Liebster Blog Award

I have just bee awarded the Liebster Blog Award by my amazing cousin! She has a super cute blog. She is a first grade teacher so she talks about her kiddos but she also has a love for fashion so she blogs about fashion too.  You should definitely check out her blog Bridgette Nicole! 

Here is a little about the award taken from the blogger who gave me the award:

"The German word "Liebster" translates to English as "beloved" or "favorite", and this award is given to new, up and coming bloggers."

Here are the rule:

In order to accept the award: 

1. Link back to the person who gave it to you.

2. Post the award to your blog.

3. Give the award to at least 5 bloggers with less than 200 followers.

4. Leave a comment on the 5 blogs to let them know that they have been offered this award.

I am now happy to pass this award onto the following bloggers:

Learning With Susie Q

 Second Grade Sandcastle
Room for Seconds
A Teacher's Idea
Success in Second Grade

Thank you to these bloggers for their great ideas!

Tickets and Rewards

Along with my travel theme I decided that I would try using "tickets" as positive reinforcement next year.  When I see students exhibiting excellent behavior or working hard and making progress they will earn a ticket.  I will give each student a plastic bag to keep in their pencil box where they can keep their tickets.

Different amounts of tickets will buy different rewards!  None of them involve sugar and almost none of them will cost me a cent! (the best types of rewards)  I'm hoping that the kids will get really excited about some of these rewards and work hard to earn tickets and save them for rewards. 

Here are some of the rewards:

10 tickets

make up and do a secret handshake with the teacher

get an explorer dollar

50 tickets

get a white piece of paper to draw a picture on

be the line leader on the way to lunch

pick a new pencil

be the line leader on the way to specials

tell a joke or story to the class

line up the class for lunch

100 tickets

use a teacher chair for the day

draw a picture on the board that gets to stay up all day

be the line leader for the whole day

use a pen for the day

pick the music that the class listens to during handwriting

read a favorite book to the class during read aloud

150 tickets

sit at the teachers desk for the day

move your desk anywhere you want for the day

have lunch with the teacher

5 minutes extra recess

bring a stuffed animal and keep it at your desk with you for the day

We will see how it goes!

The Fly Swatter Game!

Today I was at Dollar Tree and I found these HUGE FLY SWATTERS!  I couldn't pass them up!  My students will LOVE using these to play the "fly swatter game".

The "fly swatter game" works great as a review for any topic.  Simply put answers to questions up on the board.  They can be words (sight words maybe), math problems, or numbers that are answers to math problems, even pictures for example pictures of coins or of things that have certain letter sounds.  Have two single file lines facing the board (each line is a team).  The first person in each line gets a fly swatter.  The teacher asks a question and whichever student can find the answer and swat it first gets a point for their team!  I have often used PowerPoint to create sides to put up to play the game with.  It is much easier than writing a bunch of things on the board.

I hope your Dollar Tree has huge fly swatters too!

Opps, I didn't turn in my homework!

Download a copy HERE!

A few weeks ago I saw a "No Homework Binder" on Pinterest.  I decided that I liked the idea but changed it a little bit to work better for my classroom.  We have a homework packet that the students are to turn into the "homework bin" by Friday. I will keep a stack of these slips next to the homework bin and on Friday either one of these slips or the homework packet will be in the homework bin.  I will then send the slips I receive home stapled to the "Week in Review" form pictured bellow.

Download a copy HERE!

Warm Fuzzy Jar

This is something that I am going to do in my class next year! I'm excited to see how it goes! One thing that is really important to me is having a positive classroom environment where students feel safe and loved.  I think this will contribute to such an environment.   

              Here is my Warm Fuzzy Jar! As I see students doing kind thing, serving, helping each other, encouraging each other etc. they will get a piece of paper and a pom pom (warm fuzzy) to put in our Warm Fuzzy Jar!  When the jar is full we will have a class party! The only stipulation is that everyone in the class has to have contributed a Warm Fuzzy in order for us to have the party!  I'm really excited to see how this will contribute to a positive classroom environment where my student will be excited to come and be able to learn to the best of their ability!

Download the sign for your own jar by clicking HERE!

Book about the teacher!

Last summer right before school started Walgreens had a special where you got a free photo book, all you had to do was pay for shipping.  I decided that I would make a book about me to share on the first day of school and then to put in our library.  Here it is:

The book was a hit!  I put pictures and wrote simple sentences about my family, my dog, my friends, the college I went to, and some of my hobbies.  All throughout the year I saw kids reading it.  They loved it so much that the binding started to come undone and pages were falling out.  I took it apart, laminated the pages and am putting it on a ring for next year (unless there is another free deal, then I might just order it again). 

Make a book about yourself to put in your classroom library, your kids will LOVE it!

Make your own class hundreds chart!

This is something that I did with my class at the beginning of the school year.  I plan on doing it again this year, I thought I would share.

First, I got out my huge hundreds chart! See THIS post for more on the hundreds chart. 

We talked about what it looked like and what it could be.  I asked them if it could be a hundreds chart and if it was a hundreds chart where would 1 be?  They helped me number it.  We wrote on it with a dry erase.  I had kids go and stand on different numbers so that we could notice patterns (e.g. if you add 10 you will end up directly below the number you started at.)  After we had explored the hundreds chart and numbers a little bit I gave each student some squares and assigned them numbers to write.  We then put them all together to make our very own hundreds chart that was up in our classroom all year!

Clipboard!

What teacher doesn't need a clipboard?! Fun summer craft.  All you need is a blank clipboard, some scrapbook paper and a little ModPodge. 

Hope everyone is enjoying summer!

The First Week of Summer

Last Friday I was still Miss Paul and I still had 22 darling kiddos who called me their teacher and who were very excited for summer break!  Last Friday night I went from being Miss Paul to just being Katrina Paul.  It has been a week of summer.  I love that I can do errands in the middle of the day on a week day!  I love that I don't have to go to bed at 10:00 or 11:00 so I can be up by 5:00 or 6:00.  I love that I have time to do things that I love!  But I can assure you that I also love being a teacher and that is why I have done things for school almost every day.  No, not because I have to.  Yes, because I LOVE what I do!  It is more than just a job, it has become a part of who I am and how I think and most days I am grateful for that. In this the first week of summer these are some of the things I have done:

Went to the temple
Read a book and am half way through another one (well,maybe more like a third of the way)
Made "done jars" for my classroom
Made "money dice" for my classroom
Made Emergency Sub Plans for next year
Moved everything from my old classroom to my new one (still have to get it all set up, but the process is started)
Reformatted my blog and wrote a few posts
Organized all my files
Went running
Got my plan book ready for next year
Got a gym membership, and used it (those are to very separate things)
Went grocery shopping and made meals
Went to institute
Wrote thank-you cards to my students who got me end of the year gifts and mailed them
Spent time on Pinterest
Tried a new recipe from Pinterest (Chicken Caesar Sandwiches = YUM!)
Slept in until about 9:00 most mornings
Rarely set an alarm
Layed out by the pool
Payed rent
Spent time hanging out with one of my best friends and ate snow cones!
Went to a movie (Snow White and the Huntsman)
Had a cold all week

I would say it has been a good first week.  Bring on week two!