5 for Friday

Now that I have settled into the school year, I am able to post a Five for Friday. Yeah!

Here's my first grandchild! We don't know yet if the baby is a girl or a boy, but we are excited. Having had 2 previous miscarriages, we are thrilled my daughter has made it to 15 weeks this time.

Last Sunday, I was able to finish making a Math Center to help my students practice making numbers in different ways. I used a football theme since many of my students love watching football right now.

If you would like to look at this Center,click HERE.

My husband and I celebrated our 26th Anniversary this week (on the 22nd). I took today Friday off and we are heading to St.Augustine for a long weekend, We love staying at the World of Golf Renaissance Resort. The golf course there is beautiful!

This was our Conference Week. I met with most of the parents. Here is a Conference Reminder form I made. It is free. If you would like to download it, just click HERE.

My students explored magnets this week. They loved it! I know they are second graders, and have explored magnets many times before, but they thoroughly loved it.

My Favorite Subject to Teach: Teacher Week

I LOVE teaching Math! This is my 19th year of teaching (1st and 2nd grades) and I have thoroughly enjoyed teaching Math to young children.

I love the way their eyes light up when they are able to solve difficult math problems by themselves after weeks and weeks of learning the strategies and how to use manipulatives to help them. (I know they also light up when learning to read, which I also enjoy, but I seem to enjoy the subject of math even more.)

I always use hands-on activities when possible in Math. It really helps the children to develop a strong understanding of the math. We do data activities each week and use a variety of graphs. The children learn to ask their own questions, collect the data, and share the results. 

For the past 8 years, I taught 1st grade. Since I have been using the Common Core Standards over the past several years, I have become very knowledgeable about each Standard. As I learned each Standard, I created materials to use in my classroom. When I became familiar with Teachers Pay Teachers, I posted those items on there. If you would like to look at them, you can click on the image below to go to my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

Classroom Tour: Teacher Week 2015

My students came back to school on August 24th. I moved classrooms, and grade levels, this summer. Here is a tour of my classroom.

Here is my old coffee table made into a white board table. 

The black bins are holding my Math Centers for the week. I can store them there and just take them to the Center areas when we need them.

Here is my white board and Smart Board area. The baskets under the board are Book Baskets for the students to use.

This is my Calendar Area where students review Math skills.

This is on the counter and it is where the students turn in their work.

The desks are in 5 groups. I have a lot of storage in the cabinets. I made the "DREAM" sign from cardboard letters from JoAnn Fabrics.

This is a view from the back of the room.

This is one of the Center tables near our Class Library.

Here is where I keep the Social Studies supplies and books.

The Word Wall is in this area. 

The Math manipulatives are on the left in the back.

Each group of desks has a set of these bins.

This is part of our  Class Library.

Math manipulatives with our Class Rules on the top shelf.

5 Facts About Me for Teacher Week 15

Number 1: I have been married almost 26 years (on September 22nd) and have two grown children- Jake and Becca. I have known my husband since I was 3. Our mothers were best friends.

Number 2: I love photography. I have really been more into it in the past couple of years. I took this picture of my son and his wife for the invitations.

Number 3: My husband and I have been remodeling our whole house this year. We redid the floors in the house. I love the wood floors we chose. This is the living room. 

Number 4: I collect snowflakes and snowmen. I got this one last year when we went on our 25th anniversary trip to Tennessee.

Number 5: I went to Harry Potter world at Universal in April. It was amazing and looked just like the buildings in the movies.

Coffee Table Makeover

Today is the first day of school for us.I was able to finish one of my favorite projects last week just in time for school to start.

I had this old square coffee table that I painted for my room last year. By the end of the year, it needed to be refreshed. My husband had the wonderful idea of covering it with a white bord from Home Depot. Here is what it looked like at the end of last school year:

Home Depot cut a sheet of white board into a 45 inch square. I attached it with Power Grab glue and put white duct tape around the edges of the table. Here it is now:

I let the children write their names on the table at Meet the Teacher night.

One of the best parts about this project was that the white board sheet was $14 and I have a large enough piece left that I can recover the table next year if it gets messed up for some reason.

Now, I'm off for a busy first week of school. 

5 For Friday

This was my Preplanning week. School starts on Monday. We had Meet the Teacher on Tuesday night. 18 out of my 21 students came! It was so nice to meet that many families before the school year begins.

I took my IKEA shelf and bins to my classroom. I got a blue beta fish before Meet the Teacher night. 

I finally decided where I could put my "Daily Data" area in my classroom.It will be o this white board easel. Then, I can wheel it around the classroom if I want to use it somewhere else.

How cute is this Hungry Caterpillar baby outfit? I am expecting my first grandchild in early March. I am so excited! My daughter has had a tough time over the past year and a half with having 2 miscarriages. We are hoping and praying a lot this time.

I  just found this list in one of my mother's notebooks. She fell into a coma unexpectedly in October 2013 and died a month later. This list made me so happy. (Jacob and Becca are my children.)