Liebster Award!

I am happy to announce that I have been nominated for a Liebster Award by Jackie  at Neat Sweet & Hard to Beat! Thank you so much for your nomination! I really appreciate it!! <3

If you haven't heard about the Liebster Award, it is awarded to blogs with growing audiences. It is also to acknowledge up and coming blogs and share them with the rest of our blogging community! 

So what exactly is a Liebster? Liebster is a German word and means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, pleasant, valued, and endearing. I am so honored to receive this award in the beginning stages of my blog!

To accept this award I need to answer 11 questions. So it's Q&A TIME! 

1.  Why and how long ago did you start blogging?
I started my blog a little over two weeks ago! I started to connect with other teachers and hopefully share and gain new ideas to keep my classroom experiences fresh and engaging :)

2.  What one word sums up the heart of your blog and why?
Authentic. I want my blog to evolve into a place where I share my real life experiences and struggles in the classroom as I grow as a teacher. Just like the activities I try to plan for my kiddos, I want my blog to be real and meaningful and for others to be able to relate to it.

3.  Is there something you learned late in your blogging journey you wished you knew before?
I feel like I'm so new to the blogging world that I am still soaking up every bit of knowledge that I can!

4.  What is your favorite pastime other than blogging?
I love spending time with family and friends, running, and finding new projects to try out on pinterest.

5.  How many hours per week do you dedicate to your blog/TPT?
I feel like it is definitely not enough! My goal as the school year is winding to a close is to really amp up my blog time and creating more activities to post in my TPT store. Once the kiddos go to bed I'm at the computer creating away. I'm hoping to establish a routine that will help me balance it all a little easier :) Any tips are appreciated!!

6.  What category of blog posts do you enjoy the most?
I love all teaching related blog posts but I really enjoy posts when they reveal a little of the blogger's time outside of the classroom. I love being able to relate to other bloggers through their experiences.

7.  Where does your blog inspiration come from?
My inspiration comes my own classroom and the activities we do. I also have to give a special shout out to some wonderful coworkers of mine. They have been so supportive of me beginning this journey and have just inspired me to push on and see where this road takes me!

8.  Which post that you've written are you most proud of?
I think I'm most proud of my very first post after we finished Spring Break. I very much enjoyed creating our parts of a plant model using the techniques of Eric Carle and the kids just had an absolute blast. Seeing the look on their faces when we first started creating the painted papers to use for our plant just reminded me about the special magic in a child's eyes. Also, I love the little meme I posted in the beginning. Every time I see that picture I have about 5 or 6 kids that immediately pop into my head and it makes me giggle!! :)

9.  Is there any post you have been planning to do, but have been postponing it for a while now?
I have been anxiously awaiting the start of our ABC countdown to the last 26 days of school (starting Wednesday, I can't believe it, woop woop!!!). I'm so excited to see what the kids think about the activities we have planned for them and hope to end their year in first grade on a great note!

10.  What is your favorite aspect of blogging?

My favorite aspect of blogging is learning from others!! I feel like our most valuable resource is each other and the ideas we all bring to the table. I love reading new blog posts from some of my favorite bloggers and taking things back to use in my own classroom.

11.  Which idea from a blog would you like to try yourself?
We are reviewing a unit on double digit addition with regrouping and subtracting tens and I am definitely going to print out this I have Who Has game from Katie King at Queen of the First Grade Jungle for my students to use while I pull small groups! I'm also interested in reading the book Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites over the summer. I love fun and engaging lessons and definitely want to read about some new ideas to take with me into next school year!

Now it's time to get to know some more bloggers!

I now nominate these fantastic teachers for the Liebster Award:

1. Mindy at Mrs. Thomas' Teachable Moments
2. Sandra at Mrs. Naufal's Nook
3. The Whimsical teacher
4. Amy  at  Blossoms of Blue, Life in Grade 2
5. Lindsey at Teacher+Mother+Wife= Life


The rules for receiving this award are to:

1. Link back to the blog that nominated you.
2. Answer the 11 questions posted by the nominator. 
3. Nominated 5-11 people (blogs with less that 200 followers) and link them in your post.
4. Contact the nominees and let them know that they have been nominated on your blog.

Five for Friday

Today I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to share what's been going on with our week! 

 

We sent home the ABC Countdown letters this week to prepare for our activities in the last few weeks of school! I've already received so many letters back and I can't wait to start and see how much the kids enjoy each of our activities! It's definitely going to be a blast!  

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The kids finally completed all of our plant artwork and writing pieces! Here's one example of how they turned out! I can't wait to hang them in the hallway. The kids had so much fun creating art in the style of Eric Carle and this will definitely be an activity I keep for the future. 

Our school had Career day on Wednesday and let me tell you our guidance counselors really put together a great event! All different businesses within our community parked along the field and talked to the students about their jobs and why they are important in the community. My kids loved climbing inside the tractors, police cars, and looking closely at the firetrucks and asking all kinds of questions! 

 

We are headed to the annual Strawberry festival this weekend! Charleston always has something fun and exciting going on during the weekend and we love going to the different festivals throughout the year. One of my favorite things to do in the Spring with my kids is going strawberry picking. The boys try to see who can find the biggest berries and we always come home with a giant bucket full of sweet strawberries!

image from Time Saving Tools

 

This little guy started soccer this week and he is absolutely having a blast. For the past 2 years he has played t-ball but wanted to mix it up this year and play soccer. I think he's found a passion because I've never seen him more excited about going to practice! He's had 2 games so far and he's getting better every time. Next year, little brother can get in on the action too. Man will we be busy with 2 kids in sports after school! 

