Life Happened.

Wow! So much to share, friends.

It's been awhile. I guess that life just happened. But, I'm back and feeling very reenergized. I have just 8 and a half days of school left. I have to box up and move my entire room by the last day of school. I have report cards to do. I have end of the year summer workbooks, awards, and gifts to prepare. I have just started my Master's. And yet, I feel energized. This must have been why I kept so busy with classes, activities, work & my sorority in college. The busyness just keeps me going.

Here's what I've been up to. We are having SO. MUCH. FUN. lately. We are doing Reader's Theatre until the end of the year. Here are some cute anchor charts I whipped up for my firsties:

This first one is from Pinterest. Not sure who came up with it originally (sorry!), but it's genius. It totally MAKES SENSE to my kiddos. Fluency has been a big focus for Reader's Theatre in the past few weeks so this is perfect.

This one is actually an original. Shocking, I know. 99% of my anchor charts are copies from Pinterest. This is allllll me :) We refer to this everyday. My firsties totally know what 3 things they need to do to become their characters in their acting. I have quite the little actors in my class, let me tell you!

This week we will audition for parts for our plays and begin practicing them. The past few weeks we have been just working with our partners on being characters in books from our book boxes. They have been doing a great job with it. They're ready to make the leap to reading scripts! So proud of them!

We ALSO had Teacher Appreciation Week. GLORIOUS. Our PTA was incredible! They went with a  Movie Star theme & went above and beyond with decorations:

^apparently I'm married ;)

^I die. 

You can tell they let any kids write on these; my firsties wouldn't write anything with a hashtag haha!

I received so many gorgeous flowers from my friends!

Speaking of flowers. Here's ME in flower form! Haha.

We wrapped up our flower/plant study with this cute craftivity from the lovely Cara Carroll. You can find it on TPT here.

We made these cute, simple crafts for Mother's Day. It was one of my teammate's ideas. Simply have each student trace their hand on green paper and use die cut flowers and baskets to make the bouquet. I also didn't get any pictures but my kiddos also made Haley's free All About Mom booklet. They turned out SO cute!

Anyone else's laptop look like this all the time? We are living the Go Noodle life in Room 102. It has been SUCH a lifesaver. We did Flow the other day and it was AWESOME. I keep testing out new ones with my kids to see which ones I like!

SADLY I haven't been doing very good at taking pictures of my outfits lately. I did splurge on some Tory Burch Reva flats with my tax refund and am dying to get some pictures with them on. It's been rainy so I haven't been wearing them too much & am still trying to break them in!

I also purchased my teacher planner for next year. I have (and love) my current Erin Condren planner but went with a different cover this time around. I can plan a blog post later about how I use mine if some of you would like to see how I use it! I know it seems weird to still write it out but that's the way I remember everything! I would be lost if I didn't write things down. Here's the NEW one I ordered. Get 20% off ALL MAY on teacher items with the code: LIVELOVELEARN.

Annnnnd I signed up for Stitch Fix! I am dying of excitement. After seeing Maria post about her Stitch Fixes, I just knew I had to sign up. It's coming Tuesday so expect a blog post about it!

I'm hoping to keep everyone posted over the summer about my preparations for next year. I'm planning some reorganization of my math manipulatives AND adding a leveled library to my classroom. It's going to be a LOT of work, but I am so excited! Here's a sneak peek of something new coming to my classroom. I snagged this beauty for just $20 at a yard sale (a total steal!):

When does YOUR summer start? What changes are you planning for next year?

MIA.

It's been insanely too long. Prepare yourself for an ultra long post. My internet has been super bizarre and slow. It seems to work on every other device in my house EXCEPT for my MacBook.

I have done a lot in the almost MONTH hat I have been absent. Let's sum it up in some pictures:

This basically sums up my last month. An explosion of STUFF. We finished up our character unit with character book clubs; that's all the stacks of books nicely marked with Post-its. The obscene amount of lamination are all of the Cara Carroll goodies that I got printed. One of my student's parents cut it all - BLESS HER. There was even more of that hidden in my cabinet as well.

Anchor Charts Galore!

This puppy was for working on our opinion writing. We did book reviews to finish up the unit. It was crucial to have a good chat about not giving away the entire book in a review. That is a VERY hard thing to do when you are oh-so excited about the book!!

 This is for our new unit in Lucy Calkin's Units of Study - we are on Unit 4 where the kiddos are writing realistic fiction pieces. They are LOVING it!  I have a problem where I only draw redheaded stick people. I blame it on never having enough ginger role models as a child :)

THE LONG AWAITED LIBRARY REVEAL! Guys, I can't even contain my excitement. This is the BEST thing to happen to my classroom since all the wonders over the summer. Seriously, this brings me so much joy. I love organization. I love color coordination. I love books. This is a combination of all of those things.

