First two weeks, meal prep, surviving!

Hey y'all! I've successfully completed the first two weeks of school. It's been crazy busy but so much fun. I absolutely love my group of kiddos this year! We've had a few hiccups and mishaps since day 1 but I'm very confident that we will get them worked out. 

Even though I haven't posted since day 1 I've been snapping pictures to share with everyone. In case you don't know the first few weeks (sometimes months) of Pre-K is exploring and just focusing on the basic social skills they need. This year has started smoother than previous ones so the kids have had more things to explore and play with. Here are some things we've done over the last two weeks....

The first week of school I let them explore and play with Play-Doh. It was also a great time for me to explain how to properly play with it. I gave each student a plate (yes they are birthday plates) and told them their play-doh had to stay on the plate. I must have said it at least 100 times, but they listened! We had very minimal play-doh on the floor and no color mixing! Plus it made clean up so easy that the kids were able to take over the whole situation and I could focus on helping other centers get cleaned up. 

After a week of Play-Doh I pulled out the dry erase boards. During this time I got to explain how to use the markers correctly, discuss that these special markers can only be used on the boards, and how we keep our boards clean. Last year almost all of the markers had flat tips after about a week and I had kids covered in Expo marker. Not the case this year. We are still using the same markers and everyone went home clean! :)

I happened to be wearing my hair up and with a headband on this day. So according to a 4-year old this is my self portrait. Ha! 

Fruit Loop sorting! I used this activity as a pre-assessment for the kids. I was able to see who knew their colors and who didn't. It might seem crazy that I have to start with something so basic but I want to make sure I know where all my kids are coming from. 

If you follow me on IG you probably saw this already. Don't follow me? Follow me HERE.

We did the activity Bingo Dot names. Oh my...they loved it!! The first month or two we really focus on the letters in each child's name. This is a great activity to emphasis it.

I also posted this on IG last week. Our math lesson that day was about a circle being continuous. I used an example of putting people inside of the circle. When there are no breaks in it no one can get out, but when we put a break in the circle the people could get out. When I sent them off to centers I walked to the back table and saw this happening. They were repeating the lesson we just had and were even trying to use the same vocabulary. Proud teacher moment! Plus I will say that their "people" look a lot better than mine do.

I've mentioned before that I have a few goals this school year. One BIG goal that I have is to not eat any frozen dinners or "junk" for my lunch at school. With that in mind I have been doing a lot of meal prep for the week. I love it and I think that with this I will be able to meet my goal this year. I am going to start posting about my weekly meals and hopefully they will help other people with their meals. I'm also doing a lot of meal planning and prepping for dinner, but for now I'm just going to be focusing on what I do for lunch. 

I didn't take any picures the first week, so I'm just starting with week 2.

This week was a simple week and I repeated my meals. 

Monday-Wednesday I had this for lunch. Ham rollups, cubed cheese, hard boiled egg, and some strawberries. I really enjoyed all of this and each day I found that I couldn't eat all of it. I was satisified the whole day, though, and wasn't hungry again until after school. I call that a success!

For dinner one night I cooked cornflake crusted chicken, which is amazing! So Thursday and Friday I took this for lunch. Leftover chicken, spinach, hard boiled egg, strawberries, and vanilla yogurt. Again, it was really good and I actually looked forward to lunch each day. I felt good after eating it and was satisified the whole day. 

What are some of your favorite things to take for lunch? Any suggestions of what to mix it up with?

Have a great week!

Live, love, learn

Rachel :)

Classroom Reveal!

Hey y'all! It's finally that time...CLASSROOM REVEAL!!

I have to say that I am so in love with my classroom this year. I spent a big chunk of my summer in there organizing and preparing for this school year. I don't feel like it's as "cute" as I want it, but I have to keep in mind that my babies are only 4 and 5. I don't want to over stimulate them or give them a million things to look at and be distracted. Either way I still love it!

I will warn you that you will see a lot of empty shelves. Since I teach Pre-K I don't put everything out at once. We learn about 2 centers at a time. Usually by the end of the second or third week they will have activities out in each center. 

Enjoy! :)

I posted this on IG right before Meet the Teacher. This is what you see when you walk in...

As you're walking in you would see this....

It's hard to tell but I have letters with funny faces on the window. I've gotten so many compliments on them...and that wonderful green sign!

