A Very Belated Five for Friday

I have very much fallen off the face of the Earth the past week or so and missed the past two Five for Friday's with Doodle Bugs! So even though I am late...I'm going to post anyway :) I hope you'll forgive me!

1. This week was spring break and I was VERY busy! I started my spring break going to Asheville for four days with my love. Friends of ours from New York flew in to vacation with us. We had an amazing time! We rented a cabin in a small town called Marshall where we were introduced to the mayor our first night there! We shopped, ate, drank wine and local beer, ate some more, hiked on the Appalachian Trail, and laughed...laughed a lot! It was a great time! And as always, Hari and I left wondering..."why do we not live here?!" Someday...

2. The night we returned home from Asheville, I had to unpack and repack for a flight the next morning! My dad recently bought a home outside of Tampa and has been dying for me to visit. I flew down and my sister met me there. We were VERY busy and had so much fun. We even went to Busch Gardens!

3. With tomorrow being Easter, today we took care of all of our errands. We went on a MAJOR shopping spree! We checked out the Habitat ReStore (got GREAT DEALS! - look out for some of my finds on my personal blog!) We also went grocery shopping and to Lowes to pick up gardening supplies - spring has sprung in North Carolina and I cannot wait to get our garden started!

4. I can't send my students home for a break without a reading challenge of some sort. For spring break I made a fun and easy coloring reading challenge - I cannot believe that over 500 people have downloaded it! That is definitely a record for me thus far in my TpT endeavor  If you haven't begun your spring break yet - check it out!

5. As much as I did not have exactly a restful break with all my jet-setting and I really want just a few more things to get done around the house....I am excited to get back to work on Monday and see my kiddos (and Ms. Taylor, too!)

There it is! Time to enjoy the last bits of my spring break!

P.S. Monday is April 1st! Do you have your April Calendar Pieces yet? If not check out these fun patterned April themed pieces!

Five for Friday (and a secret!)

It's Five for Friday time with Doodle Bugs Teaching! Last week I linked up for the first time ever on my personal blog and then linked up for the first time ever on my teaching blog! I loved it so much, I'm here for a second helping.

1. It's almost St. Patrick's Day!!! I absolutely adore St. Patrick's Day. It's a fun holiday all around...I'm excited to meet up with friends from home who moved down here shortly after Hari and I and to have my very first southern St. Paddy's day! I also love St. Patrick's day because it is the anniversary of the day I met an ADORABLE "PUPPY" 3 years ago (spoiler alert, I adopted her!) If you want to read more about Kiley and how she came to live with us click her picture :)

Love at First Sight! [Gulfport, Mississippi, March 17, 2010]

2. This week flew! It was so nice to be back to normal after two weeks of play practice - one of which was three intense, all day practices. My students were so excited on Monday to be back to our normal routines. During our last practice day they said things like "I can't wait to have morning meeting!" "Do we get to do readers workshop next week?" "Are we going to do math centers?!" It was so cute how excited they were to get back to class! (And they loved their new St. Patrick's Day Math Centers!)

3. I'm not always the best secret keeper...it's not so much that I tell secrets, but as Benita tells me...I just get so excited and things fly out of my mouth...so...this is one of these times...

It's not too late to celebrate St. Patrick's Day! Ms. Taylor and I are celebrating decked out in green on Monday in our classes. We will be graphing the rainbow with Lucky Charms, Searching for Gold and having St. Paddy's reading centers! All of these can be found in my Luck of the Irish Math and Literacy Pack! And of course...we'll be playing St. Patrick's Day Bingo!

4. I have been so jealous reading in the blog-o-sphere about all of your spring breaks! We begin spring break this Friday! I am so excited to relax! One of my very best friends (and one of my bridesmaids!) is coming to North Carolina for four days and then I am jet setting to the beach to visit my dad! It will be busy (and the report cards that are due Tuesday after spring break will probably barely be touched) but I am super excited!

5. My 31 Day Organization Challenge is slow moving...but I am taking it one step at a time...this week I focused on getting my cleaning routines organized (coming soon!) as well as catching up with my mountains of laundry...which you can [unfortunately] see in my before pictures.

Well it's time to go drink wine and eat good food with the man of my dreams! Happy Friday and Happy Happy Happy St. Patrick's Day, y'all!

Luck of the Irish! It's a Sale!

