Classroom Volunteer Gifts

I love my classroom volunteers! They support both my students and myself in so many ways every single day! This year I am lucky to have a classroom volunteer every day (parents and grandparents)! I even have 3 Art Docents (also parent volunteers) signed up this year... some classrooms have no volunteers!

I wanted to send a little Thank You Christmas gift to each volunteer. I searched Pinterest :) and this is what I came up with.

That is a bottle of the foamy Bath and Body Works hand soap with a tag that reads:

Hands

Down

you are the

best

classroom 

volunteer 

around!

Click the picture to download a free copy of the tags!

It's almost here...Cyber Monday!

So this year I planned on avoiding the Black Friday madness... then many stores decided to open Thursday night (Grey Thursday?) and my husband talked me into going out. What for? The StarWars blue ray box set... yes... we finally found it at the second store we went to, but the line was waaaaaay too long for a one-item purchase!

So we went home (after I rummaged through Bath and Body Works!) and I got online. I was pleasantly surprised at all of the online Black Friday Deals! That got me even more excited for the upcoming TPT cyber Monday deals!

I have been adding items to my cart for over a week! I am so so excited! 

All items in my store with be 28% off--don't forget the Promo Code: CYBER!

Here are some of my most popular winter products!

$2.00 = regular price

$3.00 = regular price

$4.00 = regular price

**I am working on updating this product to include an Array-hunt game 

and more real-life story problems that involve using arrays.

Always free :)

Columbus Wrap Up

My students and I had a lot of fun learning all about Christopher Columbus this past week.

First, we watched a quick video from Discovery Education that highlighted Columbus and what he is known for. 

Next, because we have been working very hard on complete sentences, after we completed this chart, each student chose one statement to write about Columbus...and I taught them how to draw a ship!

Then, we read a Scholastic Weekly Reader magazine dedicated to Mr. Columbus. Each student in my class has a subscription to the Scholastic Weekly Reader. We LOVE our magazines! They are filled with fun facts, current events, and TONS of non-fiction text features!!!

In our magazine we learned that one of the treasures Columbus took home with him was pineapple! Interesting, right!?  One of my wonderful parent volunteers comes once a month to bake something with the birthday kids for that month so I found a pineapple sponge cake recipe for them to make us!

While the birthday kids are learning about measurement, following directions, and baking safety, the rest of us are reading the recipe and predicting what the final product will look like!

I was a little worried that my 2nd graders wouldn't enjoy pineapple cake, but they LOVED it!!! Well, all but one little guy loved it :)

Next month I will add in a data collection piece and create a graph that shows who loved it and who didn't so much.

I had sooooo many kiddos tell me how excited they were to have the recipe so they could go home and have mom make it :)

Last week was a really great week! I don't think they will ever forget that Columbus treasured pineapple!

This week we are having our Halloween celebration at school and the following week is Fall Conferences. 

Pumpkin carving and pumpkin seed roasting at the Helm house this weekend!

Thanksgiving is just around the corner! What better way to get your kiddos to practice their math facts but to put them on a Thanksgiving Placemat?! Be sure to check out this {FREEBIE} at my store:

Vowel Posters

Happy Friday! Oh, this weekend couldn't have come soon enough! My husband was out of town for three days this week on a fishing trip for work... why doesn't teaching come with perks like that?! :) Oh right, we get every holiday off... and summer... :) But I still missed him, and it made the week seem so much longer!

Well, all of my reading stations are allllllmost up and running. 

We have been doing RTS, RTSo, LTR, and Work on Writing... we have spent some extra time on these four rotations because that RTSo station is just so hard to keep at a whisper level.  And I am determined to make stations work this year... so I am putting in my time to set expectations!

As I began introducing the Word Work station this week I realized I needed some vowel posters. Most of my 2nd graders know their vowel "lickety-split!" as one of my sweet little girls would say.

But for the few who are still working on this, I felt posters would be helpful.

I couldn't quite find the ones I wanted on TPT, so I created my own!

Click on the pictures or {here} to download your free copy!

What do you think? Helpful?

Week One: Check!

Well, Week One is officially in the books. And it was a great first week!

I made a promise to myself that this year I would not rush into curriculum, but rather, I would spend more time setting up routines, procedures, expectations, and I would build our classroom community.

