2012-2013 Theme & Monthly Projects

Omiword... I cannot believe I still have some followers out there in the world! I honestly was completely blown away when I logged on and saw so many comments about coming back! I cannot say thank you enough!! Plus on top of it, I really thought I'd run into angry people on Teacher's Notebook, but I've gotten nothing but positive and supportive messages back. I definitely didn't expect that, so thanks to everyone that follows me and supports me on there!! :) As much as I loved Zebra last year, after about half of the year I wanted to vomit up zebra, so I'm given it a break this year.

I'm going to be in a brand new room, so that means organizing everything in a completely new way. I should have taken pictures of my new room before I left, just because I can't think in my head about how many bulletin boards, white boards, etc. that I have. I thought I'd share that I think I'm going to still go with black and white, with bright colors (green, pink, yellow, blue). I think it'll be calming to have a lot of basic black stuff, but then the bright colors will hopefully make things pop.

I think I was inspired by this:

It's the BW Collection by Creative Teaching Press. Honestly if you've never been on their website, you must go. Like now. Click that link up there, get to shopping!! I've been nothing but obsessed since before I was even done with college. They have so much stuff now. This is the newest collection and as soon as I saw the first picture of it I loved it! I think I can still keep a good majority of the things I have now, but I'll just get rid of some of the zebra stuff, plus I'll have to remake a lot of the stuff I've already made. I'm going to focus mostly on that polka dot pattern.... the one on the pennant border at the top in the middle. I love dots, and they don't get old!! :)

I had a request for some Chevron stuff, which I think is awesome, so I'll make sure I'm adding that into my sets as well as still making zebra and any other patterns/themes everyone likes!! If you have a suggestion or request be sure to let me know :)

I know I've posted some of these before, but I wanted to group them together so everyone could see them all in the same post. Each month(ish) I'd have the kids do a project to decorate the room. There's barely enough time for everything that goes on in our day, but I feel like kids still need to be kids and need to know about to be somewhat crafty. So we make time for these:

{december/january - 3d snowflakes}

{feb - 3d valentine balls}

{march - 3d st. patricks day shamrocks}

{april/may - 3d dragonflies}

Hopefully that inspires someone! Especially if you're not really motivated to decorate. It adds an awesome touch to the classroom and it's a great way for the kids to feel like they have decorated the classroom!!

Is Anyone Still Out There?

So as of Friday at 3:05 I was officially on Summer Break. I have no other goal for summer break, then to return to my love I have left, blogging. It was a rough start to 2012, but things are nothing short of amazing now. I finished up my first year in 3rd grade with 25 of what can only be described as the greatest class of all time. I'm all situated in my new little space I call home, I have some new wonderful people in my life, and summer's here, which means so is pool life. 

So thank you to everyone who is still out there in bloggy land following me. Thank you times a million to everyone who left a comment/thought. Words cannot express how much they all meant to me. Now, it's a new start, blogging all of my thoughts, ideas, everything from the past few months, and for my new classroom. (Not only new, as in new year and new kids, but I moved across the hallway into my first "normal" classroom - my first 2 years I was in a giant room, last year I was in a tiny room)

So my first intention is to log onto my Teacher's Notebook account, for I fear I have probably 75 unanswered messages. Not purposely, but because I needed to focus on my life before anything else. If you are out there angry and upset because I never got back to you, please forgive me and understand life happened, and I put my focus there, as I would hope any other person would do. My next intention is to removed to 200+ photos from my poor iPhone so I can clear up some space, and of course share with the world what has been happening in 3rd grade over the past 5 months. 

Thank you again if you're still following me, or hoping I would return someday. I am here, and cannot wait to spend my entire summer finding every new idea, creative craft, or fancy font! :) I hope ya'll will continue to stay and find and share new things with me!

<3 Christie

It's Been a Long Road...

I just have to say hello to all of my followers/supporters. I have been distinctly absent for a few weeks. We'll just say I've been going through some ubber personal stuff. I had to take a few minutes to thank everyone for being patient, especially all of my Teacher's Notebook shoppers/fans. I've had quite a few messages, which in all honestly, I have been putting aside. I hope everyone can understand. I hope to do some MAJOR catching up this upcoming weekend. So thank you all times a million for being patient and understanding!!

