Hello Mrs Sykes

I was checking out a few blogs  blog stalking a few of my teacher friends, and I came across this post from my teaching buddy Stephanie.  She is The Sassy Teacher , and she gave me a huge shout-out on her blog!!  :) Click on the picture below to see her review of my Phonics Intervention Pack for grades 3-5 . Click to visit The Sassy Teacher and how she plans to use this bundle. Also, I found such an amazing resource for my 3rd graders who are learning about text features.  I just needed to share with y'all... From Where the Wild Things Learn To see the blog post where she shares info about how she uses this set, click here! Since October has started, here's my Currently !!  To see what people are Currently up to, go check out Farley's link up . Here's a treat for all of you who love Foldables as a way to create interactive notebooks with students!  This site has tons of templates to follow to use Foldables!  Enjoy!! http://fo...

I'm enjoying a bit of time away from school - it's one of my guilty pleasures that I have time off in strange spots of the calendar since I'm at a year-round school .  My daughter is on the same schedule I am, and we've been having girl time, painting nails: Check out the SPARKLES!  We'll see how long this lasts...  ;) watching movies: Love it!!  :) and taking naps: Source Also, I've been trying to tackle the dreaded To-Do list.  Really.  Not a whole lot has been accomplished from that list, but I'm making headway.  Here are links to a couple of TPT  projects that have been sitting in my "To Be Continued" folder for a lo-o-o-ng time...  Feels good to check something off the list.  Enjoy!! If you like the the Shades of Grey Chevron Papers I used, you can get your own here : And a quick confession for y'all... Source

Phew!  Am I the only one who felt that February just would. not. end?  I've got a ton of excuses for you as to why I've been MIA lately, but first I wanted to share what I am doing CuRrEnTly : If you haven't visited Farley yet, you should.  Fo sho.   I love, love, love a quiet house.  The kind of quiet where I can sleep as much as I want without mommy guilt, laundry, groceries, etc.  I can rest, read, and relax.  With everything that's been going on lately, my hubby and parents have treated me with this weekend of decadent quiet. The support I have gotten from my family and my friends has been amazing.  I had a recent health issue that required lots of doctors' visits, lots of tests (*not multiple choice!*), lots of stress, and lots of pain, all within the span of 3 weeks.  Tests are done, results are in, everything is treatable, and I feel much better!  My amazing hubby took over everything so I could mommy from bed or t...

Valentines Day fun... To wrap up our Sound unit, we made our own instruments with repurposed materials.  (paper towel rolls, wax paper, rubber bands, tin cans, balloons, plastic bottles, and uncooked rice)   Also, it snowed!  Here's a picture of my own cuties enjoying the snow...

I've been a They Might Be Giants fan for ages...  I've even played TMBG for my class: We've had illness galore in the Hello house, and this song has been stuck in my head.  The best way to get rid of an earworm is to share it, so I'm sharing it with all of you... I'm sorry and you're welcome.  Enjoy!

Life takes twists and turns, but it always seems to work out ok.  Sometimes, we have to say goodbye to loved ones... My first "baby," Sasha.  I love her and miss her terribly.  Sometimes we play with our food... NinjaBread cookies - we had so much fun making these!  Sometimes we have to pack up and move... The classroom I tracked in to this quarter.  (Don't worry - it looks much better now!!)  Sometimes we just play... We love Monopoly at our house, but the U-Build Monopoly is just fun to  build with.  ;)  Sometimes we are reminded about the wonders of the world around us... A 3-toed sloth in action at the NC Museum of Natural Science. I'll be back soon sharing some of my new backgrounds I'm working on... shades of grey (but not 50!) with interesting accent colors.  Happy weekend, y'all!  Thanks for spending a bit of time listening.  :)

Truly, I have much to be thankful for.  I hope that you are able to enjoy time with your families this weekend, and remember how fortunate we all are in so many ways. By the way, good news!!  I won Ms. Bainbridge's 2600 Follower "I'm Thankful for You!" giveaway.  Her products are amazing (as you all know!)  My absolute favorites?  Glad you asked.  :) Partner Reading Comprehension Activity Pack {Partner Reading Party!} Pet Shop Math 2nd Grade Common Core Center Set Gobble, Gobble, y'all! Have you heard?  There's some crazy shopping sales going on... and I'm participating!!

Omigoodness, y'all!  I have been so busy lately.  With all the upcoming stress coming next month (round 2 of report cards, our first standardized test - yikes!, and the mid-year AIMSweb testing - now including math - with no extra training!)  I figured we could use a bit of fun!  One of my students' uncles donated white shirts for our class.  I decided we needed to tie-dye them!  Exhausting, but worth it...  No pictures, naturally, since it looked really cool, especially when we had them all lined up on the fence to dry in the sun. Over the weekend, I went to the State Fair with the family... Lovin' the giant Adirondack Chair!  I moustache you a question... Later, going through Wal-Mart, what should I come across... Yep!  Mustache decals and an owl banner.  50 cents each.  {Happy Dance}  The large mustache might make it onto my new (to me) car.  All those Camrys look the same - I need some character fo...

Lazy day at the beach today, and the most exciting thing to happen is we had a tree cut down.  Oddly enough, when I saw the tree truck, I started taking pictures... Yep.  It's a ladder truck, now used to cut limbs off trees. Since the tree was so rotten, they couldn't use ladders or climb the tree to cut it, so they brought the ladder truck.  My kiddos, my mom, and I pulled up lawn chairs and watched the show. Best part?  After they finished they asked if anyone wanted to ride in the ladder box... There was a rush get on! Fun Times! I got to ride, too! That's all the excitement we had today, but it was plenty.  Other than that, it was just deciding where to eat.  :)  Also, I worked on my Context Clues task cards, available now on TpT .  (I'll add TN tomorrow...) Context Clues Task Cards on TpT Don't you love the graphics from The 3AM Teacher ? Enjoy!!

I have been such a slack blogger lately.  MIA.  I know.  It's weighed heavily on me this weekend, but I've been uber busy.  I've been back in school since July 9, (I'm in year-round school!) and there are a couple of green beans in my bunch that are a bit challenging.  In addition to the regular beginning-of-school-so-all-of-your-paperwork-is-due-at-some-arbitrary-yet-unachievable-deadline chaos, I'm pulling all of my positive behavior strategies out already!! I'm working on a couple of projects, but I'm very excited about the progress I'm making with the next 2 sets of the Mystery Word of the Week .  After I have these sets complete, there will be 40 weeks for teachers to use throughout the year.  Eventually, I'll go back and package the sets together, but my family, friends, and students will come first.  And my laundry will need folding... again.  Some days I'm feeling this scattered: { pin } As you lounge by the pool, at...

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!!