Leibster Award - *Squweel*

I am PUMPED to have been nominated for the Leibster Award!!!  Continuously running through my head (as songs and movies do) is the line from the Grinch… “An awaaaaaard? For meeeeeee?”

As a new blogger it is exciting to first of all see that people will actually read what you write and second of all have someone nominate you for an award.  I have loved these past two weeks of blogging and reading other teacher’s blogs.  It has opened up another door for collaboration and idea sharing.  I love it when I go to a meeting and I already know what they’re talking about because I’ve read about it on someone’s blog.  So helpful!!!

So thank you Melissa from Teacher Abroad for nominating me!

To accept this nomination there are some things I have to do:

1. Link back to the blog that nominated me

2. Nominate 5 - 11 blogs with fewer than 200 followers

3. Answer the questions posted by my nominator

4. Share 11 random facts about myself

5. Create 11 questions for my nominees

6. Contact my nominees to let them know I nominated them

I’m showing my love to my new Maryland blogging buddies (who I've found through Fifth in the Middle).  So without further delay the Leibster goes to...

Laura at First Grade Spies

Caitlin at Always Sunny in a Windowless Classroom

Susie at Shafer’s Shenanigans

Sharon at Animal Crackers and Apple Juice

Latasha at Life in 6th Grade with Ms. V

11 Questions from Melissa…

1.   Who has inspired you in your career?

I am so lucky to work at a school with sooooo many talented teachers that makes this a tough question.  My two biggest inspirations are my mentor teacher and my teaching mama.  My mentor teacher helped me so much that first crazy year.  Without her constant encouragement I would have NEVER made it.  When I moved to 3^rd grade a few years ago I was able to teach with my teaching mama.  She’s THE best!  She works so hard to make sure that all of her activities, books, groups, everything match her students needs and motivate students to learn.  She takes no slack from anyone, but knows how to balance it with a good time.  All of her students LOVE her.

2. If you could go anywhere in the world where would you go?

I would go back to London, England.  I’d want to stop at every tourist stop and enjoy tea time with scones every single day.  I also think it would be awesome to travel the good ol’ USA and make a pit stop in every state.

3.  What’s one piece of advice you would give to a new teacher?

Don’t forget about self-care.  It is so easy to spend all of your time staying afloat.  School takes on a life of its own as soon as we set foot back in the door.  Schedule time with your friends and DON’T CANCEL!!!!  Get a manicure every once in a while.  And laugh often.  Laugh at yourself, laugh with the kids, laugh at life’s little quirks.  It will keep you sane.

4. What inspired you to start your blog?

I’ve read teacher blogs for the past few years and really find a lot of inspiration in the sharing and collaboration that it brings.  With TpT and Pinterest I have found so many ideas that are VERY useful and have been so helpful in the classroom.  I hope that something I share can help someone else. 

5. What’s the most embarrassing/funny thing that’s happened to you in the classroom?

Once upon a time I was reading a story about toads and turtles and such.  As happens to me often my mind began to wonder as I was reading.  I began to think about our classroom turtle for some reason just as I was reading the word toad.  It came out “turd” and all seriousness was gone for the remainder of the class.  I couldn’t stop laughing.  They couldn’t stop laughing.  It was the best and funniest moment ever.  You can read the full story here.  I was attempting to blog at the time.

6. What’s your favorite chocolate bar?

I LOVE chocolate so this was a hard question.  I’d have to go with Snickers.  It’s pretty much like the commercials for me! 

7. If you could teach any grade, which would you choose? Why?

I’ve taught 5^th and 3^rd.  This year I’ll be moving to 2^nd.  But my favorite was when I student taught 1^st grade. I LOVED that age group.  I’m working my way down it seems.

8. If you weren’t a teacher, what job do you think you’d do instead?

I’ve thought about this many times after a sour parent conference or when I feel too many demands being put upon me. I can never come up with anything that I would rather do than teach.  It’s what I was made to do.

9. What has your best success in the classroom been?

I had an ESOL student this past year that moved to our country a few days before starting in my classroom.  She came in knowing no English at all.  By the end of the year we were able to have conversations and laugh together.  I was lucky enough to have an intern last year so I could steal a few one on one minutes here and there with her which helped so much!

10. In your opinion, what book should every teacher have on their shelves?

My favorite picture book is Small Beauties: The Journey of Darcy Heart O’Hara by Elvira Woodruff.  I could cry every single time.  It is such an inspirational book.