The bookshelf is still the same ol' scary one I bought off someone's yard for $10. The bins are from Really Good Stuff. They are the same as my kiddos' book boxes. I never thought to use them for my library until I saw some on Pinterest! The labels are from TPT made by the lovely Danielle Mastandrea. I also have her math manipulative labels (a summer project), book stickers (another summer project) and word wall cards (actually up in my classroom).

Don't mind the 3 bins without labels (seriously, they are driving me insane). I'm ordering them! The books in there (in case you're curious) are Fly Guy, Pinkalicious and all of my National Geographic Kids books.  If you have ANY questions about my library or how I organized it, please comment. I am happy to share. I've already inspired one of my teammates to redo her entire library, too. Oops!

 Now onto things that are actually happening RECENTLY. This has been the most insane week. We had a snow day Monday, our first grade dress rehearsal/musical on Tuesday, field trip on Wednesday…today was the first day I've actually had a normal schedule! Soooo nice.

This was how we spent our morning yesterday. AH-mazing. My kids were in tears, they were laughing so hard at this show. We came back for a little lunch in the classroom and did some opinion writing about the show. We also did Venn Diagrams comparing the book and the show. Annnd I forgot to take pictures of it!

This was my life today. In preparation for report cards, I am figuring out some ways to take data on my kiddos' progress. Praise the Lord for Susan Jones. Seriously. I would DIE without her amazing TPT products, especially this. All of the papers all over my desk are from that packet :)  Can't wait to see what all my kiddos have learned!

Annnd here's a little bit of my personal life, if you're interested.

This is my fab sister. We went tubing at a little ski resort type thing in Kansas City last week. It was for people with special needs & their families. There were SO many incredible people there. We had a BLAST.

This is my super fun outfit for the Mardi Gras themed wedding i went to last weekend!

Here's the deets on the outfit:

Top: Express, Necklace: Francesca's, Skirt: Delia's (old)

Thanks so much for catching up on my life! I hit the TPT sale last weekend HARD so I am hoping to do a (super delayed) post this weekend about what all I bought.

Have a great last day of your week!
Shelby

That's That Stuff I Like

Happy Monday!

I'm dedicating a post to some of my favorite things - teacher clothes and anchor charts!

When I first started this blog, I had hoped to do some style posts.  Teacher clothes are a beautiful and complicated thing - trying to look fashionable yet accommodate standing up all day/bending down/sitting criss cross on the floor etc.

Here's what I wore + my style inspiration (J's Everyday Fashion):

Top: Express, Pants: Target (old), Flats: Steve Madden via DSW

I'm pretty proud of myself on matching this look.  Please ignore my shadowy background vs. this obviously professional blogger look.  I definitely could use more accessories, but that's my big goal for my next paycheck.  I'm lusting after tons of gorgeous jewels at Stella & Dot.  Their Spring 2014 line just came out today!

As far as this outfit for teacher wear, it was perfect!  I love Express portofinos for school because the v-neck feels feminine without being too revealing and the shirts are insanely comfortable.  They're a little pricey, but well worth the quality!  They're on sale right now for buy one, get one $29.90.  {Disclaimer: my blog has around 12 followers so no, I'm definitely not getting paid for saying any of this.  I just love a good deal.}  I love the colored pants with a print!  One of my students asked me if they were jeggings - HA!  Shoe-wise, flats were a MUST - it's still somewhat snowy in patches of the parking lot.

I do have to give a shoutout to my girl Darcy for inspiring me to link my outfit like a REAL fashion blogger.  If you are looking for fashion ideas, definitely check out Darcy's blog (linked above) - she's a good friend from college and now in the real world :)

Back to teaching.  I whipped up an anchor chart really quick today during my plan.  As I've mentioned before, we do EnVision Math (anyone else out there?!) and our topic right now is about number patterns to 120.  This will help us build some background before starting place value.  We worked exclusively with the 100s chart today to notice patterns in the rows and columns.  I think this will be a great thing for my firsties to refer back to :)

{those gorgeous letters for the board header are here}

Please ignore the really bad not straight line--actually please don't look.  My OCD is freaking out.  This was attempt 2 after I drew too many lines the first time (grr) and I refused to make a 3rd one.  Also sorry that my 1's look like lowercase l's.  Ha!  But I love this puppy and know my kiddos will get a lot of good use out of it :)  And it's another great thing in my room to point at when they ask questions.

What do you think of today's style?  Do you use EnVision Math?  Do you use a hundreds chart to help teach place value?

Can't wait to hear what you have to say!

Shelby

The Week That Was

Hope all of you teachers out there had a good first week back!  I am linking up with Doodle Bugs again this week to show you what we were up to in Room 102.

{ONE}

We started our character unit study in Reader's Workshop this week.  We created this anchor chart:

{of course all my little darlings had to worry about why the girl on the side doesn't have a face}

I added to it each day as we learned the ways we can learn more about characters: actions, likes/dislikes, dialogue.

