I'm Back!

I'm Back! It has been a crazy summer.  All my plans went out the window and I had to spend the summer up in Wisconsin helping my Dad.  My husband and I just returned home this week.  My brother called me in June and needed my help with Dad.  Little did I know how greedy and horrible two of my siblings could be.  My brother and I had the legal fight to protect my Dad (who is suffering from dementia) and his assets.  It was one of the hardest life experiences that I had ever gone through.  So many lies were told about my brother and I and the police needed to be called on 8 different occasions. With God's help, we now have temporary guardianship of Dad and his assets are protected.  We go back in early September to have the court finalize the guardianship.  (We appreciate any prayers:)

Any way I am back on "School" track.  I am working on new products to help our students have fun while learning.  Keep following me for updates.

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Don't forget to check out Teachers Pay Teachers for the Super Going Back to School Sale starting August 4-5.  You can get up to 28% off many items including all the items in my store.


A friend of mine emailed me this Penguin article, so I will leave you with this...

Did you ever wonder why there are no dead penguins on the ice in Antarctica? Where do they go? Wonder no more! ! ! It is a known fact that the penguin is a very ritualistic bird which lives an extremely ordered and complex life.  The penguin is very committed to its family and will mate for life, as well as maintain a form of compassionate contact with its offspring throughout its life. If a penguin is found dead on the ice surface, other members of the family and social circle have been known to dig holes in the ice, using their vestigial wings and beaks, until the hole is deep enough for the dead bird to be rolled into, and buried. The male penguins then gather in a circle around the fresh grave and sing: "Freeze a jolly good fellow." "Freeze a jolly good fellow."  You really didn't believe that I know anything about penguins, did you?  It's so easy to fool OLD people.  I am sorry, an urge came over me that made me do it!!! Oh quit whining I fell for it, too.

My First Grandson

We have had a very busy week. After a very scary entrance (emergency C-section, NICU) early this week, my first grand baby was able to come home from the hospital today.

Christian Robert is so adorable weighing in at 7 pounds 2 ounces and 19 1/2 inches long.  God has his hand over this precious, now healthy, baby boy.  Now I can add to my list of titles as being a grandma.  Grandpa and I are so proud.  We are so blessed and so happy that he was allowed to come home just in time for Mother's Day.  Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers and grandmothers out there!  More teaching posts to come.

Updates
Hello again my friends.  Just a few updates about my life.  I did have that ankle surgery and am doing well.   For the first week home after surgery I was in bed and happily resting with those little pain pills.  Then I got the call that my mother had a heart attack and passed.  This was so hard, especially since she lived in Wisconsin and I in Florida.  My doctor did not approve me for flying so thank goodness my brother lives up there and was able to help my dad plan for the funeral.  That was definitely a double whammy.  For the last several weeks I have been up and moving around in a wheelchair.  I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband who has taken such great care of me, great neighbors and awesome friends.  I really feel loved and their generosity has been amazing.  It seems that even in your dark times, God's blessings are shown. Hopefully the doctor will give me a green light on starting to put some weight on my foot when I see him next Friday.

Telling Time Fun
Let me tell you about a great new product which will get your students telling time "Spot On". 

    Telling Time 5 Minute Intervals Matching Fun

                        Click Here To See More

These Fun and Easy matching activities include 5 sets of 24 cards each. The cards help students practice telling time with 5-minute intervals on analog and digital clocks. Each set progressively builds higher order thinking skills. Choose the 2 sets that will best help your students. This package will provide hours of learning fun!

Below are the different types of cards to match:

These are so cute, you know you want to have them.  They make for a perfect math center!

Have a great week!

1st Grade Science Fair Winner!

Ankle Issues

I have really been busy for the last few weeks.  I found out that I need yet another ankle surgery (#4) which will require me to be out of school for an extended amount of time.  Planning lessons, assessments and homework for several weeks was an exhausting task.  I finished up on yesterday and I am ready for the surgeon on Tuesday with my class fully prepared.  Thank goodness I found a wonderful substitute while I am recuperating.

Our School Science Fair

Enough about that and on to good news.  Our school held its annual Science Fair.  First Grade classes were to do a class project.   This experience will prepare them for next year when they must create their own experiment and science board.  

