Lesson Plans Nov week 1

I think  I have finally found my blogging niche. My blog will have my weekly lesson plans posted on it and later in the week I will add some of my lessons that went well. I'm rather excited about this idea.
I love looking at other bloggers lessons that they post but I always wonder how they get them all in during the limited time that is the school week. I always wonder what their plan book looks like. So I've decided to post my plan book.

After spending several hours trying to figure out my Mac (still somewhat new to me) I am so proud of my plan book look. The colors make me smile and I love how I get to choose exactly what to put what lines and bubbles. I also love that I can type my lessons and not try to squeeze everything in small boxes with smudged pencil marks.

Here are my first lesson plans. They are still a bit incomplete at the moment but I will add to them after I get through my masters paper. ;)

I am concerned about how I will like this over time. Right now I'm excited but I have no idea how this will go overtime. Lets just experiment for awhile and see how it goes.

Comments? Concerns? Please let me know what you think about all this.

WOWza! My first week and a room reveal!

I have really missed blogging these last couple of weeks, but school has been kicking my bootie! I started school last Monday and have been struggling to balance my life again now that I'm not just a summer bum. But good news, my class is so cute!!! They are chatty but adorable. Anywho here is my room reveal. 

Here is the 'during' picture. I put up the black paper and just started organizing my stuff from the move. This year I moved into a Relocatable (Relo) classroom and it was more of a struggle to move then I thought, but the Relo has it's many perks. The best perk is I get to control my AC! 

 Here is my pride and joy this year. My library! I finally organized my books and labeled all my books and the bins they belong in. More to come about that. 

 Here a hideous cabinet that I redid. I simply took hot pink duct tape and black butcher paper. And as you can see it was a miraculous makeover!  

 Here is the picture I snapped right before the bell rang and the little munchkins ran in. I love the pink and green colors I used. It really brings the room together. 

 Here is my student work wall (inspired by Clutter-Free Classroom here) I love her blog and all the creative ideas she has. 

Here is the view from the back of the room. I love my pink and green banner above my whiteboard. I've seen them all over the place and decided to try my hand at it. 

 Here is an close-up of my whiteboard Planner Page. I love how bold and easy to read it is. 

Here is my library with the calendar math board. I love calendar math and I'll post another blog about it soon.

I have really missed my classroom blog and I wish I had more time to blog and teach and study for my Master's Degree. I've made a goal to blog every week this school year. Wish me luck! 

Linky Party-Classroom Music

I'm joining the linky party over at Teaching with a Z.

My favorite classroom song is a little crazy. In fact my kids start off complaining about it but by the end of the school year they are begging for it. My favorite classroom song is Glee's version of Friday.

In my school Fridays are an early out day, that means that after lunch they only have about 20 minutes before they are dismissed. Those 20 minutes can murder my weekend vibe. I spent a lot of Friday afternoons trying not to loose my cool with the kiddos who thought school ended at lunch before I found a solution. The solution was so simple it blew my mind!

When our class comes back from lunch we start the count down. I am looking to see if we'll have a silly clean up or a serious clean up. Most the time my class works hard until the clean up so it can be a silly one. For a silly clean up they must do the same things as normal but they get to listen to the Friday song while they do it, and usually they clean up quicker so they can dance around with their friends as they line up to be dismissed.

Its a fun end of the week that leaves us all with smiles and a few laughs. The kids complain about the song but they honestly love it!

Ra-Ra-Random! & an award?!

I want to extend a BIG thank you to Rachel at Teaching with Z a for nominating me for my first award!

I feel so proud of myself whenever I get new followers (HINT HINT!!!) it amazes me that people want to read my random thoughts on teaching. Getting nominated for an award is mind blowing...thank you! 
In order to accept the award I have to:

1.  Thank who nominated you.(check)

2.  Include a link back to who nominated you. (check)

3.  Include the award image in your post.(check)

4.  Give 7 random facts about yourself in your post.(keep reading)

5.  Nominate 15 other bloggers for the award.(hmmmm...working on that)

6.  When nominating, include a link back to their blog in your post.(will do)

7.  Let the bloggers you nominate know by leaving them a comment.(COMMENTS!)

Here are my seven random things:

I grew up with two educators for parents and so summer was sacred to our family. Summer is a time for travel and fun I've tried to keep that motto as much as my budget will allow.My two most exciting summers were spent  working at the Grand Canyon at a small place called Jacob's Lake and in Jerusalem on a Study Abroad. 