My favorite chapter book is good old Ramona Quimby Age 8. A classic!

11. What do you like to do outside of school (hobby, sport, etc.)

I love to blog and read blogs of course.  I also like to read books, play volleyball, and I am very involved with the middle schoolers at my church.

11 Random Facts About Me…

1. I LOVE even numbers and hands down prefer them over odd numbers.

2. My favorite color is pink.

3. My favorite color to wear is green.

4. I have a bichon frise puppy named Pierre.  He will be the same age as my students this year.  Weird!

5. I have a mild obsession with wearing scarves.

6. I took dance lessons for 10 years as a child and did point for 2 of those years.

7. When I was in 2^nd grade I dreamed of becoming a dance teacher.

8. My favorite teacher was my second grade teacher, Mrs. Carter.  I was so sad when she moved to Arkansas.

9. I LOVE to dance and will use any brain break opportunity to break it down with my students.

10. I’m not OCD, but some of my tendencies would tell you otherwise.

11. I am sooooo forgetful that one of my class jobs is the reminder helper. 

11 Questions for my Nominees:

1. Who or What influenced you to become a teacher?

2. One piece of advice for a new teacher.

3 .One piece of advice for a seasoned teacher.

4. What is your favorite thing you did this summer?

5. How do you unwind after a rough day at school?

6. What colors make you smile?

7. What is one funny or embarrassing story from school or life?

8. If you could teach anywhere, where would you teach?

9. Salty or Sweet? Which one satisfies the cravings?

10. How do you give yourself a brain break during the day?

11. Why did you begin to blog?

Thank you again Melissa for nominating me, and congratulations to my new nominees! 

PBIS Stars

We are a PBIS school as many of you are also.  Our classroom rules follow our school rules, which can be modified to fit each teacher’s needs.  Today as I’m going through my files making another file for things I will need to print and copy for that first week of school I came upon my rules contract.

Each year I talk with the students about classroom expectations and allow them to “create” the rules.  “Magically” we always end up with the same set of rules.  Our school rules are very simple and go along with our school mascot (more like a school icon) the Linton Springs Star.

S – Be Safe

T – Take Responsibility

A – Active Learning (I like to add active listening to this as well)

R – Respect

After creating our rules, students take home a student behavior contract sharing what we agreed upon as a class.  You can download a free copy of my letter at my Teachers Pay Teachers store.  Just click below.

SIDE NOTE:  This year I added the whole brain classroom rules.  I'm learning alllll about whole brain and can't wait to try it out in the classroom.

With PBIS the idea is to focus on the positive behaviors.  So when Susie Q is sitting criss cross with eyes on me I will say …  “Susie you’re doing a great job listening.  Please go get a STARbuck.”

STARbucks are our school wide tickets. 

Students simply write their name on the front or back of their STARbuck then place in their teacher’s bucket.  The tickets collect throughout the week when we do our weekly drawings.  Each teacher draws a STARbuck from their stash making that child the classroom winner of the week. Wahoooo!!! This means different things in different classrooms.  In my classroom it means that you will earn bonus tickets for our ticket exchange.  I’ll share more about this tomorrow.

The winning STARbucks are sent to the team level PBIS rep who will “draw” a grade level winner.  Grade level winners go to the media center to have a group picture taken to hang on the “Wall of Fame”.  We have a winner picture every week thanks to the reminders from our media specialist.  She’s the best!  The kids LOVE  to see their picture hanging in the hallway and on our weekly TV show.

It is quite the system and it’s taken us a few years to get it to this point.  It feels like a well oiled machine at this point.  The kids are so excited to win a STARbuck.  It’s something that they get to share with their parents so that hopefully, positive behaviors are shared more often than negative behaviors.

Does your school use PBIS?

What is the kids favorite part?

Prep Through Prayer

Summer mornings are the best! I can wake up when I want and sit in my PJ's as long as I want!  I even have time to read some of the blogs that I've been following.  

As I’ve been blog hopping this morning I came across one that I thought I should share.  My new friend Cait from Always Sunny in a Windowless Classroom shared a link about praying for your child’s teacher.

With all of the planning and creating and printing and laminating I’ve left out the most important part of the prep work…praying.  Lord knows that I don’t make a difference on my own accord but only by the grace of God. 

On my own I’m a scatter-brained worrier.  By the grace of God I’m an organized collected teacher.

