I'm Thankful {and NOT thankful} for...

Happy Thanksgiving ya'll! Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because of all of the yummy food, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and spending time with family! Thanksgiving is a time to think about what you are thankful for, so what better time to jump into a couple of Linky Parties?! I'm linking up in time for the one over at Oh' Boy 4th Grade and using the questions from What the Teacher Wants.

1. What are you thankful for in your classroom?
I never got a classroom this school year, but landed a maternity leave as a library media assistant {which just ended}. I'm thankful for the wonderful opportunity I had at a brand new school and county! I love the people at the school I was at, and made true friends! I also discovered awesome books for my classroom that I will be putting on my Christmas list! :)

2. What person are you most thankful for?
I have so many people to be thankful for this year! I'm thankful for my wonderful family that has been there for me no matter what! I'm also thankful for my BESTEST friend Sarah that listens to my crazy rambling and super long voice mails!

3. What 3 blogs are you most thankful for?
I'm thankful for blogging and ya'll in general! I love Amy Lemon's blog at Step Into Second Grade with Mrs. Lemons. I love the creative ideas she has and how she is so generous with her work!
I also like The Teacher Wife, Lindsey always has awesome ideas!
Finally, I love Hope King's blog over at 2nd Grade Shenanigans. I wish I could just go spend the day in some of ya'lls classrooms!

4. What guilty pleasure are you most thankful for?
Pinterest, Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, reality tv, and my cowgirl boots :)

5. What are you most thankful for?
Wow! There are so many things to be thankful for this year. The tornadoes of April 27 changed my life forever. My family and home were not affected, but I knew so many that were. I had friends that lost everything, hospitalized, or worse. So I guess you could say that this year I thought more about the things I'm thankful for! :) I'm thankful for my health, my family and friends. I'm thankful for the wonderful life and plans that God has for me!

Now let's talk about the things that I am NOT thankful for. I'm linking up with First Grade Blue Skies for this one!
1. Rude people--ya know like people that cut you off on the interstate or pushy people!
2. Roaches, spiders, and just bugs in general!
3. Whining
4. Zits
5. Bad Weather

Let's Take A Virtual Field Trip to Plimouth Plantation!

Hey ya'll!  I can't believe that this week is Thanksgiving!  Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, and I'm so excited it's almost here!  For those of you that will work on Monday and Tuesday here are a few websites you might be able to use in your lesson plans about Thanksgiving.
Last week in the library our students went on a virtual field trip to see Plimouth and learn about the Wampanoag and Pilgrims.  Click here to go to Scholastic's website for the Virtual Field Trip!  There are three videos on Scholastic's site.  Your students can learn about the Wampanoag tribe, the Pilgrims, and Plimouth! 
With our kindergarten classes we used another website, click here for the link!  This site has pictures and then words.  We just summed up what each picture said.  I liked that this site had several activities to get the students involved such as sequence of events and comprehension. 
Finally, there is an awesome video on You Tube now on how to draw a turkey while telling a story called "Turkey Lake"! This makes me think of my PawPaw because he always told me stories that turned into a picture!  I always thought that was the coolest thing ever!   Click here for the link to the video!
I hope that these sites might help some of you with your two school day this week!  Happy Thanksgiving ya'll!

Veteran's Day

Hey friends!  Today I wanted to share a sweet book that could be used to discuss Veteran's Day.  The Wall by Eve Bunting is about a little boy that visits the Veterans Memorial with his father.  The little boy's dad lost his father when he was his son's age.  They look for the name of the little boy's grandfather.  While they are there they see flowers and notes along the wall.  The little boy wishes he could have known his grandfather, but is proud that his grandfather was a hero!  After reading this book my class creates cards that I send to the Paralyzed Veterans of America every year.  My students always get a thank you from them!
I also do a handprint flag, which  always turn out ah-dorable!  Click here for the link! :)  What do you do for Veteran's Day?

I'm Still Alive!!!

Hey Friends!  Wow I cannot believe that I haven't been on here lately!  My computer crashed, and I have been without a computer for awhile.  My brand new PURPLE computer finally arrived, and I'm so excited that this is my first post on Lillac (which is what I named my computer)!!!

On my last post I told ya'll I had to go and take a test in order to get an interview.  Well what ya'll didn't know was that had to drive about 4 hours just to take that little test!  The test consisted of 5 short essay questions and one math problem!  I thought to my little self that it was going to look so good to that school board that I came from out of town...and then there was a girl from Texas that came just to take the test!  Texas!  She drove all the way to Alabama to take a test!  So then I never got a call for an interview...so that was really sad!  Until...last week...still haven't heard anything, but I felt good about the interview.

Since then I took a maternity leave as a media assistant.  That's been really fun!  I have discovered so many awesome children's books... I may go broke before it's over!  :)I'll be posting about some of the books I've found! In two weeks that leave will be over...so I'm looking for a teaching job...

Here in Alabama there is a new law that has been passed, and the amount of pay towards retirement is going to go up after December.  This is going to make a lot of teachers that planned on retiring after this school year end up retiring in December.  So I'm hoping and praying for one of those jobs!  So we will see what happens!  I'm optimistic and I know that God has another classroom full of students planned for me!  I just wish I knew when that classroom was going to come my way! 

