What I'm Loving Wednesday

Halfway through the week! Wow!

I'm loving that I finished my ESL homework before 2 in the morning! I am the WORST procrastinator ever (or maybe I should say "the best"...), so I am pretty proud of myself for just sitting down and doing it! :)

I'm loving the Fresh Prince! I have been watching this show every day when it's on ABC Family before I go to bed and it is so funny. I just die laughing every day. I'm currently on the hunt for my Big Willie Style and Willennium CDs........ they have to be in my house somewhere!!

I'm loving People Colors crayons! I just bought these at Lakeshore on Tuesday. A few times this year I wanted the kids to draw legit pictures of themselves and I felt so bad when they would try to combine orange and brown to make their skin colors. Never again!

I'm loving that I got together with one of my teacher friends for lunch today!! I've only seen her once since school ended and it was great to catch up. I CAN'T WAIT to teach by her next year, yeah!!!!!!!!!!!! Also we ate at Chipotle and I just love that place. :)

I'm loving that I only have 2 more classes left of my summer class! I don't mind going but I do mind waking up at 6:30! Let's save that for August, thanks.

I'm loving that my boyfriend's birthday is on Saturday and I have a sweet gift for him! I can't tell you because he might read this.... and it's pretty much only exciting if you are him, haha!

I'm loving that the temperature has dropped significantly since last week. It is so pleasant to be outside! I love the summer when it's not ridiculously hot!!

What are you loving today?

What I'm Loving Wednesday

Good morning and happy Wednesday!

I'm loving the mini PVC pocket chart stand I made! The stand is sitting on our dining room table and every time I look at it, it makes me happy because I made (pretty much) by myself. :) If you have those little Target pocket charts from last summer laying around, go check out my tutorial!

I'm loving the Bachelorette still! I was pumped to see that Doug went home. He was a nice person, I guess, but acted way more like Emily's dad than her boyfriend. That kiss was so incredibly awkward... yikes. And Arie is still in it to win it!! I love you, Arie.

I'm loving that I started a new knitting project! I used to knit a LOT in my senior year of high school through college but it has gotten away from me a bit. One of my former first graders who I will have again in second grade is getting a new baby brother in August! So I've been working on a baby blanket for the baby.

I'm loving that my summer ESL class is only 3 weeks long. I'm not loving that it's 6 hours per class period and that my teacher is super quiet and likes to read off of powerpoints............

I'm loving that I picked up a TON of books at the Salvation Army last week with my cousins. We were probably there for 2 hours. There was an entire wall consisting of only bookshelves that were stacked two deep. My cousin, Kelley, is taking children's lit next semester, so she's trying to pick up books to fulfill her book list, and usually I just go along and throw things into her basket, but this time I actually bought books!

I'm loving that I got to catch up with all the teachers at my school yesterday. The priest from the church associated with our school was reassigned to a different church, so there was a going-away party for him yesterday. It was really nice to chit chat and see my buddies again. :)

I'm loving my cousins. :) Here's Kelley and me getting ready to check with with our million books the other day!

What are you loving today?

What I'm Loving Wednesday

Hi friends! It's Wednesday, and you know what that means...

I'm loving the bike ride that I took with my cousin, Lisa, over the weekend! We rode 20 MILES all the way from a nearby town to the border of Wisconsin. That is just craziness. We were pretty much exhausted and dying on the way back but we made it. :) Next time I know to bring double the amount of water and some snacks for the road! Here I am working on my fitness:

I'm loving that the disgusting milk-stained and wrinkly carpet has already been torn out of my classroom! That means we are for real getting new floors, yeah!

I'm loving that I acquired my very own wiggle seat for my classroom. Do you have any students who use one? One of my more active students was given a wiggle seat by the district OT, but it isn't made for first grade chairs and basically hangs off the edges of his little chair. My new wiggle seat is from a retiring teacher, it is smaller, and I can't wait to show my student when he comes back in August. :)

I'm loving that I'm already finished with my final project for my ESL class that ends tomorrow! I am a HUGE procrastinator, so this is a big deal for me. I'm going to share some of it with you all tomorrow - someone might be able to use what I put together!

I'm loving the weather today. It is really quite pleasant - 75 with a slight breeze. This weekend will be 90 degrees again, ay yi yi!

One last thought - please keep my dad in your thoughts and prayers today. My mom took him to the hospital earlier this afternoon because he had some blurred vision and lost his balance a bit and wasn't feeling too well. He had a slight stroke back around Christmas time so they just want to make sure everything is okay. So far I haven't heard anything since they left and I'm not super worried, but every little thought and prayer helps! :)

What are you loving today?

What I'm Loving Wednesday

I haven't linked up with Jamie in a LONG TIME! But today is the day to tell you what I'm loving!!

