Dr. Seuss

How cute is this little wocket! I received this awesome little animal and book for Christmas from my husbands wonderful mother. I have been SO excited to share them with my students for Dr. Seuss week. She purchased them at Kohls.

Kohls cares is a program committed to kids health and education. They feature an author and have books that are hardcover for five dollars! What a deal! You can also pick up a cute stuffed animal to go with the book for five more bucks!  Right now they are featuring Eric Carle click HERE to check it out and order one for yourself. 

I also made a collection of some of my favorite Dr. Seuss quotes to share with my class this week. If you are interested you can print yourself a copy HERE. P.S I still haven't figured out how to show a preview of the google document I want to share. So if you know and want to teach me I would love it! That was fast! Thank you to Kathy over at First Grade al a Cart I now know how to show the image of my google documents! I'm so excited!

Last but not least if you haven't entered to win Donna Glynn's Dr. Seuss giveaway on Erica Bohrer's First Grade Blog click this link to enter! I would be SO excited to win this, contest ends on March 1st.

Musical Giveaway!

I don't know about you but I get SUPER excited when I see that blogs are doing giveaways! Mrs. Edwards over at ED Link 123 is having a great giveaway. I get the lucky opportunity of teaching in the same district with her. We also taught summer school together which made it so much more fun having her around. I get excited for our district grade level meetings because it means I get to catch up with her! She is adorable! Mrs. Edwards had the great idea of doing a giveaway for all of our faithful followers. Yes it may be few but we are excited about you! We are teaming up to give one of our lucky followers a copy of their choice from any three musicals below! What a deal! One lucky winner will receive a packet that includes EVERYTHING from sheet music, speaking parts, a CD with and without the vocals, and ideas for costumes. This would be perfect for your spring musical! 

 Please click the link below the picture to get more info.

Go Fish!

Three of a Kind

Bugs!

You have two chances to enter.

1. Be a follower of Mrs. Edwards over at Ed Link 123 blog

2. Be a follower of my blog

Leave Mrs. Edwards a comment letting us know you have done these two things. Comment twice to get two entries. :) 

It's that simple. Oh, make sure you include which musical you'd like and leave her your email. 

The winner will be announced Wednesday around 8-ish.

Best of luck!

President's Day

On Friday I read a few books to my students about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. I created two posters with their pictures on it so we could write down facts about them as they listened to the stories. I got the idea for these art pictures from The First Grade Sweet Life. She also has an awesome syllable presidents day sort that my students loved. Also Mrs. Walksy created a cute picture presidents day book that my class enjoyed.

My students went crazy over these faces they liked them so much they were begging to get to make their own. :) So I decided to let them create one and also do a writing project with it. Since we aren't lucky enough to have the ENTIRE week off like some of  you lucky teachers we will start this writing project on Tuesday. If you would like your own copy of the ws I have created click HERE. Below is a preview of the template they will use to write on. ENJOY your President's Day off!

100 Days of Learning!

We celebrated our 100th day of school on Wednesday February 17th! I got the idea of having a smarty hunt around the room from a blog. I later tried to find it again and could not. I searched high and low so I could link it on here I'm sorry no link. My students LOVED the 100 smarty hunt. My friend and I labeled 100 smarties in groups of 10 numbered from 1-10. Then I hid the smarties around the room. The students went on a hunt and when they found one they had to place it in the correct group. Our math lesson that day was learning how to sort and group by tens and then counting by tens to 100. I put it on our bulletin board in our classroom. The smarty pants clipart is from The Inspired Apple.

When I was growing up I don't think we celebrated the 100th day. I grew up in WA and my husband grew up in CA and he does not remember doing this either. When I did my student teaching in Las Vegas I found out what the "100th" day meant. It was HUGE! I thought it was pretty fun to celebrate learning and so easy to  incorporate activities related to this day.  Here are two downloads I did with my students last year.  Click HERE to download Guess and Check in 100 seconds WS. Click HERE for a directions ws on how to make a 100th day fruit loop necklace.

I also had my students draw a picture of what they would look like when they turn 100. One of my students brought her picture back to me and it kind of confused me. She drew her grave with flowers around it! Sweet girl said Mrs. Ward I don't want to be alive when I'm 100! I had to laugh inside and then told her she was very creative. They also wrote in their journals about what they would do if they had 100 of something they really loved this writing prompt. 

Favorite Websites

Here is a list of some of my favorite websites not in any particular order.

