Fabulous Blogger Meet-Up Today!

What an uplifting, motivating afternoon! The blogger meet-up was fabulous! We met at Red Robin (I've never been before but highly recommend the Cobb salad now) and ate and talked and laughed. We shared stories about blogging- when we started and why. We talked about TPT, what we create and how. And of course Common Core. Let me extend a heartfelt "thank you!" to everyone who was there this afternoon. I really enjoyed meeting all of you. Here are some pictures of our oh-so-fun afternoon:
First Grade- Hadar, Tammy, Traci, Kathy, and me

2nd Grade- Hadar and Kate
Kindergaten- Kristy, Fran, and Michelle

The Whole Group- Michelle, Kate, Layla, Traci, Kristy, Hadar, Fran, Kathy, Tammy, Molly, and me

 Unfortunately I missed the picture of Molly and Layla, but they were the 2 4th grade teachers.

Here are their blogs for you to check out if you haven't already:
Thanks Michelle, for all your time making those great name tags to help us get to know each other!
Dragonflies in First
Fancy Free in Fourth
Lessons with Laughter
Fluttering Through First Grade
Thanks for the cute pad of paper, Tammy!
And a special thanks to Hadar for organizing this fabulous afternoon! I hope to see you all again sometime.



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Alphabet Exchange and WBT Video

My students are so excited about the Alphabet Letter Exchange! These are the letters we have so far (we're in Group 1):

The kids especially enjoy seeing the photos of other classes. Today I passed around the pictures that came with the M & Z. One of the boys noticed that a boy in the photo was wearing an Angry Birds shirt "just like me!", he said. My students are largely very low-income with not much experience outside their neighborhood. I loved that he made a connection with another boy on the opposite side of the country. Hopefully this helps my kiddos begin to realize that there's a great big world waiting out there for them to discover. 
I thought I'd also share a video I found yesterday. If you haven't seen it yet, it's AMAZING. The kids are just so engaged! It's a first grade teacher's math lesson. I really want to incorporate WBT. I've watched some videos and this one's got me excited about it again. You'll have to click on the link to get to the video, though. I need to go back to Blogging 101 and learn how to put a video into my blog. In the meantime, here's the link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP-P9Lq68Ac

I'm off to the Southern California Blogger Meet-Up. I'm so excited!!!  We're staying down there to spend Sunday with some good friends. A fun weekend awaits! I'll try to post pictures later today.
Have a wonderful Saturday!


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Halloween Picture Book Linky Party! (freebies too)

It's time for the 2nd Holiday Picture Book Linky Party! This time it's Halloween. I can't believe October is almost here, can you? Very soon I'll be getting out the witch and pumpkin decorations and my husband will be decorating the yard. In the meantime, here are a few of my favorite Halloween books I just love to read to my students.
I got this one when I taught second grade a few years ago and the first Houghton Mifflin story was by Dav Pilkey. The dogs in costume are so cute, and the children always laugh at the end. It also has a nice message about not teasing.
This is a definite crowd pleaser! It could be a bit too scary for some kids, but for my students it's great. It's a story of the young boy's visit to the spooky house next door. It's written by Carl Reiner (the actor, writer, director). As the story progresses, it asks "Shall we turn the page, or is it too scary?" The kids seem to take that as a challenge and always want to keep going. It also comes with a CD of Carl Reiner reading the story with just the right spooky sound effects.

I love this sweet little story of a tiny pumpkin still left at the pumpkin patch when all the others have been taken home. All the littlest pumpkin wants is to be taken home to be made into a jack-o-lantern. She's almost given up hope when she hears the sounds of mice getting ready for their Halloween party. At the end the littlest pumpkin is the star of Halloween after all.
I put together a few freebies to go with this (and other) stories. Just click on the pictures to grab them.



Just a few more favorites:
Books where the kids can participate in the reading are always fun, don't you think? Throughout the story the little old lady meets one pair of pants that go "wiggle, wiggle",  2 shoes that go "clomp,clomp", 2 gloves that go "clap, clap", and a few other item of clothing I can't recall off the top of my head. The kids so enjoy making all the sounds that go along with the story.
I look forward to reading this sweet story every year! There are several other "The Biggest ___ Ever" books that I want to get also. Amazon has a page about the author Steven Kroll that also lists all his book. You can check it out here.

If you have some favorite Halloween books you'd like to share, please link up. I couldn't seem to get a button working this time, so I hope you'll be okay with just using this image and linking it back to this post. Thanks. I'll keep working on it. I can't wait to get some new books ideas! 
Photobucket
*The next Holiday Picture Books Linky Party will be for Thanksgiving. I plan to start that one in mid-October.

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It was an Exciting Day!

