St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day all! We celebrated yesterday and now I am recovering from the craziness by lounging in my pjs! On Thursday, we designed leprechaun ladders and leprechaun traps (from our March Lucky Literacy Pack) and then, as the door closed and the last of the kiddos left, the leprechaun I got to work. Our room was trashed - glitter sprinkled everywhere, streamers, gold coins, shenanigans had definitely ensued.

Such a tricky leprechaun!

When the students first came into the classroom their faces lit up! It was the cutest thing! They were so excited to see that the leprechaun had left green foot prints over their letters they wrote for the leprechaun (which, as a side note we all signed our letters with more of an Irish flare, we added a O' before our last names - so mine was Katie O'Walker, they loved it!)

Earlier in the week we made March Monsters, it is a fun art inspired by the monsters over at KPM Doodles. I think they turned out so stinkin' cute!

Aren't the guitars the cutest?!

All of our March Monsters

What is your favorite thing to do for St. Patrick's Day?

~Katie

A K-2 Link-up and Updates

I so love finding new blogs out there! Not only do Rebecca and I love to share our ideas, but we also love learning from all of our fellow teachers! It is like working on a team of hundreds of primary grade teachers rather than just the 6 of us at our school. And isn't hundreds of heads working together better than 6? (I just got a funny visual of this!) If you haven't checked it out, you totally should! There are so many great blogs that are out there!

Student Teachers X2:
My student teachers have been in the classroom for 2 days now and they are just getting their feet wet! I am excited to see them teach some guided reading lessons tomorrow! I know they will do great! At first, I thought it was going to be totally intimidating to have two teachers watching me, but they are such dolls! I think this will be a great experience for both of us!

~ Katie

New in the Shop: I Can Write a Story

Happy Tuesday to all of you! I took a day off today for some doctor's appointments. As nice as it is to have a day off, there is quite the amount of prep work that goes into it. Not to mention the 9 pages of sub plans, but maybe that is just because I am shall we say "a tad bit particular"! Katie can attest to my severe case of perfectionism, which at times may be borderline crazy! 


Enough chit-chat, let me get to the actual topic of today's post: a new mini-unit in the shop! We are so excited to present our I Can Write a Story! mini-unit. This primary grade narrative writing unit focuses on the four elements of a story (characters, setting, problem/climax, and solution) as the framework for students to write their own stories. 


My friends each published a story for their Parent Teacher Conference portfolios. I only wish I had snapped a few photos of their stories before I sent them home! They were pretty stinkin' cute! Let me see if I can paraphrase one: "Once there was a snowman who was at a party. It was too hot inside at the party so he started to melt. The children put the snowman in the freezer." Yes, very simple, but not to shabby for a first try! I am going to work the whole class through another round of story publishing, then I plan to put the character and setting cards and story maps out as a writing center.

To buy this mini-unit click on the picture!

Teachers Taking Care of Teachers

One thing I love about teaching is the amazing women and men I work with! There are so few people who will go above and beyond for someone they don't know and here is our chance to help out our own. With the recent devastation of 44 tornadoes across 5 different states, some of our precious communities have lost homes, schools, and friends. In order to help out, Crystal and Kreative in Kinder has created a link up that provides a platform to offer our support and materials. We are more than happy to send copies of our TpT  materials and also comb through our classrooms for extra supplies that others may be in dire need. If you want to join, or if you want more information, head over to Kreative and Kinder!

~ Katie  and Rebecca

Survived PTCs and Upcoming Challenge

Well Parent Teacher Conferences are done! It was a long 2 nights and I am so happy to be sitting here at home in my pjs. Although it is a lot of work - as all of you know! - I really enjoy talking with parents about their students. I just would prefer to do it one parent meeting at a time rather than 4 solid hours of talking!

I can't believe we only have one term left! Where has this year gone?! For me, this year has been the most challenging teaching year of my career. But, with the craziness behind us, my students have formed the most amazing bond and support for one and other. I am absolutely blessed to know these students and to be working with them.

So what am I going to do with my day off? Pretty much live in my lulu yoga gear and do some baking. I'll keep you posted on what deliciousness I make! I am also going to be planning for my 2 student teachers than will be arriving on Monday. Yep, you read that right, 2 student teachers! Yikes! Oh my stars, what am I going to do? Have you had a student teacher before? What did you like the most about it? Any tips?

I hope all of you have a wonderful Friday.

~ Katie

Preparing for PTCs and an Award

Last week was a little full of crazy as we celebrated Dr. Seuss and finalized our report cards. Sheesh, I think I am still trying to recover! Then today rolled around and I am still not feeling 100% ~ I have a few culprits in mind, last week a couple of my kiddos came to school with notes from their parents asking if they could stay in from recess as they were recovering from something or other. With all the luck, it looks like it is my turn to bring in a note to stay in from recess now too because I am rocking a pretty yucky head cold.

That doesn't paint a pretty picture for my Monday, right?! Then just think how happy I was to see that the awesome Erin from First with Franklin gave us this award!

I've seen this award on several blogs and think it is such a cute way to highlight our fellow teacher bloggers! So thank you, Erin, you totally turned my day around! Now here is what we need to do:

1. Link back to the blog that gave you this cute award.

2. Pass the award onto 15 other lovely bloggers.

3. Follow the person who sent it to you! :)

Here are some very deserving and lovely bloggers. And my fabulous fellow bloggers that are nominated, don't worry about passing it along. I know it is hard work, but I just wanted to highlight your amazing blogs and help get the word out about how awesome you all are!

Kim at Growing Up Teaching
The Lovely Pixie Girls at Playing with Pixie Dust
Randi at Teach it With Class
Melanie at First Grade Brain Sprinkles
The fabulous girls at Fun For First
Reagan at Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits
Allyson at Stickers and Stars
Tammy at 123 Teach With Me
Kristen at Ladybug's Teacher Files
Michelle at Apples and ABCs
Sarah from the Eager Teacher
Sandra at Sweet Times in First
Keri at Teach Play Smile
Lindsey at The Teacher Wife
Langston at Langston's Learners

~ Katie

Hope You Had a Seussical Day!

We celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday yesterday because today was a teacher work day in preparation for conferences next week.

We started the day by making the obligatory Cat in the Hat hats and posing for photos.
(Yes I captured the day on my iPhone, so excuse the poor lighting.)

Then our Darling principal dressed up as Thing One and came to read to our kiddos. Of course we made sure that we had on our Seuss party hats on when she came!

What did you do to celebrate?

~Rebecca