Back To School Sale!!!

It is time for the big back to school sale at Teacher's Pay Teachers!  On Sunday, August 18th and Monday, August 19th you can save 20% off all items in my store and when you check out if you enter the promo code BTS13 you will save an additional 10% from TPT!  This is a great time to stock up on items you may want to use as we head back to school. I hope you will stop by my store and take a peek around. :) 

 



Teacher Week: Take a look at my finished classroom!

I am coming a day late to show my classroom tour...but better late than never!!  I am finished with my classroom other than names of students on name tags, clips and such. I put all my photos into a smilebox slide show. So take a look and then tell me what you think. :)   I will be happy to answer any questions as well if you see something you want to know more about! Enjoy!!

This slideshow design created with Smilebox

Linking up again with blog hoppin for Teacher week 2013...come by and share your classroom too!

 

Teacher Week Day 1: Come Meet Me!

I love Teacher Week! It is so fun to peek inside everyone's classrooms and get to know more about each other. So, I am linking up with Blog Hoppin for the first day of Teacher Week...Meet the Teacher!! Each day will be a different topic as you can see below so make sure you link up with the fun!



So, now about little ol' me...

My name is Alissa and I have been married for 10 years this year to the man of my dreams! He is the most patient, understanding husband I could ask for and we have so much fun together. He makes me laugh all the time and we love being silly together.

This is us on our wedding day and also on the gondola ride at the Venetian this summer for our 10 year anniversary.


I have 2 amazing children that have made me so proud over the years! I started motherhood a little younger than I should have. I had my son when I was only 19 but I still managed to raise an awesome kid and get the career I have always dreamed of. My son, Chase is 18 years old and heading off to college this week. This kid is an amazing pitcher and will be playing baseball for Eastern Illinois University and is also a super intelligent hardworking student who managed to get a 33 on his ACT and was chosen to receive the Presidential Scholarship during his 4 years of college. I am beyond proud of him and know that he will do great, but I cannot believe it is time for my baby boy to leave home. This Thursday is going to be a rough day for me as we move him into his new dorm room.

Chase when he was 4 in his t-ball uniform and his Senior picture this year.
 



 

My daughter, Kennady, is my best friend and I am so proud of her too! She is an amazing swimmer and performer in Show Choir. She works very hard to get good grades and she has the biggest heart in the world. I cannot believe that she is going to be a freshman in high school this year. If these 4 years go as fast as Chase's years in high school then I don't know what I'm going to do.

 

 





This is Kenna when she was 2 and now she is 14.



 

 



This is going on my 8th year teaching. I started in a rural school my first year, teaching 2nd grade. Then I taught 2 years in Kindergarten , 2 years in 4th grade, and this will be my 3rd year teaching 1st grade. I have wanted to be a teacher since I was just a little girl. I would make all my friends play school with me and I would be the teacher. I even would pretend to be a teacher to imaginary friends when I was alone. And one year,  I had to babysit my 3 younger cousins. I enlisted the help of one of my friends and we set up a complete schedule of different school activities we were going to teach them complete with lesson plans and everything!


I enjoy spending time with my family and friends. I love to read and watch movies. Kenna and I love to watch complete sets of old TV series on Netflix. We have completed all the Charmed shows and most of Dawson's Creek. Right now we are watching Supernatural with those 2 hotties in it! LOL 

We have two fur babies at home. Our cat, Tiger is 10 this year and our dog, Teddy Bear, just turned 4. They are the sweetest animals ever!!

 



 

Anything else you wanna know? Just ask! Can't wait to learn more about you guys so remember to link up!

 

 

 







Classroom Setup Day 2

I am linking up today with Leigh over at The Applicious Teacher for the last installment of an Apple Day Linky Party.

 

 



I went back to my classroom on Friday to finish up a few more things. :) It is coming right along and I am hoping to not have to go in again except for a couple hours so I can enjoy my last days of summer. Here is how it is looking so far:



This is a view of my carpet area/ ENO board. Here you see my items for calendar time. That pad of chart paper will be hanging on hooks soon once I get some new ones. My classroom job pockets are on the other side of my ENO board. The desk will hold my document camera and the tall shelving unit is where I put my laptop.

 

 

As we move a little further over you can see my decoding strategy cards...I found these at Oceans of First Grade Fun. They are adorable! I also have my new table captain chart and my literacy work station chart hanging in this area. On top of my filing cabinets (that still need a little TLC) you will see my teacher toolbox that I made last summer.

 

Now we move to my teacher / small group area. On the black bulletin board area I have hung a blue small pocket chart. This will be used for my guided math rotations. The whiteboard directly next to that has a couple of phonics posters and this is where I will write anything my groups need to use. The board next to that is where I will hang the anchor charts we make together. You can see my Alphabet cards that are from Virginia Dowd over at Phonicsdance.com. The kids love this!! Also you can see my beautiful 10-drawer cart that I just got. LOVE it!!

 

This board is my "I Can..." board. This will have my daily objective I can statements posted for Reading, Phonics, Math, Writing, and our Character skill we are focusing on for the week. My pink chair I roll over next to the carpet area when I read aloud. The green board that you only see part of is going to be my math board that posts our essential questions and vocabulary for the topics. You can see the back of a white shelf with another teacher toolbox on top. This is my mom's area. She is my personal classroom volunteer everyday. :) ( I am so spoiled lucky!) These areas are put together and ready to go.

 

I still need to hang up my new table signs I made, shampoo my alphabet rug, put student names on items once I get my class list, and make my copies for the first week. I will be back next time with the overview of the entire finished classroom. I would love for you to comment on what you think!

UPDATE!  Final overview pics of my room!!

Make sure you plan to link up for teacher week over at Blog hoppin or Erica Bohrer's starting next week!

 



Classroom Setup Day 1

Well, Tuesday was the first day we were allowed back in our rooms to start setting back up for school. Our first day back to school is August 22nd and the kids don't come back until August 26th so I have plenty of time, but I want to get done and try to enjoy what is left of my summer. :) I went in for about 3 1/2 hours Tuesday and it didn't look all that bad from the get go. This will be my 3rd year in this same room so it is starting to get a little easier for the tear down and set up again. Here are 2 views of what I saw when I walked in...

 



 

View from the doorway as you walk in....

 

 

View from the front of the room toward one of my coat hall entrances.

 

They had my tables and shelves relevantly close to where I wanted them so it was pretty easy to get started. Last year I had my funky frogs borders and decided to add some polka dot things. This year I wanted to join in on the chevron bandwagon. I am really starting to love that stuff! I decided to make some new word wall letter cards. I really like how they turned out. :)

 

I decided to go ahead and get these babies hung up! :)

 

Here's a closer look at them...

 

I got my furniture all placed around the room, most of my centers put away and a lot of my tubs unpacked. I was in a hurry when I left so I forgot to take pictures. I plan to go back tomorrow and try to finish it up until I have to go back on the 22nd. I will take some pics tomorrow so you can see the finished project. :)