Hello Mrs Sykes

So... several weeks ago I had the amazing pleasure of getting together with some of my NC Teacher Blogger friends.  Since I've been napping   slacking off  busy, this is the first chance I've had to share!  Enjoy!! NC Bloggers!  :) We met at Logan's Roadhouse in Garner - the kind of place you should put your peanut shells on the floor.  Really.  (I think we were all nervous about leaving a mess, so all our peanut shells ended up wadded into napkins!!) So. Much. Fun!  The place was rockin' - possibly due to the fact that everyone else there was going to the Miranda Lambert concert...  Our waiter thought we were celebrating a birthday, since we brought door prizes!  :) For your free Keep Calm and Shine On Labels, click here.  Seriously, this was such a fun group of ladies - we swapped blogging tips, teaching stories (including my Beginning Teacher Story - Fire and Broken Bones ), and got to know each other better. ...

Summer time, and the relaxing has begun in full swing at the casa de Sykes...  Here's my Summer Bucket List , thanks to A Modern Teacher . In no particular order - * Put my feet in the ocean... done! * Spend time with the people who live in my house... you know, my family! * Plan for my Sabbatical ... 'cause I'm a girl who needs a schedule and a list. {source} * Create a few freebies... in progress, but here's one that is done! * Turn (gulp) 39 with a bit of grace and dignity. {source} Here's to a fabulous summer!  Be sure to link up !

I'm joining up with Latoya at Flying into First Grade for a super cute linky.   This week we are doing.......   The NOUN Game  (name your favorite person, place, thing, and animal.) Here are mine.....     PERSON My hubby.  We met 17 years ago, and got married 13 years ago.  My favorite thing about him?  He makes me laugh every day!  For me, that is huge!!  We also have 2 amazing kiddos. PLACE My favorite place is the beach.  I love to visit the beaches in North Carolina anytime during the year - not just summertime.  My favorite thing to do at the beach is sit on the sand, watch my kiddos play, and do absolutely nothing.  It is so relaxing, and helps feed my soul.  THING My favorite thing is also my favorite food - pizza!  If left to my own devices (and a closet of elastic-waist pants!) I would have pizza every day.  Well, I would shake it up every so often with a calzone, b...

It's officially December, since Currently  is here!!  I seem to be addicted to ellipses lately, so... My family is amazing.  Right now my kiddos are running around giggling like mad.  It can mean they are playing... (fingers crossed) or they've just done something I'm not supposed to find out about...  I'll just believe they are giggling because they are playing!!  ;) My awesome team mate, Casey , is the person who single-handedly saved me yesterday.  Thankfully, she planned an amazing afternoon of craftivities for our classes to do as we became "roomless" before dismissal.  {I work at a year-round school , and I had to move out to give the next teacher an afternoon to move her stuff in... make a seating chart... ya' know)  It was awesome!!  All activities came from the unit by MOM Printables .  I can't tell you how great it was to sit back and watch over 40 kiddos work away at this.  :)  Highly Recommended!! I'm t...

Time for Currently  with Farley !  Wow this year is flying by!!  :) I'm a big fan of Eve Bunting's books, and I adore A Turkey for Thanksgiving !  There are always a few kiddos who don't know the surprise at the end, and it is priceless. From Amazon here Also, I'm happily linking up with Learning is Something to Treasure with a Freebie Flashback. My Freebie Flashback comes from March of this year, and is pretty popular - maybe you've seen the Pin?  No?  Well click here to see it for yourself!  :)  It's a Guided Reading "Cheat Sheet" for grades K-5.  Enjoy!! Visit the original post here ! Are you ready for Fall in your classroom?  Any advice to keep me sane  organized?

