Wednesday, June 26, 2013

TpT FREEBIE!

I know most of us are in the middle of summer (some blogger friends just started summer, craziness!) but I'm already planning to go back to school at the end of July. You read that right, JULY. Technically students don't start until August 1, but teachers report back much sooner. So I better get ready!

I just made these cute dismissal tags to use with my students this year. My plan is to print and laminate them, then punch holes and attach to their backpacks with zip ties. I think it will definitely help in the beginning of the year with the dismissal chaos. I will probably also put a label on the back side with the student's name and my name. That way if a child gets separated from the "herd" during dismissal, another teacher can easily identify them and help get them to the right place. Goal for the 1st week of school? NO LOST KIDS! haha


Best part? I'm offering it you to FREE! Just go to my TpT website and download the file. Then print and use as necessary. While you're on TpT, be sure to check out my other products! 

**UPDATE- since this has become so popular (and my cute hubby isn't working so we need the money) I'm now selling this on TpT for just $1. Sorry y'all!! But it's still a great deal and super useful in the classroom. Also you can message me if you need custom tags made, and I'll put them up on TpT for you. Thanks!

Monday, June 24, 2013

The day we had a fire

**I started this post a few months ago, but for whatever reason didn't publish it. Here it is a little late!


Well, so here I am again. Sorry I've been an absent blogger. I got a little busy with this small thing called GETTING MARRIED! I went from being Ms. H to Mrs. A :) Things in my personal life have just calmed down in time for things at school to get crazy. We're in the middle of state-mandated testing for grades 3-4 this week, and K-2 has their test next week. Yes, that's right. My kinder babies will take a standarized "bubble-in" test next week. The crazy thing? They're excited for it!

So anyways, this week 3rd and 4th grade are taking their tests. Wednesday morning my class was in the middle of doing our PALS lesson when "BEEP BEEP BEEP!!!!" Fire alarm. Did I mention 3rd and 4th were in the middle of testing? Did I mention it was pouring down rain and 45 degrees outside? We weren't sure if this was real or not, but headed outside just to be sure. We were getting into our spot (in the rain) when I heard the sirens. It was real!

Luckily, it was a very small fire that was contained to an emergency light in the library. However, it was still a scary thing and definitely a huge distraction for the kids. It was all they could talk about. So what did I do? Turned it into a journal prompt. Here's what some of them had to say:
"My adventure: We were doing PALS this morning and the fire drill went off. There was a fire. We got wet. It was scary for me and it was tiny."
"We had a fire. I was scared. We got wet."



Picture Labels!

Once again, I've neglected my blog. Things just got crazy and well, these days I'd rather spend time with my cute hubby than glue to my computer :) 

But, now it's summer and I have all the time in the world! And as crazy as it sounds, I'm already getting ready to go back to school. I'm working on a few things to add to my classroom, including these direction picture labels:

What do you think? I'm pretty happy with how they turned out, and I think they will really help my students keep track of 3 and 4 step directions. Not to mention how much it will help if I have any EE (exceptional education) students in my room this year. You can grab your own set on my TpT site!