11 hours left on the book giveaway!

LAST DAY FOR THE GIVEAWAY!!

 The Best Books Bonanza book giveaway is ending soon. Head on over and enter to win!  2 people will win a book for their classroom library! :)

11 hours left!!

Click to Enter now!

Dawning of an Era, Turning of a Page

As the news comes to me I am so thankful to be able to share it with you all!! Next year, I will be beginning a new year at another GREAT school! I have been so blessed with an amazing administrative staff and the BEST partner one could ask for the last 3 years, however I am now going to be going back to my home school district to teach 2nd grade!!

3rd grade has been a great roller coaster ride, that I am thankful to have been able to enjoy and learn from, however 2nd grade is a dream of mine, and I am eager to begin my new school year!!

Thankful that God lets us try new things, and sometimes he lets us reset and begin again sometimes in a new place. I am thankful for this opportunity and truly blessed.

Organize Me Linky!!

Let's Get Organized Together!!

So I am really excited about my 1st linky!! One thing that inspired me to do this was the MESS I couldn't contain in my classroom or my home! As I blogged some these past few weeks, I have seen some AWESOME craft ideas. I would love for us to share these so that everyone can get organized. If you made something and are selling it on TPT make sure to list that too!! I LOVE good ideas,.. and it's even better when I can see it worked!

The three things I have done thus far, is my teacher toolbox for school, my crayons, and my nail polish for home. 2 major things that need straightening! :) I placed my desk items in a 22 compartment toolbox (Home Depot). I then added my nail polish collection into a glass candy jar. (Target) In order to save crayons, and not toss out my old ones, I put the broken crayons in a tray and baked them for 12 minutes. (Hobby Lobby)

Link Up and join us!! :) We Will be running this linky all summer so if someone else finds new ideas as they go please link up so,we can have 1 spot to retrieve these brilliant ideas everyone has! 

(Feel free to link up several ideas)

Ya'll are AWESOME! Thank you for participating!

Organize Me!

Looking at organizational ideas for next year, help me out if you find something new by sharing it! :)

I know these toolboxes have been posted so many times, however this is one thing I have wanted to do all year.. soooo here it is! (Fonts by Khrys)

Help a teacher out and share your tips!Please!! Lol..

By the way dont forget to enter into my book giveaway, 2 people are going to win books!:)

Blogiversary!!

Pencils, Books,and Dirty Looks

Pencils, Books ,and Dirty Looks is having a giveaway!!! They are giving away a $50 gift card!! Check it out!

http://www.pencilsbooksanddirtylooks.com/2013/06/1st-blogiversary-giveaway-win-50-erin.html?m=1

Best Books Bonanza and Giveaway!

WOW!! Okay.. so I today I went to this AMAZING book workshop, for anyone who uses mentor texts, is a librarian, or in love with Children's Literature. This is a blog for you! I am going to do my best to SQUISH an entire 6 hour workshop into this page without being too lengthy, so if you have questions you can definitely ask me!!

Our presenter was a librarian from Galena Park ISD (near by Houston, Texas). She was a PHENOMENAL "bookie" so I hope to do the explanations justice. Over the course of one day of class she reviewed and opened our eyes to 145 books!! WOW! (So my ADHD kicked in somewhere around 88. lol!) Attached are the pictures of my notes. I tried to enlarge them large enough in order to be seen, I apologize in advance for the horrible quality, I could only enlarge them so much. :( - comment for more information!!

After going through this workshop.. what I decided to do was to organize the books based on my top 20 books (in no particular order). Keep in mind, that this was AMAZING!! Out of 145 books, I will be purchasing maybe 120 in the near future. They are GREAT children's reads!

My Favorite Book: The Boy Who Cried Alien by: Marilyn Singer
*Reason: I LOVE Rewrites, especially books that have humor!

My LEAST Favorite Book: Zombie Makers by: Rebecca L. Johnson
* Reason: While this book may be great for some, I felt as though it did not "grab" my attention, and zombies are not my "forte."

