I'm about to ROCK this clubhouse!

My students were abnormally good Wednesday afternoon...

....for the most part....

....for the beginning of the year...

....for a Wednesday.  

So we indulged in a little Peanut Butter Jelly Time.  One of my guilty pleasures is surprise dance parties consisting of PBJ Time and/or The Cha-Cha Slide.  I just love watching 6 year olds lose their mind while they shake their tail-feather.  Plus they always beg me to dance with them.  It usually happens like this:

"Please Ms. Ehlinger, dance with us, we heard you're the best dancer in the school" they say.  

"You're the pride of the westside" they shout.  

"You're beautiful!"  I know what you're thinking, "that doesn't have anything to do with dancing," and you're right, but I just wanted you to know that they say it.  They also call me "Mom" and "Grandma" (it's happened and I'm proud of it) but we're not talking about that either so lets get back to the story.

"Ok" I begrudgingly concede and we all bust a move.

As the song was starting one of my students yelled out "I'm about to ROCK this clubhouse!"

It was that moment when you shout something crazy just as the whole room goes silent.

Crickets...

...more crickets.

Everyone just looked at him and I burst out laughing.

I couldn't help it.

Sometimes I'm the worst.

Luckily he started laughing too!  In fact, we all laughed.  Then we danced and rock it, he did!  He taught me how to 'role the dice' and I taught him how to 'walk like an Egyptian'.  I've still got the sweetest moves in the school though, don't let my kind nature fool you.

And we all lived happily ever after.

The End.

Not really though.  

If you just read all those shenanigans you deserve a reward!  

I've been trying to add a few more freebies to my TpT store and will be featuring them all over the next few weeks.  If you use the Houghton Mifflin reading series for first grade you may be familiar with Mac the Cat.  That little rascal should be making an appearance in the next few weeks so I wanted to share a worksheet I made last year as a supplemental activity.

Click here to get this worksheet for FREE!

Even if you don't use HM this is great practice for listing -at family words, handwriting, and creative writing.  Plus there's a cute little kitty to color!

Thanks for stopping by!

Jackpot...A Behavior Rewards System

Behavior rewards.

I feel like I've tried 'em all.

I used to do pennies and had a store that students could "purchase" junk from.

Pro's:  students learned the coins and trading up through a real experience which made money a lot less abstract.

Con's:  it was a lot of extra work for me because I had to help count and trade up one-on-one for practically half the year before they really "got it".

Last summer I found this pin on pinterest and it pinspired me (I'm out of control, channeling Steve Jobs right now, putting a "p" in front of everything, someone stop me!) to create a new behavior system.  I needed something that was easier for me to incorporate, still exciting, and got the parents involved.

I used the idea I got from that pin to create "lottery" tickets.  On each page there were 2 pencil cards, 2 candy cards, 1 before school computer time, and 1 treasure chest.

I printed 10 pages, laminated them (laminating is very important) and then cut out each card.

To make the scratch off paint I mixed 1 part dish soap with 2 parts silver acrylic paint then painted over the picture.  For example 1 TBSP dish soap, 2 TBSP silver acrylic paint.  Then let dry.

Students use a coin to scratch off the silver paint that reveals their reward!  You can repaint each card and put it back into the rotation!

HW showing off the new shades she picked out of the treasure box this past Friday!

Did I mention that lottery tickets also make me the best teacher in all of the America's?  From sea to shining sea there is no one greater than me...according to twenty 6 year olds at least :).

To earn a Lottery ticket each week a student must have A behavior (which means they stayed on green all week), their parents have to initial or sign their planner each week, and they must submit completed homework by Friday.

I like this system because it holds all parties accountable.  For a student to get green/A behavior they have to follow class and school rules as well do their work, participate in class and do their homework.  I have to plan engaging lessons to help keep them on track, as well as keep up with their planners and homework so they can get their behavior rewards.  Parents have to sign or initial the planner which means they are keeping up with their child's behavior/checking notes from me and helping their child get the homework done.