We did just that! 

We talked a lot about our school rules (SEARCH Guidelines... we are the Explorers)

Safety for all

Eager to Learn

Accountable for actions

Respectful to all

Cooperative with others

Have a Bully Free School

Mostly we talked about what this looked like when we are in the classroom, hallway, lunch (gym), and at recess.

We talked a lot about my behavior management system. 

I have never had so many students end their day on pink!!! I loved signing the "Outstanding" notes each day, too!

I loved getting to know my students this week. Each day I had a "get to know you" activity planned. 

We talked about our First Day Feelings with the help of Nemo

We shared interesting information about ourselves with M&Ms :) thank you She's Crafty for this great idea!

We practiced being Bucket Fillers! Thank you Alisha {Bubbly Blonde Teacher} for the freebie!!!

My 2nd graders are awesome bucket-fillers so far! They totally get it!! Tomorrow we are making our Bucket-filler book, I can't wait to hear their ideas!

We also made our All About Me pennants :) They turned out great!

Click {here} for the freebie!

Whelp! I am ready for this coming week. Plans are made and I am ready to take on our first full week!

But I'm not going to lie... I am ready for next weekend, too :) 

I love having so much time with my husband... love it!

And the winner is...

Thank you to everyone who entered this super fun giveaway! I wish all of you could win. But there can only be one, so congratulations to....

Rafflecopter randomly chooses one person from all of the entries. It looks like Emmalee was entry #155 and chose the option to "Follow my blog".

Awesome!

Congratulations!! I have your email address (blacked out above for privacy). I will send it to Katie at Wise Decor and she will be contacting you soon!

Let me know which Wall Word you choose! :) 

Giveaway!

I am so excited to be hosting this giveaway for all of my blogger friends and followers!

Katie at Wise Decor Decorating contacted me asking if I would like to do a Giveaway and product review of their Wall Words products. This family-run business has been creating custom decorative wall decals, words, and quotes to help us decorate our homes since 2003. 

I jumped at the chance because let me tell you...my friends and family are obsessed with vinyl decals like the Wall Words and Wall Decals! 

In fact, about two years ago I somehow talked my husband to let me put a huge vinyl "wish" on our old bedroom wall :) It is beautiful and I am secretly hoping we have a baby girl one day so we can keep it up since that room would be the nursery. 

Katie was kind enough to let me choose the Wall Words I would be reviewing :) This was a difficult yet easy process. 

Difficult because there is SO MUCH TO CHOOSE FROM...and I wanted to choose just the right one! They even have a special spot dedicated to classroom-perfect Wall Decals! 

On the other hand, choosing my Wall Words was super easy because their selection, editing, and ordering process is fool-proof! There are many colors, fonts, and sizes to choose from that make it all that much more fun and personalized to you and the space you intend to place the product!

So here is the quote I chose

Students may forget what you said, 

but they will never forget how you made them feel

I decided on this very special quote because I felt like I might need this reminder throughout this school year in particular. Being a National Boards Candidate I have been told that I will be overwhelmed, stressed, unsure of myself, and constantly challenged, busy, out of time...I don't ever want to lose sight of why I am teaching nor why I am going for my National Boards. I believe in the power of quotes and positive thoughts, and this one is perfect!

FYI: I chose purple... my favorite color :)

When I received my package (YAY!) I was a little nervous because applying the "wish" in my bedroom was extremely challenging (not a Wise Decor Decorations product). At one point I wanted to just rip it all down and throw it away! Thankfully my husband is much more level headed than I am and was able to help me get it on our wall. So I was a little apprehensive to be applying these Wall Words all on my own. 

Included in the package were step by step directions and a little squeegee to help support me.

All I needed was my Wall Words, masking tape, pencil, ruler and the squeegee. Five easy steps later...voila!  It was on the wall! I love it!!!! 

It is in the perfect spot... my work space at home. I spend A LOT of time in that chair!

Now for the Giveaway! You have many chances to enter (using the Rafflecopter below) and win your own $75 gift certificate to Wise Decor Decorations! Hurry, hurry! You have until Sunday (8/25/13) night to enter! I will announce the winner Monday morning!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!