That's what's been going on in my life this week! What have you been up to?

Surviving until Summer

Hey everyone!! I'm joining the linky party hosted by Queen of the First Grade Jungle and Fabulous in First and sharing a post about how I am surviving until summer! 

I don't know about you, but I think our class is feeling the itch for summer! I love my kids, but when April and May roll around classroom management is about as easy as herding a bunch of cats! It doesn't help that here in Charleston it's been in the 80s and sunny the past week. I think more than a few of us would love to be at the beach or by the pool! 

I love going to the beach in the summer. It's one of my happy places and I could relax on the sand all day! I'm so lucky to live only 30 minutes away from one of the most beautiful beaches! I plan on getting my daily dose of sunshine by taking walks with my boys and visiting the beach every spare second I get!

I'm also revving up my workout routine to try to maintain some energy for these last few weeks of school. I hate to admit it, but when I started teaching again last year, my running routine went down hill! I need to get back into the swing of things so I've been hitting the pavement and running away the stress of the day. I just love to run, blast some music into my headphones and completely zone out! 

To help regain some control of my class, I brainstormed with some of my colleagues to get some ideas. One gave me an awesome idea of using starbursts as an incentive for those students who are making great choices. I took that idea and ran with it! I made some super star behavior cards and attached a starburst to each one. Whenever I see someone showing me super star behavior, they get a card. After they get 10 cards they can pick a reward from my catalog of rewards that go along with my regular behavior plan. I don't usually have candy in my class so I think it's been an extra special incentive for my students. So far, I think it's working out pretty well! You can grab the super star cards in my tpt store here.

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We still have lots of work left to do before first grade is over, but I plan to make our activities hands on and full of fun so my sweet kids can stay focused while still learning!  Brain breaks will be super important to get those wiggles out and I plan to have GoNoodle open on my desktop so I can click on a quick clip to get our bodies moving and focused again.

Lastly, my grade level survives the last few weeks of school by having an ABCs of first grade "countdown" until summer! We know everyone is itching to have a little more fun at the end of the day, so we have a short alphabet themed activity and it gives the kids something fun to look forward to (and earn!). We start with the letter A and have a fun activity and/or snack each day that matches each letter. For letter A, it's all about animals. The kids will be bringing their favorite stuffed animal and having animal crackers, B is a about bubbles and bubble gum. We'll have a bubble blowing contest to see who can blow the biggest bubble with bubblegum and with regular bubbles outside! We continue on with each letter of the alphabet until we get to Z which is the last day of school. We did this last year and it was so much fun, the kids really had a blast! Grab it from my store while it's on sale!

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We have 38 days left to go, how are you surviving the last few weeks of school?

Back to Reality

This week just flew by for me! It was our first week back after spring break and man does it have me wiped out! On Tuesday we moved seats around and my class is super social so this little picture popped into my head for about 5 of my sweet kiddos. Sometimes, I really think they just talk to hear the sound of their own voice! We got it together though and I *think* I finally have a seating arrangement that will work for a little while.

 

We also picked right back up into our plant unit that we were working on before break. My kids just have loved this plants unit! Before spring break we had an edible plant part party and enjoyed all different fruits and vegetables and discovered all the plant parts we eat on a daily basis.Tuesday we planted grass seeds and bean seeds. We also made some predictions about what would happen when you take away a need from a plant. I made this recording sheet for their predictions and later we will go back and record our observations of what happened.

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Our "control" seeds are sprouting nicely! The kids love to check up on them and water them every day. 

Grass seeds

Bean sprout

We closed this week with a super fun art project inspired by Eric Carle. Before we planted seeds I read the story The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle and we talked about how Eric Carle illustrated his books. I showed them a quick youtube clip of Eric Carle making a collage and explained that we were going to mimic his process and use our painted papers to make a parts of the plant model. Thursday we painted papers. We thought about a typical flowering plant and the colors we would need to create the model. Then, I showed them an example of how to paint the papers. Oh my! It was so funny to see some of the type A personalities come out! Some of them really struggled with just going crazy and doing whatever they wanted with the papers. They ended up creating some beautiful paper to use for our artwork. Today when the papers dried, we cut out the various parts and glued them onto a clean sheet of paper. The kids are still working on them, but they are turning out to be so beautiful! Originally I was going to have the students label the plant parts but I think we are just going to leave them how they are and watercolor the background. You could almost hear a pin drop with how engaged they were concentrating on drawing and cutting out all of the pieces they need for their art work! I can't wait to see the finished product! 

Hey Y'all!

Welcome! I’m so glad you have come across my blog! My name is Jessica Rowland and and I’m from the gorgeous lowcountry in South Carolina! I’m in my 3rd year of teaching and I’m currently in first grade! Teaching my firsties how to read is my passion! I’m a huge college football fan (Go Gamecocks!) and married my high school sweetheart. We have two little boys who always keep us on our toes. I love all things beach, Target, pinterest, and coffee is my life-line. I'm new to this blogging business, but I hope to share creative ideas from my classroom and learn and grow with fellow teachers to become the best teacher I can be! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you’ll come back soon!