Five for Friday {May 15th, 2015}

Are you counting down yet?  (Have you been counting down since, like, the end of February?)  In my land of first grade, we have just ten more school days to go!  In celebration, I thought I'd get my Five for Friday on.  (Confession: I actually started this post on a Wednesday because some little sweetie decided to share his/her pink eye with me and I was home from work all day - yikes!)

Although the official Teacher Appreciation Week was last week, my school celebrates it this week so that it can align with our half day so the PTA can provide us with a luncheon (nom nom nom).  Here are a few things my students blessed me with this week (besides the pink eye, of course).  

Speaking of teacher appreciation, I became extra motivated and decided to order next year's Erin Condren planner ahead of time, since she was having a 25% off teacher appreciation sale last week. Needless to say I was jumping for joy when I saw the fun, tell-tale packaging on my front doorstep after work today.

This past year, I had the chalkboard planner.  For the upcoming year, I decided to lighten it up a bit and go with this fun design. I could not be happier. Totally worth the splurge, in my opinion!

And no Erin Condren product is complete without a little bit of inspiration!

Have you seen those cute, oh-so-organized teacher toolboxes around Pinterest and the blogging world? Well my little organized self finally decided I just had to have one.  I ordered the drawer from Amazon and purchased some adorable labels during TPT's teacher appreciation sale.  This product fit in perfectly with my woodland-y, camp-y classroom theme and it was editable so I could customize it to fit my needs.  I love my new drawers and how everything has its own place!

I also took this time to update my sterilite drawers that hold my weekly activities.  I love how everything matches!

One of the silly things I really pride myself on is frequently displaying different student work out in the hallway.  I knew we needed something cute to wrap up the end of the year, so I grabbed this cute craftivity from First Grade, Blue Skies.  I love how creative my kids got with their little cars and loved hearing about how much they enjoyed first grade even more :)

Happy Friday!

You Are SO Appreciated!

Growing up, my mom always said that every day should be Mother's Day. I'm thinking every week should be Teacher Appreciation Week! (For anyone who thinks differently, I dare you to try making it through just one day in a first grade classroom!)

Today I am linking up to show off some products that will be available to you during the big Teachers Pay Teachers sale this Tuesday and Wednesday.  With promo code THANKYOU you can receive 28% off every item in my store! Here is a quick glimpse at some of my favorite products:

1. Surfin' Into Summer Color by Addition Printables: Engage your squirrle-y friends through the end of the year while also solidifying those addition facts with these fun printables!

2. What's the Genre? Primary Genre Study: One of my top sellers that includes printables and activities to study the different genres. 

3. Light & Sound Science Notebook: My newest product and one that I am very excited about! An interactive notebook exploring light and sound through engaging printables and hands-on activities. Aligned to the new Next Generation Science standards!

4. Place Value Bundle: Practice adding and subtracting groups of ten with this money saving bundle.

5. Primary Performance Tasks: Get your students PARCC ready with these higher-level thinking performance tasks for addition and subtraction.

Stop by my store to see what other products I have and to grab some freebies as well! Happy Teacher Appreciation Week, friends!

May Currently

Anyone else feeling the simultaneous relief/panic that May is here? On the one hand, I am itching for the end of the school year. My firsties seemed to have checked out already and work is getting more and more stressful. On the other hand, I still feel like I have so much more left to teach them before they move on to second grade! When am I going to find the time?!

Here is this month's Currently, hosted by Farley.

Listening: Recently, the boy and I have been into watching Netflix documentaries. Last night was lions and tigers. Today? Nature's Great Events. It usually consists of me squealing over all the cute animals and being irrationally upset when something is killed and/or eaten.

Loving: This is the first weekend in what seems like forever that I have had no obligations and let me tell you, it has been wonderful so far! I love being able to have some time to sit around and worry about nothing. Just what I needed!

Thinking: Is it that time in my life? I feel like it's getting to be that time in my life. My rent right now is more than I'd pay for a monthly mortgage. And it's feeling silly that the boy and I each pay rent in our own places but are with each other all the time. Decisions, decisions. I've been stalking the Zillow website like a madwoman.

Wanting: I've had a lot of inspiration for some new products but am feeling a bit stuck. I know once I push myself to get going, things will get easier. Right now, I am working on some PARCC prep for primary students, some write and wipe math practice, and some major revisions on some older products.

Needing: See above. Do we seriously only have a few weeks left?

Summer Yes: The boy and I have planned a long weekend down in the Shawnee National Forest. We thought it would be nice to have a mini-vacation to look forward to. We rented a cabin and will spend the weekend adventuring throughout the area. I also will spend some time up at home with family and friends.

Summer Hope: I'm pretty sure I said this back during the January Currently with my hopes for the new year. Has it happened? Nope. Am I beginning to get frustrated with myself? Absolutely. Plenty of teachers are in good shape and find the time/energy to get their behinds to the gym. So what is my deal? 

Summer Dream: I'll be in two classes this summer. I will finish my Masters next spring and am already starting to feel the is-this-over-yet itch. Hopefully my classes this summer don't drive me too crazy.

Five for Friday {April 3rd, 2015}

Prepare yourselves for the randomness of this post! Just one of the many reasons why I love Five for Friday!

