Loving the Silence

I'm going to start this post like so many of us are thinking:

"I cannot believe it's August ALREADY!?!? Where does the time go?!?!"

So here's what is currently happening:

So here's my short explanation to go with it all:

listening: there is nothing on in our apartment right now! Awesome! 

loving: We leave for Colorado on Thursday and have stops planned in Vegas, Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park. Then off Colorado. On the way home we will stop at the Grand Canyon and then straight back to sunny so cal! 

thinking: packing, laundry, dr. appointment, hair apointment, blogging, Autism Authorization work, errands and more! Gotta get it all done! 

wanting: I have an itch to shop. I particularly would like a maxi dress or two, some new tops, maybe a few new pants or skirts.... just wanting to shop! 

needing: I wish that my lesson plans would plan themselves! Summer is not the same when you have to crack something like that open at some point! 

B2s must haves: 

I love this lesson plan book - 

I love these pens - 

And I have spent way too much time on my pinterest boards looking for things to add into my repertoire! Love that site! I makes teacher work a bit easier! 

There's my post for today! hope you enjoyed my currently! 

PS. In case I did not mention it before, I will be posting on the SoCal Blog 2x a week - Tuesday and Thursdays! Head on over now and check out today's post! Better yet, follow and visit regularly! 

Around the Room

I've been working hard all week on bulletin boards, cleaning, organizing and just generally getting ready to welcome parents into my classroom! 

Here's how some of it turned out:  

Parents were greeted with this cute info packet and a tasty apple! 

The rhyme on the tag says:

"An apple for the teacher is really nothing new except when you rememebr that parents are teachers too! I'm looking forward to working with you and your child this year!" 

This is a new activity this year! The kids have loved it and it can be as short or as long as you like! I call it my Buzz Book (got that from another teacher somewhere... can't remember who!?!) but this is generally a morning message. So far we have focused on finding nouns and verbs as sentence parts. 

Our Word of the week each week is from our current social studies or science unit! I even teach the kids a hand motion to go with it! This has increased their comprehension of certain concepts quite a bit! Plus our number of the week too! 

The lettering turned out great! Love it! 

 This borad may change a bit through out the year, but for now, it has a great anchor chart that lists strategies for solving math problems! 

 I love how the lettering turned out on this board! 

 Our reading board! 

 Another great anchor chart that we did this year! 

And here's my board for outstanding work! The lettering and turned out great and so did the hippos! 

This is my Character trait themed door! You can even see one of my GLAD posters! Love this strategy to teach character traits! 

And here's an old favorite! Along with another one below! These have held up so well that htey didn't need changing! (BTW I have had the fade proof paper up for about 2-3 years. Love that stuff! It has held up quite well!)

A special thanks to my awesome aides and my hubby who all helped me cut out letters, words, and clean through out the week! 

So that's me strutin my stuff... go check out what everyone else made over @ Six Sisters Stuff! 

Back to School Night!

Tonight is Back to School Night at my school!

Here's a little peek into my classroom and some of my prep work to give my classroom a little polish:

**Please note that none of these boards are completely done... all of it is a work in progress! Also, I would not have slept last night if i had done this all by myself! A BIG HUGE THANKS to my classroom aides and to my hubs who helped me cut out all you see in the tub pictured below! 

Also, today we celebrated Johnny Appleseed Day! 

Ignore how tired i look and check out the cute hat!

More on this in another post! 

This is Mrs. Simone Appleseed signing off...