<3

Monday Madness

{pretty much sums mondays up. my official new slogan for mondays}

just a quickie post for everyone. i'm busy creating, making, distracting myself from any real jobs i should be completing. oh and i'm rewatching the voice again. i heart blake shelton to the max. not to take anything away from my love jason aldean though! anyway after changing around some stuff in my room, making a bunch of new stuff, i decided i don't like it, and i'm think i'm officially going back to black and red like i kind of was my first year. in the mean time... here's what i wasted a billion sheets of laminate on today and will not be using lol. they'll collect dust in my dad's basement!

{boggle version 2.0}

{bright colors and black - new posters}

{extended response for everyone!! clicky the picture!!}

♥ night lovelies ♥

He Brought it Upon Himself to Visit...

Strep Throat that is. Insert frustrated, exhausted teacher here. Thursday I was exhausted all day, but I made it through the day. Friday I woke up feeling a little horrible, but I thought it's Friday, I'll make it. Plus it's so exhausting to make sub plans and get things ready, especially for a Friday. By roughly 2:00ish I was near death. I made it through math games, then while my kiddos were at their specials for the day I really went downhill. I ran outta school as soon as the kids were gone, drove straight to Walgreens Quick Care. I was convinced I'd get a ticket because traffic wasn't going fast enough for me. I told the nurse to take a strep test, because at that point I was convinced. She looked at me funny. Like, how do you know. Well I'll tell you how I know... I work with 3rd graders! That's how I know. So now here am a few days later, extremely thankful it was strep. Which you may find weird, but I find a relief, because within hours of taking my first dose of antibiotics I was already feeling like a brand new woman! Hopefully I'll be just as thankful in 10 days when I'm done taking them.

In order to keep myself awake for that last 30 minutes, I did manage to take some pictures of things I wanted to share.

{insert the fact i'm kinda crazy here!}

{i'm testing our black backgrounds with colorful, plain borders to see if i like it for next year. i may also try the opposite. bright, plain color backgrounds with black borders. we shall see. this is my sloppy attempt to try the first option}

{maybe i'll like it more once i actually have the new posters on it!}

{we're studying fractions currently, and last week we did pronouns}

{definitely needs to be redone neater, but it definitely helped the kids out}

 

{this was mainly up to help with the spelling for the fractions. they were having trouble with twelfths. i was amazed that third graders still have trouble with the idea that it's the shaded part over the whole, not the shaded part over the not shaded part - i always thought this was a first grade thing!}

{i completely meant to take pictures of the kids pizzas but it completely slipped my mind and i sent them straight home! we did it step by step and goofy me made them glue the pepperonis on wrong, so they didn't look right when i hung them. for all the trouble they were having grasping the concept, they all did a wonderful job on the pizzas!}

{we finished the rocks part of our earth unit 2 weeks ago, and we just finished the earth's layers part of the unit. so we made our books to help us remember about each layer. apparently it was taking forever for us to messily color them and only a few of my kiddos finished. here's one of the samples.

 {all the layers, and the earth is the cover/back page}

 {we are officially in ISAT mode. so every week we're doing reading and math extended responses. my kids are still struggling with them. but i think we may be making some progress. at least i'll keep telling myself that. here's the last one we did using an article about how our bodies keep us warm}

{it's a work in progress}

{i have to give a MAJOR shoutout to A Cupcake for the Teacher! in my delirious state on friday i forgot all the parts to my big football project at home. i was in desperate need of something easy and cute for my kiddos. the majority of my class is obsessed with football, as am i. they had a project to complete this weekend, so we needed something to go along with our fraction lesson as school. we made these and then used them for our math. but seriously... the project was $1 and came with everything i needed. my kiddos did fabulous. so a HUGE thank you coming from the desperate, sick teacher i was on friday! i highly recommend going on her TN or TPT and buying it. you can always use it next year!}

So that's it for now. I'm still trying to breath normally with all of my congestion! I'm not 100% yet, and I'm sure after all the junk food I'll be eating in a few hours I won't be any better tomorrow! Any opinions on the black? I had a few people say no way! I'm loving it though! Maybe some black, some colored? Maybe back to polka dots?

Valentine Globes, Pronouns, Fractions

As mentioned in my previous post, I'm a huge fan of change. I constantly need to be moving things around at home and at school. I've always been this way. My poor Dad used to go crazy because I would move my furniture ALL the time! So we just finished lots of units and we're moving onto new things so I'm totally excited. I'm also half changing some of my room in order to prepare (hopefully) for next year. I'm going all black with bright colors, look at the way I designed my blog and you'll see how my room will be! I'm beyond excited about it! I figured I'll try a few things this year, and then if it works I'll do it next year.

