Visit to The Capitol

So today was "Hill Day". The day that all the newly certified National Board Certified teachers in the state of Kentucky were honored at the state capitol. Being the first at my school to certify, I had no idea what to expect. So I RSVP'd and went. We were allowed to bring one guest- our administrators. So, I took a half day and my principal and I made the 15 minute commute to Frankfort to visit the capitol. It was a rainy, nasty day and I was not feeling 100%, but we went anyway.  We checked in had a huge group picture made, listened to many "big shots" speak and learned that today was officially named NBCT Day in KY. After the greeting and guest speakers we were escorted to the Senate to be recognized in their chambers. However, they were in session and the wait took a little longer than expected. After waiting about an hour we were finally escorted into the chambers. (This is after MANY people had given up on the wait and left.) The teacher in me was very excited to see it all in action. We were greeted by the Senators, recognized by one of them who presented us and they all stood up and recognized us. It was pretty cool to be recognized for all our hard work- I must say. Then we headed up front to the podium area and had another group photo. After the photo session we were escorted to The House of Representatives where the plan was to do the same there. However, I opted out of the wait and my principal and I headed out early.  I was so glad I went and I did manage to take a few pictures to share with my class tomorrow. 

No- I did not take this one. I wish it was this nice today.
Source: Google Search- KY tourism website.

Now, on to TV watching. LOTS of good stuff on tonight and I hope to get a few other things done like unload the dishwasher, respond to some emails and put away the giant pile of discarded clothes that are in the floor of my closet. If I am feeling really crazy I might even put away all of the serving dishes that are still piled on the table from dare I say- our Super Bowl party 3 weeks ago! We will see.
Hope you have a much more productive evening!

For more information on how you can become Nationally Board Certified go HERE.
I would HIGHLY recommend it.

Teacher Talk Thursday

Thursday is nearly over and I am not one to usually wish away life, but THANK GOODNESS this week is coming to a close. I am worn out, my house is filthy and I just need a big ol' nap! I am hoping this weekend involves time to clean and sleep. A magical cleaning lady showing up at my door would be even nicer, but since my mom is in Vegas this week and she is the closest I know to a magical cleaning lady, I guess I will have to do it myself.

Things have been really busy in my classroom this week. We have been reviewing place value, learning all about Black History, working hard on our Daily 5, and our cereal box book reports among many other things. Since I did not make up a topic for this week's Teacher Talk, I thought I would share some pictures from my kiddo's book projects.

They were to read a realistic fiction chapter book and do a book report. Not just any book report but a CEREAL BOX BOOK REPORT. Have you ever done these? This meant they had to create a cereal that had something to do with the book they read. The cereal box was covered with information about the book, included a game relating to the book and even a prize inside that connected to the story. They then had to write and preform commercial to share about their book./cereal. I video taped these commercials and they were a hoot! I found this idea HERE. From my dear friend (not in real life) Beth. I LOVE her ideas. I had never done it before and I worried what they might show up with. (If they even showed up with anything!)  I sent home a complete packet explaining all parts of the project, posted info and examples on my classroom blog and emailed parents to remind them. Let me tell you they did an outstanding job and EVERYONE participated!! I was so thrilled.

Here are some pictures of the finished products of a few of the kids that presented today:

That would be "Zombie Oos"- in case you were confused by the backward z. :)

I had to share a picture of this little guy.
He wore a shirt and tie and acted as the CEO of the cereal company he named after him!
SOOOOO CREATIVE.

I have the info packet that I sent home to parents if you are interested let me know and I will email it to you.
These were SO MUCH FUN & I can't wait for round two of the commercials tomorrow.
Hope you are having a GREAT Thursday!!

Link up and share something that is going on in your classroom! I love to see all of your ideas.

NEXT WEEK'S TOPIC: MY DAILY SCHEDULE.
I love to hear how other people's day are scheduled at their school. Please come back and share what a typical day in your classroom is like!




LINK UP HERE:

Stay Little.

All is quiet in the house, Stuart is at the gym and I am just doing laundry. Oh yes- I did manage to wash a PullUp in the last load. Hooray for gel balls all over everything! ugh. So after that mess was cleaned up I did notice that things were a little too quiet. I walked into the living room to find this guy.

