Monday Made It

Although I've only been blogging for just a few weeks now, I have blog stalked for a bit longer. One of my favourite linky parties to stalk has always been the Monday Made It Linky. So I figured it was time to get a bit crafty and join in on all of the fun.

I created a few things for my classroom. First off, I printed and laminated some awesome signs for Whole Brain Teaching. Click the link below to grab these awesome freebies for yourself. I would love to chat with anyone else who is beginning to implement this system in their own classroom. Hopefully we can share and collaborate together.

Mrs. Hereen's Happenings

Third Grade Thoughts

The other thing I created was the popular birthday favours I've seen on so many Monday Made It links. I decided to place mine on crazy straws instead of pixie sticks. I'm very happy with the way they turned out. I haven't found a container for them yet, so they are temporarily sitting in my travel coffee mug.

Can't wait to see what everyone else was creating this week. Thanks for reading and following,

New {School} Year Resolutions

I was catching up with some blogs tonight when I stumbled across an awesome linky by Amanda over at Teaching Maddeness.

  It makes perfect sense to make our resolutions now rather than in January, so here we go.

#1 - Stay organized - I'm lucky to be switching schools because I will start the year off in a completely clean and organized classroom. I intend to keep it this way, including my dreaded teacher's desk. I really need to make one of those teacher toolboxes.

#2 - Embrace change and try new things - New school, new administration, new students equals lots of change. I'm also embarking on a new journey with two whole new teaching 'strategies/systems'. I'm so excited to employ whole brain teaching strategies with my students and also to change up my literacy block with the Daily Five.

#3 Connect and Communicate with Parents - When I first began teaching I felt quite uncomfortable with this aspect of teaching. As time has passed I have begun to feel more at ease with this challenge. I'm also super excited to employ technology to my advantage and use it to help keep parents informed.

#4 - Use my time wisely - I really want to have a balance between home life and work life. I also need to squeeze in some time for my new found blogging life as well. I usually arrive early to school, so I want to make the most of the time before my students arrive each morning. Less gossiping around the Keurig in the staffroom and more planning and preparing.

Do you have any resolutions to share? Be sure to link up and share. Thanks for reading and following,

Fabulous Find Friday

Wow! I can't believe its Friday already. Time is simply flying by. Friday means one thing - Fabulous Find Friday at Fun in Room 4B

Maybe some of you already know about this product. I first saw it a few months ago at Walmart in Canada. Perhaps those of you in the U.S.A. have had access to this product for quite a bit longer. This always seems to be the case. Here's my fabulous find for the week.

They cost about $4.00

The back of the package shows how many of each letter is included

I finally broke down and purchased these the other day.  I love this product! Basically they are like a post it note in the shape of letters. Which means you can reposition them on your project until you achieve your desired layout. Which is amazing! I used them on a project that I was creating for Made it Monday, but I'm sure there are many more uses for this fantastic project in the teaching world. I am thinking they would be great in kindergarten. I would give each student a letter to stick on their shirt and ask them to tell me their letter/sound/something that starts with that letter. Anyone else have a great use for these letters? Please share it in the comments below. Have a fantastic weekend! Thanks for reading and following,

Classroom Update & What I'm Pinning Wednesday

Cameron and I have spent the last few mornings working away in my classroom. I have all of the bulletin boards covered and bordered. I had heard that someone used plastic tablecloths to cover bulletin boards so I thought that I would give it a try. We ran into a slight problem, the plastic tablecloths were too thin so we had to double them. Not a big deal, just slightly more time consuming. I put up my number line, and alphabet line. We arranged my letter headings for my word wall, and arranged my Cafe strategy board. We also arranged the desks and organized some stuff in the drawers of my teacher desk.

Still lots of jobs left to do, but it doesn't feel like such a huge task when we go for a few hours each week. The following still needs to be done before school starts - organise my classroom library, set up Daily 5 center areas, and beg/borrow/steal more manipulatives for my classroom, set up plan book and plan for first week. Still lots of time - School doesn't start here until September 4th.

Anyways, it's time for one of my favourite linky parties over at Kinder Kraziness.

