tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-85041801176740441952024-03-19T01:38:18.597-07:00Happily TeachingElyse D'Andrea-Happily Teachinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378914882749356280noreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8504180117674044195.post-89035299638114443332014-05-06T19:32:00.002-07:002014-05-06T19:33:19.316-07:00Fairy Tales and Possessive Nouns!<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hello, all!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm really feeling the end of the year craziness this week. I'm sure all of you can relate! We only have 3 weeks of school left and you can feel it in the air! There is an extra dose of crazy going on in Room 100 but we are trying our best to get as much academic material (and fun) squeezed in with as minimal chaos possible! :) Nothing that some non-stop management strategies can't fix! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We wrapped up our fairy tale unit with some character traits, fairy godmother wishes, and opinion writing...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here, we used character traits to describe Jack and the Giant in <u>Jack and the Beanstalk.</u> My kiddos struggled with this a bit, but we caught on after lots of practice and were soon able to provide evidence from the text! Goldilocks really helped a lot with this skill but, of course, I forgot to snap pictures!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We read-aloud <u>The Three Little Pigs</u> and <u>The True Story of the Three Little Pigs</u> and used these favorites to practice writing our opinion pieces. This was just the start of our opinion writing unit, but I was so impressed with my kids and their opinions, reasons, and conclusions! What a fun, motivating way to get kids excited about writing their opinion! We've made a really time consuming pig/wolf craft in the past and this year I was in search of something relatively quick and simple that would go along with our opinion writing. I found it! This perfect little craftivity came from <a href="http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Huff-Puff-Writing-Craftivities-for-the-Three-Little-Pigs-669700" target="_blank">Julie</a> on TpT! Click on the picture below to check out this cute project! </span></div>
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<a href="http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Huff-Puff-Writing-Craftivities-for-the-Three-Little-Pigs-669700" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioaKVAqOClUfwtwqq_EHgIHDoM1SfLUtHd6Wg4Bd3NkfHn32UH1XRI9WMFEqziCXiL-Aj8eSNSyAZAqQgQ5pI5ZzNXXPwrvT-EqnPwcT_-Kfu2H6asthGdZ08_7gP2lKVCF7oqOrNkCMHk/s1600/IMG_4406.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Of course we had to make our yearly fairy godmother writing display...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My personal favorite...hey, at least she clarified that everything EXCEPT for the people should be made out of candy...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The next thing I wanted to share is one of those "spur of the moment, pop into your head, last minute, best lesson ever" ideas. Doesn't that always happen? The best lessons are always the ones that just pop into your head and you improvise on the spot? I, of course, made all my lesson plans for Monday not realizing that I was missing a 30 minute chunk of time that we usually have library. When I got to work that morning, it was a "think on your feet" kind of moment. We have been working on mastering the skill of possessive nouns in 1st grade and it has proven to be quite the tricky skill. We introduced it the week before by doing whole-group mini lessons on the Promethean board. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We also made a class anchor chart and each got to write something that belonged to us (using our possessive knowledge, of course). We stuck our sticky notes on the big anchor chart and, in the moment, it seemed to click!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But, alas, a couple short days later and the words "possessive nouns" prompted confused looks and hands flying in the air. So, with an extra 30 minutes on our hands, I tried to come up with something that might just make it STICK. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">*LIGHT BULB MOMENT*</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I ripped some big butcher paper up and covered all the tables. I printed off various pictures from throughout the school year. I modeled walking around the room with a marker, stopping, looking at the picture, and writing down a sentence that described something in the picture that belonged to someone. I gave some sentence starters for my little learners who needed some extra assistance:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I like _____________.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I see _______________.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We emphasized using APOSTROPHE 'S' and circling the possessive noun and OH. EM. GEE.....they got it! I LOVED seeing it click for all of them and, even better, the activity naturally provided opportunities to compliment their friends and use kind words in their writing. Love it!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And that's all for now, folks! We've got lots of crazy happenings going on this week with Field Day, Memorial Day concert, Memorial Day Concert practice, Mother's Day gifts, the list goes on and on. Here's hoping I still have hair left at the end of this week!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span id="goog_1402893446"></span><span id="goog_1402893447"></span><br /></span>Elyse D'Andrea-Happily Teachinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378914882749356280noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8504180117674044195.post-50435480560897447402014-04-25T17:58:00.000-07:002014-04-25T17:58:28.762-07:00He Liked It So He Put A Ring On It!<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, blog world, I'm finally back after a month-long hiatus. A very BUSY and EXCITING month-long hiatus, that is. Because.......</span><div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I GOT ENGAGED!!!! It was totally unexpected and I was SHOCKED, but it happened over spring break! We were in Florida walking on the beach and I looked up and saw a group of people holding up those signs. I thought I was dreaming. Really. I blacked out the majority of the proposal, but I'm told that the first words out of my mouth were a random string of cuss words so....that's that for a romance-filled moment, right?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anyways, the group of people was both of our families that were in Florida. I had ZERO idea my family was there and still have no idea how they managed to keep that a secret for so long.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The whole "waking up to an alarm" and "going back to work" thing is always a depressing adjustment, but my coworkers and kiddos made it so much fun. It's pretty remarkable how having amazing people in your life can make special times all the more special. My coworkers showered me with support and love and my desk was filled with exciting goodies upon my arrival back to work. AMAZING!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Funny story: Every Monday morning, we have class meeting. We all gather in a circle on the carpet and each have the opportunity to share something fun we did the over the weekend or something special that happened to us. Sometimes we go around in a circle and share and sometimes we "pop" around by calling on friends that are sitting quietly with their ideas to share. On this particular Monday, we were all extremely hyped up (I mean, there's nothing quite like a week off of school when we seem to lose control of our ability to sit on the carpet and all classroom expectations go flying out the window). After calming everyone down, I decided to start our special sharing time by telling my class that I got engaged over Spring Break.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The awe! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The shock!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The excitement!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The "GROSSSSS A BOY?!" comments!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Until one of my little girls excitedly shouts out, "OH MY GOSH IF IT'S A GIRL WILL YOU NAME IT LOLA?!?!"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ummmmm......Clearly I laughed for the remainder of our class meeting and squashed any sort of "sharing time," haha!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After getting back on track, we actually managed to get academic material covered and have a successful and productive first day back. We even got a surprise package delivered to our classroom from my fiance, Evan's, aunt in Indiana! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Best surprise ever! Okay, besides the whole "proposal" thing...And the kids LOVED them! We just had to pose and flaunt our rings!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anyways, that's all I've got for now, folks! I will post back soon with some fun school-related activities. I can't BELIEVE we only have 5 weeks of school left!</span></div>
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Elyse D'Andrea-Happily Teachinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378914882749356280noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8504180117674044195.post-47386847077368212212014-03-24T17:02:00.001-07:002014-03-24T17:02:23.694-07:00Reading With Our Senses and Feelings<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">HAPPY MONDAY BEFORE SPRING BREAK TO ME!!! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Can you tell I'm excited? Honestly, it's not just a week of sleeping in that's appealing to me. It's the fact that it has been an awful, no, MISERABLE winter here in Chicago. I've spent hours of my life digging my car out of snow on the streets. Hours that I'll never get back. I've cried silently trying to navigate my way through snow without boots only to have my tears freeze on my face. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The most depressing part about all of that is that it is not a dramatization. It really has been that miserable.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Which is why I'm SO excited to go to Florida on Saturday morning! If the temperature tops 60 degrees then I am one happy camper and plan on laying on the beach rain or shine. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Moving on...the other day I posted about St. Paddy's day in my classroom. I had posted a freebie download of my "Lucky Leprechaun Juice" poem that I planned on using to practice identifying words that describe feelings and senses. Though I didn't get around to it on the day we enjoyed our lucky juice, we did use the poem for a mini-lesson later on in the week and it went PERFECTLY! I also noticed an error in my original upload, so feel free to re-download by clicking <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1ViONw_qbocdExHclFjb0NFMTg/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">here</a> if you'd like!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For our mini-lesson, I made a super quick flip chart on my Promethean Board to quickly "warm up our brains" and identify sense and feeling words. We took turns coming up and circling what sense/feeling different words showed us. Sorry about the terrible photo quality...that's what happens when I try to quickly take pictures with my phone during the lesson! Oops!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After we finished with our quick flip chart, we used clipboards and our Lucky Leprechaun Juice to identify words within the poem that represented senses and feelings.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A finished product...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This lesson went extremely well with my kiddos. Using something exciting like our leprechaun juice really helped spark the excitement about this standard that they had trouble with prior.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This week we are working really hard on our hardcover All About Me books for our big Young Author's celebration this Friday. We have lots of families coming in to our classroom to help us celebrate our writing, so I'll be sure to post back soon with our progress!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Have a great night!</span></div>
Elyse D'Andrea-Happily Teachinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378914882749356280noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8504180117674044195.post-85065333864526214752014-03-17T19:25:00.000-07:002014-03-17T19:26:15.717-07:00A Wee Bit of St. Paddy's Fun!<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Can it be true? Am I finally blogging twice within a week? Hold the applause. I'm applauding myself enough as it is! Hopefully it will become an oddity when I <b>don't </b>blog soon enough but, until then, I'll continue to celebrate my efforts of blogging more often!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Today we had a BLAST celebrating St. Paddy's day in first grade! This was by far the most fun St. Paddy's I've had in my four years teaching and by far the most successful day yet! It's always a good day when you get several, "You're the best teacher ever" comments, am I right?!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This morning, we went to our reading room and when we got back, we read a St. Patrick's Day story. And then....at the end of the story...DUN DUN DUN....a mysterious piece of paper dropped out! BUT HOW COULD THAT BE POSSIBLE?! We just had this book on display and kids had just read it only twenty minutes prior. I mean, if we're considering all plausible options, the only one that makes any sense at all is that a leprechaun came and put it there while we were gone!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.........duh.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We discovered that there were shamrock clues to a super top secret code underneath some of our chairs! Amidst the <strike>leisurely stroll</strike> MAD DASH back to our seats to try and find the clues, I had only one kiddo crying in fear of the leprechaun so....that was pretty traumatic. Luckily, we were able to build that bridge and get over it relatively quickly...:)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We used the mystery code sheet from <a href="http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Lucky-Leprechaun-and-the-Incredible-Shrinking-Hat-Project-213067" target="_blank">Mrs. Miner's Monkey Business</a>' Lucky Leprechaun pack, but I substituted my own shamrock clues. We searched and searched and walked around the room, tirelessly filling out our secret codes and solving the puzzle</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The finished puzzle read, "The ingredients needed for Lucky Leprechaun juice are hiding under Miss D'Andrea's desk!" Hilariously, most of the kids didn't fill in the word "desk" until the very end and were under the impression that all of the ingredients were.......under me. After spinning around more than one time and removing my cardigan, we were able to comprehend that the ingredients were not, in fact, under me. But then we filled in the missing word.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cue the screams. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Luckily I was able to herd the crowd down to the carpet so that I wouldn't get trampled en route to my desk. Low and behold, the ingredients were there! Of course, I was shocked (!), surprised (!), and a little scared (!) that a leprechaun had somehow gotten under my desk! How could it be?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We found a whole batch of ingredients hidden under there!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> But what were they? Were they dangerous? Was the leprechaun trying to trick us all into becoming leprechauns too? Ahh, the many questions involved in an innocent little combination of ingredients covered conveniently with construction paper you can find in my cabinets...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, we mixed them up. We "oooooed" and "ahhhhed". We asked if Miss D'Andrea could have the first sip so that we could all see if she turned into a leprechaun before we drank it. How sweet.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rest assured, I didn't turn into a leprechaun. Although, as one of my little girls so nicely pointed out my, "eyes were starting to have green underneath them." Nope, nope, that's just my eyeliner running. LET ME LIVE MY LIFE! And despite the occasional fear, we were all able to take at least a sip of the lucky juice (after all, we didn't want to be the one who made the magic go away!)