SALE! SALE! SALE!

Visit my TPT Store  on Monday and Tuesday to see what I have for sale!

From Caterpillar to Butterfly...

I am totally obsessed with these critters and so are my Littles!  We were able to see the entire life cycle of a butterfly!  I found some Milkweed growing close to my house and I discovered 3 eggs!

I will post pictures of the eggs, larva, caterpillar, pupa and butterfly soon!  They are on my phone and it is pretty dead right now!

These are pictures of my Littles looking at the eggs and one hatched so we saw the larva too!!

During this unit I used materials from:

Ladybug in Kindergarten - http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Butterfly-Fun-Science-Math-and-Literacy-650082

Susan Moran - http://thankgoditsfirstgrade.blogspot.com

Kelly Everoski - http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Covered-In-Glitter-And-Glue

Teacher Week '13: Let's Talk About ME Monday...

 

I teach first grade in Illinois - right off of the Mississppi River. I have 19 students this year...shhh!  This is the least amount of students EVER!  This is my 9th year building young minds! I have taught first grade, second grade, and fifth grade.

 

I have been married for 17 years!  My husband and I started dating 20 years ago this summer!  We have 2 amazing children.  Chase is going to be a junior and Emily will be a sophomore - yes...in high school!

 

I am a sales Advisor for lia sophia jewelry!  I love their jewelry and hope to gain more clients! It is so much fun to visit with the girls!  If you have never heard of lia sophia, I would be happy to introduce it to you!

I am a soccer FREAK!  FC Barcelona is my FaVoRiTe team!! Other than where my children play! ;) Both of my children play in high school - my daughter goes to a private high school because my husband coaches there ;)

I LOVE Vampire Diaries, Game of Thrones, and have just started to watch True Blood!  I am a fan of the Bachelor/Bachelorette AND {heart} The Voice! Adam Lavine...that is all!

 

I am watching soccer right now!  FREAK!  A game I DVRd this last week!

I love to read! JR Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood is my favorite series - very racy; but I love them! I also loved Harry Potter and Hunger Games.  I am also a fan of Christian Grey...shh...I feel like I should whisper this.

 

On long road trips, we make up words to our favorite songs. Usually about McDonald's French Fries - yum they are so good, especially with ice cream!

Today I found a milkweed plant with an egg on it's leaf.  We are studying butterflies in room 9 now. :)  It hatched tonight! This is a new adventure for me and my students!

 

 Finally, I stay up way to late and wake up very early!  I love sitting in my classroom when the kids are gone and reflecting about the day and I love when the pencils are all sharpened!

 

That is all...

Happy Teaching,

Jessica

My First Week Back...EXHAUSTED!

School has officially started! It was a busy week!  Getting to know the students and teaching them rules and routines.  I am so very lucky to have 19 wonderful new Littles! I KNOW only 19 - I will not say that too loud. 

My week began with some sad news! I want to take this moment to remember my grandmother, Wilma Clements. She was an amazing woman.  She was one of the strongest ladies I know! 27 years ago this awesome lady saved my mom and sisters. She was the grandmother of my heart and the happiest memories from my childhood are with her in them! I will miss her very much, but I know she will always watch over me and keep me strong!

I am busy putting together Leadership Binder information for the team to preview. Check back on Monday...I have decided to join a Link Party...

Happy Teaching,
Jessica

Classroom Photos Part 2

 Here are my lockers...I purchased this cutie-pie branch at K-Mart for $10 - it came with a bunch of owls; but I really only wanted the branch.  I gave the rest of the owls to our librarian - she will put them to good use. I use sheet protectors taped to the lockers to display student work! The cute birds are clip art I got from JW Illustrations, printed on cardstock and hard laminated them.  I use Name Labels for their lockers and at the end of the year, we use them to put on their take home bags.

 Here are the many faces of my door. On the outside, I have the 7 habits listed with a tree.  Students get to give Leader Leaves to each other when they show leadership and the leaf gets put onto the tree. At the end of the year, our tree will be full of leaves!  The inside had my Star of the Week - I downloaded a package for FREE from Susan Moran on TPT and the framed page came with it!  I laminated it, took the glass out of the frame, 3M'd the back and presto!  It doorway is framed by a curtain I purchased at Lowe's for $7. I know...it is super cute! I Gorilla Glue-d the curtain rod to the wall...which is conrete and will sand right off! My mentor and friend gave me this idea - the curtain will be a backdrop to photos of students - genius!

 I {heart} sharp pencils! That is all!! I got the cute buckets from the Target $ spot!

More photos to come as the year progresses!  If you like my blog, follow me on Bloglovin! My button is at the left of this page. :)

Happy Teaching,

Jessica

"ALL-DAY-er"

Teachers had to report to school on Thursday, Aug.1.  Not so bad!  We got to work in our rooms to get ready for the year...I was planning on getting all of my copies sorted (I sent my masters downtown to be copied for the first month of school - two weeks ago!). They still had not arrived.  I called and left a message with the gal who does all the copying. I found out yesterday morning that the delivery guy was off for the last few days...so after our District Meeting in the morning, I went to pick them up myself! So glad I did!! Upon returning to school, I sat in a meeting for Empowerment (our school is in year two of The Leader In Me) until about 4PM. I decided to get my copies organized...I forgot how much work this really is! Here is what my classroom looked like after I took everything out of the box...YIKES!

 

With students coming on MONDAY! I couldn't leave this! Luckily, there were some AWESOME teachers that were planning an ALL-NIGHTER to get things ready. I decided to stay two more hours...yeah right! As all of you know, when copies come some things need to be stapled, 3-hole punched, laminated for sturdiness, cut into books, folded, put into binders etc.  My husband offered to come and help, but I said "You don't need to, it will only take me about an hour." Love him...the hour turned into 5!  I had forgotten how much time this takes! I wish I would have had him come out.  Plus, the school's laminating machine takes FOREVER to heat up.  I dropped my small cutting board and broke it...grr. So happy to sit in my partner teacher's room and use hers.