In honor of St. Patrick's Day this upcoming weekend, I'm having a sale at my Teachers Pay Teachers Store! All St. Patrick's Day products are on sale! Be sure to check out my Luck of the Irish Math Centers and Luck of the Irish Literacy Centers - save money by buying them together! I also have St. Patrick's Day Bingo and March Calendar Pieces on sale!

Hurry on over, sale ends on Wednesday!

My Very First...Five for Friday! [with a freebie, too!]

So I have been blog stalking for years now...it is only this year that I started my own personal blog and this blog with my near and dear, Ms. Taylor. I have been seeing "Linky Parties" and "Link Ups" on blogs for a while now...and never really understood them until recently...now today...I am linking up not only on this blog but my personal blog (coincidentally, honest!) for the first time!

I have seen Five for Friday on a few blogs I follow...but haven't even taken the time to read them (I know, I know that sounds terrible!) Today I realized it was a linky party with Doodle Bugs - a blog I do not follow but I do see a lot about on Teachers Pay Teachers!  While reading a teacher blog I do follow (Step in to Second Grade) I saw that she was "Linking Up" and I made the connection! I just did my first linky on my personal blog today! Why not do my first on here, too?!

So here goes nothing, my first...

1. This was a LONG week for me and for my students. I mean LONG! I work in a performing arts school, with that comes lots of...well, arts! At our school we have lots of performances. K-3 students have a big musical each spring. This was my very first one (and Ms. Taylor's, too!) Through all the chaos and long practices (and I mean looooong - last week we practiced every day from 8-10 and this week we practiced Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 8:30-2:30) my rising stars thrived. They went on stage, they sang their little hearts out, danced their little bottoms off, and didn't forget to smile...although they did forget to exit and bow and exit again...but that's okay. They worked hard and were cutie patooties doing it! So proud of my little Oompa Loompas!

2. In January I began selling my lessons on Teachers Pay Teachers. I love sharing and I am excited to think that other teachers are using my resources - very cool! This week I posted, in my opinion, a GREAT freebie! 

3. Today we had a work day - what a beautiful gift after our performance last night! I was able to get a lot done in my classroom and prepared to finally get back to normal next week. I also was able to print and cut my new Luck of the Irish Math and Literacy Centers which we will use starting next week. 

4. Like I said already, I participated in my first link up today on my personal blog. I aired my dirty laundry and I will be participating in the 31 Day Organizational Challenge with Laura the Organizing Junkie. Read about my journey to organization over there! 

5. Starting your first teaching job can be scary. Throw in a move across country and changing not only your life, but your sweet and supportive fiancé's life too... it's downright terrifying. But somehow I landed in the right place. I not only have great co-workers, but people who support me. After a long, stressful and emotional week, I am glad I am not drowning. Shout out to my fellow teachers, you're all awesome!

I loved having this opportunity to reflect on my week. I think I will definitely be participating in Five for Friday's in the future! :)

March Calendar Pieces!

When I started teaching this year I borrowed calendar pieces from one of my wonderful coworkers. This worked in the fall when most of the calendar pieces she had worked for any month - school buses worked for August or September so she used one one month, then we traded, leaves and pumpkins worked for October and November, I used her January snowflakes in December - but once we got to January and February...she only had one set that worked for said months...so it has been school buses in January and February in my classroom...not so festive.

I finally decided to make some of my own calendar pieces. My first set is ready! March calendar pieces are posted in my store. There are 6 different sets to choose from all St. Patrick's day and Easter related.  Each set has a different pattern - great for pre-school and kindergarten who focus on patterns, or for me who just loves jazzing things up! Patterns included: No pattern, AB, ABC, ABCD, AAB, AABCCDEEFGGH/AAB (depending on which pattern you choose :)) Click on the picture below to purchase my calendar pieces from my store!

Excited for March to use my new calendar pieces! Now the hard part...which to choose...

Snow Delay and a Fire Alarm

Today was an interesting day. I woke up this morning late. Now this is not a rare occurrence. I am NOT a morning person. It runs in my genes. Waking me up is about as difficult as a T-Rex making a bed. I just love sleep, thank's for that trait, mom! So once I finally peeled myself out of bed, I rushed to get ready and out the door. I drove to school in my normal daze, thinking about my plans for the day, and when I pulled in the front parking lot was empty. I assumed there was some event and everyone was parked out back. Nope, wrong. The back parking lot was empty, too. The bus was still there. I looked around and could not figure out why there would be a delay...it was 38 degrees and there was a light rain! After saying a choice word or too, I finally decided to check my e-mail on my phone (did I mention as I left this morning I said jokingly to my fiancé "I hope there isn't a delay! I didn't check my e-mail!) School had been delayed at 8:30 the night before...why did I not check my e-mail?! Oh, because there was no apparent reason to check! We do not have keys to the school, so I had no choice but to turn around and go back home. I was NOT a happy camper. I was so angry I could have slept in and not wasted my gas by driving to and from work twice today, and you don't need us to tell you that gas prices are back on the rise!