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I put together this little poem to practice one of our CCSS focus skills: "I can identify words in a text that describe feelings and senses." We didn't have time to get to it, so I plan on using it for a mini-lesson this week when we reflect back on our St. Paddy's Day! I figured I'd attached it here just in case anyone still wants to use some leprechaun-themed activities throughout the week! Click <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1ViONw_qbocaVNjb19rTGFqa28/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">HERE</a> to get the freebie!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After drinking our lucky juice, we wrapped up our non-standard units of measurement unit by using centimeter cubes to measure St. Patrick's Day pictures I snagged from <a href="http://rowdyinroom300.blogspot.com/2013/03/its-your-lucky-day.html" target="_blank">Rowdy in Room 300</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Much to my surprise, during indoor recess, my kiddos created quite the leprechaun trap using some of our extra lucky juice and straws. Of course, it was complete with pseudo-gold and rainbows! Unfortunately,<strike> I didn't know about the trap</strike> the leprechaun didn't visit during lunchtime, so the trap remained until it was time for art.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After lunch, when the kids saw that the leprechaun didn't come back, we had some doubters! But, ALAS, the MAGIC SHRINKING LEPRECHAUN HAT will prove any doubters wrong! Just tell the kids a story your mom supposedly told you a long time ago about how leprechauns can shrink styrofoam cups into leprechaun hats. Then, decorate a styrofoam cup....</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Leave the room for art, come back and.....</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">SURPRISE! THE LEPRECHAUN DOES EXIST!! He shrank all of our cups into hats while we were at art! (Note: putting styrofoam cups in the oven at 250 degrees for 3 minutes does wonders :)) He even drank all of the juice from our trap and left gold (Rolos because gold coins were no where to be found in Ireland, obviously)! That sneaky little guy! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What a nice and friendly leprechaun and what an AWESOME day in first grade! Here's hoping the craziness goes down by Wednesday. And here's to being incredibly thankful that tomorrow happens to be a staff in-service day that won't be bombarded by never-ending leprechaun hunts...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you've gotten this far in my post, I commend you! I hope you sleepy as soundly tonight as I'm sure I will! </span></div>
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<!-- Blogger automated replacement: "https://images-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com/gadgets/proxy?url=http%3A%2F%2F1.bp.blogspot.com%2F-NUU38HP8G7s%2FUyelaP-ktYI%2FAAAAAAAAAq4%2FvzybrM9B-vc%2Fs1600%2FIMG_4040.JPG&container=blogger&gadget=a&rewriteMime=image%2F*" with "https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdyI9MwlIYD22YSlDi4Ae69YhhgGeN9tIbY81vIrNFCrqEBpoqKGOkSKgdfHcBjtFy30njwDhec6v4YPyIPpQuaa3RiiZuQijGMWdhZLD7hIbv5OHSCLLeu1PS_J_J3YmFoMFb3jVe64Ye/s1600/IMG_4040.JPG" -->Elyse D'Andrea-Happily Teachinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378914882749356280noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8504180117674044195.post-46222145202660643172014-03-09T17:12:00.003-07:002014-03-09T17:12:20.320-07:00Right On Time for President's Day!.........Right?<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Greetings, Strangers!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I admit, my promises of blogging more often have proven to be false. I want to blog, I really do! I just find myself getting all caught up in school, grad school, friends, family, and miscellaneous other things and blogging keeps getting pushed to the side! Just last week I had a grad school project due, parent teacher conferences, and a formal observation, phew! I really wish I was one of those miracle people who could get it all done and have extra time at the end of their day to, oh I don't know, paint their nails and work out but hey, I'm just not!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And because it happened so recently (cough, sarcasm, cough), I thought I'd dedicate this post to....President's Day! I have had a schedule of things and topics to blog about and this post, I figured, could still be used next year or for any government units you have coming up!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am always so surprised and amused by how excited and interested my kids are in real people in history. Seriously, they are always SO intrigued and begging to learn more! Every year! I love it! This year was no different...the presidents were, once again, the most interesting thing EVER! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We started by reading some non-fiction books about our very own 16th president, Abraham Lincoln. Do any of you have the Scholastic Easy Reader Biographies (purple book)? I tell you...these are the BEST biographies for primary kids. They are super easy to follow, include simple non-fiction text features, and really interest the kids. </span></div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Easy-Reader-Biographies-President-American/dp/0439774187/ref=sr_1_1_title_1_pap?ie=UTF8&qid=1394408038&sr=8-1&keywords=easy+reader+biographies+abraham+lincoln" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2RUglkBRt-3lwsPM9g9c2UPcXMmhwLPqytf6yf4x53CEJEoRywZbQkvs4WVRkOQtX1kszwuZMIKmNqsdN6ZMagL6oYa6zB8agYCOqkDlVLbgeZHm53I-Nk1zTIu_ftimzzUqNXXZEFn_Q/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-03-09+at+6.34.15+PM.png" height="200" width="141" /></a><a href="http://www.amazon.com/My-First-Biography-Abraham-Lincoln/dp/0545342945/ref=pd_sim_b_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=1QY00DG322PWKH6WE1T7" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzzr3pBOOQx7KR5U1eSEc2lgoQKcWki24YjtXOlW1Z0pD3OGzZBZllNnN6MSbzH4b8nKejs6NmoxII6nHGat-3fsegiH-sVq_WOgbJvzHlOY_0VggpL3_Cz2V-WfNwI05Njg0ucUBttKJu/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-03-09+at+6.34.41+PM.png" height="199" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After we did several read alouds, we used all of our new knowledge to write about good ol' Honest Abe and add our writing to our projects out of <a href="http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Presidents-Day-Pack-197915" target="_blank">Amy Lemons' President's Day Freebie Pack!</a> I had my kiddos write a topic sentence and then use sentence stems that I provided for them to complete their writing. They could use the following sentence starters:<br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Abraham Lincoln was _____________________.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Abraham Lincoln lived _____________________.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They did an awesome job with their writing! Unfortunately, however, I didn't take any pictures of the individual Abe projects. Later on in this post you will be able to see pictures of them hanging with our George Washington projects.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Which brings me to our next president that we studied...Mr. George Washington himself! We started out by reading the Easy Reader Biography below. Then, we watched (and re-watched by request) the George Washington brainpopjr video.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We used sticky notes to write down facts and questions we had. We have been working on types of sentences, so I thought this was a perfect opportunity to have kids write a telling sentence or an asking sentence about George Washington to add to our chart! They always love using stickies, so this was just mind-blowingly fun!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We finished up our Washington learning by recording our learning and making this George craft inspired by <a href="http://thefirstgradeparade.blogspot.com/2011/02/george-washington.html" target="_blank">The First Grade Parade</a>. I did the whole paint thing last year and just didn't have time this year to wait for paint to dry. We had to wham-bam our Washington craft out in a very small amount of time, so the paint just didn't fly this year! Either way, I think they turned out super cute and the kids sure loved making them!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And here's our presidential crafts and writing hanging up in the hallway above our cubbies!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Welp, until next time...I PROMISE it will be soon!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Elyse D'Andrea-Happily Teachinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378914882749356280noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8504180117674044195.post-82621883517012854242014-01-27T18:02:00.002-08:002014-01-27T18:03:25.543-08:00Brr....A Peek Into the Arctic!<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here I am! Freezing to death. But still, here I am!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We had yet another school cancellation day today due to severe cold weather (I'm talking -40 degree cold weather) and are cancelled again tomorrow!! The good news? I'm getting a little extra R&R in these two days. The bad news? We have tacked an extra 4 days onto the end of the year. Oh well, it is what it is I suppose. That's Chicago weather for ya!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The fun (did I say fun?) part about it being so unbelievably cold is that it aligns perfectly with our polar unit! Okay, maybe "fun" is the wrong word to use but it has been hilarious to talk about how freezing cold it is in the Arctic and then relate it back to....where we live. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anyways, we haven't dived too deep into our polar unit yet but I did want to share a few quick pictures I snagged this past week from the beginning of our penguin learning!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First, we made these penguin hats made with sentence strips and simple shapes of construction paper. The kids were so excited to wear them during all of our penguin learning!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After we made our cutie little hats, we were ready to start our penguin-y learning! We started by creating "All About Penguin" books by doing a "Do-It-Now" penguin drawing (otherwise known as guided drawing) for the cover.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our books are filled with penguin diagrams, experiments, and graphic organizers to record our learning. I will definitely post back with pictures of the inside of our books because we are LOVING learning all about penguins!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, I'm off to enjoy the brisk sub-zero temperatures! Have a great week!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Elyse D'Andrea-Happily Teachinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378914882749356280noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8504180117674044195.post-46986442997695457752013-12-04T17:21:00.002-08:002013-12-04T17:21:46.627-08:00Asking Sentences and Question Marks!<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Happy Hump Day, Everyone!!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As of about 30 minutes ago I have officially completed all of my coursework for my ESL endorsement and couldn't be more relieved! Woohoo! Now what will I do with all of my spare Wednesday nights instead of sit in a windowless sub-zero temperature room? Nashville and Top Chef come to mind...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Moving on, I'm trying my hardest to be consistent with my blogging so I thought I'd update today with a fun little activity I whipped up this week! In first grade we are working on our "I Can" statements which currently include producing asking sentences and using appropriate punctuation. I was trying to think of a fun and interactive (yet structured) activity that would help my kids grasp this concept and I think I found a lesson keeper! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I started by introducing our BIG question mark. We talked about what a question mark does and words that the question mark likes to use to ask all of the things he wonders about. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then, I put an interesting picture up on the board. We practiced using our question words to produce asking sentences about the picture. It was a bit of a struggle at first, so we made sure to emphasize that questions are things we WONDER. Sure, I still got a few "I wonder I think that's cool" but hey, you can't win every time! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then, I put SUPER cool pictures at each table and gave each kiddo a recording sheet complete with an "asking word" word bank. The kids spent time at each table looking closely at the pictures and recording one "asking sentence" that they had about each picture using the words in the word bank and, of course, a question mark! It was a SMASHING success...the kids loved it! What a fun way to get the kids really thinking and talking to one another about the pictures!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Click the picture below to download this fun activity for free! </span></div>
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Elyse D'Andrea-Happily Teachinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378914882749356280noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8504180117674044195.post-77635836127087058982013-12-01T08:26:00.000-08:002013-12-01T08:27:11.164-08:00Deck the Halls with a Jammin' Linky Party Playlist!<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Before I start my blog post today, I'd love to get your input on a couple things that I am teaching post-break! Do you ever have those days when, despite all the cute ideas on Pinterest, your creative juices just aren't flowing? I'm trying to think of a really great ways to teach my firsties about verb tenses AND character traits. I haven't introduced these skills yet and I anticipate them being really tricky. Do any of you fabulous bloggers have some brilliant ideas that have worked for you in the past? Buehller? Buehller?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anyways, on to the rest of my blog post...d</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">uring class meetings in my classroom, we share a "thumbs up" or a "thumbs down" (things that went great/we really enjoyed that day or things that made us feel sad/could need a little work that day). Why not start with a "thumbs up/thumbs down" in today's blog post?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here we go...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">THUMBS DOWN to my long, blissful, sleeping-in filled Thanksgiving Break coming to an end after today. I'm excited to see all my kiddos but not quite as excited for my alarm to go off at 5:30!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">THUMBS UP to Cyber Monday/Tuesday sale at <a href="http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Elyse-Dandrea" target="_blank">TpT </a>! Everything in my store will be 20% off PLUS you can get another 10% off from TpT! This means that everything will be up to 28% off...can't wait! Though I did cheat a little and buy some full-priced items over break (because, let's get real, it was absolutely necessary in that moment), I'm excited to make some great purchases in these upcoming days! Love it!</span></div>