In the mean time we decided we needed to make our room more festive. We still had the snowflakes hanging all over the room. I wanted to make huge Valentine's fortune cookies, but it just wasn't happening. So instead we created these:

So now our former winter wonderland, looks like this:

Now I honestly wish they were much bigger. Here's the problem. My teammate and I made these, so between the 2 of us we needed 800 circles. 200 of each color. So that's a lot of circles. The project is already difficult enough without having to worry about kiddos cutting decent circles. We have an Ellison Die Cut at school. One of our dies is a circle. My teammates TA cut out all the circles (major props to her!). I attempted to cut one globe worth on my little circle cutter, but that took long enough. So basically in order to be the most efficient we had to deal with the size we had. I still needed more patience than was available for this project. They worked though and it gives it a bit of Valentine's flair!!

We started our Pronouns unit. I would have thought pronouns would have been easy peasy for the kiddos! WRONG! They couldn't get the idea that pronouns weren't just replacing nouns with other nouns. Example:

Me: I ate a hot dog at the baseball game. What word can we say instead of hot dog?
Them: A hamburger!
Them: Pizza!
Them: Popcorn!
Me: (in my head) Oh my goodness, I wasn't thinking it was going to go like this!

We'll see how pronoun pizza's go tomorrow! I'll be sure to post pictures of our yummy pizzas once we're finished! Anyone ever have one of those days when you're thinking... oh no... one of those days? Yea that was today!

We also just started on fractions today. I'm so excited for this, because I love fractions! We drew some today using grid paper. That was another OMG moment! I have to say though, my favorite math unit is fractions. I always either do fraction sundaes or fraction gumball machines. I'm beyond excited to spice it up a bit with 3rd graders instead of firsties.

I'm also thinking of doing something Super Bowl related with fractions this Friday. We shall see. The kiddos loved this ordered pair project I gave them to do when they finished their work last week, so maybe I'll do the same kind of thing!

Has anyone done literature circles? I'm just bored with Guided Reading. I desperately need to spice it up! I think it's the fact that it's 3rd graders! Firsties are exciting, they're learning how to read. Third graders know how to read... I dunno maybe it's just a phase!

By the way, I HAVE to share about 2 assembly type things. For the past 3 years (and I think longer) my school has had a company called Historical Perspectives come to our school. They got Harriet Tubman this year. She came and pretended like she was Harriet Tubman. I loved it! We had Helen Keller last year, and someone the year before. I know they're in the Chicago area, but I don't know about anywhere else. If you're ever looking for a good historical assembly look them up, they were great.

I also am like beyond excited! When I taught first we studied Space. Well we have some colleges near by that have planetariums, but we could never get in. Or we had too many kids to go on one day, then it got expensive! We have the Adler Planetarium downtown Chicago, but that's expensive and in Chicago traffic (insert shuddering here) it would never work! So I somehow found a company with a dome that they set up at your school! They worked with me last year to set it all up within like a week. It was all such short notice. So we're doing it again this year. I planned it so 3rd and 1st get to see it. It's one of the coolest things! The best part is we don't have to worry about paying/dealing with busses! If you study Space I highly recommend it! :)

I've Been Tagged!!

So apparently people were tagging others like crazy last week? Or this week? I'm not really sure. I feel as though it's my duty to play along though! I feel like a horrible person. I'm usually so neglectful of things like this. I always forget to post about awards and such. I promise I'm not rude. It just usually is the last thing on my mind when I'm on here. So anywhoo because of the ladies over at chickadee jubilee, chocoholic teacher, and live, laugh, & love to learn I must post. Here's the deal:

{the rules}
1 {post the rules}
2 {post 12 things about yourself}
3 {answer the 12 questions sent from the person that tagged you. then create 12 new questions for the people you tag}

4 {tag 12 people and link them to your post}

5 {let them know you tagged them.}

{all about me}

1 {i have an addiction to crime shows. if you were to look at my dvr, nook, etc. you would probably worry about me. if someone told me i had to give up teaching and find another job i'd be all over applying for the FBI. no joke}

2 {i basically cannot function without dunkin donuts. if you aren't familiar with dunkin donuts please make yourself familiar with one. take a road trip. find one.}

