faulker034

Ok. I am a little shocked. I have been working on creating name tags, labels, etc. for my class. This past year I have learned to do a lot on the computer I NEVER thought I would be able to do.  In fact, the other day my 18 year old daughter said, "Um, I can't believe you know how to do more on the computer than I do now!"  What a compliment, since she has been my go to person for tech help since she was like 8!  Anyway, as I was creating I was thinking about all the colored ink I was going to be using up and I was pretty concerned about how it would look since my printer is not exactly high-tech.  I decided to check into color prints at Office Max. I called and talked to someone and decided I would use their online feature to upload my document and have it printed.  I started small- I definitely did not want to print pages and pages only to decide I didn't like it and be stuck spending the money for something I wouldn't use. The upload process was easy and I rece

Thrilled to be participating in my first Book Talk Tuesday Linky sponsored by Mrs. Jump's Class .  One of my very favorite authors is Lisa Campbell Ernst! Several of her books could compete for the title of "My Favorite Children's Picture Book". She writes great stories that are funny, sweet, full of adventure, and her illustrations are so engaging.  I ALWAYS read Duke the Dairy Delight Dog to my students sometime during the first part of the year. Then I make sure I have a basket of more Lisa Campbell Ernst books checked out because they always want to read more! Last year I chose to use this book during our Reader's Workshop character unit. I used this book as my mentor text to accompany a really cute character project my students complete. After reading the book, we discuss the character "Darla", her personality traits, how she changes during the course of the story, the motivation for her actions, etc. Then I use "Darla" to create my exam

It's Friday! Only three free Fridays left before I am back to school. Not too much on the agenda for today, but next Friday... something exciting is happening. Read on to find out!  Also, a big thanks to Doodle Bugs Teaching for hosting this fun linky party.  So here we go! I spent three days in my classroom this week getting ready for the upcoming year. I LOOOVE getting my room ready. I have been debating going to a more uniform look for my bulletin boards forever, but I finally did it. I went with blue material and found a really cute border that I put around the outside of every board, and then I used different red and blue borders to layer inside. I think the finished product looks good... now I just need to put something on them!                                                              My husband and I are about to be empty nesters! CRAZY! Our youngest sweetie pie is headed off to college in about 4 weeks. We are so excited and proud of her- she is a great student and is

 So I have been in my classroom preparing for back to school. I go back the first week in August and the kids start on August 12th. I like to have things ready, and we are heading to California between now and then for a softball tournament, so my summer is wrapping up quickly. Not much time left for all that I have to get done!!!! Our school theme this year is "Climbing the Learning Tree", so I wanted to create a tree in my classroom. I have a large back wall that I am able to staple into, so it was the perfect place to "grow" a tree.  Here is the finished product... I had to purchase the brown roll paper, we were out of that color in my building. We did have green left, so I just tore off a piece and folded it up so when I cut the leaves I could cut several at a time.  *A note about the brown roll paper- I found some at Hobby Lobby and got all the way to the register when I realized that it was brown on one side and white on the other. I crumpled and twisted the p

It's time to start getting things ready for back to school! I enjoy so much the planning and preparing for a new school year. My next several blog posts will be centered around preparing for  my  new class. So... birthday gifts/recognition for my students-  this is one area I used to be TERRIBLE at!  I was never consistent and sometimes would run out of bookmarks or whatever I was giving out that year.  Several years ago my teaching partners and I began making "birthday bags". We get them assembled during the summer and they are ready to go for the year. I always try to make about 4 or 5 extra to be ready for any new students.  You could really put anything in them that you would like, but here's what we do... Free homework coupon- the kids LOVE this one! Candy (we normally do not give out candy- except in their birthday bags, you could replace this with something healthy if you prefer)! Straw- this is for the bottle of flavored water they get on their birthday. Some