Let's fix this Pencil Problem, Shall we?

*Mic check* Hello? Anyone there?! Lol.
So it's been two years since my last post! Wow... I'm so sorry. My life is chaos with two kids. To the person that said "One child is a pet, two is a zoo": You could not be more correct! Lol.

Anywho, a few changes have happened since I last posted:

1. I switched schools- BEST. DECISION. EVER.
2. When I made that switch, I went back to teaching 1st grade bilingual (LOVE!)
3. This year, I'm teaching 2nd grade.... monolingual! Interestingly enough though, I teach in a very large latino area, so the Spanglish still stands. =) Yay!

This year, has been pretty rough- I have 34 students! Yikes! (You don't even want to know what my guided reading looks like... it's basically a juggling act [with chainsaws! LOL!])
With 34 students, you can imagine how many pencils one would usually go through in a day- the beginning of the school year had me wondering if student were seriously eating their pencils; needless to say, it was a mess INTERESTING to say the least!

After all the BOY (Beginning Of Year) transfers, I was FINALLY able to sort it all out! I assigned all my students a number (this is their number for the entire school year), collected ALL THE PENCILS, and got to work!

First I placed all the pencils in a plastic shoe bin similar to this one.

(Actual Picture)

Then, I got these bad boys out and numbered them 1-34.

(Actual picture)

I placed the dot labels on each pencil and then layered them with scotch tape (so that kiddos didn't take their number off).

Here's what happens afterward:

• Give each child their assigned pencil.
• Explain, to students that when they find a missing pencil, they need to either find its owner OR give it to the teacher.
• You can do one of two things:
  1. Give them pencils every two weeks (yes! I swear they will not lose them!)
  2. Exchange their pencils for a new one when the old one no longer fits in your classroom sharpener.

Easy Peasy, Right?
It's kind of tedious at first, but I promise you that you'll have a bin full of pencils!

Here is an actual pic of my current pencil bin (keep in mind that I have 34 students!)... I took the picture 5 minutes before I wrote this post!

Try it out and let me know if it works for you, too!

Almost a year to the day!

Hi, Guys!
I always tend to neglect my little blog here. =(
I was actually shocked to sign and in and realize that it was almost one year ago exactly that I posted my last post... let me tell you that it has been a busy year with many, many, many changes!

I'll start with brief family updates:
After having the baby, I went on a life hiatus. It's a pretty surreal thing to even type, but in a way I think I had a mild form of Post-Partum Depression; I wasn't unhappy with my husband or my children- I was unhappy with myself. I'll spare you the details, but just know that mentally I'm in a better place and I'm ready to take on the world! =)
My baby boy will be 14 months on the 11th. He is an amazing baby that definitely keeps me on my toes! 24 pounds of healthy meat and bones! Lol. My oldest boy, just started 3rd grade this school year. I can't believe how big he's getting and how much he's grown! It makes me sad to think how quickly time flies and how truly precious spending time with them is. Being a mom is freaking amazing!

Professional Updates:
I left my the school where I've spent most of my teaching career. I think working there was a contributing factor to my depression- I felt unappreciated, overworked, and unwanted. Who wants to feel that way in the profession of their dreams?! NOT ME! I made changes... I went on one interview and killed it! I was offered the position the next day and am back teaching a grade that I love. The only thing I miss about my last school, aside from my coworkers, is how close it was to my home! But you know what? I'll drive an extra 30 minutes for my happiness and peace of mind any day! =)
Also, I'm back at school! I'm FINALLY working on my Bilingual Endorsement. I haven't taken a college class in almost 10 years, but so far I've kept up and have managed to get good grades along the way. =)

Things are going great!

Onto my original reason for updating my blog....
October Fluency Task Cards!

Yay!!!! This is my first product of 2015! I'm excited to share it with you all! For the next 24 hours, the FULL Product will be free! After that, it will become a purchasable product! Don't forget to leave feedback! =)

Click HERE to get product at my store

Click HERE to get a sample of these task cards!

Hello October!