Quietly playing games on my phone. He was so cute all curled up in the chair with his BFF Mickey. So as a grab my camera for a quick picture I could not help but think to myself that one day he will be big. He will soon be texting girls on his own phone and will want nothing to do with me. TEAR. Not sure why these thoughts took over. Could be the fact that he looked SO BIG just lying there, playing games with no help needed. I understand that to you he may seem so little, but to me he is just growing so fast. I just want to bottle up his sweet little voice, his adorable grin and the way he loves his momma so I can drink it up when he is a loud, stinky teenager texting girls and ignoring me. So for now I am going to go attempt to get some snuggles and beg him to stay little forever - that is if I can pull the phone away long enough. ha.

HAPPY SUNDAY.

AND THE WINNER IS...

CONGRATULATIONS TO DANA BAKER!

You are the winner of the download of your choice from Babbling Abby's TPT store!

WAHOO! Thanks so much for playing along.

One of us Abbys will be contacting you soon with details!

Enjoy!

Beautiful Day In The Bluegrass!

IT IS A BEAUTIFUL DAY! The sun is shining and it is nearly 55 degrees outside- I am in love with the weather. I am also in love with the chipper 2 year old who was awoken by the sunshine and proceeded to come into our room to wake us up this morning! He NEVER does that, we are usually dragging him out of bed in the morning to go to the sitter. So needless to say it was a surprise to see his toothy grin so early this morning.  Stuart headed to work and C and I headed to the park. It was so nice to spend the morning together. We walked a lap around the park stopping to see the ducks and then heading to the playground. We had the whole playground to ourselves and that was soooooo nice. He was everywhere and loving every minute of it and I was the momma following him around with the camera in shock at all the things he could do without my help.
HE IS SO BIG.

After about an hour of playing and picture taking we walked further on the walking trail to see the horses. Clark had no fear of them and wanted to "find the farmer" so we could get in the gate to get an even closer look. I then had to explain that we could not go in the fence, but soon the horses came to us. Clark talked to them all and told them all about the playground and that he wanted "ChickALay" for lunch. The kid was cracking me up! He did have a great idea though and we made the hike back to our car and headed to our favorite hot spot Chick-Fil-A per his request and picked up a tasty lunch. When we walked in the door he says "Momma, I had a good day at the park wif you". MELT MY HEART. It was the sweetest thing. We then shared our lunch and now he is taking a nap and I might not be too far behind him! It is a beautiful day and I am so glad I got to share it with my beautiful boy!

Could someone please explain to me how my baby got so BIG?

He liked these two. He named them Donald & Daisy. Imagine that!

I hope you are enjoying your day!

Teacher Talk Thursday and Giveaway

So today I wanted to share some management ideas. I really think I picked this idea because I wanted to see what you do!! Once I got into my classroom and thought about what management ideas I wanted to share I was a little stumped! So I came up with a few things I do that work in my room- hoping that a few of you play along and share some even better ones.

One behavior management strategy we use at our school is a marble system we call MARBLE MANIA. The kids earn marbles for good behavior in the hallway, lunchroom, in special area classes and for going above and beyond in the classroom. It is a whole class activity. Every time the kids earn 100 marbles we get to have some sort of celebration. Our PTO gives us $50.00 a year to spend on marble parties and I have done all sorts of things. Usually I let the class have a say in the reward. We have had movie and popcorn, pj party with hot cocoa, Tye dyed t-shirts, dance parties, board game parties and this year I borrowed a cotton candy machine and we had extra time outside while enjoying fresh cotton candy- that was fun!
So to keep track of our earned marbles I have a magnetic chart that hangs on my board. We transfer our "marbles"- jelly beans from one bag to the other. This is a student job, he does it every time we earn one. Having a student responsible of it has been a great help this year. I got the chart from my favorite place: Really Good Stuff. I am sure it is for the 100th day of school, but this is how I use it in my room.

WE ARE ONLY 10 MARBLES AWAY FROM A PARTY!!