Our daily schedule! This thing saves my life (and the kids!). After a few weeks of using it I no longer get asked, "What's next?" 

My Safe Place looks pretty lame right now, but I don't add a lot in the beginning. As I teach them how to use things I will add more. I put the pillow and blanket in there just for the first day. 

I don't have a "teacher desk" so this is my area.

I had to get a close up of my toolbox. I am already in love with this thing!

And around the room we go....

Art Center..

This is one center that will be open week 1.

Math/Science and computers. (Ignore the trashbags)

Writing center. My library books are over here because there's just no where else to put them. I had the library here last year and it became a big problem. Hopefully this works better!

Yes it's roped off. They're not allowed to enter that center yet :)

Blocks...this center will also be open week 1

Pretend and Learn and ABC center

Job chart, birthday board, work display

Also roped off because they cannot be in that center just yet.

Trying something else new this year! I put tape down last year and it left ugly marks on my carpet. So we are trying velcro this year! 

Probably my favorite center.

I think the library will work better over here and the kids will enjoy it.

 The next few pictures are all pom poms that my wonderful aide, Lauren, made. I had all the tissue paper for them and while I had to be in PD all week she spent time getting them made for me. Seriously such a blessing! They are the cutest ever! :)

That's it! This is where I'll be spending most of my time at this year. What do y'all think about it?! 

Live, love, learn

Rachel :)

Gearing up for back to school!

Hey y'all! I haven't posted in awhile so here's what has been going on. Things have just been crazy! The rest of my summer flew by and I started back last week. July was full of conferences, trainings, and working in my classroom. (Reveal is coming soon!) 

I met my mom for lunch and shopping today. While we were walking around a store I threw out the idea to her about some new blog posts. I've decided to share with everyone some simple things I do to stay sane during the craziness of school. Now some of you have been doing this for years but I'm just getting started with it all. 

I have a full week of professional development ahead of me which also means 10 hour+ work days. Because of this I know I will want to get as much sleep as possible, not do a lot of thinking about cooking, and will need tons of snacks (and caffeine)!! I have quite a few goals this school year. They are: 1) no frozen dinners!, 2) eating out only once a week, 3) precooking some meals on Sunday, and 4) have snacks prepard 

Some of these ideas I've seen on Pinterest and some I came up with on my own. Here we go...

One thing I did a lot last year was pick up dinner on the way home from school. I was too tired to cook and most of the time I never left any meat out to thaw. I seriously spent a lot of money doing all that and I put so much junk inside me! In order to solve this problem I am going to start planning my meals out for a whole month. I will still only grocery shop once a week, but I'll know in advance what I may need more of. I posted this on IG a few days ago...

Don't follow me on IG? Go for it HERE. :)

It's only been one week but so far the calendar has really helped. It's also held me accountable to what I'm eating and what I bought at the grocery store.

We are very lucky that during our week before school starts we are able to take long lunch breaks. We use this time to go out to eat. It's a fun time to bond with the other teachers. So this week I won't be premaking any lunches, but I am working on snacks. I make sure to always load my bag up with tons of snacks. One problem I ran into last year is that I didn't have much time in the morning to bag things up or I didn't have enough for the week. How am I planning on fixing it? A snack bucket and a snack drawer! 

I am using one of the bottom drawers of my fridge for various snacks. When I am packing my lunch in the morning I can just grab from this drawer and be done! This week I have strawberries, blackberries, grapes, apples, carrots, and string cheese. 

 This is the snack bucket I put together. It's sitting on my kitchen counter so I can easily grab a few things out of here and throw them in my bag. 

Have you seen these amazing bags at Target? 

I love them! I was able to quickly portion out a serving of Cheerios and didn't even have to think about it.

That's it! There's a few things I'm trying out this school year to help keep things a little calm. Do you do any of these? Is there anything you do that works well for you? I want to know! :)

Have a great week everyone! 

Live, love, learn

Rachel :)

July SLANTbox!

Hey y'all!! This month I participated in Lessons With Coffee's wonderful SLANTboxes. 

What a great experience!! During this I had the chance to get to know two new educators, who are amazing! They are: Melanie from A Trendy Teacher and Tami from Blessed in First. Go check them out! :)

I posted this sneak peek on Instagram this morning...

(You can follow me on IG here.