Today I am going to RELAX and spend time with the Family! Happy Teaching,

Jessica

EEEPP!!

I can't contain my excitement! My class list was put in my mailbox yesterday!!  You all know how I feel! I get to put names on my Roster, labels and name tags! Squeee!

I am cooped up in a hotel room in West DesMoines, IA - my hubby has meetings here and he needed to drive back and forth from home to have soccer camp (2.5 hrs one way - ick).  Being the nice wife I am, I offered to drive with him so he can rest on the way to camp. I am sitting here contemplating whether to venture out to look for food! StArViNg!

I have a question for you...let me know what you think. My school has a Facebook Group page managed by PTA. They have put class assignments up by gr. level and teacher - cool-ish - but students are listed first middle last names. I am a little uncomfortable with this. What are your feelings?

Littles will be here on MONDAY!!

Happy Teaching,
Jessica

My Week in Pictures...

One week to go! We report to school on August 1. EEP! So excited, but nervous at the same time! I spent the week spending time with my rugrats and doing school work.


On Monday, my BFF from school had a teacher slumber party to watch Bachelorette, movies and do school work; of course I brought my .  We didn't go to sleep until 3:30 AM (we woke up at 8 ish). So tired for at least 2 days! This is the only photo that came out...apparently, I had something on my phone camera lens - grrrr!!

 

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A colleague's grandmother passed and we went to the visitation on Tuesday.  Then we headed to school do get some work done!  Well, I keep making more work for myself and made a mess of my kidney table. FORGOT TO TAKE A PICTURE!  After dropping Emily off at soccer, I sat in my car and made up some job cards - I posted them on my TPT Store HERE.  I found the "cutie pie" clip art and also made literacy station tags!! Here is what it looks like...

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On Wednesday, I relaxed all day! The kids hung out with friends, so I got caught up on True Blood, Season 4 - yes I am behind.  I just started watching - LOVE on demand! Eric and Jason are my FAVORITES!!  My hubby went out of town for work - king bed to myself!!

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On Thursday, the rugrats and I went to my "Heart Sister's" house to swim...eww my knee and foot got in the way. So fun! Loving her new pool! Next summer I will be there EVERYDAY!  I went into school to put together my new bathroom passes, after dropping Emily at soccer practice.  I saw a version of this on pinterest and loved the idea.  When a student leaves the classroom he/she will out the hand sanitizer on their desk so I know who has left the room. If you like them, you can have them by clicking HERE for FREEEEE!!

  

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Friday was cleaning day - I got the living room, kitchen, and garage cleaned.  I also managed to get some laundry done!  In the afternoon, Chase went to workout and then went to the basement to play video games while Emily and I got the movie The Host on Demand. Meh...I loved the song at the end (Radioactive by Imagine Dragons).  Welcome home Honey Pie!  When Randy got home, we watched Covert Affairs (2 ep.) and Wipe Out with the rugrats.  My husband laughed so hard he almost spewed his screwdriver through his nose - Those people are so funny!

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Today, shopping and more cleaning...blah...then laminated my job numbers and behavior chart, you can get different versions on TPT.  I love mine!  I also put together my 120 chart - I love Erica Bohrer's 0-120 Charts and Activities - I totally recommend it to first grade teachers!! I printed a 3 page X 3 page poster of one of her charts to hang on my wall.  I cannot find one in the stores yet - apparently Common Core State Standards hasn't reached them yet!

Anywho...this is my week in pictures. Next week I plan to STAY AWAY from school until I HAVE to be there!!

Happy Teaching,
Jessica

Sunday Smorgasbord...Monday

Happy Sunday!!

I'm feeling pretty random today, so I'm linking up with Michelle over at Fabulous in First for some Sunday Smorgasbord fun!

 

One...

After two weekends (in a row) of soccer tournaments, a garage sale, and soccer camps; I.AM.POOPED! My daughter was selected to represent Illinois in the Region II Youth Soccer Tournament in Rockford, IL - they WON! They will be going to the National Tournament in March 2014. My son's high school team played in a tournament with other area high schools.  They did well - winning 3, tied 1, and lost 1. Pretty great start! they are looking good!  My husband coaches at one of our high schools and he had camp last week - it was H.O.T. hot! Of course, being his wife, I volunteered to help out. I thought I was going to melt!

Two...

I took Emily to Peoria for soccer camp and stopped by Walgreens to get her some razors.  I hit a small jackpot!  I have a science station in my classroom and only 1 microscope - which doesn't work so well.  I found these little beauties on SALE!! I bought 4 each. The microscopes were only $5.17 and the Field Tools were $1.99.  My littles will have a great time!!

I also stopped at Wal-mart to look for baskets but found these chart tablets instead!  They were under $6.00. I LOVE the Picture Story Tablet - there is a place to write and the top is left for a picture.

Three...

Garage sale...I had one table. My mother-in-law and mom wanted to participate in my town's yard sale.  I made some money for the few things I had; but my moms made a small fortune! 

 

Four...

Having fun surfing/stalking people and boards on Pinterest.  This was my favorite...I think I will make one of my own.  I just think that the magnets will fall off.  Has anyone done this yet?

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I can't wait to get into my classroom to put my new treasures away! We have registration later this year; only a week before school starts! I am a little annoyed by this because the only work I have left to do is label items for my new littles.

 

Hope you enjoy the rest of the summer!

Jessica