mean teacher that I had to bribe her into becoming my student again and I made her sign a paper saying she wouldn't quit! My parents found this and many other "school" items just a couple years ago! Anyway, once I hit 8th grade, I knew I wanted to be an interior designer and nothing else. I went to orientation to learn about the program and enroll and I knew right then and there that it wasn't for me. I ended up going into music education for a semester which then led me to elementary education. Even with all of that, I still managed to graduate and get my degree in 3.5 years! By the way, I know for a fact that I made the right choice!! :)

2. We are in the midst of trying to sell our house, so we decided to paint our bathroom over the break. The new gray walls really brighten up the room and are probably more appealing to buyers...we hope! 

3. I ordered a new computer and it came in this week!!! WHOOOHOOO!!! I love it!

 With my new computer, I finished up and posted a little Easter treat! If you hurry, it is on sale for a limited time at my TpT store! Click the picture to check it out!

What I should be doing with this new computer are my lesson plans....eeeeekkk!!! Like I said, this spring break has slipped away! I guess I better make the time tomorrow morning to get them finished!

4. I got to do a little pampering over the break with a couple of my best friends. They are both teachers who I met in college, so it is nice that we had the same spring break to catch up! I just wish it was warm enough outside to wear sandals already...enough of this white stuff! 

5. I am now back at my parents' house to celebrate my dad's 60th birthday this weekend! I have the best dad in the world and we are going to celebrate with a card party which is exactly his kind of party! 

(For those that don't know what a card party is, it is just where we play 10pt. pitch in small groups and keep score to hopefully move up to the high table. I grew up thinking everybody knew what a card party was, but after telling my friends about it I found out everybody doesn't know! Haha!!)

Just a little picture with my dad from our wedding a few years ago. He sure doesn't look 60! 

Have a super weekend everybody and go link up!!

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2 Truths, 1 Lie....Can YOU Guess It?!

Happy Sunday everybody! This is typically the part of my weekend that I dread the most because I procrastinate all weekend to get prepared for the week (usually) or the weekend flies too fast and I'm in need of a little more relaxation! BUT....I'm on SPRING BREAK, so I don't feel that way for once! Whoohooo!!! :) So for my Sunday evening I decided to link up with Flying into First Grade's Linky Party. This week it is 2 Truths & a Lie. Check it out below to see if you can decide which one is my lie. Then go link up so we can all get to know each other a little better!

1. I attended the same school from Pre-K through my senior year of high school.

2. I have traveled outside of the country 3 times in my life. 

3. I originally went to college to become an interior designer.

Alright there it is, now comment below to see if you can guess which one is my lie. I will reveal the answer later on, so stay tuned! :) Also be on the look-out soon for a loaded giveaway from my friend Christy at Teaching Tales Along the Yellow Brick Road to celebrate her 100 followers. I went to college with her and we now live in the same town! Cool huh?! I am donating one free item from my store as part of the giveaway, so you will definitely want to hop on over there within the next day to participate!

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Five for Friday: St. Patty's Edition!

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for her Five for Friday! 

This is my first time and there is so much to share from this week that it was hard to narrow it down, so I decided to keep it all within the St. Patty's Day theme. We had so much fun this week in kindergarten with these fun activities. I pondered writing separate blog posts, but I wanted to link up this week so be prepared for a long, picture happy post tonight! :)

1. We started NEW math stations and the kids were so excited! 

This is only our second round of math stations and so far they are going well. I haven't had a chance to blog about this yet, but my goal is to blog about our math stations that we do every month. Below is my way of organizing the stations. It works perfectly for this group. I have two of every activity and they each have their own baggy. Almost all of this month's activities can be found through my pack on TpT, "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Clover" & Other St. Patty's Day Treasures.

 

 Station 1: Roll the Lucky Treasures - Addition

 Station 2: Lucky 3-D Shape Sort

Station 3: Lucky Clover Measurement

 Station 4: Lucky Bump (Addition & One More) - this game can be found in my Themed Bump Games Pack for 2nd Semester.

 Station 5: Pot of Gold at the end of the Rainbow - Making 10

 Station 6: Cloudy Addends - Find the Missing Cloudy Addend (Sums up to 10)

 This game wasn't in our math stations, but it could be. We put it in our math learning lab. Leprechaun Roll & Cover - Addition

 2. It was the final day with our leprechaun story and BOTH leprechauns came to visit! First up....the naughty leprechaun, Leyland. See more about this here.

Leyland destroyed our classroom once again...

He got into our green paint and left footprints all over the classroom...on our tables, counters, and on our toilet before turning the water green! Unfortunately our toilet flushes automatically so after the first group of kids discovered it, it was gone so I missed the picture!

 He dumped out our crayons in our cubbies and made a big mess!

 He left messages again and dumped out markers on the carpet.

 He spilled our dramatic play dress up clothes.

 He poured out some math manipulatives on the carpet and he erased all 9 of our stars on our star chart!

The kids were so cute and wanted to get our classroom back in order right away! Our classroom was back to normal in no time with these little helpers!

 3. Now for the nice leprechaun, Liam. He left us a little note to find the final treasure which led us on a treasure hunt.

 

This led us to the cafeteria where we found the next clue. I had one poor girl start crying because she was worried her face was actually going to turn blue....whoops! Haha!

In the courtyard, we found our next clue which led us to the library.

 The clue in the library led us back outside to the playground.

 They were on a mission to find that next clue, it was hilarious!!

 

Finally, our last clue led us to the principal's office. We had a tea party with the queen earlier in the year, so they knew exactly who our queen was!

We saw our principal in the hallway and showed her our clue. She led us quietly into her office to find the treasure!

 

We went back to our classroom to enjoy our treasure and taste the rainbow!

What a fun start to our Friday!! :)

4. We read "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Clover" this week and did many activities with this fun story. (All from the same Old Lady Clover packet mentioned in my math stations above)

 

We filled in the blanks and colored our own books!

 We retold the story with picture cards.

 We picked three things the old lady swallowed and drew the picture and wrote the word for each.

We took a quick listening comprehension quiz on the final day to see how well we remember the story. I bet those kids could go home and tell the whole story to their parents after this week! They LOVED this book and these activities!

We did these and another writing activity where they got to choose what the old lady would eat if they were her. I didn't get any pictures because we packed up when we were finished, but they turned out super cute and they had wonderful ideas! I love seeing their creativity.

5. I am finally on SPRING BREAK!!!!! 

It was a wonderful day today because it was 80 degrees in Kansas, so we spent a majority of our day outside. I took the kids outside for reading class and I think I kept their attention better than I do inside (surprising I know!) and they read awesome! Anyway, it was a great end to a long week and now I'm ready to relax and do basically nothing all break! I'm looking forward to sleeping in and maybe making a product or two for my TpT store, but other than that I will be relaxing, enjoying time with my husband and our families. Sounds like a nice plan to me! :)

Happy St. Patty's Day on Sunday everybody!! 

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