Here is a peek at CTP'S New BTS Stache

I am so excited to be sharing this awesome blog post with you!!!

I am an exclusive Creative Teaching Press Blogger and I get inside information about what is new!!! So here is a

You get to see some products from me first! And the two I will share in this post are:

Chalkboard Posters

I just love this poster!!! It is an awesome addition to your classroom to get the point of bullying across to your students at any grade level!!!!




Chalkboard adjectives

These are amazing!! Great way to label student work, student of the week display or just to display adjectives in your classroom! These can be used in a variety of ways!!!

There are a group of Creative Teaching Press Exclusive bloggers and we are doing a blog hop to share some of the amazing new products that will be available for back to school! Please hop on over to Third Grade Love to see the two products she has chosen to give you a sneak peek of!!

There will be more posts to come!! So Stay tuned for what else is to come from Creative Teaching Press.”

How do you know you are a school teacher

I found this funny list written by Jeff Foxworthy while I was online looking for activities to do with my kiddos! I just had to share!

How do you know you are a school teacher by Jeff Foxworthy

1. You get a secret thrill out of laminating things.

2. You can hear 25 voices behind you and know exactly which one belongs to the child out of line.

3. You walk into a store and hear the words, “It’s Ms./Mr. ____________ and know you have been spotted.

4. You have 25 people who  accidentally call you Mom/Dad at one time or another.

5. You can eat a multi-course meal in under 25 minutes.

6. You’ve trained yourself to go to the bathroom at two distinct times of the day, lunch and planning period.

7. You start saving other people’s trash, because most likely, you can use that toilet paper tube or plastic butter tub for something in the classroom.

8. You believe the Teacher’s Lounge should be equipped with a margarita machine.

9. You want to slap the next person who says, “Must be nice to work 7 to 3 and have summers off”.

10. You believe chocolate is a food group.

11. You can tell if it’s a full moon without ever looking outside.

12. You believe that unspeakable evils will befall you if anyone says, “Boy, the kids are sure mellow today.”

13. You feel the urge to talk to strange children and correct their behavior when you are out in public.

14. You believe in aerial spraying of Ritalin.

15. You think caffeine should be available in intravenous form.

16. You spend more money on school stuff than you do on your own children.

17. You can’t pass the school supply aisle without getting at least 5 items!

18. You ask your friends to use their words and explain if the left hand turn he made was a “good choice” or “bad choice.”

19. You find true beauty in a can full of perfectly sharpened pencils.

20. You are secretly addicted to hand sanitizer.

21. You understand, instantaneously, why a child behaves in a certain way after meeting his/her parents.

I just had to share! Have an awesome day!

Must Read Monday!

I am linking up with Teaching Maddeness for the Monday Must Read Linky! Well, we are doing a variety of themes this week! I am trying to do my bugs, some plants, some Earth day and some Easter! So here goes here is one book that you must read for these themes!

This is an awesome nonfiction books that talk about these wonderful insects in terms that your little ones will understand.The photos are amazing! it is a great read!

The photos and text are pleasing and educational to all learners! I love Pebble Books!

I love this little green monster who starts out as an environmental nightmare but soon learns the importance of recycling! The children love this book!

It is the day before Easter and Splat the Cat still has not told the Easter Bunny what he wants! Where is the Easter Bunny! He is hidden on almost every page! Great for positional words! The children love this book!

Well There are my books to share for the Must Read Monday Linky! Click on the link below to see some other awesome suggestions!!!

The Three B's: Baseball, Book Fair and the Beginning of Bugs Unit!!!

Well, Last week was busy! 

Let's start with Baseball! Oh how I love this sport!!!! We celebrated opening week with some baseball activities!

We talked about the inside of a  baseball! Did you know that there is 941 feet of yarn in the middle of a baseball?! Well, I did not but I do now! We made a model of the inside of a baseball and did a follow me activity and made baseball players and then wrote about the game of baseball! We also made a circle map of the tools of a baseball player!

Here are some pictures:

Here are some of the books we read:

Now for the book fair!! What can I say? I am a book fanatic and this was the buy one get one free sale! So of course, I had to buy a lot! I always use this one to freshen up my units and to buy 6 of each reader for small groups!!! Here is what I bought on day one!

And of course, I can not leave without buying something for my kiddos! So I bought them all an eraser!

And finally to begin our bug unit! We learned about Entomologists and some bug/insect facts! The one fact they loved was the compound eyes. we used kaleidoscopes so they can be a bug! Here is the chart we made!

And our first bug was my favorite! The Praying Mantis! We read books, created anchor charts, learned the life cycle, watched some videos and did a follow me activity! Whew, we were busy! Here are the pictures of our follow me activity and of the books we read!

Here is our anchor charts!

During my units, I try to read a nonfiction and a fiction book for each item I am teaching!

So here you have our week last week! I promise I will actually post what we did this week on time!!!

April Currently

I am linking up with Farley from  Oh'Boy 4th Grade for the April Currently!

Currently:

Listening to Investigation Discovery as I blog away!

Loving the fact that the warm weather is finally here!

