Somebody got a makeover...

Well, my blog did! I have been toying with the "theme" for a while. I knew I didn't want to invest in a custom layout seeing as how I'm not consistent with posting here (bad, bad blogger.) I switched up my original layout to a cute owl theme, which I liked because owls are all over my classroom - this is a throwback to my Kappa Kappa Gamma days. As cute as it was, it wasn't really me. I came across this cute, free background on shabbyblogs.com and then designed a new header and sidebars using a combo of MyMemories Suite (love this!) and....Microsoft Word. I used the same cartoon-y girl I purchased for my lifestyle blog design and even incorporated lipstick and a Starbucks latte. Maybe the cute, new design will get me motivated to post more regularly?

One can hope. :)

Original header

Take 2

That's more like it. :)

A little shameless self promotion ;)

Hi all! If you follow my life blog, then you know I have recently started my own store on Teachers Pay Teachers. With only a few months left of school, now seemed like the perfect time for a little shameless self-promotion. I really love creating digital posters and worksheets for the littles in my class and was thinking I should pay it forward and share these with other teachers - while earning a few dollars for our little family. If you use Teachers Pay Teachers, I would just *love* if you could take a second to follow my store. Maybe I'll post something that would be perfect for your classroom?

If you're not already using Teachers Pay Teachers, you MUST sign up right now. It is just the most amazing resource for teachers. Period. Plus the money goes to other underpaid teachers just like you - not some big company that mass produces materials. Win-win.

Here are a few items from my store. Its just a baby right now but I'll be growing it throughout the spring and summer.

Word/Study Spelling Menu

This is such a fun alternative to boring, monotonous spelling homework. The littles choose an activity from each course to complete during the week - the possibilities are endless. Both spelling and word study titles included. 

Polka dot Daily 5 Posters

Read to Self, Read to Someone, Listen to Reading, Word Work, Work on Writing, and Work with the Teacher included. Each activity has a different color polka dot background, child-friendly explanation of the activity and a cute graphic. 

Owl Binder Packet

Cute cover, OWL binder "Do's" rules list, and table of contents included. This is such a cute way to get your kiddos organized. 

The spelling/word work menu is my current freebie. If you're a teacher, I would just LOVE if you could check it out and rate me since I am just getting started. If you have a TPT store, leave the link in the comments so I can follow you too. I just love getting resources from other teachers and supporting them! 

Thanks a million!

When a Class Pet Dies

This post has been sitting half-finished in my drafts for over a year {oops!} and hails from my days teaching Kindergarten innercity. If you've spent any amount of time here at Lipstick, Lattes, and Lesson Plans then you know my time there was challenging to say the least, especially at the beginning of the school year when I was still working on routines and behavior.

I don't know how many of you know anything about African dwarf frogs but my kindergarteners would be happy to share a thing or two.

via google images

I was hired about a month after the start of the school year last year after the original Kindergarten teacher left unexpectedly. The African dwarf frogs (2 of them) were already a part of my classroom and my students had done some pretty extensive research on them. Did you know that African dwarf frogs live their entire lives underwater but have lungs so they must always come up to the surface to breathe? Or that they cannot be out of water for more than 20 minutes or they will dry out?

African dwarf frogs need exactly two pieces of frog food every other day. I read that in the wild they are actually scavengers and eat all sorts of things so this never really made sense to me. However, I was told to be very careful and make sure they were fed this specific amount of food. We picked jobs in my classroom every week so each week a different student had the opportunity to be the "veterinarian" and was responsible for the frogs.

It was my second month of school and we were working a lot on behavior. When I started in the classroom, it was common for the kids to bite each other (and me), throw chairs, and curse at each other. A day where these things didn't happen was considered a success. The African dwarf frogs were the last thing on my mind.

Then one morning my co-teacher was absent, making our morning routine a little more hectic than usual. We had a school wide assembly and I was getting my kids unpacked and lined up so that they could go to the gym. Then, one of my little girls yells out, "Look! The frog is dead!"

This caused a lot of excitement for my kiddos but seeing as how we were in a time crunch, I did the only logical thing I could think of at the time and positioned myself between their eyesight and the frogs. "Oh no, " I said, calmly, "I think he's just sleeping. I was working so late last night he is probably very tired. Let's go to the assembly and let him take a nap."

So off we went to the gym for our assembly. What I didn't mention was that there had been a little mishap with the frogs earlier in the week. My veterinarian was a real profession, feeding the frogs the exact right amount of food on the days they were supposed to be fed. Unfortunately, one of my little boys decided to dump some extra food in the tank to "help." I don't really know if he was trying to help the veterinarian or if he just wanted to see what would happen. He was not my top direction follower and was one of those students who liked to test the limits.

When we returned from the assembly, we only had a few minutes before our special, so I ushered my kiddos to the carpet for our whole group literacy lesson. Luckily, the frog tank was out of view. When I dropped them off for their special, I went back to the classroom to investigate. And sure enough the frog was still there in the tank and was now floating at the surface of the water, belly up.

