Christmas Break!

Hope that everyone is enjoying their time off as much as we are!!  We love spending time with our families and being able to rest up from school.  One of the things that we wanted to share that we enjoyed and thought was cute was an idea that one of our 2nd grade teachers got our school started on.  She started it back in October and it's where classes can "Boo" each other.  Around Halloween we would "Boo" other classrooms by leaving a bag of candy at their classroom door.  Once your classroom has been picked, you put up your "We have been Booed!" sign.  So we did this again around Christmas and this time we "Elfed" each other.  The students loved picking which classroom they wanted to send candy to and "prank."  We have included pictures to help explain this whole idea better.  Thanks to our 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. Cole for this cute and fun idea to do around the holidays. She sent out an email to all staff to explain how this worked and it was a lot of fun to include the students and have them play amongst each other.  Our students enjoyed getting the older students on the other hallway.  You can change this up and maybe use it for Valentines, any holiday, or really any excuse to prank other classrooms.  Hope that everyone enjoys their break!

Pictures from Grinch Day!

Here are our pictures from Grinch Day!  We had so much fun!  It's an exhausting, but fun day for the staff and students!  On Grinch Day, our Ms. Jones dresses up as the Grinch.  She will then come around in the afternoon and visit each class and give a special treat to the students.  It usually is green candy canes.  Students and staff wear green all day on Grinch Day.  All of our activities that day are Grinch related.  We are so grateful that our school allows us to do these fun, silly days for the students.  The students really look forward, and REALLY enjoy meeting the Grinch!  I was unable to take a picture of the Grinch that day, but look under Meet Ms. Jones and you will see our famous Grinch!

Getting Ready for Grinch Day!

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We are looking forward to celebrating Grinch Day this Friday!  Our very own Ms. Jones is our Grinch, and the students and staff love for the Grinch to come and visit the classrooms!  Ms. Jones does a fantastic job with dressing up and playing along for the whole day.  Each teachers buys something for their classroom, and the Grinch delivers the items to the students.  Most teachers buy green candy canes and it ends up being such a fun day.  We are so thankful to be able to work at a school that allows us to have all of these fun days especially around Christmas.  We just finished celebrating Polar Express Day last Friday, so it's busy, busy, busy here at the schoolhouse.  Make sure to check back with us for updated Grinch pictures.

     This blogging stuff has definitely been harder than we expected. It has been super hard trying to find time to work on things for our TPT account and blog, plus do the normal ins and outs of first grade. BUT despite all the adversity, we finally made our first sale in Teachers Pay Teachers. Autumn created a Halloween inspired flipchart to go with Fact and Opinions. It looks fantastic. Go to our store and check out our first item and give us some feedback!

     Oh, all of you professional bloggers out there....does anyone know how I can make a preview for our flipcharts??? It kept coming up that the file was too big and I could not figure it out. Please leave a comment if you have any suggestions! We appreciate all of your help and support. Hopefully we will more things up soon. We are working on an awesome Thanksgiving unit!

Our First Sale!

(Here is a preview of a 16 slide flipchart about Fact and Opinion)

Top 10 Things You Need to Know about Ms. Jones

Top 10 Things You Need to Know about ME!

1. I know it's hard to believe, but yes...I am a “Ms.”. I've never been married and I do not have any kids. It's just me, myself, and I currently. The whole idea of not being married is hard for my little first graders to digest because “I'm OLD!” lol

2. If I had to pick a new career tomorrow, I would choose to be a turf manager at a golf course by day and a hardcore crafter at night.
   
   
3. I was the first person in my entire family to go to college! Appalachian State University...my home away from home!!
   
   
4. I love costumes and find any reason to dress as a character! I have a homemade Grinch outfit that I wear every Christmas to school! The kids loveeee it!!
   
   
5. Obviously since I love costumes my favorite holiday is HALLOWEEN. If there were such a place as Halloweentown I would move there!!
   
   
6. My assistant talked me into getting a kitten as a step towards responsibility and commitment. Let's just say we are both still getting adjusted to one another. PS...his name is Charles.
   
   
7. I enjoy all things competitive! Playing cards, watching football, playing board games, but baseball is my all time favorite. I am the assistant coach for a high school softball team. I've been coaching for about 5 years.
   
   
8. I really like to read when I have time! However, I only like to read NYTimes Best Sellers. Sometimes I spend more time researching books than actually reading them.
   
   
9. Thankfully I will graduate in May with my Masters in Elementary Education.
   
   
10. This begins my 7^th year teaching. I've taught a K/1st combination, First Grade for 4 years and 3^rd Grade for 2 years. Hopefully I will spend the rest of my days in First grade. It is by far the best grade in the world to teach!
    
