Five for Friday - January 30

I'm a day late - Fridays I never have to time to blog!  I usually stay at school to try and get as much stuff done as possible because I don't go back on the weekends and then when I get home I like to sneak in some TV watching or a nap and then we usually hang out with friends that night!  They're crazy!  Sometimes my posts are ahead of schedule but not this week - so, here's my Five for Friday (on a Saturday) with Doodlebugs Teaching!

My husband and I have not jumped on the Netflix bandwagon - until now.  A week ago we caved and finally gave in.  I complained a lot over Christmas break about not having TV to watch and watching reruns was getting ridiculous.  I also like having my own TV shows that I can watch so that when Ryan works late, or I have extra time I can watch those!  My wonderful friend told me about the show Reign and how I had to get into it so it's the first show that I tried on Netflix and oh my goodness. I'm addicted.  If you haven't checked it out you have to.  It's way different from what I normally watch but I am loving it so far.

This week my nuggets and I dove into "ING" and inflected endings.  In first grade they just have to be able to use and recognize them so we did some fun activities to get ourselves familiar with them.  I found all these great activities from Thank God It's First Grade and my kids were eating it up.  We made "King of ING" crowns and brainstormed words all week as well as did some of her fun little worksheets.  My kids were recognizing ING everywhere and it made my teacher heart dance.

All 23 of my "Kings and Queens"

I have been majorly messing around with my math block this year trying to figure out what I like best.  Our district does "Investigations" math and we are to follow it pretty closely so I've been trying to find out ways that I really like to teach it and make it engaging to the kiddos.  Right now we are trying a "Math Workshop" sort of way and I'm liking it - somedays I get kids in small groups and other days I get to observe and watch their work on games to figure out what they need.  This week we got to work on story problems to better know our facts to 10.  I used their names in the story problems and made them kind of funny and the kids ate it up.  You would have thought I gave them a prize or something.  They were laughing and joking around but still solving the problem.  It was so fun.  Definitely something I'll add in next week again.

I started the TPT journey in January and am slowly but surely am getting a new product up.  I only have one free product right now.  My goal was to get 3 up by the end of the month but I got sick about a week in and couldn't kick the cold and then had to get all caught back up at school, AND have a life besides work. You all know how it goes.  However, I have had 10 downloads of my free product and someone left me feedback the other day.  I squealed when I got the email in my car on the way home. Whoever this person is, doesn't fully understand how much they made my day. That being said, I am working on a True and False math product right now that I hope to have up by the end of the weekend next week.

Superbowl is this weekend.  I love this weekend at the start of a new year.  I loved it more last year when my team was in the Superbowl - my husband and I are pretty big Bronco's fans.  Right now we are not talking about our team and pretending they don't exist.  Ryan is taking the loss pretty hard.  However, I am excited to hang out with friends on Sunday and enjoy the last game of football for the year and eat lots of food.  Calories don't matter on Sunday I've decided.  It's a great refresher before diving into a week of teaching and conferences next week.

Thanks for checking out my Five for Friday!  Check on my TPT Store for that upcoming project on True and False!  Thanks for all the inspiring teachers out there who push me to be a better teacher!

Until next time.

Sunday Scoop [On a Monday]

It's Monday night, and after the eventful loss of my Denver Bronco's yesterday, I was not in a blogging mood so today I'm posting my "Sunday Scoop" and linking up with Teaching Trio and these fun bloggers I'm meeting through Instagram, TPT, and the teacher blogger world.

So, here's my "Sunday Scoop" on a Monday.

3 Things I have to do..

- We have an electronic data wall at our school that holds all of our students data - from DRA's, to math assessments, to quarterly standard assessments, etc.  I have a meeting with my principal in a few days to stop and go over the data - so I should make sure everything is there and up to date! :)

- I bought a Crane humidifier (in a cute Hippo) last year.  This past summer it stopped sending out vapor and so I emailed and go a new one sent to me.  This one I plugged in and the same thing happened to me again!  It wouldn't produce any vapor out of the holes.  I'm a bit frustrated with the company and hoping that they'll send me another new one.

