Day 40 obSEUSSed

Two of my favorite days are coming up:  the 100th Day of school and Dr. Seuss' birthday.  I love the 100th day and all the fun I make of it.  Counting, hopping, skipping, and "math-ing" our way through the day.  Going from two digits to three is awesome when you are in 1st grade.  (I don't feel the same thing about changing the tens place though when it comes to my birthday!) Funny thing about counting...I love to count everything but my birthdays anymore!

Dr. Seuss is still my most favorite of all.  I grew up reading his books.  I got my first copy of The Lorax from a magazine that it was printed in before it was published!  I still have it because my mom tore it out of the magazine and I put it in a folder that...since I keep odd things from forever ago...I still have in my trunk.

So Seuss is not celebrated on just one day or one week in my room.  He is honored ALL month!  I do a special focus each week on one of his books.  Each year I mix it up and don't always do the same four books.  But if you don't know where to start, there are plenty of blogs out there with lots of great ideas posted.  I will post what I do too...and you can also check out my Pinterest page with lots of fun finds on there.

Dr. Seuss is magical.  He started writing on a bet and thank heavens he took that bet.   During March my good readers turn into amazing readers, my so so readers turn into confident readers and my non-readers actually pick up books and try to read!  His words are fun and make kids forget they are trying to read...but instead they just enjoy reading so they too can feel those words roll over their tongues because they are just that much fun!

Mel at The Seusstastic Classroom has a great blog.  I posted about her in January.

I found another teacher so obsessed with Seuss that she named her blog after him as well. Victoria says it herself...she is a little ObSEUSSed with Seuss.  That is the name of her blog:

She has a lot of great ideas linked to THIS blog page.  She had a little linky party a couple years ago and you can find other blogs linked their ideas to her page.  She also has a huge Pinterest page soley dedicated to the great and powerful Seuss as well :)

So, on your mark, get set....SEUSS!

Blog Hoppers Unite!

Blog hopping or Bird Walking as my friend calls it--is addicting and never ending.  I don't know if anyone hops on to mine yet.

Hellloooo....(was that the echo of my own voice I hear?)

Oh well, maybe someday I will be helpful to someone.  If so, I am glad I got to share something with somebody.  In the meantime, it's just me and the sounds of the keys clicking away on the old laptop.

Like I was saying...blog hopping is addicting and never ending.   It's like the book series that my daughters got me hooked into last summer...

The Maze Runner Series

The twists and turns you take throughout the variety of web pages out there.  I never know where I have been and worst of all, how to get back to where I started!  And the path I take is never the same twice!

Fortunately there is this really great tool that helps me keep it all organized.

Life in Idaho Pinterest Board

Are you on there yet?  You need to be on there if you are a blog hopper.  All you have to do is 'pin' your find in a category on your bulletin board.  It's awesome!  Check out my board...there's lots of fun stuff on it.  With Pinterest I can find my way back to my favorite stops along the blog hopping trail!  No more worries of writing down lists of sites in a notebook or trying to bookmark them on my computer and then having long lists of bookmarks.  Best of all, it saves time...and we all need that!

So today's fun find I added to my board is a clip art site.  It's called Scrappin Doodles.

You can click on the link over there on the right side bar ----->  ----->  ----->

I found it when I was downloading freebies on Teachers Pay Teachers.  The teacher used her art on her planning sheet she had created.   There are kids and animals that are as cute as the Thistle Girl designs.  And unlike Thistle Girl, you can use the Scrappin Doodles designs you buy without purchasing a $120 resellers license--like Thistle Girl requires!

Things that save time and money are two biggies in my world!  How about yours?  Now on to lesson planning...ugh...I hate that part of getting ready for school.  It brings out the procrastinator in me.  But you can't teach like you blog hop :)  So planning I must go!

Discovering Pinterest

I have just figured out this Pinterest thing.  It is the current rage!  For each holiday or season or topic I have a Pinterest Board and I'm posting fun stuff on it that I find on the internet.  I figured this could be a useful way to find a lot of things quickly, plus it's a better way for me to keep track of what I found online and where.

I don't know about you, but I get so lost blog hopping and I have no idea where I started and where I'm trying to go.  Then I find some really cool idea and I can't find it again!  So Pinterest is helping me out...hope it helps you too!

Here is my Pinterest Board:  Life in Idaho

I need a new bag

My favorite teacher bag died last year.

This sweet little pup of ours took a fancy to the leather handles. Perhaps it was retaliation for this picture...or the fact that she had a bath.  I'm not sure, but I lost my favorite bag.  

It was just the right size.  Big enough to take home some work, but not so big that I took home more than I had time to do.  So it was perfect.

Now that I have time...I'm searching for a new bag.

So now I'm searching....if you happen to come across my blog, and you have a favorite bag, please let me know what it is and where you found it.

In the meantime...

Pinterest has helped me a bit...Here is a Pinterest page full of Teacher work bags/totes. 

This is what my first bag looked like:

It is the extra-large one.  It's monogrammed with my maiden name and came from LL Bean.  It was a gift from my master teacher and the first class of 4th graders all signed it.  It holds a lot...way too much!  It has a lot of sentimental value, but I don't use it to carry school stuff anymore.  Now it holds a whole bunch of yarn!

I've had an assortment of bags since, including the medium size LL Bean tote bag.  I have even resorted to using one of those reusable grocery bags!

But now I'm ready to be more organized.  One of the things that all my previous bags have had in common is that they were just a big bottomless pit of a bag.  Everything got lost in it!  I hate to admit how many times I've lost those important surveys, evaluations or letters that needed posting in it!

Here are a couple that I found interesting....

This one is from Really Good Stuff.

I like the file idea, but I'm not too keen on the outside pockets.

The 31 Organizational Tote has come up a lot in other teacher blogs:

It comes in some fun designs and fits one of those plastic stand alone files.  It also has some outside pockets....one of my sticking points.

Then there is the rolling thingy...

This is from Educational Insights.  The rolling thingy is a good idea if you are the kind of teacher that takes way too much home with them at night.  Are there teachers who don't take too much stuff home?  Could you give me a tip on that too?

Well...I will keep looking in between doing all the things on my summer bucket list.

Hope you are staying cool where ever you are...it's even hot up here in North Idaho!