Long time..no see/hear...

Well, a lot has happened since I posted last. I had a baby girl in April of last year, changed grade levels, and encountered some of life's largest trials. All the while, I know my God is greater than any trial I have/will face. We serve an awesome God!!!!

Princess Marlee Elaine Frix-Born April 5, 2017

My classroom posts will begin soon. I have moved to 5th grade and will be teaching ELA. I am super excited and can't wait to share with you some of my awesome co-workers and their ideas. 

Hang tight and let's enjoy SUMMER!!!

Merry, Merry Christmas-Math and Literacy Center

We have finally made it (almost) to December y'all!!! I have thoroughly enjoyed my Thanksgiving week long break. I know be jealous! LOL! I have been busy working on Christmas related math and literacy centers for my classroom. Go check them out. They are on sale now until Saturday. You can't beat 5 math and 5 literacy centers for less than 5 bucks! Here is a look at what all you might find in this holiday beauty!!! 

 Check it out here.

Happy Thanksgiving! I have much to be thankful for this year. Very thankful for a job I love and for the opportunity to create items that might help other teachers. What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving season?

Much love and many blessings,

Elaine

Whole Brain Teaching Presentation and More....

To say I have been busy is an understatement. It has been just a little CRAZY! I was asked to do a presentation on the way that I use Whole Brain Teaching within my classroom for a recent PD day that our school had. I happily obliged and enlisted some help from my one of my best teaching friends. I don't like to present alone. I'm a scaredy cat. LOL! We have similar teaching traits and philosophies. It makes it very easy to present together when your ideas coincide. We were overwhelmed by the turnout from our faculty. What a blessing! Thank you to each one who came!!!

The presentation took place in my classroom so that everyone could see how the super improver wall, scoreboard, etc. were set up and actually worked.

My friend, Jayme, who teaches first grade presenting about "Class, Yes" and "Hands, Eyes". Truly blessed to work with her!!! Although, we don't teach the same grade, we talk often. :) LOVE her!!

I will blog later about how I use WBT within in my classroom and will show slides from the PowerPoint we used. :)

Of course, I had to have my pic made with my sweet Gabbygirl before heading to present that day! Love that sweet doggie. And of course I had to have new shoes to wear for the day. LOL! Bought these cuties at Belk. You can find them here. Top and kimono came from my boutique. 

You can find it here. 

In other news, October is special to our family. My Nana died at 47 with breast cancer and my Mom is a previvor of 2 years. Many don't realize what a previvor is. 

Previvors are survivors of a predisposition to cancer.

Previvors are individuals whom have a history of breast cancer in their family and/or have tested positive for the BRCA  gene. My mom had a double mastectomy two years ago this past summer. What a journey she has had through reconstruction and throughout the entire mastectomy process.   Mom, along with other breast cancer survivors, were honored at a recent Breast Cancer Awareness Pep Rally at our middle school. It was absolutely phenomenal. Proud moment!!!!

Each survivor had their name hanging from the ceiling as you entered the school with how many years listed that they had been cancer free!!

Lee, Mom and I after the pep rally.

Thank you to all who helped with this pep rally and who came to honor

 the survivors. #thinkpink #hmslionsthinkpink

Keep moving and trudging along! We have almost made it to Thanksgiving folks! 

Can you believe it????

WE CAN DO THIS!!! 

Of course, I have to throw in a ROLL TIDE!!! #sabannation #rollwiththetide

Much love and many blessings,

Elaine

Crankenstein and Stellaluna

WOW is all I can say! We have been busily working on our October Rooted in Reading units from Step into Second Grade and Queen of the First Grade Jungle. I have to say that I love teaching reading this way. I am super in love with the fact that I am not tied down to a particular reading series story that I can pull these stories and use them and the students are so much more interested in these stories versus the basal stories. They love the different books so far.

We started with Crankenstein. I do have to do a little more and add a little more to challenge my students since they are geared toward second grade and I teach 3rd grade. However, this has not been a huge problem. I have tried to mainly change the grammar skill. The comprehension and the vocabulary stay the same.

I am very impressed with how my students writing has improved since I starting teaching with Rooted in Reading.

Coming this week...... Spiders story and more. Have a great rest of the week!
Blessings,
Elaine

Horrible Harry Unit

We have officially completed our first chapter book study. I have never done this before. However, I got the idea from Amy Lemons at Step into Second Grade. I thought since this was a week off our normal basal reading program, it would be a great week to introduce something like this. We have freedom on what we use as far as the basal, but as a grade level we like to try to do the same thing. I took the skills that we covered throughout the entire first unit of the reading series and applied it to my Horrible Harry unit. I really tried to model how to read with expression, make connections/predictions, and establish the author's purpose for writing stories/passages.  I think it turned out quite well for the first one. I will definitely be doing this again and eventually might go to this style of teaching reading versus the basal program. We shall see.....

My sweet librarian assisted me in locating 21 copies of the same book.  She is awesome!

I completed a directed drawing after we completed reading the book that was found on Amy's blog as well. We completed a sequencing writing below our drawing. I did several directed drawings last year with my kinders. I purchased the directed drawing unit from First Grade Blue Skies. Check it out here. My students love these. I love that they are all unique. I love doing craftivities that have meaning and a purpose.

 We will be starting a new October reading unit this upcoming week. I am excited about it. I will keep you updated. I love all the fun craftivities and things you can do with Halloween and fall. I purchased this unit from Amy Lemons and Katie King. You can find it here.

I will be presenting a workshop for my fellow co-workers on Whole Brain teaching and how I use it in my classroom. I will share with you some of my tips and tricks soon.

Until next time.........Happy Fall!!!!!!!

