Back to School with a Bang!

School started with a bang this year people!

The mother of one of my students passed away after battling breast cancer for less than a year.

Another child threw up on the floor (which is naturally carpeted) twice as we were preparing for lunch on a nearly 100 degree day.

I thought I forgot the code to our class ipad cabinet.  But alas, I set the code wrong.  (forehead slap!)

Our school copier broke down on the first day of school, and the second, and . . . too many times to count.

Roto Rooter also had to be called the first day of school . . . thankfully not to my room.

And it's been so hot the last few weeks that I seriously wonder why I shower in the morning and bother to do hair and makeup.  By ten o'clock I'm a hot mess!

In spite of it all, I have to say our new principal is aMaZiNg!!!

I'm piloting a 1:1 ipad classroom this year!  Woot woot!!  (I'd love to hear your favorite apps.)

I have a nice group of kids in spite of the reputation that has preceded them since preschool and kindergarten.  I lucked out, let me just tell you.  The other two classes have some real stinkers.  And while I have a few pips of my own I think it will be a good year.

I have lots of things to share but haven't hung around to take pictures because of the heat so please be patient.

How have your first few weeks gone?

You Say It's Your Birthday!

Today we celebrated our daughters birthdays.  They are not twins but were born two years apart to the day!  We actually celebrate for about a week but today was our family dinner celebration where we let them choose any place to go out to eat.

Since everyone has gone to bed and I've got birthdays on my brain, I decided to whip up some cute bee themed birthday cards to use this year with some adorable clip art from Scrappin' Doodles.  (I saw these little birthday bees with the big glasses a couple weeks ago and couldn't resist!)

I have always ordered cards from Vistaprint or Really Good Stuff or some other place to use but when I saw these cuties, I knew I was going to make my own.

There are six different designs and sayings with two per page.  I like to have all the kids in the class sign the back with their personal birthday wishes.  They get quite fun and creative with different colored pencils or doodles.  The birthday boy or girl also gets a birthday pencil and sticker and can bring treats to school to share.  We sing a couple different birthday songs and give a birthday blessing.

You can get them at my TN shop by clicking on the image below.

I hope you can use them.

If you'd like to win a set, just leave me a comment telling me how you celebrate birthdays in your class.

Helping Hands...er...Paws

I've been working since about 6:30 this morning.....after staying up to work until 1:00.

And back to school brain has started since I didn't fall asleep until after 2:00 thinking about the gazillion things I need to do and the few things I want to do before school starts!

Ah, but today I have a helper so life is good!

I like do da mouse, Mom!

Or maybe I'm helping him......

New Number Line

It's another late night folks.  Even the pets have gone to bed.  That's a bad sign especially when one is a cat.  Aren't they supposed to be nocturnal?

I believe I'm turning into a vampire or some other creature of the night.  This is not going to work when school starts.

But I'll start dealing with that next week...right!  (I know I said that to someone last week...probably my mom since she always worries about me getting enough sleep...still...after all these years.)

Anyway, I've finally got the fonts to not cut off on my first completed school project.  Funny thing is I actually like the font I ended up using better than the one I originally had.  Yes, things always happen for a reason!

So here it is...

my new bee themed number line.

I think it's pretty darn adorable if I do say so myself.

It has a little chalkboard (which unless you live under a rock--you know is all the rage right now), numbers in word and standard form, and ten frames to visually show numbers.

Disclaimer:  The author of this post intended no offense to those who actually live under rocks, want to live under rocks, like rocks, don't like chalkboard, or didn't know that chalkboard rocks!

They are going to look fabulous on my wall IF I find the time to print, laminate and cut them out.  (I will, I will, I will...)

You can find them in my TN shop by clicking on the preview above

or

you can win a free set by leaving a comment...

Now it's time for bed finally.

PDF Problems

I've been so swamped designing blogs that my summer to-do list for school has gotten dusty.

I'm starting to sweat it though with summer winding down and school right around the corner.

So I stayed up super duper late the other night working on a new set of numbers for my classroom.  All was good.

Then I opened the PDF file to see how many pages it ended up being and...

Son.of.a.Turkey!

The top half of one of the fonts was missing!

What???

NO!!!!

Why is it that some fonts do that?  Only some?  Only the one I wanted to use!

GRRRRRR!

So you'll have to stay tuned for the finished project because it will require some fixing and right now I'm just not in the mood.

If you've also had this problem and figured out a way to fix it please leave me a comment.  And if you'd just like to rant because the same thing has happened to you feel free too.