A little of this, a little of that and a HUGE thank you!!

Wow friends!  Y'all are just too sweet for words!!  Thank you so much for all of your recent comments on my blog posts!!!  I absolutely love reading each of them and I am so thankful for them...especially all of your great ideas for my "rug crisis"!!  I loved all of your ideas!!  I think I may order these from Lakeshore with my school fee money {they are a bit pricey--ouch!}...

I adore the bright colors and they are made out of vinyl which means they can be easily cleaned...LOVE it!!

While I am thanking you, I want to say a huge thank you to all of you that have bought my word wall packs and for those that I have been able to customize packs for!  I have had so much fun creating them!!  I just posted a new one that is great for any classroom that uses primary colors...check out the pics below.  I made this pack after a sweet teacher asked me to and I absolutely love how it turned out!!

{Click on the pic to grab this from my TPT store!}

{P.S.  If you love this pack but would rather see orange instead of purple, I can for sure make the change!!  Just let me know!!}

I am also working really super hard to get my ELA "Tracking My Teaching" pack posted by the end of the week.  I will offer it by itself and I will also offer it paired with my Math pack for a discounted rate.  I am so excited to use this pack this year...I am praying it helps keep me on "track" with my teaching and with knowing how my students are doing at all times! 

{I have updated this pack's background print so if you already purchased this pack, you will be able to download the updated pack very soon!}

Here is a sneak peak at the ELA pack...

{There is a second page included that lists the students names from 16-30!}

This is a first grade pack but I am contemplating making the packs for other grades.  Is anybody interested in seeing this pack {math and ELA}  for other grades...K, 2, 3, 4, or 5???? 

Enjoy sweet friends!  Oh yeah...I still have not gotten into my classroom...school starts in 15 days...I am again slightly freaking out--like breaking out in hives freaking out!!  It will all work out though....right????

Help Wanted!!

Ok friends...I desperately need your help!!  I am moving into a brand spankin' new classroom this year and we just found out that we can't have rugs in our classroom--GASP!! I am THIS CLOSE to freaking out...

{see picture above...can you tell how I feel about this situation?!!}

How do I teach my little sweeties without a carpet?!  The reasoning behind this madness is that the flooring that was installed reacts to the rubber on carpets and leaves a yellow stain on the floor.  We were told that we could use carpet squares or anything that could be picked up and put away after it has been used.  This is where I need your help.  If any of you have any brilliant ideas of what I can use this year so my friends little bottoms don't kill them when sitting on the floor, I would absolutely love you!  Oh yea...here is the curve ball--I'm a bit OCD and I would love for whatever I use to match and coordinate with my classroom colors (black, teal, red and lime green)!!  I know--what a tall order that is!!  I appreciate any and all suggestions!!  Thanks sweet friends---y'all are the best!!! 

Christmas in July, Mustaches and Chubby Ties...Oh my!

**Congrats to Jennifer and Gladys for being my first two comments!!  I just sent you my newest pack!!  Thank you to all of you for your super sweet comments...they truly made my day!!  I hope you all enjoy my newest pack and I would love to know what you think of it!!**

Hi sweet friends!  Well, I hate to say it but I was that crazy lady in Hobby Lobby today looking at Christmas decorations...really?!  This clarifies that I have lost my mind!!  In my defense, I went into Hobby Lobby to get fabric for my classroom and they had all of thier cute decorations out so I had to "browse" through them!!  I was super excited when I saw their huge display of ornaments and decorations that were peacock themed!  How stinkin' cute are these ornaments?! 

They match perfectly with the colors in my house!  I love them most because they stray from your typical red and green!!  I can now check off "Christmas tree theme" from my to-do list...almost 5 months early!!

And now to the most important part of this post...my literature circle pack--I Mustache...What Are You Reading--is now complete and uploaded to TPT and Teacher's Notebook!!  So excited to use this pack in my classroom this year!!  This pack was created as an engaging activity to support reading comprehension through the use of literature circles. With cute, chubby ties and fun-tastic mustaches, your lil' darlin's will be reading even more!!  Included in this pack are...

• Name tags
• Mustaches to add fun!
• Literature Circles recording booklet

{Click the pic to grab a copy over at TPT!!}

Name tags...Print, laminate and cut apart.  Punch two holes at the top and thread with ribbon to create a necklace.  Each student will be given a name tag to wear in their group to identify their role.  (Students should be put into groups of 5)



Mustaches...Print, laminate and cut apart.  Each role has a mustach for it.  Attach the mustaches to a dowel rod for students to use as a prop when presenting their role to their group.  (BTW...let me know what you think on the size of the mustaches...I am contemplating making them smaller!)

How sweet is my hubby?!  I needed a model and he volunteered agreed to help me out! 

 Love him to pieces!!

Literature Circles Recording Booklet...Students will complete one page each day.  There is a recording sheet provided at the beginning of the packet for students to write the pages they read and to mark thier role for the day. 

I hope y'all enjoy!!  You know the drill...the first two people to leave a comment will snag a copy of this pack!  Don't forget to leave your email addy!! 

P.S.  PTL...it rained today!!  My poor grass was oober thirsty!!

P.P.S.  Don't forget to head over to facebook and "like" Darlin' In First"!!



I "Mustache"...What Are You Reading?

Just a little sneak peak...what do ya think sweet friends?!

Cute, chubby ties and mustaches...I can hardly contain myself!!

Tracking Your Teaching!!

