A Look into My Cart

Hi Everyone! I'm so excited to link up with the  Blog Hoppin' ladies to share what I bought during TPT's back to school sale!  I'm so lucky my husband was in a good mood last night because when I laid my total on him he didn't freak out on me.  I'm so excited about all my new products!  

I'm hopeful Haley's First Days in First Grade will help me put together an amazing first week for my incoming firsties! I had originally bought Holly's Superhero unit for camp but fell in love with it so much I will be using it in class during the 2nd or 3rd weeks of school.  I have done bucket filling with my classes in the past but found it a little hard to get off the ground last year.  I am hoping Cheryl's Bucket Labels, banners and notes will make it easier.  My good friend Meghan sent me Pink Cat Studio's Owl Punch Card and I just had to get it.  I'm not sure yet how I will use them but I can't wait!

Last year Meghan and I decide to do science experiments with our classes on Friday's but I found it hard to keep looking for new experiments that were age appropriate yet engaging.  With Meghan moving to 2nd grade I was worried I wouldn't be able to keep it up, because she was totally more science and math than I am.  Thankfully, Kim's Science Blasters! are just what I need to keep myself excited and stressed free for this year's "Sci-Fries".   

I'm pretty sure I own more than enough reading and writing units but then again can you ever!  First off I must say I am so sad that Lyndsey is taking a teaching hiatus and her products are always on point and save me from several D5 jams.  I had to pick up both her Be a Reading Expert and Be a Writing Expert units.  The pamphlets she provides for parents are great and will definitely make an appearance at my Back to School Night.  This will be my 3rd year using the Phonics Dance in my classroom and because Ginny does such a great job anchoring the vowel teams and other hunks and chunks to picture I knew I wanted to pick up Katie's Blends and Diagraphs Packs to do the same.  I am a big believer in Phonological and use a wonderful year long curriculum but was surprised at the end of last year when one of my best readers wasn't able to think of rhyming words during our poetry unit.  I'm sure it hasn't held him back but when I saw Elizabeth's Dust Bunnies Book Companion Pack I was all about it!  I have all the supplies to make dust bunnies ready to go!  Cara's Year Long Work on Writing bundle was my splurge but I am hopeful it will keep me from being at school for several hours on Sunday afternoon looking for new activities to fill my WoW station of Daily 5. I sold it to  my husband as an investment in our family time!  

I love anything having to do with Campbell's labels.  Maybe it's because my daughter's middle name is Campbell or because the coolest, sweetest nicest girl in my grad program was named Campbell and carried a Campbell's Soup tote to class whatever the reason I love anything Campbell.  So of course I HAD to scoop up Hope's Organize My Supplies Labels, now I just need to start thinking of ways to use up some canned food.  Even though I have my own system for organizing my guided reading materials I still had to get Michelle's Teach and Keep Track forms.  The word work chart is AMAZING and sure to be a huge time saver!  

Last night while at barre the idea of my beginning of the year bulletin board came to me and I had to start picking up things to make it happen.  The Lego clipart and papers.  I am going to use one of min-figs from this freebie by Glitter Meets Glue Designs for each of my students.  I plan to title my bulletin board Everything is Awesome Everything is Cool When You're Part of 1A! Since I am using their freebie I felt I had to support their shop and picked up these great papers!  Finally I picked up some superhero clip art to use at camp and God know what else.
Be sure to link up with Blog Hoppin and share what you bought!

Vegas Recap: Lessons Learned on Day 1

Please tell me I'm not the only one whose life gets away from them?  I fully intended to write this post 3 weeks ago, but then camp started. Doesn't bode well for my intentions of blogging during the school year does it?  Oh well as my hubby says nothing to it but to do it, so without further ado....

First off I need to own the fact I picked most of my sessions by searching for presentors I follow on Blog Lovin and purchase most from on TPT.  At first this seemed silly but after talking it over with my two girlfriends it was the best strategy. These sessions spoke to me, I already trusted the presenters and believed in their methods. I'm sure it's how I'll pick next year too!  

Session 1:  Turning Your Math Instruction into a Fun-a-Licious Experience for All presented by Cara Carroll.  

