Hawk's Nest

Monday, July 15, 2013

Monday Made it 7/15/13 and BIG change.

I've been a special educator for the past 7 years. Those 7 years have been spent in a self contained classroom setting teaching students who have behavior and emotional disabilities. This year I had 13 students ranging from K to 4th grade. During the school year I took my Praxis so that I could teach regular education which brings me to my big transition......(drum role please......)
I'm going to be a 1st grade teacher!!!!

Woop Woop!

As I have been preparing for this new journey I stumbled upon a $20.00 laminator at Costco and began laminating my life away (wasn't much of a laminator in EC)

found some cute FREE visual directions from TPT

Then after endless searching of Behavior Clip charts to use for classroom management with a large group of students I found a super cute FREE one from TPT

A cupcake for the Teacher

Then I busted out my Mr. Sketch markers to give my clothespins a 'watercolor" feel

Going to put their numbers on them and I think I am going to tie pretty ribbons for their "hall of fame" recognition.

I also made myself a wreath for my new classroom.

Be sure to link up at

Monday Made It

and check out all the other awesome teacher creations posted every Monday

Friday, July 5, 2013

Classroom Management/Organization from this past school year

My past year was one of the most difficult years I have endured as a teacher thus far. This left me NO time for blog writing nor blog reading. There are some changes/transitions coming up for me as a teacher and I will post about them as soon as I can. In the meantime I thought I would share some things from my class this past year.

Mini Trashcans:

I found these at Dollar General when they were on clearance and ended getting them for .30 cents a piece. I bought enough for each "pod" or grouping of desks so that students wouldn't have to constantly get up and throw trash away. At the end of the day our "neat and tidy" helper would empty the smaller trash cans into the big trashcans as part of their class job.

Classroom Finger Signals:

These are taught at the beginning of the year as we cover our Survival Guides (all the expectations and procedures for the year). Works wonders and eliminates all the blurt outs and constant questions.

Line Expectations/Reminders:

I found the 4-S line on Pinterest last year. The Line expectations poster is a reminder of how we are to line up (which is covered in our Survival Guides). Super great reference to have for lining up. We don't exit the classroom until the expectations are being met.

It includes visuals for our emergent readers as I had K-4 this past year.

Class rules tied into PBIS.

Our school mascot is the Eagle so at our school we SOAR which is the acronym for our core values (show respect, outstanding conduct, achievement, and responsibility). Each of our classroom rules got plugged into which part of SOARing they reflected. When students are asked how they were SOARing during various activities, they knew which one of our rules they followed (or did not follow).

More posting coming soon. Trying to get back into the swing of making my presence known in blog land.

PS. I am on BlogLovin so please don't forget to come follow me!

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Follow Me on BlogLovin!

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/4059323/?claim=fn34e643bmm">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Jumping on the bandwagon and following all my favorite teacher blogs! Be sure you follow my blog as well:)

Monday, July 16, 2012

Made it Monday!

So as I have been blog stalking this summer, I have loved checking all the Made it Monday projects that Tara at 4th grade Frolics has been hosting. Here's the latest link up partay here: Made it Monday 7

During a "drive by does Target already have school supplies out?" trip, I saw these large plastic totes stacked on shelves:

and thought "future home to all things recess"

I could see my recess ball bag and other items fitting perfectly, not to mention it will keep things off of the floor ("everything has a home")

So I couldn't just leave it lonely lime green.

I painted it of course

H for Hawk (duh)

After seeing these Smart Beads on Pinterest

Source: dandelionsdragonflies.blogspot.com via Jennie on Pinterest

I made my own:

blue tub is from Dollar Tree

Beads are also from Dollar Tree

ribbon is from my craft room

so excited to use these in ze classroom

Now go make something....it's Monday

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Where the Wild Things are

Source: etsy.com via Lisa on Pinterest

Here are some activities/projects we did during the last weeks of school after reading Where the Wild Things are.

Text to Self connections: When I feel Wild

and of course I had to make my own Max face:)

We also made Wild things masks

this craft was simple and involved paper plates, construction paper, yarn, and foam sheets

The kids loved them.

I was very disappointed in the movie as I had hoped maybe doing a compare/contrast lesson afterwards. After previewing it myself I was very let down with the quality of the movie.

But the book still rocks on.

"Let the wild rumpus begin!"

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Confessions...

As my first year of having a blog I have failed horribly. But I'm not giving up. 4 more student days, a few teacher workdays, and then SUMMER BREAK FREEDOM! I will be updating soon. Until then...don't give up on my small corner in the blogging universe.