A lovely gift

One of my girls got me a lovely gift today. She knows how obsessed I am with owls and brought me this owl necklace all wrapped up and labeled "to my sweet Ms. Handshoe"! How cute is that?

Spring Break!

Spring break is here and it is now almost over.   I must say I have really enjoyed being able to "sleep in" (minus my dog waking me up at 8:30 on the dot every morning).  Although, I do consider my "big girl adult sleeping in" to be 8:30-9:00 anyways. Only a few years ago in college I would sleep in until 11. Hah... not anymore...

Spring Break reminds me how much I love to craft because for one whole week... I actually have TIME for it!   So I finally finished my quilt that's been in progress since... oh lets say... September I think!  It came out super cute but I need to do a few touch-ups since I washed it and found out that I didn't quite sew the pieces together with tight enough stitches.  Oops, sure won't be making that mistake again!
I plan to post the pic when I fix it. (That is if I don't get lost in the classroom for another 5 months)

So switching from 2nd to 1st grade this year has been sooooo much harder than last year.  I was and still am having a hard time adjusting from the one measly year.   Or at least that's what I though it was going to be, just one year age difference.  Nope, it's a whole different ball game!   Well, after many many many different techniques for my math block I have finally come up with one that works well.  Go figure when there's only 2 months left of school I figure it out.  Same thing happened to me last year...
Well here's how I'm doing my math rotations.   4 groups of 4-5 kiddos; we make all four rotations each day. The first rotation is of course small groups.  I decided to combine our writer's workshop into the math block since we just didn't have time to get to it after, not to mention my kiddos have writing workshop down like nobodies business so it's a guaranteed 4-5 of my kiddos independent for 20 minutes. I'll take it.  :)   So that is one of their rotations, the next is their "rug" center.  Pretty simple they just choose one of the centers/games I have set out for them in their "rug" box and play independently or with a partner on the rug.   The next rotation was review seat work that I would go over with them before we began rotations.  Many times these would dry erase sheets or games to complete at their seats.  BUT I decided I want to have them begin a math journal for this rotation. After realizing how badly my kids weren't understanding word problems; I knew I had find a way to fit more in.  I dedicated some of my time today to create my first set of math journal entries.  I like the way they came out and I'm super excited to put them to the test next week.

Sooner or later I'm also going to make some kindergarten and 2nd grade versions. 

Whew! That was a long post.  :)

But one more thing, I'm really excited about this giveaway I found.  This looks like a really neat packet, my kids would love doing this. 

No portable?!?!

Just found out I actually won't be in a portable anymore.  

I've heard a few things. 1- they don't want the little ones to not have a bathroom in the classroom. 

And 2- the bathroom they were going to have to use for the portables sinks are too high for them to turn on the water.  I'm leaning towards the 2nd one since the room I'm going to be in now still doesn't have a bathroom. But the bathroom they will be using will have lower sinks. 

Any who, they should be ready by the end of the week so next week I will finally be setting up my classroom. :) 

Then I can post pics and such! 

Fall is here :)

Welp, it's looking like my portable won't be ready until the 12th. 

Here's to me hoping it doesn't actually take that long. 

I even offered to help paint it. haha! 

I am so happy that it's October because I love the fall. 

And I will have some time to do fall activities with my students! :)

I have to say I have been so blessed to be introduced to Thirty-One. 

I joined and became an independent consultant back in January and have been loving it! Not only do I make some extra money on the side but I also get tons of opportunities to earn free products. I just earned a kit of products in September and now I have another chance. Each week (for 6 weeks) we can earn a product in a special pattern.  

This week's product is the Timeless Wristlet which I have been wanting so bad! And since I am entering a party this week I'll be getting it for free :)

If anyone is interested in what Thirty-One is you can visit my website and/or join my Facebook group.

One of my previous co-workers is having an awesome ghostly good giveaway.

Go check it out.