I was so pumped for this session!! I seriously heart Cara big time.  Meeting her may have been one of the biggest highlights of the whole trip.

Let me tell you she does not disappoint. I would be honored to have one of my babies in her class! In this session Cara broken down her math instruction and math tubs. She gave tons of ideas and suggestions on how to make it work in other classrooms.  She explained her schedule and how she uses her math time. The two main things that I took away from her presentation were:  

1) It's not necessary to have rotations that include teacher table.  If you "free" yourself of that commitment it allows you to sit back and observe what your students are doing. If you see a student hasn't fully understood a concept or needs more instruction you can pull them during this time. You can pull a small group if you see a few need more attention. You can use this time to do conferences or one on one assessments but, you can also observe and use these observersations to plan more lessons. I loved this idea because it make so much sense yet I have this idea I have to always be teaching but forget that observation is such an important part of planning our teaching.

2) Math Mouth- this is how Cara introduces math vocabulary to her kiddos. I loved the cute catchy phrase and her anchor charts. They are simple but really allow the children to form connections with the terms. 

Cara has blogged about her session a bit and shared a lot of what she presented so be sure to check out her post.  I loved the whole thing and will definitely be applying a lot of her suggestions but the two above have stayed with me a month later. 

Session 2:  Rhythm, Rhyme and Phonological Awareness by Sherri Strating 

I was really looking forward to this session because I had a student this past year who had apraxia and  I was looking for more information on the importance and a deeper understanding of the developmement of phonological awareness.  Sherri was a very sweet presentor and gave tons of lesson ideas.  It reaffirmed what I was doing in my classroom and offered me some more activities I could do during summer tutoring. Sherri shared some books that can help children develop their phonological awareness, they are sitting in my amazon cart right now. She suggested Mother Goose Meets Monster Goose, Mary Had a Little Jam and Hink Pink books. I loved these. 

Session 3:  Squeezing Learning into a Every Second by Jodi Southard 

Let me start by saying Jodi is tiny!  I mean sister is SO stinkin' cute and fit, you can't tell she's pregnant till she turns to the side!! So jealous!  Moving on though, this session was all about how to maximize time and what to do with those annoying random 5-7 minutes between periods or activities. I seriously have two pages of notes on different things we can do during those times.  I loved them all but what I think hope to make a constant in my classroom is what Jodi calls compliment time. Basically you take those 5 minutes and pick one student to sit in the middle, or in a high chair, actually it doesn't matter where they sit or stand the point is you pick a student and each children pay the chosen student a compliment.  How awesome is that?  I recently read Ron Clark's End of Molasses Classes in which he talks about the importance of teaching children to lift each other up, Jodi's idea supports this perfectly! The other idea I love is have a student in the "hot seat" chose a student and have them answer academic review questions their peers ask them. If they get it right they get to stay in the hot seat if they answer correctly but if a friend stumps them they switch out of the hot seat. What a great way to review!  Jodi talked about a lot of different ways to get students writing short pieces during those 5-10 minutes. My favorite was using Story Cubes. I've  already purchased a set and plan to have it in my writing center as an option during Work on Writing. 

Session 4:  Vocabulary Building:  A Challenge & Opportunity by Cara Carroll

Another fabulous session with Cara.  Since she has blogged about her session already I'll just share my favorite takeaways. Her suggestion of using a 10 day cycle for vocabulary words is great!  I think it's great because it gives the kids more time to fully learn the words and also takes some pressure off of not having time to teach vocabulary. When you have ten days you can carve out bits of time throughout the day to get the instruction in. I guess what I'm trying to save is 10 days gives me room to breath.

 My other takeaways from this session, well really from both, was Cara's vocabulary!  I mean I love it. She has the best terms and really shows her fun personality.  During her presentation she referred to her students who were struggling as "sweet and lows". I mean seriously what a kind away to describe our babies who struggle?  You can't call someone a sweet and low and not like them or view them as a challenge.  Then she mentioned those students who are on the bus to struggle street, love it!  Probably my favorite term she used was her response to that one student we have in each lesson who swears they know the answer but really doesn't. Cara's answer of "sweetie that's the right answer to another question" is just perfect! I love it will definitely be using it.  Not to look like a dork but I'm not lying when I tell you I actually made a page in my notebook titles Grace's New Vocabulary and I kept track of all the charming saying Cara threw out.  

