A Forced Vacation!

Our New Home!
I am forcing myself to go on "vacation" until August 8th! It is so hard don't you agree? Your mind is always racing as a teacher, planning new lessons, setting your room up for your new boys and girls, the list goes on and on and on...
We are closing on our new house and packing and having a garage sale and moving and unpacking and this list also goes on and on and on! We have been building this house since Feb. 12th and we've had a few speed bumps, but God has a plan & his plan was to get us all moved in right after summer school and right before school starts, so I'm very excited! :)
I will miss all your great blogs & I look forward to school starting and getting back into this wonderful Bloggy World as soon as possible!
Happy Summer Everyone, I'll See You August 8th!
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Great Site for Banners & Buttons!

Create your own banner at mybannermaker.com!
So I found a really cool site that I just had to share!!!
It makes banners and buttons for free! You can do all sorts of things with them!! You can download them, or just use the HTML code...it is so cool, I've played with it most of the evening! It will have a little ad on the bottom of the banner, but it is really cool all the things you can create!Create your own banner at mybannermaker.com!
BEST PART ~ IT IS FREE! :)
ENJOY!
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Classroom Library Linky Party!

The Sweet Life of 3rd Grade is a great new blog I am now following!
She is having a Classroom Library Linky Party & her pictures are ~*To*Die*For*~ it is so pretty & inviting! She also has some of the most amazing library book bin labels to download for FREE at this site! Head on over & give her a great, big, bloggy welcome!
The Sweet Life of 3rd Grade Classroom Library Show Off!
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Homonyms & Homophones ~ How Much Can a Bare Bear Bear?

This is a great book to introduce many different homonyms and homophones in a short amount of time. The book rhymes, is colorful & very high interest!! Our 3rd grade team got all of Brian P. Cleary's books from a grant this year and I ♥love, ♥love, ♥love them! Today we made our own book & here are three of my favorites!!
A trunk can be found in a trunk!
Coast all along the coast!
A whale can wail!
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My Treasure Box in Action!

Welcome to Smith*Mart ~ Thank You For Shopping!
More Expensive Items!
It's so easy to open the shop with the storage bins! Place them on the table & everything is already sorted!

The Less Expensive Items!
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Team Swat! New to Me Vocabulary Game!

Are You Ready For Some Swat?!?!
 
Tara from Fourth Grade Frolics saw my original post "Swat! Vocabulary Game" where we all have individual fly swatters & we swat the words on index cards on our desk.
She left a comment that they play Vocabulary Slap with two at a time going to the board! I LOVE it! So when I got a chance to get two free fly swatters at Wal*Mart with coupons {89 cents each then we had 2 $1 off coupons! Click here to see the details!}I "repurposed" two of my teen's hair ribbons she never wore & turned the fly swatters into the "Team Swat!" game at the board.
We play boys against girls & I project the vocabulary words onto the white board with my Elmo ~ it's not a Smart Board, but it is still fun & amazing to use!
Team Swat! Boys vs. Girls!
Then everyone writes the vocabulary words on index cards {or scrap} and we continue to play Swat! at their seat! They love it & they need, need, need exposure to vocabulary! I call out definitions, fill-in the blank sentences, opposites, ABC order, all sorts of things that gets their mind moving while their body is moving too!



The students love both versions & I do too! Enjoy!
I would just ♥love it if you would follow me!
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Kindness

When my hubby retired from the Navy last summer, they ask that the spouses attend the TAP class with them. TAP stands for Transition Assistance Program, which helps with the paperwork, resumes, insurance, etc. ~ everything needed for the transition to civilian life.
The very first guest speaker held up a gallon Ziploc bag of screws and he asked the room, "What is this?" Well you can only imagine all the smart-alecky answers he got from a room of men with 20 - 30 years Navy experience. When everyone quit laughing, he said, "This is a very bad morning for a single mom." You could have heard a pin drop.
He told everyone that the screws in the bag was his collection that he picks up off of the road while he is running. When he sees a screw in the road, he said he imagines the single mom driving to work, trying to get the two kids to day care & getting a flat tire from this one screw. She now has the problem of getting the tire off the car, the cost of a new tire and labor, keeping the kids safe by the side of the road & being late for her job, which probably is an hourly wage job which will dock her for being late. All he had to do was stop, bend down, pick it up and then continue on his run. It cost him 5 seconds of his day tops!
So today I looked down in the Walgreens parking lot & there it was, my first opportunity to pick up one, little, teeny, tiny screw. 5 seconds tops! I would like to think that someone got to work on time & without any problems because of me today! :)
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Treasure Box Items From Wal*Mart July 3rd

$5 ~ 12 Silly Band packages (25 cents each!) &
8 packs of playing cards (also 25 cents each!)
Our quick little trip to Wal*Mart for doggie food paid off, I love their clearance table!
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TPT Money in the Bank!!! Items Purchased For My Classroom!

