Monday Made It on a Snow Day

We we're suppose to go back to school day for a work day but it snowed and it's cold so no school. I haven't done anything school related all break and it has been great. But I'm probably going to have to do something today. Maybe. Netflix, my iPad and the couch have been really good over break. I have done a couple of craft projects so I thought I would link up with Tara at Fourth Grade Frolics.

This was my inspiration from Pinterest.

http://pinterest.com/pin/167055467401747649/

It's a calendar that you keep for years. You write one thing each day and keep adding to it. I had pinned this a while ago but decided a new year was the perfect time to start it. 

I used index cards and my paper cutter to cut in half. Then I used scrapbook paper to go in between each month. I went ahead and put dates on all the cards so all I would have to do each day is write my memory of the day.

I am trying to use things I have and not buy new stuff so I got the idea to use a gift bag and cut the top off. I then decorated it with washi tape. Here's the finished product.

The other the project I completed over break was a blanket for my new niece who will be here a week from today. I am so excited to welcome her into the world!

So those are my projects for winter break. I need a new wreath for my door so I might work on that today instead of school work. Here are a few pins that have inspired me.

http://pinterest.com/pin/167055467400661884/

http://pinterest.com/pin/167055467401084533/

Only Valentine's day rather that Halloween. Red or pink rather than orange and black.

Be sure to head over to 

Fourth Grade Frolics and see everyone else's Monday made its. 

Crafty Sunday

While you're reading this post, I'm hopefully on my way to the Keys. I'm looking forward to the beach, sun, some fruity drinks and reading my kindle and doing all this with my new husband. For this weeks crafty post, I wanted to share with you the jewelry that I made for all the women who were at the wedding. We had a very small ceremony with close family only. My sister stood with me and Chris's sister stood with him.

These are the bracelets I made for our sisters and nieces. Both our sisters' have little girls. If you read my blog, you know all about sweet Sophie and Kaley. They were our flower girls. (I'm sure I'll have a funny story or two about them in the wedding. But since I'm writing this ahead of time I don't know what they'll do.)
Then for my mom, aunt, and grandmother, Chris's grandmother and great aunt, I made bracelets like these.

Here they are all packaged and ready to go.

31 helped me with my packaging and gifts for my two sisters. I love making jewelry and had a ton of fun making these for all the important women in my life. Remember to keep checking back this week. I have a math post up next with information about Math Work stations. Then the rest of the week will be some fantastic guest bloggers. Thanks friends for helping me out.

Crafty Sunday

So I'm back at trying to have some kind of schedule for my blog. I think it will help while I'm out of town on my honeymoon and give me some kind of rhythm to my posting. I went through some of my pins on pinterest and made a new board of projects I want to complete this summer. I made a new board, Summer projects. I was going to link up to it so you could see what they were but pinterest is not cooperating with me. Ok so if you want to see this board, follow this link. I wanted to make a menu to post on the wall but Chris wanted me to wait until we figured out where it was going to go before I bought a frame. The old time pottery just opened back up in Pigeon Forge. That place is trouble. Chris and I went there to find a few things for the wedding. We're having a sand ceremony so we needed some vases to put the sand in. Anyway, today we were at Big Lots looking for a mattress. (We did buy a mattress but not at Big Lots. We found a great deal on a memory foam one at a local mattress store.) I found a frame to use for a menu board. I found a place I wanted to put it. So here's my pinterest inspiration:

Source: makeandtakes.com via Kerri on Pinterest

I also found some cool scrapbook paper at Big Lots. They have everything there. I'm not sure that I should have ventured there. So here's what mine looks like:

Doing this project made me wish even more that I had a silhouette or a cricut. But since I don't, I used a stencil to make the letters and then cut them out. I used scrapbooking double sided tape to adhere the letters. It didn't take me too long to create. I can't wait to get it hung up and start using it.
Check back tomorrow for a math idea or two from this workshop that I went to last week.