On my own I lose patience at the drop of a hat.  By the grace of God I smile and nod and a lot of times even laugh at the shinnanigans these littles pull.

On my own I can do most things.  Through God I can do all things.

I am positively going to need to have God’s strength when I’m figuring out the CCSS, Number Talks, and switching my brain from ELA to STEM.

Pray for your child’s teachers.  We need it now more than ever.

Sciencey Saturday Snapshots...On Sunday

I'm linking up with Miss Nelson for some Saturday Snapshots on Sunday.  This is my first Saturday Snapshots of what I'm sure will be many.  I love the themed day blogs.  It is helpful to me as a newer blogger.

My Saturday Snapshots come from PDs I attended this past week.  Insect investigations will be an ongoing science unit in 2^nd grade.  I don’t know about you, but I am not the biggest fan of bugs.  I know they will not hurt me.  I know they are a very important part of our ecosystems. And on and on and on… I still don’t prefer bugs.  I can feel them crawling on my feet as I write this.  Ewwwww!

To help myself get over the creeps of the creepy-crawlies a little bit I took a few insect PDs.  Lucky for me I have Ah-Mazing elementary science teachers in my county that were very supportive and helped me to ease into the idea that I would need to put on my brave face and touch bug some bugs.  For the sake of the children of course. 

The first PD I went to was about Lady Bugs and a citizen science project that ANYONE can participate in.  I have to admit, I cannot wait to take the littles out on a ladybug hunt!!! Visit the Lost Ladybug Project to see what you can do to help.  Trust me, it will be such a fun science investigation.

I also went to a full day PD where we went on bug hunts and learned about the school gardens AT MY SCHOOL! So lucky to have a run through before the school year.  We have sooooooo many gardens thanks to many fabulous volunteers and a marvelous green team.  BLESSED!!!!  Basically, we caught bugs in our clear containers, took note of which plants we were finding them on (Good thing we had some outdoor educators and gardeners because my answer would have been tree, bush, and flower.), placed the buggies in petri dishes, put the dishes in an ice filled cooler to slow them down, then observed them on the microscopes. SO.  MUCH.  FUN.  The kids are going to love this!!!

Here’s the placard showing the way down to our meadow, vegetable garden, vernal pond, winter garden, and wetlands.

This is our school’s brand new butterfly garden, host of a citizen science project that our school’s green team is working on with the monarch butterfly.  This view is the nectar garden.  To the left of the nectar garden are three separate beds that the students will be using for research.  They will observe to find out if the monarchs prefer to lay their eggs on common milkweed, tropical milkweed, or butterfly weed.  We found this little guy in the butterfly weed.  There were 8 other monarch caterpillars that we found, measured, and reported.

This next picture was taken in the winter garden.  I'm ashamed to say that I didn't look in the field guide to see what these guys were.  Some type of stinkbug it appears.

Our make and take portion was an experiment that anyone could try.  The instructor gave us each a grasshopper in a small deli container and the directions were to ask some observable questions about the grasshopper with your table then decide on which one you’d like to observe.  We were also instructed to think like a kid.  Some of the questions we came up with were --- How do grasshoppers eat? What do grasshoppers eat? Do grasshoppers poop? Do grasshoppers make noise? … We went with “What do grasshoppers eat?”  Our instructor had a small variety of foods for the grasshoppers.  I chose a cucumber, carrot, cantaloupe, and potato.  I thought the grasshopper would LOVE the cantaloupe.  Turns out Cricket Bill preferred the cucumber.

Have you had any fun PDs this summer?

August Currently

Listening

I’m here with my bestie since 8^th grade (Regina).  We’ve both promised to try to keep our blogs up to date this go around.  She always does much better than I.  After publically challenging her last week she’s blogged every day.  I’ve blogged twice (womp womp womp).

Loving

SUMMER NAPS are the sweet spot of summer.  Along with the pool, reading the books that I want to read, staying up late and getting up late, and how could I forget…the lowest stress levels of the year.

Thinking

My little sister got married a few years ago and ever since they’ve been planning, saving, and working on their brand spankin’ new house.  I am soooooo proud of her and happy that we have a new little hang out spot.  That is until she goes back to nursing school in the fall.

Wanting

See “loving” for further explanation.

