**WARNING** Random Non-School Related Post

Gavin's 1st Birthday
Monkey Theme

So since my son's first birthday I have been making custom made birthday banners.  I don't know what it is about them.  They don't save me money or time, but I feel great pride when I hang it up and can say, "I did that".  

    

Gavin's 2nd Birthday
"How to Train a Dragon" Theme

Gavin's 3rd Birthday
"Cars" Theme

This year my baby girl is turning 1.  Where did time go??? It doesn't seem like my little 6 lb. 6oz. bundle should be that old.It actually brings a tear to my eye and a lump in my throat.

Norah only 1 day old!  Now she is going to be 365 days old!?

Norah's 1st Birthday Invites

  We are doing an owl theme.  I am not done with her banner yet, but I have to say it is ADORABLE!   I also made her birthday invitations and a tutu.  I think invitations are going to be a 1st birthday only thing.  Store bought from now on!  30 invitations are just too many.  I even considered making just one, taking a picture of it, and inviting every one via Facebook, but then thought better of it.   

Sneak peek of Norah's 1st birthday banner

Now that I am typing about all of the things I am making for her birthday I think I am going to have to do a whole separate birthday post.  I hope you guys are ok with that.  I love my babies and I love showing them off in all of their cuteness.  So stayed tuned for that post in the middle of June!

Gavin loves being a big brother!
We thought it would be quite the opposite, but as always he surprised us!

I was also asked by two of my co-workers to make banners for their children's 1st birthday's too.  I was very pleased with them, so that is actually what precipitated this post.  I would love to start doing this on the side in my free time.  If only I had some of that!  Maybe this summer...

Pacman Theme

Cupcake theme

Well, I hope you enjoyed this random non-school related post!
~Stacey

2

Racing Towards Good Behavior

Welcome to the Indiana Bloggers Blog Hop!  I hope you have been able to make it to all of the great blogs.  I would love to thank Hilary Gard at Second Grade is out of this World for linking up with me!  If you have not been to her blog yet check her out!

                                           


Thank you, thank you, thank you so much for stopping here!  I have this adorable freebie for you in my TpT store Teaching Ever After!  

I have been doing this whole classroom management plan for years in my classroom.  This year I decided to tweak it a little to work with my theme.  Now I can't stop making them!  This one says "We Are Racing Towards The Good Behavior Finish Line".  Every time you catch your whole class being good or they receive a compliment you move the race car driver.  Sometimes if they are REALLY good you can move the race car driver a few letters.  This gets the kiddos really ramped up and they try even harder!  When the class gets to the checkered flag you pull from the reward cards.  I was thinking it would be really cute if you could find one of those large cup trophies to put the reward cards in.

This year my class got to the end.  I picked "Show and Tell".  I thought they would be so disappointed, but since they aren't allowed to bring toys to school they couldn't have been more thrilled.  I had each child bring their object in a bag and they needed to have 3 clues about it.  Some of the clues were fantastically written.  I had one little girl bring in a garbage bag with one of the BIGGEST stuffed elephants I had ever seen!  I wanted to keep him.  The other kids brought in trophies, pictures, favorite stuffed animals, or something that represented their favorite things.  It really was fun!







When they reach the end you start all over.  It is the end of the year and my students are STILL working so hard to get to the end again.  I don't have the heart to tell them that it probably isn't going to happen with only 7 days left, and why would I do such a ridiculous thing!




Thanks for pit stopping here!  Grab my button before you go.  I hope you enjoy the freebie! 
~Stacey

Next stop is 
http://thecrazyschoolteacher.blogspot.com/2013/05/indiana-blog-hop.html

13

A New Chapter

So I am SUPER excited to announce that I will be changing grades next year.  I have happily spent the last 5 years in 2nd grade, but with some high ability classes coming I anticipated a change.  I approached my principal last week and told him I would be interested in one of the 1st grade openings. There are going to be SEVEN sections next year.  That is a lot of 1st graders!  I found out last Thursday that it is a done deal.  While I am sad that I will be leaving my awesome team, great friends, and my 2nd graders; I am ready for this new chapter.  First grade is where I always envisioned myself while going through college.  I did my student teaching in 1st and I loved it!  One of the things I am a little nervous about is the maturity level.  I have gotten so used to 2nd graders understanding basic sarcasm and I am pretty sarcastic.  It might be a bit of a shock, but I am sure I(or they) will get used to it.  

For those of you who don't know me I am a HUGE worrier and a planner.  I am already worrying about what the first days and weeks will be like.  Will I get any rest this summer?  I hope so!  I need this summer SO bad.  I am sure we all do right?!  

If you are a 1st grade teacher I would love to hear about some of your favorite activities, books, or blogs you author or follow.  Let me know!!  

Here's to a new chapter!
~Stacey

2

A funny Daily 5 moment

I was chatting with a fellow co-worker and this story came up and she said you HAVE to blog about that, so here it is...

I returned reluctantly to my classroom in November from maternity leave.  I knew one of the first things I wanted to introduce to my students was Daily 5.  I started it last year with my students, but only did Daily 2; Read to Self and Read to Someone.   I was ready to go all in this time.  I started with Read to Self and I was VERY specific about the rules of Daily 5.  1) Get started right away. 2) Stay in one spot. 3) Read the whole time. 4) Read quietly and 5) Build stamina.  They were so excited to get started and to please me since I was new.  The first day went great!  We did a few minutes of Read to Self and checked in with each other.  Everyone did a perfect job. The next day started off great, but it all changed within minutes.  One of my students quietly came up to me and said they had an accident.  Keep in mind I teach 2nd graders and this doesn't happen very often.  I just figured I scared him so much he didn't want to approach me.  I sent him to the nurse and we didn't mention it again.  The next day I had ANOTHER boy have an accident too! I am not kidding!  They were SO SCARED to break stamina!  From that day on I made sure to tell students they are not to interrupt me unless they were bleeding, throwing up, or about to have an accident.  Needless to say that has not happened since!  Has this happened to you in D5????

~Stacey

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