Hope you've made it this far and hopefully you've enjoyed the glimpse into these ladies fabulous sessions. Next up will be Day 2 and all I'll promise is I'll get to it before school starts. :) 

Sunday Smorgasbord

Happy Sunday Y'all!  I'm linking up with my girl Michelle again for her Sunday Smorgasbord. 

This week has a bit tough for me. Ever have those weeks where you just don't feel prepared and can't seem to catch up?  That was my week and man do I hate that feeling. 

      Every summer I work at a camp here in MD. It's an awesome opportunity for my kiddos because the camp has all these activities and classes that are far beyond what we do as a family (AJ went stand up paddling boarding this week!) Since the kids get to attend with me and are exposed to things they wouldn't be if I didn't teach there I'm very appreciative of the opportunity and I try my best to give the campers in my group the best kindergarten prep I can. Well, I started my four weeks on Monday and perhaps it's because of just returning from Vegas, or because I was in denial that my summer break was ending, or I was having too much fun last weekend, I showed up on Monday feeling very underprepared and I HATED it.  If it weren't for TPT and my friend Karen who had prepped and emailed me our weekly lessons beforehand I wouldn't have maded it. 

Here are some of my campers playing Cara's Race to the Top game. 

Other areas I felt unprepared in were my eating and exercise goals. I fully intended to participate in Rachelle's #3weeksnocheats challenge but found when I woke up on Monday I hadn't really planned it out well and didn't have enough gluten free stuff to keep it up this week. While I don't think I have celiac disease I do notice a huge difference in my body and how I feel when I eat a lot of gluten.  So I'm trying to eliminate it from my diet but man is it hard. This week I've already stocked up on my gluten free faves so I should be good.

Since I started camp this week my schedule was off and once I added my 3 afternoons of tutoring I couldn't figure out my regular Pure Barre sessions. It sucked big time. I only made it 3 times.  I felt horrible for not going and not eating well but I know I just need to suck it up and move on so I'm signed up for my regular 6 times of PB for this coming week.  I did make it class yesterday and worked my seat off so I rewarded myself with new Lily and Laura bracelets, I firmly believe in celebrating small victories 😉 

Skipping several PB has given me lots of time to read. This week I read Kim Bearden's Crash Course, loved it!! I swear I have most of the book highlighted and am already planning my trip to RCA. I was hoping to go April 3 for my birthday weekend but just realized it's Good Friday so I'm back to the drawing board. Kim's book interested me so much I quickly got Ron Clark's The Essentsil 55 on my kindle. I finished it last night and also really enjoyed it. Thankfully I prepared for finishing his book quickly and picked up The End of the Molasses Classes and a few chick lit books.  If you're looking for some good inspiring PD books I highly recommend all three!

Are you guys participating in Blog Hoppin's Scavenger Hunt?  I am. My sweet kids and camp counselors are very into it and so I've been in able to knock out a lot of items over the last few days. Check them out by following me, Racey7 on Instagram. I'll also post some of my faves on Tuesday. 

  

Before I go I want to share my kids latest pancake obsession: Mel's Kitchen Cafe's Blender Rollup Pancakes!!  Absolutely delish (gluten and all) and easy to make. We had them for breakfast and my kiddos asked for them in their lunches right away.  Be sure to check them out!  Actually I love her whole site and her recipes are always winners. 

Tomorrow I'll post day one highlights and lessons from my Vegas sessions. Till then 

Vegas Recap in Ten Tips (Fun Stuff)

As I mentioned in my last post I thought it would be fun to give y'all a detailed recap of SDE's I Teach First conference. Today's post will be about all the fun stuff and some random tips that may make your visit better. Tomorrow I'm thinking I'll share what I learned or struck me most from each of my sessions. This is not to say it the sessions weren't fun, because they totally were but after four days of presentations my head was and still is spinning a bit. All the ideas, the inspirations, the potential I just need a bit more time to process it. 

