Five for Friday (On Sunday July 26)

It's that time of week again!  (Well, 2 days late!)  

This is a great linky party, that I've come to look forward to! Maybe next week I'll make it on a Friday! LOL

Something for fun...I, like many others of you, love bright cheerful containers.  Now, I have lots at school, but you can never have too many!  Picked up a bunch of these bad boys and I am so happy that they fit into the shoe rack shelf that I found at Goodwill.  Now...just to figure out what to put in there.... I was thinking of sorting writing supplies, or small word work activities since the cubbies are small.  They do fit perfectly a small pencil box.  The cubbies I have at school I had to track down in a then-storage-portable...so they are in pretty bad shape.  And that's all they pretty much keep in their cubbies...pencil boxes.  Hmm, decisions...decisions...

I've been working on my TPT products.  It is a learning curve as to how work some of the programs but I'm loving it!  I get up early to work on stuff, read blogs, facebook groups, and TPT forum posts while everyone is asleep.  Then it's a fight for the computer!  HAHA  Well, maybe not a fight, but I'm sure you know what I mean.

 

Sigh, seeing all those teacher posts on Facebook and blogs about how their room is coming is getting me anxious to get to my own room!  My room had the "DO NOT ENTER, WET WAX" sign on it when I went to check this past week.  I really need to get back the corner of my house that has my summer school supplies! With trainings and meetings going on our first week back, AND Kindergarten Open House being on Wednesday...doesn't leave me much time to set up, so I will have to go in early.  Excited to set up and turn my bare room into something inviting.  YAY!  

I even had a dream where my room was already done for me! LOL

Besides my number 5 read, I am going to start to read The Cafe Book.  This is something I have never done, but liked the idea of.  I am hoping that since I already read about Daily 5, that this will tie in nicely.  I was so excited to start reading that when I finished my Daily 5 book, I started The Cafe Book...but it was late...and I was getting tired...so I fell asleep. ZZZzzzzzzzzzz 

And perfect for #5...Daily 5!  I already read the first book, and had been reading the 2nd edition. (I talked about it in a previous Five for Friday post.)  I enjoyed the book and am finding new ways to implement Daily 5 into my class this year.  I hope to be better at it now that I will have my students all day. (Read a bit of my thoughts on that here and here.)  I'm very excited...I just hope that it goes almost as smoothly as I envision it! LOL  I will be getting my centers started soon and can't wait to teach math again!  I have almost nothing for math.  BUT I am excited to be making things for math centers too.  What is a math center that your students love? 

If you haven't already, link up with this linky party!

Here's to a restful Sunday...and a happy week to you all!

Five For Friday

Hey, there!  This is my 2nd Five for Friday and I enjoyed the last one very much.  And better yet...I'm posting on a Friday! HA!

 It has been raining and raining and raining the last 2 days.  Living in Florida I am not use to this...the usual afternoon shower that comes and goes...YES...pretty much ALL DAY LONG?...NO! And either are the kids, who have been asking and asking to go back in the pool that we got ready last week after a 2 day withdrawal.  So hopefully after dinner we can go in even if it's for a little bit.  Cause on our errands today...IT WAS HOT!

 I am going to try and  MAKE some clipart this weekend!  I actually have been on withdrawal since I made my first few.  This time I am really excited because I will be using Photoshop or Illustrator.  I think I will either try and make some fun kids or owls or borders or digital papers....OR try each until I get stumped and then move onto the next one! LOL Check back here this weekend and I'll post pics of how they are coming along.  

 If you have kids, or even if you don't...I'm sure you have heard of these little guys called Minions.  My youngest loves them and was literally at the edge of his seat while watching their movie Sunday. I did end up getting him a stuffed BOB that now I have to make a teddy bear for since he did not come with one.  SO...I will do my best with what fabric I have.  I'll post a pic with the new Bob and his accessory when I'm done.  For now, here's my Little Minion.

I'm already worrying and it hasn't even happened yet BUT..my daughter started taking the drivers ed class online so that she can take the test to get her permit.  

HOW CAN SHE BE READY TO LEARN TO DRIVE SHE'S ONLY A BABY!! 

Ugh how time flies...way to fast.  I liked her response to driving a few years back, "I don't have to learn to drive cause my husband will Does anyone have a pause button I can borrow?  If you do, please let me know...Thanks in advance.

It is now day 3 of our Summer Movie Night Marathon where we watch a movie or half of a movie each night before the boys go to bed.  This Summer Movie Marathon features:  STAR WARS!  This time we are starting with Episode 1 and will be going all the way to Episode 6.  (Last time we did this we started with Episode 3.) Tonight starts Episode 2 Attack of the Clones

             

My littlest as Darth Vadar.