I used several mentor texts as well.  We used a Froggy book (Froggy Goes To Hawaii) for actions because there are so many actions!!  We used Chrysanthemum for likes/dislikes - one of my absolute favorite books!  Dialogue was an easy choice - Junie B. Jones!  I have all of the Junie B books and she's easily my favorite book character.

{TWO}

We began our 3rd unit in Writer's Workshop as well.  SO excited for my kiddos to start persuasive writing.  I made this anchor chart yesterday; this was inspired by Spotted in First Grade.  

I cropped my kiddos names out but it says "Writing Goals" & after each goal are post-it flags with their names.  My firsties met with me one-on-one & we discussed which goal would be the best fit for them.  I  put their name by their choice for what to work on.

{THREE}

One of my newest students gave me this as a present yesterday:

It was so nice I didn't have the heart to tell her I'm a KU fan.  One of my little sweeties saw the whole thing & is a diehard Mizzou fan (and knows I hate them!) and I was SO PROUD of him for not spilling that I like KU to her.  Not sure what to do with this now - ha!

{FOUR}

We started Class Dojo!  One of my good teacher friends at school uses it with her kindergarteners & loves it.  I really wanted to try something new with behavior management and this was perfect!  I felt really inspired to do it after reading this post from Erica Bohrer.  If you're thinking about using Class Dojo then this is a MUST READ for all the ins & outs.

{FIVE}

This one is just about me - I did some shopping today and am super excited!  It's been awhile since I've shopped for myself and I love finding new things for my teacher wardrobe.  Here's some of the great things I got while I was out this morning.  Click the links to find them online :)

Green Sleeveless Portofino, Polka Dot Portofino, Black Scarf

Sorry the picture quality isn't the best but I DID take it with my NEW iPHONE 5.  YAY!  I'm so happy to have upgraded to a faster phone!  I already love it, especially the fingerprint login.  So cool!

Also - I do realize all of these clothes are from Express.  I used to work there.  I have a problem.

Hope you have a great weekend,

Shelby

First Time Five For Friday

I'm so excited to link up with Doodle Bugs for the first time.  It's my first Five for Friday!  Click the graphic above so you can link up, too :)

We made these adorable gingerbread houses from Kelley Dolling at Teacher Idea Factory.  I think they turned out great!  I let the kiddos have some free reign with decorating and they really let their personalities shine.  This activity went along perfectly to review fact families from our lesson last Friday.  Anyone else doing EnVision math?!  Fact families are in Topic 6!

On Tuesday, we had our Staff Holiday Breakfast.  It was also Ugly Sweater Day at school.  Anyone who knows me knows how much I adore a good ugly sweater.  After searching my entire house to find mine from college to no avail, I set off on a hunt for one.  I ended up settling on these holiday pajamas:

If you can't tell - these are covered with different breeds of dogs that are wrapped in Christmas lights.  Ha!  I'm going to another Ugly Sweater party this weekend and wearing this beauty from Target:

What's not to love about a funny ugly holiday sweater?!

I LOVE MY CLOUD PEOPLE.  These cuties were inspired by Abby at the Inspired Apple.  Link leads to her post with her cloud people :)  We are continuing our unit on weather until winter break.  My firsties are loving it.

If you've read this blog more than once, you probably know that I have an obsession with books.  My room is FULL of them and yet…I can't stop myself from buying more.  I can't say NO to a good deal.  For example, this is my back counter:

Not to mention the bookshelf with baskets that are literally overflowing with books.  I bought these gorgeous library labels from Danielle Mastandrea & hoped it would encourage me to get my life together & update/reorganize my library.  Which seems completely and utterly unnecessary when I am a FIRST YEAR TEACHER.  But, I have too many books.  I digress.  Thoughts?  Suggestions?  I wanted to get the gorgeous neon book baskets from Really Good Stuff to match my book bins, but heard that don't hold up that well?  Does anyone know?  Help me, I'm poor (in my best Kristen Wiig voice).

FINALLY.  The best part of my week, easily, was this note from my principal that I got this morning.

Sad how excited a week of jeans makes me!!  What were you up to this week?  I can't wait to read all about it :)

-Shelby

I Love Anchor Charts, Anchory Anchor Charts!

I realize anyone reading this is just getting to know me.  But!  If you knew me, you would know I love anchor charts.  In fact, I have an entire Pinterest board devoted to anchor charts.  Definitely check it out if you're an anchor chart enthusiast like myself.

I have never considered myself to be a particularly talented artist (putting it nicely).  However, I can look at an picture and draw based on looking at it.

We started working on Author's Purpose today.  Our lesson only allowed for one day of this but I felt my kiddos needed more topic on this important topic.  I decided to take 3 days and focus on different purposes authors can have (to inform, to entertain and to persuade).  I was inspired by Amy Lemons' gorgeous charts.  Here are hers:

Here are my recreations:

I'll admit my kiddo drawings are a little on the hefty side.  How do you think I did?

Shelby