Hi, guys! As always, it's been a while. I hope you all are well!
I'm still here... alive... and ticking. =) I just have had my hands full lately taking care of my precious baby boy. He'll be 2 months old this Saturday and, although I am grateful that he is growing nice and healthy, I'm saddened that our time together will be coming to an end in 6 short weeks. =(

This is my baby boy! Isn't he precious?! Don't mind me... I didn't brush my hair this day. Side Note: The photo shoot was supposed to be baby ONLY. As you can see, I was NOT prepared to be in the picture! Lol.

Enough about mommyhood... I don't want to start crying mid-post. Lol.

I think in my previous post I may have mentioned that I was moved from a primary classroom to a 4th grade classroom (if I didn't mention it, I apologize. I was too lazy to check just now.) I'm still so saddened by that news. =( I'm trying to figure out how to win the lotto so I could skip this whole school year and go back for the 2015-2016 school year..... but I guess I should start playing first. Lol.

Would be nice, but a MILLION would be better!

OK... *BACK TO REALITY*

In honor of our new month and my new addition, I decided to make a new set of Repeated Reading Task Cards for you to add to your bag of Spanglish Resources.
During the Cinco de Mayo Bilingual Blog Hop, I added a set of Spring Themed Repeated Reading Task Cards that, according to the feedback, were a big hit. This time around I've made a Fall Edition of those exact task cards.

Click HERE to get your very own sample of my new set!
OR
Click HERE to purchase the Full Set of 20 Task Cards (Note: Product will be FREE for the next 24 hours Grab it while you can!)

Until NEXT TIME! Ta! Ta!

A Letter to My First Day Self

Hey, Guys (and by guys, I mean AWESOME and AMAZING readers!): Can't believe I haven't been on here in two months. I was doing so well! I guess, I'm going to have to use pull the Pregnancy Card! Currently I am in my 9th month! I will be 38 weeks on Monday and will be induced the following Monday if baby doesn't decide to come on his own, so this may be my last post in a while (I know; Surprise, surprise. Lol.)
Many changes have happened this summer and a surprise grade change was one of them!

I guess you could now consider me a 4th grade teacher! I'm super nervous as I've been teaching 1st grade for the last three years.

Don't get me wrong, I'm looking forward to growing as an educator, but I wish I wouldn't have been changed until the following year. After all, I am having a baby and missing out on the beginning of a brand new school year and a brand new grade! I have new students to meet (we all do), rules and procedures to establish, and standardized tests to prepare them for, yet, I won't be able to do it until mid November. I fear that I'm going to return to sheer and utter chaos! UGH. It's super frustrating!

To calm my nerves a bit, I decided to write a letter to my First Day self. A letter to be written today and NOT TO BE OPENED until the first Day of School! At first, the thought was a little silly; after all, I'm writing a letter to myself! It made me feel as though I had no friends. Lol. As I began, however, it was a very calming process and made me feel more at ease. I thought it would be a good idea to share my letter with all of you and challenge you to do the same. If you can't be honest with yourself and encourage yourself in a time of need, then you need to reevaluate the kind of advice you give others... if there is anyone you could and should be honest with, it is YOU! =)

Just in case you were wondering why my paragraph breaks were incorrectly placed: those aren't paragraph breaks, they are the dividers in between the screen shot images. =)

I will end this blog post with my August Currently:

What are you up to at the moment?

Last stop in the Bilingual Blog Hop! =)

Thank you all for stopping by! This is such an incredible opportunity to be a part of and I can't thank Nancy Alvarez enough for putting it all together!

Aren't these freebies AMAZING!?
Bilingual resources are so hard to come by and for the next couple of days you get to snag quite a few at no cost to you!

Remember that this blog hop only runs for a few days so be sure to grab your freebies before they become purchasable products at our TPT stores!

With that said, let's get this show on the road!
In one of my recent blog posts I posted a sample set of Repeated Reading Fluency Task Cards. Each card in the set has a sentence that is reached through repeated reading.
Such as this:

These cards have worked wonders with both my struggling students and non struggling students. They are fun, engaging, and the sense of accomplishment that comes along when reading the whole card is PRICELESS.

As part of this Bilingual Blog Hop I am giving away my brand new set of Repeated Reading Spring Fluency Spanish Task Cards (sheesh, that was a mouthful!) for your educational use!

There are 12 Task Cards in all, each with it's own spring themed sentence. I usually print them out on card stock and laminate them, so that they last me the whole year!