Ahh how I adore pinterest! I swear I am absolutely obsessed with it. There are just so many awesome ideas out there. Here are some of my favourite pins for the week.

I've been keeping my eyes peeled for a sale on "teacher toolboxes" so once I score my deal I can print these awesome labels off and save myself some time and frustration hopefully. You can grab these wonderful labels here. (Teachers pay teachers is currently down for maintenance so I can't verify that this link is correct right now, please comment if it doesn't work)

I've also been planning on organizing my students by number this year. So these are some great free printable number circles. I hope to use one set for my book boxes and another for documenting who's out of the classroom (bathroom, office, etc..) I like these numbers because I can print them on coloured paper and save ink. You can grab these awesome numbers from Runde's Room.

These are some awesome printable math games from Mrs.Clapp over at Serenade to Second Grade. They only require simple manipulatives like dice and cards. Be sure to visit her next post to grab the labels for the game if you want them too.

My last pin is this awesome treat to celebrate the start of the Olympic games! I love watching the Olympics and this treat will be a great way to celebrate tomorrow night. Bake some yummy cupcakes in ice cream cones and then decorate with some flaming icing. Looks easy enough, right? I hope I will find the time to make these before the ceremony starts, wish me luck.

Thanks for reading and following,

Tell Me More and I'm a Winner!!!

Wow, I am just sooooo excited!!! I had been planning to join Amy's Tell me More linky party, so I logged into my computer this morning to begin composing my blog post. I decided to quickly check my email first. I won a $50 Amazon gift card from Amanda Madden over at Teaching Maddeness to celebrate her 500 followers milestone!!!

  Wow, I was so shocked! Of course I had to log on immediately and start shopping! I had commented on Amanda's blog that I would be purchasing more non-fiction titles for my classroom library because my personal collection is lacking in that area. So I stayed true to my word and bought 7 National Geographic for Kids books! I can't wait for them to arrive. Here's a picture of my titles. (I spent a little over the $50.00 once tax was added on)

Anyways, a huge thank you to Amanda. I cannot wait for these awesome books to arrive!

Now for Amy's awesome Tell me More linky party. I've only recently started blogging but I am totally addicted. I love reading everyone's posts. I get so many helpful tips and resources to use in my classroom. But I love this linky because it gives me a little glimpse into the lives of these wonderful bloggers. So here are a few random things about me.

I love everything Disney! I'm slightly obsessed actually. I even read forums about visiting Disney World, even though I don't even have a return trip planned. Two years ago we took our dream trip to Walt Disney World and stayed onsite for eight days! It was a magical trip! I would love to visit the world again, but I would also love to take a Disney Cruise. Maybe I can convince my husband to let me do both, right?

Sundays are family dinner days. Family has always been very important to me. When my Grandmother was alive she held Sunday dinner at her house every week. A normal Sunday usually involved at least 15 dinner guests. If there was a birthday or holiday to celebrate the typical guest roster floated around 30+ people. My mom now hosts Sunday dinners and the crowd is much smaller, but my entire family still gets together for holidays and special occasions at least a few times a year.

I adore Dutch licorice! I don't know many people who even like regular black licorice but I love Dutch licorice, even the 'dubble zout' (double salt) My mother's parents immigrated to Canada from Holland when my mother was just a baby. So my childhood was filled with numerous dutch treats like chocolate sprinkle sandwiches, speculass cookies and olliebollen. But by far my favourite treat has always been salty Dutch licorice.

I recently conquered one of my many addictions. Unless you're Canadian, I don't think you would really understand this addiction. Some say a 'double double' (two cream, two sugar) is the quintessential definition being 'Canadian'. Near the end of the school year I gave up my daily Tim Hortons cup of coffee. Every morning began with dropping Cameron off at daycare and then swinging through the drive thru for my large 'double double'. I still have my morning coffee, I just grab one from my Keurig now. My favourite current flavour is Jamaica me Crazy by Wolfgang Puck.

 Anyone have any other favourites they would recommend? Thanks for reading,

Newbie Blog Hop

I'm linking up with Janis over at Grade Three is the Place for Me for a newbie blog hop.

