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Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Such a Great Idea

Hello everyone! Last night, I was searching Pinterest and came across this wonderful blog!The name of the blog is...Just a Primary Girl. I was glancing through her blog and found this wonderful idea. It is a crate bench! So at 9:00 I ran to Walmart and grabbed 2 black crates, foam cushions, and purple fabric.
The materials!
When I got home I zip tied the crates together. Then, I had to wait until my Dad could cut a piece of plywood for me the next day. So today, once he got home from work, he cut my plywood for me! Then I was ready to start.

First, I glued the foam to the plywood so it wouldn't move. Then, I wrapped my fabric around the foam and plywood and stapled it to the plywood. I then stapled some rope to the plywood to tie it onto the crates. Once that was done, I tied it to the crates and voila I was done! (Sorry I don't have pictures of the process. I got to carried away with the crafting.)
All done...for the most part.

Tonight I am going to the Dollar Store to get some teal or purple colored bins to put inside to hold books or games.

On another note, I am getting super excited for our vacation. Steve an I are going to Washington, DC for a weekend. Today, I planned out the entire trip from the time we wake up to the time we go to bed. Some of the places we are going will be The Holocaust Museum, National Archives and the Smithsonian. I am super excited. I plan on bringing back some information to teach my kiddos in Social Studies!

Enjoy your night!

Sunday, July 28, 2013

New Car Blues

Well it has been a busy weekend, but to end it Jordyn is at the car shop. This morning we went to my Grandmother's birthday mass (She is 92!) and noticed a nice trail in the gravel where my car was. The past few days she has been leaking power steering fluid, and today it decided to really leak. So after mass we brought her home and off to the shop she went. So far it sounds like it is just a small problem and shouldn't be too hard to fix.

After we dropped her off and picked up my old car Steve (who is my boyfriend) and I went to my co-worker's daughter's baptism and Monseigneur's retirement party. It was a busy day but it was a lot of celebrating. I really like days like this, where we just celebrate life and have fun. Hope you all are enjoying your Sunday!

Saturday, July 27, 2013

A Little Creativity

Hello everyone! This week has been a very busy week for me. I bought my first car this week! She is a 2000 Cavalier. I was so excited to get her and it all happened so quick! It is definitely a big improvement from my old car that was literally falling apart!

Her name is Jordyn!


On another note, yesterday I was feeling very creative and decided to make some art work for my classroom to make it feel homier. Thanks to Pinterest I found melted crayon art, and some abstract art. For the first painting I put painter's tape on a canvas to make some different shapes. I then painted each section a different color. Once it was dry, I pulled the painter's tape off and it left a nice white border between all the colors. The next two I just glued crayons on a canvas and took a hair dryer to it. 

Here it is!

When I was making this I was thinking about maybe having an artist of the month or week in my classroom. Each student in my class would have a chance to be the artist of the month or week. I would give them a canvas to do a painting on at home and then for that month it would be displayed in our classroom library. I would take their picture and do a little write up about them and their art for the class newsletter.

I hope everyone enjoys their day and finds a little time for creativity.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Cool Ideas

Today I decided to post about some of the cool ideas I have come up with or come across the past few days. Last week I went to a Differentiating Math seminar where I learned so many things! I learned how to make an abacus with popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners, and pony beads. I made 15 of them the other day. It was a time consuming project, but the kids will find them handy. The point of my seminar was how to make Math class easier for struggling students. We saw many different manipulatives and strategies. We also used hundred boards, straws, base ten blocks, fraction strips, etc. I would suggest the seminar if you ever have the opportunity to do so.

Today, I went to my classroom and set my room up a bit. This year I have decided that teal, purple, silver, and black will be my colors. I bought a bunch of the same borders from Staples 2 weeks ago so it will look neat. Last year I bought little plastic drawers for each of my groups to hold any papers for the week, manipulatives, and art supplies. They didn't fit in with my colors last year because they were white. This year I decided to buy chalkboard spray paint so I could spray the outer frame black and be able to write group manes and jobs on it. For the drawers I decided to use silver, teal, and purple duct tape to jazz those up. I am excited to see the final product! (I will post pictures of everything this week.)

Last year I ran into problems with classroom management. I really struggled with this because as most teachers know you aren't really taught about classroom management. I tried an economy system, stop light, tickets, and behavior charts with no real luck. at the beginning of the year the students and I worked on what a responsible third grader was and made classroom rules. I was wondering if anyone had any other ideas.

I hope everyone is enjoying what is left of the summer!

Monday, July 22, 2013

Hello and welcome!

Hello and welcome to my blog! My name is Laura Whiteford. I am currently a third grade teacher at a small private school in Pennsylvania. This will be my second year teaching. I am so excited to start this year. I learned so much during my first year and I cannot wait to learn even more my second.

Ever since I can remember I have wanted to be a teacher. As a little child I would make my younger brothers play school with me. I was always the teacher, of course. Since then I have been on the fast track to becoming a teacher. I finally got my certification and B.S. in Psychology after 6 hard years, and I couldn't wait to get into a classroom of my own. Last year, I was so blessed to literally fall into a job opening with my current school.

My first year was a struggle at times, but it was by far the most rewarding. I learned so much about myself and my teaching style while having fun and learning with my students. I could not have asked for a better group of kids to start my teaching career with. We had so much fun learning!

Last year I tried starting a log to keep all my memories from the year, but in the end it didn't work as I planned. This year though, I plan on keeping up with it. I will post things going on in our classroom, fun finds or ideas, and things about my life. I hope you enjoy this blog and the adventure of a new teacher!