Bachelorette fun and a guest post

So this post is not going to have anything related to school. But if you want to read something school related, I'm guest posting over at Mrs. Lirrette's Learning Detectives. Check it out. She's doing a great 15 days of guests posts. I can't wait to see who is posting next.



My wedding is now less than 2 weeks away. I'm getting so excited. I can't believe I'm going to be Mrs. Buckner. My sister arranged a bachelorette party for me this weekend. It was low key but a lot of fun. One of my friends flew in from California. She took me for a pedicure yesterday. Then we met up with my mom, sister and niece for some shopping. I'm lucky enough to live near an outlet mall. We had a blast shopping. I got some new dresses for my honeymoon.
For the party, my mom fixed a bunch of mexican food. My favorite. Then my sister made margaritas. I think the best touch was my dad insisted on ordering an ice cream cake for us. That was my favorite kind of cake as a kid.

 

It was dad's choice to have the color scheme and the wording. 

It was nice to just hang out with friends that I hadn't seen in a while. It was a wide variety of friends. My oldest friend came in from Maryland. We've been friends since 7th and 8th grade. My future sister in law came and a couple of other friends. One of my former youth was there. I met her right before her senior year of high school and now she's a junior in college. She's become one of my really close friends. 

My sister had purchased canvases for all of us to paint. I wish I had taken pictures of all of them. They turned out so cute. I do have a picture of mine. 

So that was my low key very fun bachelorette party. Chris is headed backpacking for the next five days and I plan to spend my first official day of summer break tomorrow with my sweet niece Sophie. How's your summer going? (And if it isn't summer yet for you, I'm really sorry.)

School's out for Summer!

Well, almost. Today was my last day with my kids. At least until August. I'll be teaching my same class for first grade next year.
I feel like I've dropped off the blogging radar. I have over 600 posts in my google reader and I haven't posted anything worthy of sharing. But today I have a few things to share and I hope to get back on a blogging schedule by this weekend. I am suppose to guest blog later this week. I hope my brain is working by then.
I've been seeing all kinds of cute end of the year gifts out there in blog land. I've never really done any end of the year gifts for my kids. I usually take them to the Donut Friar. I teach in downtown Gatlinburg, TN. If you ever come visit, you need to go to the Village. It has some of the best stores and shops in town. I worked at a shop there in high school and in college. We can walk there from the school. So Friday we walked over and the kids got donuts.

This bird was literally begging my kids for pieces of their donuts. It was funny and one of my kids insisted I take a picture.
Well, this weekend I decided I would do a gift for my parent volunteers and then decided I would also make something for my kids.
For my parent volunteers, I bagged up a sugar cookie bar and added a cute ribbon. I also made them a picture frame and added a picture of their child on the first day of school.

I added a tag I downloaded from The Teacher Wife that said it was a treat to have your help this year. I had some time to kill on Sunday while Chris was at the jail. He's a Gideon and does a church service at the jail once a month. There is a big lots really close. I shopped around in there and found some little cups. I ended up taking those and writing the kid's name and then "Kindergarten was all good." I added a cool straw, bubbles, a notepad and a pencil. They seemed to like them.

We had an end of the year party today. The kids enjoyed playing some games stacking cups and then using a straw to blow the cup across the table. It was a great way to end the school year. It usually isn't that sad since I'll have them again, but one of boys who I'll miss dearly is changing schools next year. I was sad to say goodbye to him.
So I've finally finished some of my clutter free classroom challenge. I usually don't clean stuff out very well at the end of the school year. It usually happens in the summer when I'm getting ready to go back. But this year, I cleaned out 2 of my cabinets and some files before the end of the year. Well I was going to share a couple of pictures but my computer is not cooperating. Oh well. Maybe I'll do a before and after post later this week. I'm getting so excited about summer. I still have 2 and a half days to get through before I'm truly free. I getting to keep my niece one day a week for the summer and I'm super excited. I hope to try some fun learning things with her. She's only 1 and a half but she's a little sponge. How's your summer shaping up?

