i can't believe it's been a month since i've posted. and oh what a crazy month. it is all true what they say about a teacher's first year teaching and that it's the hardest. there is so much thrown at you so quickly, that trying to juggle it all and teach is where it becomes hard.

oh, but am i absolutely loving it! yes, every minute, well, maybe not every minute. ive been going to quite a bit of training which is wonderful! my class is super. they are all very unique and endearing in their own special ways!!

im hoping to start a classroom blog soon. i'll link it here when it gets started!

this past weekend we went to vermont for our annual fall vacation! omgosh ive never seen the trees look so gorgeous! it was a wonderful weekend, im sad it's over!

dad got me the most amazing camera as a first day of school present. it is so cool and the best part, it's tiny. i can take it everywhere...and i have. ive already gotten tons of pics of my kids @ school.


ps: do i look tired...well, i was! first day of school!!

erica took some pics of the kittens, omgosh they are amazing! the yawning ones are so cute! we have the most beautiful kitties in the whole world!

wow, i cant believe its been two weeks since ive posted. these weeks have really flown by. so many things have happened.
colin had his first game. he did really well considering he was sick with a temp. he'll do better tomorrow at the next game, now he knows what to expect.

i found this idea on the internet. the teacher said to use pompom as positive incentive and call them warm fuzzies. i thought it would be cuter to put google eyes on them. so here is my jar of warm fuzzies for my students.

i made these pencils for my students for the first day. im going to have one on each of their desks with their bell work, desk folder and name tag. im going to sharpen them so they can get right to work and not have to worry about sharpening their pencils.

this is our fourth year taking colin to the great nys fair. i love it!! we had a wonderful time. we went to the horticulture bldg. for the first time with him. it was so nice, they have 2 atriums that are just lovely with flowers and plants. we had maple icecream and maple cotton candy. then we watched the nys police repel from a tower. colin said, "just like daddy." then we sat near the fountain and had some gianelli sausage (yum) and watch the twin magicians perform.

colin was super at his first soccer practice. he is such a good listener, he listened to everything that coach jim told him. he looked so cute all in green with his black shin guards. we are so proud of him!

my classroom is almost completely ready. mom has helped me so much!! i could never have finished with out her! i still have to put titles on my bulletin boards but other than that, it looks ready. i bought some calendar toppers today and three math books with reproducibles for bell work. i have to fill in the bell work for september until the reading program gets underway, at that point the bell work will be aligned with the reading program. im also making bookmarks for each student with a window that they can use when reading so they do not loose their place. i still have to lesson plan for social studies. The district gave me an account with united streaming, i love it!! i’ve already found science, math and ela videos to use in the classroom!!

wow, i cant belive its been so long since ive posted. two weekends ago we took colin to niagara falls. it was awesome, we took the train. he loved it! colin had never been on the train before. it was so much fun. we spent most of sunday in niagara falls, i bought colin a hat that said niagara falls on it. he loved seeing the mist from the falls and the boat full of people at the bottom.

my little sweeties are 3 months and 3 days old today. i can't believe how big they have gotten. they are both so snuggly and loveable. gretel is still the more adventuresome of the two and hansel is more cautious.

gretel <3

hansel <3

my state fair entries are all ready!! finally! mom and i are going to drop them off @ the fair tomorrow. im so happy they are done and that this year i am able to enter two double page layouts. i might win two ribbons...so cool! of course im hoping for a blue ribbon but i would be happy with any ribbon...after all i loved the pink 4th place from last year!! <3

i finished a few more things this week. bathroom passes. my room does not have a bathroom so the children will have to go down the hall to use the bathroom. this will be a brand new experience for them.
reading groups for the agenda board. i did seven different ones. i don't expect to have that many reading groups but i thought i'd give the students the chance to choose their own reading groups and i wanted to have enough variey for them.

i created an agenda board for my chalkboard. this way the children can see how their day will play out. i'll write the time that each activity will happen next to it. after these are laminated, i'll be glueing a magnet to the backs. my chalk board is magnetic.