My oldest boy and his favorite character.

Don't forget to link up with your own Five for Friday-click the button below!

Currently July 2015

Currently July 
This is my first Currently linky party with Oh Boy Fourth Grade.  It's great to get to know other bloggers and read about them too! So here it goes:

Listening: When I work on the computer silence is good for some things, but other times I just put the t.v. on in the background. Usually to "watch" something that I've already seen so that I don't get too distracted from my task at hand.

Loving: If you had joined the #TPTSellerChallenge on Facebook, I'm sure you agree that it was a wonderful collaboration tool!  It was just the kick in the pants I needed for starting my store and getting things up.  Lots of help and friendly people made it even better!  You can read about my challenges by clicking on the TPTSellerChallenge label on my side bar.  Come back to my blog to ready about my last challenge I'm working on called Follow Frenzy!

Thinking:  I just started making clipart for my TPT store.  I find it a lot of fun and challenging at the same time.  Trying to figure out all the tools, and then
learning new things as you play around with it is pretty cool!

Wanting:  Oh how a Java Chip sounds so good right now!  But I am waiting, and then going to have to maybe do like 2 workouts!  I've been doing the 21 Day Fix workout and when I was full force into it, within 2 months I lost 25lbs!  My goal is to lose another 25lbs by the end of August.  Time to get my butt in gear!  

Needing:  As in another of my posts, I found out that I will be one of the 2 stand alone kindergarten classes out of 6 total.  Last few years our whole school went to departmentalized: ELA/Social Studies and Math/Science.  (Except 3rd and 4th grade inclusion)  I only started teaching K two years ago (coming from 3rd grade for 8 years) so I've never taught them math...not even looked at a teachers manual-let alone had one in my hands!  I am excited though because of all the thematic possibilities and things I can do with a class of my own instead of sharing kids.  (Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed working with my partner the last 2 years! That I will miss, but at least we can still plan together now in a different way.)

All Star:  I love to be creative.  I'm usually the one in groups for PD that does the drawing or writing.  I have a lot of hand drawn anchor charts and I made my own center signs by hand and with my Cricut.  I told some of my co-workers that if there was a job for someone to just make cutesie things for the classroom and draw up anchor charts that people see on Pinterest and such...I would apply in a heartbeat!  I'm also creative with sewing and crafts.  My daughter is wanting me to make her a cos-play outfit for Kingdom Hearts and I've made her a plushie of one of her favorite characters.  My friend taught me how to quilt and I made one with her help for Quilts for Kids, I have another one that I have to work on too.  

Click on the link below to join in on this month's Currently!

 

Make Your Masterpiece

Make Your Masterpiece

I have been loving the TPT Seller Challenge, and it's given me the Ok, I know I'm late but I've been working hard on my masterpiece in between daily life.  So, here it is...

Check out my store for these and my apple clip art product!

After debating what type of teacher resource I wanted to make, I decided to make some clip art since I did put that down as one of my DARE TO DREAM points.  I love to do crafts, like sewing, drawing, and scrapbooking, when I get time.  I think the Dare to Dream has put my thought of making clip art more of a reality.  The thought of digital drawing was a little scary since I always had started off mine with pencil.  But once I got to trying, it was a lot of fun!  Lots of getting use to the different media but I'm getting the hang of it.  

So...that brings about my Masterpiece!  I had worked on the butterflies long before, but didn't have the Adobe to secure them properly.  So I ended up signing up for Adobe Cloud, since I would like to also learn more about drawing in Photoshop and Illustrator.  My daughter also seemed interested too since she likes to draw too. 

Find my Butterfly clip art and Back-to-School Supplies up on TPT! I also put up a new Apple clip art set with 40 apples...Go check it out! Click on my TPT link on the sidebar to see my clip art!

Five for Friday

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My First Five for Friday(though it's actually Saturday!)

This is my first Five for Friday by Doodlebugs Teaching!  I'm very excited to get my blog rolling and TPT products made!  Here are my Five for Friday/Saturday:

 

Our pool...fits us all pretty well...and if you look closely you can see rain drops.

First things first...we finally got our little pool ready for summer.  Ugh it's already about half way over, but at least it's better late than never!  Of course, my kids wanted to go in as soon as it was ready, and with our luck, that meant grey skies.  So, we went in for about 15-20 minutes before it got REALLY DARK and thundering.  Today, same thing, at least we got some nice pool time in!

Ok, this is the beginning of my Goodwill pile.  I was going to show my "bring back to school" pile...but honestly, too embarrassed to show the mess! LOL

I've been working all summer to clean out storage...with three kids...I can't believe how much we put away!  And of course the classic, "That's my favorite toy!" has been heard several times in the last few weeks.  Not to mention my school stuff that I had to bring home and school stuff that I bought.  I haven't gotten through my sorting of centers yet either! SO MUCH TO DO!

