Tell All Tuesday! My Summer Snapshot

I had so much fun last week linking up for Tell all Tuesday and I'm excited to link up again this week to share my favorite summer spot! 

I love summertime sunshine! My favorite thing to do in the summer is curl up on a chair/towel/float/ANYTHING with a good book and soak up the sun. If you put me by a pool or by a lake or on a beach, I'm a happy girl! 

My grandparents have a boat and I used to live on the lake in the summertime. Now that I live a little farther away, I don't get quite as much lake time, but the hubby and I did get a chance to meet up with my family for an evening cruise last night! Don't you just love a good sunset?! 

Luckily, Kris's grandparents have a pool, so I still have a place to soak up the sun and splash around. This last weekend Kris gave our pup her first swimming lesson. She hated it, but it gave us a good laugh!  

What do you love to do in the summer? Link up to share!

Five for Friday! (And all my answers about Tell All Tuesday!)

Hey everyone! This has been a busy week of link-ups for me and I'm excited to finish it off with my Five for Friday post!

First things first, I know you are all DYING to know which one of my facts was a lie in my Tell All Tuesday post! 

**DRUMROLL PLEASE**

If you guessed that fact #2 was my lie, you were right! While I do love my fur babies, my little sister is the one who always thought about being a veterinarian, not me! If you missed out on reading my post, check it out here!

The most exciting part of my week by far was finally sharing some really really exciting news with the world!! My husband and I are expecting our first little one this December and we finally shared our news through some incredible pictures that my sweet sister took for us!

I enjoyed reading and blogging about the first chapter of The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller. It is an excellent book so far and I can't wait to dig into it even deeper! If you have the book and are joining along on the link up, be sure to check out my thoughts of chapter 1 here. 

I will wholeheartedly admit that I am a full on Netflix addict. I am loving having so much uninterrupted day time to binge on all of the series that have been patiently waiting for me on my list. Right now my current obsession is SCANDAL. And when I say obsession, what I mean is 2 full seasons watched since Tuesday and I'm digging into the 3rd. LOVEEEEE IT! 

I had a blast going to a painting party with my mom, grandma, and sister! The OCD part of me would have liked to have probably 7 hours to perfect every inch of my painting, but sadly I had to do what I could with the 2 hour class restraint. I still think my little painting turned out pretty nice though! (Plus is was fun!) 

Thanks for stopping by to read about my week! 

The Book Whisperer: Chapter One

I have had my nose stuck in a good book my whole life. I can't imagine ever not loving to read. Even now when I am busier than I have ever been, I still loving curling up with a good story and digging in! When I can't pick up a book, I'm often listening to one on Audible.
I. LOVE. BOOKS!!

Donalyn Miller's The Book Whisperer has been on my radar for a little while, so when I saw the opportunity to join in on a book study/weekly blog linky, I was super excited!

I could tell just from the the first chapter that it is going to be hard for me to pace myself through this book! So much of what is written speaks straight to my soul.
In the introduction of the book, Donalyn Miller states that "Anyone who calls herself or himself a reader can tell you that it starts with encountering great books, heartfelt recommendations, and a community of readers who share this passion." (pg. 4) I wholeheartedly agree with her 100% on this. I loved getting started digging into her journey to create that passion for reading in her students.

While I know that my journey to create first grade bookworms is different than hers to create sixth grade book lovers, the foundation starts with that same concept.
A love for reading comes from reading good books- finding stories that speak to you or move you or make you laugh. Stories that you can relate or stories that teach you how to better relate to people that are completely different than you. One of our jobs as teachers, and it's a BIG job, is to find ways for our students to LOVE reading.

I loved reading about Miller's journey to figure out how to create that love for reading. So much of what she wrote rings true for each of us, no matter what grade we teach. There is always a learning curve when we try something new with our students, and I loved reading through the first steps of that in Miller's classroom.

She writes "Reading is both a cognitive and an emotional journey. I discovered that it was my job as a teacher to equip the travelers, teach them how to read a map, and show them what to do when they get lost, but ultimately, the journey is theirs alone." (pg. 16)
We guide our students in the little snippet of time that we get to call them "ours." As she says, we teach them how to read the map. We are the ones who help them get started. I want to make it my passion and my goal, more than ever, to encourage a love for reading that starts so early and goes so deep that my students only just begin that journey with me!