I know.  Most of you are in the last throes of the summer break.  I just finished the 4th week with my kiddos, and I'm working on interims for my students.  Uggh.  I'm about to get 13 parents who won't understand why their green bean is struggling in the new grade, but we just switched to the CCSS curriculum, which is definitely more rigorous.  Anywhoo... I'm linking up with Farley at Oh Boy 4th Grade for Currently: My Back 2 School Must Haves: Daily 5/CAFE - read the books from the Sisters!! Mystery Word of the Week -  I am going to improve the vocabulary of my students with these!! Mystery Number of the Week - I'm trying to incorporate more best practices in math, so these should be perfect!!!! Enjoy!!

July came too fast!  For those of you who don't already know, I teach in a year-round school.  I love the schedule , except when my workdays come in JULY!  Yep, tomorrow starts our new year, and kids go back July 9.  {For more info about the year-round schedule, check out this post .}  I'm linking up with Farley today to bring you the July Currently... Be sure to follow the rule of 3 , y'all!!  :) Also, I'm in a couple of giveaways!  Check out Marie's giveaway at  The Hands-On Teacher !  It's a fun giveaway to celebrate 200 followers, and you might win my Guided Reading Guide...  Check out Jessica's giveaway at  Mrs. Stanford's Class !  It's a 500 follower giveaway, and you could win several items from my  TPT store ... Tune in Tuesday for my Bloggiversary Giveaway!!  You could win over 30 amazing resources!!

I had some fun putting together Teacher Appreciation gift baskets for my daughter's teachers.  They aren't completely finished, but I'm sharing the pics anyway... The basket :) A peek inside - subway art, colored dry erase markers, shaped sticky notes, and scissors in a red plastic bucket. A pic of the subway art .  My personal fav. Here's the skinny - I shopped  stalked the Staples ads for the dollar specials, and picked up the post-its, scissors, and markers for $1 each.  Not too shabby when you keep in mind that I make 2 for my daughter's teachers and 3 for my son's teachers.  The plastic buckets came from Dollar Tree.  The frames came from WalMart, and the Subway Art is available online here  from eighteen25 .  If we have time tomorrow, we're making a bit of homemade goodness (cookies!) for the baskets, too.  Super cute, eh? Wait... is it really May already?  Must be time to link up with Farley !!  Seriousl...

I need advice.  To team teach or not to team teach?  Here's the background...  {see how I'm developing your schema?}   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you're just here for Farley's Currently , feel free to skip to the bottom of the post.  No feelings hurt here!! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I work with an amazing teacher, Casey , and she loves to teach Math.  I am happiest teaching Reading.  We've talked for 2 years about team teaching, and we're seriously talking about team teaching with Reading and Math.  We already do this with Science and Social Studies, but it's really just that I teach the science unit 2 times, once with my class, once with her class.  If we team teach Reading and Math, I would be responsible for teaching Reading twice daily, Writing, and Science.  She would teach Math twice dai...

I'm linking up with Kindergarten Lifestyle for the "You Know You're a Teacher When..." linky!   I can't wait to see how you know you're a teacher!!! Don't forget to enter the Common Core I Can Giveaway!  I'll draw names Monday around 9AM Eastern time, after breakfast with the kiddos.  :)

Yay! It's time for another Currently from Farley . I'm loving the Random Acts of Kindness!! :)

Wow.  That's just all I can say.  Wow.  (Love me some Kevin Henkes, by the way...)  So my goodies arrived yesterday after school from Highlights magazine; you know the ones I mean.  You send home the slips, parents sign and return, and you pick out cool stuff from the gifts.  Don't judge - I love free stuff! This arrived: The Organization Station.  It changed my life today.  Absolutely no exaggeration.  (maybe a slight exaggeration, but it's pretty fabulous all the same!)  I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it when it arrived, but my amazing new teaching assistant suggested I use it for work in progress, so I can see at a glance what remains to be finished.  Brilliant.  :) The kids took the switch well, and I was able to make a bribe deal with a couple of green beans who always seem to have "tons" of work to complete.  They keep their pocket empty (aka - finish their work!) and they get to keep one ...