So Many Things...So Little Time!

We can't believe it has been so long since we first posted.  Looking back, June seems like it was just yesterday; but now summer is gone, a transition has been made, and a different classroom is set up and ready for a new beginning. We have been busy behind the scenes preparing materials, learning new curriculum and navigating software.  As a result of the long hours spent doing what we love, we now have a beautifully "decorated" classroom and over 10 new products to share.  Since your time is valuable, we want to give you an overview of our new products and classroom reveal all in one. We will share more details about each of these in the coming days.

1. After 13 years teaching in Kindergarten, Susan has moved to 2nd grade.  Having taught (and LOVED) second grade many years ago, she knew this was a move she would like to make when the time was right.  This was definitely done in God's timing, because it worked out perfectly. Little did she realize that changing grade levels and starting up a blog/TpT store at the same time would make for a crazy summer.  There are a lot of products in the works as we collaborate to develop them around her new curriculum.  Below are a few pictures of her new classroom.

The beginning of a "The Crayon Box That Talked" bulletin board.  Self portraits of each student will go on the colored squares. More details will follow once all the activities are done.

The back wall of my classroom. This is our calendar/morning meeting area. I am excited about many of the higher level math skills that I am going to be able to cover during this time.

Love the Brag Tags idea.  We are working on many new tags ideas.

We wanted to track students AR (Accelerated Reader) in a way that puts them all on the same playing field regardless of their reading level.  Many charts track points.  A lower reader, who may never earn more than 2 points, would always be at the bottom of the chart.  Using percentages allows all students, regardless of their points goal, to make it "to the top".

Many hours were spent switching my classroom library from theme/author bins to AR levels. The new book basket labels are a big hit.

The theme for my classroom this year is from Philippians 2. Our goal and expectations come from this verse...to "shine like stars." We will talk more about this later. We love the way the classroom expectations turned out!

2.  One of the reasons we began this whole adventure was because of our need and desire for a new sight word program at our school. After listening to students stumble over basic words and reviewing many writing samples, we began to notice a breakdown in the consistency, frequency, and method in which sight words were being taught.  Our goal was to create a fun, motivational tool that could be used K-3rd grade to ensure proficiency with sight words.  Sight Words Super Heroes was born!

Sight Words Super Heroes

3.  In anticipation of the move from Kindergarten to 2nd grade, we wanted to create a reading comprehension tool that would make it easy to ensure students were being challenged with higher level questioning techniques.  "Put Your Thinking Caps On" came about as a result.  It is a simple tool that can be used anytime, anywhere and with any book.

 

 Put Your Thinking Caps On - Reading Comprehension Questions

We made both a cards and strips version. Check out both to see which would work best for you.

As we threatened promised, there is more information to come. We hope some of these items will help you get your year off to a great start and make sure it is one that is...

  

Here We Go...

Welcome to the site of two educators who are passionate about making an eternal impact on the lives of children while having lots of fun.  We are super excited you have joined us on this new journey with unexpected twists and turns.

Since blogs have shattered the teaching sphere, we have become totally absorbed in the daily searching through 100’s of teaching blogs for inspiring ideas.  

After some brain dribbling, we decided we could do this, so we took the BIG blog step and contacted Danielle at crayonboxlearning.com to design our sparkling, fantastic blog.

We absolutely love it.

She is super easy to work with and extremely patient - especially since she had two novices who knew absolutely nothing, and we mean nothing, about designing websites. We HIGHLY recommend her to anyone wanting a new blog or a makeover. Thank you bunches, Danielle.

Now back to the main attraction – the two middle-aged bloggers. Why would two educators with their cups running over with responsibilities taken on blogging? Well, if you must know --- it is because of YOU! We have been inspired by all of you fantastic and adorable ladies out there doing a stupendous job. We absolutely love perusing your blogs and staying up-to-date with the latest craze.

But seriously, we have 46 years of teaching and administration experience between the two of us, a lot more wrinkles and too many gray hairs to count. We are teaching junkies and sometimes can get obsessed with it.

We believe in giving (“sprinkling”) grace to those we encounter, just as our Heavenly Father offers it to us daily.

We love working together, collaborating with others, and making good things even better. We desire to share our passion for teaching and learning with you and maybe inspire you, like we have been inspired. Stay tuned to our blog because you do not want to miss the great products that will make the upcoming school year one that will be “Sprinkled with Grace”.

Blessings,