My new book along with my notebook for notes and ideas as I read it.

I had ordered The Daily 5 and The Cafe book (along with furniture for my daughters room) from Walmart.  Earlier this week I got them in the mail to read before school starts.  Unfortunately my new Cafe book came soaking wet and I had to return it to Walmart!  It was a pretty easy return, but bummed because that was the one I didn't read yet.  I have the first Daily 5 book and loved it!  

Have any of you read it too?  What did you find most helpful?

I had checked my school email today after one of my friends from school asked me about our summer trainings.  It came to me as a surprise but...I AM GOING TO BE SELF CONTAINED NEXT YEAR!!  If you are wondering why that would cause me excitement, I'll give you a short story:

• I taught K over 10 years ago for 3 years.
• Then I changed schools and was offered 3rd grade(did for 10 years with 2 years of 2nd somewhere in between).  I did enjoy teaching those kids more than I thought and miss that age group.
• Then I asked to be moved because I was getting burnt out and they gave me K again BUT our school went to being departmentalized for core subjects-except 3 of the ESE inclusion classes.  I taught ELA/Social Studies for 2 classes and my partner taught Math/Science.
• Now my partner and I are both going to be self-contained.  The other 4 k-teachers are still departmentalized.

I am SOO excited!  Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed working with my partner teacher and we got along very well.  But I sooo miss math and science!  I am VERY excited to teach all subjects and do more themes! 

And lastly...I've been trying my hand at clip art.  So far I only made a  couple products from PowerPoint.  Trying to get the hang of digital drawing...I usually draw freehand when I have time.  My daughter is interested in trying it too.  So, we'll learn together!  Right now I'm working in PowerPoint, I hope to practice in Photoshop and Illustrator soon.  I've use Photoshop for some picture editing before, but never Illustrator.  I am listing things on my ebay account to put towards a Wacom drawing tablet(1/3 of the way there YAY).  Can't wait!  Here's a sample of what I'm working on now.  I want to get a few products ready and list them up at the same time.  What do you think?  If you have suggestions for what I should make next, just let me know!

My first one, Butterflies.

Working on a Back to School one.

Follow my TPT store to see my clip art as I list them!

Like my Five for Friday?  Join in and read others too! Click on the link below to get started!

 

Have you read about The Daily 5 or The Cafe Book? Do you have any math advice for a first time K Math teacher? Let me know!

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July Top 10

I am joining up with The Third Grade Nest's monthly linky party!  I love the idea and am looking forward to each month's new topic!  This month the topic is:

Top 10 TV Shows {to watch while creating, grading, blogging and lesson planning}

{click link above to join}

 

I would have put Big Bang and Friends on all of them, but I thought people would want to see more variety.  Those are ALWAYS my first go to shows...especially during the weekdays when I do most of my work after the kids go to bed.  During the summer, I have more variety because I'm able to do my work here and there during the day.  Like some of the other linky participants, I "watch" mostly for background noise.  It's helpful to me to watch ones that I already saw and love, since I can stop at my favorite parts.  I also like to put on favorite movies for the same reason...usually romantic comedies!

So, those are my July top 10 shows while I work.

Do we have any common likes?  Suggestions for me to add to my watch list? 

Click Here to See More

 

Dare to Dream

Ok, getting caught up almost on the #tptsellerchallenge.  Week 2 was all about DREAMS...
I should be good at this because I have lots of things that I want to be able to do in the future.  Let's get started:

Extra Income:  It was only the last year and a half that I started on TPT as a buyer and then a seller.  I have lots of ideas but this past school year had just been a trying time both professionally and personally.  But I'm hopeful of the summer break and it's fresh start.  This past month has promised me a brighter future already!  

With my TPT store, along with academic products, I'd like to make clip art as well.  This is also something I would like to possibly do with my daughter since we both like to draw and are excited with joining Adobe Cloud.

Vacation: Honestly, the last time my family and I had a vacation away from home was 10 years ago when we went to Universal Studios for 3 days.  Lots happened the last 10 years, too much to even write down.  We are currently saving up for a nice few days of Disney World! It will be awesome from our usual stay-cations or a day trip here and there.

Meet New People:  I just started this blogging thing and I'm finding out I like it.  I tried to start one last summer, but found it a struggle to think of what I should blog about.  Everyone on the Facebook page is so helpful!  I love how I'm finding new TPT sellers, blogs, and Facebook pages to follow.  If anyone has any blogging tips, LET ME KNOW! LOL