We LOVE Maryland Blog Hop

We love Maryland for many reasons!  You probably already know that Maryland has some pretty awesome things; crabs, beaches, history and of course our TPT sellers rock too  

I grew up in Virginia and met my hubby at college (WVU), he is from Maryland and we moved here right after we got married!  I can't believe that I have lived here now for almost 25 years and am happy to call Maryland my home!  It's true that home is where your heart is because what I love best about Maryland is all the wonderful friends I have made and memories that I had while raising my family here!  What do you love about your home state?
Thanks for stopping by our fun blog hop!  

Click below for your Freebie of my $4 Winter Word Work Unit with over 20 pages of fun word work activities for your students!!!  

Click below and enter the Rafflecopter to win my giveaway for my Snowman Shades of Meaning pack!

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Be sure to check out these Maryland sellers…

Thanks for entering the fun and good luck!!!

Back to School Linky & Class Decorations

U My classroom is finally ready!  In my guided reading and small group math area, I created a fun beach theme using a palm tree that was created from an old carpet roll (Home Depot give away), brown lunch bags and an old umbrella covered with green fleece.  MeaningfulMama has a nice blog post with step by step pictures showing how to make your own tree here.  I also added a small kid sized beach umbrella and a paper lantern sun to my beach area! 

Tip -  In order to stand the umbrella and palm tree I used 5 gallon buckets from Home Depot that I filled with water bottles to weigh it down.  I bought PVC pipes from HD and they cut a hole in the top of the bucket lid so the PVC pipe would fit perfectly.  

Here is my new writing center!  I am really excited for this area and I am trying something new by having my writing center menu fully displayed this year.   I love having my writing center activities already set for each day of the week - it gives my student a schedule and they look forward to different days of the week and once they get into the routine they always know what to do at the writing center.  Check it out here for more details.

In my county, school starts on Monday and all across Maryland kids and teachers will all finally be back to school!  As a way to celebrate Techie Turtle Teacher, OC Beach Teacher and I have set up a Back to School linky party to gather some fantastic resources for everyone!  Please feel free to link up your back to school post, resource or freebie and make sure to visit each other's sites and leave some BTS love!! 

Must Read Monday or Wednesday

Ok so it's not Monday but I am still linking up with Kindergarten Planet and The Kindergarten Connection with their super fun Must Read Monday linky party!!

This week's theme is Just For Fun! If you are like me and you LOVE books then as soon as you read the theme funny books are probably popping into your mind! 

Here are a few of my favorite "Just for Fun" books to read to my sweet little students:

Falling for Rapunzel by Leah Wilcox is such a funny book, I ❤ it! Of course it is a fractured fairytale but what makes it so funny is the way Ranpunzel misunderstands everything the prince says to her. One example is when he asks her to throw down her golden locks, she throws him her dirty socks! My kids always crack up when I read this story!!

Julius, the Baby of the World by Kevin Henkes is a hilarious look at sibling rivalry when ✿ Lilly ✿ has a new brother that she does not like! She can't stand anything about him - until someone else doesn't like him and then in her true spirit she champions and defends him! 

Chester by Melanie Watt is a book that I read because I love Scaredy Squirrel and decided to try another one of her books! OMG is it funny! Chester is a cat who thinks the story show be all about him so he hijacks the book and with his red marker ✎, he rewrites the story the way he thinks it should be told! Melanie and Chester go back and forth in a super cute story that has a really funny ending! 

The Monster at the End of This Book is one of my all time favorite ☻ books! I remember reading this book when I was a kid!! Grover is so funny in this story and it is great how he talks to the readers directly, my class always enjoys it! I loved it so much, and even though I knew the ending I would beg my grandmother to read it to me again and again! 

I am off to jump over the this fun linky party that Kindergarten Planet and The Kindergarten Connection have put together so I can find some new books to add to my class library this year!! 

Thanks for stopping by and happy reading!!!!

Wordless Wednesday

I am linking up for the first time with Ms. DeCarbo over at Sugar and Spice for her fun link up called Wordless Wednesday.  

What do you think this little cutie is doing? 

I bet your are right, and I hope it makes you smile today!

Happy Wednesday everyone!! 

Holiday Linky Party

It's been snowing here all day and as far as I can tell, it has switched over to an icy rain mix now!  Brrrrrr!  It is beautiful to look at, I'm just hoping to get a snow day tomorrow so I won't have to drive in it!!

I just want to write a quick post today to share some holiday fun!   While I was surfing my favorite blogs today, I found this great linky party over at My Kinder Garden Blog.  Hop over there and check out all the amazing and cute holiday ideas in the linky!

My first Five for Friday!

I'm so excited to be joining Doodle Bug Teaching's fun Five for Friday linky party for the first time!  I always love reading what everyone is up to be but decided to jump in and join the fun this week!

1. In class we have been working hard for the past two weeks and learning all about the food groups!  This week we finished our final writing pieces and sorted foods to create our own My Plate of healthy eating.  My favorite activity was the food group poem and craft where my kiddos created themselves using food from the 5 food groups.  They turned out so cute!