I'm loving that summer gives me a chance to read a lot! I love reading and this school year was kind of stressful, so all I wanted to do was NAP when I came home. I've already finished 5 books since school has been done! I just finished this book yesterday and it was fabulous - but I'd only recommend it if you want to think while you read it. It's not really a beachy book. :)

I'm loving that I FINALLY organized my sticker stash! I was inspired by Teri but I used an expandable file thingy for mine.

I'm loving that I found this amazing sticker sheet in my stash:

It's okay to be jealous; I would be if I were you. ;)

I'm loving taquerías!!!!! The family of one of my second graders owns a taquería/grocery store in the town where I teach, and I ate there yesterday for lunch when I went to school to clean my desk. It was MUY delicioso!

Okay, time to tell you what I'm NOT loving! Just one thing though. :)

I had this crazy dream last night about the first day of school! In my dream, I had 35 students, a crazy aide who was taking over the class, students who were taller than me in second grade, a TV whose buttons I couldn't reach, and one student who was a cyclops! Like straight out of Greek mythology. Also I had forgotten to plan for the first day, and only one of my second graders came back from last year.

I didn't think I was nervous about next year.... I guess my brain is telling me to step it up or something, haha!!

What are you loving today?

What I'm Loving Wednesday

Happy Wednesday! And happy last-day-of-break to me!

I'm loving the New Year's craft-ivities that I have seen all over the blogs (especially those at Step into 2nd Grade with Mrs. Lemons and The First Grade Parade)! I can't wait to use them tomorrow. I hope my students come back excited to learn and write, write, write!!

I'm loving that my BULLS are tipping off in a few short moments!!!!!! Also I'm loving that our record is 5-1 so far!!! Go Bulls go!!

I'm loving that my brother helped me make my whisper phones today!! We haven't painted them yet (we're waiting for the weekend) but I can't wait to debut them tomorrow morning! I bought the supplies back in August or something and finally got around to making them today, haha.

I'm loving that it is supposed to be 50 this weekend! Wowzer!! We've hardly had any snow this year or frigid temperatures. I am fine with that but I'm sure we will have a blizzard in February or something.

I'm loving that some sweet bloggers have given me awards lately! Thank you to Laura at Kinder Kraziness and Tanya at A Class Act for giving me the Versatile Blogger Award!

I actually received this a while back (check it out here). But I am more than happy to share 7 more things about myself, haha!

1. I don't like drinking straight from glasses in restaurants. I will sit patiently and wait until I get a straw. I just don't trust the edge of cups for some reason.
2. I'm not technically a vegetarian but I don't eat a lot of meat. I specifically don't eat ground beef! No hamburgers, tacos, chili, or meatloaf for me. Yuck.
3. I wear glasses and I probably always will... because I am way too scared to get contacts. Whenever something gets close to my eyeball, I freak out. Sigh.
4. I really love drinking tea in the morning but it's not to wake up, because none of my teas have caffeine in them. I just like to warm up. :)
5. I have family in southern California and I think it is the most beautiful place!!!! So many hills and flowers and warmth. For a while after I graduated, I was looking for a job in California but I quickly found out that their education job market wasn't much better than it is here in Illinois! Sadness.
6. I'm really obsessed with the gas mileage that my car gets. Right now I am at 34 MPG and I am feeling a little glum about it because a month ago I was at 37 MPG!! Today my dad and I went to a car dealership and I saw a Mustang that got 15 MPG and I almost threw up. Well, not really. You know.
7. Joakim Noah is my favorite athlete! I hope he never gets traded from the Bulls because I won't know what to do with myself.

What are you loving today?

What I'm Loving Wednesday

Happy Wednesday, friends!!! And hello, new followers! I am close to a milestone and I am hoping to do my very first giveaway soon!! Yay!!

Here's what I'm loving this Wednesday!

I'm loving that I still have a week and a day left of break! I didn't get out until the 21st, but that means I don't have to go back until the 5th. I have already planned Reading and Writing for the first few weeks of January, yeah for me!

I'm loving the new dress I bought at Forever 21 yesterday! I am hoping to wear it for New Year's Eve! Although I doubt that I can get my bow to look like that...

I'm loving that my brother has graduated from Purdue and is back home now!! Here we are at the zoo a few weeks ago. 

I'm loving that it's almost my 3-year anniversary with Matt!!! We met at a New Year's party in 2009. It doesn't seem like that long ago!

I'm loving that Matt got me this incredibly cute jellyfish tote bag for Christmas. We were able to go to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago last month and see everything, including the beautiful Jellies exhibit! If you're in the area, I definitely recommend it. Anyway, I loved the jellies, so he got this for me! The jellies have hearts for eyes!!!!!

