First Day, Blessed, and Pumpkins

Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere. ~Chinese Proverb

Today was the first day of second grade for my kiddos. It was a great day getting organized, learning about each other, and setting the tone for the year.  I am really excited about my students and the family we will be this year.  My hope is that we settle in to a routine in the next few days, learn lots about each other, and love learning anywhere and everywhere.  I am blessed once again this year and hope you all are having a blessed new school year too. 

Fall is coming!  I have been meaning to make a writing activity for the life cycle of a pumpkin and finally sat down last night and did!  I can't wait for the leaves to start changing colors and falling.  I love this time of year.  Each year we read a story from Reading Street about pumpkins, and I thought this would be a great a writing activity to partner with it. 

I usually always make pumpkin dip as a treat for my students when we are learning about pumpkins.  One of my assistants a few years ago got me addicted to this I just love this treat with granny smith apples, vanilla wafers, or graham crackers. 

One 8oz cool whip

1 box instant vanilla pudding

1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

15 oz canned pumpkin

Something to dip (apples, cookies, etc)

Thaw cool whip. Mix pumpkin, dry vanilla pudding mix, and pumpkin pie spice. Fold in thawed cool whip and serve.  Yummy!!!

ENJOY!!!!!!!!!

Wonderful Week

What a wonderful week!  This week was my first official week back to school, and it was full of teacher meetings, faculty meetings, grade level meetings, and even more meetings.  It is always exciting starting a new year, decorating the room, creating lessons and activities, planning for the first week, and meeting the best kids ever!  Open house was last night it was full of energy and excitement by everybody.  I loved meeting all my kids and their families.  Also, I loved seeing so many of my past students.  It makes my heart grow each year as they come back for their hugs.  Monday will be our first day and I can't wait!  Hope all the rest of you are enjoying the start of the year.

BTW I am getting closer to the 50 giveaway! 

The Best Book

I purchased the best book last year from a Scholastic Book Fair.  The Little White Owl is a great book to use to teach about how everybody has their own unique qualities.  The book celebrates how we all are beautiful and diverse.  It is great beginning of the year book about friendships.  It really would be perfect for all of you that are doing an OWL themed classroom too. 

What books do you like to read a the beginning of year?

Good Bye Summer! Hello Teaching!

Good Bye Summer!

Sleeping late,

Shopping,

Vacation,

Relaxing,

Lazy days,

Lazy nights,

No pay check,

Shorts,

Flip flops,

Tank tops

Shopping,

Sleeping late!

Hello Teaching!

Smiling faces,

Eager students,

Excited boys and girls,

Alarm clocks,

Lesson plans,

Faculty meetings,

25 minute lunches,

Pay check,

Memorable moments,

Excited boys and girls,

Eager students,

Smiling faces!

Don't forget to sign up for my giveaway!

Teachers Rock 2012

I just saw a commercial for TEACHERS ROCK 2012.  Thought I would share the information to a bunch of amazing teachers that rock!  The line up for the show consists of Dierks Bentley, Fun, Garth Brocks, Adam Levine, Dave Grohl, Usher, Carrie Underwood, Meryl Streep, Viola Davis, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jennifer Garner, Jack Black, Morgan Freeman and Matthew Morrison.  Also, the proceeds are going to DonorsChoose.org, Feeding America, and Teach for America.

Don't Forget my giveaway!  I am getting closer!!!

Turning Back the Wheel of Time and Giveaway

The final lesson that a created as a Kenan Fellow is Turning Back the Wheel of Time. In this lesson, students work in cooperative groups to collaborate and create a product about the changes of transportation in the past, present, and future after watching a UPS video commercial We Love Logistics. Students then use their knowledge gained from this lesson and previous lessons to identify vocabulary, definitions, and pictures for each.   Everything you need can be found for the lesson at Learn NC.  It has a link to the video, handout, vocabulary, and assessment along with the detail lesson plan.  I hope you can use it with your students. 


Don't Forget
Click below to go to the thread about my giveaway! 

Almost at 50 Giveaway!



I just noticed that I am almost at 50 followers!  So it has to be time for a giveaway.  You can enter a few different ways:

1.  Become a follower of my blog and leave me a comment.

2.  Be a follower on TpT and leave me a comment on my blog.

3.  Tell about my blog and giveaway on your blog and leave a comment on my blog.

The winner will get to pick any item from my TpT store.  Once I have 50 followers I will randomly select a winner.  Good Luck and thanks for following!!!