i've been working alot lately getting ready for school in september. i have alot of ideas that i want to implement in the fall and it's so hard to organize them. i've been trying to put them in one notebook and slowly get them ready. like this lunch/attendance chart. my host teacher at franklin elementary used something similar to this for attendance. she had a smiley face on the top and a frowny face on the bottome. the kids came in first thing and put their clothes pin on the smiley side. all the absent kids were then put on the frown side. this is how she took attendance. i'm going to use it for lunch count (buyers or bringers) and that will also take care of attendance.

oh i got a package last week. i love it!!

here are a couple of pages for the mini album i made about the kitties.

i found this on myspace...too funny! i loved dr. who in hs!!

hansel and gretel were a bundle of energy yesterday. colin and i played with them most of the morning and they were so funny. running, jumping and rolling all over each other. finally when it was time to put them in their little bed, they were sleepy.

last night was our first slumber party with catherine. she was so good!! we had such a wonderful time. after dinner auntie erica gave her a little bath. she had a super fun time playing in the tub. next we played for a long while with some toys. then erica read her and before we knew it she was asleep. catherine slept until 7:52am this morning, i thought that was pretty good!! can't wait til the next catherine slumber party!

tonight is a colin slumber party!! its been a day of playing with the kitties! he is so gentle with them and such a good listener!! im so proud of what a sweet kind boy he is!!

the sweet kitties came home...

last night i had them in lucey's little house to snuggle and sleep in. this morning it was turned upside down and gretel was sitting on top of it. so, tonight erica had the idea to put them in the bread basket. we took the bread basket liner out and put a folded sheet into the basket. they loved it, curled right up and went to sleep!! little dollies!!

we had such a wonderful weekend. slumber party was super of course!! we went to the liverpool village animal hospital (my vet) on saturday and colin helped me pick out 2new babies...here they are!
hansel

and gretel

colin chose the names...

we will get to pick them up hopefully this week sometime.

Yesterday was my last day with my second graders. i was sad to say good bye but im so excited about the falltime!!
here are the treats that i made for them.

wow, i can't believe how this week has flown by!! we had our last scienc review, then our last science test and a final math year-end assessment. the kids did quite well considering it's the last full week of school.
today we had the baby shower for mrs. madigan. she was so surprised. the kids worked so hard on the album. each page looked so wonderful and little baby girl madigan made an appearance on every page.
i have a bunch of fun activities for the kids on monday. i've still got to get their treats put together!!

hailey was one of our honey bears in 2000/2001. she is graduating from 5th grade next tuesday. she has become quite a beautiful and sweet young lady.

what an exciting week it was!
it started off quite hot, blazing actually. the class room had to be close to 110. luckily dad gave me two fans and that helped a little!
i went in early on tues and wed to do some dra testing. this tests the childs comprehension in reading. over the summer i'll be taking some dibbles training. dibbles tests for fluency.


on thursday we went to granby elementary in fulton for an old fashioned field days. it was so much fun and the weather was gorgeous!! the kids had a blast!
on friday we had our elden field days. it was alot of fun but it was 2 hours in the sun and 90 degree heat. lucky for me dad gave me his golf umbrella to use and it helped so much. i did get a sunburn though...

omgosh, yesterday was miserable! the morning was ok, steamy but not as bad as the afternoon! The kids were miserable. They all had headaches and stomach aches. I kept
the door open the whole day, the lights off and the fan on. I let them fill
their water bottles as much as they wanted to. We did the math test in the
afternoon and then we basically just read. They read silently and then I did
a read aloud. Mr. Cardamone came in and said not to try and teach but to
just let them lay on the rug.

They are predicting 93 for Monday... :(

I'm hired!! Hooray!! Im the new 2nd grade teacher at Elden!!

at school ive been planing on having chris talk to my kids via the skype. the internet has been so sketchy this week, it would'nt work. the kids were a little disapointed but i had a back up plan and i explained to them how far away chris was. they understood and maybe we'll talk to him another time.

i had talked and videoed chris answering the kid's questions on wednesday night. thank goodness i did. so yesterday they were able to hear and see him answering their questions.