Make it Monday

Yay! My first official day of spring break. It's been busy so far. I had a dentist appointment today and then had lunch with Chris. Then I had to run a couple of errands to get my hostess gifts together for my shower tonight. I have my first wedding shower tonight. My future sister in law and grandmother in law (I'm not sure that's a word) are throwing it for me. So my make it Monday post is going to be about my hostess gifts I got/made for them. I went to the Dollar Tree in search of vases to make the candy filled ones I've seen on pinterest. But no luck finding the right sizes. I did find a lot of bright colored containers that my brain is already working overtime to figure out how to use them. I got one for my gift for the SIL. I'm getting her some Bath and Body Work stuff but I wanted a cute container to put them in. Then I got a vase and some stones to put in the flowers. So here they are all jazzed up a bit.

Now I'm ready for my shower tonight. The wedding excitement begins. I've been tagged by Heather at Mrs. Shelton's Kindergarten. I'll be back tomorrow with that post. Last time I didn't play by the rules. I think I will this time. Side note: I'm like a 11 follower away from 200. I would love to reach 200 by the end of my spring break and have a giveaway. So if you don't follow me, I'd love it if you would or send some followers my way. Thanks.

Make it Monday!

I'm so excited to share my newest project with you. It is my first attempt at embroidery and I definitely need some practice. But this was a fun and easy project. It was a good way to get my feet wet.

I was inspired by the blog Little Lovelies. You can check out here post here to see the directions for making it. I'm really sad my pictures didn't download correctly. They were right when I saved them. One of my biggest mistakes was using too many threads. I used the whole thing instead of breaking it up into 2 or 3 strands of the thread. I also need a little more practice making my stitches the same size. But I will be trying a new embroidery project soon. By the way, if you are interesting in trying out this craft you need to check out Little Lovelies. She has some great ideas and tutorials. What are you crafting this week?

Make it Monday

So I didn't do anything this weekend school or blogging related. I had every intention of getting caught up on blog stalking and had a whole list of blog posts I was going to write and had a couple of centers I was going to make. I did none of it. Saturday I spent the day with my mom and sister shopping and taking care of some wedding stuff. Then Sunday I spent the day with Chris just enjoying being together. I think sometimes you just need to do that. I've been working so hard on school stuff that I'm getting a little burned out. I need Spring break to get here badly. 2 more weeks and I'll be on a break. If only my brain would get that memo. While I was trying to nap yesterday, I kept thinking about how I was reworking my schedule and centers and math instruction. That's an upcoming post.
Last week, I decided I was going to start posting on Sundays a craft project. Well I didn't post it last Sunday and didn't get to it yesterday, so maybe I'll try Make It Mondays. And post on Mondays.
The month of March has been busy with birthdays in my family and Chris's family. My mom's is on the 16th and his sister's is on the 19th. I was inspired by Pinterest to make some cards for the occasions. We were headed to JoAnn's anyway. Here are the cards I made:

 I found some letter size card stock in solid colors on sale for $1.99 a packet. Each packet had 50 sheets in it.
I got pastels, white and black, and brighter colors. It was completely by accident that I found this paper. At our JoAnn's the sale stuff is shoved on shelves in the back.
I already had a ton of buttons, ribbons and rhinestones from other projects. I used my hot glue gun to glue on the ribbon and buttons on each card. Then I used photo tape to layer the scrapbook paper. I'm not completely satisfied with my handwritten Happy Birthdays but I don't have a printer at home. It was fun playing with my leftover craft supplies and seeing what I can make. They didn't take long to make and I think it was a little more personal than a store bought card.
Be sure to check back next week. I tried out a new craft and I'm mostly pleased with the results.

 What are you crafting lately? Comment and let me know what craft projects you're working on.

Crafty Sunday!

