Gobble, Gobble, Ribbit!

Here is the door I put up for Thanksgiving.  I had a really fun time making this door.  The kids got a kick out the of the Turkey Frog!

I only had a camera on my phone that day, so sorry, this is the best picture I have!

Happy Holidays!

Batfrog Door

Of all the superheros, Batman is by far my favorite.  When I was a little girl, Saturday mornings were filled with the sounds of the old Batman series, "POW", "BAM", "KAPOW"....."CRASH".  Nothing was better than sitting down in front of the t.v. to watch Batman, with a bowl of sugar cereal in hand (yes, I know this whole thing dates me, I am old).

I found this awesome set of old batman words on a blog.  

My school still allows us to celebrate holidays, and while it does, I am going to live it up ;).  In honor of my girlhood love of Batman, I present, Batfrog!  Nerdy, I know.

Here's to all the superheros in the world!

Welcome Back, Froggy Style!

My Welcome Back Froggy Door!

I can't believe school is already a month in and I am just now posting this, but here is my back to school door.  I decided to add Chevron to my theme this year!  I am obsessed with everything chevron!

My friend Marie, helped me cute out strips of paper to make the water splashes.

Here's to already being more than a month into school!

While perusing the world of Pinterest, I came across this little gem.  I relate to this oh, so much!  I had to share! :)  I couldn't find where the original pin is from, but I love it!

This made me think of all the little things I have taken from home, which have now become a permanent fixture in my classroom.  Just the other day, I came across a potato peeler, hot pad, and box full of q-tips  that managed to sneak themselves into my classroom cupboards.  Oh, and don't worry, I have been looking for that darn little potato peeler for a month now!

Happy Day!

    

Back To School Open House

I can't believe it is already back to school time.  The summer has come and gone and now it is time to get in the teaching groove again.  Here goes nothing ;).

I decided this year to make a little somethin' froggy to welcome my students back to school.  I found a cute template for a paper bag frog here.  I had some of my students from last year, cut out and put the bags together.  

Here is what the frogs looked like on the desks.

I put a pencil, eraser, and some small "3rd grade survival treats" inside the bag.  The kids were excited to take the bags home with them.

I also put a small cut out of a Lilly pad on the desk with a couple of get to know you questions for the each student to answer.   

Next year I am going to find green bags to use for the frog body, but I think the kids really enjoyed walking in to see a frog sitting on their desk.  I hope you had a good back to school open house, and here's to a great new year!!

  

Back to School Parent Packet

It is done!!  I am so excited!  My sister, Sarah, and I have spent hours making a new Back to School Parent Packet.  Don't you just love how fresh everything is for back to school.  The smell of new crayons, and clean desks.  Awwww.....it makes this teacher's heart happy.

This year, I decided to do a complete overhaul on my Back to School Parent Packet.  I wanted something that included all those necessary little tidbits of information we teachers need at the beginning of the year, and had that crisp back to school feeling.  Well, here it is:

See, happy smiling faces for Back to School :).

I put all the important questions I need about my students in one place.  

I also made a contact information sheet that I am going to put directly in my teacher binder.  That way, if I need to contact a parent, I will have all the information I need easily accessible.  

Keeping volunteer information organized is very important to me.  I made a detailed parent volunteer form for the back to school packet, and a cute chevron parent volunteer list to be kept in my parent binder!  So excited to have names, phone numbers and email addresses ready to use when I need volunteers for activities, field trips, parties or someone to read with a student.

Because transportation can be confusing at times, I also made a transportation form so I know how my students are getting home each day.  This is especially helpful for the little kiddos who sometimes get confused about how they get home everyday.   

This may be my favorite part of the packet.  Every year I send home a parent packet, and every year I get about half the packets back and have to BEG, barrow and bribe to get  the rest of the students to turn in their packets.  This year I decided to include a raffle ticket.  The students who bring back the packet filled out, get to enter a drawing for a prize.  A little motivation for getting everything back quickly!

Hope things are going well in your back to school preparations and MOST importantly you are enjoying a little R & R.  If you're interested in the Back to School Parent Packet, it is available on TPT HERE. 

Have a great one!

Anchor Chart

I keep seeing all these SUPER cute anchor charts on Pinterest, and decided as part of my "getting organized summer", I was going to make some anchor charts too.  Teaching about nouns happens at the beginning of third grade, so here is the noun anchor chart I made:

**VERY IMPORTANT SIDE NOTE:  my drawing abilities are very often surpassed by the abilities of my third grade students.  Third graders, I have found, are amazing little artists!

 I need to find out how other teachers have used their anchor charts in their classrooms!  How do you use yours?