Pumpkins, Parent Conference and Pens! {and Lucy}

  Hey Gang! How are you today? I can't believe that tomorrow is the first day of October. {already!} In Utah, this is when we really notice a weather change. It might be about 80 degrees as it was today, or there may be snow on the ground. We are planning to change out the big flower pots and plant mums in them to enjoy for a while. 

We did the funniest thing yesterday. . .we left the house to go to a family birthday and we forgot about LUCY! You see, she is busy by nature (code for sometimes meddlesome) and we always put her in her kennel when we leave the house for her own safety as well the house's safety. We forgot, we were gone a couple of hours and we walked in the house and there she was! Looking at us curiously. She had gone in her kennel anyway, and waited with the door open. She was GOOD! Yay Lucy! We are so proud of her. :)

We are going to start some pumpkin activities this week and are looking forward to our annual pumpkin patch field trip week after next. Here is a little freebie in honor of the occasion . . .

Click here to download and print


Oh! I almost forgot. I also have this parent conference folder cover to share.

Click here to download and print

One last thing-I recently discovered these ink pens and I love them!

They are called "Paper Mate Profile Ballpoint Retractable Pens" I love how smoothly they write.

I hope you have a great Monday tomorrow. :)

Parent conferences are next week!  This is the student display outside my door:

I had the children write their three favorite things about first grade on the paper.  Some of them even said, "My Teacher!"  You can get the writing paper here.

Little Things, Parent Conference Printable

Happy Monday everyone! Here is my big dilemma: How I am going to watch "Dancing With the Stars" and "The Voice" tonight? How will I decide which one to record? A trivial worry to be sure, but isn't part of life enjoying the little things? 

What is a "little thing" that you really enjoy?

This weekend we took a drive and looked at some beautiful fall colors. I was going to post a picture for you but I think my hubby took that SD card out of town with him for a couple of days! Oh well, when he gets back . . .

We have SEP's next week (parent conference) . Have you had yours already? It is fun for the kids to give parents a peek into their world at school. I made this little packet to give parents some inside info!

Click here to download and print if you would like . . .

Have a wonderful evening!

Darling Cloud Book with Printable

Thanks to Camille for the cute cloud stuff she posted this week! In keeping with this theme I wanted to tell you about a DARLING book that my awesome student teacher found . . .

We had not heard of this book before! It follows the adventures of a little cloud named "Cloudette" who is "smaller then the average cloud". The message of the story is one of determination and perseverance. The illustrations are charming!

 Click here to read more about it and see a preview on Amazon

A little freebie to go with it . . .

Click here to download and print

Cloud People! So much FUN!

I am finally starting to get into the swing of being back at school.  It has been crazy with the new common core and a lot more kiddos in our classroom, plus being a mom.  I need about 5 more hours to update our blog, do our massive pile of laundry, and clean my classroom.  Has anyone else felt that the start of the school year has been a little more crazy this year (possibly it has just been me). We have been studying about clouds.  I made this cute activity to go with our study.  I used it for an assessment.  It was so much fun!!!  I borrowed this idea from the First Grade Parade.  Here is the link...http://thefirstgradeparade.blogspot.com/search/label/weather   Here is a picture of the finished product.   

I also have a vocabulary book, fact and opinion, adjective activity, and experiment.  

Click here to download!

I made a Word Work discovery!

Do you ever get so used to what you have been doing that you forget to look for something new? That happened to me this week.

 We are just beginning our training on Word Work in Daily 5. I have the usual assortment of  magnetic letters, tiles, doodle boards, etc. Well, as I was standing in Camille's room visiting with her during recess I started poking into her little Word Work drawers. (We just happened to be standing in front of them and I couldn't resist. We are pretty casual in our grade level and look at each other's stuff all the time, which is great!) 

Anyway, lo and behold I discovered 2 NEW things. It was very exciting! I am sure they aren't new to anyone else, but in my defense, I have no little children at home anymore and so my exposure is rather limited. This combined with the fact that my husband is the Walmart shopper, means I am somewhat sheltered! ;) 

Here they are:

This prompted me to head back run to my computer to see where I could purchase these items.  (I found them at Amazon, but they may also be available at your Walmart and Target.) 

I decided to redo my Word Work area, so I made some new tags for my canvas drawers. 

Click here to download

Jiffy Pop Printables

Hey Gang! What are you up to this evening? We are getting ready to watch a football game.

I wanted to tell you that I have been back to working on my personal blog this week after neglecting it for the entire summer.  . .I realized something this summer . . .I seem to be incapable of accomplishing a lot when I have lots of extra time on my hands. 

Weird, I know.

All summer I knew there were many things to do, but for some reason without the time schedule/constraints of the school year, I spent a lot of time spinning my wheels.

 Anyway, back to the subject at hand. I have recently posted a few freebies that make great neighbor or volunteer gifts. They are printable seasonal covers that you attach to a container of Jiffy Pop Popcorn. There is also a picture of one I made and decorated with ribbon over on the blog. I would LOVE for you to pop over and follow me. I will be sharing decorating ideas, freebies and  other random things that strike my fancy! Here is the link
The Robin's Nest

Thinking about Pumpkins . . .Book, Glyph Freebie

Hey everyone! Happy Tuesday. Are you going to watch "The Voice" tonight? I am waiting for it to come on.

Guess What? I have been thinking about Pumpkins! I mentioned earlier that I love all things FALL. :)
I made a very simple pumpkin glyph that I am sharing tonight.  .  .pictures and download links for patterns etc. below . . .Do you have a favorite book about pumpkins? Let me know if you do! I really like this one . . .

Click here to download and print glyph instructions
Click here to download and print patterns

Have a great day tomorrow!

What Do I Do When I Finish a Piece of Writing . . .

Hi everyone. I hope you had a good Monday. We were supposed to have rain here today and so far it hasn't happened. I think the unstable weather is contributing to my SiNuS hEaDaChE!

We are on our 17th day of school today and are getting our routines down. We are also building our stamina in Read to Self and Work on Writing. I made this poster today to assist in our writing routines and thought I would make it in a few extra colors and share. . .

Click here to download and print

Have a restful evening!

Share a Recipe Linky Party!

Hey everyone! I have a recipe I want to share with you. It is from "The Pioneer Woman", and it is yummy!   We have made it a couple of times. It is called Italian Meatball Soup . . .Here is a picture  . . .

Here is a link to the recipe on "The Pioneer Woman's" blog

So . . .I thought it would be lots of fun to have a Recipe Linky Party!

 Here's what to do . . .

1. Decide on a favorite recipe. You can either share the recipe or a link to the recipe if it is available online.
2. Link up below.
3. Spread the word.
4. One lucky participant will win a $10 Amazon gift card at the end of the party, to be chosen by Random Number Generator.

Have fun and let's gather a lot of recipes!

Farm Community Characteristics Study

Farm Communities . . .

Click here to see it on Amazon

Click here to download and print

Progressive Wall . . .City Art Project

Hi everyone! We have had so much fun this week learning about different types of communities and neighborhoods. As I posted last week, we made a cute neighborhood out of paper sacks. Well, yesterday we made a city by making skyscrapers out of construction paper. This is working nicely for our display and our discussion of "city" and "suburb". Here is a picture of our progressive wall . . .

Suburb Characteristics Study

Suburbs . . .

Click here to see it on Amazon

Click here to download and print

City Characteristics Study

Here is another book in this series we have been reading . . .

Click here to see it on Amazon

I forgot to mention that these books have great photos and are great for introducing non-fiction text features.
This is to go with it . . .

Click here to download and print