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<a href="http://bainbridgeclass.blogspot.com/2013/12/deck-halls-with-tpt-linky-party.html" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="412" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDX_YTfJBmDBUY8yU4TfBzQtAHqkLGuj-G2Ryx-YrOUTbZ6AlFHhCefZUQCiAb3ITlk6XQuKEmQ3GPE6XNjL0tWXrNKEyb-xYDjhq-5M9m9gCtHWF0EVpKSQbl2nlngKV623K4i5TZx5dh/s640/Screen+Shot+2013-12-01+at+9.54.33+AM.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am taking part in this fun linky party hosted by <a href="http://bainbridgeclass.blogspot.com/2013/12/deck-halls-with-tpt-linky-party.html" target="_blank">Bunting, Books, and Bainbridge</a> to share my holiday TpT "playlist" with you all! First, you start with the playlist...</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsZghMia7Dm9LisjPWqEl_vsGyBnIx8LY6-2hAk5xJ564o8rx7tPbe-fvRE5lpJRM0wFQmO3SDzTMt4sM94R0cjmsTMGXkmcShTnYPKfhHS-agrPepqdvNMzuEC46udYEY5AdG-ixkaDK9/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-12-01+at+9.55.00+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="432" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsZghMia7Dm9LisjPWqEl_vsGyBnIx8LY6-2hAk5xJ564o8rx7tPbe-fvRE5lpJRM0wFQmO3SDzTMt4sM94R0cjmsTMGXkmcShTnYPKfhHS-agrPepqdvNMzuEC46udYEY5AdG-ixkaDK9/s640/Screen+Shot+2013-12-01+at+9.55.00+AM.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then, you select the songs you'd like to share! I chose to share 3 smashing hits...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First up, "Oh Management, Oh Management":</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirkyaoqTLT39YwzPXTJRWPznLzDFz5f6LPVyySB7jmhPZmRXfKbS-NzgyVcZV_QiX0R22Ny5nimIo7eEY_-mdEDqTjMRDLTotmlORdCeExYP1iz6XgJQHNvuJCHfihBfaiR-xhWRaX5hyphenhyphen-/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-12-01+at+10.11.57+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirkyaoqTLT39YwzPXTJRWPznLzDFz5f6LPVyySB7jmhPZmRXfKbS-NzgyVcZV_QiX0R22Ny5nimIo7eEY_-mdEDqTjMRDLTotmlORdCeExYP1iz6XgJQHNvuJCHfihBfaiR-xhWRaX5hyphenhyphen-/s400/Screen+Shot+2013-12-01+at+10.11.57+AM.png" width="308" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I picked my daily schedule cards for this one because they are one of my top-sellers! Also because they are a lifesaver in my class! "When's recess?" "Look at the schedule." "Are we doing writing today?" "I'm not sure...look at the schedule." Oh, and my personal favorite, "Miss D'Andrea, how come you ALWAYS forget to put the schedule up?" (Touching my heart for dramatic effect) "Oh my goodness, Miss D'Andrea just has SO many jobs so that we have lots of awesome learning to do at school. Sometimes she forgets one small job like putting up the schedule. Let me do that RIGHT now so that our day doesn't fall apart...!" Haha!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My second hot track on my playlist is "I Saw Mommy With a Science and Social Studies Resource":</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxj7irM47n1TKuEFKlfA1Ae85zOO32bNRquEY9xcMDuLIL9PRcyC-IxliZafKOEA0K_JsvpQIVQQp-XLTy3TeAWKNz9hG5avk47AqrAfbC2fNcxGqScA39OZUwqOuYQMFovIxyHVMDEcSQ/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-12-01+at+10.18.18+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxj7irM47n1TKuEFKlfA1Ae85zOO32bNRquEY9xcMDuLIL9PRcyC-IxliZafKOEA0K_JsvpQIVQQp-XLTy3TeAWKNz9hG5avk47AqrAfbC2fNcxGqScA39OZUwqOuYQMFovIxyHVMDEcSQ/s400/Screen+Shot+2013-12-01+at+10.18.18+AM.png" width="310" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First and foremost, how awesome is the title of that song? Hilarious. I decided to choose my newly updated "Camouflage Hunt Fun!" product for this one. This is one of my favorite activities during my polar/arctic animals unit. The kids love learning about camouflage! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lastly, the playlist ends with the ever-popular "Walking in a Math Wonderland"...</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDJbRMMlazBhFObBB8HF9vNzIjNdm9HPD5osUTRFA01dG4eSIHblaOBTMzozXeDhEgR3hwYydT3qaZbrRNwMwSa-iKsuE7-TtADxNrrjwCVzl5GahT-Gf9h1EV3l2LG5qdjrY81b2BbrdY/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-12-01+at+10.21.28+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDJbRMMlazBhFObBB8HF9vNzIjNdm9HPD5osUTRFA01dG4eSIHblaOBTMzozXeDhEgR3hwYydT3qaZbrRNwMwSa-iKsuE7-TtADxNrrjwCVzl5GahT-Gf9h1EV3l2LG5qdjrY81b2BbrdY/s400/Screen+Shot+2013-12-01+at+10.21.28+AM.png" width="308" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDcF9r9rtCfT7TvazK9Jnhyphenhyphenlh6ak_LhU6WZmhNzwyCKC1o4jYQY0BvC0_z0KurHFu_gn_zPMbnLj7QYnobtyey48ccKpsnyY_j2b7WrEBkL7tXBr87sPHCl9HwqkbvpUKUr-1kUXTLW_oY/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-12-01+at+10.22.07+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDcF9r9rtCfT7TvazK9Jnhyphenhyphenlh6ak_LhU6WZmhNzwyCKC1o4jYQY0BvC0_z0KurHFu_gn_zPMbnLj7QYnobtyey48ccKpsnyY_j2b7WrEBkL7tXBr87sPHCl9HwqkbvpUKUr-1kUXTLW_oY/s400/Screen+Shot+2013-12-01+at+10.22.07+AM.png" width="307" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For this one, I chose my Double Digit Addition and Subtraction QR Code products! One of them includes regrouping and the other one is without! Fun, fun!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That's all for today, folks! I hope you all enjoy your last day before it's back to the grind tomorrow! </span></div>
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<br />Elyse D'Andrea-Happily Teachinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378914882749356280noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8504180117674044195.post-79659296975500362002013-11-26T10:14:00.000-08:002013-12-01T08:27:30.719-08:00Thanksgiving Time!<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yay!! Happy Thanksgiving break! Well...err...to some of you at least! Happy ALMOST break to the rest of you that work this week! </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> My school has the whole week off after a week of parent-teacher conferences, but if you're one of the schools that works these first couple of days, it's almost over! Woohoo! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ya know that feeling when your last conference ends? I literally closed my classroom door and celebrated...by myself...hands in the air and all. I even played "Celebrate" over the speakers in my classroom. Okay, I'm kidding........am I? </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is such a long and exhausting week to teach all day and then immediately have conferences until late evening. PHEW! This break is MUCH needed!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Parent-teacher conferences were a success this year with only a couple no-shows. I am so fortunate to have a group of parents that care deeply about their child's education and were open and accepting to all of my thoughts, observations, praises, and suggestions for growth. As I'm sure many of you are aware, having parents on your side as a teacher is one of the most crucial elements to student success so I am so happy to have a majority of my parents on board! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have been TOTALLY awful at taking pictures of all the fun Thanksgiving/Pilgrim learning we have been doing these last couple of weeks, but I will surely share what I did managed to snap photos of. My kids were OBSESSED with learning about pilgrims. Something about learning what life was like long ago is so interesting to them. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The most interesting part about our pilgrim learning was about life on the Mayflower. The kiddos were so intrigued by life on the Mayflower. They had to eat the same things everyday, wear the same clothes, sleep on the cold, hard floor, they didn't have toys and (*gasp*) had to go to the bathroom in a bucket! OH THE DRAMA! While reading books about the Mayflower, we even laid on the floor of our classroom to act like we were sleeping on the Mayflower which, incase your wondering, was only the COOLEST THING EVER! It's the simple things in life....</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After we learned all about the Mayflower, I put together this sort for a quick activity and check-in to see which of my students were recalling all our learning! I have uploaded it as a freebie in my <a href="http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/What-Was-On-the-Mayflower-Sort-996254" target="_blank">TpT store</a> so feel free to grab it if you are still in school and needing a quick activity before break! </span><br />
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<a href="http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/What-Was-On-the-Mayflower-Sort-996254" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><img border="0" height="306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBfGs_9kj2x2zhD-R3fsKbl5cqfxYssfwmMVe_KDvRquFsYxht0LNcJFynKO9lBY9g8a7P3TyEfL_xEFfszg-vnx5h_FqwbInRVki6GzWb5gJCnoTLLCXWAVLe6JtalZFtZz_1kM-Gk0bq/s400/Screen+Shot+2013-11-26+at+12.03.47+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/What-Was-On-the-Mayflower-Sort-996254" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="307" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDZs9Csf9StFQr01f4wTLWhDZlfgNNKt7THlQ2vx7S2YRX2VkXHMOxy-RmOSEwIfUmluFOo-ulgxjJrakJimkzYc-hz0Rz0qRU567Lywi3yKD-33U4v90yQ_vy4taiDADruw39ZDhfsmS0/s400/Screen+Shot+2013-11-26+at+12.03.57+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We also talked about what we would bring with us if we were traveling on the Mayflower and made cute Mayflower suitcases to take with us!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhPWq4wzWodcKFqtd2riAk4h71ZCpu0epjWoACWIol-sjiK6leB-2jKyJop_L99sGOS-CnXXeZoZdSG_oxHJm5aRghV__uMT-HPnszcDLH1iICFJY_V0va5HGfl_ch3yUC9TSk4Oh0WvRY/s1600/photo+4.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhPWq4wzWodcKFqtd2riAk4h71ZCpu0epjWoACWIol-sjiK6leB-2jKyJop_L99sGOS-CnXXeZoZdSG_oxHJm5aRghV__uMT-HPnszcDLH1iICFJY_V0va5HGfl_ch3yUC9TSk4Oh0WvRY/s400/photo+4.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: start;">This suitcase is my personal favorite. What would he bring on the Mayflower? Oh, just the essentials. His 3DS, pool pants (?), underwears, a bath tub, and a night light! ADORABLE!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We also made cute fact family turkeys complete with number bond bodies (idea courtesy of my coworker) to add above our lockers for our Thanksgiving display! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That's all I have to share for now but I will be back later this week with some more updates! Enjoy your break, everyone, and have a happy holiday!</span></div>
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Elyse D'Andrea-Happily Teachinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378914882749356280noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8504180117674044195.post-89609973748062959912013-10-16T19:34:00.004-07:002013-12-01T08:27:53.520-08:00Backstreet's (aka I am) Back, Alright!<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hi There!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">....and cue the awkward realization that my last post was over a month ago and in that last post I wrote, and I quote, "this post marks the beginning of routinely posting what's up in first grade." It looks like I didn't really hold up to that promise I made to myself unless you consider "routinely" to mean "once every month"...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I did have blogging on my to-do list. And I totally WANTED to blog. But I just found that every day it somehow got pushed down the list in an effort to get "I absolutely have to get this done right now" things done! Does that ever happen to you? Ugh, hopefully that will stop happening and life will stop being so busy so that blogging can get back to being a top priority. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Have I mentioned that I love my class this year? Do you ever have those frustrating years where you don't even feel like your teaching because an unbelievable amount of your time is spent managing? And then managing more. Oh and then just managing a little bit more? Well this class is not one of those classes! Sure, we all have our fair share of first grade problems but overall they are a really fantastic group of kids and I am feeling so lucky and like I'm actually able to maximize the learning and FUN in my classroom!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We are right smack dab in the middle of our weather unit and we focused this past week on the seasons! Since there doesn't ever seem to be time to do the fun theme-y activities that I used to do with all the new common core craziness, I tried my best to integrate our science learning into our Reader's Workshop time using some of the common core standards as well.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here's what we were up to the past two weeks:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We went on a picture walk around the room to figure out what our next theme was! I wrote about this during my rainforest unit last year <a href="http://happilyteaching.blogspot.com/2013/05/hello-hello-i-think-every-teacher-in.html" target="_blank">here</a>. I put out cool weather pictures and had them walk around to observe the pictures first, then they could write thoughts, questions, comments, whatever they wanted about the pictures on the butcher paper! They LOVED this activity and were able to figure out that our new theme was all different types of weather!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We read the book <u>Moonbear's Shadow</u> by Frank Asch. This book is PERFECT for introducing light and shadows and is fabulous for discussion and schema-building.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Moonbears-Shadow-Frank-Asch/dp/0833524526/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1381802461&sr=8-3&keywords=moonbear%27s+shadow" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxtw2KjeyPUIHMJG4l5fqQhxP8gct4jFQuvGPjdGZ64w21RdXWIv1l0UR1tXt4TqFTZj8sMobOL61nQpvchaxvDY_LI2t4zEcMWJvJw4oQ7mNexw4h93dVkuIAxCp_P_26vGud-5VVrxc_/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-10-14+at+9.01.13+PM.png" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After reading the story, we went outside for a little shadow learning! We observed our shadows and what happened when we stood in the sun vs. the shade. We turned and and moved and watched how our shadows turned and moved with us. And we learned the three things that you need to make a shadow: light, an object, and a surface!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We also made shadow puppets and, when the sun wasn't shining, adapted and used flashlights at our tables to observe their shadows. Unfortunately, I didn't grab any pictures!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This past week we focused on the four seasons. On the first day, I read aloud a simple non-fiction seasons book and focused on some non-fiction text features. I then put some butcher paper labeled "Summer" and "Spring" up and had the kids stick post-it notes with their knowledge/schema about the seasons up on the papers. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the common core standards we were teaching last week was, "I can describe the connection between two pieces of information within a text" and I thought this was the perfect opportunity to discuss how the seasons can be alike in ways and different in ways! So we shared our sticky notes and talked about how some of them could stay on the paper and others could be moved between the two papers because they were examples of how the seasons were alike. They did an amazing job and really caught on quickly!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The next day we used our ideas and sorted them into a venn diagram to show the connection between the two different seasons. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you'd like to grab a free copy of the Spring/Summer sort, you can click <a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1ViONw_qbocUHpPenBRSEZEenc/edit?usp=drive_web" target="_blank">here</a>!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The last thing I managed to get pictures of this week was when we became "Season Experts!" I have done something similar to this activity in the past but it went SO much better this year than in years past!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After reading books about the seasons, I split the kids into small groups of six. Each group was put in charge of becoming "experts" about a season! I have these awesome big books in my classroom that give specific information about each seasons. I modeled how they could use the words AND the pictures in the book to do a "research project". They LOVED this! I put together some season expert books that I gave each kid as they did research on the seasons. Here's some pics of the kids working SUPER hard on their "research" projects. :)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I uploaded this awesome activity into my <a href="http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Season-Expert-Research-Books-929249" target="_blank">TpT store</a> and I'm super excited about it because it really was tons of fun! In the file I included all 4 season books as well as a "Season Expert" award certificate to present to kids once they finish!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, blogging world, I'm happy to be back and will be back again very soon!</span></div>