Everyone was talking about it this morning. The news said the space shuttle Endeavor was going to fly over our area. We took the first graders to lunch early and had them eat outside. At about 11:30, this was our view
I saw the shuttle go behind a tree, then it came out the other side and flew almost directly over the playground. The kids were excited, but nothing compared to how excited I was, I'm sure! I got a book from the library this morning to share with them to try to impart some of the significance of this event to my students. They were interested, but of course the history part is hard for them to grasp. It was a truly amazing sight to see. Do things like that make you cry? or am I the only one? I get choked up just writing about it.
Hopefully you had a good week. We did, but I sure am glad it's Friday! I'll be back over the weekend with the 2nd Holiday Picture Book Linky Party for Halloween books. Have a relaxing evening!


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Clip Art Giveaway Winner Announced!

A huge thanks to all those who entered the clip art gift certificate giveaway. The winner has been chosen and she is
from Peterson's Pad

First Grade Fun
If you haven't checked out her blog, you should. She's got such terrific ideas! Sheree, I sent you an email.  Hope to hear from you soon. Have a great day everyone!


3

Giveaways and a Freebie

Two Fab Giveaways! Blogger Meet-Up and freebie too.

I LOVE my 31 lunch bag and it would be fun to have another one. If you want one, check out Lisa's new blog.



and THE writing giveaway over at Teacher Idea Factory! 

If you're looking for something to do today, check these out. And don't forget the

Have a terrific Saturday! I'm off to shower and go to school for a while. I have math journals to put together. I've never used them before but really want to this year. A friend of mine started them this year with her kindergarten and just loves it! Says the kids do too. If you have any great ideas to share about math journals, I'd love to hear about it. You're probably already more organized about these than I am, but here's a freebie of the cover I made for mine if you want to grab it. Just click on the picture. Thanks! (Oops. Sorry, the first time I posted it I accidentally left my first page of prompts attached. Here's just he cover.)
background from KPM Doodles, clip art from Scrappin Doodles




0

Let's Meet Up in Southern Cal !

"Root- Root- Rooty- Toot- Toot!" I read Hooway for Wodney Wat today, can you tell? I'm soooo excited!!! Miss Kindergarten is organizing a blogger meet-up in Southern California. And I'll be able to go!! I can hardly wait. If you're anywhere near Orange County (I'm 3 1/2 hours away, but let's call that "near" anyway), please come. It sounds like so much fun. Just click on the picture to sign up.

Also, my giveaway is still open until 12:01, Sept. 17th. Click HERE to enter.

1

Good Things are Happening Here

I am super excited to join up with Jennifer from Rowdy in First Grade
for her uplifting linky party
Jennifer's blog is one of the first I stumbled upon summer before last when I first started blogstalking. 
Today was our 15th day of school. It's been hectic, busy, fun, and challenging so far.  In the busy-ness of school and home it's a perfect time for me to focus on something good. 
Something good at school: ( I actually have 2)
My students are starting to get routines down! I'm already saying some things like "get out your folder", "push in your chair", "get in line" fewer times than just 2 days ago.
Daily 5 is getting better too. My class made it to 13 minutes of Read to Self today! I'll be able to start pulling reading groups soon which is so wonderful, as I have some very needy little ones who are going to need every possible extra instruction I can provide.
Something good at home:
My husband got laid-off from his job on the last day of school last year (June 7th). Yes, this is actually a good thing at home. His new boss had been making things miserable for him. And I want him to be happy. So now he's in the planning stages of opening a small hot dog/hamburger restaurant. He's getting lots of good information and help from vendors and consultants. He's working on securing a location now. We're very optimistic about this new opportunity and I'm glad he can work towards something he can be passionate about like I'm passionate about my job.

Hop on over and link up with Jennifer to share your "something good."

On another note, my clip art gift certificate giveaway is still going on.
You can enter by clicking {HERE}.



7

"I'm in the mood for..." clip art! Celebrating 300 followers GIVEAWAY!

That's right- just over 300 followers! I know a lot of you will understand when I say that I am so grateful to the blogging community for the support, encouragement, and motivation I get from reading your blogs and the comments you leave here. This blog has been up and running for a little over a year and it's so much fun!
 So, to say thank you, I've planned a clip art gift certificate giveaway. I'll show you what motivated me to offer a choice of gift certificates. 

This morning I was searching for clip art and found 
 so the 1st choice is

X 2 = $20.00
OR
I also bought

so the 2nd choice is

X 2 = $20.00
OR

My other purchase was some background papers from Kirsten at KPM Doodles. LOVE her clip art!
So the 3rd choice is a $20.00

I'm trying out Rafflecopter for the first time. I'm a little nervous about whether it will work, but here it goes:
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Just to clarify, the giveaway is for one of the three gift certificates. You choose which one.
Good luck!

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