So any who, I was lucky enough to go to Vegas with two of my best coworkers.  While I saw a lot of people who went alone I would not recommended it.  Thankfully my girls Sharon and Meghan were just as pumped about the presentations and trip as I was. 

They were quite sweet and let me be all fan crazy when seeing the blog hoppin' ladies I read so much from. They also weren't too bothered by my 5 am wake ups. I had such an amazing time with these two girls. I'm not sure my trip would have been as fun without them. So my first tip to anyone considering going next year go with at least one teacher friend. 

Tip 2:  Bring your own snacks!! I'm not ashamed to say that I thought Vegas was more than a bit expensive. Thankfully I packed granola and Kind bars for each day of the trip. It allowed me to not spend $ on snacks between meals. 

Tip 3:  Stay at whatever hotel the conference is held at. We stayed at the Palazzo and man was it beautiful. It allowed us to sleep a little longer, offered plenty of entertainment, shopping and having everything in one place made it even more convenient. We actually only left the hotel one night. I'm sure I'll venture out more next year but for my first time it was perfect. 

The gondolas in the Venetian were my favorite. 

Tip 4:  Do plan to attend any blog meet up the Blog Hoppin girls host. Let me tell you those ladies know how to throw a party!! They had so many freebies and swag it was a teachers dream. I got to meet the author of Teach Like a Pirate 

AND I won a Tieks gift card!! 

Tip 5:  Bring nice, cute, colorful clothes and dress in layers. On the day I met Hope King I was wearing workout clothes and felt way underdressed.  It is also FREEZING in all the conference rooms so bring a sweater or long sleeves. 

Tip 6:  Bring more $ than you think you'll need!!  Even if you don't gamble you're going to find stuff in the exhibitors hall you never knew you needed. I waited till the last day to buy a t-shirt and stamps but if I'd known all the great stuff people would be selling I'd have gone better prepared. 

Tip 7:  Bring a large suitcase so you can take all your goodies home and not be forced to leave some behind, it's hard.  

Tip 9: Don't be shy!! Make friends with the other teachers in your sessions. Chances are they're a lot like you and who doesn't need more friend who just get it?  

Tip 10: Make it happen. Save up, write a proposal or start fundraising, whatever you need to do to be there next year start now. It's so worth it! 

Sunday Smorgasbord July 13th

Hi y'all!!  I'm not sure if Michelle will be hosting a Sunday Smorgasbord linky today but I have so much to share I want to be ready just in case!! O-M-Geee guys Vegas was AMAZING!  If you've never been to SDE's I Teach 1st or I Teach K conferences you must find a way to make it work next year!  I attended so many fabulous sessions I thought it might be fun to share my main take way from each one so in the coming days I'll do just that.  For now though on to the Smorgasbord..... 

1) First and foremost I got to meet Michelle in Vegas!!  It may have been one of the biggest highlights of my whole trip. I means she's just so stinking cute and her amazing ideas, blog posts and products have helped shape the teacher I am today, so to meet her in person was surreal!!  When I first started teaching 8 years ago I had these high hopes of making teaching fun and unique just like the great teachers in my grad program had taught me. Within a couple years I noticed I was getting comfortable and just following the routine that everyone else told me to follow. I used the Basel, did the workbooks and to be honest I started to hate teaching.  I knew better, I knew that teaching without passion was not making the difference I wanted to make in my students lives. I knew there had to be more than workbook page after workbook page and that just because the week ended didn't mean our learning had to shift to the next topic.  I felr we were doing what was most convenient for us not what was best for our students. So I decided to search for a new lesson plan template in hopes of getting ideas on how to teach with the Basel not being the guiding force. This search led me to Michelle's blog and my teaching was changed forever!! Not only did she show me how a fabulous 😉, a classroom could look, she led me to other bloggers (Hello Cara and Abby) and so many ideas on how to make learning fun! Her reading instruction and block was exactly what I was looking for. It was proof what my professors taught me at Marymount could be done.  Since then her blog is one of my first stops when searching for ideas. I'm pretty sure I've read the whole thing at least 3 times, there are two others I've done that with but that's a story for another day. So finally getting to meet her?  Amazing 

2) I feel I must share that even though I was in Vegas Sunday-Friday of this week I still worked out 5 times!  This is huge for me. I made sure to go to Pure Barre before leaving last Sunday and then workout in the Palazzo gym and ran outside a few times.  May be the time I've come home from vacation not having gained weight. 