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Elyse D'Andrea-Happily Teachinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378914882749356280noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8504180117674044195.post-38842545335237288732013-09-11T18:40:00.000-07:002013-12-01T08:28:15.280-08:00Busy Life!<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I know what you're thinking. Remember when I started this blog to write about all my fun classroom activities and share our daily first grade happenings and then went weeks without posting once school actually started? I get it. Having a teaching blog without actually blogging about teaching is a total waste. Hopefully this post marks the beginning of routinely posting what's up in first grade. Add that to my list of things to do! :)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am so excited that the first couple (aka four) weeks have gone so well! I love my new class. They are truly such a nice, fun, and well-mannered group of kids and I can't wait for all the fun we are going to have this year! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Though posting about the first couple days of school is past appropriate at this time, I just thought I'd share a couple of things that went really well our first few weeks! Today I'm going to focus on reading intervention time at my school! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our school has an awesome thirty minute block at the start of each day as our reading intervention time. During this time, while some kids are pulled out for interventions, I meet with a small group of kids to provide them with reading interventions. But what do I do with the rest of the class? My first grade team has come up with a system that works really well for us. I group my kids into groups of 2-3 and do a very loose interpretation of workstations/centers. I typically have a fun writing station, a sight word station, computers, iPads, a skill building station (ie: parts of speech), and so on. This is the first year I routinely plan on having a "Read the Room" center and a "Big Book" center and so far they are going fabulously! I created a response sheet that I can use over and over again for the big book center and took some quick snapshots of the kiddos being introduced to it! Here they are using fun pointers and looking in their big books for three letter words with a partner! I was so impressed! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oh and here's a big book hunt freebie if you want to snag it! I just fill in what I would like the kids to search for and they go to town!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Another thing we've been practicing during our morning intervention block is reading the room! I introduced this by showing the kids our super special magic glasses that help us read the room. We each got clipboards and searched for things that started with "B". You would have thought that this was the most mind-blowingly awesome thing in the world (which it was, obviously). You could have heard a pin drop! Their lists were so impressive and I barely had any kids ask me how to spell a word. After just a couple reminders they tried their best and stretched them out! Love it!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here's another freebie! I pretty much do the same thing with "Read the Room" and fill in what I would like them to search for (ie: words with the short a sound, things that are red, friend's names, etc...). Anything to get them reading and writing! Other times I will mix it up and have them search for theme words or fill in a list of words around the room that start with the letters in, for example, CAT IN THE HAT. I'm probably making this much more confusing than it needs to be!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That's all I can post for now...I worked a 12 hour day today and have Curriculum Night tomorrow night! I will post soon about what I do for Curriculum Night in my classroom and how I make it work best for me!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Have a great end of the week!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Elyse D'Andrea-Happily Teachinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378914882749356280noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8504180117674044195.post-57202354465581149022013-08-18T09:29:00.000-07:002013-08-18T09:29:01.809-07:00Back To School Life...And Back To School Sale!<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hi All!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If this isn't a sign that school is back in session then what is?! Ahh...what a change from my last Sunday morning. Luckily, I managed to get ample rest time in this weekend and I'm up and ready for a new week with my new cute little firsties to start. Well, I'm not actually quite ready. Usually during the year I'm ready for the next week before Friday the week before. But, as I'm sure you all know, the first week was CRAZINESS and I just didn't have time to worry about this upcoming week's plans! So here I am on a Sunday morning, coffee in hand, and surrounded by books, curriculums, lamination to cut, and a blank lesson plan template ready!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In other news, I am taking part in the <strike>big</strike> HUGE TpT sale today and tomorrow, so hop on over to my store for 28% off of <b>everything! </b>Just click on the picture below!</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Elyse-Dandrea" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="478" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCKFSDSw7h6i9rBFijgHsEoEQUBhEWMOjdTPUc0O7x5Nw4xOIRjytqP_rqvakzZhFbfo0_uvV_oJqq97FZOhPhBMdr22aWrNhww-w8j47E7ZozROah22WflOe6Pxs8-Kn_NsoRYwzNTGlU/s640/Screen+Shot+2013-08-18+at+11.13.32+AM.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've got a couple of cute things up in my store that I used this year to set-up my classroom and that go perfectly with a bright color theme. My top-seller this month is my green and blue daily schedule cards!</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Green-and-Blue-Daily-Schedule-Cards-724674" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiU1vS9PGnY7Guc-E5LFBPEToqc8-whY68U3S_1hgoPP04O-ybuNSrlPZ1NkaZaE0H2_yX-jfBGDpv2zghJdDQtJukP-1qaj0tf4j93QE-66GOwpiGuEsvE4A0zPg6uZLYyJVu63tQgZdr/s400/Screen+Shot+2013-08-18+at+11.22.25+AM.png" width="302" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In my own classroom this year, I also use my <a href="http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Bright-Polka-Dot-ABC-Signs-ABC-Chart-Included-796320" target="_blank">Bright Polka-Dot ABC Signs</a> and my <a href="http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Brighten-Up-Your-Word-Wall-730284" target="_blank">"Brighten Up Your Word Wall!</a>" pack. Love them!</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Brighten-Up-Your-Word-Wall-730284" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6oCARrqkMYa0Z1vaBzt4n0IbmxUu4P0_OEbI0jJvz9taH_dpcYEqNKZMj7EqfqsUUsf5JUhly3e2jcRy-rDwlHTrbnBvwIgv7q04JffSZ-0D2NhjV-6yC7GCVQkarHfmbOG_VHkyc69um/s400/Screen+Shot+2013-08-18+at+11.25.56+AM.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Bright-Polka-Dot-ABC-Signs-ABC-Chart-Included-796320" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyJAlm3wSbl6Q1daEBms8UUON3qdycUWKiJd6BFse9IUTpm5bvgBnv4TFrwJzD2jTHeA8LcHyUV1isdu3tXVOyizxaFfznLVVQZkOhK5jb2NZ40AbN42B_2H-BLc9o_C_bskRb3zrZ5pD5/s400/Screen+Shot+2013-08-18+at+11.26.14+AM.png" width="306" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I hope you all find some fun back to school things in the TpT sale...I know I have! :)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I can't wait to post some updates and pictures from my first week back at school but don't have all the pictures ready quite yet. More to come!</span></div>
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Elyse D'Andrea-Happily Teachinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378914882749356280noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8504180117674044195.post-63562882559903125052013-08-14T18:42:00.000-07:002013-08-14T18:44:03.639-07:00Late to the "Teacher Week" Party But Better Late Than Never!<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">PHEW!! I survived and finished another first day in first grade today and it was a.....really.....long one. All in all though it was fun to meet my new group of firsties and the day honestly went on off without a hitch! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.....besides that one time before school when I left a trail of coffee down my dress....leg....and entire hallway. But that seems to be a trend in my life so, hey, I'm not too surprised to have a stain on my clothes by 8am. You live and you learn! Or you don't learn. And you keep spilling things. Either way.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anyways. I am finally linking up with <a href="http://imbloghoppin.blogspot.com/2013/08/teacher-week-now-teach-organizing-for.html" target="_blank">Blog Hoppin'</a> for Teacher Week! I know, I know, I'm a little late to the party but I've been working non-stop! All you amazing teacher bloggers blow my mind with your ability to teach at the hectic beginning of the year and still produce meaningful and inspiring blog posts. I'm accepting any applications for teacher blogger mentors so please refrain from sending them all at once! :)</span></div>
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<a href="http://imbloghoppin.blogspot.com/2013/08/teacher-week-now-teach-organizing-for.html" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbtE_b_F7ltE4Uod_2xdvxdtpYCvp_6HHLYlwllfDpLUuuovEO1h2XeOi_X_yV4wMVU60_Z6yreqWc9qfsq5Nh6OgYLjZEvkFPzoPBp-oWGuXYtsExIDtHV474mgUb6cCS-qKP_10VcHJy/s400/Screen+Shot+2013-08-14+at+7.58.18+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Today's Teacher Week topic is "Now Teach!" which seems only fitting with this being my first day back with the kids! Quite honestly, I'm not entirely sure how I'm even mustering up the energy to craft this post. I'm exhausted....and I'll probably go to bed sometime in the next hour or so and then cry a little (or a lot) when my alarm goes off tomorrow morning. Same old, same old.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anyways, I know I posted some classroom updates as I was setting up throughout the past couple weeks but I thought I'd post some finished product pictures that go along with today's topic of "Organizing for Instruction."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think this picture of my library area is one of my most organized parts of my room. I was never much of an "I'm crazy, OCD and obsessed with organizing" type of person until I got a classroom. And here I am...being a crazy, OCD and obsessed with organizing type of person. It's exhausting! This year I hot glued these new library labels that I made onto my bins and I think they are going to be perfect! In the past, I have taped the labels on with packing tape and it was MUCH more time consuming.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6EvuU7QHmcmo8e1Eyqupve09svoi2Zi9y-8h2CyBWSDwmcabPGmilu7AGv2YdVaYl05jeiWUmEIXP7ffR4mdkWwBXZ_sHy1g6JaOzuvHcfp4VCzX_lZ9NwCRwUOjWOQi6rs6_pKhAizkb/s1600/Classroom+Library.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6EvuU7QHmcmo8e1Eyqupve09svoi2Zi9y-8h2CyBWSDwmcabPGmilu7AGv2YdVaYl05jeiWUmEIXP7ffR4mdkWwBXZ_sHy1g6JaOzuvHcfp4VCzX_lZ9NwCRwUOjWOQi6rs6_pKhAizkb/s400/Classroom+Library.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I fell victim to the amazing crate seat idea all over pinterest a couple years ago and they truly were one of my best classroom creations. I don't have too much storage in my room and the amount of paper towels that comes flooding in with the kids and their supplies is....completely overwhelming. I couldn't go through all of them even if I actively tried to use paper towels for everything. Cue the crate seats! These things have seriously saved my life (and my kids' lives because otherwise they would be forced to have paper towels in their backpacks, lockers, desks, for lunch, etc, etc...).</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg29ZCPLfbEOxO9NWOjpKTR7VeGciX5uyClv3mkdOXgfNmKmKFtVZFzwSJzlklpR6Up9siof87KkoheeXViEH28QTp3VSKrCUl4W38OzNAwIHSX9y0UppTFn8-9fS8_YFt6mWkePnj3cxYc/s1600/image+(11).jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg29ZCPLfbEOxO9NWOjpKTR7VeGciX5uyClv3mkdOXgfNmKmKFtVZFzwSJzlklpR6Up9siof87KkoheeXViEH28QTp3VSKrCUl4W38OzNAwIHSX9y0UppTFn8-9fS8_YFt6mWkePnj3cxYc/s400/image+(11).jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I posted this picture in my last blog post but I want to include it in this one too because I'm really happy with how I am storing my big books this year. I stumbled upon the idea and just had to adapt it and use it for my own classroom. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQcYJDf5CB9RaIxz5i1WR0ckv7LiJO5cyeWAMTRQTP5NaQ4BTRYfYx1OerBXkHELYYkA2BPE-Kawuaqc8Ld82SDS1lC697RUoLZSbnsmEVDNQ_VNLP3a2FG9TiXEHGfC3PghUuzoOIrJxJ/s1600/image+(10).jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQcYJDf5CB9RaIxz5i1WR0ckv7LiJO5cyeWAMTRQTP5NaQ4BTRYfYx1OerBXkHELYYkA2BPE-Kawuaqc8Ld82SDS1lC697RUoLZSbnsmEVDNQ_VNLP3a2FG9TiXEHGfC3PghUuzoOIrJxJ/s400/image+(10).jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Another one of my organizational lifesavers was an idea sparked by my coworker and good friend. This picture below shows some tables I bought from IKEA a few years back. They usually house my student laptops, but the picture was taken before school started so the computers hadn't been whipped out quite yet!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7b6zQVN8ZM5uVS3gH23Cr0Jdx7I41ISzAc8PiX27yvU7nfA0kwIcWMLKa6WeDJyAbUpmlRBvHZyjMsqb0xcfEGUxkjQK9jm9LFHVRj0OHgJGmJeB9yUVjcUM5_BA2OSpy-lrYDAMDJ36w/s1600/image+%25288%2529.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7b6zQVN8ZM5uVS3gH23Cr0Jdx7I41ISzAc8PiX27yvU7nfA0kwIcWMLKa6WeDJyAbUpmlRBvHZyjMsqb0xcfEGUxkjQK9jm9LFHVRj0OHgJGmJeB9yUVjcUM5_BA2OSpy-lrYDAMDJ36w/s400/image+%25288%2529.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So I started using these tables (which I absolutely love), but was constantly plagued with the headache of charger cords falling behind the tables and the kids crawling all over the ground trying to find them and ending up bumping their heads all while tangling up the cords. Which naturally led to tears and trips to the nurse to get ice packs. Need I say more? Well, my coworker used these AWESOME wire holders from <a href="http://www.containerstore.com/welcome.htm" target="_blank">The Container Store</a>. See those little white things on the table? Yep, keep looking. Look closer. Yeah, I know it's not the best picture but I don't have a close up one. My chargers stay in place and the kids know where to put the laptops when they are finished. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like The Container Store carries the same ones anymore, but <a href="http://www.containerstore.com/shop?productId=10030545&N=&Ntt=cord+catch" target="_blank">these</a> look similar! </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh560AIlFUbcXPe2KmY8Mh7m54tHHxmgqUX9BntEkMl3qARQaOOxxDRddLFK0sQHFRIsDTmT16vJvjA8ohVLsptZp-BahWREowyspqKwahWgkWr8m7YOlKaWhRypK5kaJl0_qwebrj6ljOr/s1600/image+(5).jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh560AIlFUbcXPe2KmY8Mh7m54tHHxmgqUX9BntEkMl3qARQaOOxxDRddLFK0sQHFRIsDTmT16vJvjA8ohVLsptZp-BahWREowyspqKwahWgkWr8m7YOlKaWhRypK5kaJl0_qwebrj6ljOr/s400/image+(5).jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So that's that! I hope you enjoyed seeing some of my tips and tricks for organization now that teaching has picked up again!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I do have one question for all you bloggy people, though. I really want to post some pictures of my first couple of days soon and I currently don't have parent permission to post photos. I'm in the process of drafting a contract to send home with the kids in hopes of obtaining permission but I'm not entirely sure where to start. Has anybody used a permission form/contract that they were successful with and, if so, what are your tips? If you are able to help at all I would greatly appreciate it! Just shoot me an e-mail or leave a comment here! Thanks! :)</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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Elyse D'Andrea-Happily Teachinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378914882749356280noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8504180117674044195.post-21404236678163718062013-08-01T09:49:00.001-07:002013-08-01T09:49:30.830-07:00Classroom Progress Day 3/4<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hey there!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have been in my classroom almost non-stop the past couple of days, so I'm taking the day off today! The countdown is officially at less than 2 weeks until the first day with the new kiddos!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here are some pics of the progress I've made in my room! If you already follow me on instagram at <a href="http://instagram.com/happilyteaching" target="_blank">@happilyteaching</a>, then you've already seen some of these!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here goes...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This first picture is of my "Awesome Authors" wall, where we hang all of our published writing after each unit! Pay no attention to the shelves to the right...I want to re-organize those!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqvUVWHtQVUT188BUxhR8TdKY-D0vdxTHVaV_N8lEOxYe43jQ2XU2Dr2oNMsu0UHuATBwbZtWi8RlIF4z1jtNt7ZIcQYhetohW_VHdlXBkG0MjHSRysZukMIOXr53WXMPXjiWdWIn_Rib1/s1600/awesome+authors.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqvUVWHtQVUT188BUxhR8TdKY-D0vdxTHVaV_N8lEOxYe43jQ2XU2Dr2oNMsu0UHuATBwbZtWi8RlIF4z1jtNt7ZIcQYhetohW_VHdlXBkG0MjHSRysZukMIOXr53WXMPXjiWdWIn_Rib1/s640/awesome+authors.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Next up is a close up of my new chevron clothespins for my author's wall! I just LOVE the way they turned out! All I did was print off chevron paper and then cut it into strips to fit the clothespins. I modge podged them on and then modged podged over them! Perfect! </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEire4TrvYL8TLyz9Qa8_kMrpJOUbP5niGIQ4BOAX7C9IRiXVFOmPd2zNwuhaDjd7O21VeNZnjoZwdaigqPMVw7-bVx_wmUa41k6UwS6Z8Nf6qGKMo2IMErH0az5Yqm8wUWBXrsYsx_vb4GE/s1600/chevron+clips.