I could go on and on forever and I hope that you will continue following along as I link up each week for another chapter, but I want to end with one more quote that I loved from this first chapter:

"These days, I share with my students what no literacy expert could ever teach me. Reading changes your life. Reading unlocks worlds unknown or forgotten, taking travelers around the world and through time. Reading helps you escape the confines of school and pursue your own education. Through characters-the saints and sinners, real or imagined-reading shows you how to be a better human being." (pg. 18)

I want to share that with my students every day. I want to share it with them enough that it becomes a part of their soul. My hope is that through this book study I can continue to learn how to instill a deep love for reading in the hearts of each of my little learners.

Link up with Literacy and Lattes!

Jumping into the summer blog scene!

Hey everyone! These past few weeks have been so crazy and I am excited to jump back into blogging for the summer. I'm excited to link up with Diana from My Day in K and Jayme from Teach, Talk, Inspire for Tell All Tuesday!

I'm so excited for this week's theme Two Truths and a Lie! Have fun reading all about me and be sure to guess which one you think is my lie! I'll be back later this week to let you know! :)

If you didn't already know just from stopping by my blog, I am dinosaur OBSESSED! What I'm sure you DON'T know is that my dinosaur obsession was exemplified when I worked in Dinoland at Animal Kingdom during my Disney College Program internship! Living and breathing dinos for six months just made my love for dinos that much deeper, not to mention how much fun it was to intern at the happiest place on earth! 

Before I decided to be a teacher, I thought I was going to be a veterinarian. I always had cats and dogs growing up and I thought it would be so great to work with animals all the time! When one of our cats got really old and we had to put her down, I realized that I would never be able to handle the emotions of having to watch people say goodbye to their pets! I still get plenty of animal love from my two sweet fur babies, though!

I love love love traveling! I am blessed to have been all around the world on mission trips and actually taught in a preschool in Kenya for a few months before I got married and settled into my first grade home in the USA! I used to dream of adopting kids from every continent and having my own TLC show about my huge intercontinental family! Big dreams, but I just love kids everywhere! If only adoption laws would allow for that! 

So that's me! I can't wait to hear from you about which one you think is my lie! Tune back in later this week to find out! Link up and join in on the fun! Happy hopping :) 

Blow painting and STEM and Mother's Day-Oh My!

WOW! What a crazy busy week it has been in First Grade! I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for five for Friday because there are so many amazing things that I want to share with you about our week!!

Last week we started working on writing our very last narrative writing of the year! I knew I wanted to do something really engaging so that my kiddos would write really good stories! When I saw this idea I just HAD to try it! I quickly through together some stories I had about times that different characters were scared and after reading we brainstormed things that scare us! I am really proud of my kids for writing some really awesome stories to go with their really awesome pictures! I plan on writing a long, detailed post about this project as soon as possible, so stay tuned! 

 

This week has been packed full of so many STEM activities for me! I am a part of the STEM committee at my school and we have been working hard to come up with some cool project ideas for next year. I started an aquaponics project with my kiddos earlier in the week and then got to visit another school to learn about an exciting hydroponics project! I am pumped up about STEM right now and have so many fun project ideas! I can't wait to create some fun projects to share with all of you :)

We have been getting ready for Mother's Day with lots and lots of crafts! We loved doing other Mother's Day direct drawing by First Grade Blue Skies earlier in the week and then we added to our Mother's Day Books with a few other ideas too! I was so happy to find this writing pack to go with our pictures! 

We had a preview day this week where each grade got to move up to their new grade for an hour and see what it is like! I had a blast doing some Mo Willems activities with the group of future firsties that I had visit my room! We read pigeon stories and then got to draw the pigeon! I wanted them to get a taste of directed drawings since we do so many in my class! 