If my lottery tickets work for you feel free to grab a free copy from my TpT store!

Fishing Poles For Sale!

Caps!  

Caps for sale!

50 cents a cap!

I love that book : )  I especially like to change it to:

Kids!

Kids for sale!

50 cents a kid!

....you know, when my students are getting a little crazy.  They think it's hilarious.....they don't know I'm serious.

I didn't log in to tell you about Caps for Sale or even Kids for Sale.  I DID log in to tell you about: FISHING POLES FOR SALE! <- - - -That's in all caps because I just yelled it at the computer screen.

After all the glorious feedback I received about the magnetic fishing poles I made for my good buddy Cheryl over at Primary Graffitti, I've decided to try selling them on Etsy!  This past week I made 11 new sets.

Close up of the hand-painted designs

Each order comes with 2 hand-painted magnetic fishing poles for the low low low price of $7 + s&h!  At this time they are available in green, orange, and yellow.  For now they will be packaged with a ribbon (because I've got a lot of ribbon to run through)!  I hope you'll stop by and check out my new Etsy store!  Pick up some magnetic fishing poles and maybe a few new fishing games to go with it!

Procrastination

"Work without play is like peanut butter without jelly, boring." -Jase Robertson (Duck Dynasty)

I'm watching a Duck Dynasty marathon, pretending to do lesson plans while really checking out all the awesome tutorials on Teacher Blogging Basics, and watching it rain.  I still haven't done any lesson plans BUT I have created and added a banner to my TpT store, linked my blog to my TpT store, and added an automatic scroll up button (pinterest style) to my blog.  Check it out on the bottom right...just scroll down and give it a try.  

Go on....

...I'll wait.

Awesome isn't it!  

Go check out Lindsey's tutorials, they're so easy and helpful!

  

I've got some REALLY exciting news coming out on Tuesday, stay tuned!

On a totally random tangent I got stung on the bottom of my foot by a wasp (I think) this week on the jungle formerly known as our school playground.  Now un-affectionately known as the play-jungle.  

The protagonist in this tale has transformed from a bee to a killer wasp to an anaconda each time I retell the story.  By now, I'm sure it's a cross between an anaconda and a wasp...we'll just say it was a killer ninja ana-wasp.  Here's a picture of my students swimming through the dangerous play-jungle grasses...

Dangerous times in the school yard.

On another totally unrelated tangent, here is a picture I painted for one of my good friends.  She has a pig-obsession and is having a baby girl in November.  I figured this would be a great addition to little Gracie's room.  I hope she likes it!

I suppose it's time to get some lesson plans in.  Happy Sunday and stop by Tuesday for my big news!

Freebie Friday and First Friday Flash Sale

It's finally Freebie Friday!  Who doesn't love a good freebie!?

This Friday I'm re-featuring (lame, I know, but I'm about to make up for it, keep reading!) one of my favorite items which is perfect for this time of year!  Grab your copy of my Back to School Word building activity here!

If you love it as much as I do, you can pick up Word Building School Holidays from my TpT store!

Here's the best part of my Freebie Friday...I'm placing all items in my TpT store on sale today ONLY for $1.00 to celebrate the first Friday of my school year!  Go get your shop on, like now!

Therapeutic Thursday!

Where to begin?!  

Every teacher becomes a professional un-winder (is that a word?) and it doesn't ALWAYS take alcohol to loosen us up, but that never hurts...

Don't you like how my drink came with 2 miniature men in it?
They cleaned out my car after I finished my drink.

....never on school nights, of course, what kind of people do you think we are!

My favorite teacher therapy is probably vodka a nice spa pedicure (primary teachers hardly ever get to sit)!  I thought about posting a picture of my back to school pedicure (China Glaze: Flip Flop Fantasy) but posting pictures of feet is weird.  

Unless you post pictures of your feet.

Then, I guess it's not that weird.

Don't read into it.

I also love to hit the water with my Mom.  Yes, you read that right, I hang out with my Mom on the regular.  She's that awesome.  It's ok to be jealous...of our awesome kayaks!