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="478" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEire4TrvYL8TLyz9Qa8_kMrpJOUbP5niGIQ4BOAX7C9IRiXVFOmPd2zNwuhaDjd7O21VeNZnjoZwdaigqPMVw7-bVx_wmUa41k6UwS6Z8Nf6qGKMo2IMErH0az5Yqm8wUWBXrsYsx_vb4GE/s640/chevron+clips.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here's my math wall for the year! Should be filled with lots of new Common Core-y things in no time! :)</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbjIaW1SSWpt7K85tK3D8cXRwSi64sWcwxSox2h9KVT8Sbp4MK3qQabamaTzJsJPfw-9fkU5D4jHgLoZ6XURfKz1b4d6XoEiZKmXxStUI9_KVrPF3Uc1IHkpIRlEEI5ITFv63eyv-HX8MC/s1600/math+wall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="478" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbjIaW1SSWpt7K85tK3D8cXRwSi64sWcwxSox2h9KVT8Sbp4MK3qQabamaTzJsJPfw-9fkU5D4jHgLoZ6XURfKz1b4d6XoEiZKmXxStUI9_KVrPF3Uc1IHkpIRlEEI5ITFv63eyv-HX8MC/s640/math+wall.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The last picture I took in my class when I left yesterday was a picture of my word wall and my new "First Grade Rocks!" banner that I made and hung in the bare space on my wall! </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRe_zzSDnZbBhAH6-rAj_LZ-35juMIqe2VCVKnzVvnyENDwML6Hi-L5OaKbz27szdSo5PmzSxifBZ99VssJui2z5Tvnyv8W-XBTIxPiMUROEdiMFXo3M5infzZXflTL96RR7iAgK-Z-aiL/s1600/word+wall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRe_zzSDnZbBhAH6-rAj_LZ-35juMIqe2VCVKnzVvnyENDwML6Hi-L5OaKbz27szdSo5PmzSxifBZ99VssJui2z5Tvnyv8W-XBTIxPiMUROEdiMFXo3M5infzZXflTL96RR7iAgK-Z-aiL/s640/word+wall.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">More pictures to come!</span>Elyse D'Andrea-Happily Teachinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378914882749356280noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8504180117674044195.post-51302477727928480922013-07-29T18:14:00.001-07:002013-07-29T18:23:58.870-07:00Monday Made-It/Classroom Update Day 2 and Happily Teaching Instagram!<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So....a very LONG day two of setting up my classroom is over! I felt productive and like I got some stuff done today (and not just walking around talking to my coworkers...though that also took up a big part of my day)!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here are some pictures of the progress I have made in my class and that fit perfectly into <a href="http://4thgradefrolics.blogspot.ca/2013/07/monday-made-it-july-29.html" target="_blank">4th Grade Frolics' Monday Made-It</a> linky party!</span><br />
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<a href="http://4thgradefrolics.blogspot.ca/2013/07/monday-made-it-july-29.html" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw782y4XI4H6Ne0PE5anlLahH94DRuq97Wa4Bf1CgGw7BAEHrmX58EOn-MosrNEh2FV9rEIFPoy71KeTkMFsAsacc1utWZEKd63VLGnhKPxbTAMBUICyfq-ZlDq8OWpYDXOzU1bwFrJTmt/s200/3am_tara_madeitmonday_2013.png" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My big book holder needed a total rehab, didn't it?! So, I stole a bunch of blogger's ideas out there and ordered <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Self-Adhesive-Shelf-Liner-Promotion/dp/B009SB49GS/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1375146183&sr=8-3&keywords=shelf+liners" target="_blank">these awesome shelf liners </a>off of Amazon. The aqua and white chevron print is PERFECT for my color scheme. Do you love it as much as I do?! I took the big books out of the holder and pushed it up against the wall. I plan on using it for my phone and parent communication binder so that all my materials are right there and ready for parent phone calls! Because who doesn't love parent phone calls, am I right?</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisLCkuV8NztWFpTwcpTi4MQGb1j7Q4v9DSPiDQHLr_aQjXFrXRtFCmRXej4sZMuxz67R_vSq-RBIj35hDsse_19l1QGl17iXGF6dX1CvaV6HtBMLIL_ZiTKzz-UG6CnepFtHAGGLdHcmRl/s1600/photo+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisLCkuV8NztWFpTwcpTi4MQGb1j7Q4v9DSPiDQHLr_aQjXFrXRtFCmRXej4sZMuxz67R_vSq-RBIj35hDsse_19l1QGl17iXGF6dX1CvaV6HtBMLIL_ZiTKzz-UG6CnepFtHAGGLdHcmRl/s400/photo+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And...since I had to fine a place for all those big books after I emptied my big book holder, I got a cheap big tub and stacked them all in there. This actually might turn out to be an easier solution, as my kids can just flip through them and see all the covers. This picture also shows the backs of some of my shelves that I finished today! My shelves face outward and hold some supplies and materials and I <strike>hated</strike> <b>despised</b> how the backs of the shelves looked in my library. Well....nothing a little wrapping paper and borders can't fix! Love it!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYlGUAguNYvPGO9yhAn2dXBdsvYaAeDVmT2bDg7ml2jigwShm3KOwbIce8feDNHPYVImltO38TsD21AdWtQlilfdwBFG2SPd99C_sw5dodGyhjIryLKVuS20X1lM5yIfgeusfNByonRxAn/s1600/photo+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYlGUAguNYvPGO9yhAn2dXBdsvYaAeDVmT2bDg7ml2jigwShm3KOwbIce8feDNHPYVImltO38TsD21AdWtQlilfdwBFG2SPd99C_sw5dodGyhjIryLKVuS20X1lM5yIfgeusfNByonRxAn/s400/photo+3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And here's another picture of how I used that <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Self-Adhesive-Shelf-Liner-Promotion/dp/B009SB49GS/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1375146183&sr=8-3&keywords=shelf+liners" target="_blank">amazing shelf liner</a> in my classroom. This bookshelf houses some of my leveled books. It was an ugly brown and so I took the shelf liner and lined the backs of the shelves. I think I just love the way it turned out! Now I just need to make/find some new cute level labels!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5nshC6rPQEnBd2oc8vSx34QCus6bZRVI1GkOhH1NgfqIqkmG03yVyiFdjnIYKZn3VCkHRVw_9IRtXmEfK2uPht8kkYlz7IR22I3GazBWx4SNFJOVcGLx3FMMd6p-ptbnWZdC-UjuPMeKX/s1600/photo+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5nshC6rPQEnBd2oc8vSx34QCus6bZRVI1GkOhH1NgfqIqkmG03yVyiFdjnIYKZn3VCkHRVw_9IRtXmEfK2uPht8kkYlz7IR22I3GazBWx4SNFJOVcGLx3FMMd6p-ptbnWZdC-UjuPMeKX/s400/photo+4.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I also put up my <a href="http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Green-and-Blue-Daily-Schedule-Cards-724674" target="_blank">green and blue daily schedule cards </a>and my lunch count board today! I'm trying something new this year and am going to have the kids move their name magnet from the "What's For Lunch?" pan to their lunch selection for the day. I like the way they turned out but I can't figure out what to put in that awkward white space above. I already have my calendar up...any thoughts about what could be put up there?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And last but not least....drumroll...I finally created a Happily Teaching Instagram account!!! I've had a personal Instagram account for a while but am now finally creating one for my classroom! Come follow me at <a href="http://instagram.com/happilyteaching" target="_blank">@happilyteaching</a>...yay!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How is your classroom set-up coming along? I can't wait to check out everyone else's classrooms and continue posting with mine!</span></div>
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Elyse D'Andrea-Happily Teachinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378914882749356280noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8504180117674044195.post-65288746806643035822013-07-28T16:50:00.001-07:002013-07-28T16:52:22.644-07:00Back In the Classroom and ABC Signs!<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hi All!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It has been almost two weeks since I've blogged! What have I been up to lately? Well, I have actually started to get back into my classroom to get ready for the rapidly approaching school year. Seriously, we only have two weeks left of a "no morning alarm going off" summer bliss and I'm not entirely sure I'm ready to handle this drastic change in lifestyle quite yet...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But, nonetheless, I can only put off the idea of waking up for work every morning for so long and it was time to get right back at it in my classroom! I'm extremely OCD about the way my classroom looks and the color scheme. I'm sure you're thinking, "Yeah, yeah, yeah...aren't all teachers?" For real...I take it to a new extreme. My classroom color scheme is bright green, bright pink, bright aqua blue, and white. I went a little crazy buying things for my classroom two years ago and now that I'm a rent-paying, utility-paying, Chicago expense-paying teacher, I have to limit myself with the whole "spend my entire paycheck on my classroom" thing. SO...I'm really trying this year to spend as little money as possible and work with what I've got. Which, to be honest, is extremely difficult if you're as crazy as I am about things matching and something as simple as a paperclip cup on my desk bothers me because it doesn't fit in with my color scheme. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This all being said, I went in to my classroom for the first time last week and this is what I saw...</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGqfWsDnXswh51B13ar4mMEVJNGMKNrR-e5fc_31JmCRoFib88f1EdymxIKlFERxqvRPhjrJGwDd6iiXq2JYzF8xFnHBc-nDJtzQ7nz5RB20qCB91tK78ZOc7ui2n_CdZhdz69GqTLDOxd/s1600/Class+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGqfWsDnXswh51B13ar4mMEVJNGMKNrR-e5fc_31JmCRoFib88f1EdymxIKlFERxqvRPhjrJGwDd6iiXq2JYzF8xFnHBc-nDJtzQ7nz5RB20qCB91tK78ZOc7ui2n_CdZhdz69GqTLDOxd/s400/Class+1.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI0cqJmI7wZUs3fPFnF63lREU_MjSLge43ftgCnLvR3HfWHB4f36xPknTOxtKq3uGw4HHPJZ6jngFVTYWwetM2Nzm4pq4XX7HihEEGyiFFOWCG8_0KD4zrCO2Y76hI2K7Pg71_epaznNhx/s1600/Class+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI0cqJmI7wZUs3fPFnF63lREU_MjSLge43ftgCnLvR3HfWHB4f36xPknTOxtKq3uGw4HHPJZ6jngFVTYWwetM2Nzm4pq4XX7HihEEGyiFFOWCG8_0KD4zrCO2Y76hI2K7Pg71_epaznNhx/s400/Class+2.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Okay, okay, so it might not look THAT bad in these pictures but we all know how overwhelming it is to walk into your classroom when it is all torn town and stacked up on counters. Luckily, the things I had ordered with my school money had come in (all those boxes)! So on day one I spent about 7 hours <b>just</b> moving furniture and getting it set-up how I want it. I'm hoping this will help me feel better about not being able to revamp my room with new things. I've also been working on finding other people's resources on blogs and TpT as well as creating my own cute things to spice up my classroom a bit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the things I have just finished making and am super excited about are my new ABC Signs for the front of my room! I usually use one of those pre-made ABC lines from Lakeshore or Really Good Stuff. This year, I wanted it to be more personalized and have pictures to go with the letters. I came up with this!</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Bright-Polka-Dot-ABC-Signs-ABC-Chart-Included-796320" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_Q7S5Z0E-EEtRNpgqwOT_3oNREYOCeeDh4Q9SHtnuAGXHxb0Yv56LlZ7ZbJHJhH4ZQSgETj8j1jFRl8N-GIPZKY9o4OLoKmAgjt_Ylm7CL0rIrsSASCa334W-RB2MNgwG1zSzMQ3M724I/s400/Picture+1.png" width="301" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am loving my new signs! They are bright and fit perfectly in with my color scheme. Feel free to hop over to my TpT store and check them out! Included in the file is my matching ABC Chart for the kiddos to use at home and at their desks for reference. Here is a freebie of that file for all of you! Just click on the picture and grab it for free!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I hope these creations help some of you with your own classroom decorating! This week will be full of classroom preparing so be ready for some pics and updates...only 2 more weeks until school starts!! Are you all ready?</span></div>
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Elyse D'Andrea-Happily Teachinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378914882749356280noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8504180117674044195.post-29796782734560828892013-07-15T17:38:00.002-07:002013-07-15T17:39:15.500-07:00Fabulous Freebies on the 15th (July)<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Phew! It has been a crazy weekend and I have spent the majority of my day resting and recovering from my best friend's wedding! We had a BLAST at the wedding and I was so happy I could be a part of her special day. And now she's in Maui for her honeymoon so, needless to say, I'm not jealous at all...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here's a picture of the <b>beautiful</b> bride and I on the big day! Is she not the prettiest bride ever?</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmViCvGM6j-TRB8aRuMO1ChBtb8SZ4rJs1mQESRkQh_owNyCRCN2FfWHpE3OoQMzgPg9UhP3Qc5n7AngjjInVsGJfVv6cmfbcifK3QuXRO5Ms0Q6Zc98p8x917eY_73Q4-JPIjMvQIUX3H/s1600/1016271_10200476070041464_1967590918_n.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmViCvGM6j-TRB8aRuMO1ChBtb8SZ4rJs1mQESRkQh_owNyCRCN2FfWHpE3OoQMzgPg9UhP3Qc5n7AngjjInVsGJfVv6cmfbcifK3QuXRO5Ms0Q6Zc98p8x917eY_73Q4-JPIjMvQIUX3H/s640/1016271_10200476070041464_1967590918_n.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Okay, so back to teacher-related things. I honestly can't even believe that it is mid-July and the summer is slowly disappearing before my eyes. This realization got me thinking about the first day back. As a teacher, I'm sure you're all aware that your summer is never truly a summer off. I am constantly brainstorming and thinking of new and fun ways to revamp my classroom, trying to wrap my head around new curriculum, and keeping my fingers crossed for another successful year. With that all said, I was looking back on my first day plans from last year. I know there's a couple things that I want to change but one thing that any and all primary teachers know you need to have on-hand is an activity for kids to do when they come into the room and find their seats. Which is where Molly from <a href="http://www.luckytobeinfirst.com/" target="_blank">Lucky To Be In First</a>'s "Fabulous Freebies on the 15th" linky party comes into play!</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.luckytobeinfirst.com/2013/07/fabulous-freebies-on-15th-july.html" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="307" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqa-IR9gGaQILS05n33xk-0w8ao81OwFDvh3_B1wvUOZ4gBttXO_zq0tNUGIGcQ-rz8YLGjIa7ddXa9WZyZn9lDpck1dfRaam8d3vbxO8ycdY3LWQkBYyI2N0FDhtLgh9bxd5ZS695JOKl/s400/Picture+1.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To help eliminate MADNESS (though can it ever really be eliminated?) on the first day as we wait patiently for all the kids to arrive, I put a really simple coloring/drawing sheet on their desks. </span><br />
