Five for Friday: Confessions of a Sleepy Teacher

Times is FLYING by and I am feeling so guilty about how much time is flying between my blog posts! I told myself that NO MATTER WHAT I was posting a Five for Friday post today, so my sleepy self is snuggled up with my kitty and pup and they're helping me stay awake long enough to write this post. (And long enough to still be awake when my hubby gets home from work!)

Last Saturday we went to Athens and our baby got to listen to his first UGA football game live! :) My pregnancy app last week said that his ears are developed enough now that he can hear loud sounds and might move around when it is loud! He didn't wiggle too much during the game, but I did feel a few big kicks during some loud cheering moments! Even though it was pretty hot, it will be so fun to show him pictures of his first game someday! 

                              

We started learning about seasons this week and my kiddos have LOVED working on their seasons books! These are FREE in my store, so if you are looking for a cute way for your kiddos to document their learning about the seasons, be sure to check them out! 

I love how creative they have gotten with their trees! Can you tell a have a Halloween-obsessed firstie on my hands?! :) 

Are you as ready for it to be fall as I am?! I can't wait for cool weather and candy corn and everything pumpkin flavored! My love for all things fall got me excited about working on some new Sight Word Sentence Strips! My kiddos have been loving reading these fun sight word sentences and I can't wait to introduce them to these new sets! If you love them, be sure to check out my growing bundle of sight word strips!

We have been working hard on counting to 100 this week and all of my little ones have loved working on some simple counting centers! We have had fun sorting and counting mini erasers, building towers with cubes,and counting pom-poms! I can't wait to see them continue to learn more about counting with some new fun centers next week--stay tuned! :) 

I can't believe how close I already am the the third trimester of my pregnancy! I am definitely a million times more exhausted at the end of every day, but I love this little boy growing inside me so much! I've finally had to give in and buy a few pairs of maternity pants (about time!) and I absolutely LOVED wearing this pair from Target for my 26 week picture! 

Have a fantastic weekend! 

Bloghoppin' Linky-Five Fun Facts!

I am so glad that Bloghoppin' is having a fun week of link-ups this week! I needed the motivation to jump back into blogging after a long few first weeks of school got me out of the routine of blogging! I can't wait to read everyone's fun facts! I hope you enjoy mine :) 

If you've been following along on my blog over the summer then you might already know this, but I am expecting a sweet baby boy this December! We had fun this weekend starting the process of turning my office into a nursery! My sister came to visit for the day and (after finding new places to put all of our office furniture) we got the walls painted! We are doing a nautical theme and I can't wait to decorate! This anchor from Hobby Lobby is my favorite of the decorations we've collected so far! :) 

I have a wild pup and crazy cat that both drive me insane half of the time, but I love them!! They provide us with plenty of laughs and sweet cuddles. 

I have a bit of an obsession with dinosaurs. I'm not sure exactly when it began, but I think it might have had to do with watching The Land Before TIme and Jurassic Park a million times when I was younger. When I was a freshman in college I had the opportunity to participate in the Disney College Program and was lucky enough to get a job in Dinoland, U.S.A. in Animal Kingdom! My love for dinos has now made it's way into my classroom as well (and obviously my blogging life!) 

 

I have been incredibly blessed to have many opportunities to travel the world. I fell in love with visiting Kenya after a mission trip in college and after a few more visits I decided to go on a longer trip after I graduated college. I lived in a small village for a few months and was able to teach for a while in a Kenyan preschool! There are so many little ones that I love with big pieces of my heart. My time in Kenya acts as a constant reminder to me  to remember how incredibly blessed and privileged I am and to be thankful for the comforts that I have! If you want to read more about my time in Kenya, you can visit my blog journal that I kept while I was there! 

I love first grade!!! This might be an obviously one, but it is such a huge part of my life! I fell in love with first grade during my student teaching and I am so glad I get to be a first grade teacher! I have had so much fun getting started blogging and on TPT and absolutely love creating new things for my kiddos. I have an inclusion group this year and we have been working really hard these first couple of weeks on drilling our sight words! It has been so fun to see how much they enjoy some of the resources that I created for them and it thrills my teacher heart to see the growth that they have already made! Today I received a note from a parent telling me that her son tells her every night how excited he is about sight words! Here are some of our favorite sight word centers/games :) 

Thanks for checking out my fun facts! Be sure to come back and visit later on in the week for more Bloghoppin' fun! :) 

Back to School Blues

Can I be honest with you for a minute?

This girl is EXHAUSTED!
Back to School has hit me so hard this year and I found myself sad because I miss sleeping in and working on TPT units and relaxing with my hubby and I'm ashamed to even say it, but I really really miss NETFLIX.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE having new little ones to teach and I love planning new lessons and learning about my class and there were plenty of things that I missed over the summer (GONOODLE!), but I found myself halfway through the week last week just sad and missing summer. It doesn't help that I was sick all week and too stubborn to go to the doctor. Finally on Thursday I was so miserable that I couldn't take it anymore. So I went to the doctor and found out I have a sinus infection and strep and I just thought "Awesome, welcome back to school!"

Yesterday I took the day off to recover and (of course) as I was sitting at home all I could think was "I wonder how my kiddos are doing." And I missed them! And then I realized that the reason I was sad wasn't really because we were back at school, it was because I was forgetting that I needed to find my balance for the year.

I was burning myself out fast, staying at school late every night and taking home even more to do and not sleeping enough or eating enough or relaxing with my husband enough. I admit that finding balance is something I have never been great at because I am, by nature, an OCD overachiever. So here is my question to all of you out there in the teacher blogging/TPT/teacher mommy real world--How do YOU conquer the back to school blues and find balance?!

Help a girl out?

Five for Friday: The Longest Week

Is it just me or do we all agree that there is no tired like the end of the first week of school tired?! Seriously! My eyes are for real struggling to stay open so I'm going to make this Five for Friday short and sweet :)

This week was our first week back with kiddos! We had pre-planning Monday and Tuesday and started on Wednesday! I loved getting my classroom all ready to go-dinos and chevron make my heart happy! 

I loved sporting my AWESOME blog shirt from A Plus Images during pre-planning!! I had so many people tell me how cute it was (even though most of them didn't even know it was my blog button!) If you haven't checked out A Plus Images, run over there immediately! They have so many incredible shirts for teachers! 

I LOVE my new focus wall!! I can't wait to have a place for my kiddos to reference our standards and essential questions, as well as a pretty display for when administrators walk through and like to see what we are working on! If you would like these posters, you can download them here (for free!)! I'd love to see pictures of how you display them in your classroom! :) 

I loved spending time with my grandma last weekend making some ADORABLE little reading buddy monsters!! Check out my post about them over here to learn how to make some for your own library! (Like the sign? It's free if you check out my post!)

I LOVED using my reading profiles with my kiddos this week and I was pleasantly surprised by how much they loved them too! One of my munchkins even said "Mrs. Browning, I think this is a FABULOUS idea!" 

Be sure to check out this awesome FREEBIE so that you can learn about your little readers, too!

 

Be sure to check out this blog post to learn more about the reading surveys!

Happy Friday everyone! :)