So I probably need a better title for these posts. I have always loved being crafty. I have had a bad habit in the past of taking up a craft and then giving it up. But over the years, crocheting has been the one that has stuck. I've also taken up jewelery making and sewing at some point. I have a sewing machine that I haven't used in 5 years. But with pinterest I've become interest in a few other kinds of crafting. I want to share the projects I've been working on and considered starting a new blog to document them. But I know I'm not going to be able to keep up with another blog. So I'm going to do a post a week on a craft project I've completed. I hope that my followers will forgive me for the post a week that has nothing to do with teaching. I hope that some other teachers out there are into crafting too. I also hope that by doing a post a week, I'll be inspired to try out some new crafts and to finish some old ones. I've been inspired by the blog Little Lovelies to try my hand at embroidery. She's spent the last week sharing some how to posts with little projects. I'm super excited to try making a heart with my fiance and I's initials. Another craft I want to finish is quilting. I started a baby quilt 5 years ago and have never finished it. Chris's mom's side of the family all quilts so I'm hoping I can get a little tutoring in that area. So that's where I'm headed.
This week I want to share a super cute wreath I made. I have been pinning pictures of wreaths on pinterest like crazy but wasn't sure which one I wanted to make. I loved the felt ones I was seeing on blogs and pinned but that would involved me buying a lot of stuff. I found a really cute yarn one in my crochet magazine. It was christmas colors but I could see it in spring colors. I bought a styrofoam wreath at Hobby Lobby back in February but I hadn't figure out what I wanted to do with it until last week. I looked in my spare bedroom and saw this bright yellow yarn.It inspired me to work on the wreath. I wrapped the wreath in the yellow yarn. I couldn't find any clear directions on this stiep so I improvised. I hot glued the end of the yarn and started wrapping. I put a thin line of hot glue on the wreath and tried to keep the wrapping tight. The next step was to make the flowers. I had never made flowers the way suggested by the magazine but they were fairly easy. I did the flowers in hot pink, lime, and orange. I hot glued those to the wreath as well and then added hot pink ribbon to hang the wreath.
what do you think? It makes me so happy to see it on my door.

So it's no longer Sunday when I'm getting this posted but oh well.Next week I'll be showing you some birthday cards I made inspired by pinterest.

Dreaming of Christmas break

I'm super jealous of all those that are already out for Christmas break. I still have 3 days next week. Friday I felt like I was fighting a losing battle. The kids just got more and more wild as the day went on. We spent the morning doing some crafts. I was lucky enough to have my boyfriend's stepmom coming and help. We decorated gingerbread cookies, decorated the foam gingerbread men I found at Target, with assorted dried beans, made Christmas cards and ornaments for their parents. It was a busy busy morning. Luckily I had some extra hands helping me. The best part of the day was where our Elf set up shop. Rainbow had set up a tent and was drinking hot chocolate and reading a Christmas book. (It was my wonderful boyfriend's idea and he came in and set it up.) The kids were so excited and they did so good not touching the tent. One of my teaching neighbors came in to check out our elf and the kids freaked out because they were afraid she would touch him. This has to be one of my new favorite Christmas activities. I can't wait to have kids and do it with them. I have to go to an inservice day on Monday about phonics and fluency instruction. I'm not thrilled about leaving my kids the week of break but I am required to go. I feel for my sub on Monday.
I am spending today doing some Christmas gift crafting. I've been working on ornaments mod podged with scrap book paper, paper clip book marks with bows, binder clips for organization, jewelry, a way to display my Christmas cards, and a sign for my boyfriend's father. I'm covered in mod podge and my house is a wreck. Eventually, I need to wrap everything and clean up but I needed blogging break. Here are some pictures of our crafts yesterday and some of my crafts from today.

This is the Christmas card holder I made. Just ribbon and scrapbook paper and clothes pins.

Our elf after climbing the rope to the flagpole.

Rainbow camping.