Click HERE to grab your very own copy!

If you are one of the lucky few to snag a copy, please leave me a comment with some feedback. I would greatly appreciate it!

Follow my blog to get the latest updates on ideas, printables, and other awesome resources for your Spanglish Classroom. ;)

If you missed any of these fabulous freebies, hop back over to Nancy's at Teaching With Nancy to restart the Bilingual Blog Hoppin' and get ALL the fabulous freebies before they are no longer free!

Click HERE to be on your way!
Happy Hopping, Everyone!

Oops... I Did It Again!

LOL. Can I just say that I couldn't let another St. Patrick's Day go by without letting you know about my mischievous actions (INSERT EVIL LAUGH HERE)!
Let me take you back to St. Patrick's Day 2013 (when I was teaching a 1st and 2nd grade split classroom)...

Linsay over at First Grade With a Twist made this adorable St. Patrick's Day Scavenger Hunt:


We did the unit and the kids LOVED it!
They used their SCHEMA! They INFERRED! They PROBLEM SLOVED! They FOUND THE GOLD! I mean, the morning, could not have gone any better!
BUT, SOMEHOW, I MANAGED TO SCREW IT UP....
We got through our activities, then the kids started hearing small random noises here and there; in there eyes it was this guy:

but in reality it was the heating vents.
No big deal right?!
WRONG!
They were OBSESSED with these noises, so I sit them on the rug and decide to look where they told me to look.
I looked in the behind the shelves, in our bathroom, in our large closet and NOTHING.
Then a student says: "Teacher, that closet wasn't open before," as she points to my smaller closet/large cabinet.
So, of course, I tiptoe toward it and, in my quietest whisper, ask "should I check in here?!" They ALL nod "yes!"....
that's when I got my sneaky idea....
I slowly open the cabinet door and as soon as it is wide open, I let out the most blood curdling scream I can possibly do! "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Imagine 30 students with the following faces:

LOL!!! Is it terrible that I found it so freaking amusing?! I mean, I was surprised there were no wet or brown spots on my classroom rug (Thank GOD!)! Thinking about that moment still tickles my funny bone. =)
By the time lunch rolled around, I could not get them to stop talking about that darn Leprechaun so I figured that while they were out of the room, I would make the naughty Leprechaun go away by leaving a trail of tiny footprints from my trashcan to the bathroom, making it seem as though he flushed himself down the toilet...
Perfect plan right?!
WRONG!!!
When I came back from lunch, I found every single one of them looking like this:

They were crying because the Leprechaun was REALLY there! Lol.
Needless to say, my plan backfired, and I vowed never to scare them again.....

Fast forward to St. Patrick's Day 2014.....
I DID IT AGAIN!
(INSERT EVIL LAUGH HERE)

First Post of 2014!

I'm FINALLY out of hibernation! Yay!!! I can't believe my last post was back in November! I've been way off track, but to be fair I've been a pretty busy gal. =)

Many things have happened since my last post, the biggest of all is.... I'm expecting baby number 2!!! I'm still trying to wrap my head around the whole thing; after all, my first baby is going to be 7 years old in 8 days! I'm a bit nervous, as I'm due in August... right smack at the beginning of the school year. I have so many questions... when is a good time to return? Should I nurse or do formula this time around? AHHHH! Decisions, decisions.

OK, enough ranting/rambling... now that I'm feeling like I'm getting my energy back, I decided to get back into the groove of things.
In my last post I told you guys about Angeli over at Extra Special Teaching inspiring me to create a Spanish version of her November Fluency Task Cards. While stalking browsing though her TPT Store, I saw another set of cards that I thought were brilliant and thought to myself, "I sooooo need to make something like this in Spanish!"
Well, guess what?! I did!

About the product:
The full product is a set of 20 spanish task cards with repeated reading sentences; so basically it's a sentence that flows like a pyramid with each word building on the last word until a full sentence is formed. These particular cards are only include sentences with the syllables m+vowel, p+vowel, s+vowel, t+vowel and the articles "la" and "el".

CLICK HERE for a sample of this product!
For the FULL product, CLICK HERE to go to my TPT Store!

If you grab the sample and like what you see, please let me know. I would love to hear your thoughts, opinions, and suggestions.