I have to admit that I was totally watching the tracking of the box once Tami gave it to me. I was so excited to get it! It actually showed up yesterday, but they delivered it to my complexes front office. Since they closed before I got home I was knocking down the door when they opened this morning. 

When I asked for the package the property manager went back to get it. She was taking a really long time. I have to tell you that I've been in the office a lot lately because of maintenance issues. So they all know me by name, which apartment I live in, and that I'm a teacher. When she came back with this package she was laughing. She then told me this...

"I couldn't find the box anywhere. Then I saw this box that was covered in stickers and looked so cute. I should have known it was yours."

Good or bad? I hope good!

When I opened it up this is what I saw...

GREEN! Seriously I love anything and everything green and/or zebra. I'm actually using the same tissue paper as pom poms in my classroom. Great minds think alike! It's hard to see but there was also glitter confetti on top. Umm..LOVE!! I opened it up and....

Ta-da!!! The theme this month was sunshine/summer and it was spot on! My morning was instantly brightened with all the love in this box!

I'm very excited about my new pencil bag! I'm actually going to use it in my purse. I'm always losing my pens in there! The verse on this journal is one of my favorites and I can't wait to start using it! Plus it's green! :)

I absolutely adore smelly markers. They are the only ones I use! I've never tried these from Crayola but I'm excited about trying them out!  I love that you can get them in singles instead of a whole box.

Washi tape, notepad, and notecards??!! I am always writing quick notes to fellow teachers and parents and I've recently started covering everything in washi tape. These will get some great use!

I am so excited about the August match up. It's all about hometown pride. I've already come up with some Texas things to send out to my match. If you want to know more or see when you can sign up head over to Lessons With Coffee's blog and check it out! 

A special THANK YOU!!! to Jameson for getting all this set up for everyone. It's such a great experience!

Be sure to check back Monday for some "made its" and more fun!

Live, love, learn

Rachel :)

Monday Made It - Games and activities!

Hey y'all! I'm linking up again today with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics for Monday Made It. This week I focused on activities for my kids. Making these can be very time consuming so I figured summer was a great time to get a few made! 

Enjoy! :)

My first made it is one of my favorite games to play with my kids. They love, love, love it and even ask to play it! It is called Wiggle Worms.

These are just a few letters. I made a whole set of lowercase, uppercase, and 10 wiggle worms. I added the ribbon so they are easier for the kids to grab. Here's how it works:

-Put the letters (not all at once..I usually do about 10 letters and 5 worms) in a small gift bag or box.

-Pass it around the circle.

-Each student reaches in (without looking!) and grabs one. If it's a letter they have to say what it is..after we learn them I make the kids also say the letter sound. If it's a worm everyone gets to stand up and wiggle like a worm!

Seriously, it's so much fun! It's a great time filler as well!

Some tips I have are:

-Add the ribbon or something for the kids to grab. I had the problem last year of kids having trouble grabbing one.

-Don't use a big bag..it's easier for the kids to take a peek and only pull out the worms.

-You could easily make this with numbers, pictures, or names as well. 

Hope your kids enjoy it as much as mine do!

One thing I learned last year is that my kids loved to "fish" for anything they could find. I put magnetic letters and a magnetic fishing pole out and they went to town. Because of that I made these...

Fish shapes! I will be adding small paper clips to the fish so they kids can easily grab them with the pole. 

My next made it piggy backs off the previous one.

Fish shapes with uppercase letters. I am in the process of making lowercase as well. These can be used in centers, a small group, or even the sensory table! The kids love them!

Once I get a class list I plan to make these with the kids names as well.

Compound word cards

Last year my kids really grasped compound words but had trouble breaking them apart. For example, I would ask them to  say "doghouse" and then say "doghouse" without the word "dog." I'm hoping these visual cards will help them. 

Our curriculum has about 10 compound word cards already made but I thought the kids needed more to practice with.

The ones I made are: sunflower, butterfly, rainbow, cowboy, toothbrush, cupcake, snowman, firetruck

cup+cake=

cupcake! :)

If you can think of any that I need to add please let me know!

Last week I showed you one half of my curtains for my classroom. If you don't follow me on Instagram or didn't see the completed project here it is...

Ignore the mess in my classroom! 

I absolutely love them! I've got to adjust some of the fabric on the far right set, but they still turned out great!

If you don't follow me on IG you can do so HERE. 

Have a great week everyone!!

Live, love, learn

Rachel :)