Back to School Game!

How is tomorrow already August??

I've been having way too much fun enjoying these summer days with my family to even begin to realize that it's almost time to get in back to school mode!

I had very high hopes of making so many awesome things this summer. Like classroom decor items, mini posters, math and literacy centers, printing, laminating, a BUNCH of TPT products, classroom furniture makeovers.... and the list goes on.

Well, tomorrow is August and I haven't done half of those things, not even close.

Blowing bubbles with my daughter got done though! Multiple times ;) Oh and a whole lotta Target shopping as well. Summer vacation needs to end for the one and only reason that I must stop going to Target! Ha!

But not really though.

While thinking about my back to school plan this week, I remembered a fun game I always do on the first day of school. 

And I thought I'd share it with you all!

All you need for this fun activity are 2-3 rolls of toilet paper. 

Yes, toilet paper. (Don't worry it's fun, I promise!)

Have students unroll the paper and take as many squares as they'd like. Some will take 1 or 2 and some will go all out and grab like 22. Then, have a student take some for you.

Once everyone has paper, ask your students to count the number of squares they have. 

And this is the fun part!

1 square = 1 thing about you

22 squares = 22 things about you (!)

Students always laugh when they realize what they have to do with the squares. I usually go first to break the ice and then students take turns sharing fun facts about them.

It can be as random as 'I love chocolate ice cream' or 'I went to the beach over the summer'.

Whatever they would like to say!

I love this game because it gets everyone talking, helps get rid of first day jitters and you get to know your new students a little better! And for some, a whole lotta better!

There you have it! No prep easy first day activity!

What are some of your favorite back to school games?

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And on a completely unrelated topic, I picked up Gone Girl this morning and I just can't wait to start it! Have any of you read it?

Well that's all for me tonight,

Until next time,

TWEET!, New Project and Giveaway Winner!

Good morning!

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer vacation.

I know I am!

But although I am truly loving every second of my time off, I've gotta say, I can't not think about school. 

Oh well! I guess that's a teacher thing, right?

Before I show you what's been on my teacher mind lately, it's time to announce the winner of the Classroom Friendly Supplies Sharpener Giveaway!

Congratulations to Kathy S!

I hope you love your new sharpener!

Thank you to everyone who has entered! 

Don't forget that Troy is offering a 5% discount to all of you guys 

with code WK9KD (valid until Sept. 6th, 2014).

Don't miss this great opportunity to snag this gem!

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I'm currently in full on planning mode for my 2014-2015 classroom. In an attempt to cut down on purchases (oh my the amount of money I've spent on my classroom over the past 5 years is not even funny! haha!) I will be reusing the bird borders I had 3 years ago. I can't find them online.... I believe they are the old bird collection Carson Dellosa had before releasing the Boho Birds.

Anyways, they still look perfect and I still love birds, so win win.

With that in mind, I started working on a new decor collection.

May I present to you TWEET!

TWEET! Bird Themed Word Wall Letters

For now, I've only made some word wall letters, but more items will be coming soon!

I love the bright colors! This will brighten up any decor for sure :)

I've also purchased some fabric to create a pennant banner to hang over my classroom window.

I've been wanting to make one for such a long time but just never got around to doing it. 

Don't you just love that triangle print?

Hopefully, I will get this done over the next few weeks in order to share with you the final product, sooner rather than later!

Well that's it for me today!

Have a great day everyone!!

Until next time,

Sharpener GIVEAWAY!

It's officially summer break!

The time has come to celebrate with sunny days, pool days, park days, ice cream days, popsicle days, vacation days.... and no alarm days ;)

I'm mostly looking forward to spending some quality time as a family of three. Being a teacher mom is pretty much the best thing ever.

To kick off the summer in style, what better way then to have a 

GIVEAWAY!

Remember my new best friend?

Here's a little reminder:

I'm still realllly in love with this amazing sharpener, who has given every other sharpener in the world a run for their money.

Also, it's given a whole new meaning to the word sharp.

The lovely Troy from Classroom Friendly Supplies (the mastermind behind this sharpener) has offered to give away one sharpener to a lucky reader!!

Yep. She's that awesome!

All you've got to do is use the rafflecopter below to enter. 

(Giveaway opened to US residents only)

Giveaway will run until July 11th 2014.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Troy has also kindly offered a discount code for y'all to enjoy on your purchase.

So if you aren't the lucky winner, or even if you are and would like a second sharpener ;), 

use code WK9KD at checkout for 5% off. Code expires September 6th 2014.