1.  CLIP ART! My go to place for some cute clipart for my newsletter and other ws is lakeshorelearning.com click on free resources. They also have some lesson plans and art activites. Click HERE to find the free resources section of their website. Another great place for clipart is discovery eduction click HERE to check it out.

2. FONTS! I love love using fun and creative fonts but I definitely don't want to pay for them. Here are some awesome sites to download free and fun fonts for your classroom worksheets and newsletters.  These first two links are from Kevin & Amanda thank you for sharing with us!

Click here for FONTS FOR PEAS

Click here for more awesome FREE FONTS

Simply The Best Kids Fonts for free

3. Phonics Centers Activities Grades K-5 From Florida Centers for Reading Research. Wow do they have some awesome center activities. I used ALOT of them during summer school last year. The kids enjoyed them and they were very helpful. Click here to visit FCRR.ORG for some free center games!

4. Of course BLOGS BLOGS BLOGS! What an awesome way to see what other teachers are doing in their classrooms. Here are a few of my favorite teacher blogs I have come across so far. 

The First Grade Parade

The Inspired Apple

What The Teacher Wants

Fabulous In First

Oceans of First Grade Fun

Mrs. Jumps Class

Ed Link 123

The Teacher Wife

Finally In First
Erica Boher. I just purchased her reading response activity book using my bonus point from scholastic and love it. So I was excited to come across her blog! 

5. Teachers Pay Teachers.com  what a great way for teachers to make some extra money. We all know we don't get paid enough for what we do but we love what we do and the money doesn't matter. I just recently purchased Michelle Oakes Place Ten Value activities because I downloaded her sample and my students LOVED it. Click HERE to download her free sample of Place Ten Value Mystery Picture and to purchase the rest!  Click HERE to visit the teachers pay teachers store.


7. Santa-Maria Bonita School District If your district uses Houghton Mifflin than you will LOVE what this teacher share website has to offer. They have morning messages, banners for each theme, language practice ws, vocabulary cards for each story (my favorite I use when I introduce the new vocabulary words), readers theaters to go with some of the stories, and some great ideas for focus walls. 

 

Small things can bring a big smile :)

I was correcting fact assessments tonight and found this little message below. It brought a smile to my face. Oh how I enjoy being a teacher. :) I have such sweet students.

Giveaways Galore

One of my VERY favorite blogs is having a FABULOUS giveaway her site is Fabulous in First. Go check it out and enter yourself you don't want to miss this opportunity to win her awesome stuff! Click HERE to enter, you won't be disappointed!

Adventures of Room 129 is also having a give away. The clock is ticking....click HERE to see details for this giveaway.

I Heart U Day!

First I just want to start by saying how much I love Valentines Day. I love the crafts, books, and of course exchanging Valentines and seeing how much fun my little students have.  Last week my class and I created this bulletin for in front of our classroom. Since our 100th day is tomorrow I thought this was a great way to celebrate V-Day and 100th day all in one. This idea came from a Mailbox magazine. P.S. I have to give a shout out to my hubby for helping line up 100 hearts and gluing them on for me. Yes my students did come up with 100 different things they love about first grade! Way to go firsties!

Here are the bags my students created. I got the idea from the blog The First Grade Parade thank you for sharing your idea!

Parent Teacher Conference Ideas

Since I just finished parent teacher conferences I thought I would share my ideas for what I do. First I create a folder for each student in my class. In the folder I have papers organized in the order of what I want to talk about with the parents. PS. I really enjoy parent-teacher conferences and getting to hear what my students go home and tell their parents at school. One reason I feel like PTC goes smoothly for me is if I do have any concerns or issues with a student I have already been talking with that parent and there shouldn't be any surprises. First I start off my telling a "glow" (positive) about their child and then a "grow" something their child can work on. Below is the PDF of what I put in the folder. Last year I used something different to write my positive but my co-worker this year gave me the idea of the glow and grow which I thought was adorable. You can do one for academics and or behavior.

Click HERE  to Download "Glow & Grow"

I was taught to have the parents sit next to you instead of across the table. So I have them sit next to me so we can both go through the folder and talk together.

I also like to give a little thank you to my parents for taking the time to come and conference with me. In the fall I use the water bottles and in the winter I use hot chocolate packets. You can download the pdf at the link below.

Click HERE to download the winter hot coco thank you papers.

Click HERE to download the water bottle thank you pdf.

What do you do for parent teacher conferences? I would love to hear!