First Few Weeks FUN!

It amazes me that we have already been in school a month. To say that my class is simply amazing is an understatement. They are precious. We have done some really cool projects so far. However, there is no tired teacher like a back to school tired teacher. Can I get an amen? Exhausted in every way possible. Feet ache because you have stood all day long in shoes that are SO not comfortable. Bladder is exhausted from not being able to use the restroom all day long. Welcome back large blue circles under my eyes from staying up late grading papers, putting grades into the computer, and planning for the next week. I think I forget every year how tired I am at the beginning of school year. I can really tell that I am OLD!!!

We have gotten so much accomplished though in such a short amount of time. We have talked about rules, procedures, gotten to know each other and also worked on working together. We started the year off with a couple of Pinterest type inspired activities. We made these webs telling about ourselves.

Students had to create a collage based on magazine clippings of things that they liked. 

We also made a pencil glyph by the good ole Glyph Girls from Alabama. They have some of the most unique and cute glyphs for all age levels. I used some of them in K last year as well. They are truly talented.

Here is a peak at our weather unit we are working on.

More to come later as we are trying to get through homecoming week!!! Hope everyone is having a good week.

Classroom REVEAL 2015

Drum roll please...............................Please stand and give a round of applause for all the people that helped this classroom come together (mom, dad, Lee, and all the yard sale people I met along the way).

Take a look at my home away from home......

Here is what it looked like prior to the painting, moving, etc.
The yellow wall and dark purple wall were painted. I painted the yellow wall a coral color and the dark purple wall I just lightened up with a lighter color purple.

This is a look from my classroom door. 

My desk area is really messy. Please excuse the mess. 

Behind my desk you will find this cute little area. I love how the hula hoop tied with ribbon turned out. I keep all my teacher resources on the tall green bookshelf. 

Calendar board and Busy Birds Board that was repurposed. I bought this from my hairdresser. I know a little weird right??? However, she and I love to repurpose things and she had this and well let's just say I begged/bartered for it. Don't you love friends who enjoy the same things you do??

I really wanted to set up a cozy reading area. I still would like to purchase a few more pillows, but I think it turned out pretty cute. My mom had the old deacons bench that I just painted and added the polka dots to. I also made the cute pillow to match. The bench had been in storage from when I previously taught third grade. The rocking chair was the one I had in my K room, I just spray painted it. :) Curtains on the shelf came from a thrift store we like to frequent. The curtains were actually shower curtains that I cut up to make them fit my counters in my classroom. I think I got a set of two shower curtains for $1.98!! SCORE!!! Needless to say, I took the serger to them and wahla you have curtains. Simple and functional. Excuse the pooch in the picture, she likes to go to school. She should be a very smart dog as much as she has gone to school this summer. 

This is the bulletin board behind my small group table. I divided the board into two sections and made two focus walls. 

The Dream print came from my sweet friend, Kristi, who gave it to me last year after reading on my blog that I wanted to add it to my classroom decor. Thank you my sweet BFF.

Reading Focus Wall

Blue and red pocket charts came from Target in the dollar section. The reading text evidence posters came from a free download off Pinterest (not sure where). I made the prove it letters by watching a Periscope that Ashley from Schroeder Shenanigans did. The reading and math banners were made from burlap pennants bought from Hobby Lobby. I painted them and then added the letters 

from Wal-Mart.

This is the math side of the board. I bought this from Amy Lemons at Step into Second Grade. I plan on letting my students make each person when we talk about the math function. 

The small group reading table is probably one of my favorite areas in the room. My dad made the crate seats for me. I love the way he added casters to the bottom of each. These are great because they have storage and they roll. I added the tablecloth type fabric found at Hobby Lobby to the top. It is slick and can be wiped off easily.

Word Wall-I got the letters from Erica Bohrer's TPT store several years ago. I think I have used them in every classroom I have been in within the last 5 years. I got the idea of adding the students names from Amy Lemon-Step Into Second Grade. She did a Periscope on making locker tags. I don't have lockers in my classroom so I just made them as an addition to my word wall.

This is my center shelf. I house all my centers on this shelf (Math and Word Work).

These are my Daily 5 book bins. These are actually ice bins from Dollar General. They were like $1 each. 

I got this AR idea from Step Into Second Grade-Amy Lemons. She used these AR point trackers posters. I just added 12x12 scrapbook paper to the back.

This idea came from Pinterest. I saw where someone had a VIP table. I thought how cool would it be to have a VIP desk for girl/boy. So I created a camouflage boy desk and a polka dot girl desk. The tables were old ones I had in my garage. Mom and I covered each table in fabric and made a table skirt. The boy table skirt is made from burlap. The girl table skirt has just plain broadcloth. Then we added embellishments to the top. So far the students have loved it and it has really been an incentive for positive behavior.

This is the back of my classroom door. The Did You Know facts came from Third Grade Thoughts. You can find them HERE. The pockets are for their AR cards.

This is my computer area. We are very blessed in my school system with technology. I have 2 laptops and one desktop student computer.

This beauty was created by my sweet mom. This filing cabinet was like old, I mean really old. I wanted to do something with it. Mom suggested we cover it with this super cute contact paper. I think she did a fabulous job. I purchased the contact paper from Amazon.

Super Improver Wall -Whole Brain Teaching....I am a firm believer and lover of Whole Brain teaching. It truly WORKS!!!!

This is where my students will file their graded work. They will take these folders home once a week with all their graded papers tucked away nice and neat inside.

I downloaded these birthday balloon tags from a free download on Pinterest. I attached them to straws.


And there you have it. I hope you have a fabulous week. I can't wait to share some of the activities we completed on the first week of school!
Blessings,
Elaine