September 11th Memorial Mosaic

Hey ya'll!  This is going to be a quick one!  I wanted to share a cooperative group art activity that I do for September 11th.  You will need butcher paper, magazines, construction paper, glue, a marker, and fake rose petals (optional).  After talking about September 11th and reading books about that day, the students work together to make a memorial mosaic of the Twin Towers.  I sketch out a drawing of the Twin Towers and then the students make a mosaic out of construction paper and magazines.  I always read the book September Roses by Jeanette Winters.  The book is about two sisters from South America that fly to New York on September 11th for a flower show.  When they find out what happened they make a memorial of the Twin Towers out of all of the roses they had brought, so that's why I let them use fake rose petals on the mosiac.  The mosaic always turns out really cute and is a wonderful way for the students to create their own memorial for all of the people lost on September 11th.  I make this a group activity, but you could also let them make individual mosaics.  I just like for this mosaic to be larger! My class also also writes a letter and draws a picture for the local fire and police stations in the community, thanking them for their service.  I wish I had a picture to show you of the mosaic, but I don't have a picture from last year and no class this year.  I was going to make one to post....but I have a test to go and study for instead!  I have to take a test for another county in order to get an interview for several openings....so please say a little prayer for me on Friday when I take the test!  I really would like to have a class again this year, because I have missed teaching...especially with all of ya'lls awesome teaching ideas!


***Stop by Denise's awesome blog at Sunny Days in Second Grade to link up your patriotic ideas for her American Pride Linky Party!!! ***

September 11th

Hey friends!  I had planned on posting this earlier for ya'll but the winds of Hurricane Lee had other plans!  I finally got power last night...and ya never know how much you appreciate something until you are without it for awhile. :)
I can't believe that Sunday will be ten years since September 11, 2001.  I still remember sitting in Mr. Hodge's AP US History class, decked out in Homecoming Powder Puff  attire, on that sunny Tuesday morning.  The principal ran in to tell us to turn on the tv because something bad had happened.  We watched stunned as the second plane crashed into the twin towers.  For the next week at school we watched footage after footage of the events that occured. 
It's hard to teach students about September 11 because they were either too young to remember or they weren't even born yet.  It is even harder to explain why someone would do something so terrible to young children when I don't even really understand why. While some teachers may not teach about September 11, I do because I think it's important for students to learn about a turning point in America's history and how the world changed as a result.  I love teaching with picture books, and these are some awesome books that I read aloud when teaching about September 11.  So check them out!

This book is the true story of a fireboat called the John J. Harvey.  A group of friends buy and restore the fireboat when New York no longer needs them. When 9-11 happened the John J. Harvey came to help put out the fires.  It is a touching story with beautiful artwork.  My students love this book!

This is one of my favorite books!  It is about two sisters from South Africa that come to New York for a flower show with thousands of roses.  When they arrive to New York they fly through smoke, and learn about the terrorist attacks. When they hear about the attacks they decide to make something very special with their flowers.  They create a monument of the Twin Towers out of all of the roses they brought with them.  This is a very moving and touching story! 

I'm sure everybody has heard of this book!  It was written by first grade students, and is about how they knew everything was going to be all right after the terroist attacks.  My first graders last year loved this book!  They said "Wow Ms. Newberry!  Look at how good those kids can color a picture!"  Ha!  The joys of kids!

This book is NOT about September 11, but it's about the Twin Towers.  It's the true story of a Frenchman, Philippe Petit, that walked on a tight rope and did tricks between the towers in 1974.  It has beautiful pictures and the kids always enjoy this book!

What do you do for September 11th?

Three for Thursday

Today I'm joining in all of the fun again over at Blog Hoppin'!  Everybody is sharing their favorite font, blog, and online resource.  This is an awesome way to learn about new websites!

Favorite Font

This is hard to pick just one...I'm a font-a-holic!  I'm always downloading new and super-cute fonts!  I would have to say that my favorite fonts come from the wonderful Kevin and Amanda!  I love that they are from Auburn (War Eagle!) and that their fonts are free!  One of these days I'm going to have my handwriting turned into a font by them!

Favorite Blog

Wow!  This is SOOOO hard to pick just one favorite blog!  I have gotten so many creative and awesome ideas from ya'lls blogs....I don't know if I can just pick one!  I love Abby's blog at The Inspired Apple.  She is so funny with the way she writes and always has creative ideas to share!  I also love Christie's blog at Teaching in Flip Flops.  I love all of her zebra and polkadot stuff that she shares!  Kara at The First Grade Parade has an awesome blog, and all of her Hollywood themed ideas are so cute!  Amy Lemon's at Step Into Second Grade is also super cute!  I love how she is so generous with her printables and that she also creates a lot of stuff in Spanish.  My list could go on and on my friends!  Oh please don't make me choose just one!!!

Favorite Online Resources

I love Scholastic's Book Wizard.  The website is easy to use and I can quickly level all of my books by reading level with this website!  I also love DOGO News and used this when teaching science and social studies!  It touched on world events in a kid-friendly way.  Mathwire is an awesome website for all kinds of fun ways to teach and introduce math concepts!  I also hit up Laura Candler's website and click on her files for wonderful ideas.  Mandy Gregory's website has some awesome Writing Workshop ideas.  Mrs. Meacham's Classroom Snapshots  is another great resource!  And of course then there is Pinterest!  I love this website because you can "pin" all of your great teaching finds.  Pinterest has helped me to discover new teaching blogs, and has inspired me with all of the wonderful ideas from delish recipes to DIY projects to of course...teaching ideas!

Now hop on over to Blog Hoppin' to see what everyone else has posted and post your favorites!