    

    

    My brother-Josh, me, sister-Amber and
    brother-in-law-Mark

    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

    

    You're a mean one! Ms. Grinch!

    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

    
    
    
    

    Blessed with a great group of friends

    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

Top 10 Things You Need to Know About Mrs. Webb

10 Things You Need To Know About Me!

1. I’m starting my 23rd year of teaching. How can that be since I’m only 29?! I started my teaching career as a Title I reading teacher, then moved to preschool as the Education Coordinator, and now I teach first grade. I have taught first grade for 8 years.

2. My husband is a 5th grade teacher and can you believe this…we teach at the same school! Yes this definitely makes for some very interesting days!

3. We have two daughters –Kayla and Holly! Both should graduate this year from college –YAH! I’m
also “Granny”to one very sweet, spoiled Maltese named Roxie Rae Marie!

4. I have a not so secret obsession with a mouse –that would be Mickey Mouse! My favorite vacation spot is Walt Disney World and I’m already counting the days till our next visit. 87 days and counting!!!

5. I’m just a teeny, tiny bit obsessive compulsive. Okay, maybe I’m a lot obsessive compulsive!

6. A few of my favorite things…Diet Dr. Pepper, NASCAR, Clemson Tigers, Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia ice cream, and the color green!

7. I’m an only child –enough said!

8. Something interesting about my childhood –My dad was a funeral director so sometimes I got to ride to school in a hearse and all the other kids thought it was cool. Me –not so much!

9. I am absolutely TERRIFIED of snakes! I won’t even look at cartoon snakes!

10. I’m absolutely hooked on reality shows! Especially Big Brother and The Amazing Race! Wish I had what it takes to do the Amazing Race but I’m way too much of a diva!

Holly, Kayla, Dee and I

C-L-E-M-S-O-N Tigers!!!

Our Girls

Top 10 Things You Need to Know about Mrs. Bumgarner

Top 10 things about Autumn Bumgarner!

1.   I have been married to my sweet husband Justin for 8 years and we have no children. 
 
2.  I have only taught first grade, this will be my 5th year teaching.  I LOVE first grade!

3.  I will graduate in May with my Masters in Elementary Education.

4.  I love being adventurous and daring.  I have been skydiving, parasailing, rode in a hot air balloon, and my next adventure that I would love to do is zip-lining.

5.  Eating sweets and junk food is an absolute weakness of mine.  Chocolate and caramel are my best friends......p.s. I am a Type 1 Diabetic.  Always having to check my sugar.  ; )

6.  I love to travel!  My husband took me to California on our 1 year anniversary and we went to the Price is Right, and I got called and went all the way to the showcase.  This was when Bob Barker was still doing the show, what great memories!  I would love to visit Hawaii one day.

7.  Shopping is my guilty pleasure!

8.  I have the best family ever, I have 2 SETS of twin sisters, and a brother, which makes 6 children in all.

9.  I enjoy reading especially when I am not having to read grad school books.

10.  Hanging out with my friends/girlfriends is one of my most favorite things to do!  Playing ping pong and board games is so much fun on the weekends with my husband and friends!

Vacation at the beach with my husband, Justin

My Mother and I

Carolina Girls Blogger Meet-up!

We attended our very first Blogger meet-up yesterday! What a great experience!! Needless to say, we were definitely the "newbie" bloggers but it was nice to hear everyone's advice and experiences. 

All the girls from the Blogger meet up in Columbia, SC on 9/15/12.

Blogger Meet-up Takeaways

(lessons learned)

1. Teachers can talk to ANYONE: it is amazing how you can drive 2 hours to a restaurant to meet people you have never met and feel completely comfortable for the next 2 1/2 hours discussing teaching, blogging, pinterest, family and life in general.

2. Apparently there are lows and highs when blogging. Well considering our blog has started off on the "low" end, hopefully we will be on the upswing very soon!

3. We need to blog at least once a week and no more than once a day. Thank you to Heather and Juli from Simple in Second for teaching us these blogging etiquette rules!

Fanatical In First Grade at our first Blogger event

A big thank you to all the girls for making us feel welcome and for being our first followers!

Meet the Team!

(L-R) Tammy Webb, Ashley Jones, and Autumn Bumgarner

We are very excited to partake in one of our long-time goals...to start a blog! We hope that you will find our blog useful and entertaining.  Look for us SOON on TeachersPayTeachers! We will be posting some things we have created for free!