This week, we began writing to inform.  When I introduce a new style of writing, I like the entire class to work on writing about the same topic so that we can brainstorm together.  Initially, I had trouble coming up with a topic that I knew all of my students knew enough about, but then it hit me - ME! Here we are brainstorming things we know about Ms. Nordland :)

 The warmer weather we've been having called for a new, spring-y craft in the hallway. I did a quick TPT search and found this adorable freebie from The Learning Junction.  We brainstormed spring adjectives and -ing verbs together, but the kiddos did the rest with their cinquains - I was very impressed!

My "masterpiece" from family art night - one of my favorite nights of the year!

Too cute not to share! This little boy is pretty much obsessed with one of the cuties in my class.  Excuse the blurry photo - I had to stealthily run after them to seize this photo op!

Last but not least, I came home yesterday afternoon to a handwritten thank you note in my mailbox from our assistant superintendent. Who knew this could happen?! I was on cloud nine!

April Currently

Are you as shocked as I am to be entering the home stretch?  I still have so much left to do with my first graders before the end of the year creeps up on us! 

I know I have been a terrible blogger lately.  Trust me, I have some ideas for posts and things I want to share with you all, but I never seem to have a spare second!  Okay, I have spare seconds, but I typically like to use those for naps and/or online shopping...Hopefully inspiration strikes and said posts will be coming to you soon.

But of course I couldn't miss the April 2015 edition of Farley's Currently, so here we are!

Listening: I am pretty sure that teachers have the greatest appreciation for silence :)
Loving: I am ALL about three day weekends. We have Good Friday off so tomorrow is basically my "Friday".
Thinking: I got the news today that I have a new boy starting in my class tomorrow. Of course I instantly started stressing about his arrival and am ready to meet him so I can rid myself of this anxiety!
Wanting: It's supposedly supposed to storm tomorrow and I am so ready for a good spring storm. Hopefully it happens when I can be at home cuddled up in bed.
Needing: April definitely snuck up on me.  I have two research papers and a curriculum analysis to do, to which I kept telling myself "I have plenty of time!" But now procrastinator-me has realized that there are only five weeks left in the semester. Yikes!
Paiges of Learning: I tried to get a bit creative with my blog name. I'm not sure if it worked. But hey, I think I'll keep it ;)

Happy Easter weekend!

March Currently

I don't know about you, but March certainly came in like a lion here in the Midwest! Between yesterday and today, we've accumulated almost a foot of snow.  Too bad it started too early for a snow day, right? :)

March 1st means it's time to pay my rent it's time for Currently with Farley!

Listening: While I was looking forward to some quiet time this evening, apparently my kitties had different plans. They have been tearing across my bed and leaping onto everything in sight. Hopefully they calm down before lights out!

Loving: I've been so stressed lately that I am definitely in need of some mom-time! Lisa arrives on Saturday and I cannot wait.

Thinking: I always end up with a million racing thoughts on Sunday nights. I am hoping that all goes at least mostly as planned this week!

Wanting: My best selling product is in need of a serious upgrade. I've started but can't seem to find the time to make a whole lot of progress.

Needing: Life has thrown some pretty crazy stuff at me lately to the point where it is making my emotions go all over the place. It's taking a huge conscious effort to relax and accept the things that are out of my control.

Spring Break: I'll be relaxing at my mom's house for a weekend and then hoping I can use the rest of the time to catch up on sleep and get ahead on some classroom and school-related stuff.  Spring break countdown: 10 school days!

Here's to thinking spring!

The Beginnings of Math Workshop {with Freebies for YOU!}

Attention all: I feel like I am on the verge of something good. Something really, really good. But before I get into that, let's start back at the beginning of my story:

When I heard the words math workshop, I immediately thought No, thank you.  Please, not another thing my first graders have to work at for weeks and weeks in order to become independent.  But then I took a step back and thought about how incredibly frustrated I have been teaching math lately.  Whole group is really not working.  Like, super not working.  The kids who already get it are off in outer space (more than they usually are), while my struggling kids start to drown mid-lesson and tune me out.  No one is benefitting.  Grouchy teacher is grouchy.  Something needs to change.

So the more I thought about it, the more this whole math workshop thing sounded like a good idea.  We already do readers workshop, and math workshop builds off of the same structure and routine.  By implementing them both at the beginning of the year, students should (somewhat) quickly become accustomed to the routines and expectations.

Fast forward some weeks later and here I am, the first grade facilitator for the research and implementation of math workshop.  Pause to be in awe of my fantastic responsibilities.  I am working with one second grade teacher and two third grade teachers in my building to plan professional development for the rest of our staff.  Today was our first work day and we got a lot accomplished!

Here is a picture of me reading up on math workshop this morning:

Okay, confession: That's not me. That's my cat, Jingles, reading up on her masters classes.

HERE is what we have actually been reading.  The top book is the group's favorite (and, in my opinion, the most user-friendly).

Either of these two books are a great place to start if you are considering math workshop for your classroom.  Today we worked on developing a common language for math workshop and looking at different ways teachers could begin to set it up. 

Enter: my math workshop rotation board.  Which I invite you to download, for free!

I also developed a sample of what the first few weeks of math workshop could look like in an elementary classroom.  This sheet will be passed out at our PD meeting and teachers can tweak it to their liking.  It is also yours, for free :)

Some resources I am looking at to supplement my centers/independent work:

In summary (if you're still with me after all that rambling), I am now SO pumped up for math workshop.  Stay tuned for more!