Relay For Life HELP!

Hello my wonderful blogland friends!!!

I am in need of some help.  I have been appointed the Relay for Life Captain for my school this year and am all kinds of excited...and nervous! I have been slacking on getting fundraisers going and am in need of some help.  Are there any fundraisers that your school does that are A-M-A-Z-I-N-G???  

I would LOVE any help you can give me!!!!!  

Who....ME?!

I'm just over the moon excited!  I have been super M-I-A for too long now.  I have just been SO incredibly busy.  I don't know what it is about this year but I just feel like I can NOT get caught up.  Sadly, I'm about to get dressed on this gorgeous Saturday morning to head up to the school for a 2-hour "power through!"  {I'm only allotting myself 2-hours so that I don't get 'ADD' and start doing projects that I'm not up there to do}. 

See! I can't even stay focused on what I'm blogging about today! ha!  

Ok, so I log on today to find I have won TWO awards!  This is SO flippin' exciting.  I love that people actually love my blog! :)  

My first award is from two awesome teachers.  Of course, I had to check out there blogs and am now avid followers.  You must check them out:

Anita:

and 

THANK YOU so much ladies for this sweet award!!!!  

The Rules:

1. Give the "I Heart Your Blog "Award to your favorite Top 10 Blogs that have touched your heart and inspired your teaching by listing them on your blog.

2. Contact that person and let them know of their heartfelt award.

3. When you receive the award, copy and paste the graphic onto your blog and give a shout out to the person who nominated you.

4. Spread the LOVE by passing the "Heart Your Blog" Award on to your Top 10.

Then, I received The Versatile Blogger Award!!!  Are you kidding me?!  I am BEYOND excited!

I received this award from another wonderful teacher, Ms. Payton!  You should totally check her out!

Now..according to the rules..I must share 7 things about myself so here we go:

1. I am in my fifth year of marriage to a wonderful man and no kids.  Enjoying the first five years of marriage with just us two has been the smartest decision! :)

2. The movie Doc Hollywood was filmed in my hometown.  One of the scenes was even filmed in my first grade teachers house!!!!

3. I recently just went on a cruise {my first} and will FOREVER take that route for all my future "girls trips!"

4. Breakfast is my favorite! So much I love and so many options! 

5. I just took over as "chair person" for our school's Relay For Life team and I'm so nervous that I'm just not going to get it together {any awesome fundraiser ideas?????}

6. I am all kinds of OBSESSED with pinterest!

7. I have become a better teacher because of Blogland.  I check my blog-roll daily in search of new inspirations.  Seriously, THIS is the best classroom! :)

WOW! Thank you again ladies for thinking of ME when giving out these awards AND thank you for all your amazing ideas that I "steal" from you on a daily basis! 

Off to school I go!

Reading on the Ceiling!

I love finding different ways to get my kiddos interested in practicing their sight words.  After attending a Kindergarten Conference two years ago I was inspired to put stars on the ceiling...and of course add some sight words to them! 

 Once starting the Daily Five and redoing my room to have more of a "homey" feel {adding more lamp light rather than florescent "school" lights} I made this fun little activity as part of our Word Study component.  I had the kiddos use a flashlight to shine on each star, reading and spelling these sight words.  Not only do the kids love getting to lay on the floor with flash lights in the middle of a school day, but they're learning too!!!!!

The most exciting part about this post is....as soon as I'm done typing this sentence I'm going to head to start packing for my 5-day cruise to the Bahamas with 19 other ladies to celebrate the engagement of a dear friend!!!!  I will be returning on Monday morning which leaves me 7 hours to get home, get some sleep, and prepare for Open House!!! :)  Have a wonderful weekend!

shocked and grateful

  

WOW! I could not be more shocked to receive this award. Thank you to Ms. Durbin for giving me this sweet award {the first EVER might I add}!!!!!  I created this blog as a way to "record" and keep track of all the awesome ideas that I have snagged from fellow teachers.  While I may not have NUMEROUS freebies or have items that I've created to sell on TPT, I'm excited that so many people find this little ol' blog resourceful!  Thanks for being a part of my 'blogland' journey!

Breaking the Seal

I have "broke the seal" and have my first cold of the year!  After celebrating my birthday on Tuesday I woke up Wednesday not feeling my best {not JUST to the tasty beverage I had the night before}.  Then, after getting a start to the school day I had not 1, not 2, but FOUR students drop like flies with strep throat! YIKES!  Now, I have some of those symptoms and am not excited about it.

The beginning of the year is always so busy. This year I just don't feel like I can catch up or get ahead.  I also feel like this year we have been handed so many assessments to complete in such a short time frame that I am unable to do ANY real teaching!  What happened to making instruction the most important part of school.  Does anyone else feel like the emphasis is being placed too much on assessing?!  I mean, here in my part of Florida, we have to give my sweet firsties Success Maker assessments (computer program) that is taking over an hour per child to get out of their initial placement assessment, FAIR testing, STAR (accelerated reader) assessments, and the many core curriculum assessment (sight words, numbers, letters, etc..).  When exactly do they expect me to teach?!  GGRRR....so frustrating!  

Okay. I feel better now that I've let it all out! Whew!  Hope you're off to a good start! :)