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<a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1ViONw_qboceVlnT0Rtb05jdUE/edit" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHYl-813pdkBs8Ysi0awZ6OobpOQ7m5ZowiEzRsRze2GwB0QrQ9JjMcLmHBnbuTWvh3roNPReCm4a1jVKjfYULYkTrHFq35hkVjApqSJmXBAbFsop33ozRkCEBJxomeZa6Jvzqfax7rCwM/s320/Picture+2.png" width="250" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I allow the kids to draw a picture of anything they want and add words if they would like. I then save this page the entire school year and send it home on the last day with their last day drawing and writing page. It's so fun to see all the progress they have made through the year!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I hope some of you are able to use this simple freebie! Have a great night!</span>Elyse D'Andrea-Happily Teachinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378914882749356280noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8504180117674044195.post-31132344421996071872013-07-09T22:02:00.003-07:002013-07-10T10:27:13.595-07:00Hip Hip Hooray for the Liebster Award...my first ever!<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hey all you bloggy people out there! I'm so excited to share that I was nominated for my first ever blogging award. Okay, so I know this may not be a huge deal to all you fancy bloggers out there who have won countless awards of all types but I'm super pumped for my first one! Thanks so much to Bria over at <a href="http://teachinginchaos.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Teaching in Organized Chaos</a> for the nomination! :)</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBkAxmWOGOq9F6-2kjbTKkdevb745m_aJR0dhxPXCtibYOlH73x312tIE_BNhd9uQQvbsyCnm1bFgTlFxv_Fgk2ggD8UcAqvMDuzdcHAwkzQkLemywcUPY5sKDbY_Qtce1hJ9-vRlXoIUu/s1600/Picture+1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="340" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBkAxmWOGOq9F6-2kjbTKkdevb745m_aJR0dhxPXCtibYOlH73x312tIE_BNhd9uQQvbsyCnm1bFgTlFxv_Fgk2ggD8UcAqvMDuzdcHAwkzQkLemywcUPY5sKDbY_Qtce1hJ9-vRlXoIUu/s400/Picture+1.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, in order to accept this award there are allegedly some requirements. Lucky for me, I love answering questions and, well, talking in general so this shouldn't be too difficult!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The requirements are:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. Link back to the blog that nominated me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. Answer the questions created by the nominator.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. Share 11 random facts about myself.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4. Nominate 5-11 other blogs with fewer than 200 followers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5. Create 11 questions for my nominees.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">6. Contact my nominees to let them know I nominated them!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For starters, I need to answer the 11 questions provided for me by the fabulous <a href="http://teachinginchaos.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Bria</a>. Here goes!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #6aa84f;"><b>1.</b><b> </b></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #6aa84f; font-weight: bold;">Why did you become a teacher? </span>Though this is most likely a super simple question for most people to answer, there really isn't any one reason I became a teacher. I don't remember any moment where I stopped and thought, "And this is why I want to be a teacher." The best answer I can give for this question is that for (literally) as long as I can remember, there was no other job even on the radar for me. As far back as kindergarten when we did our first "What I Want to Be When I Grow Up" project and I most likely wrote something along the lines of "a tejr", this has pretty much been it for me! There are certainly lots of reasons now, however, why I love this job! :)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. <span style="color: #93c47d;"><b>What is your favorite picture book? </b></span>Growing up and until I started teaching, my favorite picture
book was <u>Lily’s Purple Plastic Purse</u>. Clearly, I still LOVE that book but ever since I discovered
the <u>Knuffle Bunny</u> series, Kevin Henkes has been given a run for his
money! LOVE those books!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. <b style="color: #93c47d;">Who inspires you the most? </b>Fine. Go ahead. Call me a cliche. Every person I surround myself with truly inspires me and has in some way shaped who I am. I have been extremely lucky to have an amazing family and outstanding friends who have contributed to who I am and have inspired me to be the best possible version of myself.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4. <span style="color: #93c47d;"><b>If you could meet a person who has already died, who would it be and why?</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Is Whitney Houstin a really crazy answer? I just want her to serenade me and maybe make an appearance at my future wedding to sing "I Wanna Dance With Sombody"....is that too much to ask?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5. <span style="color: #93c47d;"><b>What is your favorite candy? </b> </span>I've never been much of a candy person (gasp!). However, I do enjoy the occasional Laffy Taffy and Starbursts. Definitely not much of a chocolate person though...so if you ever want to buy me chocolates just go ahead and redirect yourself to the "chip" section of the store. Sour cream and onion chips will do just fine, thanks!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">6. <b style="color: #93c47d;">What is your favorite holiday to celebrate in your classroom? </b>I love winter holiday time! My school does "Polar Express Day" on the last day before winter break and it is SO much fun. We have train whistles over the speakers, watch the movie in our pajamas, and go to hot chocolate stations around the school. I think I love it more than the 6 year olds!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">7. <b style="color: #93c47d;">Why did you start your blog? </b>I talked about this a lot in my <a href="http://happilyteaching.blogspot.com/2013/05/introduction-into-blogging-world.html" target="_blank">first post </a>but I pretty much <strike>stalked</strike> followed blogs for a couple years and got so inspired and looked up to so many of these people that I decided to just create my own! Hopefully people will one day be inspired by my blog as well!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">8. <b style="color: #93c47d;">What is one thing in your closet you could never give away? </b>I admit, I am a sucker for shopping and probably have more clothes than the average girl. There's really not many things I wouldn't get rid of except old t-shirts from college. I literally never wear any of them but they are too sentimental to get rid of!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">9. <b style="color: #93c47d;">What is your favorite beverage? </b>Is this a "I really like a good bloody mary" kind of question? Hmm...in all seriousness, I don't drink pop and really only drink water. I DO love a good cup of coffee, though. Or a bad cup of coffee. So there's that.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">10. <b style="color: #93c47d;">What are three things you love about the state you live in? </b>Umm, HI, my name's Elyse and I LOVE Chicago. How can I even limit it to just three things? Here's my best shot. I grew up in the suburbs so I love that almost my entire immediate and extended family is near by. I just love the hustle and bustle of Chicago without feeling too overcrowded and crazy. It feels like it can never be lonely because there are always people around. Also, I love that Chicago has it all; beaches, buildings, museums, major sports teams...there is ALWAYS something to do!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">11. <span style="color: #93c47d;"><b>What is your favorite thing in your classroom? </b></span></span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I bought the huge paper lanterns from IKEA a couple years back and they are, without a doubt, my favorite thing! I almost never have the flourescent lights on in my classroom because the paper lantern lights are so calming. When I do turn the lights on, all my kids freak! Here's pictures of my classroom before school started a couple years ago to get an idea of why I love their light so much. I will post updated pics when I get in to set up for the year because things have changed!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvxJHtXTGa55DfnVB6o0zWRRxi04s2n51jC3d0wQl3qaW1mzPeK3qP111BEcZfAbBMDKOKE0JV9pYzFLJSEkhedBkdPn8ioxjJPePqCGaoUzNpGK5dEt4wkS9T-bnd4bmWsialgbxIJ1Cx/s1600/Class+1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvxJHtXTGa55DfnVB6o0zWRRxi04s2n51jC3d0wQl3qaW1mzPeK3qP111BEcZfAbBMDKOKE0JV9pYzFLJSEkhedBkdPn8ioxjJPePqCGaoUzNpGK5dEt4wkS9T-bnd4bmWsialgbxIJ1Cx/s400/Class+1.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5ompO9DjiOYtu3tIa-RVFHsVglB5YB8FowRMrXefeU1i4GsMyoJk_VDm1VkdZ8HgJKLz6O8ioXEhgQwvKSO355zd-G_PE2xoGsMjjEChuuhYJPnQ8iw0KrLyzIlFJf_gF_3tlC4-smj5E/s1600/class+2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5ompO9DjiOYtu3tIa-RVFHsVglB5YB8FowRMrXefeU1i4GsMyoJk_VDm1VkdZ8HgJKLz6O8ioXEhgQwvKSO355zd-G_PE2xoGsMjjEChuuhYJPnQ8iw0KrLyzIlFJf_gF_3tlC4-smj5E/s400/class+2.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #93c47d; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Now onto my 11 random facts about myself...here goes!</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. I have a (severe) phobia of ladybugs and a mild phobia of lightening bugs that originally stemmed from my older sister putting them in my hair so my head would light up as a small child....because what are sisters for, am I right?!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. I broke my toe in my bed sheets. So...yep, that happened.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. I went to Purdue and am obsessed with everything Boilermaker.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4. If you asked me never to eat french fries again I would ask you to kindly remove yourself from my life. (Okay, that was rude....but seriously.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5. I consider myself an expert closet organizer and wouldn't mind making it my second job.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">6. I watch any television show that anyone has ever claimed is "the stupidest show on the planet."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">7. I was a Chi Omega in college.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">8. If I start reading a good book I will not put it down until it's finished.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">9. I fall asleep as soon as a car starts moving.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">10. I'm not, in any definition of the word, an "animal person".</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">11. I think stopping to get gas is the biggest chore in the world and I put it off until my car is about to run out...everytime!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #93c47d; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>And now I want to nominate the following rockin' bloggers! (I know a few of them have just under 200 followers but a rule's a rule!)</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://fromafirstyearteacher.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Diary of a First Year Teacher</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://shipshapefirstgrade.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Ship Shape First Grade</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://smartkidsgammons.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Smart Kids</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://schumacherclassroom.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Enchanting Elementary</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://ckisloski.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Kindergarten: Holding Hands and Sticking Together</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here, my newly nominated bloggers, are my questions for YOU!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. What is your favorite thing to use in your classroom?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. If you had one extra hour in every day, what would you do?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. If you could pick one song to describe you, which would it be?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4. If you had to pick another career, what would you pick?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5. Where did you go to college?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">6. What food could you never live without?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">7. What is your guilty pleasure TV show?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">8. Who is your celebrity crush?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">9. What is your most memorable birthday?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">10. If you had to switch grades, what grade would you teach?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">11. What was the last song you listened to?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">THANK YOU again to Bria over at </span><a href="http://teachinginchaos.blogspot.com/" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Teaching in Organized Chaos</a> <span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and to all my followers so far! You guys are the best!</span></div>
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Elyse D'Andrea-Happily Teachinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378914882749356280noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8504180117674044195.post-42176548274116873882013-07-04T08:22:00.001-07:002013-07-04T08:22:56.393-07:00Happy 4th and My First Flash Sale!<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Happy Fourth of July, everyone!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What are your plans for the day? A bunch of friends and I are packing up some coolers and headed to the Matchbox Twenty and Goo Goo Dolls concert at an outdoor pavilion venue near Chicago. So fun!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Of course my other big plan for the day is to throw my (drumroll.....) first...ever....flash sale! Everything in <a href="http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Elyse-Dandrea" target="_blank">my TpT store</a> is 20% off until Saturday, July 6th! I'd love to add a button to my page to advertise for the sale but I'm not sure how! Anyone out there want to give me some pointers for creating buttons? I'd love all expert blogger help I can get!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm still working on adding some more things to my store before summer break is over...I can't believe it's already the 4th of July and there is only a little over a month left in my break! Ugh. Ya know how you get to that point of summer where you are itching to get back in the classroom and get started? I haven't quite hit that point yet...sleeping in has been treating me too well!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Everyone have a WONDERFUL and SAFE Fourth of July!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Elyse D'Andrea-Happily Teachinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378914882749356280noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8504180117674044195.post-13057805510943208402013-06-26T18:49:00.002-07:002013-06-26T18:49:35.189-07:00Bloglovin', Blackhawks, and Math...Oh My!<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's been a couple of crazy days living in Chicago with the Blackhawks winning the Stanley Cup! I in no way, shape, or form consider myself a diehard Blackhawks fan but it sure has been tons of fun celebrating the big win and partaking in all the <b>absolute craziness </b>that has filled this city! This picture is just a quick idea of what Monday was like on the streets of Chicago for all you non-Chicagoans. I can't even believe I was in that crowd at one point! I think I've lost my mind. Yep, yep, I've lost my mind.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZsuUPwcQzL5Ld87BuWez5ZyF4eM6cBCn3mcX0nuHRGyjBuKpGqjdMAdssFO0wROJ4vciSLDamVbYDa7u1JVkXjt640lRFbhUiHOoQRloWnQcyQ2_-OOB7OeQmjgE_3Ggc8e9U20YfBBKF/s1600/Picture+3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZsuUPwcQzL5Ld87BuWez5ZyF4eM6cBCn3mcX0nuHRGyjBuKpGqjdMAdssFO0wROJ4vciSLDamVbYDa7u1JVkXjt640lRFbhUiHOoQRloWnQcyQ2_-OOB7OeQmjgE_3Ggc8e9U20YfBBKF/s400/Picture+3.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, onto more teacher-related things. If you have been living under a rock and managed to miss the BIG NEWS (!!!!) that Google Reader is no longer starting July 1st, then I can only assume you've also missed out on the new hot Bloglovin' trend. I originally converted all my google reader things over to a different app called Feedly, but decided to give Bloglovin' a try (because why not have multiple sites for literally the <b>exact</b> same reason?). Anyways, I have added the "Follow me on Bloglovin'" button to the side of my blog page here. It's a really organized and easy way to follow all those blogs you normally do and I've really been enjoying how user-friendly and simple it is. Please follow away...I don't want to miss a single thing and promise I am already following all of you! No, but seriously, I already follow over 200 blogs. Is that crazy?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The button on my sidebar looks like this. I also have it posted below. All you have to do is click it, follow, and, guess what? YOU, my friend, are an instant follower! </span></div>
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<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/en/blog/7971769" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="139" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMIklmM0RV_7AakYfUGxq7rHYzz-NRIvWLwiENlvxeYpn9T1p8WzW1YkchPqRgO3TUzQ5u0a_NMPCRlbNMAJtuasMGIeJH8znjTevBVmGsZIlDTLo51To5O0-XNfMDZnXkQvkppy_J4sYC/s400/Picture+1.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While you are all busy adding me to your Bloglovin' page, I want to link up with <a href="http://justreed-ashley.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Just Reed</a> for her Ten Pin Linky Party!</span></div>
