Hello Yellow and a Freebie!

I was honored to be asked to review Classroom Friendly Sharpener's newest sharpener, Hello Yellow! This review is totally my own and completely and totally honest. I have to say that though I was given this sharpener free I have bought many of these sharpeners for gifts as well as for my own home use. They are quiet, practically indestructible and the most reliable pencil sharpener I have ever owned. They are a bit bulky to carry in a purse, but I have managed to do it on occasion. Did I tell you I LOVE pencils and they must have a nice sharp point? Just thought I'd throw that out there! Now on to the review... 

There is nothing more exciting to me than getting deliveries! When my name shows up on a package I feel downright giddy! When my sharpener arrived days after I was told it had been shipped I could hardly wait to tear it open.

Your pencil sharpener arrives well packaged!
(I hope it's okay that Firstie Science is in the background! I'm loving this growing bundle from Tara West. It has made science fun again!)

If you have a chance to dash over to my Instagram page you'll be able to see a VERY short video of one of the cutest ever smiles as the first pencil gets sharpened. This is the one thing I have against these sharpeners...They fascinate my Owlets. They would rather sharpen pencils then use them to write sentences about what they like or what they can do! I have actually caught kiddos breaking pencils so that they can have the joy of sharpening them.

In the picture above you can see how quickly and easily a child of six can learn to operate the sharpener. Look at the beautiful lemon yellow of this sharpener. I thought I loved my blue one until I got a pink one but this yellow is my favorite and it sharpens just as well as the other two! I keep one fastened down to my work table and this one will be able to float to where it needs to...sometimes my purse!

An added benefit of this sharpener is the way kids have found to work as a team. Look at the teamwork above as these friends help each other get ready for some serious writing. The sharpener is easily attached to the table and quickly removed as well. I eventually had to put it away for the day because they just kept lining up to sharpen their pencils.

I have had many an electric sharpener in the classroom and at home, but none have lasted as long as my Classroom Friendly Quiet Pencil Sharpener.   These sharpeners make great gifts for students going off to college too! Stop thinking about getting one of these sharpeners. Just do it! You won't be disappointed! If you have any questions please ask away!!

Thanks for stopping by! Here is a graphing freebie for all K-1 grade teachers! Use a nice sharp pencil to complete the activities. Click on the picture to grab a copy!

The Trifecta!

I cannot believe it has been over a month since I last posted anything. It seems to me that since I have gotten my Ipad and gotten sucked into games like Trivia Crack, I've been far less productive in most areas of my life. Enough said...I'm back and ready to share some thoughts. I'm going for the trifecta today. (Trifecta: a run of three wins or grand events)

The first grand event will contain the second which will contain the third. It is like opening a gift, to open a gift to open a gift! It is your lucky day!
First link is one of my all time favorites...


It may be tricky to come up with five because I've been spending most of the last two weeks in my pajamas eating cookies for breakfast. Enough said...That is my number one. Cookies make a wonderful breakfast because they beg to have milk with them, so this way I did get a serving of calcium. Right? RIGHT?

Remember how I said I had a present inside a present? Well here it is the second grand event. I'm linking up with Farley, too! It is time for Currently...

It isn't too late for you to link up! I'm linker 266. Maybe by the time I'm done it will be 267, but that's okay. It's a great party.

Kitty is sitting on the table  my purse watching me right now. I've trained her not to get on the table.

I'm not a big one on making resolutions. I do (here comes the tri- of fecta!) like contemplating one word for the year.  I can do that. I can just think of one little word. Link number three come on in......

My one word: Listen

I realize I spend a lot of time talking. I finish sentences for my family. I tell God what I want Him to do in my life. I quite often feel like I've got all the answers...I'm the teacher after all. I realize I have a lot to learn. I want to listen to God's Word and soak it in like never before. I want to listen to my husband and children with not just my ears, but also my heart. I want to listen to my students and better understand their needs as learners. 

