Summer Finds, Ideas and Goodies

I have been working on summer plans for myself, and for my Firsties and have come across some FABULOUS resources I wanted to share!

Over at Fun in First Grade she has shared a fabulous Summer Activity Packet for my firsties! I am so excited because I was really starting to wonder how I was going to get something created, do my assessments and finish report cards in the next 7 days....yikes. Only seven days left, However Jodi was kind enough to post something FABULOUS I can use, here is a link to her summer activity packet in case you are interested Fun in First: Summer Activity Calendar and... hope you enjoy it as much as I am.

I am going to be doing a Summer "Day Camp" type opportunity this summer for some of my friends kids and some of the students I've worked with this year. So I've also been looking for some reading games and activities to do with them as well. It's going to be good, and I'm hoping to be able to pay off one of our cars this summer which is a major motivation for getting extra tutoring students for the summer! So far I have my 2 regular students and am picking up 3 students for my day camp and hopefully at least 2 other tutoring students.

Well I didn't have as many resources to share as I thought I did, however I wanted to post since it has been quite a while since I did. I'll hopefully be able to get more into a rhythm this summer with blogging and set up a planner so I can become more consistent with my posts next school year.

Thanks for reading and God Bless!

Blog Name Changes...

The change may be very subtle, however I am working on my classroom website for next year, and I'm thinking that I'd like to have everything through blogger/google instead of using a separate site.

So I really like the name Mrs. Hall's Fabulous Firsts for my classroom website so I've adjusted this one to be Mrs. Hall's Fabulous Finds since most of what I post here are awesome resources that I've found and want to share. Or things that I feel could benefit you that I've done in my classroom. And I actually went with "Mrs. Hall's Fantastic Firsts" for my classroom website/blog just a tiny twist on what this site used to be. I'm hoping that by starting now I can have it up and running by next school year which really isn't that far away...yikes...only 20 more days for us until the end of the year. That's a lot of end of the year testing and evaluation :-) Better get back to it :-)

Hope you enjoy and that this didn't confuse or cause anyone any problems :-)

Have a blessed day!

Construction Paper Organization

Updated post...I hope to update again when I figure out how to rotate the photo and place a new photo of it actually in my closet.

Is anyone else frustrated by the stack of construction paper that is sitting in their storage closet? I was totally fed up with it and I cannot remember where I first saw this idea however its so much better than the nasty stack of construction paper that was in my closet prior to organizing this.

Sorry I can't figure out how to rotate the picture, I posted the original blog post from my phone. 

Here is the link to the boxes from Ikea, unfortunately they don't sell them online but its the best price for magazine boxes I've ever found! For me it's worth the drive to Phoenix to buy them. Last time I went I bought about 10 packages of them.

The other idea I've found that I love is from a blog I've found called Two Things in Common 

Love it. If I find a way to have an extra file drawer I may switch to that, however for now I love my new way to store them!

Mrs. Hall he took my eraser...

But Mrs. Hall she did it first....

I've about had all I can take of the tattling! It seems to be getting worse instead of better.

I introduced Tommy the Tattling Turtle at the beginning of the year however it seems that we need to revisit him. I've made a cute poster that I modified from one I found from Really Good Stuff originally (I already had the turtle so I didn't want to buy the whole kit) and then from a blog post over on Teaching Blog Addict

Here is my version: (still trying to figure out how to get pictures and links up here without taking an hour and a half to get it saved in the right format and on here :-/ here's hoping it worked, the google docs version doesn't have the weird white part sorry maybe I'll fix it later but it's my lunch time and I need to go eat before the kiddos come back!)

Edit - I found a great new blog tonight...

So, I had a question...I had found a post with a whole lot of organization and center ideas and now I can't find it again :''(

I'd checked Clutter-free Classroom & Ladybugs Teacher Files two of my all time favorite blogs!

I had found this post the other day and wasn't able to print it, and when I went back to blogger today to print things out I couldn't find it again...so I was rather sad and frustrated. Well I guess the other day when  I was on Pinterest I had found her blog and forgot to follow her...yes I pinned her post and forgot to follow :-/ so today when I was searching blogger I couldn't find it...

Well that which was lost has now been found and if you are looking to revamp your classroom organization or centers Mrs. Clapp over at Serenade to Second Grade has some great ideas in this post!

Thank you Pinterest for helping me discover great new ideas, and thank you Lord for helping me remember where I found it!

My first 2012 post is...

A giveaway...who would have guessed...

Kristin over at Teeny Tiny Teacher is hosting a quick new years give away...I love giveaways as you know and I love her blog. She is so generous and shares much of what she has created! As most teachers I don't have a lot of extra money to spend on things, so it is great when I can find something she has posted that I can use...AWESOME.

