Thank You!!

I owe a huge amount of thank yous to a lot of bloggers.  Here goes:

Thank you to all of these women for the Liebster Award!

Go check out all of their wonderful blogs!  Go here to see who I awarded the Liebster Award to.

Next, thank you to to Erica for the Versatile Blogger Award!  Go here to see who I awarded it to.

Also a huge than you to Erica and Beth Ann for helping me with my blog button that wasn't working! 

 While they were in the process of helping me (I didn't even realize they were being so nice), I ended up getting a whole new blog from Stephabee Graphics.  I love my new design!  And it was 50% off! Score!  I've wanted a really cute one for awhile but didn't want to spend $$ on one until I was sure that I was serious about this whole blogging thing.  I tend to get distracted easily and could've forgotten about the whole thing.  Apparently I am serious!  But thank you ladies for your hard work!

Lastly, I want to thank all the teachers who volunteered to help me with my Flat Stanley project.  Not all of my kids know someone outside of our little town and it will be great for them to get mail from far away.  I'm so grateful!

What a wonderful world the blogging community has created :)

I did it!

I know, I'm breaking the don't-post-more-than-once-a-day-rule.  But I worked so darn hard on my common and proper nouns packet and I just, just wanted to tell you about it.  Click on the picture to check it out in my TpT store.

(I don't know how to make those cute collage things that everyone uses to advertise their TpT products, so all you get is a picture of the cover.)

And, PowerPoint, where have you been all my life?!?

I don't like messes...

Is that a word?  Anyways I am quite the neat freak.  When I tell my friends that my house is messy, they say "oh, that just means you have a few neatly stacked piles on your table."  Aww man, they're right.  

When I moved into my classroom 3 years ago, as a long term sub, it was a MESS.  The teacher that was there before me, was very sick unfortunately.  I never met her, but it seemed that she was a very good teacher.  And, also, somewhat of a hoarder.  There was so much stuff in that classroom.  Okay, I thought, I can handle this.  I like to clean!  WRONG.  My challenge that year was that we didn't have a contract, so we could only get to school 15 minutes before the kids did and had to leave the building 15 minutes after they did.  And we couldn't go into our classrooms on non-school days.  CA-RAZY!  Here are some pictures of my first day three years ago:

Sooo many worksheets.  I almost never use worksheets in my classroom. 

This one is a little blurry, but the kids cubbies were a mess! (Yes, that area is where they were supposed to put their backpacks, lunch boxes, and coats.  Wait, wa-??)

So in the past few years, I've conquered the bookshelves and the cubbies.  I'll post my "after" pictures soon.  But now I just have one more area of attack.  These haven't bothered me quite as much since they are behind closed doors.  But here are my closets:

 Yeah, these doors don't even close all the way.

These next two, I started to conquer but got a little overwhelmed (and ran out of time).  So much valuable space and materials!  Must. Clean. 

My goal was to do them this past summer, but they tiled my classroom and no one could tell me when they were going to be done and when I could get into my room.  Apparently they finished them 2 days before school was supposed to start.  Needless to say, I wasn't able to get in to my room to work on them.

But now, thanks to:

I will now be cleaning my closets!  I've needed some motivation to get it done.  On Monday, I'm starting with the construction paper closet.  I think that will be the quickest one to do and the one that desperately needs it!  Any suggestions on how to organize it?  I was thinking plastic shelves or boxes so that I could get to all of the construction paper easily.

Freebie, Giveaways and a very Flat Stanley

I really wanted to link up with all the New Year's Resolutions linky parties, but I just couldn't come up with a good resolution!  I wanted one that would not only make a difference for me, but one that I would actually be able to keep.  After some thinking, I finally got it!  I want to work on using my time in my classroom more efficiently.  I tend to find myself wandering in circles sometimes, forgetting what I need to get done.  I also get distracted VERY - oo sparkles -easily.  To start off on the right foot, I created a checklist for myself, broken into morning, prep period, and afternoon.  Thought I would share it!  Click on the image to check it out for yourself.

There are so many huge giveaways going on in Blog Land right now!  I chose three to share:

Well, this one I don't really want to share because I really, really want to win!  Congrats to Tammy who is now at 113 followers (she's celebrating 100)!

Doodle Bugs Paper is thanking her followers with a $20 credit to her Doodle Bugs Paper Website!

And, lastly, Holly is doing a different kind of giveaway to celebrate 250 (now 255) followers!

Now I'm looking for a little help.  My students are doing a Flat Stanley project.  We read the story about the little boy who is crushed by his bulletin board.  He is fine, but very flat!  Stanley learns that he can mail himself to different states in an envelope.  My students are going to be creating their own "Flat Stanleys" to mail to people around the country/world to learn lots about geography!  We are hoping that our recipients will send back their Flat Stanley with pictures, souvenirs and information about their part of the world.

Unfortunately, not all my students have someone to send their Flat Stanley to.  I was wondering if anyone would be interested in receiving a Flat Stanley from one of my students?  Email me at Livs14@gmail.com if you think you might want to help out.  My students thank you very much!

I'm a Versatile Blogger!

First, a big thank you to Elisabeth over at Twins, Teaching and Tacos!  She gave me with the Versatile Blogger Award.

I am so excited!  Ok, here are the rules:

1. Thank the person who presented the award to you and link back to them.

Thank you Elisabeth!  Go check out her blog (and her adorable twins!)

2. Tell seven things about yourself.

1. Um, I don't like odd numbers so this is gonna be hard for me.

2. I'm an anti-vegetarian.  Yeahh, I don't eat vegetables.  Any.  

3. I don't like to go clothes shopping.  But I could shop for my classroom all day long!

4. I love RI and will never leave!

5. I'm blind as a bat.  I don't leave my bed without my glasses or contacts.

6. If I weren't a teacher, I would want to be a photographer.

7.  I am a neat freak.  (I can't even watch commercials for the show "Hoarders")

3. Pass this onto 15 newly discovered blogs and let them know they've received the award.

(and I just won her latest giveaway - yay!)

2nd Grade Stuff

Blooming Into First

Chickadee Jubilee

Dragonflies in First

Today in First Grade

No Homework Freebie!

I don't give away no homework passes often.  I consider homework to be a continued practice of what we work on in school.  I consider it to be pretty important!  However, I did promise one for my students before the break if they completed their behavior chart.  I figured I'd share!  Check it out here.

My Biggest One Yet!

Ok, I don't know how you ladies create all these huge packets of activities.  It took me most of the afternoon to make a set of games that is only 16 pages long.  Major props to you!  Now, what are your secrets? ;)

My students will be working on Initial R-Blends in Spelling this week, so I created a packet that has 3 games in it; bingo, memory match and dominoes.  Go check it out at my TpT store!

I do have a serious question though.  I remember seeing someone post (of course I can't remember who) about using PowerPoint to create most of their items for their classroom/TpT.  Is this true or am I seeing things again?  I've always used Microsoft Word.  I'm curious, what do you find to be the easiest program to use?