Drumroll please.... the winner for the best First Grade Science Project was........ MY CLASS!! Yay for the Foster Froggies!  Let me share our experiment.  I had always heard that adding pickle juice to Gardenia plants will produce more flowers.  Every so often I give diluted pickle juice to my Gardenia bush and the flowers bloom in May.  I was not really sure that it helped, but it made me feel good and I love the smell of Gardenias.  So I decided to have my students test this concept out on Begonia plants.  We took 3 Begonia plants and gave them only water while the other 3 plants received water with 2 droppers full of pickle juice.  Every several days we recorded the number of flowers on the plant.  Low and behold the Begonia plants with pickle juice did produce more flowers than the plants that were only given water.  Apparently the vinegar in the pickle juice makes the soil more acidic which indeed is what these flowering plants need. Next stop is the county competition.

Abraham Lincoln Fun

Just thought that I would share a little art project that we did for our unit on Abe Lincoln.  I collected paper towel rolls and spray painted them black.  I found a head shot of Mr. Lincoln in Google images and copied one for each child.  I gave them a piece of black construction paper and they had to design the hat, arms, legs and shoes.  Then they made tiny hands out of white paper. Mr. Lincoln is looking fine!

Until next time remember...

• You are a blessing!

• You are amazing!

• You are important!

Counting By Tens to 100 Lotto Fun

For many of you, the weather is cold and snowy so here is a fun 2 in 1 Math Center Pack that reinforces the Common Core Standard 1.NBT.C.5 Given a two-digit number, mentally find 10 more without having to count...

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The cards give a sequence of numbers with one number missing.

  In the first activity the students must find the missing number card and match it to the sequence card. An answer key is given so the activity can be self-checking.

In the second activity, the students play a lotto game with the same sequence cards.  

The first person to cover their lotto card is the winner. 

I've also included a cute 120 chart to help those visually see the pattern on the chart.

This was a hit with my kiddies and I know your students will love it too!  Stay warm check out this cute little snowman pack.

100th Day Fun

The last Friday in January was our 100 Days of School Celebration.  I love finding new ideas from other creative teachers to expand my students' learning.  This year I added the 100 Day Cape from Mrs. Miner's Monkey Business.

If you haven't seen her post, you should really check it out.  I chose the red plastic tablecloths from the Dollar Store. (Don't you just love that place?) I cut them into 6 rectangles which were transformed into 100 Day Capes.  I sent them home for the families to help decorate them with 100 items.  Then using shoelaces (also from the Dollar Store) I taped the middle to the top of the cape for a tie.  Aren't they adorable.
We also made hats with 100 stickers and beautiful tasty necklaces with 100 Fruit Loops.

Now that our outfits were complete, we made our Derdnuh snack mix.  Derdnuh is hundred spelled backwards for those of you who don't know.  Everyone brought in 100 pieces of a snack (pretzels, M&Ms, raisins, cereal etc.  Then we mixed them all together in a big bowl.

                                                                        Yummy!
I hope your 100th Day was fun and I would love to hear about any other ideas that you had.

Missing Number Freebie!

A beautiful three-day weekend is just what I needed to jump back into creating more Fun And Easy Center Activities.  It's in the 50s here and we are expected to dip down into the 30s tonight.  Just the right amount of winter coldness for me.  I've recently finished my 50th product (can't believe it) so it is time for a FREEBIE!

                             Click Here To See More!

This set addresses the Common Core Math Standard- MACC.1.OA.C.6-Add and subtract within 20, demonstrating fluency for addition with 10.

The center includes 24 addition and subtraction Kitty number sentences (written with the answer first and last) with missing numbers. Students work together in a small group, partners or individually to find the missing number for each Kitty number sentence.  Once found, the student places the correct missing number mouse over the kitty picture.  You may even want to split the set into 2 centers to enable more students to work this center.

Thanks for stopping by and grab your freebie now!

Snow Day in Florida = Flood Day

FLOOD DAY
When we hear about the horrific freezing temperatures and the huge amounts of snow up north, our hearts goes out to you.  We were in for a BIG surprise Thursday night when we received 22 inches of rain!  Needless to say, roads and schools were closed on Friday.  An unexpected 3-Day weekend is always welcome, even if it is a soggy one.  Here is what we woke up to Friday morning.

 

                    

Here is a little fun fact from the weatherman.   1 inch of rain =  10 inches of snow.  So if the temperature was quite colder, we would have had 18 feet of snow!  I think I will take the rain. 

So wherever you are- stay warm and dry this winter!

More teacher tips in my next post.