Anyway, head over and check out her Uno, Dos, Tres Giveway...

Have a blessed new year, I'll be back...

Fabulous Fall Activities!

Most of these event happened last week, with a couple being more recent, just wanted to link up before I forgot again...I'm linking up with Clutter Free Classroom: Week in Review 

I have been having a great fall in my classroom. I would love to figure out how to have more time for blogging all the fun things I've been doing.

We have been learning about characters & today they got to create a brainstorming web of their own real or make believe characters and illustrate them. I took a few pictures cause I thought they were so cute!!!

We also started squiggle journals (I got this idea from the other 1st grade teacher at my school), which have been so much fun. If I forget to do them my students are very quick to remind me! They each get a squiggle that then they have about 10 minutes to turn into whatever illustration they can imagine, and then they have to write a story about it. So much fun!!! I have one or two students that really struggle with the creative thinking piece, they will just sit there any stare at their paper and say they can't think of "anything" to turn it in to...but overall I get some AMAZING writing!

These are pictures of our writing wall...this week/month's writing was about our favorite thing about fall :-) so so cute! I took a picture of each student writing and hot glued it to a clothes pin and then glued the clothes pin to the board. This was not my idea originally but I don't remember which amazing blog I found it on to give proper credit to....I love the way it looks and gets my students excited about reading!


    

Hope you enjoy my post I hope I can figure out how to post more often...however I LOVE reading all your ideas and seeing what you're doing in your rooms!

Nosey is GREAT!

I just found a website and contest that totally describes me! I love it. I am constantly walking around my classroom listening to my students as they are working and talking with each other. Often I hear little things that help me to tailor their education to each individual student, I learn things about their culture and home life that I wouldn't know unless I was working around them and being close to them while they are engaged and working!

I love sitting down near them with a project, grading or something while they are working, it gives me an opportunity to engage with them while they are working. I so enjoy their conversations, it also gives me a heads up on little issues before they start. I have heard students who won't speak with me (nervous, second language issues & other various things) carrying on full conversations with their friends when they didn't know I was listening it's a great informal assessment of where their at when they don't even know I'm assessing or listening.

I have caught kids doing things and been able to deal with them on a personal basis before it became a major issue and I didn't have to address it in a large format. I have also addressed things to the whole class when they didn't know I knew who had caused the problem and watched the student squirm and squirm until I was done and they had the opportunity to come and speak with me personally about the issue. It was so valuable for them to realize that I do know what is going on in our classroom even when they think I'm not always there.

I hope you've enjoyed reading this and I would love to have the opportunity to win one of these fabulous prizes!

Grand Prize

iPad 2 with Wi-Fi + 32MB, your choice of black or white.

2nd Prize

Bose SoundDock Series II Digital Music System for iPod (Silver)

3rd Prize

Amazon Kindle 3G

One of the requirements to enter was to post this into my blog so head over and check it out. I think this was pretty fabulous!

If you are interested in learning how classroom management software can help you become a nosey teacher and manage students on computers more effectively, check out http://www.netop.com/products/education.htm


Head over and check it out if you are interested in entering yourself! Looks great to me! http://wildfireapp.com/website/6/contests/138031?order=recency&preview_key=fd40dc3b2cad6c05fbe22d2b6b9ea2a6&view_entries=1

Printing on Sticky Notes :-)

Sorry I've been so busy haven't been posting much or getting to blog-stalk much :-(

However a while back I found a fabulous post over at Ladybug's Teacher Files about printing on Post-it Notes (sticky notes) I was so excited because I already LOVE post-it notes and now I can print on them!

I had to make a couple adjustments to the files for my printer settings and I also created one for post-its that are cube size 2x2 so so so excited to be able to print on them.

Here's hoping I'm putting these links in correctly...can't find the tutorial right now...you can print the PDF to have a master, then the word doc you can put in whatever you are hoping to print on them :-) Hope it works.

2x2 Sticky Note Cube PDF
2x2 Sticky Note WORD

Normal Size Sticky Note PDF
Normal Size Sticky Note WORD

Please let me know if my sharing isn't right for these. And someday I'll figure out how to embed them or post with a picture or something...for today I hope this works.

A few days late I'm participating in

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hope you like it I'll try to be on time next week...lol

A sharing post...

I'm really glad to be back to work, my class is great so far. I wanted to do a post to share some of the great resources I've found in my blog hopping...

Over at First Grade Factory Alicia shared a great project called Word Attack. Go check it out...I love it! She has many other resources you should head over and check out...

Oh and she'd doing a giveaway right now too....


Head over and check it out...have a good night.

Busy Busy Busy

Well we are ending week 2 and so far it's been a great year! A very busy year preparing curriculum and lesson plans for first grade, but a great year so far. I love my kiddos and my school is great. It's only 10 minutes away from my house so it's fabulous!

