High-Low Linkie 8/23

Time for a weekly linkie with A First for Everything. Here it goes, here is my high and low for the week.

I saw my new classroom and got introduced to some of the amazing staff members and the principal at the school I will be working at. Also, I had a friend up to visit for the week, so get to share the experience with him. I am super excited to be starting at a new school and in a new community that I don't know as well as the ones I have working in previously. It's a new challenge and a fresh start.

I found out how extremely busy the next week is going to be with trainings, meetings, and getting my classroom setup for the next school year. Goodbye summer, you were wonderful.

My New Classroom before pictures

I went to see my classroom yesterday. The room is large. I definitely have a lot of work to do to set it up, but I love that it is a blank canvas at this point. 

The room is a portable, so I'm going to need to be really creative in my storage solutions.

Eventually I am also going to need to invest in some small table and shelves. That can wait until I have a few paychecks under my best though.

I'm excited to have my own space. Last year I was a long term substitute. I walked into a room that was cluttered and full of resources that were not needed. This year is a chance to pick and choose what goes into my classroom.

My goal is for everything in the room to have a purpose. Down to every piece of paper in the room being there for a reason.

Girl Scouts Elsa Badge

This week the girls in my troop worked on the Elsa badge for girl scouts. It was a great meeting. The girls were all really engaged in the activities and the parents are great.

The girls made frozen snowflakes by folding paper and cutting shapes into them to create unique snowflakes.

They then painted them with a mixture of dyed shaving cream and glitter which my co-leader provided.

The girls loved doing something crafty and it gave the girls a chance to get to know us better as leaders.

My contribution to the meeting was to bring my guitar and play music from Frozen for the girls. I didn't practice enough, but the girls didn't seem to mind. They thought it was cool that I still knew how to play guitar, as I told them that I had taken lessons when I was their age. 

We also played a game of hide the frozen object. The little girls loved this game, although they didn't get that you were supposed to walk away from the object after you hid it. It was so cute to see them play it. It's going to be a handful having 3 5 year olds in the troop this year, but it will be fun as well.

Several of the parents are going to go to the Frozen sing along that is happening in our community this Friday. It's a good feeling to know that we also are helping the families link up to events in the community, as well as events through Girl Scouts. 

Girl Scout I Love Horses badge

I Love Horses

I am a Girl Scout Leader. I did Girl Scouts as a kid, and now am a co-leader for a local troop. This summer we have been working on doing things with the kids that they have a lot of interest in. All of the girls love horses, so we did the I Love Horses patch.

When doing the patch the kids did a packet of information on horse. The packet is available on my TPT store. 

Horse Pack

Here are some sample pages from the information pack.

The girls had a great time learning about horses.

We also played a do as the leader does game, where one person makes a horse noise and the other people have to copy it. The game we played was like follow the leader, where the leader did one horse gait and the children copied it. 

The games were a great way for the girls to get to know each other. The activities got them talking about something that they all were interested in and had past experiences about. 

It was all in all a really good opportunity for the girls to get to know each other a little bit better.

August updates

The summer is flying by.

I just got a call from my new principal saying when I could go see my new classroom and to sign up for the before school training sessions. So excited to be beginning a new school year.

For me this will be a total change, as the school I am going to is in a community that is a very different demographic then the ones that I have taught in before. I live along the I-5 and near a military base, so am used to working with a population that has a high mobility rate. 

The school I will be working in is in a community that is 30 minutes from I-5. It is in an old logging town, but is more like a suburb or bedroom community now. 

It will definitely be a new adventure. I'll post pictures of my new classroom soon.

I've been working hard to get done with the current project I am working on for Teachers Pay Teachers, which is word work for Trophies Grade 2. I am also working on several fall products that I hope do well. I created a few holiday products last year, but no seasonal ones.

Children's book lists

When I need inspiration I look at lists like these of the best children's books. It helps me think of new books to create book studies on, as well as just reminds me of what I love about education.

I was always a book worm when I was in school. I didn't think of myself that way, but looking back, when other kids where socializing, I was reading. It was an escape that I needed badly back then.

As a teacher now I want to help students develop a love of reading. I hope I can inspire them to go places, at least through books right now, that they otherwise would not be able to go to.

Today I am planning to go to the library. I love libraries and all they do for a community. Maybe I'll pick up one of the books that are on one of these lists to share with my students.

Letter Sound Sorts

I just created some products on doing letter sound sorts. I'm really proud of them and hope that they stand out among the many other phonics products that are out there on Teachers Pay Teachers. 

Here they are:

Combination Word Sorts

Single letter sorts

I made sure to include lots of activities into each. Click on the link to check them out.

Here are some example worksheets from my combination word sorts.

And here is one of the cut and paste activities from the single letter sorts pack.

You can see these and other products I have created at http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/I-Heart-Curriculum