3) I've now been doing PB for 3 months here are my comparison pics.

This was after 50 classes at the end of June. 

I can totally see a difference and feel much stronger. I have a ways to go but certainly feel like I'm on my way.  If you want more info on PB here a link to a write I did as my studios fan of the week. https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10204165740924665&id=1260593106

4) I'm so happy to be home with my kids but also so happy to have gotten away for a bit. Before leaving I was so nervous about it and worried about every aspect of being away from them. Now that I'm home I realized it's ok to leave them every once in a while, sure I may come home to find my husband has cut my oldest's hair because of a knot (yes it's true I may have cried as I've only had her hair cut once) and ya the house might be a hot mess but I also came back more patient, more loving and willing to answer my 4 years old constant chatter in a way wasn't before.  Leaving them made me appreciate coming home to them even more.  It also reaffirmed that I chose the right guy to build my life with. He took awesome care of our kids and made their week just different enough that they missed mommy but had a great time. Peace of mind is a wonderful thing. 

To some this whole randomness all up I had an amazing week.  I got a few days way and was reminded that even in Las Vegas am still an in bed by 10:30, up early non partying girl. I'm a mom and my idea of fun away from my kids is meeting a whole bunch of other teachers who are even more passionate than I am. This week allowed me to focus on my two favorite things, being a mom and improving my teaching.   Monday we start camp. (sob) The kids will all be attending the same camp I am teaching at. It will be Ellie's first time and AJ will be participating in Adventure Camp which means she'll being on her first solo overnight camping trip.  Fun stuff!  

Sunday Smorgasbord

I'm baaack... Or at least I am for today. 

So we can all conclude that teaching and blogging don't mix in my world! It's clear I can't handle both. So now that I've have had a couple weeks to rest up and enjoy some of my summer I think I'm ready for a little Sunday Smorgasbord. 

School ended for me June 13th and since then my focus has been the following: 

Spending time with my lovies: 

Somehow no matter how hard I try these three just won't stop growing!! Next year my AJ will be in FOURTH grade!!! How did this happen?  She continues to be a sweet, loving smart girl who loves to read and be outside. Koey will be going into first. I'm so excited to share my love of first grade with this little man. He's such a lovie who's obsessed with all things sports related.  My sweet sweet Ellie will be finally be joining us at HR as a PreKer in fall. She's so excited and so ready for school. She's my sweetest kid and at the same time the most ornery child ever. Channeling her passion will be the my hardest task for the next 15 or so years. 

I've also spent a lot of time tutoring three of my students from this past year. I'm loving spending one on one time with these cuties.  I tutor about 5 hours a week and it's just enough time to do what brings me great joy and purpose while not feeling guilty about being away.  Wouldn't it be cool if our school years were like that?  

My next summer focus has been getting fit!  I started going to Pure Barre classes on April 11th and have been attending 4-6 classes a week since then. I go at 5:30 in the morning and some days I go at 8:45 at night it really doesn't matter to me. The truth is 

Sometimes I get real luck and get to go with my favorite guy. 

Kev has been such a great sport, so supportive of my desire to get fit. He even knows how to make it even more fun. 

Tomorrow will be my 50th class. If you've never heard of Pure Barre let me just tell you, google it and find yourself a studio to attend a class at. It's amazing!  It's the hardest, most intense yet low impact workout you will ever do!! I still try to run a few times a week because I don't get as much cardio as I need a PB but seem to end up only running about twice a week. So it's my hope that now that it's summer I can commit to 3 runs a week. Here's a littler progress shot for you. 