Her backyard is kind of amazing, she has trouble getting rid of me!

You might not know this about me....I really don't put it out there...but I'm kind of into Pinterest.  Sometimes my new kitten likes to get her 'pin' on!

I think Meela was pointing out the adult beverage to the left.

This is my new kitten Meela, she's such a lady.  She also has really bad gas and steals food right off of your plate, while you're eating.  She's a keeper...

Finally, I'm a big reader, I enjoy reading before bed every night.  Right now I'm reading The Book Thief on my Kindle.  It's a Holocaust novel about an illiterate girl, told from the perspective of the Grimm Reaper.  I'm only about 23% into the book (that's Kindle-code for there are no page numbers on a Kindle).  It sounds like a downer and I may not have tried it if I'd known what it was about but it's one of the most beautifully written stories I've ever read.  I'll be reading more Markus Zusak books as soon as I get closer to 99% complete.  He's an amazing author.

I also just started reading Teach Like A Champion because my work BFF told me to.  I've only read 2 of the techniques...

...because I took Benadryl yesterday and slept for 11 hours,

...because I got attacked by an anaconda in the jungle formerly known as our playground.  It bit my foot, which immediately swelled up.  I had to take Benadryl.  Then I had to sleep for 11 hours.  So I couldn't learn anymore techniques.

By the way, what's a girl gotta do to get the grass mowed?

Out of the 2 techniques I've learned I really like "Right is right."  It basically says that you can't tell a kid they have the correct answer when they are only half right.  I know I have a tendency to say "right" as a praise for participation and then complete the rest of the answer for them.  An example from the book is something like this:

Teacher: Can you tell me what the definition for a noun is?
Student: A person, place or thing.
Teacher:  Right!  A noun is a person, place, thing or idea.

The student isn't right because they didn't get it 100% right.  We should hold out for 100% right so that students don't neglect pertinent information.

Good cues would be:

"That's great but there's another part, do you know what it is?"

"Can you develop that a bit further?"

"We're almost there, can you find that last piece?"

If you're looking for some good professional development reading you should check it out, because my work BFF told us to :).

So that's how I relax, how do you unwind?!

Where I Teach

I can't even begin to express how pleased I am with how the classroom turned out this year.  I recently decided to choose a color scheme/theme for inside of my classroom and keep the school theme outside only.  It just costs too much to completely transform a room every year!  Below are a few general pictures of my class set up.

I love having my desk smack in the middle of the room, nothing gets by me, at least that's what I like to think!

Top: Front of my room with the white board and class meeting area.
Bottom: Back of the room with the word wall, cubbies, and fridge.

Can you guess what our theme is this year?  This is the view outside of my classroom.  I finally got brave enough to hang a few things from the ceiling outside of my classroom!

I love that quote from Seuss, "It's fun to have fun but you have to know how!"  It's the perfect way to kick off that behavior expectations discussion.

Students added their names are on stars to the word wall.

Below you'll see my calendar...nothing exciting, I need to do something about that.  My schedule, and our 60 day countdown.  We are filling in one minute each day of the clock to count down the first 60 days of school.  

The clock corner is my newest addition to the classroom!  Thanks Ginger Snaps for the cute clock labels!

I found the pencil labels on Pinterest and traced them back to Ladybug Teacher Files.  There are my student files in the blue and green crates.  I painted those Dr. Seuss pictures a few years ago and last year I made the first grade frame that became so popular on Pinterest.  I pinned and made it almost a year ago and of course now the link is broken so I'm sorry I can't credit that brilliant teacher!  Finally, I made lots of pennants this summer and I think they are one of the reasons I'm so excited about my room this year!

The How We Go Home board was another Pinterest inspired find from Lesson Plan Diva.  I've also pictured the students library, birthday bucket, and some new shelving units I spent a couple hours putting together last week!

That's basically what I've got going on in my room this year!  I can't wait to see what everyone else's rooms look like!