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<a href="http://justreed-ashley.blogspot.com/2013/06/ten-pin-linky-party-math-pinspiration.html" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoW1oxcWkD7r0LeGdZEcHt6BmSlQhpT7GqRLLWsT1uCBh9JjqAUpzzja0zO3vZEk9Dhrg7sqqRUYp6RlJN3nQqHYfWkno5d2pMoNYBQFIRMS8wIttq0gekKtKdH_0MxbeRH_UtAOEsSLYi/s400/Picture+2.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This week, her linky party is focusing on your top 10 math ideas that you have found on Pinterest! This is so perfect for me, as my school is really diving deep into common core next year and math will be looking totally different! I decided for this linky party to focus on ideas that would make my common core transition easier and I've found some totally fabulous ideas out there! Some of these things I have tested with my kiddos and some of them I hope to try next year!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. The way that Ashley over at <a href="http://secondgradeparadise.blogspot.com/2013/06/operation-organizing-my-math-tubs.html" target="_blank">That's So Second Grade!</a> is organizing her math tubs for next year. I'm obsessed. I've been trying to figure out a way to keep everything organized and ready to fit right into common core to (hopefully) eliminate some stress for myself and I think this just might be perfect! Love it! Not to mention her blog template/layout is super cute...she must have really fabulous taste :) (hint: it's the same as mine).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://secondgradeparadise.blogspot.com/2013/06/operation-organizing-my-math-tubs.html" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="391" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBywElqr0Zi2IUoz7yhc8eRyTtZzLQuVoTFzOzUs6uaDfT3W9qoJltkFC12V5N2Tija1410a9Pd9haIwbDYDWfSjSxSnVLPwN5f8pxFeqXeSG1Bb9YWvruuiYXYQxGxYQID88SH7dlE4Jz/s400/Picture+4.png" width="400" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. Measurement Olympics from<a href="http://stepintosecondgrade.blogspot.com/2013/04/poetry-measurement-olympics-and-zoo.html" target="_blank"> Step into 2nd Grade with Mrs. Lemons</a>! So creative! I think I will do something similar this year if we have extra time. I will have to adapt it to first grades' non-standard unit standard, but I'm sure it will be tons of fun!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://stepintosecondgrade.blogspot.com/2013/04/poetry-measurement-olympics-and-zoo.html" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgabL5IXDJYcNuAF0Mi0sqTrdDg6ZOrMrJMwHhBzbe2Ufd8SgQXmdeYemJSr3sGKbC8p3eH2P42divbWPNkzh8JEPq2fBg5lmm01iN6cBdeNvKnzz0TxEK-HVOV_ho5IRxo9LTQKStpD8dO/s400/Picture+6.png" width="400" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. This Solid Figures chart freebie by <a href="http://www.kindercraze.blogspot.com/2012/05/solid-figures-manipulatives-worksheets.html" target="_blank">Kinder-Craze</a>. I used this with my kids last year and it was <b>perfect</b> for learning about the attributes of a shape. Instead of cutting them apart and gluing them onto an anchor chart, I wanted to make it interactive. So, I cut all the pieces out, glued the headings down, and put velcro dots on all the rest of the pieces and on the chart. The kids took turns coming up and putting things where they belonged. They loved it and the chart really helped as a reference point throughout the unit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3saXsLfPmNunNHzNeXv2Vm1d-dVKRfiwG9doqfFn8UkTd7d1rxi14KibhtRD0vX4OJ5RoUc6KkZGYWq8egPeUWKiRv_qkuqeYz5998AQKS9x9uTv0YYH8wT3DTyVIZ45sSV_rL1B3snF1/s1600/IMG_1970.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3saXsLfPmNunNHzNeXv2Vm1d-dVKRfiwG9doqfFn8UkTd7d1rxi14KibhtRD0vX4OJ5RoUc6KkZGYWq8egPeUWKiRv_qkuqeYz5998AQKS9x9uTv0YYH8wT3DTyVIZ45sSV_rL1B3snF1/s400/IMG_1970.jpg" width="298" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4. I also was able to use this "Rainbow to 10" sheet from <a href="http://acupcakefortheteacher.blogspot.com/2013/01/rainbow-to-10-freebie.html" target="_blank">A Cupcake for the Teacher</a> last year and it was super helpful. Definitely one of my favorite math ideas found via pinterest! I made one into an anchor chart and then each one of my kids got to color their own and keep it in their math folders for help! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://acupcakefortheteacher.blogspot.com/2013/01/rainbow-to-10-freebie.html" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-dFcfiBkFNC2zqYfZAau11U8sZ-DzNW57PaKugxRX1K280geR6dH7vr3KclVkBdvsGXJtJ2X7Gf7swDS3lP80VjF4bf8j3jXopnC3J6oDQKmHXHAGNJICVbeTGYFDmQk_gG_AAIAvC446/s320/Picture+8.png" width="256" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://acupcakefortheteacher.blogspot.com/2013/01/rainbow-to-10-freebie.html" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw1W4h0VFtx3CFDbpg_ItiKkMxAFbiS54hov9VaSx_EKOi-oMgOJ9NuXh2dN3Jbne8i0WH8Q9zqVuOp0JgwESz_rl4CHNgqMyXXmV_WYiAMqNurvCS-DONW1ddgFcyrt3TT-9KklytyAVb/s320/Picture+9.png" width="254" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5. I haven't yet been able to commit to spending the major bucks on individual Judy clocks for my kids and I'm always looking for a way to see if they are able to draw/show the time. I stumbled upon these awesome clock paddles by <a href="http://2ndgradeponderings.blogspot.com/2011/07/time-practice.html" target="_blank">2nd Grade Ponderings</a>. Perfect and simple!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://2ndgradeponderings.blogspot.com/2011/07/time-practice.html" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFZXHdGAHoBM7qqAgZ8IdSE4VTXeWHtCV-LcOvT7j0T_Lmn-AJzQ9MDdutjDyorp1CzotVKLl038PPT5aP6SRVP3mFqyZfVkfMvnJLHJH1GJ2OkC0XBVJ8QgW-F7IE4ws1qFK-GjbJqz8N/s400/Picture+11.png" width="298" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">6. I have always wanted to make Power Towers for my math stations but have never gotten around to it. I think my kids would love them and they can be used for anything from fact fluency to number recognition to place value! This picture is from <a href="http://mrsgilchristsclass.blogspot.com/search/label/Math" target="_blank">Mrs. Gilchrist's Class</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">7. Love this idea from <a href="http://imbloghoppin.blogspot.com/2011/09/fast-and-easy-centers-with-clothes-pins.html" target="_blank">BlogHoppin'</a> for having kids match clothespins to their sum. This is a fabulous idea for math stations next year!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">8. Found this cute picture from <a href="http://theteacherwife.blogspot.jp/search?updated-max=2011-03-05T11:23:00-05:00&max-results=7" target="_blank">The Teacher Wife</a> and can't wait to use something similiar next year when teaching number bonds/fact families. I think this will be a great way to reinforce the idea that you can mix up the same 3 numbers to make different number sentences!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">9. Cute little non-standard measurement book I found from <a href="http://joyfullearninginkc.blogspot.com/search/label/measurement" target="_blank">Joyful Learning in KC</a>!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">10. And last but certainly not least...<a href="http://theteacherwife.blogspot.com/2012/01/fraction-fun-posted.html" target="_blank">The Teacher Wife's</a> Math Wall! I've always had a math wall in my classroom but I'm hoping to keep up with it a lot better this year and to really put all the main teaching points up on it. This is my inspiration to do so!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">PHEW! That was a long post, but one that I will most definitely be referring back to when I start my math planning! Ugh, the fact that I need to start planning soon sounds CRAZY! Summer is flying by and I'm not okay with it moving so quickly. Guess this means I should start putting some of these ideas into action and really get moving on the 10,483 item long to-do list I have for next school year...</span></div>
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Elyse D'Andrea-Happily Teachinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378914882749356280noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8504180117674044195.post-66833499070729420462013-06-15T11:59:00.000-07:002013-06-15T11:59:37.185-07:00Fabulous Freebies!<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hi All!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am excited to have stumbled upon the <a href="http://luckytobeinfirst.blogspot.com/2013/06/june-fabulous-freebies-on-fifteenth.html" target="_blank">Fabulous Freebies on the Fifteenth</a> linky party that <a href="http://luckytobeinfirst.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Lucky to Be in First</a> hosts! I can't believe I've never seen this before. What an awesome way to share freebies with other teachers and to snag some up myself. :)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This freebie is nothing too exciting but it worked really well with my first grade readers. They thought it was so cool to do a "book report" after they finished reading a non-fiction book. It also aligns well with all the new fun non-fiction text standards in common core, so I am excited to use it next year as well! Just click on the picture to be linked to it...I hope you all can use it with your kiddos as well! </span></div>
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<a href="http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Non-Fiction-Book-Report-Organizer-655179" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIRzSzrSHqO9Ap4KqXAUo136fZwzn0mJYN1Ay6DLzNvhbCsvVJ9VMxtnGotUpLpEu9KX6KKfcAXaPhh23NHUvH3mBUGa_oQaUBcdJs40RN3FoJsDVTDBWu_fk0wWRorofb0-y_Rwv67kyO/s320/Picture+4.png" width="249" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I also just created all the materials for my "brighten up your word wall!" pack on TpT, so why not provide part of that as a freebie!? I'm loving the whole set of brightly colored headings and words and how each level of words is on a different colored background, but I'm especially loving my new A-Z circle letters to match my room! Grab these headers for free below!</span><br />
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<a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1ViONw_qbocYjlrZWQ1OFpwR0E/edit" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmEXaNtesImtN1klhvKmu2b5tTdKgiXbPixZmUEJ-2_dwpiMTgwZwtOm6v63Eu65MiOyPdkVcSyNUsbokMGcKuoUuuonWGvZtFzwPj1nkrwgKgnXoATWf3Rto-GAQboED5py95JUoBeQ66/s320/Picture+8.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You can check out the full word wall file complete with my bright colored and leveled words in my <a href="http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Elyse-Dandrea" target="_blank">TpT Store</a> by clicking on the picture below! </span></div>
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<a href="http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Brighten-Up-Your-Word-Wall-730284" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinAXhzpskwRdyB3wcpSr7yJ34Y3ZZG_DRStRc9YRWxCbunDHVyNfiCVZm-b43GHI1JJQvk8G8Yo_dTlIUE-6ntmYfF3pU5q2npiVcpCZr9QR3wd7fUCA8klvs_aGHPH4djIURFxreWxpJ7/s320/Picture+10.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, I hope that you guys can use my freebies and I'm excited to check out everyone else's products in the linky party! My weekend plans are to watch the Blackhawks game tonight and go to the racetrack tomorrow for Father's Day! Even though I'm not a huge hockey fan, I have to admit the spirit can get contagious living in a city with a team in the finals. I mean, how cool is this? I love this city!!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFcLPsSYOSps_cqyUt8q1iHX7mcd7241mzx946DzjHPgnllZjvIT1VvwPBKlvk0Vos6K43TFCCk6ToSo6W3iDMRTSvy0VvAs-iGABWKL-FGQD-nXvTEn6AY13oVAB9eaNjGHyNSMyFO6aC/s1600/3559561225_07693b6a2c.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFcLPsSYOSps_cqyUt8q1iHX7mcd7241mzx946DzjHPgnllZjvIT1VvwPBKlvk0Vos6K43TFCCk6ToSo6W3iDMRTSvy0VvAs-iGABWKL-FGQD-nXvTEn6AY13oVAB9eaNjGHyNSMyFO6aC/s400/3559561225_07693b6a2c.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left;">That's about all for now but I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend and a very Happy Father's Day to all those dads out there!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Elyse D'Andrea-Happily Teachinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378914882749356280noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8504180117674044195.post-78579684225920537032013-06-11T17:26:00.003-07:002013-06-15T11:59:55.133-07:00My New Daily Schedule Cards<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hey everyone!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well we have been super busy working on common core for next year and I'm not gonna lie...I'm a little nervous about how different everything is going to be! Since it is kind of our kick-off year it will be interesting to see how the kids do not having had the same intensity and format of instruction in kindergarten. But, I guess that's what pilot years are all about, right? We have a couple more days before summer work is over so hopefully we can squeeze in tons of productivity these next two days. Oh and then maybe I can soak up a little bit of sun during my days off because I sure need it!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In an effort to feel somewhat accomplished and not totally overwhelmed by all the changes next year, I wanted to check off one of the <b>many</b> things on my to-do list for the beginning of the year. My first year teaching I made some daily schedule cards and they were definitely on their last days this year! I decided to make some new ones to match my color scheme in my room. My classroom matches my blog template (all bright green, bright blue, pink, and white) so these schedule cards will be perfect for my board! They make it super easy to just quickly switch around everyday depending on what we will be doing and they work as an awesome reference for the kids throughout the day. I mean, don't get me wrong, I LOVE hearing "when's lunch?" 1000 times before 9:00am, but having a schedule up just makes it a lot easier! I've uploaded my new schedule cards to my <a href="http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Elyse-Dandrea" target="_blank">TpT Store</a> and you can get to them by clicking on the picture below! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My next thing on the to-do list is to create all of my word wall words and letters in my bright colors for next year and to recreate my behavior chart! Stay tuned!</span></div>
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Elyse D'Andrea-Happily Teachinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378914882749356280noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8504180117674044195.post-83269704542848889862013-06-06T16:02:00.001-07:002013-06-06T16:02:35.871-07:00Common Core and "Morning Must-Haves" Linky Party!<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hey there, bloggers!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm about nose deep in common core and can't believe how much work syncing all of our routines and curriculums to the new standards is! I had last week off from school and signed up to do summer work at my school this week and next. Basically, we get to work in grade-level teams to look closely at the new common core standards and, well, pretty much ditch everything we are used to doing to start fresh! I know I'm behind on the whole common core thing compared to all of you blogging people out there but, nonetheless, am excited to start from scratch and will most definitely be digging around everyone's blogs to find some great resources to use next year with my first graders!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We have been working a lot on the math standards and looking at how incredibly different our methods of teaching will be this upcoming year. Lucky for me, I work with an <b>amazing</b> team of incredibly passionate and rockin' teachers, so we are all able to support and turn to one another for help. Did I mention how amazing my team is? No, but seriously. They make having the stress of aligning everything with common core fun! Okay wait. "Fun" is probably a dramatic overstatement but HEY at least I have some cool people to be bored and stressed with and to grab a drink with afterwards! :)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I will admit that I got a little spoiled with the whole sleeping in thing for that week we had off in between. I am not a morning person in any definition of the word and literally let out a small sob every time my alarm goes off. Which makes this reality-check of having to wake up for summer work the <i>perfect</i> opportunity for me to participate in the "Morning Must-Haves" linky party hosted by <a href="http://acrossthehallin2nd.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Across the Hall in 2nd</a>!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. OBVIOUSLY my need/desire/reliance on coffee in the morning can get a little out of hand but that's the reason it tops my list! Typically I make my coffee when I wake up and then grab it to-go in my travel mug for the commute. There's just something about the appeal of a noisy Chicago traffic-filled commute that draws me to always have coffee nearby :). If I treat myself or am lucky enough to have received a gift card from one of my kiddos, I prefer Starbucks or Dunkin' Donuts. Oh, and I have a totally irrational hate for McDonald's coffee for all those out there who are just dying to know.