I'm gonna add a few pictures of some of the things I'm working on for organization for this year, it's still a work in progress but I wanted to share something before I forgot again & ran out of time.

This is a picture of my table (desk group) boxes in progress. Today I put stickers on pencils that match the color of the group in hopes that it will stop students from having the excuse "I don't have a pencil" I've also included reading sticks, in hopes that the students will start using their finger or pointer stick to help them keep their "eye" on the word. It seems like they didn't learn this in kinder and it's really been a struggle when we are reading with staying with us & following along.

:-( I have more pictures I wanted to share but the silly computer isn't reading my card :-( so I can't share them right now I guess.

And I need to go read how to upload a document so I can share those...we shall see...

Have a good day all

202 unread emails and 642 unread blogs in Google Reader...

After a lot of struggle...I don't know how to get my blog to post! I have a 'wonderful' blog written that I can't get to copy and past over with links.

I had it all ready to publish and my blogger decided to give me an orange 0 at the top of the page and not do anything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Here is the blog post with no links :-( I don't know how to get them to come over :-(

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And after one dead computer battery, two stops for snacks, two bathroom breaks, lots of reading, downloading, bookmarking, saving and deleting emails here's what we have, a sharing post that is long over due...here's to hoping I can be a bit more consistent when I'm back to school.

WOW, I've done a lot of reading...and with the email situation a lot of deleting...

When I started today my Google Reader have 642 unread posts...I'm was wondering if I was going to make it through them today or not...well I did...I don't really recall what time it was when I sat down but, its been at least 2 hours...

Random Question:  Is anyone having issues with Google Reader today? It's not downloading things correctly, when I try to download original so I can save it to my Mac it's messing some of them up and just plain not opening others....I want my resources *stomps foot like two year old*

Here are a few giveaways I found in the mass amount of unread posts...

1. Over at In The Teacher's Lounge she's having a fabulous giveaway for her celebration of 200 followers.

She has partnered with Leslie of Kindergarten Works for a fabulous literacy center. Head over and check it out.

2. Over at First Grade Escapades she is hosting a giveaway for reaching 100 followers, head over and check it out. Looks AMAZING!


 3. On Mrs. McCumbee's Blog she's hosting a 200 followers giveaway till sometime this week so hurry over and check it out.




And then here I'll blog about some fabulous things I've found going through my Google Reader!! Love great resources!

1.  Tanya over at First Grade Fabulous - posted a video that Teacher Tipster shared on Facebook. Head over and check it out! It's amazing! Do we BELIEVE in all our students!

2. Over at Pocket Full of Kinders she posted a fabulous list "You know you're a teacher if...." go check it out!


Hope you've enjoyed my rambling, feels good to be back. However I still don't have internet at home so I don't know when I'll be around to get all caught up again. Thanks so much for being a great resource!

BUSY BUSY SUMMER!

I am so so happy, but so busy! I logged on and my google reader has over 500 posts I need to read...

Well why am I so busy you may wonder, we got the keys to our house on Saturday :-) and started moving in immediately. So I've been busy moving in and unpacking and moving in! I don't have internet at my house so currently I'm at my mom's house so I have a few minutes but I do need to get back to my house soon!

I hope to post pictures of my house soon, however I don't have a working camera right now so they are all on my phone...and blogging from my phone is kinda a pain. Well I just thought I'd share the happy news with all of my friends in blogger land :-)

Also on a separate note....I START SCHOOL IN 19 DAYS....where has my summer gone?!? I have got to get my classroom set up! And get ready for the year! Well I doubt I'll be on much next week either because we're going on vacation...anyway love y'all have a great rest of your summer!

Lookie what I got :-)

I entered a contest from Mrs. Lemons a while back for a t-shirt from Claire Lynn and guess what I found in the mail today! Uber excited!
Added this post from my phone I'll have to come back and add links later, thanks so much Amy! It's awesome!
Links have now been added...enjoy!

"Moose" Binders

Well in my blog stalking tonight, I found an idea I have been hoping to implement over at Primary Perspective called "Moose" Binders. There is a website with a lot of acronyms, however my school has a very unique mascot...it's a gecko :-)

So I'm trying to come up with an acronym that will work, I have a couple ideas but I'd love some feedback. Also if anyone does use a binder similar to the "Moose" style I'd love any tips you can offer!

Here are my two ideas so far, I don't really like either of them completely but I'm drawing a blank as to what I can do better.

Getting
Everything
Complete &
Kept
Organized

Goals
Each
Child
Keeps
Organized

I'm hoping to create a binder similar to what Mrs. Perry did over on her blog, I hope she doesn't mind me sharing a couple of the thumbnails here...