My Friday Freebie

I've decided that I actually have something ready to share for the Teacher Week at Blog Hoppin', however, after spending part of my evening on this, I have no idea how to link up.  Instead, I'll offer  my second freebie on my little blog.  I'll have to do some reading to see if I can learn how to participate in a link.

I recently have worked on a new Home Reading Log.  I have the students and/or their parents (depending on their age) record how many minutes they read at home.  This year I'm adding a place for the total of minutes that the parents read to the students.  I want the first grade parents to see how important it is to read to their child.  This freebie includes a second Reading Log which the students track only their reading.  Click on the words Reading Log  here or below the picture to download these reading logs.

Reading Logs

Final Week of Summer Vacation

I've returned from my short trip to the Seattle, Washington area.  I was visiting my cousin and her family who live about 40 minutes from Seattle.  We took a ferry ride to Seattle and spent some time at Pike Street Market.  It was one of the hottest days all year and very hard to be walking around town!  It was fun, though.  I hadn't been that way in several years.  We drove through the city my grandparents lived and saw the house.  This is where my mom grew up and I spent many years visiting twice a year.  We also went to a Barnum & Bailey circus.  That was fun!  I haven't been to a circus in many, many years.  It was a fun-filled 3 days.

 

I'm at my dad's house in Portland for a few days.  I'm getting together with a friend to make the teacher's toolbox.  I'm looking forward to that.  On Thursday, Dad and I are going to the beach just for the day.  I always love going to the beach and it will be a good way to end my summer vacation.

I can't print anything until I get home which is driving me nuts, but I am working on many projects.  Last night I worked on my welcome door.  I'm not much of a theme girl because I like too many different things and don't want to spend money on all new things every year, but I am going to use some cupcakes in my decorations.  I used some clipart to make cupcakes with the students names on them.  Here is a sample:

I put in some sample names to see how it would look.  I don't know who is in my class or how 

many students are in my class.  My first official day at work is next Tuesday.  I'm just not ready to return, so I may not go back until then.  I might possibly go in for one day on the weekend.  I'm not sure yet.  I may use Pete the Cat in some decorating since my class last year just loved him and I'll be reading his books and doing a variety of activities with them beginning on the second week of school.  I'll be working on that soon plus using activities that I have bought on TpT.

I'm off to Michael's!  I need some colored cardstock and some scrapbooking paper since I didn't bring it with me.  I should have a picture of my toolbox once it's done!

What's Happening?

     I'm sorry it has taken me so long to write again.  I just haven't had anything school related to write about or any pictures to show.

     First of all, I finally got over the strep throat.  That was such an awful experience especially during the summer.  It sounds like it is going around this summer!  I'm sure the stress from my last school year didn't help.  I'm thankful that I went to the doctor and got some good medicine.  I'm back home now in Salem.

     I looked at the calendar and couldn't believe how little time I have left of this summer.  Yikes!  I have to be at school in on the 28th.  Time is sure flying by!  I had thought of going in a week early to get the classroom ready, but now I don't think that I'll be doing that.  I'm trying to squeeze some things in (see friends that I haven't seen in awhile)  and have quite a bit of cleaning at home yet to do.  I'm leaving for a few days beginning tomorrow night to spend with my cousin in Washington.  We may spend some time in Seattle.  I haven't been there in quite a few years.  Amazing since I used to be there every year when my grandmother lived there.

     I've been busy creating things for my classroom.  Once they're done, maybe I'll have another freebie.  Here is a sample of one of them:

I think I even learned how to make a screenshot today.  Wow!  It is hard to teach yourself how to do things.  I'm thankful that I can find some tutorials on Ladybugs Teacher Files.  I've even spent some time working on lesson plans for the first three days.  It would be nice to get those done now.  Usually, I spend so much time on the classroom that I just don't have the time to do more than one day of plans.  I'm thankful for blogger teachers like Erica Bohrer and others who have shared their lesson plans.  Last year was my first year in first grade, and I know I really wasn't sure what to do on those first few days.  I need to place an order for some books with Amazon soon.  

     The weather here has turned HOT!  Most of the summer has been nice and comfortable - in the 70's and low 80's, however, the last couple of weeks we have been having some 90 degree weather.  Even one day hit over 100.  I don't like weather like that especially since I live in an upstairs apartment.  I'm thankful for my ceiling fan and my regular fan.  The trip to Washington state will be nice since it's usually a little cooler there.  It's supposed to be 100 for the next two days.

     Did you all have fun shopping at the TpT sale?  I waited until near the end to purchase since I found I had put too much in my shopping cart.  I had to limit it.  I did find some good things.  This evening I went off to Office Max to get some printer ink.  I had a $60 reward from using my Teacher Reward card, which was nice since I had a some other things I wanted.  I haven't bought any ink all summer, but it's now time to print things so that I can get things ready for the school year.  Tomorrow I'll go out and find some white card stock.  The card stock at Office Max didn't look like it was a clean white.

     Well, I'm off to do some house cleaning since the house is slowly cooling down.  In the morning I'm going to a card making gathering using Close to My Heart stamps and scrapbook papers.  I'm looking forward to that.