The problem with this was that I am not really a frog person. If I had been able to choose my own class pet it would have been a singular beta fish. Or perhaps a floppy bunny because I prefer mammals. It would not have been an African dwarf frog. And it most certainly would not have been TWO African dwarf frogs.

My co-teacher liked the frogs a lot more than I did so I considered just moving the tank out of the kids view and letting her deal with the situation when she returned in the afternoon. This is a major benefit of team teaching. I sent her a quick text message to ask her expert frog opinion. She texted back asking me if I was sure he was dead. I said I thought so and she suggested waiting a little bit longer. This sounded good to me because I had no idea how I was going to remove him from the tank.

But I couldn't stop thinking about the second frog. So down the hall I went to one of the other Kindergarten teacher's rooms. I asked her if she knew anything about African dwarf frogs, which she didn't. Then, I told her I was pretty sure one of ours was dead. "Just dump the whole tank," she suggested, "Like you would a fish."

"But what about the other frog?" I asked.

She asked me if the poor second frog was still in the tank with the floating dead one. I embarrassedly admitted that I was. We decided I would somehow have to remedy this because this was probably contaminating the water and my class really didn't need to deal with the loss of two pets. She and I went back to my room and peered into the tank, trying to think of how we could get the frog out. Then, my principal peeked in and I told him about the situation, hoping he would offer to remove the frog, which he did not. He did tell me what an important teachable moment this was for my kids.

Thank heavens that another teacher came into my room right at that moment who had more experience with amphibians than I did. She used a net to remove the frog for me and we carried him downstairs to the faculty restroom for a proper burial.

After lunch, I broke the news to my kids. We talked about how he had been a special part of our class but that this was a natural part of the life cycle. Those who had lost grandparents or other family members shared their stories and they made cards for the frog during snack.

Had our school been located in a more suburban area, we probably would have taken a field trip outside and buried him together. However, being innercity, even our playground didn't have actual grass.

When my co-teacher returned in the afternoon, I recounted the day's events to her. By this point, at least since the frog had now been buried, I thought it was all pretty hilarious. I don't have a class pet this year, though, although I am tentatively considering a gold fish for next year. For the time being, I'm just sticking with plants.

Have any of you experienced the death of a class pet? How did you handle it? 

The Elf on the Shelf in the classroom pt. 2

As the holidays approached in room 211, Jingles' mischeif continued. The first week was of course a little rough, being that Jingles lost his magic when one of my little boys touched him. Following directions is an important life skill, friends. We got back on track after using the Elf Magic Recovery Dust that Santa sent through overnight express mail to our classroom. 

My kiddos came in to find Jingles peering over the role sheet with his own little pencil and paper, crafting out a naughty and nice list. 

The next day my kiddos searched long and hard for him before they finally found Jingles hiding in a pocket chart. 

I was in a little bit of a hurry trying to snap a photo the following day but sneaky Jingles changed the date one our schedule to December 25. 

On Thursday he was front and center on our easel, holding hands with a stuffed animal from our classroom. 

On Friday of week 2, my kids came in and couldn't find him anywhere! There were some clues, though. Sparkly footprints all over the room...

So my kids searched and searched...

..until they finally found Jingles hiding back in the listening center eating a pancake one of my kids made for him the day before. And yes, this is a real, elf-sized pancake.

On Monday of the week of holiday vacation, my kids came in to find that Jingles had built his own little house in the classroom library. 

My kiddos are too sweet. They thought this must mean that he was cold. The next day, they found him watching over them from the mail center. They fed him a snack and built him a house. 

Since Jingles now had a nice warm house, he climbed into bed for the next day.

By the Thursday before the Holiday break, it appeared that Jingles was getting a little homesick. He was sitting on the North Pole on the globe.

On Friday, the last day before break, my kids came in to find that Jingles had die-cut snowflakes and spread them out ALL over the room to make a white Christmas-party for them. He sat on the bookshelf, holding one of his creations. 

Jingles has gone back to the North Pole, at least until next year. One of my girls drew his portrait, though, so we'll always remember him.

Fellow teachers (and parents), what are your Elf on the Shelf ideas for next year?

The Elf on the Shelf in the classroom

I just love the holidays. This is absolutely my favorite time of the year. Teaching third grade, there is something magical about my students at this time of year, too. Maybe its because this is one of the last years where they whole-heartedly believe in Santa. 

I've been laughing over some of the cute pins I've seen of Elf on the Shelf ideas and since the W household won't be having any kiddos for many Christmases to come, I decided to get an Elf for my class. He arrived last Monday in a freezing cold box straight from the North Pole. I wish I had taken a picture of it in the morning when I prepared it, but I totally forgot in the hurry to get everything for the day ahead ready. I wrapped the elf up with a letter from Santa in red bulletin board paper, addressed it to our class, and put a pretend stamp on. Then, I put the box in the freezer for a half an hour while I got everything else ready for the day and started morning meeting. I asked my morning parapro to take a form down to the office for me and she returned carrying the package, saying it had just been delivered. The kids were ecstatic when we opened the package and they named our elf Jingles. We sat Jingles on top of our bookshelf then went about our morning routine. 