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmZyrICWfylUFkXHlCpg2xFUndL7JXM_qV4RaOvdJ7CWbaX_gUkaOmxiy8MHUa1zingrYPZyupI-fXCwbfscbMcRtnvwRaZaYaHOMuaK7ppux9iZnHj2andg5wGPU9Ema3icrRRQsM52CM/s1600/starbucks.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmZyrICWfylUFkXHlCpg2xFUndL7JXM_qV4RaOvdJ7CWbaX_gUkaOmxiy8MHUa1zingrYPZyupI-fXCwbfscbMcRtnvwRaZaYaHOMuaK7ppux9iZnHj2andg5wGPU9Ema3icrRRQsM52CM/s200/starbucks.gif" width="195" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijYo5sHt5o1tCSLv7aXNTrmX9aCWz1dq6uN66kewI2kykmPzvhM_Ss6_CZrrR_fiwtQcxaDz3hwmPrxDsNKRn1ycnTpVdDy7XPPRDIztlBeUOe7bKGVAkUlBCKp_eBDCPygt5NxvgqAooS/s1600/dunkindonuts.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="110" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijYo5sHt5o1tCSLv7aXNTrmX9aCWz1dq6uN66kewI2kykmPzvhM_Ss6_CZrrR_fiwtQcxaDz3hwmPrxDsNKRn1ycnTpVdDy7XPPRDIztlBeUOe7bKGVAkUlBCKp_eBDCPygt5NxvgqAooS/s320/dunkindonuts.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. Another one of my morning must-haves is my outfit to already be picked for the day! If you know me personally at all then you're well aware how long it takes me to pick out an outfit and how much I analyze if I have worn something before. I have wayyyyy too many clothes and spend wayyyyy too much time selecting an outfit to wear in front of 6 and 7 year olds. At least I'm aware of my problems, right?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. Speaking of outfits, I need to check the weather first thing in the morning to make sure I'm dressed appropriately for the weather that day. Living in Chicago, I'm never entirely sure what we're gonna get. Last week it was 85 and then 3 days later it was 54. A girl's got to be prepared! So naturally, the weather channel app is a must-have for my mornings!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAnNI0sW6eS4MO7TIIjGlLa8PPfJQ6BvZUi2bCOByRxLnO5l8reMfjMVzodjxtrY_kl1iobTubzbMEqTi1fMT3Pxhhv4ARu48KL-LhSNrxMbYi17AsadsYiPtoT0YDhZF8mGhICZeRdHII/s1600/weather_channel.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAnNI0sW6eS4MO7TIIjGlLa8PPfJQ6BvZUi2bCOByRxLnO5l8reMfjMVzodjxtrY_kl1iobTubzbMEqTi1fMT3Pxhhv4ARu48KL-LhSNrxMbYi17AsadsYiPtoT0YDhZF8mGhICZeRdHII/s320/weather_channel.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4. My sister recently told me about a website called <a href="http://www.theskimm.com/" target="_blank">theSkimm</a>. Have you heard of it? It's my new obsession! Every morning, it e-mails you a brief (and witty) version of that day's news. Their tag line is "theSkimm is the daily newsletter that simplifies the headlines for the educated professional who knows enough to know she needs more." That's totally me. So lately, I've been keeping better informed by checking my e-mail when I wake up in the morning and taking a couple minutes to read theSkimm. Love it!</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.theskimm.com/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjISf4gi4EyoB8M72NtEOgVCHQm6Bm792onoVObAJxx5l4e4abDnpbGDEeq-ZU1ZP4GpLGa1vYPIZgBs8TRgL50M8EQjeVuKq0PbVqNoIPyISRTAb0Y2YYwp06BN4gZMaLmN8PYzCSPTKWa/s1600/Picture+4.png" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That's all for now! This weekend I'm going to the Zac Brown Band concert and am hoping to create some stuff for the beginning of the school year! Have a great Friday tomorrow!</span></div>
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Elyse D'Andrea-Happily Teachinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378914882749356280noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8504180117674044195.post-56604711598828288742013-05-28T15:22:00.000-07:002013-05-28T20:54:16.345-07:00Summer Bucket List Linky Party!<br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">SCHOOL'S OUT FOR SUMMER!!!! Woohoo! We had our last full day with the kids on Thursday and then an hour with them on Friday. On Friday, I brought my kids donuts and juice and we had a big last day breakfast! </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We also watched the iMovie I made for them with pictures from our year together. The end of the year is always a bit emotional and saying goodbye to the the little ones that you spent an entire year with can be really hard. Luckily, I was able to recover somewhat easily from those emotions when I realized I get the whole summer to rest, catch up on projects I've wanted to work on, be productive, and hopefully get a little tan along the way! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;">On the last day of school, I sent home this letter with all my firsties (soon to be second graders!) to thank all of their parents for being supportive of their child's education. It truly means so much to any teacher to have parents that are supportive and involved in their child's education and I was blessed this year to have parents who actively played a role in their first grader's academic life!</span></div>
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<a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1ViONw_qbocWjNTcDRLMXh4dkk/edit" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUIT-IR-3X5PxpuHDyRVYCC7nmy2PyoC4_NY761sLp-pDn3Kcz00J2-aKE6xzq6eKUOX36M079Z6zwu-DcclqFyxNvYwmYc-Qstu5GdneJlcXj6PDHpamxA7TWoTaWUEWVFW_rXmlJQXi1/s1600/Picture+11.png" height="320" width="248" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now that the school year is over, I am excited to participate in my first ever linky party! <a href="http://www.miss-kindergarten.com/2013/05/my-summer-bucket-list-linky-party.html" target="_blank">Miss Kindergarten</a> is hosting a summer bucket list linky party, which is just perfect!</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.miss-kindergarten.com/2013/05/my-summer-bucket-list-linky-party.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcv-LyZiyMa2PNl0r_S_bDfQ_Ytl-Cd0X_EUkwsvhoaO3s6d8i9icAR1B_roQ0VXS3RL3OrD-EGsDKi4wjzrc5iFavccJDI4bBkxpif5It3hruGoYGGPYLKa3LkJAyPP4D5IXqcAQadZJg/s1600/summer+bucket+list+linky.jpeg" height="240" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Let's get started!! I've got a ridiculously busy summer ahead of me so first on the list is...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. Go to lots and lots of weddings! I have a grand total of...wait for it...wait for it....TEN weddings to attend this summer! What can I say? I guess I'm at the age where people start tying the knot. I'm super excited to celebrate and to see friends I don't get to see all the time but, needless to say, my bank account isn't quite as excited!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. I hope to work a lot more on my blog and TpT store! I started my store before I started my blog and never had tons of time to really add more products and build up my store during the busy school year. Hopefully I can use some time this summer to work more on my blog and on adding projects for the upcoming school year into my TpT store!</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Elyse-Dandrea" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRIrig_34H7-U96IYhh634B6PHXqJPgH7vo_T4_Bp2pmphq1uxj1Tf-e_JUjYTqk2XIov9Ciy84M9RKp7FY1QE7Hq1nHFNHpGFdF4aXPNLCMzFy5zJ01wxo2GSzfsAbR81hWC9DmFPfhqA/s1600/Picture+4.png" height="61" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<a href="http://happilyteaching.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDW_ymiQFD3I-Cr-gEidg_99z1reWSu9UnYTSi3dWw7AlBCmShTjLAvFp3tB4ghj3sIaa99j1huZSZg1VRMyXdz06_WHtpO0kYgj6ns8TYsxbqa8wIML6PqXKeiBj-u7t-hKAQRDTM5w0Y/s1600/Picture+5.png" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. Organize, Organize Organize!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm a pretty organized person and I like for everything to have a place. Last year, I spent tons of time and money to make my classroom just how I wanted it color-wise (pictures to be posted at a later date). That being said, I still have little things I really want to re-vamp and I, of course, have found countless ideas on pinterest to help feed my obsessive organization problem! </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some of my many, many inspirations are pictured below! The pictures link back to the original source for you to check out some amazing peeps' blogs!</span></div>
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<a href="http://imbloghoppin.blogspot.com/2012/08/teacher-week-where-i-teach-wednesday.html" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKD3UH6Uf7jKciPb8MChA7uX0Uj84P0kTOoAC36Gk2qzBWLldJjHdKM6Y1-R99Vrlhmg4CCVteBr7exWMMxnO9gShhsP9cpaFSJwJrkS1hIiO-HNMaJjB6rsazemwZz_mIwn0TSbPmPbdn/s1600/Picture+6.png" height="200" width="150" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE7Lx8E6LdNMwtDhDwuoLODWuU3_bTjXnCwhywuCoJ1ztEGrYoSdDypTigK1U0UCJ8bUDpVrnKe-Fz6COfHDbCW-BxXwInI36p3m2m-uYQdzXsh3s0GrFJ2clmQHGcwHXb4B1B-8Ryde-a/s1600/Picture+10.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE7Lx8E6LdNMwtDhDwuoLODWuU3_bTjXnCwhywuCoJ1ztEGrYoSdDypTigK1U0UCJ8bUDpVrnKe-Fz6COfHDbCW-BxXwInI36p3m2m-uYQdzXsh3s0GrFJ2clmQHGcwHXb4B1B-8Ryde-a/s1600/Picture+10.png" height="148" width="200" /></a><a href="http://thecreativechalkboard.blogspot.com/2012/08/classroom-tour-pictures-galore.html" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3anxdNNdUv-SbKrl4nkYxpe9sjHxzG59J-jq11rK4ydiIcCREruJuQP6zyyrdRMQUE2plCnCjXr-FjZlJFnpQGgREal0KtevTcHy64OLkBlLB0IrmIwLK489gMnwLO9Jv4p51H7D2xxd9/s1600/Picture+9.png" height="200" width="151" /></a><a href="http://thecreativechalkboard.blogspot.com/2012/08/classroom-tour-pictures-galore.html" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMjSP_t99Ae85zit8_OyrheqlEn10VmtrIWz_S6a1GXgqSaUSg5cFHIOJcLtvJdv-1xMTKgiMs8J_ivf1vFOKhEMb4ALsJFXJZKE_GgjFYNMndBqvTdng4v-DrycR_NZICAIubsv2Xrpdg/s1600/Picture+8.png" height="200" width="148" /></a> <span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'd like to put some pocket-type things on the back of a cabinet for my kids to grab graphic organizers from for "Read to Self" time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My library bins and labels already match perfectly my blue, green, and pink classroom colors. However, I'd love to organize my library so that each book is labeled with the levels and kids can easily find the book's home. This way our classroom library won't look like it got hit by a tornado and then run over by a truck at the end of each week! Wouldn't that be a beautiful thing!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How about these perfect storage bins for extra supplies? I currently keep extra supplies in cabinets, but after lots of expectation setting I'm sure it would save a lot of time letting kids get their own glue sticks and erasers when they are all out!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Love these drawers with labels and most definitely will be doing something similar on my own desk!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4. Am I the only person out there that becomes obsessed with looking up fitness-y things and healthy recipes only to not follow through even remotely with my "getting fit" expectations?! This IS the summer! I'm hoping to actually get motivated and STAY motivated to work out and eat healthy. Well...at least on weekdays!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I found this awesome fitness website that I have been trying to follow lately. She has amazing calendars for you to follow...even if you're like me and can't quite make it entirely through one of the days!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm sure I could think of only about a million other things I'd like to accomplish this summer but let's just stick to these four! I'll blog again soon! For all those fellow teachers who are out on summer break...enjoy! And for all those who still have a little of time, HANG IN THERE!!! Will blog again soon!</span><br />
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Elyse D'Andrea-Happily Teachinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378914882749356280noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8504180117674044195.post-44139301182988557112013-05-18T10:32:00.004-07:002013-06-15T12:00:15.437-07:00The Classic "Run Out Of Time To Do Anything At The End of the Year" And A Little Rainforest Fun!<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hello, hello!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think every teacher in the world can attest to the fact that it is nearly impossible to get any sort of academic work completely accomplished in the last week of school. Between end of the year activities, assessments, and just all around <b>madness</b> it's so difficult! But, nonetheless , I tried to capture a little bit of our learning to share!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At our school we call our social studies/science units "theme". Our last theme of the year is rainforests and I always have the highest hopes for doing so many fun things and lots of rainforest-y learning and I always end up having zero time to do so. The other day we had a little inkling of time to squeeze in some theme. So I announced, "boys and girls today we are going to do theme," one of my kids says "Wait, Miss D'Andrea! What's theme?" I about laughed out loud. Seriously? We've been doing theme all year! It never ceases to make me laugh that some kiddos just don't grasp the routines until there's 3 days of school left and just in time to send them off to 2nd grade. Haha!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To kick off our rainforest unit, I did an activity with my kiddos that I tried earlier in the year to kick off our weather theme. When I saw how much the kids loved it and how much they rocked giving thoughtful ideas, I had to try it again! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I covered all the tables in our classroom with butcher paper and tossed a couple cool rainforest pictures on each sheet. I don't tell the kids what we are going to learn about...it's a secret and we have to be detectives! My class this year needs so much guidance to do activities in which we are up and walking around so after a TON (no seriously, a ton) of modeling we could get started! They held markers behind their back and for about a minute we just walked around and silently looked at all the pictures. After that, the kids got to walk around and stop at any pictures they wanted to write down anything they were thinking. I tell them that they can write down things they wonder, questions, connections, comments, and so on. We are all super excited to "get our brains warmed up and thinking." Their job is to try to figure out as they are writing what our new theme is! They LOVE this freedom and really create thoughtful responses to the pictures.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've found that this activity really gets them thinking and helps them take their thoughts and put them into writing. After we finished the activity, we gathered on the carpet and share our guesses about what our new theme is! And guess we did! The kids guesses ranged from wild animals to the jungle and nature, and hey, just for kicks, bugs! Oh and in case you're wondering there were exactly zero pictures of bugs in our little picture walk activity so...that guess was intriguing. But we finally discovered that our new theme was the rainforest and then promptly ran out of time the remainder of the year to learn about them! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I kid, I kid. We did manage to squeeze in a couple rainforest layer activities but that's about it. We watched the rainforest video on <a href="http://brainpopjr.com/">brainpopjr</a> and had a discussion about the different parts of the rainforest. We learned a cutesy song and dance about the rainforest layers which really cracked my kids up. I have no idea where this song originally came from but regardless, I have uploaded my typed out version below for your use! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After we learned our rainforest song, we made these perfect little flipbooks from <a href="http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Layers-of-the-Rainforest-Flip-Book-Anchor-Chart-Review-Worksheet-661776" target="_blank">Classroom Compulsion</a>. Click on the link to be taken to her TpT store! This activity worked out perfectly!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This little guy even pulled out his rainforest layer flipbook later in the day when he finished his work early, plopped right down in the ever-comfortable and cozy spot on the cold tile next to the recycling bin (because why not?) and re-read over and over again. They thought the layers were so interesting!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That's all for now folks! I'm off to Milwaukee to go see my little sister graduate from college. Woohoo! Have a fantastic rest of the weekend! Only four more days in my school year!!</span></div>
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Elyse D'Andrea-Happily Teachinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378914882749356280noreply@blogger.com2