My First "Grammy" and a Contractions FREEBIE~

My teammate and fellow blogger, Jennifer, over at Hello Mrs. Sykes has awarded me, Me, ME with my first award. No Kidding!  Not just any award! A Top 10 Award~



Wow!  I am speechless, honored, and SUPER EXCITED.  Blogging is new to me and I absolutely love it.

A component of receiving this award is to nominate 10 others.  Because I am so

 ch-cho-chok-choke-choked-

up tonight, I will list my top 10 on tomorrow's post.

In the meantime, admire my award and download this Contractions Freebie:-)




Contraction Freebie Download

 


Tootles~

Reading Tent and More Behavior Coupons....

A few weeks ago, I blogged about how I was getting rid of my class treasure box and switching over to behavior coupons.

Previous Post: Behavior Coupons

Mission Accomplished~

My kids actually love it better than I anticipated. Woo-Hoo!

Today I am sharing with you four additional coupons I created for my students.  Feel free to download the Google Docs below if you would like to use them with your classroom friends.

Board Game Coupon

Favorite Hat Coupon

PJ's Coupon

Tent Coupon



One of the coupons earned allows "my friends" to read in the Reading Tent during our Daily 5 Literacy Block.  My kids are eagerly earning 15 stickers in their sticker booklets to earn this privledge as well as the many others of choice.

I made this tent using a twin sheet.  Yes- a $2.49 - twin sized sheet I picked up at a local goodwill store.  It is SUPER EASY to make.  Believe me. My sewing skills are very limited and I was able to achieve success. The total project cost less than $8.

Want to make your own?  Click on over to Susan at Obsessively Stitching for a quick tutorial.  The great thing with this tent is that it is easily portable and folds nicely to be tucked in the corner behind your classroom door if more floor space is needed for classroom activities.

Toodles~

Disclaimer: This was my first attempt at linking an image to a google doc.  The images could be cleaned up around the edges more. The more I work with this technique the better I'll become:-) After three hours of Youtubing and googling how to do this, I think my mission is accomplished.

Lordy, Lordy Guess Who's Forty?~ 40 Acts of Kindness

Today is my birthday.


Four decades old.
The big 4-0.
 Lordy, Lordy I have reached 40
And truly consider it a blessing~

To commemorate this milestone, I decided with inspiration from these two great ladies- Becka and Robyn to do 40 Acts of Kindness. No need for a birthday cake or presents. No need for 40 roses or an Over the Hill mug. The gift of giving to others,for me, is far more rewarding.

http://weheartit.com/entry/322320

Beginning on February 1, my goal was to commit 40 acts of kindness by today- February 22.  Some acts were planned whereas many were random. Many opportunities just seemed to reveal themselves as I committed other kind acts, so I tried to take advantage of these moments.

1. Donation of 40 sharpened pencils to the Public Library (They never have enough.)



2. 40 Handmade Cards for Valentine's For Veterans (Sure hope they felt the love)

3. Gave The Hunger Games Trilogy to a complete stranger; however she promised she would Pay It Forward- Thanks Rebecca



4. 40 Books to a Pediatricians Office for the kids to read while waiting



5. 40 Brownies to a local Elementary School to celebrate Chocolate Day for the teaching staff (Great idea from the PTA)



6. Bag of brownies to Mr. D, our school AG teacher, because he missed Chocolate Day at his other school (He truly rocks)

7. 40 Books to a book drive at a local elementary school

8. Pushed 40 shopping carts in the Walmart Parking Lot to the "buggy" corral (the parking lot was a sea of abandoned carts)

9. 40 freshly baked cookies to our school Guidance Counselor for National Counselor's Week (Thanks for all you do Mrs. Bissette)

10.  Handmade fleece scarf for one of my "besties" (Tara is a true model of RAK)

11. 40 Freshly baked mini chocolate chip cookies for my son's Guidance Counselor for National Counselor's Week (Hats off to Ms. Wilcut)-sorry for the "fuzzy" photo