Meet The Teacher

Hi everyone! My name is Nicole and I just recently turned 26 big ones! This is my second year of teaching in first grade. I have LOVED every minute of it.

 I'm from the Seattle, WA area but my husband and I are living in Idaho while he finishes his bachelors in business. We were married in August of 2009 and are anxious to see where life takes us next! My husband is originally from California so hopefully we end up in WA or CALI. 

The thought of leaving my school I teach at now is a little depressing but hopefully I will find another great school.  

I have two younger sisters and a brother in law two adorably cute nephews who I miss so much!! The are picture below along with my amazing parents. This picture is missing my hubby :( 

The picture below is my nephews Nash & Kade in their matching pjs from Uncle Graig & Aunt Nicole :) You can tell they just woke up. LOVE THEM SO MUCH!!!

This is the Ward family in St. George for Thanksgiving. I feel so blessed to have married into such an incredible family. 

My sisters Sheila & Breana I'm the oldest. 

Below is my parents dog Roxy I love and miss her so much she is part of the family.

Roxy is a Shiba Inu and has a funny personality.

Summer VACA with the Wards celebrating Jamies Graduation in Venice and a Cruise around the Greek Isles

Venice! Grand Rialto Bridge in the background from the balcony of our hotel. PS. I was super excited when I saw the book Olivia Goes to Venice was coming out I bought it the day it was out and read it to my class showing pictures of my family and I at all the places Olivia went. It was so fun to read!

I guess I should tell you a few more things about me. I love Target and I love their dollar spot for teachers. I could spend hours wondering around Target with a coke and some popcorn from their snack place. I love shopping, scrapbooking, and reading which I haven't had time for lately. I love going to the movies and watching movies at home with my hubby and friends. I'm a HUGE fan of games and card games. My new favorite that I got for Christmas is QWIRKLE.  I enjoy being in the sun which is making living in negative degree weather lately hard to bare. I enjoy going to the library and getting books for my students for each theme and looking around for books for myself. Currently I'm reading Because of Winn Dixie to my students they are loving it. We just finished reading the first book of The Boxcar Children which they loved as well. 

Now for the Q & A

Q: What would you be doing if you weren’t a teacher?                                              
A:  I would be a "Mom". Which I will someday but for now I'm enjoying my teaching career. 

Q: What are your hobbies?                                                                                     
A:  Teaching! Reading, organizing, scrapbooking, shopping, gaming, and blogging!                                                               

Q: When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?                      
A:  I have wanted to be a teacher since I can remember. My dad built my sisters and I a play house in the backyard with a chalkboard in it and that was my school house. I would pretend play school and be the teacher for hours! Good thing I had two younger sisters to help be my students.
    
Q: What are your guilty pleasures?                                                                   
 A: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies, COKE but recently DR.Pepper as well, candy, Target shopping, gossip girl, the bachelor, and Nordstroms.  

Q: What is your biggest fear?!                                                                        
 A: Snakes, spiders, earthquakes, driving on bad roads...the list could go on.

Q: When you’re on vacation, where do you like to go?                                    
 A: Somewhere warm where you can lay in the sun. Hawaii or Palm Springs would be nice!
                                                          
Q: What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?                                                   
A:  "Decisions determine your destiny" Thomas S. Monson

Q: What do you value most in others?                                                                    
A:  Honesty 

Q: If you could choose one of your personality traits to pass down to your kids, what would it be?                                                                                                         
A:  Caring, I would hope that they would be sensitive to others feelings and want to always make others feel happy. 

Q: If you could have lunch with anyone in the world….living or dead…who would it be?                                                                                                                
A:  My family & friends that are living far away from me!

Now tell us one random thing about yourself:

I broke my ankle during cheerleading practice two weeks before our competition!

Now it’s time for YOU to join the party!!!!  Here’s what you need to do:  Write a post titled “Meet The Teacher”.  Start with a brief “biography” and then copy & paste the Q&A {using your answers, of course!}  Copy the web address of your “Meet the Teacher” post and come back here & link up!  It would be GREAT if you could visit at least 3 other teachers…get to know a little bit about your fellow bloggers…and leave a comment!!!! Don't forget to grab a button when you link up!! 

Hello Blogging World!

I have truly enjoyed coming across some of the most amazing teaching blogs! A BIG THANK YOU to those awesome teachers who find the time to share there excellent ideas with the rest of us. I hope that I can contribute some of my ideas to others as well. I have no clue what I'm doing as far as blogging goes or creating one...my hubby helped me get this far :) so bare with me in the beginning.