This was a total non-teaching related post!! What are you loving this Wednesday?? I need to go finish reading the 11 in 11 links!!!!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

Happy Wednesday! It has come fast for me this week because I was out on Monday. Let me start by saying that I'm not loving that I left my camera at school! :(

I'm loving CVS Minute Clinic and my prescription! I've been sort of sick for at least three or four weeks now, and let me tell you.... it feels SO GOOD to breathe!!!! I think my jello and popsicles helped too. :)

I'm loving the Data and Graphing unit that we just started in second grade. It's so interactive and engaging for the kids and hopefully it's a little more exciting, as our first few units were all review. Today they got to write their own surveys and try them out on the class. They LOVED this. I think I'll finally get around to making a survey math station. The first graders are all asking when they get to start Data and Graphing! Luckily, it's the next chapter in their books, too. :)

I'm loving The Ugly Pumpkin and Abby's great Oh So Thankful unit!

This book is super cute, and my kids love any books that rhyme, so that helps. They felt so sad for the Ugly Pumpkin, and today we did the I Felt Squashed When... response activity. It was great because all of my kids had something to share, even my student who always copies off of my example or whoever is sitting next to him. This made me happy happy. :)

I'm loving another Thanksgiving book, Gracias the Thanksgiving Turkey.

This is a really sweet book about a Puerto Rican family in New York City (I think?). The dad in the family is a truck driver, and he sends a turkey home to be fattened for Thanksgiving. As you can see on the cover, he becomes a part of the family and the son refuses to eat his little buddy! I can't wait to read this tomorrow or Friday to the kids. There are a ton of Spanish words interspersed, and I think my two Spanish speakers will get really excited about them.

I'm loving that my kids had a great day on Monday with the sub! When I got to school, I had a nice note from her saying she had a great day. And all of the kids stayed at or above Ready to Learn on the clip shart! One even got to Super Student. Yay kids!!

What are you loving this Wednesday?

What I'm Loving Wednesday

I have been way too tired to blog lately! Hopefully I can come back with this edition of WILW.

I'm loving that my class does funny stuff that makes me laugh all day long. They are a handful, I can't lie about that, and I need to beef up my classroom management, but they make every day manageable with the funny things they say and do,

I'm loving something specific that happened yesterday. We have a milk break in the morning every day, and so I have my daily chocolate milk (which really gets me through the morning sometimes) at 9:30. Yesterday I didn't finish my carton and apparently I set it on the corner of my desk. At the end of the day, some of the kids told me that there was milk in our Rubbermaid milk carton holder. I was like, "Who didn't finish their milk??? Milk break was like 5 hours ago!!" Then they said it was mine. ....................... Oops. But one of my very sweet girls ran the carton holder to the bathroom, scrubbed it out, and dried it for me! That really made my day because I didn't even ask her!

I'm loving that I spent time after school with my next-door neighbor classroom friend!! We had a lot of fun!

I'm loving the mummy activity I borrowed from Jenn at Finally in First. We read Where's My Mummy?, which the kids LOVED. They were beside themselves that the baby mummy was afraid of a mouse and not all of the other scary things in the forest.

Afterwards, we did the same activity that Jenn posted about. I didn't have manila paper, but I went to a going-out-of-business sale yesterday and got some textured linen colored paper that worked great!

I'm loving the traceable letters that I borrowed from the upper grade teachers!! It wasn't really that fun to cut out the letters but they look so nice!

I'm loving that my family went down to Purdue this weekend to see my brother and to watch the homecoming football game against U of I! I love my broski and it was a fun weekend.

I'm loving the pumpkin life cycle activity that I read about at Fabulous in First. Instead of making the little pocket, we made life cycle necklaces. Even my boys LOVED them. The printable life cycle was really cute.

I'm loving my ESL class this semester. My teacher is awesome! Last week, we learned about TPR in an amazing way. My teacher speaks Japanese, so she taught us a Japanese lesson using TPR so we could see how it felt to be language learners and to see if the strategy really worked. Also, my teacher teaches a 1/2 split class right now, just like me!

What I'm not loving is that I have homework for my class...... and report cards are due this week..... and conferences are next week.... and I haven't decided 100% on a costume for Halloween for my class!!!!

Oh wells. I'll make it work. :)

What I'm Loving ... Thursday?

I just realized it isn't Wednesday. I mean, I knew it all day, but the whole way home from school I was thinking about what to write for WILW this week. Apparently it's Thursday so today it is WILT!! Wilt!

I'm loving my class, again. They're a handful and we have a lot of emotions running through our 12 little bodies, but they are funny and I like being their teacher. Today, as I was setting my phone timer for an activity in Math, the first graders asked if I was calling my boyfriend. I said, "Why would I call him now? We are in the middle of math!" And one girl said, "You could call him and say, 'I'm teaching the kids! Don't talk to me!'" (said in a very angry voice). They make me laugh a lot.

