Adorable Desktop Organizer!

This is just a quick post, and not really educationally based, but look at this adorable desktop organizer from Schroeder Shenanigans in 2nd.

I love it!! Now my computer looks super cute and organized. Boom!!

#PSLforlife.

Oh. My. Gosh. I love pumpkin spice lattes. Seriously. They just symbolize fall for me. #PSLforlife y'all!

Every year my husband and I host Pumpkinfest, and every year it is just the best thing ever. All of our friends come over, and everyone brings something to eat or drink that is pumpkin flavored. Pumpkin beer, cupcakes, frosting, bread, pudding, pork roast, cookies, pies....I'm sure I'm leaving some out. 

My husband, David, started holding an annual Pumpkinfest 3 years ago, and it has really taken off. Our pumpkin decor has started to really grow! 

We carve pumpkins, eat, and drink. It is amazing and so much fun with all of our friends here in Virginia, who have become like family. Dave and I even had matching Pumpkin t-shirts, but of course we forgot to take a picture. Ugh, epic fail.

A great weekend, with great friends! How do you celebrate fall or Halloween? 

Just Begin

Wow, it’s been awhile since I last posted…4 months. 4 months ago I was still relaxing and enjoying summer vacation. Things are so different now! After a long break to relax and regroup I am ready to start blogging, creating, and sharing again. I am excited to try and get back into it, but I have been really struggling with getting started. Then I saw this quote, and decided to just…start. It may not be the best or most interesting blog post, but like we always tell our students…just try. So, here I go.

This has been a crazy beginning of the school year. We have new guidelines in Special Education, new expectations of what and when we should be doing things, Case Management, CLT, PLC, and a new administrator. On top of the changes at work, I had a major medical issue personally and have only just started to really recover from it. It involved missing a lot of work and now I feel like I’m in permanent catch-up mode. Does anyone else feel like that? Like the year is just going to fast, and there are to many deadlines to catch up on? I know I’ll get there, but whew, it is an up hill battle!

My kindergarteners have been hard at work learning their letters, sounds, and how to write their names. I love this time of the year, watching the kids learn and master these beginning skills is awesome. One of the reasons that absolutely love teaching the primary grades is that I truly believe that K, 1, and 2 is where our kids build their foundations for learning. A strong foundation will help them to continue to grow, learn, and succeed in the later grades. This week we worked on learning letters in our name. We used stamps, crayons, pencils, and markers to try and make it fun and hands on.

I love teaching Kindergarten! They are so excited by things like stamps and markers! How do you teach your students new concepts? What activities or strategies do you use to keep your students engaged in learning?