Now you've got no reason not to own one!

Good luck everyone!!

And happy summer break!!

Until next time,

For the Love of Sharpening

I am in love.

Big time.

May I introduce to you, the best sharpener you will ever cross paths with:

Sharpener from Classroom Friendly Supplies

This my friends, is pure genius.

If your kiddos are anything like mine, then sharpening pencils is not their forte.

They've got other fortes, obviously, like being motivated to the extreme and wanting to learn all. of. the. time., 

but the sharpening situation, not so much.

First of all, my classroom sharpener is a pain. It's difficult for them to use, it's loud, it doesn't sharpen properly, it basically eats up their pencils and it's not cute.

Then, some of them have personal sharpeners which I'm not a big fan of. 

They break the leads and students drop them on the ground, causing pencil shavings to scatter everywhere, about 50 times a week.

But not anymore!

This pencil sharpener is the best thing that will happen to your classroom.

I received it about a week ago and I am obsessed.

It is perfect. In every way!

First things first, would you take a look at its cuteness level? I mean please.

This pink color was my first choice but all of the colors are gorgeous!

Aside from good looks, this sharpener brings the word sharpen to a whole new level.

It sharpens fast, smoothly, does not break pencils and is easy to clean.

Take a look for yourself.

To clean the sharpener, all you've got to do is take out the clear box, empty it, put it back and voilà!

To deal with my kids' sharpening situation, I now have my students put their pencils in a jar at the end of the day. I then sharpen all of them when they leave and when they come back to school the next morning, a sharper than sharp pencil is waiting for them :)

They are so impressed at how well it sharpens, they actually find excuses to write!
Talk about a happy teacher :)

This sharpener was created by an elementary school teacher, for teachers.  How awesome is that?
Troy from Classroom Friendly Supplies has seriously outdone herself with this little gem. I will never use any other sharpener, thank you very much.

If you already own this sharpener, they you are for sure already in love with it.

If you do not own it, then do yourself a favour and treat your classroom to a new sharpener.

At $24,95 and FREE SHIPPING, this treat is a major bargain!

If you are a fellow Canadian, please take not that Troy does not ship to Canada through her main store. You can, however, order through eBay and pay duty fees to receive it to your home.

Thank you Troy for this amazing new addition to my classroom, I LOVE it!

And now, dear readers, please go ahead and snag your very own sharpener.
Right this second!


Have a great day everyone!

Until next time,

Five for Friday!

Today, I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to bring you FIVE for Friday!!

1. I got a Whiteboard!

 I finally have an interactive whiteboard in my classroom! I received it on Tuesday and it was fully plugged in and functional by Wednesday afternoon. 

I was so excited I could barely teach on Wednesday, after lunch. Needless to say my kiddos only had eyes for the board. So we spent some time discovering it together. You would've thought we were discovering the world wide web for the first time.

I tell ya. Kids (and a teacher!) on Christmas morning. The same.

I let all of the students, one by one, come to the board and write. They signed their name and it was like I'd given them a million dollars.

We did some math problems (because yes I ended up being able to teach) and we had so much fun! I feel like I can do anything and they will LOVE it simply because it's on the board.

Awesomeness.

2. Go Noodle!

Since we got an interactive board, I was finally able to test out GoNoodle.com.

Oh. My. Word.

If you don't know this website, please do yourself a favor and go sign up, right this instant.

GoNoodle is a brain break website that includes a whole bunch of free video brain breaks. You choose a little mascot (we choose McPufferson ;) and the more brain breaks you do, the more levels you can unlock. 

We all know brain breaks are a necessity for the kiddos. The littles need to move!

These are perfect and extremely engaging!

I look forward to using them a LOT in my classroom.

3. Pinspired trick

I found this idea on Pinterest but forgot to pin it and now I can't remember where it was from.

If anyone knows please let me know so I can give proper credit!

When my kiddos work independently, they have a lot of questions and often need to see me. 

If they come to my desk, I end up with 20 students in line, waiting for their turn. During that time, they are either chatting or dancing or dropping their pencil.... basically not doing anything productive.

 If I have them raise their hand, I never know who raised it first, their arm hurts and once again, they aren't being very productive.

Not anymore!

I gave each student a clothespin with their name. When they are working independently and have a question, they pin their pin on a little basket near my desk. When I'm ready for a student, I take the pin, in the correct order, call the student to my desk and help the kiddo. This way, they can keep busy while waiting, time seems to go by much faster for them and everyone is happy! The kids love having a little pin and they are always super happy to use it.