Love's TOP 20 Books!
(Keep in mind these are in no particular order)

1. Unspoken : A story from the underground Railroad by: Henry Cole  (I enjoy that his book is wordless those are the BEST for predicting and Inferring)
2. Hippospotamus by: Jeanne Willis (Humorous and Cute book about a hippo with a "SPOT")
3. Senorita Gordita by: Helen Ketteman (A Fairy tale about a gingerbread girl who believes she is "Spanish" - reminds me of Skippy Jon Jones type book)
4. I Like Old Clothes by: Mary Ann Hoberman (I like it because it talks about kids with older clothes and "hand- me- downs". You can also do a character building clothing drive with it. Similar to 10o dresses)
5. Each Kindness by: Jacqueline Woodson (Character Building on bullying, and teaches about apologies and the power it has)
6. Happy by: Mies Van Hout ( Character building on emotions - great for counselors)
7. Remembering the Titanic by: Frieda Wishinsky ( A rookie reader - I love the titanic story)
8. Ocean and Sea by: Steve Parker ( Pictures are amazing, and very descriptive)
9. The Monster who Lost His Mean by: Tiffany Strelitz Haber (Acrostic poem that has a cute story line with it.)
10. The Three Ninja Pigs by: Corey Rosen Schwartz (A brilliant rewrite of The 3 Pigs. Japanese Setting and they are ninjas)
11. Monster Mash by: David Catrow (Written similar to the Monster Mash Song, this book is great for Halloween)
12. The Lonely Book by: Kate Bernheimer (A Cute story about a book that is forgotten and then lost, to be found again. Really makes kids think about books that haven't been read in a while)
13. Helen's Big Words: The Life of Helen Keller by: Doreen Rappaport (A story about Helen Keller, it includes a braille part on the title page. I love Helen Keller and what she overcame amazes me.)
14. Wumbers by: Amy Krouse Rosenthal (A GT book all the way! Great book for numbers and uses the numbers in words. I love that! It can seem like slang, but it takes some higher order to skills to solve the phrases, especially as they get harder.)
15. A Dollar, A Penny, How Much and How Many? by: Brian P. Cleary (Great money book, really breaks down information)
16. Edgar Allan Poe's Pie by: J. Patrick Lewis (Although Poe can be dark, this book is challenging. There are word problems inside of poems and that is AWESOME! If a kid can dissect the word problem out of a poem that is some strength in both math and reading.)
17. The President's Stuck in the Bathtub by: Susan Katz (Funny book with poems. Talks about all past presidents)
18. Vampirina Ballerina by: Anne Marie Pace (Character book on determination. Huge topic in higher grades.)
19. Forget - Me- Nots: poems to Learn by Heart by: Mary Ann Hoberman (Poetry!! - offers poems to kids, that are small enough to memorize. I believe memorizing can be good for brain development. So maybe one every once in a while! Great Stuff!)
20. Bear Has a Story to Tell by: Philip C. Stead (Great book for writing and pairing with science and learning about bears and hibernation.)

Enter at the bottom for a chance to win!!

Enter Here to Win 1 of these books! There will be 2 winners!!

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Bringing my Crayons back to Life!

Crayon Rehab

Sooo.. I don't know about you, but this year my kiddos really "man handled" the crayons. As I was cleaning up my classroom, I couldn't help but think "what to do" with all the broken crayons, so I did some pinning and found some ideas.

I haven't done much off of Pinterest however, this worked out so well that I wanted to share!

I melted crayons into this adorable mold that I got from Hobby Lobby ($6.99 after 40%off coupon on app). I then, went home and tore off the labels of my broken crayons. (Lesson Learned: Next time ill draft some children fingers to help.. lol)

 I did enjoy the outcome! :) It's a great, EASY project that helps the environment, because I am not wasting crayons from last year!

Instructions:

* Place enough crayon pieces in each container. (Try to fill to the top, because they will get smaller as the wax melts.)

* Pre- heat oven to 275 degrees.

* Bake crayons for about 10-12 minutes (Or until melted)

* Place in a cool place to solidify (freezer, or refrigerator)

By the way.. this may be totally "mental" however it excited me to think that the heat from the oven would kill the germs! :) YAY!

Sharing it in hopes others find this useful while were all cleaning out getting ready for a fresh start!

Look out for a new post from a workshop I attended today, as well as my Chapter 1 discussion piece, coming SOON!! :)

Thank you all for reading! Have a wonderful Wednesday!