- I recently started mapping out my math lessons last month and really liked having it all laid out for me.  It helps to know what each of my groups are working on in the workshop model, and what the rest of the students are doing while I take small groups.  

2 Things I hope to do...

- I just started posting TPT products a few weeks ago and have been slowly plugging away at my first "money" product.  It takes so much time and energy!  I'm also paying extra close attention to the copyrights on fonts and clipart and hope that as I keep working on these products it becomes easier.

- I'm going to start assessing my kids again this week in their math concepts - forward/backwards number and number identification.  Knowing that those peanuts who couldn't identify numbers to 20 have made so much progress makes my teacher heart happy - as well as getting ahead of the assessments for the spring!

1 Thing I'm happy to do...

- In 2 weeks, we have a birthday party for a 1 year old!  I love shopping for kid presents since I don't have any babies of my own yet (YET!).  Usually with my birthday being so close to Christmas (December 18) I like to buy kiddos something besides toys on their birthdays that are also close to Christmas.  Baby Gap here I come!

Come and link up each week - even if you are late! It's fun to meet new teachers and read everyone else's ideas!  

Until next time.

Currently January!

I have fallen off the blogging bandwagon.  I promised myself I would keep up with it when school started and then conferences got in the way, and life happened and... you know. However, after opening my TPT store again yesterday (go check it out and follow me!  You'd make my night!) I've decided to become more committed!

 So, with that being said, I've linked up with Farley at Oh Boy Fourth Grade!

Listening: Sunday usually involves football of some sort in our house. We usually go to church in the morning (or Saturday night) and then on Sunday there is football in our house from the moment we get home (or wake up) until we go to sleep.  My husband loves football.  He's a die-hard Denver Bronco fan so the games today are just fun to watch for him since they aren't playing. But, we know we will play the Colts next week!

Loving: It's so cold here.  Today the high was 1 degree above zero and we'e just moved from a Winter Storm Watch into a Winter Storm Warning. We're suppose to get lots of snow tomorrow afternoon (on the first day back to school - how convenient.)  So, I'm thankful that my day involves big thick blankets and a nice fireplace.

Thinking: Tomorrow we go back to school here after a long and much needed Winter Break. I'm ready to see my kiddos - I miss them and their personalities!  I need to go back to a somewhat normal schedule - while relaxing and doing nothing all day is great I need to get back into a routine.

Wanting: I stuck some laundry in before I took a nap today and haven't touched it since.  It needs to finish itself. But, wishful thinking so I'll end up doing it after this post. 

Needing: I did my weekly grocery shopping trip today and need to grill up some chicken for salads this week, get some veggies cut, and throw in the pizza for supper tonight.  I don't always like the idea of food prepping for the week but thank myself when it's done because it is so much easier to just grab my prepped salads, fruits, and veggies each day.

Yes: Since I reopened my TPT store yesterday, I will make a commitment to make consistent products to sell!  My friend Kayla at Kayla in the Classroom and I have been friends for years and she took the dive into TPT this summer and her story has been inspiring - so, here I go!

Maybe: Husband and I really want to do something new with our master bedroom this year.  We're pretty into the modern/rustic look and Ryan wants to do a wooden wall with Aspen tree sticks in our master bedroom. We'd like to repaint and add some cool shelves.

Wish: Ryan and I have talked about how great it would be if I could someday (when we have cute little babies) be a stay at home mommy.  I would love to do that and think it's something I've wanted to do my whole life, and then decided a teacher was the next best thing.  As of right now we wouldn't be able to make it work and I'd have to continue working with a baby but maybe someday when we are more financially stable. Praying for it now and trusting God will answer if it's in His plan!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday season! Stay warm!