Bookmarks

Scrapbook paper, mod podge and ornaments

Present for one of my teaching friends

This week in Ms. Kerri's Room

I'm having a much better week this week. I think an attitude adjustment on my part has helped. Last week I was so cranky and the kids were awful. This week (I know it's only been 2 days) has been a lot better. I think it helps that we're doing a review week in reading. We started our Gingerbread Unit this week. This is the first time I'm doing this unit with my kindergartners. I only had the standard gingerbread books, then Stinky Cheese Man and the Runaway Tortilla. But last week I placed a Scholastic order and added to my collection. These are the books we're reading this week: The Gingerbread Man (Jan Brett), The Gingerbread Boy, The Gingerbread Baby, The Stinky Cheese Man, The Runaway Tortilla, The Gingerbread Girl, and The Gingerbread Pirates. We have to go to school 3 days next week so we're going to continue reading them. My kids have been so excited about it. When I told them Monday what books we were reading, one of my more enthusiastic students exclaimed, "Oh Man! This is going to be Awesome!" We're then making a chart to compare the stories. Currently the chart is just a table on my promethean board. But after seeing some really cool anchor charts out there, I might have to spruce mine up a bit.  Friday the kids are going to decorate a real cookie and we're making a bean gingerbread man. I took the foam gingerbread men from the dollar section at target and a bunch of beans I've had for a variety of things and turned into this week's art center. Here's my example:
Elf on a shelf update. Monday Rainbow returned from the North Pole. The kids were worried he wasn't going to come back after they had a rough day on Friday. I had my best inspiration for a place for him yesterday. He was ziplining on a ribbon from the light to the flag pole. The kids went crazy over it when they came in. But during center time he fell. It was awful. The kids were freaking out hoping he was ok. Luckily while they were taking a bathroom break he climbed back up on the flag pole. It was a close one. Tomorrow, my boyfriend thinks Rainbow should be camping in a tent. We will see. He wants to set up his big tent. I think maybe we should just make a small tent for him. We've been writing in our Elf journals everyday and it's a great opportunity to work on some writing skills. I'm trying to train them to be more independent writers and sound words out. It's working out ok. But I can see I need to work more on some writing instruction after Christmas. Does anyone else have a list of things to implement after the break? (I'm thinking that's a whole post in itself.)
Anyway, I leave you with a picture of our Elf Rainbow. How's your week going? We have five more days of school before the holidays and I can't wait.

Mischeivious Elf and other random things

Oh my. It has been quite a week. I started out cranky and it has just gone down hill from there. As much as I'm loving the fun holiday activities, I'm ready for a break and then a regular schedule. My kids have been wild as can be. There are have been a ton of teachers out this week at my school for various reasons. Some were at a workshop that every math teacher in the county has to attend and then one of my fellow kindergarten teachers was sick. There were not enough subs so it's been pretty chaotic. Our Elf on the Shelf made his appearance on Tuesday. It cracked me up how taken in all the kids were with him. We are using the journals from Kreative in Kinder's Elf on a Shelf pack and the kids are begging to use them. I plan on doing a post that shows all the places our Elf, Rainbow, was found. But currently my sister has my camera. My mom, sis, niece and I decorated cookies yesterday and my sis needed to get some pictures off my camera for Christmas presents. That was a lot of rambling. I think this post will be full of rambling. Especially since I started in Friday and am just sitting down to try to finish it. So here's a rundown.

• I made some marshmallow reindeer pops for my kids yesterday. They were a pinterest find. They turned out pretty cute. I really struggled trying to attach the pretzels so some of them look like derranged bunnies. But luckily I teach Kindergarten and they will love them anyway. Our Elf is going to leave them for them one day this week. (Don't have a picture but hopefully will add one later when I get my camera back.)
• Friday we read this book about the Snowbelly family's Christmas that I had gotten from Hallmark once upon a time. We then drew our own snowman families. They turned out pretty cute. It was good labeling practice.
• I fell in love with some cardinal scrappin doodles clipart. It's christmasy but some of it is just wintery. So I took some of the wintery and made calendar pieces for January. This is my first attempt at this. If you can use it, click here. Be sure to leave me some comment love.
• I still have this week and three days the next week. So we're tackling different versions of the gingerbread man. Check back later this week and hopefully I'll have some more freebies for you.