The kids had gym in the classroom because there was a holiday concert rehearsal in the gym. Luckily, while I was making copies, we had a fire drill. I came outside and met up with my class, who were in gym. They finished up gym outside (where the game was going to happen anyway) and when everyone got back inside, our sneaky little elf had changed the date on the white board to December 25.

I found some cute freebies on teachers pay teachers and made my kids an elf journal to record Jingles' mischief. They have to complete it in their own time (snack, after morning work, etc.) and it isn't required but they all seem to be interested in doing it. 

Some of my kiddos took it upon themselves to write letters to Jingles in their spare time. 

And not wanting to open a can of worms for the next fourteen days, Jingles wrote one form letter back.

On Tuesday, sneaky Jingles was hiding on top of the projector for the smart board. At some point during the day, he fell off, which the kids loved because they though he was so intently listening to our discussion that he slipped off. Luckily Jingles was unharmed so I sat him back on the shelf. Only adults are allowed to touch Santa's scout elves, as you may remember from the book. We went about our business and then as we were cleaning up our Daily 5 centers, the unthinkable happened. Someone touched the elf. 

Most of my kiddos thought this wouldn't be a big deal but a couple of them were really stressing over it. And sure enough, when they came in in the morning, Jingles still sat right where we left him and all their letters were left unanswered. The only thing that was different, was that there was a letter from Santa. I wrote a pretty cute little poem about the situation but I'll keep in private in case I ever want to do an elf on the shelf unit on teachers pay teachers. Some of my students were really upset but I thought this was a good teachable moment about following directions. They wrote apology letters to Santa and I hurried out at lunch to mail them to the North Pole. 

Even after apologizing, nothing changed. Jingles sat still all day. He was even still sitting in the same place the next morning. But there was another letter waiting from Santa. Inside was a second letter and a package of elf magic recover dust, which I sprinkled on Jingles.

Jingles probably would have stayed still for one more day to finish teaching a lesson about following directions, but one of my students' elves was hiding in her bookbag that morning so I felt like they needed to get into some mischief together. At lunch, they made a snowflake chain but left all the scrap pieces of paper on the carpet for us to clean up. Naughty, naughty elves but boy were my third graders happy that Jingles had his magic back.

My kids made paper ornaments for our little desktop tree throughout the week. Then, on Friday, Jingles hung a gold garland to help decorate the tree. Ten more days until break - I wonder what mischief he'll get into between now and then. ;)

The Emergency Room

Well it seems I've kind of abandoned my teaching blog. I apologize - it seems keeping up with it is the last thing on my mind after work sometimes. I have started working at my new job and am so excited about the year ahead of us in 3rd grade.

Moving schools was such a great move for me professionally. I'm able to teach in a style that I feel is best practice. My school day is shorter so I have more time to plan my lessons after school and it doesn't cut into my personal life as much. I can wear nice clothes to work without them being ruined and I'm generally just in a better mood. With all of this being said, there are moments where I feel a little guilty.

On the last day of school last year, we had a staff meeting after the kids went home as kind of a "summer send-off." All of the administration spoke and our curriculum supervisor said something along the lines of...

If you were a doctor you could choose to work in a private practice where you could go home early and have a flexible schedule. Where you didn't have to handle life or death situations every single day and where you could have dinner with your family. Or you could work in the emergency room. The emergency room where you're always on call, where you never get a moment to sit down, where the stress level is high, and where you have to make life or death decisions every day. But you would be making the biggest difference and helping the people who need it most. By working here, you are working in the emergency room.

Which is true. In my school last year, I was working in a school where I was really needed. The kids needed good role models and dedicated teachers. Which felt good, but also took a lot out of me.

So at moments, I feel guilty for where I am right now. But at the same time, I feel like I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be. My school now reminds me so much of the school where I worked immediately after I graduated in South Carolina and was so happy. Its a good fit and the kids still need me. They need me to be a good example too and they need my passion for teaching and my love for trying new, best practice approaches. And I feel pretty fortunate to have a job that several hundred other teachers applied for. It is going to be the best year this year at my new school but I can't help saying a prayer for the kids and my former coworkers in "the emergency room" that they have the best year, too.

Big changes for Lipstick, Lattes, and Lesson Plans!

Over the next month, I hope to add a couple reflection posts about my school year last year. There are a couple funny stories and cute pictures that I want to share. I'm super motivated to get these posted because there are some big changes coming for Lipstick, Lattes, and Lesson Plans next school year!

Get ready for...

Lipstick, Lattes, and Lesson Plans, Adventures in a 3rd Grade Classroom!