4. Mother's Day

Mother's Day is this Sunday (my second Mother's Day! :) so we worked on some gifts for moms this week. 

First, we made some gift certificates. 

Students choose gifts such as doing the dishes, giving a massage, preparing breakfast, etc. It was so sweet.

Then, we made Teri's ice cream cones.

Of course, I forgot to take a picture but they looked super cute!

Got to love A Cupcake for the Teacher!

5. TPT Sale

And finally, I shopped the TPT sale!

I got some graphics and some cute craftivities.

Here is a look at some of my favorite new graphics:

I got these kidlets from Ashley Hughes.

These space cuties from EducaSong

These punctation kids from From the Pond

That's it for me tonight!

Have a great weekend everyone!

And Happy Mother's Day to all the mommies out there!

Until next time,

Easter Eggs and a Freebie!

Good evening everyone!

How is it April 9th already? Time is flying by, I tell ya.

My baby turned one this past Friday which is a definite indicator that time really is flying by. How did this even happen? It feels like yesterday we were finding out we were pregnant and today, we've got a toddler crawling all over the place, almost walking ;) 

LOVE this little bundle of joy!

It's also been a whole month since I've gone back to work and it feels like that was only a few days ago. It must mean I'm in good company!

And I am!

My students are such sweethearts I feel so lucky to be their teacher. They are always happy and eager to learn. They give me hugs and drawings which just warms my heart on the daily.

Last week, I picked up some Easter goodies for my kiddos (ok and maybe a few Cadbury eggs for me... but that's not the point!) at Target and decided to get these:

I bought 4 bags of 48 eggs. I just love the gorgeous colors! 

(and I also got the adorable pink bin for 7 bucks. Yes please!)

I figured I could use these for a bunch of different things, both in math and in language arts.

I've only used them once but I fully intend on using them some more and then some more again, long after Easter has come and gone. 

I mean, eggs are a yearlong product right?

I gave each group of 2 students a bunch of eggs. They opened them in order to use half eggs. This way we had double the quantity and they weren't rolling all over the place. I then gave them a number which they had to represent with the eggs. When they had ten, they would put them over each other, making a little tower. Therefore, the number 32 would be represented with 3 towers and two eggs.

Students had a BLAST. They thought this was the coolest idea since the iPad and have been begging me to do it again ever since.

How I love first graders!

I want to use the eggs again for a synonym hunt as well as for a punctuation activity.

I'll be sure to share when we do!

Do you use Easter eggs in your classroom? 

I'd love to hear what you do with them!

Also, if you're looking for a fun activities to do with your kiddos, you can grab my 

Easter Class Book Freebie!

Class books are always a fun activity that is easy to put together.

Grab it here!

Well that's it for me today.

Talk to you soon!

And don't forget to come find me on Pinterest :)

Until next time,

spring products and latest pins!

Hey everyone!

I hope you all had a great Monday!

Temps are starting to slowly warm up here, although we had a few centimeters of snow over the weekend. 

Not cool.

But I feel like today we finally got our first glimpse of spring! And it's about time.

Everybody is in need of some sunshine over here!

I'm fully planning on wearing a yellow shirt tomorrow in an attempt to bring the sun out.

And when that doesn't work, then maybe these will:

Spring Centers: Spring Themed Literacy Activities

I made these last year and now that I'm finally teaching first grade, I'd love to make a first grade pack, in French, for my current kiddos. 

These spring centers are geared towards second grade or third grade revision.

April Word Work

I finished this pack over the weekend. Word work is great for morning work or for early finishers.

I wanted this pack to be uploaded much sooner but apparently being a working mama means time on my computer is limited! Ha! ;)

Head on over to my store to pick these up!

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I also wanted to share some recent pins I've fallen in love with.

I love this Easter reward system! Target has loads of Easter eggs with cute pastel colors at really low prices making this a fun and cheap way to bring a little Easter joy into the classroom!

We are currently learning about verbs and I fell in love with this simple yet adorable anchor chart. I pretty much attempted to recreate it for my kiddos and it looks pretty good. However, I'm extremely bad when it comes to drawing so I didn't even try to draw the cute little people. 

So words and doodles it is!

How fun is this idea for synonyms?

LOVE!

And finally, would you take a look at this gorgeous classroom?!

Oh my word!

Perfection.

If you're not following me on Pinterest (and considering my number of followers you probably aren't! haha!) , you can come and find me! :)

Have a great week everyone!

Until next time,