Holly Bloggy Christmas!

I am definitely in the Christmas spirit. I finished my decorating on Thursday and then started crafting on Friday. I also put up my Christmas tree at school and plan to start Elf on the Shelf on Monday. My students were terrible on Friday. I found myself saying things like "I hope Santa's not watching because some of you might be getting coal in your stocking." I about made myself laugh. I was determined to find the Elf on the Shelf this weekend when my boyfriend and I went shopping. But my wonderful assistant principal came to my rescue. She offered up her daughter's old Elf. So my class will be receiving a package from the North Pole on Monday. I hope it helps or I might not make it.
Here are some of the things I've been crafting this weekend:
I decorated some glass ball ornaments for some of my fellow teachers.

This one is my favorite. I put paint inside the ball and then let it drip down. It took a while but it looks cool. One of the first grade teacher got married on Nov. 11th so I put her new name and the date on their.

An up close of the ornaments. I just need to add the ribbon to them. 

I made one of these for my Holly Bloggy partner. Not sure if I'm suppose to tell that or not. But oh well.
The next project I worked on was pinterest inspired. The paperclip bookmarks. I found some large silver paperclips at Target so I painted them with craft paint and added some ribbon. I'm not quite done with all of them

Another pinterest inspired gift, were some binder clips. I mod podged a few labels on them. I want some of these for myself.

I also painted a class sign for my Holly Bloggy partner but you'll have to wait til after Christmas to see it.
Saturday, I spent some time at Target and Hobby Lobby  getting some crafts for my students and I to do. I truly have the best boyfriend and he puts up with all the craft store trips. He even helps me pick things out for the kids. I found an ornament to make with their pictures and got the materials for making reindeer bell necklaces. I plan to have our Elf on the Shelf bring the material for the necklaces on Friday. I still have quite a few pinterest inspired crafts to make before Christmas.
What are you crafting this holiday season?

 

Sight words, crafts, and new blog design excitement!

More randomness brought to you by Ms. Kerri. I have completely forgotten to share the fact that I won last weeks Holly Bloggy Giveaway of a new blog design. I can't make up my mind on which blog design I want yet. But I'm super excited to be getting a new design. I've been wanting one for a while but I'm too cheap to buy one. So be on the look for a whole new look and button.
I have a couple of favorite holiday crafts. The first is a reindeer made out of the kids hands and feet. You trace one foot with brown paper and then their hands with either red or green. The kids cut them out and then add googly eyes and a pom pom for the nose. It makes a cute craft. I don't have any pictures because it's been a while since I've done this one. But I plan on the kids doing it next week in the art center.
The second favorite is a present for the parents. You need glass ornaments. I usually buy mine  after Christmas at 75% off for the next year. You paint their hands white and they hold the ornament. It makes five little snowmen. Once the ornament dries, they can use sharpies to decorate them. (They think that's really cool.) I usually add their name and the year on it.

Those are my favorite crafts to make with the kids.
Now on to the sight word sheet I promised yesterday. My students got to use markers yesterday to practice writing their sight words. They thought they were pretty lucky. We of course had to discuss the rules of using markers and how you have to close them and hear the click. It was good practice and it kept them engaged. It is getting harder and harder to keep them focused with December and Christmas right around the corner. So click here to get the freebie. If you have some other words you would like, just leave me a comment and I'll try to make some more. It was pretty easy.