This weekend has been crazy busy but tomorrow I hope to visit some of the blogs that have already linked up. I know that I will find more fabulous new blogs to follow.

1.  What state you are in? I'm actually not in a state. I'm from Canada, a small town in Eastern Ontario to be more exact.

2. What is your current teaching position? This year I am switching schools and grades. I will be teaching a combined Grade One and Two class.

3. What is your teaching experience? I have been teaching for nine years. I've taught Grade One, Grade Two, Grade Three, Grade Four, Special Education aaaand Kindergarten. I feel a bit like I'm stuck in the book Moira's Birthday Party by Robert Munsch. I've also switched schools numerous times during those nine years.

4.  When did you start blogging? I actually just started blogging about two weeks ago.

5.  Share a blogging tip / blogging resource? Find some linky parties or blog hops that interest you and join in. Also make sure you find time to comment on other people's blogs. I know I love to read when people have commented on mine.

Fabulous Find Friday

I'm linking up again with Elizabeth at Fun In Room 4B for a linky party called

I scored a few really good deals for school this week, along with something a little bit different. I will share my school items first. First off I got some plastic drawer units for my classroom at 50% off. I've been keeping my eye open for a sale on these, and I finally found it.

I think I will leave off the casters and place this along my back counter to hold math games/centres/manipulatives or something along those lines. I bought two, so I basically got one for free. They were $9.99 each at Canadian Tire.

Michael's had a buy two get one free sale, so I picked up a few items and applied my teacher's discount as well. I had a gift card from awhile back so my deals felt even better. No debit to my account or charge to my credit card.

My last find is not school related, but I stumbled across these while shopping online for my son's upcoming birthday. My son and husband have been obsessed with playing Minecraft lately, so I ordered this Lego set at Amazon.com.

Not exactly a great deal, but if you compare it to the price these are fetching on eBay, I guess its a pretty good deal. Anyways, while searching for this Lego set I ran across this website to create paper crafts. A.G. Papertoys. Basically you print off templates to fold, cut and paste little paper minecraft characters. Here's a picture off their website.

You should know that this is NOT a child friendly craft, the cutting and folding is extremely intricate. Definitely an adult or older child job. But they are just sooooo cute and Cameron LOVES playing with them. A great afternoon activity. Plus Cameron is happy to 'play' minecraft using his imagination and I'm happy to get him away from the xbox. Hooray! A quick picture of Cameron with some of his new paper minecraft toys.

He played with them all afternoon cooking up various scenarios, he's a very happy boy! Thanks for reading and Happy Friday!

What I'm Pinning Wednesday!

I can't believe it's been a week since my first link up to What I'm Pinning Wednesday!

I'm so excited that I've gained some followers since then, and I'm anxious to gain even more! Most of my pinterest searching has revolved around two new things I am introducing in my classroom this year. Daily Five and Whole Brain Teaching. So here are some things I discovered this past week.

These are some awesome word work task cards for Daily Five. You can grab them here from Mrs. Mabe. I love these cards, they are going to provide lots of engagement for my students.

Another word work task. I like how they are searching for more than just things that begin with a certain letter. You can grab this cute activity here from Michelle at Inspired from Kindergarten.

I actually had two pins for read to someone ideas link to the same awesome website this week. Actually if you look through my pin boards you'll probably see tons of pins leading to this site. This is actually the blog that first got me thinking about Daily Five and how I could use it in my classroom. Head on over to Mel at Seusstastic Classrooom Inspirations to be inspired and grab her amazing freebies.

I pinned this for the whole brain teaching classroom rules but when I visited the site I found so much more! An awesome blog with amazing freebies! Go visit Mrs. Heeren's Happenings right now, and checkout her Open House activities too while you are there. So many great ideas!

One last pin to wrap this up. I've been know to have quite a sarcastic sense of humour and this pin made me giggle out loud.

We all know this is true. Have a great day bloggers and thanks for reading and following:)

P.S. Don't forget to visit Amanda over at Teaching Maddeness. She's celebrating 500 followers with a $50 gift card to Amazon!!!