I'm loving the baby steps I'm taking towards Math Work Stations! Finally! It only took 32 days of school!! I want to have my management board set up by Monday because I forgot to finish taking pictures of the kids. So far I have 3 stations set up, so over the weekend I should come up with 3 more so they can have a little variety in their lives. I will keep you all posted because today we (sort of) did them and it worked out really well! Except - I have an odd number of first graders and an odd number of second graders. Do you all make groups of 3? Because my groups of 2 worked together way better than my groups of 3, but I don't want to isolate anybody... hmm.

I'm loving that I learned how to use the little laminator at school today! Now I understand why everyone loves personal laminators. I think I should probably buy my own sleeves so that I don't get yelled at for depleting the resources.

I'm loving the post office down the street from my school! Our class is participating in the postcard exchange hosted by Primary Graffiti and The Techy Teacher, and today I called to see if my class could take a field trip there next week so we can be more invested in our postcard sending. They were cool with it and we're going in a week! There are definitely perks to teaching in a small town.

I'm loving Adventure to Fitness!!!!!!!! A lot!!!! Since I'm in a private school, I can't sign up because my school is not a choice. I've probably sent them 5 requests and they are just ignoring me. So, I asked my wonderful sister to sign up on my behalf and now my kids LOVE running with Mr. Marc! We've already had 3 days worth of indoor recess this week and this has saved me in a huge way.

I'm loving these super cute apples we made yesterday!

I got the idea from The First Grade Parade. It was really easy (I used contact paper) and the kids really liked it. Sadly we haven't had sun to shine through the tissue paper yet but they are so beautiful regardless. :)

I'm loving another thing about my students. They are really good at making up excuses for stuff in their own lives, so whenever something goes wrong in my room, they always come up with a reason for it. For example, we watched a little video about the planets today, and the audio kept skipping. It was super annoying. One of the kids was like, "It's fine, it's just because the planets are so far from the radio tower." I was like, "..... I'm sure that's it." They never get upset about anything! It is so funny.

Oh - I need a bit of advice. I have a student who literally will not do anything unless I stand there and tell him to. Like, he won't even write his name on his paper unless I prompt him. Today we did dictation, and at the end I collected their papers, and he literally wrote nothing. The whole time! My first graders are very dependent as a whole, but this is confusing to me. Any words of wisdom??

What I'm Loving Wednesday

Wednesday is already here!! I love that my weeks feel so quick. :)

I'm loving my class! They are working hard and (hopefully) learning a lot. Every morning, they have part of a handwriting packet to do, and almost all of the students go on past where they are supposed to stop every day because they say they love handwriting so much. I can't really complain about them wanting to practice handwriting..... haha.

I'm loving our class's new book boxes!

 Inspired (once again) by the amazing Lindsey at The Teacher Wife, I ran out to IKEA last week to buy these book boxes. They were 5 for $1.99!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How can you even beat that? My kids are obsessed with them and they have been super excited about decorating them. I'm hoping this excitement transfers to the books housed inside. They were sad when I said they could only put 5 books in their boxes!

On a related note, I'm loving IKEA. I never wanted to leave!!! Too bad it is about an hour away. Worth the drive, for sure. :)

I'm loving our space unit! Today we made little models of how the sun lights part of the earth while the other part has night. They were pretty simplistic but the kids were just amazed. They were also amazed at the quality of the picture that I'm posting of the finished product. They think I am a great photographer, haha!

 I'm loving International Peace Day. I read two books in honor of this awesome day: Can You Say Peace? by Karen Katz and The Peace Book by Todd Parr (whom I love).

And of course, we did corresponding activities for each book! For Can You Say Peace?, I found a little reader's theater that goes along with the book in a Library Sparks magazine. It is really cute and perfect for first and second graders! Each kid represents one country, so they say, for example: "My name is Carlos. I live in Mexico. I say paz." There are 11 different countries featured in the book, and they aren't all European countries!!! Hooray!! We have been practicing like crazy and we're going to perform for each class on Friday! For The Peace Book, after reading it, we created our own version. The students had to write, "Peace is ____________" and fill it in with their idea of peace. They did a good job!

 I'm loving taking walks with my mom and pupster at our local conservation area!

I'm loving our new bathroom passes that I got from First Grade O.W.L.S.! The little plastic frames to hold them were only 95 cents at Walmart and they adapted to this change in routine really fast. Yeah! And they are super cute. :)

I'm loving that Jennifer from Rowdy in First Grade awarded me with the Versatile Blogger Award!!!! I am still so surprised!! I will make that post tomorrow maybe. But it really made my day and week!! :) :)

And finally, I'm loving my boyfriend because is the bomb dot com! We went out for Chinese last night and it was deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelicious and made for a great lunch today!

Not only am I linking up with What I'm Loving Wednesday, but I'm also linking up with Ms. Kerri and Her Krazy Kindergarten for her positive things linky party!!