      

Today we went on the most exciting field trip of all time!!! Today was our county-wide STEM day and when I was trying to come up with a good idea for our kids, my brilliant husband reminded me that one of the high schools in our county is a STEM highlight school and they have a lot of cool things going on. After thanking him for his smart brain I quickly got on the phone with my principal and asked if please pretty please could first grade go visit the high school for a STEM field trip?! Needless to say, she loved the idea and after a few short e-mails we had the day planned! In my head I was thinking we would go, tour the school, see their program and greenhouses and they kids would see a bigger scale of what we do at our school. I was absolutely BLOWN AWAY by how much more this field trip would mean to me and my kids. The high school STEM staff and students planned an entire day packed full of fun science activities for our kids. They paired up one-on-one with our students and helped them plant flowers in recycled water bottles, make paper rockets to shoot with straws, and make tornadoes in bottles. My kids left the field trip with three priceless souvenirs and a newfound passion and excitement about science and IT.WAS.AWESOME!!! I could honestly write pages and pages about how great our day was, but for your sake I will just let the pictures show you! 

      

             

I hope that your week has been a great one! Thanks for stopping by! :) 

Liebster Award!

WOW! I am beyond excited and thankful to Kirstin from Hip Horray in K AND Jessica from A Passion Driven Teacher for nominating me for the Liebster Award! I have only been blogging for such a short time and was seriously thinking the other day "Is anyone really reading this?!" So it was incredibly encouraging to receive two nominations in one week! 

The Liebster Award is passed from one beginning blogger to another in order to get to know each other better and spread the love. It provides a path to discover new and upcoming blogs as well as make connections with other bloggers! I would love to continue the tradition and nominate a few blogs as well, check those out at the end of my post! 

1.            Why and how long ago did you start blogging?

 I used to blog all the time over on Tumblr and then life got crazy and it got away from me. When I got a new teaching job this year and started getting involved on TpT, I knew I wanted to start up a new blog! I've only been here at Stomping Through First for a little over a month, but I love it and can't wait to keep growing! 

2.         What one word sums up the heart of your blog and why?

Creativity. I am always on the lookout for creative ways to teach my kiddos and I love collecting those ideas and using them with my class! I am always trying to come up with ways to make each lesson exciting and my kids love adding their own creative flair to everything we do! 

3.         Is there something you learned late in your blogging journey you wished you knew before?

I completely agree with Kirstin on this one! I would LOVE to learn how to make blogging friends and get to take blogging to a personal level! I see meet-ups and blogging friends and would be so excited to be a part of that! 

4.         What is your favorite pastime other than blogging?

Hanging out with my husband and our fur babies! I love curling up on the couch for a movie or binge watching Netflix :) 

5.         How many hours a week do you dedicate to your blog/TPT?

I am still working on finding a good balance between school work/TPT/blogging/spending time with my husband. I always have a million ideas of posts I could write and products I want to create and I am hoping to spend time this summer really scheduling out my time better so that I can dedicate enough time to everything! :)

6.         What category of blog posts do you enjoy most?

I truly enjoy reading anything and everything. From cooking to life to teaching to organizing to craftivities to new classroom technology- I'm a blog junkie and I will gladly admit it!

7.          Where does your blog inspiration come from?

I can't say that there is one specific place that my inspiration comes from. I am inspired by every teacher who is passionate about their students and who loves sharing their ideas with others!

8.         Which post that you’ve written are you most proud of?

I am so new to blogging that every post is still a huge accomplishment that I am proud of!

9.         Is there a post you have been planning to do but have been postponing it for a while now?

My kiddos have been working on a really awesome writing project that I can't wait to share!! We finally finished up our project today so be on the lookout for that post later on this week-I promise you won't want to miss it!

10.     What is your favorite aspect of blogging?

I love having an outlet to share my ideas! It is nice to have a place where I can share my excitement with others who feel the same way that I do about teaching- and I can't wait to make some blogging friends! ;)

11.         Which idea from a blog would you like to try yourself?

Right now I am getting ready to work on some Mother's Day crafts with my kids! We are starting off with some directed drawings from First Grade Blue Skies! :) 

I would love to nominate the following teacher-bloggers for Liebster Awards:
Brogan from Brogan's Bits
Chris from Famous in First
Miss Giraffe from Miss Giraffe's Class
Jessica from Pride and Primary 
Diana from My Day in K