Oops, I did it again...

I spent waaaaay too many hours blog stalking last week and not enough actually working. This addiction is really overwhelming at times. Hmmmm, maybe I need to go to bloggers anonymous meeting or something. Anyways, besides surfing the web, I did a little shopping for my next Made It Monday. I bought material, styrofoam, candy, a flower pot, some canvases and crayons. This is what I did with them all...

Curtains to hang along my "teacher shelves." My friend helped my since I didn't have a sewing machine. We made 4 curtains. It will be a nice change from the ones I have previously used for 6 years!

After we finished the curtains, there was still a bit of material left. I didn't want to throw it all away so I decided to make some pillows for my reading corner. By this point, my friend was already all sewed out, so I got to make these all by myself! I was so proud!! Hehe

I know we have all seen these before. My classroom is going to me so heavily decorated in black and white polka dots with a hint of red. I thought this sign would add a much needed pop of bright color! I'm not 100% thrilled with how some of the wax leaked under the tape so I may try it again. However, I'm definitely keeping the work try. So many of my students like to say they can't do something before they even try it. Drives me bonkers! If you make this, here are a few tips: 1. make it somewhere that can get dirty or be easily cleaned (I choose my kitchen counter since it's in the middle of a remodel) and 2. use Crayola crayons. I used to cheapies and the wax seemed a little too runny.

This little beauty is another one we've probably seen plastered all over pinterest. However, I liked Rachel's addition of the sign at the top. So, I painted a flower pot, added polka dots and stuck a bunch of dum-dums into a styrofoam ball. Then I created a sign at the top, printed and cut it, and glued it to some straws. Easy peasy! In my class, red is the highest color on the color chart. At the beginning it's pretty easy to get there. I want all students to have the feeling of success. As we get farther into the school year, my expectations rise making red a little harder to achieve. At the end of the day, I reward those on red with a treat. It used to be otter pops, but this year I'm making the switch to dum-dums. Otter pops were awesome and the kids loved them, but they were not given on cold days and sometimes getting to and from the freezer was a task. The dum-dum tree can sit right in my class. Love it!!


So, what did you make??


Link up and show off!

Best wishes,

Drum roll please...

And the winner is... ME!! Yay! Thanks to the wonderful Ashley at Inspire, Dream, and Create, I have received The Versatile Blogger award! See...

I'm thinking about printing it out so I can hang it on my wall somewhere. Maybe I'll create a frame for the next Made it Monday...


Anyways, thanks again Ashley. It's so awesome to have such a supportive group of teachers out there!! I may be new to blogging, but I have been teaching for a little while now. I wish I had all of these resources when I first began. It is such a please to be able to share my trials and errors in hopes that someone (including me) can become a better teacher.


The fun part of this award is learning some random facts about those nominated.  So, here's a little bit about me :)

1. I can touch my tongue to my nose without using my hands (hey, it said RANDOM).

2. Whenever I paint my nails, I ALWAYS peel the polish off within a couple of days.

3. I have a french bulldog names Boris who I'm pretty convinced is part piglet.

4. I have tattoos, lots of them, and no one at school knows!

5. I love flowers, but can't seem to keep anything alive.

6. I love, love, love baking.

7. When i first met my husband, I told him I would never marry him because of his last name. 

The best part about this award is being able to pass it along to others! The blogs I have nominated for this award are:

Crisscross Applesauce

Ms. Fiorini's Stadium

Mrs. Jankord's First Grade Hero Headquarters

Sample's Superstars

Second Grade Nest who, by the way, has a giveaway going on!

Alright folks, I'm off for the night. Can't wait to wake up tomorrow and do it all over again!


Best wishes,

Newbie Bloggers Blog Hop...

Hiya friends! During my daily blog stalking I can across a linky party that is perfect for me and probably many of you! It's for new bloggers!! A way to meet other teachers in your same boat. So, here's to making new friends...

    1.  what state you are in

    2.  your current teaching position

    3.  your teaching experience

    4.  when you started blogging

    5.  share a blogging tip / blogging resource

1. Sunny California

2. First grade (and parts of second grade... long story)

3. 7th year (9th if you count student teaching and a year of substitute    teaching)

4. I tried briefly last year but wasn't committed. This time around, I've been going strong since June of 2012. Go me!!

5. Set a timer!!!! I can't count the number of times I've spent all day/night on here hopping from blog to blog. I would always say, "Just one more..." Now I decide how much time I can afford to spend stalking and I set a timer. When it goes off, I stop. It takes some discipline, but I now have time for the other necessities. Best of both worlds!!

Hope you'll link up so we can get to know more about you! And thanks to Janis at Grade Three if For Me for creating this linky!

Now I'm off to continue working on my calendar and other classroom labels! 

Best wishes,

look what I found...

First of all, I want to make a confession... I did it. Yup, that's right. I, Rebecca, jumped on the owl band wagon (obviously, LOL)!! For those of you who haven't, kudos. I don't know how you resist. Since this new obsession has taken over, I have been picking up everything even slightly owl related. Even my husband is bringing things home for me :D So when Erica posted an ADORABLE owl picture on Facebook, I knew exactly what I had to do... Drive around to EVERY Big Lots in the area until I found it! 4 stores and 285 miles later (relax, I went out of town yesterday and they happened to have a Big Lots by the hotel. I'm not that crazy)... ta-da!