All the activities we did are all available in my TPT store!  This is my latest product and I am so excited about it!  Please hop over and check it out!  

2.  I got my newest Loreen Leedy book, Jack and the Hungry Giant, in the mail last weekend which was perfect timing for our food group study!  It book has a cute twist on the classic Jack and the Beanstalk, where Jack climbs the beanstalk and meets a giant and learns all about healthy eating and choosing from the five food groups!  It is such a great book and the perfect edition to my classroom library, the kids LOVED it!  If you haven't already, go over the Bunting, Books and Bainbridge's blog to join her giveaway or go to Good Reads for your chance to win this great book!  

3. In math we are getting ready to start our graphing unit so I have been having fun getting all our fun graphing centers and activities together!  I found this cute graphing board that I starting following on pinterest - go check it out!  So many cute ideas!   In case you are looking for a quick and easy center for your graphing unit, check out my Build A Graph center!

4. My son came home from college for his fall break!   Yay!  Having him home was a treat all of it's own, but he surprised me by coming into my classroom to volunteer for the morning!  

He is a freshman at WVU, and is majoring in education!  He is going to be an awesome teacher!!  

5. It's that time of the year, homecoming!  Yet another reason to love the fall!  This picture is actually from last weekend's homecoming dance, but I just had to share this picture of my beautiful daughter all ready to go to homecoming with a big group of her friends!  

Thanks for stopping by and reading my Five for Friday!!   I am off to go and check out what everyone else has been up to!

Motivate Me Monday - First Day of School

Happy Monday everyone!  Today is the first day of school in my county so I am really happy to be linking up with First Grade Buddies and their Motivate Me Monday link party!  Hop over and check out some of the other motivational blog posts!

Since it is the first day of school today, I wanted to share a video with you.  It is a video of an amazing 10 year old boy who is giving a speech to a large group of teachers in Dallas, TX.  In his speech he asks the teachers if they believe in him, in his classmates and he asks if they believe in themselves.  He does a great job of reminding us all that our students need us to believe in them and in ourselves!

I hope you can take a few minutes to watch this video and maybe even share it with a few co-workers just as a reminder for us to believe in ourselves as much as we believe in each of our precious students.

Made It Monday - Chalkboard & Writing Center Makeovers

Since summer is almost over, I have been working on school projects like crazy!  I am happy to be linking up once again with Tara over at Fourth Grade Frolics!

I really wanted to revamp my word wall this year but couldn't decide how to do it because the only space that I have large enough for it is my yucky old chalkboard.  At first I started by covering it with paper but then my words did not magnet through the paper, so that was a bust!  Then I had an idea to paint it.  I used tempera paint and tested a small area to make sure my magnets would still stick and they did!  I poured the paint into a paint pan and used a roller to paint it on the board.  It was just as easy as painting a wall and I think it turned out so bright and clean.  I added some boarder and these cute letter signs by Amanda D and now I love it!

 

I was so excited about my chalkboard makeover that I decided to move on to my writing center.  I love this center and plan to use the same Daily Writing Center Menus that I used last year because they worked so perfectly.  Students always knew what to do when they came to the writing center and I didn't have to constantly change the materials but I wanted to give the bulletin board and baskets a makeover.  I found this super cute zebra border at the teacher store and grabbed the glue gun, my zebra ribbon and got to work!  I LOVE how it turned out and so excited to have my cuties come to this center and work on their writing.

My last project for this edition of Made it Monday was to make a new sign for my class library.  I found these cute cardboard alphabet letters, covered them with scrapbook paper and decoupaged them!  So easy and so cute!

I loved them so much that I made another sign using the cardboard that the letters were cut out of.  I painted to cardboard red and put scrapbook paper behind the cardboard.  I hung this sign up next to my guided reading table.

Thanks for stopping by, I can't wait to go see all the other Made It Monday links this week.  

Made It Monday Linky

I just love summer!  So much time for family, fun and crafting!!  After a week full of family fun at the beach, I came back home and got busy crafting!  I feel pretty lucky that I still have a few weeks left before I go back to school!

I am linking up again with Tara over at 4th Grade Frolics for her Made It Monday linky party!!

My first project was a frame for the first day of school.  I have been pinning and loving these since last year, so I am super happy to have finally gotten this off my long list of crafts to try!  My little frame is missing a "t" but not to worry, I found it and will reglue it tomorrow. 

Next, I was determined to give my table bins a quick face lift, so I got out my glue gun and some ribbon and went to work. 

Who knew black and white polka dotted ribbon would make such a difference? 

My next two projects were totally inspired by my zebra Duct Tape find at Staples!  I have a thing for Zebra and thought for sure I could find a good use to a few rolls of Zebra Duct Tape! 

I covered a few icing containers and added a cute red bow to make these pen holders.  I still have the lids so I could also use these to store all sorts of things in the classroom.

After I finished with the icing containers I covered this old cardboard wall cubie. 

They turned out so cute and only took me about 15 minutes.  I still have one whole roll of duct tape left over!  What should I cover next??

Make sure you head on over to 4th Grade Frolics to check out all the other fun projects!