I'm considering one of these Elf on the Shelf activities to get me through the next few weeks. Not sure I can get it together in such short notice but tomorrow being December 1st we'll be starting our Christmas book unwrapping activity. I'm feeling a little crazy about it but I'm thinking of putting our tree up on Friday. Not sure if I can handle it or not. We will see. When do you usually put your tree up?

What a week!

This week was a review week for our reading series so I took the opportunity to use Pete the cat. We were reviewing the letters s and p. So I thought that was a great chance to use Pete the cat. My students love Pete. We have read both books several times but just for fun. This week we made a character chart, wrote about Pete, sequenced the events, made our own Pete's, unscrambled sentences about Pete. It was tons of fun and the kids practiced some great skills. It was a combination of activities from Deanna Jump's unit and Fran Kramer's unit. They both have great ideas. I was really impressed with how well my kiddos did making their own Petes. I used my document camera to demonstrate what to do as we followed Deanna Jump's instructions for making one without a pattern. While I didn't do it exactly as she recommended, I thought they turned out well. Today we wrote sentience to describe our Pete's. We used the word like instead of love though because like was one of our popcorn words. I also used Pete to talk to my kids about attitudes and not worrying about things. I'm going to be out on Monday and Tuesday for a some personal time and camping. This is the first time I've been out and my kiddos are a little sensitive about change. So we talked about how Pete handles change. I think it helped some. We'll see. Thanks to Crystal at Kreative Kinder for her sub tub. I got it when she was having a giveaway a while back. It was such a big help in getting ready for the sub.

 Here are our finished Pete's. I was pretty impressed with how far we've come with following directions and cutting.

This is the Pete the Cat, Chris made for our character chart.

Yesterday in the middle of finishing our Petes, the power kept flickering off and on. We had heavy winds and it was knocking the power out. I finally gave up on the document camera and projector and we hurried to finish Pete. But meanwhile, the power went off for about 2 hours during lunch and specials. It was crazy. The kids didn't want to go in the bathroom because it was so dark. Not that I could blame them. Then today we had to have an impromptu assembly in the gym so the superintendent could speak to the faculty. The kids were crazy. It was a wild week in kindergarten and I'm sure next week will be the same since I'll be out two days.
What did you do this week? I'm linking up with Clutter Free Classroom's weekly linky party. Click here to see what others are doing in their class.

I'm so excited!

Over at Rowdy in First Grade, Jennifer has challenged bloggers to post something positive today. This is my effort at meeting that challenge.
I have had a hard time staying positive so far this year. It feels like we go a step forward and then 2 steps back. But I'm determined to keep a good attitude. So here are some things I'm excited about:

• I'm really excited about scrapbook paper. It can make anything look prettier. I've redone my center chart using scrapbook paper and the kids pictures. I also took boring old coffee cans and turned them into pretty containers for markers.
• Today we used m and m's for math.The kids sorted them, counted them, and then ate a couple. 
• Blogging. I love reading everyone's blogs and getting great new ideas. I feel like I'm a much better teacher already just by using the ideas and inspiration found on other blogs.
• Pete the Cat and Pete the Cat Rocking His School Shoes. I introduced my class to Pete the cat last week and they loved him. When we had open house, one little girl had to show her grandmother the book. She gave me the money to get the new Pete the Cat book. We're loving them both in Ms. Kerri's class.
• Fall is coming soon. I love Fall and Halloween and Thanksgiving. I look forward to all the fun activities going on and beautiful leaves and decorations.
• Nieces. I have the cutest niece in the world. Sophie. Yesterday she was blowing me kisses when we left. Plus she really loves the Dr. Jean song "Banana Dance." We do the ketchup one all the time. My boyfriend also has the sweetest niece Kaley who is getting to be a lot of fun. She's almost 4 months old and she's so smiley.
• Dr. Jean songs
• That I'm finally starting to get in a routine at school. We've been through half a week of centers and it's going well.

I don't know why my pictures are so wonky. But those are some positives in my life. What's going well in yours? Join the linky party.