What I LOVE Wednesday!

I love the fact that we are getting an extra long weekend-LOVE LABOR DAY!  I am exhausted, but very excited about this school year.

Here is what is keeping my going right now

CHICK-FLI-A is a must around our house at least once a week! The chargrilled chicken sandwich is only 290 calories and super yummy! 

To remain sane in the craziness of the school day, I have a few tricks up my sleeve-

Clipboards are a must for me!  They help keep me organized-so many cute, one-of-a-kind clipboards on Etsy.

Music can change the mood in the classroom at anytime.  During the first few weeks when the water works are still flowing-because they miss mom/dad or just tired I can put on these songs and get everyone in a "happy place".

*Don't Worry Be Happy

*It's a Beautiful Day

*Celebration

*Walking on Sunshine

*Lean on Me

Got to love the power of music!

Last and MOST importantly-I LOVE my husband and all the support he gives me in my job.  He is always willing to cut stuff out and help me prepare things for school.  I have been blessed with a wonderful man who suffers from a nasty disease. We pray for a cure and support the Crohns and Colitis Foundation of America.

Peace and Love Blogger Friends!

Chicka Chicka Freebie

Happy Monday, Cuties!  First things first, let me wish our Darling Dolphin, Jennifer, a HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!  Today starts her first week with ALL of her kinders, and we wish her the best of luck!!!   
It's also Jennifer's hubby, Stephen's birthday too, so best wishes to him as well!!!  

In honor of Jennifer's birthday, here's some fun freebies!  As part of my Chicka Chicka Boom Boom unit with my little one, I made some color trees to match the color word to the color of palm tree.

Color Trees

I also made a bus template for a torn paper collage.  We used aluminum foil for the wheels.

Bus Collage

I also made some coconut tree clip cards for number recognition and counting.  Simply use clothespins or paper clips to identify the correct number.

Coconut Clip Cards

Have a marvelous Monday, friends!

Where It All Goes Down Wednesday

It's classroom picture day at Blog Hoppin'...woo hoo!  This may be a long night because I NEVER get tired of pouring over all the creative classrooms out there!


So, many of you have already seen pictures from my old froggy kinder-pond and Queen Bee, Heather's "bee"autiful kinder room, BUT today, I want to share a few pics from Darling Dolphin, Jennifer's new pirate kinder room!  I'm sure she'll go into detail with the pics soon, but here's a few bits of eye candy to last you until then..yo ho ho!  

front teaching wall

new crate seats {perfect for a little pirate's "booty"}

kids' tables (i love the little trash cans at each table}

Mrs. Huskey's kinders are asked to mark their lunch choice as either "grub from home" or "grub from school," and all lunch boxes go in the crate below.

Mrs. Huskey's new behavior system with a Pirate twist ~ she'll explain soon! :)

Classroom Jobs Board 

I'm off to stalk see all the other awesome classrooms linked up.  Oh, dear...I must get some sleep!  (I just have to keep saying that to myself)...ha!  

Teacher Talk Tuesday

Ok, so I have 10 more minutes of Tuesday, so I barely made it to this linky party! :)  Today's topic at Blog Hoppin' is first year teacher tips.  When I had Student Teachers or Practicum Students {fave one was Jennifer, our Darling Dolphin...*wink}, I always gave them a list of my personal teacher tips, so here goes...

(1)            Be very careful about your relationships with all the teachers in your grade, the office staff, the cafeteria staff, and the custodians.  Remember, you don’t know who is friends with whom and who will spread their opinions of you really fast.

(2)         When you first get into your new school, there will be a multitude of people offering their old stuff, ideas on the “right” way to do things, and trying to tell you what to do.  Don’t feel like you have to take everything they give you.  If you take too much stuff that you know you’re not going to use, you’ll just end up with clutter and things to collect dust.  When others offer advice that you don’t agree with, just politely say, ”Thanks, that gives me something to think about.”  That way, they think they have helped you, but you don’t feel obligated to do it.

(3)        On all school events like field trips, field days, etc., ask a trusted teacher what you need to know ahead of time.  There were so many times my kids and I were not prepared for something, simply because I wasn’t informed and I didn’t know to ask.  Don’t assume that someone will tell you everything you need to know.  New teachers are often overlooked when it comes to information everyone knows.

(4)             BE ORGANIZED!!! Be prepared for anything and have a place for everything. 

(5)        When you are setting up your room, think about where you are going to be using each thing and find a storage place for it near its location.  If you have to take time or even walk across the room to look for something, your kids will get off task and you’ll have to spend more time bringing them back in.

(6)        Go over and over and over the procedures with your kids the first week of school.  If they know right off the bat what they can’t do, it is much easier to have control of your classroom.

Meet the Teachers!

Hello, peeps!  We're joining Teacher Week 2011 at the new cool teacher place, Blog Hoppin'.  To read more about each of the FBU Girls, click HERE!  We hope you join the party too!

Theme Thursday!