So this time last summer I was praying to God to get me back into Clay County, the district I had grown up in and taught in before we moved to Texas....this summer, I'm giddy to be the team leader and teaching 3rd again!! As I teach Summer Reading Camp I have been staying late some each day and working on my room. We have to pack up each summer so the room can get a good cleaning, but at least everything will be organized! I'm so excited! ♫ ♪ Snoopy Happy Dance! ♪ ♫
My TeachersPayTeachers money dropped into my account Friday {like clockwork ~ love that company!} and I hit Wal*Mart. {Big thank you to all my buyers!}
I bought:
3 large storage containers to store all the great Treasure Box items!
$29 dollars of the least expensive material I could find so my hubby can make my five curtains & 2 shelf covers/curtains. {The Navy taught him to sew, I know, he's a Keeper!}
5 curtain rods
2 spring curtain rods for the shelves
2 packages of fish stickers & scraping items ~ not sure how I'll use them, but I feeling crafty after reading the other blogs!  :)
$75 zipped by real fast, stay tuned for whatelse I can find! :)
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TeachersPayTeachers $$Money$$ & Motivational Email!

I got this lovely little email on Friday ~

Dear TpT Sellers, Here is your cash money for your hard-earned sales :) ... {some other stuff} .... Top 10, who this past quarter earned the following amounts: $61,754.79 $23,628.53 $13,859.67 $13,191.60 $12,941.50 $8,079.59 $7,258.86 $6,755.50 $6,517.97 $6,225.86 I expect everyone's earnings to at least double next year, and many will far surpass that. On TpT, you get as much as you put in, just as in life! Sincerest regards and have a terrific Summer! Paul Edelman Founder, TpT

I ♥love Paul for founding this web site & I just plain ♥love TeachersPayTeachers! It finally makes me feel that teachers are worthy & what we do and what we make is important to others! These top sellers are my heroes, they get to teach and do what they love, but still make a quality product that helps their family have a little extra! I want to thank EVERYONE who thought my stuff was 'good enough' to invest in! Also, if you have never been, go check it out! It is FREE to join & there are tons of FREE DOWNLOADS! Click here if you would like to join under me, I get nothing unless you start to sell. Then I get a little bit of TPT's profit, not yours! Thanks! :)
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Swat! Vocabulary Game

I saw these fly swatters on someone's blog. They were on sale 3 in a bag for a $1 at the Dollar General. I loved them so much I asked the hubby to jump in the truck and come on a quick 'field trip' with me! I bought 7 bags for $7, then I bought the ribbon at Wal*Mart for under 6 bucks. The basket was old and kicking around in our garage, so we cleaned that up and added the left over ribbon ~ ta-da! I'm feeling kind of crafty now! :)
On Monday I had the students write their 8 vocabulary words on separate index cards, spread them around the top of the desk & let the games begin! They stood up & I called out each definition and they "swatted" each word. I also made up fill-in-the-blank sentences, opposites & "what comes first alphabetically?" etc. They loved it & it allowed them to get their wiggles out!
Please leave me a comment if it was your blog listing the sale, I want to give you credit because I ♥love, ♥love, ♥love this idea! Thanks!
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Voting Starts Today for Your Favorite Blog Contest!


Voting Starts Now Until July 7th!
So if you head on over there, I would love the support!  You have to select one in each of the three sections, K-3, 5-8 & Special. Then type your email and the vote button will work ~ 5 seconds tops!
Thanks,  ~Fern!
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My Classroom BEFORE Pictures

For 2010-2011 school year I job shared with a great teacher. She worked 60% of the time and I worked 40%. Most weeks I worked M & T and she worked W-F. My co-teacher is a consultant for a company and she travels the US teaching teachers about Guided Reading and other Reading related things, so that was why we job shared. It was the first time EVER my principal allowed it & after our amazing FCAT results, it proved that it worked! :) But we are both going to be full time this year. Last year our portable was broken into and destroyed over Christmas break, so after that we both really focused on the FCAT than redecorating. This was the portable on the last week of school, so these are my "BEFORE" pictures. I'm very excited about being in 3rd grade and can't wait to decorate the room with a "Gator Beach" theme.

View From Front Door

View From Back Door

Front of Room Viewed From the Back Door

"Teacher Area"

View of Back of Room From the Front Door

Library ~ Yea, You Can Say It ~ PITIFUL!

Reading Table 
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Student Made Classroom Calendar

Student Made Classroom Calendar
This was one of the best ideas I've used in a long, long time! The students made the calendar and then each day the helper fills out the weather card and we work on descriptive language to describe the weather. As you can tell from the picture we've had a lot of smoke in NE Florida! :) For the school year I will definitely use markers for the name of the days and the actual dates so it can be seen better from a distance. This calendar has really helped me remain patient with one little darlin' who asks me 3 or 4 times a day "How many days left in Summer School?" Normally this would drive me insane, but now I look at him, I smile and I say, "You made the calendar, go count the days." Here are my before pictures with more detailed directions!

I would just ♥love it if 
you would follow me!
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