3 {i have been dating the boy for 4 years. we moved in after knowing each other only a few months. totally. not. me. i would scream at anyone that told me they were going to do it. he's a country boy. i'm a city girl. it works.}

4 {i'm ashamed to discuss this. but here it goes. i grew up a white sox fan. when i met T he guaranteed he'd make me a cubs fan. a few trips to wrigley and i was in. love. ps if you're not from chicago you'll never understand why this is such a big deal}

5 {i got my first job 2 weeks into the school year right out of college. talk about throwing you into the fire. i had like 2 days to collect enough stuff for a classrom. 1 day to decorate. and 1 day to mentally prepare myself for 30 first graders. oh i shudder just thinking about it.}

6 {i am insane about my handwriting. i used to rewrite my notes a million times in college. typing started to save some time, but i still am extremely uncomfortable about it.}

7 {my dog is my child. you post pics of your kids. i post pics of my pupperoni. i love him more than words}

8 {i constantly need to change things. its shocking that my room has been the same for a few months. i'm already starting to change for next year. if i could i'd change my theme every month and move everything every other week!}

9 {i sent my best friend flowers today on her lunch because she had an awful day. it made me feel better about my day. try it sometime. i promise it'll make you feel better.}

10 {i probably seem like the quietest, most anti social person at lunch. i never talk. i've always been like that. i just can't stand discussing diets. or the bachelor. or kids. or really anything unless it's sports. and maybe jersey shore/teen mom. but keep that one on the dl}

11 {i wear yoga pants everywhere. it's perfectly acceptable. shhh... i've even worn them with heels and flats some days. don't let anyone know that though. try it, it's weird, but then you realize it's awesome.}

12 {i could live off mexican food. tacos. enchiladas. salsa. cheese. yum. actually i could live off cheese.}

{answers to questions} 

i picked 12 of the ones that best applied to me from tags.

1 {what subject do you like to teach the most} most days i'll say math. unless it's something insane that even i don't understand. i just like being able to have so many choices on what i can do for subjects.}

2 {what one thing would you buy for your class if money weren't an issue} a smartboard, like 5 computers, and 5 ipads. my school doesn't have any computers in the classrooms for the kids! ugh! we also don't have smartboards. or any technology for that matter. its actually shocking for other people considering where i teach
3 {how did you come up with the name for your blog} wellllll.... i teach. in flip flops. all. the. time.
4 {if you could choose any grade to teach, which would you choose? why} that's actually really hard. when i was in college i used to say nothing below 2nd. but i loved 1st. when i did 1st i thought no way i'd do 3rd. now i love 3rd! so who knows!

5 {what is your favorite drink} sweet tea. anyone live in the south have room for me?

6 {what is one piece of advice you have for a new teacher} love. your. job. let your room and those 25 (15, 30, 23, however many) become your haven from everything else. if there's one thing i know. the worse thing i can possibly do when i'm having a rough day/time is to take time away from my kids/classroom. when i'm there i forget about anything bad/crazy that's happening in real life.

7 {what is your favorite type of music} country. hands down. jason aldean. carrie. eric church. loves!

8 {what are some of your hobbies} sports... watching them, playing them, watching T play them. love them. running. it hates me. i love it. sleeping. no joke it's a hobby. i don't have many hobbies.

9 {what is something you do to stay organized in terms of grading/lesson planning/copies for school/etc.}i have my draws that keep things sorted, plus i have the file box thingys for each day of the week. i use a lesson plan that's kind of a 4 square, but that'll change in a week i'm sure. my team does most of the copying because they have assistants. otherwise i'm usually a month ahead in my copying

10 {what is your favorite snack} this is tough. right now i'd have to say these nature's valley peanut butter crunch bars. love. them. other day i'd tell you turtle chocolate chip cookies. or kit kats!

11 {what is your least favorite thing about teaching} its just so frustrating to hear what people think of teachers. i really had a man at the dollar store ask me why i was in there because "teachers get paid too much to shop there!" it's also frustrating when parents don't communicate with you. it's like going to going straight to the ceo of starbucks because they gave me the wrong size. how about just asking the baristas?

12 {what are your favorite shoes, for school} flip flops!!

{12 tags}
third grade bookworm
ms. m's blog
4th grade frolics
the silver lining
ashleigh's education journey
booky4first
3rd grade's a hoot
miss third grade
second grade sweeties
sister teachers
the science diva
sweet life of third grade

<3 christie