My husband and I have been married for 19 months (but who's counting) and he is still in school. Husband is currently at BYU, so we get to live in a wonderful cinderblock married-student housing. This also means that I get the pleasure of making a 40 minute commute to my school each day. I honestly don't mind the drive since we only have one more year before we move out of state to graduate school. 

I have a scar on my tongue. When I was a small young tike I fell off a piano bench and bit through my little tongue. I'd show you a picture of it but that'd be gross so I'll spare you. 

My name comes from my parent's first date. They went to the movie Savannah Smiles. Precious! 

It's hard to try to think of 7 random things about myself. Does that count as a random thing? I say YES!

Flight of the Conchords is a secret obsession of mine. In fact the title of this post "ra-ra-random" comes form their hit ( PS they are more adult humor)

Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros 

My other youtube obsession is Kid History. I show these to my students on Wacky Webvideo Wednesday if they are angels.

Their link is here!

My last random thing about myself: I love pink and green and owls. As my classroom will reflect. I am so proud of my half-way done classroom. This is the first year it has actually felt put together and pretty. I'm excited! 

Hope you had fun learning about my random life. Here are my nominees:

Krazy Fun Teaching

Our Future is Bright 

Second Grade is Sweet

Write on Fourth Grade

Thank you for the nomination and thank you for those who follow me. 

Library Labels Freebie

This is my first freebie and my first time using googledocs so hopefully it turns out well for everyone. Please let me know if something isn't working, or if there is a better way to do freebies.

My classroom library has been an absolute mystery of organization. I have been blog stalking and web searching for ideas of how to organize and maintain the mess of my classroom library. Well after loads of research I complied a couple of ideas for my library.
I made genre labels for my book bins and coordinating labels for each book. This way the student librarians can put books back in the correct spots at the end of the day. I also took a lesson from Miss Clutter-Free Classroom and only put out some of my many books. That will hopefully keep the kiddos more interested in reading and less choices for browsing through their reading time. So without further ado here are my library book bin labels and my library book labels. I hope they are helpful to you. Pictures of them in use will come shortly.

PS I can't believe that school starts is less then 30 days!AHHHHHH.

Creekside Teacher Tales Giveaway

Man I wish I could do a giveaway but as of today I have nothing worth giving. I am hoping to win my first giveaway which is an amazing prize pack from Creekside Teacher Tales Someday when I get 100 followers I'll do a giveaway! (maybe before that)

First Day Jitters! (A Blog Hop)

Two linky posts in two days... I think I deserve some type of chocolate reward for that!

I am joining up with Ashley in Fierce in Fourth to share first day jitters. I was reading a lot of the other bloggers' posts and found something in common all of us are having the "First of the Year Dreams"so I thought I would share mine because I've been having some pretty awesome nightmares!

Link to the party! 

Things I am concerned about for the first day of school:
1. I am moving classrooms. My room used to be a very large room with built in storage and huge windows inside the building. Now I am moving out to the Relo's (Relocatable classrooms, portable classrooms, I've heard them called many things). There are a few perks to being outside: I control my heat and a/c, my class can be as loud as we wish, my relo is never closed and alarmed so I can visit any day any time. But this move is causing me to experience lots of silly dreams. Example: last night I dreamt that it was the first day of school. When I showed up my principal promptly told me I was late and my students were in the Relo waiting for me. Since we all know how students might take to waiting, I busted my butt to get outside to my Relo only to find that the back field of my school where my relo is located was full of relos and cabins. There were close to hundreds and I had to race through them all to find my class. I spent the whole dream running around like a chicken with their head cut off.
Another example: I get to school the first day and am informed that my relo isn't done being finished so I can't use it that day. My class gets to spend the first day of school in the copy room trying to fit and appear normal.
I love back to school dreams!

2. This year I am going for it! I am starting the Daily 5 for my reading block. All over the blog world I keep hearing about Daily 5 this and Daily 5 that so I purchased the book last December and started reading. I loved what I read and tried a few things but decided it would do better to start the system at the beginning of the school year and go from there. I am so grateful for the many bloggers and pin-ers who are helping me set it up.

3. The last thing I am nervous about is something that I always get nervous about. I am scared of the students. It's always exciting to think about the new little people who will be such a huge part of my life for the next 9 months of my life. Oh but I love them!

Those are my worries, but I am so excited to get going. Summer has been wonderful but I'm ready to get on with my school life again.

If you enjoyed reading my thoughts please follow my blog so I can keep learning from amazing teachers in the blog world!

Mrs. W