If you follow Erica on Facebook, then you probably saw the picture she posted. It was this owl, one other, and a lot of colorful boxes. I assumed (yea, yea, i know. Assuming makes an... I won't say it) the owl was a box, too. The picture was kind of small and I couldn't tell! So when I went to the first 3 Big Lots I was looking for an owl box. I kept finding the colorful boxes that were in the picture with the owls, but not the owls. Then last night when I was on my 4th and final try, I decided to look around the whole store. And there they were... in the jewelry section. Turns out it's a jewelry holder, not a box. I have no idea what I'm going to use it for. I just had to have it!


While on my walk, I also spotted this little gem of a find. It's a school bus shaped box full of 540 motivational stickers... for $2!! I recommend it!

The last thing I found is a giveaway. I know what you're thinking... A giveaway?! On a teacher's blog?!  No way!! BUT it's true! My friend Cassandra over at Adventures in Room 5 has reached 100 followers and is celebrating. So hop on over and show her some support. You may even win a prize! Happy blogging!


Best wishes,

Made it Monday...

I'm so excited ladies! It's my first linky party!! Hope I'm doing this right...

So I've been sitting back for weeks watching all of your overachievers produce adorable homemade goodies while I attempt to resist the urge to learn how to pin things on pinterest. This morning when I rolled out of bed, I realized today was Monday (funny how summer time throws me off so much. The other day somebody asked me what day of the week it was. I said, "July.") and I was going to make something! After milling around Wal-Mart and Michael's for HOURS, I remembered the "read" signs so many of you had made. So, that's what I choose. I bought paint, brushes, glitter, wooden circles and band aids (just in case) and got to work! I even used my husband's saw... all by myself! After a lot of squinting and bending over and wiping, this is my finished product!

I can't wait to hang it in my room! BTW as I was trying to figure out how to join a linky party, I found even more projects that I want to do!! I wonder how long Michael's is open...


Lastly, you should definitely stop by Rowdy in Room 300. She made those adorable burlap signs to hand on her door. If you're not crafty to attempt one yourself (like me), then enter her giveaway! She's giving away 2 personalized signs!! Good luck!


Best wishes,

Applelicious...

September is one of my favorite times of the year for many reasons! I love going back to school and getting to meet my new kiddos. I love the weather. My birthday is on the 8th. Labor Day means yummy food at the Street Fair in Orange. AND we get to learn about apples in class! This is the first time I get to invite parents in to see what we do and lend a hand. We first begin with a KWL chart. I really like the colors Cara from The First Grade Parade used in hers and I plan to do to same this year.

If you click on the link, you can see how she teaches about apples and get some cute freebies!

I also send a letter home to parents asking for apple donations of all colors and sizes. Once we have the apples, we really get to work! We investigate them with our 5 senses, taste them, make patterns, use them as stamps, measure them and much more. We read apple books and make one of our own. The culmination of our apple unit is always making apple sauce! This is one of the days the kids talk about all year long! 

Here are some pictures from the past few years...

Measuring apples on the balance.

Measuring the circumference of the apples with string and writing in their apple shape books.

Peeling apples wearing aprons and chef's hats!

Apple taste test with graph.

Adding ingredients.

Stirring the applesauce. Smells so good!!

Smushing apples with the potato masher.

I have gathered all of my apple resources and assembled them into one unit. It is 35 pages full of centers, worksheets, templates, graphs and more! If you like the sound of these activities, please check it out at my TpT store. Applelicious is on sale for only $1.00 until Friday! The first 15 (since I have 15 fabulous followers) people to comment below will get it for FREE!!

One last suggestion! If you're looking for an apple craft, visit Mrs. Nelson's Class. She created a free template to go with her apple art. Isn't it cute?!

Best wishes,

I think I jinxed myself...

After how proud of myself I was for my blog's first week accomplishments, I have totally slacked!! But it's not my fault! The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays. I mean summertime, BBQ, family, friends, food AND fireworks!! Does it really get any better?? Well this year we decided to have everyone over at our place... last minute! Nothing like cleaning, baking and getting sucked into a Law & Order: SVU marathon (gets me every time) to tear you away from Blogland for a while. But now I'm back!!! And I went shopping! I'm REALLY getting into creating resources for my classroom. The bonus is that you can use them, too! Whenever my mind stops racing with possibilities and I can actually concentrate on one thing at a time, I'll have MANY new goodies for you!


And so that I'm not always promoting my new products, I thought I would take a few minutes and share some great ideas I have learned along the way. I tried so many new things this year! Unfortunately, I did not always remember to keep track of where the idea came from. So, if you notice I forgot a reference, PLEASE let me know. Gotta give credit where credit is due!


One of the most noticeable changes I made this year was to incorporate anchor charts into my themes. I usually begin with a mostly bare bones looking chart and add to it as we learn. Here are a few from this year...


I couldn't find the blog where I originally saw this simple anchor chart to introduce adjectives. Then we reinforced the idea by pinning adjectives to our frog.

Cute little St. Patty's Day chart

This is from our nocturnal animals theme. It's put together by so many different tid bits from here and there. Next year, I will formally put a unit together and make sure the anchor charts are in color. It would just be cuter that way! I wish I was at school so I could tell you where I got the adorable can/have/are worksheets from. If you know, do tell!!

Not really an anchor chart, but a follow up to our lessons on graphs. We made this circle graph about our birthdays. The students answered the questions I had written. Then they also wrote their own comparison sentences on sticky notes and we added it to our chart.

There are sooooo many more things I want to share, so keep coming back! Now I'm off to clean and bake (again)! Oh, speaking of baking....

I made these delicious little beauties for the 4th. I know, I know... they're not red, white and blue. BUT they are ridiculously tasty! If you're interested, you can find the recipe here. It's from a non-teaching blog, but I was still willing to give it a try ;)

Enjoy your weekend!

Best wishes,