Another positive motivator I use is a Classroom Reward Bingo board. I have been using this for two years and it has been a HUGE motivator for my kids. It is not a difficult idea and is just another item I have ordered from Really Good Stuff. If I catch my kids doing something great I ask them to "sign the Bingo board". That is all it takes. I remind them at times that I am  "looking for someone to sign the Bingo board" and the desired behavior is usually  not far behind. I not only have individuals sign it, but I have whole teams, the whole class or whoever I catch doing great things. Once the kids have signed the board their name stays on the board until the board is filled and then we clean it off and start again.  I draw bingo every afternoon. Usually I draw two or three numbers a day. If your slot is chosen you get to pick off the prize board. My prize board has EASY rewards on it like- Pick Your Seat (they get to pick their spot the next day like my chair, the kidney table, the carpet etc.), Pop For Snack, Computer Pass, Homework Pass, Bring Something to Share, Lunch Bunch (pick a friend and eat in the classroom), Positive Note or Call Home, Treasure Box and things like that. You could totally make your own Bingo board like this, but in my opinion it was totally worth the $6.99 I paid for it! :)



I know those things are not much, but those are just a few things that work for me!
What works for you?

I also had to share a few doors from some of my colleauges. I mentioned in an earlier post that at my school we decorate our doors like book covers in celebration of I Love To Read Month. Here are a few that I thought were looking good, oh and mine again! Everyone is not done with theirs yet, but I love how the school looks with the adorable doors.

HOW DOES A GIVEAWAY SOUND??
So this week I have teamed up with another Abby for my 1st GIVEAWAY!!
I know you all know her as Babbling Abby and I am sure you follow her blogs.
If not you can find her HERE or HERE.
Today we are giving away ONE ITEM OF YOUR CHOICE from Abby's Teacher's Pay Teachers shop! Yes, her items are geared more toward the K-1, so if you don't teach K-1 I am sure you could find someone that would be more than happy to have one of her WONDERFUL digital downloads! I love them all!

SO, with all that being said here is how YOU can win.
1st- Head over to Abby's shop and pick out what you hope to win!

• One Entry for following  my blog and leaving me a comment telling me which item you hope to win.
• One Entry for following Abby's NEW Teacher Blog.
• One Entry for following Abby on Teacher's Pay Teachers.
• One Entry for linking up this week for Teacher Talk Thursday.

Winner will be announced no later than SATURDAY evening. If your email address is not active on Blogger, please make sure to leave it in your comment so we can reach you!

Thanks for stopping by! I can't wait to see what you all have to share this week.
Please let me know if you have an idea for a future Teacher Talk topic.
Happy Thursday.

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What I am Loving Wednesday.

I am linking up with sweet Jamie today as I take a few minutes to think about a few things I am LOVING today.

1. I AM LOVING these BEAUTIFUL flowers that my sweet husband sent me today. I LOVE getting flowers at school and I love the guy that sent them to me.

2. I AM LOVING Britney S. Peirce from GLEE. She makes me laugh out loud. I just love her so much. If you don't watch GLEE I recommend it. It is a guaranteed smile.

3. I AM LOVING all my new sweet followers. Thanks so much for following along. I love your comments. (If you are a teacher or teacher to be come back and link up tomorrow.)

4. I AM LOVING that tonight is Wednesday and we are eating dinner at church. That means I don't have to cook and better yet, I don't have to clean dishes!

5. I AM LOVING that Disney Junior  (The new Playhouse Disney) has a new show. Clark is LOVING Jake and The Never Land Pirates. I love it because it is a break from the usually requested Mickey or Imagination Movers and it is actually quite cute.

6. I AM LOVING that it was nearly 60 degrees outside today and we got to have RECESS. I totally would have let them stay out there for a few hours if it was allowed. We all needed it.

7. I AM LOVING that TOP CHEF is on tonight. I just love that show.

8. I AM LOVING that I am almost done with my division unit. It is like my least favorite thing to teach, and they are finally mastering it and we get to move on. HOORAY!!

9. I AM LOVING buying, washing and folding tiny little underwear! They are just so stinkin' cute!

10. I AM LOVING my sweet boys as always!

HAPPY WEDNESDAY!!