Thinking I need to go to sleep before it is time to get up for another day!

Wanting a vacation... somewhere exciting!

Needing to go to sleep! Wound up from too much caffeine!

Hours and Last day: Teachers go 7:55 to 3:25, Students go 8:15 to 3:15 and the last day for Students is June 10 and for teachers it is June 12

Thanks to Farley for  creating these awesome currently slides for each month!!

Go and link up at

Thank you Creative Teaching Press

Wow! I am so excited to reveal all of the awesome things I have created and done in my classroom thanks to Creative Teaching Press! They asked teachers who would like to try out some products of their choice. Of course, I said YES!! I sent my requests, the products came and the fun began!

I absolutely love the Dots on Turquoise collection! So I chose the many wonderful products they had in this collection and I was not disappointed. These products are colorful and whimsical. They are perfect for an elementary classroom. If you click on the product names, you will go to their links on the Creative Teaching Press Website!

Here are all the wonderful items I created and used the Dots on Turquoise for:

I needed a new line by the door for my kiddos to line up on. I have tried painters tape but it just was not cute enough or durable. So when I got my products, the creative juices began to flow and a line was created. Here it is:

The products I used for my line were dots on turquoise calendar days , dots on turquoise border, and dots on turquoise 6" designer cut outs. All I did was glue the calendar days to the cut out and then glued the cut out to the border and laminated. 

My line up line is completed, I next redid my transportation chart. 

The products I used for this were dots on turquoise border and dots on turquoise jumbo 10" cutouts. I printed out the various forms of transportation home. I mounted this on colored paper and then glued into the center of the circle jumbo cutouts and laminated. I then laminated the border and placed velcro on the border and stuck the circles onto the border. i then decorated clothespins with Washi tape and wrote the students names on them. I placed the car riders, daycare and the YMCA kids clothespins on their circles but when it came to the bus riders, I wrote their names and bus numbers on the clothespins. I then placed them in the order of the buses at dismissal going around the circle.

I then redid the table caddies, name tags and ceiling labels for the tables. 

To make the table caddies, I used dots on turquoise designer 6"cut outs, I tied these to the caddy with ribbon and then decorated the caddy with coordinating Washi tape.

I used the jumbo cutouts for the ceiling labels!

For their name tags, I used the dots on turquoise name tags!

So to continue with my redecorating, I then labeled my baskets and crates.

I used the dots on turquoise designer cutouts 6" square for the milk crates. I attached these to the crates with ribbon.

For the larger containers, I used the dots on turquoise jumbo 10" cutouts and attached them with ribbon.

Of course, I can not leave out my gator!! I love him. 

To make my gator, I painted a large clothespin (AC Moore) green. i then hot glued large wiggly eyes onto him. For the teeth, I cut the dots on turquoise border into zigzags and hot glued it on the sides. I then made the nostrils and the spots with the dots on turquoise hot spots stickers.

My weeks lesson plan organizer for RTI was redone.

I used the dots on turquoise 2 pocket folders and the dots on turquoise name plates to label the days of the week.

I also redid their locker tags! My kiddos loved them!

I made these with the dots on turquoise designer 6"cutouts. I laminated them with my pirate them attached. i them attached their names with velcro and attached magnet on the back to stick to their lockers.

But the one area I love the most is my pencil sharpening spot!

I made this using the jumbo designer cut out, the poppin pencil 6" pencil cutouts,  and the dots on turquoise alphabet stickers. The two pails were bought at AC Moore. I wrote broken and sharp on the pencils. I cut the tip off of the one labeled broken. These were attached to the buckets with turquoise ribbon. 

Number talks are one of our favorite times of day. So I created an interactive poster to use during this time!

I made this with the dots on turquoise border, the dots on turquoise letter cut outs, dots on turquoise jumbo 6' cut outs and poster board. There is a bag attached to the back with the numbers 1-20 in it so we can change the number to represent.

I also made a Kiss Your Brain bucket. I fill this with Hershey Kisses and when they give an amazing answer they get to kiss their brain!!!

This was made with a paint bucket from AC Moore, dots on turquoise alphabet stickers and the dots on turquoise hot spots stickers.

And for their birthday, they get to pick a birthday flower. This is just poppin pattern 6" jumbo spring flower cut outs hot glued to birthday pencils. They are on my desk in a terra cotta pot decorated with birthday clip art.

Now that was the decorating that I did. I also got to pick and use other products as well.

My kids love using the small magnetic sight word and alphabet books.

They love the Pirates Coming Through books!

I love to play classical music while my kiddos are writing and as they enter the classroom in the morning so I chose and received Quiet Moments by Greg and Steve. My kiddos love this CD!

And the last item I am sharing with you that I absolutely love is the Sing and Read Greg and Steve Variety Pack. My kiddos love the songs and the books. I have used these for home school connection projects. An example is the Potato Pals from the I Like Potatoes book. This was our culminating activity for our Ireland Unit.

So here are some of the awesome things I was able to create and add to my classroom thanks to the wonderful Heather and others from Creative Teaching Press! Go check them out! Their products are amazing!!!! You will not be disappointed!!!!!!!