Hello Everyone; especially my Russian visitors.  :)
I just thought I'd let you know that I finished the Grade 1 tracking sheets that cover all of the Overall and Specific Expectations in the Ontario Curriculum.  I have them on my Tpt store.  They are my first item I am selling.  And --- wait for it --- I have sold 7!!  I'm so excited, especially because it is a product with a limited audience - grade 1 and Ontario.  It is fully editable though, so it could be adjusted to other curriculums.  It gives a nice framework.

P.S.  I see I have visitors from around the world.  If anyone teaches 5/6 year olds and would like to be penpals with us, please let me know.  :)  Thanks!

September 19, 2015

Two weeks down!  I’m exhausted!  It’s tough finding your way in a new school, but some positives are:  my class of 21 is wonderful!, and  I have a full time EA, who is a real doll!

Here is a snap of books I read to start the school year off.  Some others, that didn’t make the photo shoot, are Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon, Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun

 I start my day off with prep this year.  I’m finding it difficult to get used to with grade 1.  I had it first when I taught grade 8 (it was a double prep every other day), and it was fine.  With the little ones, it feels odd not to greet them first thing, take attendance, and collect agendas/notes.  But, I’m sure I will get used to it soon enough.  Once a week, I get a double prep first thing.  Too bad I couldn’t just sleep in and come at 10:45.  J

When I do come in the room, we start with our Morning Meeting at the carpet.  Because it is the start of the year, we review our 5 Wonderful Classroom Rules, from Whole Brain Teaching.  Most of the kids have fallen right into the pattern of it, but I have a couple that just sit there…  I try to come up with new ways to make it more exciting each day, to keep the energy and motivation up.  I will say that this year, I am doing much better with the Scoreboard.  Our tallies are racking up.  We count up the previous day’s Smilies and Fownies, and see who won.  If the Smilies won, the class gets a point towards Friday’s Mind Soccer.  More on that later.  Next, we move on to the Calendar.  The second week of school, I assigned the classroom jobs.  One person does the calendar all week.  This makes it easier than trying to figure out who hasn’t had a turn, etc.  They sure do love using the pointer and reciting things.  J   The next part of our meeting is Power Pix.  We review the ones we have done, and if I feel they know them well enough, I introduce a new one.  We are going slowly at this point.  We have done four:  Sentence, Noun, Title, and Days of the Week.   I will then wrap up our carpet time with a little story from out Kid’s Bible, say a little prayer, and off for a snack and then Recess.

Hello Friends,

July was such a peaceful, beautiful, hot, relaxing month.  August --- not so much!!!!  We moved.  If you've been reading my blog, you'll know that we were moving to Abu Dhabi.  Due to my daughter's health condition, we are staying put for at least two years.  My house did sell, so I had to find another place.  After looking at approximately 50 homes, bidding on a few, home inspections coming back scary, I chose one.  I knew it would need a few minor repairs, but,,, I was not prepared for the extent of the filth!  Good thing we had two weeks before we had to move in.  And another fun surprise - we had to replace the septic!!!  Great.  I had intended on treating us all to an inground pool.  There went half of that money.  Another above ground it will be.  :)  That's ok, we were happy with our above ground.  Anyway, I am still in the depths of unpacking and trying to find a place for everything - we downsized.  I never want to move again!  

I did have some time to work on some new assessment/tracking sheets.  These are specifically for the Grade 1 Ontario Curriculum.  I keep a Data Binder for each student.  I will have these sheets in the binder, using tabs to separate subject areas.  The tracking sheets will be followed by work samples.  These are super for parent interviews and report card writing.  I have posted a one page sneak preview on TPT [my first tpt listing!!:)].  This is a little freebie to see if people are interested in it. 

 I am just putting the finishing touches on the rest.  I will be posting checklists for the WHOLE Grade 1 Ontario Curriculum -- all subject areas, all Overall and Specific Expectations.  Please have a look, download, and tell me if you would like more.

Time to get ready to visit a Doggie Daycare.  They are having an open house.  :)

Enjoy your Saturday!

Good Sunday Morning!

The sun is shining bright after the thunderstorms of yesterday.

I’m already online and exploring my favourite teacher blogs.  Also looking for some new faves – specifically grade one!

I thought I would share with you the grades I have taught in my 13 years of teaching:

You can see I have moved around quite a bit.  I love it though.  I fall in love with whatever grade I teach.  I think it keeps you fresh and up-to-date when you mix it up.  Over the past few years, I have really tried to not save so much STUFF.  I rarely repeat the same thing the next year; yet I have boxes and boxes in the garage and basement!!!  This week I am going to be going through them and trying my hardest to get rid of a lot of it --- it is very hard to do when you have spent so much time researching, planning, creating...  But some of those boxes haven't been opened in years!

I would really like to have penpals this year from another country.  If you teach grade 1 and would like to be penpals, please email me or leave a comment.  I would like to start out with hand-written letters (it's always exciting to get something tangible) and then move on to email and possibly skype.

Well I am heading outdoors now to do some weed-whacking!

Enjoy the day!

Happy Summer!

It’s been four months since I have blogged.  Many reasons.

On March 4, my youngest daughter, was diagnosed with osteosarcoma.  Anyone who has gone through something like this would understand the devastation we felt.  For 19 days, we went through many tests to determine the extent of the cancer.  The first CT and x-ray showed a spot in her lung.  That was the worst news and the worst case scenario for us.  The tumour ate through her humerus until it was so thin, it broke.

From the onset, I knew prayer was the only answer.  I held a prayer service at my house, had one at church, and had many, many, many people praying for her all over the world.  Prayers for Ella  God listened to these prayers, and on March 23, we were told that she did not have cancer.  She did have an aneurysmal bone cyst.  She had to have ~4 inches of her humerus taken out and a donor bone put in.  They put a steel plate in her arm, secured with screws, to support the bone.  She had the surgery mid-April and has been doing well since.  It will take about 2 years for the arm to fully heal.  She was very fortunate that there was no nerve damage during surgery.  She now has full motion of her arm, but cannot do any weight bearing/lifting.  The x-rays show new ‘fluffy’ bone growth.  God is good!

Ella has always wanted a small dog.  Because of this traumatic event (she wasn't able to go to school anymore and would be home all the time), I bought her a puppy.  Bennett is a Schnauz-tzu.  He is keeping us very busy in a positive way.  This is our first dog.  We have always been cat people.  :)  

So the remainder of my school year was quite hectic between Ella's ordeal, training a pup and working. 

Yesterday, I got a call that I have a position at a new school.  I am very excited about it.  I will have a straight grade 1 class of 20!  I am very sad to be leaving my current school.  Good friendships were made there and after my experience this year, they are like family to me.  The support I felt from them was immense!  It is a small school which helps to create that feel of community with the staff, students, and families.  My new school is more than double the size, but it is closer to home.  I am looking forward to the new adventure and planning on blogging more regularly.  Please follow to keep up-to-date, help me get points for my WBT certification, and to share your own thoughts.

Now, to start planning for my new school/class/year!!!  J