When I got home I crawled back in bed and asked for someone to take me back to New York where you go to school for all 180 school days, in wind, rain, hail, 12 feet of snow, and uphill both ways...barefoot! When I returned to work I was still unhappy, but my little darlings turned my frown upside down - have I mentioned I love my class?! I was also able to work on my door since my students were at dance first thing - I cannot wait to share it with you! And that also put me in a better mood, because I just love being crafty.

My day was turning out to be nothing like I had planned...when we got there I had to take my students straight to dance...no spelling test or Friday Jeopardy! with Ms. Taylor's class. That afternoon, my students were taking a quiz on regrouping and all was silent in my room (except for that quiet sound of pencils writing and hard brains working) when we all nearly jumped out of our skin - fire alarm!

I need to pause and tell you how GREAT my students were. They did run to get in line, but without being asked, they lined up quickly and quietly while I grabbed my coat (remember, 38 degrees may not have been freezing cold in my book...but it wasn't a balmy beach day either!) and keys. My kids have this strange thing about wearing their coats all day, so they were already bundled up.

We walked out of the building and I knew it wasn't a drill, remember that rain I was complaining about? Second grade rocked it...they walked out, lined up and quietly waited for the next direction. We all waited...and then heard the thunder (my mind flashed to my camp days - children should not be outside when it is thundering!) and the rain began to pick up. Luckily, we were able to open the bus up and have the 1, 2 and 3 grades sit on there, while the kindergarteners and 8th graders went in a back shed we have. Our assistant principal came out to let us know it was in fact, not a drill, but nothing to be concerned about. A microwave problem had set the alarms off and we could not re-enter the building until the fire department came and deemed it safe.

What a day! I missed two hours in the morning from the delay, another 45 minutes from our little fire alarm, by the time we got back inside it was time for art. After art was a birthday snack, and the day was just about over! I guess I just had to be that good ol, flexible! All of Friday will be moved to Monday!

Another first for my first year of teaching...first actual fire alarm, check! Fire drills paid off, my students were amazing!

How to Look Like Fancy Nancy...Without Even Trying

Today was "Dress Like Your Favorite Story Book Character" today at school! I had too much fun. You might not believe it...or maybe you will...I didn't have to buy a thing for my costume! Is it a bad thing that I am 25 years old and I have MORE than enough jewled tiaras, sparkley sequin tops, obnoxious beaded necklaces, feathery boas, fluffy tutu skirts, blingy bracelets, flowered and polka dot ribbons and hair bows, shiny purses, bright tights, and fabulous flats? I think not...all I was missing were her cute pink and white fold over socks, red curly hair (which my students were quick to point out,) and oversized red high heels. Let me just say, Ooo La La, I was trés chic!

Are you ready to fancify yourself and look as magnificent as Fancy Nancy? Read on...

1. First you will need a fluffy, frilly, FANCY dress. The more tule under the skirt, the better. A tu-tu would be absolutely perfect. Florals, sequins, lace, all fantastic places to begin. The more purple and pink the better!

2. What can be more royal than a tiara? You just must have a tiara, Fancy Nancy would never be seen without it. This can be picked up in the dress up section of WalMart or at a costume shop.

3. Shoes! Your feet need to be as extravagant as you are! Pick out a beautiful pair of high heels or sparkley flats and don't forget some frilly patterned socks to spruce up the look!

4. It's time to dazzle up your Fancy Nancy look. An outfit is never complete without accessories! A strand of pearls coupled with a dazzling necklace for your neck, a pair of gloves, a dainty little purse, and a feather boa will add the extra touch of glamour.

5. Don't forget your hair! Crimp, curl, and tease your hair into a fancy mess. And don't forget to acessorize with flowers, hair clips (with lots of glitter,) and headbands. There is no such thing as TOO FANCY!

Now you are a posh fashionistsa, just like our girl, Fancy Nancy! Be sure to use fancy words and throw a little French into your everyday conversation. Go get 'em glamour girl!

Our friend in first grade joined the dress up fun as the Paper Bag Princess!