Randomness and a Morning Work Packet

Alright, I know that I skipped a bunch of awesome link ups the last week or two.  I have thought about going back and doing them, but at this point, I figured it may be easiest to start from scratch, especially since this is one of those fully loaded posts.  Oh, and not 100% sure I can pull it off, but starting tomorrow, it is Teacher Week!  The Blog Hoppin' girls are throwing a gigantic linky party, so I will be trying my best to post each day.

I LOVE the idea of looking at other classrooms.  I know it sounds silly, but when I was babysitting when I was growing up, I loved looking in refrigerators.  I'm not sure, but I found it interesting to see what people liked to eat or drink.  I know that probably sounds silly.  It isn't like I went digging around - kids always need a snack or a meal, so I just enjoyed taking a quick peak when I grabbed applesauce or pudding.

Anyway, I'm admitting my weirdness to say, that's how I feel about classrooms.  I love getting to see each person's styles.  I like how each person has a specific color scheme, things they can't live without, and a certain way they organize everything.  My classroom is such a big part of who I am, so I enjoy it!  

Now, I have LOTS of pictures!  I'm saving some for later Teacher Week, but there are a few I HAVE to share.

First of all, I have a HUGE announcement on Wednesday.  I can't tell you yet, but it is something I've been working on a good bit this summer.  I am EXTREMELY excited, especially since secrets aren't easy for me.  Anyway, make sure you clear a few minutes on your schedule Wednesday.  You will not want to miss this.

Next, I never got to share with you what I did for my teammates.  I know you guys love your teams, but I'm sorry to disappoint you.  I have the best teammates in the world!  They are incredible girls and are like sisters to me.  They have been extremely supportive of me with all my crazy ideas, especially with blogging and joining TPT, so I wanted to do something special for them.  I ended up contacting Sew White Shop on ETSY and let me tell you guys, this is one girl that bends over backwards to make you happy.  She was so easy to work with.  She took two shirts and put them together to make me a shirt that didn't exist.  As you can see in the picture they turned out great!  So, if you are looking for a cute shirt for yourself or cute gifts for friends, I would recommend using Sew White Shop.  Oh, and so you know, I paid for my shirts.  She has NO CLUE I'm blogging about her, but I was so impressed, I had to give her a shout out!  By the way, the shirt is black with lime green stitching, houndstooth, and the heart has sparkly green fabric.

Now, the next thing is I have been determined to build up my Daily 5 stuff this year.  Every summer I think about what I can do to be a better teacher and I feel like this is where my time and money need to go.  This weekend, I bought around 30 new books from Barnes and Noble.  They had TONS of them that were marked Buy 2, Get 1 Free.  I also got several Mercy Watson books.  I bought two last weekend and read both of them during the week last week.  My kids LOVE that silly pig.  The books are just the right length and are great for beginning chapter books.  I think my favorite part is how colorful the pictures were.  The other two items I grabbed this weekend was three CD players and two Belkin RockStars.  I'm planning on using them with my Listen to Reading option.  The RockStars are going to go with my big CD player and with my iPad.  Each kid in my classroom has a pair of their own headphones.  This will allow for more than one kid to listen at a time without it disrupting the class.  It was tough last year when they were on the iPad because in a room full of kids, it could be difficult to hear.

Alright, last of all, I finally finished my first grade morning work packet for the first nine weeks.  Guys, I am SO excited!  This is something I thought of awhile back, but had so many other things on my list before I could get to it.  There are six pages that are free in the preview.  I made it where it was similar to my morning work.  The reason I wanted to create it is all the first grade morning work books always start out too difficult for my kids.  I think morning work should be a review.  If you start with first grade work, then it can't be a review because you haven't taught those skills yet.  The way I set this up is I created the first nine weeks based off of kindergarten skills that are also skills covered the first nine weeks of first grade.  This way, it will build, but not be overwhelming.  Below are some sample pages. You can click on any of them and it will take you to my new packet.  Oh, and it is on sale until around 9 p.m. tomorrow.

Hope you guys have a great week!