I spent hours re-doing one of my favorite TPT projects. I think it is better than ever. I think I spent more time fixing it than creating it in the first place. If you think you could use it just click on the picture below to get it on google docs. If you would like to buy it, I'm cool with that. You can. Just click here to go ahead and put it in your cart!

Happy 2015! May your year be filled with amazing people. It is who you are with that makes the journey worth travelling! 

Made it Monday: Freebie!

I don't know about you, but I think making it through Monday is a fete in and of itself. Mondays in a classroom full of young people with nothing else on their minds but Halloween is crazy. If you can't beat them...and you do KNOW I mean that completely figuratively...join them!

We took a walk today to a local favorite bakery. We looked for signs of Halloween on our way. However, the sole purpose of our trip was to celebrate my birthday! No one knows how to celebrate birthdays like first and second graders! We had a great time and once we had counted thirty one pumpkins and four spiders we quit counting and played "I Spy Adjectives" for a while! Do you know how long it takes to herd a class of 1st and 2nd graders four city blocks? I didn't time it, but we almost didn't make it back in time for the dismissal bell! I was a little worried we'd be spending the night on my pull out couch together!

It was a beautiful day in West Michigan. We won't have too many more days warm enough for walks like this. The best part of our walk is crunching through the leaves of our woods.

So I really did make something to show you. I am so thankful for so many of you! Today I'm especially thankful for Barbara at Grade Onederful. She shared some cupcake liner owls on her Facebook page that I had to make. I'll make them with my class on Friday, but I couldn't wait that long! 

I was able to find many different varieties of liners at Joann's on Saturday all clearance priced.

I just used cardstock for the beak and talons. Fold and glue the wings to the middle. Fold down and glue the top. Add some wiggle eyes and glue on the beak and talons. I'm going to use my owls for some homemade Halloween cards.

Need an emergent reader and game to help you through the week? Click HERE for a fun FREEBIE! I'd love some feedback if you have the time. 

My donut of choice? Top left...Maple bacon! Donut worry, be happy!

The Together Teacher: Chapter 4 Never Forget! Capture Your Thoughts

Today I am hosting the Together Teacher book study. If you have missed the first four chapters you can easily catch up and join the party! Chapter one Rules Over Tools  was all about creating our ideal week and showing us how the right tools can help us reach those ideals. Chapter two: No More Missed Deadlines gave reasons and tips for how to make a comprehensive calendar. (I've now done that and I can't tell you how freeing it is!!) Chapter three: Coral the To-Dos gave me tools to actually write my to-dos down and keep them organized according to when I plan on doing them. I like having everything in one place. I just have to get in the habit of carrying my system with me!

Now it is my turn! Chapter four: Capture Your Thoughts
I get some wild and crazy thoughts some times. Some of them are actually pretty good, but get lost in the lint cluttering my brain. You know what I'm talking about...ideas for a blog post, ideas to bounce off another teacher, ideas for a new craft project, ideas, ideas ideas...There are many ways to catch your thoughts, but I'll show you what I'm going to try.

I can quickly write who the thought is directed towards and even go back and add more!

Now I can easily write down my musings on the run. Later I can sit down and look over my ideas and decide which ones need to be scratched and which ones need to be added to my To-Dos or put into an e-mail to a colleague for discussion. There are many ways that you may want to organize your own thought catchers. These are the tricks Maia has for making your Thought Catchers work:

1. They must not be time sensitive.

2. They must have a trigger.

3. You should choose Thought Catchers over e-mail.

4. Take advantage of extra minutes in each day. 

You can take as much time as you need later to develop your thoughts. Thought Catchers are for catching thoughts in the midst of our busy days. It captures the thought for later reflection and careful attention.

So often during the day I have these great or crazy thoughts. I either forget them or send out an e-mail to share my latest inspiration. Sometimes I jump into things without having given my idea some thoughtful consideration. Sometimes that gets me in trouble. Thought Catchers are helping me to slow down and think about my ideas carefully before jumping into an empty swimming pool head first!