These are April 13th, May 13th and June 27th. I'll post a pic comparing 2nd-20th and 50th class tomorrow.  One of the things that has me most motivated is Instagram. I've made some great "Insta-friends" who are constantly keeping me going. If you're also working on your fitness I highly suggest following, Katie King, Rachelle, and Katie. Katie has this great daily photo prompt that will really keep you interested.  You can also follow me, Racey7. Here are the prompts for July 

My last focus?!?! VEGAS!!  This year I'm going to SDE's I Teach 1st conference in Las Vegas!!! Are any of you going??? I'm so excited. I'm beyond excited. I'm going with two of my awesome friends/coworkers. We cannot wait!! I am so pumped to know I will be meeting so many of teachers who inspire me. I get to take sessions from the teachers I've dreamed of being when I walk in my classroom!  Sooooo awesome. I am a bit nervous and scared of leaving my littles for 6 days but everyone assures me I'll be ok a few hours after arriving in Vegas. I'm also sad to leave my sweet hubby behind but once again he's being so great saying someone's got to take care of the kids. 

So there you have it, my Sunday Smorgosbord.  Oh but I do have one finale question, if you're going to Vegas for any of the SDE conferences want to join me at the Pure Barre Las Vegas studio for a little LTB?  I've got the class times and am just looking for some workout buddies, so if anyone's still reading my blog and is interested let me know. 

Five for Friday October 4th

Instead of lamenting on not posting this week I'm going to be excited about linking up with Kacey for the 2nd week in a row!  

My first full week of guided reading was a success!   All the kids loved it and left the table saying that was fun!  I only had one behavior issue while I was running groups and even that wasn't huge. Once again I'm reminded that taking those first 25 days to really teach each component of the Daily 5 is worth it!!  I plan on introducing the Daily 5 choice board in a week and I'm pretty confident they'll be ready. 

I recently started using Deanna Jump's Interactive Reading Notebook and LOVE IT!  Since I added it after sending out our supply letter I merged it with our Guided Reading Journals, so it's a bit more "all over the place" than I'd like but it works. Next year I think I'll ask for 2 subject notebooks so I can have a set space for each. Any who, the notebook is a wonderful way to introduce my kids to a concept and lead them to assessment. This we discussed character so first I gave them the page that says what a character is first, next I did a read aloud and we identified the character together the completed a different page, the following day I read a different story and had them identify the character using yet another one of Deanna's graphic organizers.  Next week I plan on having them read their own just right book and identifying the character. I think her notebook allows for that gradual release of control we all strive for because she has multiple pages for each reading element, strategy, skill.  I also love how it's all in one spot and think it will make report card time so much easier!  Be sure to check it out!  

One area where I am really struggling is getting my workout on. It's so and even Siri is nagging me 

It's a fold problem, first my feet are a mess. They ache like all the time!! I have plantar fasciitis and it just keeps getting worse. I think wearing flip flops all summer did me in. It's so bad I've taken up wearing Danskos, super comfortable but also super ugly and I'm still having some pain at night. So I'm scared to run. Second I feel like there's never enough time for it. Something always come up!! I'm growing quite frustrated. Our schools 5k is in one month and I'd really like to participate so this week I'm throwing out all the excuses and starting back up. Hoping if I alternate between running shoes I can pull it out. 

Since two our kids are now in school we are learning to navigate through all the after school activities and HOMEWORK, we're so lucky Ko only has written homework 2 nights a week. Kev and I have managed to read his nightly library train books with little problem. Making sure we read with AJ, check her home and study for tests has been a bit harder. We always get it done, making sure it gets in her FROG binder and turned in, proved to be a problem this week. Lucky for me she has the best teacher ever, who just so happens to be my best friend and my excuse of well we at least we did spelling is enough. Even better she doesn't make me feel like a bad parent forgetting!  The best part she agrees is AJ's job and willing to echo my message. 

And if all else fails I do have picture to prove we did it!  

Are these all the rage where you live too?  Rainbow Loom bracelets have taken over our school and my home. The truth is I love making them as much as my AJ does.  For some reason making them is relaxing for me. It's kind of like baking, but more figure friendly. I love being able to follow a recipe and have things come out right. Or maybe it's just my inner crafter?  Either way AJ and are enjoying making bracelets.

Till next week!