**Update**

Congrats to Rachel {rmariemuniz@hotmail.com} and Lori {luvyorkies@gmail.com} for being the first two comments!  I am sending you your winnings now!  I hope you enjoy!  PLEASE let me know if you see any typos or if there are any corrections that need to be made!!  Thanks to everyone for your super sweet comments...y'all rock!!

Hi y'all!  I have to start by saying I am a bit sad...I feel like summer is slipping right through my fingers and there is nothing I can do about it!  I seriously have a bajillion things still on my "to-do" list and I don't know how I am going to get it all done and still relax a little before school starts back!  And to top it off...we just received an email telling us that we would not be able to move into our brand spankin' new classrooms until the second week of August...Ahhhhh!  School starts a week after that...I am seriously breaking out in hives thinking about it all!  Breathe...deep breaths...that's what I keep telling myself! 

In spite of this, I have been quite the busy little bee here at home working on as much as I can to get me set up for the school year.  I made these cute little hall passes to use next year and I absolutely love them!!  Whenever one of my lil' darlin's leaves the classroom, I have them choose the appropriate hallpass and place it on their desk so I know they are gone and where they are.  I printed my hallpasses on cardstock, laminated them, puched a hole in the top and threaded with ribbon...easy peasy lemon squeezy!  I can't wait to hang these on my cute little polka dot hall pass hanger!!

{Click the pic below to check them out on TPT!}

As I have said before, I am a bit of an organizational freak!  Therefore, I desperately needed some way to track my progress in teaching the new standards as well as my sweetie's progress in learning the new standards.  I found a ton of awesome Common Core Checklists on TPT but none of them completely satisfied my needs.  With your help {from a previous post}, I created the following pack!  I can not say thank you enough for all of your sweet comments and wonderful suggestions!! 

Included in this pack is a checklist for each of the Common Core math standards for first grade. On each checklist I have listed the standard and allowed room for you to write the dates your taught the standard as well as a place to write students names who are struggling with this standard {this section is titled "Help Me Pretty Please"}. I plan to highlight the standard once I feel that I have taught it to mastery.  In addition, for each standard, there is a class checklist in which you can list each of your sweeties names and have a place to check whether they mastered, partially mastered or did not master the standard. I love having this to use as anecdotal notes as well as to document each child's progress at the end of a term. Each section is divided with a cover sheet for that particular strand (geometry, measurement & data, etc.). I plan to place all of this in my assessment binder for easy access! I hope this helps you "track your teaching" this year!!  And don't you worry your pretty little heads...I will also be posting the ELA standards in the same format!

{Click the pic below to check it out!}

I would love to hear what you think...comments, suggestions, likes, dislikes...any and all of it!!

I'd also love to give a few packs of both my checklist and hall passes away to a few of y'all!  The first two people to comment with their email address will snag a copy of both!! 

P.S.  I just created a Facebook page!!  My heart would be so happy if you would stop by and "like" it!!

http://www.facebook.com/darlininfirst

Night sweet friends!!



Common Core Checklist!

Ok friends...I need your input!  I am working on a common core checklist to use this year.  Since moving to the new standards, I am constantly wondering if my lessons are covering the standards and where I have holes.  I am also wondering which of the standards my sweeties have met and which they have not.  Therefore, I thought I would make a checklist for both myself and for my lil' darlin's so that I know exactly what I have taught, what I still need to teach and where my kiddo's are at all times!  Below is a **DRAFT** of the checklist for teachers.  I think, though, that I need to break each standard down into its substandards because there is so much in each standard.  Please let me know what you think, what you would like to see in the checklists and if these would be helpful to you at all!!  Thanks so much...you all are the best!!!

**Right now I have them divided into Math and Language Arts**

P.S.  Would it be more helpful to have the entire standard listed or just the abbreviation?

Comments, critiques, likes, disliskes...I want to hear it all!!

Happy 4th of July {Flash} Sale!!

Hi sweet friends!  I hope you are having a fantastic 4th of July!  Check out my store for a 20% {Flash} sale running from now until tomorrow...enjoy!!

Getting Organized!!

**UPDATE**

Congrats to Lisa @ Fourth and Ten, Kim Collatos and First Grade Delight for being the first three comments!!  Thanks to everyone for your super sweet comments!!  They made this girls day!!!

Hi ya!  I hope y'alls summer is going fantastic!  Mine is wonderful...busy and going by too quick but wonderful!!  I just wanted to pop in real quick and let you know that I just uploaded one of my most favorite packs yet!  For anyone that knows me, they can vouch that I am a C-RAZY organizational freak!  Seriously...I absolutely love organizing and can't leave school at the end of the day without making sure everything is just so and that my desk is neat and ready to go for the next day {yea..I know what you are thinking...I told you I was crazy!}!  I have found that binders are my saving grace when it comes to keeping the bazzilion amounts of paperwork that we teachers accumulate stay organized and in its place!  I have created binder covers {with spine labels too!} for just about anything I could think of {a total of 36}!!  I hope you enjoy them as much as I do...I simply can't wait to print them off and get to organizing my "stuff"!

{Click on the first pic to head on over to my store at TPT!!}

 

To all of my sweet teacher friends that have ordered customized word wall packs from me...I PROMISE I haven't forgotten about you!  I have several that I am working on and I hope to have them completed by the end of the week...fingers crossed!  Thank you from the bottom of my heart for being so patient!!  Love you all to pieces!!!

I am off to finish watching the Bachelorette {my guilty pleasure}!!  Who is your favorite little bachelor babe???!!!  Night friends!!

P.S.  In honor of the final three men on the bachelor tonight, I will give away a copy of my binder covers to the first three friends who leave a comment with their email address!!