How Do They Do It?

The title says it all!  How do all the fabulous bloggers out there do it all?  I just squeezed in a few minutes while my little guy takes a late afternoon nap!
It's been quite a while since I reintroduced myself into the world of blogging and again life smacks a huge STOP sign in front of me! Those who know me are aware that the past 14 months of my little family's life has been a wild ride!  This Thanksgiving we had A LOT to be thankful for. My poor hubby has had 3 surgeries since last September of '12, but we thank God all is well!- Too often we forget to list the things we DO have instead of the things we don't have.  We have health, love, and family!- What more can you ask for? Praise God, He is good!
I hope to re-venture into this blogging realm, and hope you will be a part of it. :)
Happy Beginning to the Best Part of the Year!

If you teach in Texas...

About two weeks ago a couple of good friends and I attended a great workshop on the Revised Math TEKS to be fully implemented during the 2014-2015 school year.  However, many Texas school districts will begin the transition this year.  The workshop was two days long, but filled with detailed information on the deletion of some skills, and the addition of others!  Two of the "biggies" that stood out for me was the following: Revised TEKS 1(2)(B) Number and operations:  The student is expected to use concrete and pictorial models to compose and decompose numbers up to 120 in more than one way as so many hundreds, so many tens, and so many ones. and Revised TEKS 1(4)(C) Number and operations: The student is expected to use relationships to count by twos, fives, and tens to determine the value of a collection of pennies, nickels, and/or dimes.

I was very excited because at the end of the last school year I created a condensed number line that displays and connects pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters to the number line. It includes the numbers all the way to 120, and a desk version for my students (with the numbers 0-30.) It looks something like this....

If you would like a better preview click here: Condensed Number Line 0-120 with Money

 

 

I also created a a 1-120 number chart that highlights twos, fives, tens, pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters!- Here a few views of those charts....

 

If you would like a better preview click here: 1- 120 Number Charts

 

 

 

If you would like a free copy of the basic 1-120 Number Chart,

click here to download: Basic 1-120 Number Chart

 

 

Let me know how you use them!-

 

Lunch Count and Attendance

Taking attendance and keeping track of lunches can be a time consuming activity.  In our class, the students are responsible for making a daily lunch choice as they walk into the classroom. This helps save time and provides daily graphing skills for the students.  As they remove their name and transfer it to a lunch choice, I am able to quickly check attendance and have a quick count for lunch to turn into the office.  At the end of the day, a student helper is responsible for removing the names and placing them back on the Student Names column.  The only thing I have to do is change the picture of the lunch choices at the beginning of the year, as the year progresses, the student helper reads the lunch menu and changes the next day's lunch choices. 

 This is what the chart looks like, but it measures about 38"x 22", and fits perfectly on a door. 
There are two choice columns because my school district offers two lunch choice entrees to the kids, but you can make yours with less!

If you would like to make one of your own, I have uploaded it to my

TPT store for free: Lunch Count and Attendance Chart. 

I've included all the directions to make your own.

~ Let me know what you think!

 This is the new one I created for the upcoming school year.  I added some graphics and accents to it, and am excited to add the finishing touches to it...lamination and velcro!

 

I left a blank space between the Large Label and the Choice Columns, because I have created some picture cards that display the lunch choices for our school district. 

 

 

 

Hope you enjoy!~Please let me know what you think!

 

On the Countdown!

Oh my!- Where has the time gone?  We have five weeks of "official" summer left.  Have you accomplished all the items on your to-do's list?  I certainly have not!- 
I am already in "school" mode though.  I've been waking up in the middle of the night with ideas!-I think it's always fun to sneak a peek into other classrooms and I am going to be posting some beginning of the year routines and share some of the things I do with my kiddos!- Please stop by again!~

Summer Time!

WOW!- Well it's summer, and I have a long list of want-to-dos, must-dos, and do-I-really have to-dos!- As we enter the third week of summer I am excited about starting new projects and embarking in this world of Blogging. Thanks to all my friends and fellow colleagues, who have supported me and encouraged me to do this...much love goes out to you!-

Although we have no major trips planned for this summer, some of my anticipated activities include:

• most importantly, time with my little man (He is now 16 months old!)
• putting together my son's scrapbooks ( I am working on an "old-fashioned" hands on scrapbook, and the beautiful books you can create with Shutterfly!)
• workshops, workshops, workshops (I love going to workshops!, I've already attended two!)
• a "teacher" friendly garage sale~ along with organizing space at home (These go hand and hand. I guess I should start preparing, do you ever have a hard time parting with items?
• and blogging!

I know as a teacher we really look forward to the summer as our relax and regroup time, but if you're anything like me, weeks before school is even out, we start having all these ideas swirl in our heads!- I have some great ideas in mind for next year and hope to post them as I go. 

I have been able to update and change a couple of items I created, and also created a few new ones from your requests, so if you have a chance, go my TPT shop, and check them out, and let me know what you think! Here just a few....

 

I had a fabulous teacher request I make these in bright colors and another fabulous teacher asked if I could make them up to the number 30! Thank you for your input ladies! -

I really liked the way they turned out!

 

 And here are the original primary colored background numbers, revamped up to the number thirty!- (I love these "primary" colors!- Green is is actually a "secondary color" in the color wheel- for all you Art Buffs, but we seem to always include it with "primary colors".)

 

 

 

and also.....

 

 

This single page goes along with the large Phonics Word Wall set.  I am excited to use it next year as a desk and home resource for my students. I plan on keeping one in their "Take-Home" Folders, and having them keep one in their writing journal or folder.

Happy Summer Everyone!!!!

Where Have I Been? Can I Begin Anew?

As this year comes closer to the end, I finally find myself returning to some normalcy in life!  What I can say is...God is Good!-
I started the year out very positively and was soon greeted with the unexpectedness of life!  My family has been on a roller coaster ride since last August, but can say now that we have been blessed numerously and unexpectedly.  My husband had a scare with cancer back in September, and as you can imagine with a small six month old son, we started to fear the worse.  He went in for surgery to remove a growth on his parathyroid and came out with half of his thyroid!- They had located a tumor on his thyroid and during surgery removed half of his thyroid as well!  However, we were blessed by the grace of God, and it was benign, no cancer.  We received overwhelming support from our family, friends, and co-workers.  As the days went by we watched our son grow, enjoyed watching him reach milestones.  Our son, by far, in all, has been our greatest blessing!  Then the week before Christmas we discovered that my husband had another growth, this time in his kidney. This time it was cancer. He had a large tumor in his right kidney. They were able to successfully remove his entire kidney, with no signs of cancer elsewhere.  Again, by the grace of God, we received the best news.  Six weeks after surgery, we celebrated my son's 1st birthday, and could not be more grateful!  Through it all, we have had enumerous prayers offered, support again from family, friends, and co-workers, and just plain love from everyone!-  We are finally regaining some "normalcy" in our lives and look forward to every day together!

Through prayer and faith, I find myself  here in this blog again.  I have changed the name and hope to "begin" anew!- Thank you to all of you!