It wasn't until after I started making these elephants that I realized that the chapter I signed up to host was called "Never Forget"! I'm making these elephants for each of my students to help them remember to read. I've penned an acrostic poem to go along with each of the elephants that will be part of our first day of school. Would you like your own never forget to read elephant? Maybe you'd rather have an Amazon giftcard? Be sure to enter for a chance for one of these awesome prizes below! Everyone gets a set of the binder cover/mini-posters I designed by clicking on the picture below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

An InLinkz Link-up

Something Old Something New Something Free Just For YOU!

My daughter recently became engaged to a wonderful southern gentleman. My own groom of 25 years and I are so excited for them. They've got me thinking about something old, something new, something  borrowed and something blue. As I reflect over the past year I can think of something from my classroom that fits into each category.

Alright the only things older than me in the classroom are these fossils! My students
loved uncovering bones and finding out which dinosaur they belonged to. I ordered small dinosaur dig kits from
Oriental Trading Company. They lived up to their description! 

I just made these bookmarks for students to keep track of their summer reading.
They're FREE for a limited time on Teacher Pay Teacher. You can always get them FREE
HERE!

No Oreos were left uneaten at the end of this moon activity. The evening we worked
on this I went to a couple of students baseball games and we were able
to identify the moon's phase thanks to this activity I borrowed from Hilary Lewis.
After eating the oreo we used chalk to make a more permanent resource for home!

Our school bluebirds were back this year. In fact, there were two nesting pairs around
the playground. They fledged on the last day of school! I loved recess duty during the time
the mom and dad were coming and going feeding their young. I opened the box to check the chicks a couple
of times. I counted five little bluebirds! They'll nest again in this box  this summer.

Testing, Testing, Testing...(Mini-Freebie!)

Ah the joys of testing! Achievement testing is actually one of my favorite times of the year. I love walking around the room noticing how smart my Owlets are. I get so excited when they get to answer questions that cover something that we recently worked on in class and see that light bulb of "I know this one" light up. I do have a couple of students who don't like testing at all and get pretty stressed out about it, so I try to make the moments in between testing as fun and stress-free as possible.

Because I teach a first/second split I have to vary who is being tested and who is being absolutely quiet. As you may know I'm in my second week of raising chicks. Four have found their permanent home. I made up a quick coloring page for my students to use when they weren't testing. I gave them no directions. I casually laid them on the table for students to use if they wanted. Every second grader picked one up and came up with some pretty amazing ideas. A couple wrote a narrative on how to hatch and take care of chickens. The rest wrote stories about their chicks. I must admit this is my favorite...

Guess what book this second grader just finished?! 

I could have told students to turn the chicken into their favorite book character, but what makes this chicken even better is that the kid came up with this idea on his own. "I wanted to make the robe scarlett," reports class famous reader, "but you said I couldn't get out of my seat during testing. I just used the tools I had available." I think this chicken is bound to catch the Golden Snitch and win the tournament for Chickendor!

Wanna see something really cute? I must first make this disclaimer...No animals were hurt during this photo shoot. My daughter wanted to introduce her cat to my chicks. On Sunday when I was in my classroom working, my daughter shows up at the door with the cat...

What caption would you add to these pictures?

Click HERE to get a copy of your own chicken to disguise!

So This is Love!

I do love this song...

And I do love that the lyrics are right there when I show this to my class! It is so important when building fluency to add song and poetry. Sometimes we even sing our fluency passages!

I do love this valentine that I got from a student...

this is a grat hornd owl. you are a grat teachr

This kid knows what I love! He only thought of himself a little itty bit when he added "go Green" for his favorite team in the corner! He and 11 others show me love every single day! I try to show love to them, too. What they don't know is that I feel pretty inadequate some days to  respond to the love they pour out on me. Their love is so unconditional and sweet. The hugs, pictures, and smiles warm my heart and keep it warm through each weekend and vacation. It is pretty hard to call what we do as teachers that four letter word..."work"!