It is my first week back to school and I am exhausted!  I am having so much fun getting to know my new kinders for this year!  We will be starting a color unit next week.  We have a color or colors of the day, and I ask parents to dress the kids in the color(s).  Here are some ideas I found to use with my color unit for next week!

The last day is a rainbow day! I love this idea from Share and Remember-

Ice Cube Painting

Each day we like to have a colorful snack that goes with our color(s) of the day

Cute Color Mixing Activity with shaving cream from No time for Flash Cards

There are so many things to do with colors! I am so excited for the colorful weeks ahead!

What I'm LOVING Wednesdays

Hiya friends!! I am so sorry I have been MIA lately...I am just completely stressing out! I have so enjoyed being completely ready come the first day of school but I think I have bitten off a little more than I can chew with the whole change of grade levels and change of classroom theme. AHH!! Don't get me wrong I am so excited about moving to Kindergarten, but I'm oh so nervous! Anyway...enough about that--here is what I'm loving today!

I'm loving that our (mine and the huster) birthday is just 2 weeks away! Mark your calendars friends...it's the 29th! 

I'm LOVING that Tennessee football is just around the corner...

I LOVE that I purchased this little friend for my classroom and named him Cupcake. This is what my VIP (Very Important Pirate) *Inspired by What the Teacher Wants* will be taking home with them on the weekends. I'm excited & he's so cute!

I couldn't tell you how many times I pull this out and use throughout the day. I also couldn't tell you how many times I BACK this up because I have lost VALUABLE documents in the past. Word to the wise....BACK IT UP!

Couldn't get through the day without one of these at the beginning of the year. 

Happy Wednesday my beautiful friends!! Blessings to those of your starting your new school year!

Blogiversary Giveaway Winner & My Home Preschool Room

WOW!!!  Thank you so much to all of you who sent us well wishes congratulating us on ONE YEAR of blogging & left us so many sweet comments!  We love sharing our teaching journey with all of you!  


So, the winner of my Back to School Unit and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Unit is...

Congratulations, Mrs. Richling, check your email for your prize!!!

Both the Darling Dolphin and Queen Bee are busy getting ready for their kindergarten kiddos to come into their classrooms this week. Yesterday was my very first day of "Flight Preschool" with my little one!  I have spent countless hours transforming my playroom into a make-shift school room and I am very pleased with the outcome!


I woke up, however, with a severe migraine on our first "school day," and Noah came bouncing in our bedroom bright and early yelling, "Mommy, I'm ready for school!"  It warmed my heart!  If only my heart could have cured my head! ;)


I braved my aching head & had so much fun (along with a few challenges...he's only 3 after all) teaching my sunshine!


I thought I would share the pictures of our school room with you.  ***Warning: you are about to be overloaded with pictures...sorry, but I just had so much to share!***


Our Sight Word Caterpillar: we will add a new word each week.  If you want a caterpillar for your very own, it's available HERE in our shop!

My new ABC & number posters look great on the wall!

I found these shapes and colors posters at Dollar Tree.

our Raising Rock Stars focus board

I made this F.L.Y (Filled with Learning for You) notebook for Noah.  I'm using it to hold all the pages from my units in sheet protectors.

Then, Noah can use dry-erase markers to write on the pages.  That way he can do them more than once and I can keep them at the end of our study.

I had to show you a pic of my cute lesson plan notebook...I hadn't made one of these in a long time!

On this shelf, I used my Dollar tree fabric boxes to store all of my manipulatives for each month.  I've been collecting things for a year!

I labelled each box with the month name.

Each week, Noah will have three Tot Trays with activities to do that match our theme (right now it is Back to School).  

I put up a short rain gutter bookshelf outside Noah's room for our seasonal and theme books.  He LOVES it!  :)

Our Morning Board is actually the door to Noah's Play/School Room.  We do weather and calendar here every morning.

I found this magnet board with a border of cork at Target & I love it.  I make a magnet board activity each week for Noah to enjoy!  This one is in my Back to School Unit.

Here's my desk.  It used to be my Assistan't desk in my classroom, but I have always loved it because the colors make me happy! :)  The chair was a flea market find, complete with feathers, glitter, and beads (oh my)!  

These stacked sliding trays are from Ikea and I'm using them to store the pages that need to be laminated or assembled.  On the top tray, I made folders for each day of the week.  I downloaded the cute labels from Lesson Plan SOS that I attached with clear contact paper.

This cabinet holds all of my craft supplies and teacher materials.  

The side door is made for cassette tapes (I know, I know, I'm old,  right?!?)  I found small plastic baskets at Dollar Tree that fit perfectly to store my collection of ribbon.  

My Cricut and Laminator live on top of the cabinet, along with a wooden organizer I found at Michaels about 2 years ago for 50% off.  

I'm keeping Noah's extra school supplies in the organizer right now.

Here's Noah's Raising Rock Stars Notebook, which I love because it also doubles as a Memory Book for his first year of preschool!

Whew, ok...I think that's all for now!  I wish all of you the best as you start the new school year, with a room full of bright-eyed little ones, ready to learn and excited about having YOU as their teacher!  Good luck, my sweet friends!  :)