12. Donated 40 food items to the local food bank

13. Made an effort to allow a minimum of one car per day to pull out ahead of me  during rush commute to work

14.  Bought coffee for the SUV behind me at Starbucks

15. Donated 20 chicken sandwiches to a Woman's Transition home in Raleigh

16. Surprised my teammate with 100th day goodies for her kids (bookmarks, headbands, and stickers)(Carolyn has a heart bigger than Jupiter:-)

17. 40 Water bottles and packets to celebrate staff birthdays at my school

18. Baked 40 red velvet cupcakes for the staff on Valentine's Day (A great Pinterest idea.)

19. Make 40+  candy treats for the staff on Valentine's Day to let them know that they are "Out of this World"

20. Gave 10 cereal boxes to a class for a project in progress (I know the cereal box book reports will turn out FAB.)

21. Donated 40 items to Wake Relief

22. Cut out 40 coupons and placed them next to the product at one of the local Harris Teeter grocery stores (It was double coupon week at Harris Teeter)

23. 40 diapers to a new mom in the neighborhood

24. Cut out 40 inspirational Bible Verses and placed them on the public bulletin board at Lowe's Foods

25. Collected 40 Box Tops and donated them to a second grade class (That's $4.00 in Box Tops cash)

26. Donated 40 items to a local goodwill store who supports Alzheimer's Research (in honor of my Grandma who suffers from this terrible disease)

27. Donated $$$ to Relay for Life

28. Put $1.00 in the drink machine at Wal-mart

29. Put a quarter in the bubble gum machine at Food Lion

30. Donated flavored creamer to the school cafeteria  for those who buy coffee each day

31. Mowed the sidewalk stretch of grass for my neighbor

32. Bought two boxes of Girl Scout cookies from a Troop perched at Harris Teeter

33. Donated loose change to Operation Cookie Drop to send Girl Scout cookies to the troops

34. Donated money to  Easter Seals

35. Donated 40 plastic bags to the school plastic bag competition with Harris Teeter (totally glad to do this-Who doesn't have a trillion of these?)

36. Left a package Thanks a Lot Girl Scout cookies I purchased from the Troop outside Harris Teeter  for my mail carrier

37. Placed $1.00 worth of quarters in the bubble gum machines at Harris Teeter (Maybe the Girl Scouts selling cookies took advantage:-)

38. Gave 40 pieces of gum to my TA for her dad. He gives out gum to others at the Veteran's hospital.

39. Neatly stacked the dishes on our table at IHOP to help with the cleaning for the waiter

40. Sent $40.00 to two great people for their birthdays-Happy Birthday Mr. Dalmer (February 21) and Grandma Florence (February 23)

My challenge to you is to carry out an act of kindness and post it here~ 


My goal is to get 40 responses~


Can I depend on YOU????????????


http://www.flickr.com/



Behavior Coupons

My class treasure chest is a little...um...well somewhat OUTDATED and a bit cumbersome.  This plastic sterlite three drawer chest is full of donated fast food kids meal toys. 



Toys that have been donated by my classroom parents over the past few years. I can't help but guess  the parents donated the items because they didn't want their kids to have them due to having to pick up small pieces from the family mini van or to alleviate the possibility of them being stuck in body parts of younger brothers and sisters. To me it's beginning to look more like a "junk" chest than anything full of treasures.



  A few months ago while reading a few blogs, I noticed Mel D. over at Seusstastic had a great idea- Behavior Coupons. She gives credit to Sarah Cooley over at First Grader...At Last! These coupons are great for a few reasons: (1) The coupons are great for school related opportunities, and (2) the coupon storage takes up almost no space at all-Yay!

After 18 years of teaching, I am really ready to start paring down all the school related materials I have accumulated through the years.  Also, I teach at a year round school.  With the year round school comes the potential for tracking in an out of your room every nine weeks.  That means, I have to pack my stuff and MOVE-  UGH! Next year, this will affect my grade level. So I need to start NOW- only keeping items I really need. Because, really,  who wants to continuously pack up lots of "stuff?" Not ME! (My TA would agree as well.)

Hop on over to Mel D's Seusstastic Classroom Inspirations to download these great "FREEBIE" behavior coupons.

Currently, I am working on a notebook organizational system for these.  I also plan to make other coupons as well.  As soon as I have completed them, I will post a free download  just for you:-) 

Happy Day~