I have tried to figure out the love language of each of my children. Most of them are pretty easy to decipher. The kid who is always plastered to my side...Physical Touch is his language. The kid who always wonders if he can keep a fun new manipulative...Receiving Gifts. The kid who wants to eat lunch with me every day...Quality Time. The little girl who wants to clean my desk...Acts of Service. "Do you like my picture?"...Words of Affirmation. I've got all five languages going on in my room! If you have never heard of these languages and want to know more start HERE! I'm just waiting for them to come out with Five Love Languages for the Classroom! Until they do I reference this book for classroom and home...

I know your celebration of Valentine's Day is over for 2014. I'm just putting this out there for people who believe in celebrating love everyday or for your future celebrations of love!

Click on picture to go to freebie!

So what is love? "10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

13 This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

1 John 4:10-16

Would you like to get an awesome song stuck in your head? This one has been dancing through my mind and coming out of my mouth for almost a week now. I've caught my students singing to it too...

Currently and a Freebie

I am feeling so thankful to realize that today is NOT Friday. Most of the day I've been walking around under the assumption that it is Friday, but it is only THURSDAY!! It is like getting an extra day of vacation. Which means I have time to link-up with Farley and share what I'm doing CURRENTLY!

If you do not like hearing people talk incessantly about their pets, you may want to quit following me. I used to be so annoyed by people who would talk about their pets as if they were actually members of their family. I now understand. My kitty Chessie is a member of my family. I never thought having a pet would be so much fun. I was getting a cat to appease my daughter. I am totally smitten with my kitten! I love listening to her purr.

Chessie and I spend many hours together on this couch!

I'm loving this vacation. It has been so relaxing. Because of the new family addition, we put out very few decorations. We kept it to the things that matter...Two nativity sets and a tree. I've gotten to spend wonderful times baking, playing games, shopping and just hanging out with my kids.

All this relaxing has gotten me thinking about retiring, but not seriously! I don't think I'd do a very good job as a retiree. I don't get much accomplished when I don't have a set routine or schedule. Several weeks ago, a kindergartner came to me in tears to tell me that her sister had told her that I was retiring next year. It was so hard to keep a straight face. She'll be one of my first graders next year and her sister was trying really hard to get her sister really upset. What a funny idea that me retiring was the worst thing she could tell her sister. I'm happy to say I'll be teaching for many years to come. 

I'm really wanting to visit my daughter in St. Louis. I moved to Michigan from St. Louis 26 years ago and can't wait to visit her there in the spring. 

I have not committed to a resolution yet. I've had lots of ideas swimming through my brain. I need to be more active. I need to eat healthier foods. I need to spend more time in prayer and reading the Bible. I'll wait until Monday and make my resolution with my owlets with this FREEBIE you can grab too!

We had a full house New Year's Eve celebrating the old and new. Games, food and laughter filled our home. We are blessed with many wonderful friends. Who wouldn't want to have bagpipes played at their house at midnight?!

Wednesday WOW!! FREEBIE!

I hope you will say wow to what I'm about to offer you! I was going to give this to ten lucky followers, but I just couldn't wait that long. Plus you can't either!! You must use this code before October 26th! When you do you'll get this download FREE. I can't tell you how much I use and love MyMemories software. There may be other scrapbooking packages out there, but this is the only one I've used and I can't imagine using another. Every time I use it I think I learn something else WOW about it. Normally this is a $39.97 software package. Today it is FREE! Even if you don't have time to play with it tonight download NOW and play all weekend. Be sure to tell your friends and their friends and their friends to come over here and get this code. Here is all you need to know:
Go to MyMemories.com and click on the software link. Add the software to the cart and use the code in the promo code field.
 FreeTreatAL60

Just copy and paste it since it has to look exactly like that.  Also, make sure you enter that code in the promo code field before checking out. Voila! You can now say, "WOW"

It becomes active on October 20th and will expire on October 26th.

Then you can start doing this...

If you haven't entered my GiveAway for some other great products get moving it ends soon!!

Click HERE!

Then go check out some other Wednesday Wowness over at Curious Firsties!