The sun is setting...

Well it's that time of year...

I figured I started with a garden bulliten board, it's only right to end with one. 

The sun is finally setting on this exsausting, long, exciting, and memory filled year, but more about that later. It was quick and easy to make. Just a little bit of paint, 25 first grade hands and a stapler. ¡Viola! 

Bathroom Bugs

I am not a fan of bathroom passes...mainly because they get lost and torn and brought back soaking wet. My new system is the bathroom bug. The kiddos just slip them on their desk when they leave. That way I can see who is not there and automatically know they are in the bathroom!

Friendly Letter Anchor

I have been trying to boost my creativity in the anchor chart category. The students and I have started diving into letter writing this week. To help the remember the parts we came up with body parts to help us remember! From there we created an anchor chart to hang up for a friendly reminder. What do you think?

Snowmen

My first graders are dynamite in creativity. This week we decided to talk about snowmen and how other states have snow! Arizona kinda lacks in the snow department. The students were able to discover that cool colors remind them of being cold...so that is where we started!

After layering cool colors in the background the students created their snowmen. It was very neat to see the colors blend together!

While those were drying, we created descriptions of our snowmen. I let the students write whatever they felt like. I was amazed at how descriptively some of them wrote!

Easy peasy...glue the paper down and viola!

100th day activities

We did two different activities for our 100th day! The first was "100 years from now" writing prompt. The kids were so creative! They thought of how they would look and what they would be doing.

Our second activity was taking the number 100 and transforming it into a different picture. The kids needed some help on this one, but overall they did a fantastic job being creative once again!

Home Made Play Dough

My kiddos don't come from much. When I heard they don't have any kidtastic play dough I knew I had to make some! Here is all you need:
2 cups warm water
2 cups flour
2tbspn oil
1 cup salt
1tbspn cream of tartar (by spices)
Food coloring

Steps:
1. Place all ingredients in a pot on low heat
2. Mix till mash potato like
3. Cool down
4. Add color!

As my kids would say...easy peasy lemon squeezy!

**note: if sticky looking just cook longer! I promise it will turn out!

Teacher gifts

Tis the season of crafts and gifts at school! I couldn't quite figure out what to get my ladies. Here is my final product!

What teacher doesn't love supplies?! Cute little organizing bin, some grading pens, personalized post-it's and (of course) chocolate and voila! Teacher gifting made easy. I think I spent a total of $30 on 4 people!

New Adventure

It has been quite a month of new adventures for me. As I said before, I have officially been offered a 1st grade teaching position! Not only is this a huge adventure in itself, but I am all the way from Chicago! I have never move out of this wonderful state. So now I am moving, thankfully with my long term boyfriend, to Tucson. We are so excited. This month of transition is going to be a tough one, but I am beyond happy. 

That is why I decided to start a blog. Not only to vent about my beginning transitions as a new teacher and Arizonian, but to learn ideas from others and share what I am learning. Please flood me with advice or ideas because I have no idea where to start! 

This will be a huge year of 1st's for me. 1st classroom, 1st big move, 1st big job, 1st apartment with a the boyfriend, and of course 1st grade!