Needing

I need a whole extra month to get my life together before school starts.  I’ll be moving to a new grade (2^nd) and a new content in the fall (STEM).  I am beyond excited for this.  I’ve giggled to myself several times about how I will no longer have to report letter grades or give the oh so lovely state assessment.  Yippeeeeee!  Since I’ve been taking the summer to do what I want to do (brilliant idea!!!!) I haven’t even began to think about school and all that I will need for my new 2^nd Grade STEM classroom. So pretty pretty please can I have just one more month!?!?!

B2s must haves

I totally agree with Farly here.  B2s not B2S.  You’ll have to read her Currently to understand.

Flair pens - DUH! Only the best things in the world to write with!!!! So many colors to choose from.

Tooth Graphing Chart – Ok so it’s not something that is necessary for 2^nd but I think it would be so much fun AND graphing is a part of CCSS sooooo yes! It is totally necessary. Now where to find a cute one?!?!?

Zebra Print Number Line – Sarah Glover from Mrs. Glover’s class made this super cute and reasonably priced Zebra Print number line.  Of course I need a number line for my math classroom.  ELA didn’t really warrant a number line so when I switched to ELA 4 years ago, I gave away my number line knowing that I would prefer something cuter by the time I switch back.  Boy was I right and Sarah has just the right thing in her TpT store.  Luck me!!! And you too! I’m telling you it’s adorable!

5-Minute Friday: Story

This post is a part of 5-minute Friday.

I've always wanted to be a teacher is something that I could never say.  I've always worked with children.  ALWAYS.  As soon as I was old enough to volunteer in my church's nursery I jumped at the chance.  I never dreamed about becoming a teacher.  I don't know why.  People constantly commented on how well I worked with the children, how children are drawn to me, and how my childlike thought process and tendencies would "make me the perfect teacher."  I never dreamed of becoming a teacher until one day...

It was second year of college.  We went on a missions trip to Ecuador.  The funding for how I was able to get their is an entirely different story covered in God's fingerprints....

In Ecuador we did various service projects to help around the community.  My favorite project was in an Ecuadorian school.  We were there to paint.  We painted EVERYTHING!  Interior walls, exterior walls, and anything else that we were asked to paint.  During the painting I was chosen to "watch" the equipment for the assembly we would hose that afternoon.  Within 5 minutes of guard duty I could finally see what people meant when they said, "children are drawn to you."  I was surrounded by elementary Ecuadorian children.  Not just a little circle around me but layers upon layers of children encircled me.  We tried to share a conversation but without knowing the others language made it hard.

It was this moment that solidified an idea that I had been toying with.  I was supposed to be a teacher.  I was called to be a teacher.  I will never forget the day that I discovered that I wanted to be a teacher.

Back to Blogging

I figured it out!


Being new to the blogging world I’ve had a little bit of a hard time getting it all figured out and cute. Because we all know that is what matters the most!!!!  450,000 changes later I think I have the look that I like.  Thanks to Shabby Blogs I’ve been able to find a background I love and create a header that fits my standards of simple, cute, and elementary. My blog needed an update for a few reasons:

1.  I’m changing grades (again) this fall.
Going from 3^rd to 2^nd is not going to be a huge jump.  But going from 3^rd ELA to 2^nd STEM will be a bit of a shift.  Come along for the ride!  So the change from “Life Laughs Literacy” to “Primary Jungle” comes from my hope to stay in primary elementary grades and the change in content.  I have missed teaching science so much and am so pumped to get back into investigations and have 101 reasons to visit the outdoor learning areas surrounding my school.  Yay outdoor education!

2.   I’m actually going to start using my blog this year.
My BFF from middle school, Regina, and I are both working on keeping up/starting up with our writing.  With this new layer of accountability I will hopefully be a more successful blogger.  I don’t particularly care about the numbers, but I do want to get my ideas out there to share.

3.   I love to read teacher blogs so why not write one! JI’m pretty sure that I subscribe to exactly 143,000,000 blogs and LOVE to have my own little professional development by reading all of the amazing ideas and implementing what I can into my own classroom.  I plan on writing about more than just teaching.  However, you can absolutely expect a vast majority of my posts to be about teaching since it is my heart to work with kids and see their minds open to new exciting things.  There is nothing like experiencing an “ah ha” moment with a student.  Can I get a “What! What!” from the teachers on that?!?! These light bulb moments are what we live for.

Fresh school supplies run a close second.

Happy Sunday!!!!!!







P.S. We only get to say “Happy Sunday” for a few more weeks in my district. Twenty-one blissful days of summer left!!!