A little something that I think that you will LOVE!

Happy Sunday!! I am so glad to have the had a very successful first week of school!! I would love to have just one more day to stretch the weekend out but I am ready for another great week with my new second graders!

I wanted to share something that makes organizing all the folders and spirals that can be found in my ELAR classroom. Using the adorable graphics from Thistle Girl Designs, I created labels for each of the folders and spirals that my second graders use during our ELAR block.

These are the folders that we use:

Work Folder

Writing Folder

and we use the following spirals:

Treasure Book (personal journal)

Writer's Notebook

Reader's Response

Now, I went around and around thinking about how to organize their supplies and decided that I would use a numbering system. This way they know their numbers, it corresponds with my gradebook, and I know when I have everyone's supplies (or if someone's is missing).

So I made generic name labels to use with my kiddos that I can but on anything I pass out.

When I created the files, I used the Avery label number in the file name and I hope that all the labels print out beautifully for you. Please feel free to let me know if anything needs to be tweaked :)

looking for a few more ideas?
I shared this on:

One Extra Degree

Three for Thursday at Blog Hoppin'

Happy Thursday!! The first week of school is going well and I am LOVING second grade!!

For this post, I get to mention some of my favorite addictions things...FONTS, BLOGS and RESOURCES!!

I love fonts. Adore them. Can't live with out them....ok, maybe I could but things just wouldn't be as cute!!

Here is a link to some of my favorite fonts:

I also have a sqwrol with lots of fabulous font websites:



One of my favorite blogs (which is hard to say because there are so many wonderful blogs that I follow and I am sure have yet to discover)  is Lesson Plans SoS. I was lucky enough to win a $25 gift card to their shop and WOW are their products are A.MAZ.ING.

And last, resources! What would a teacher do without all the great resources that are out there created by other teachers! I love blogging and think it is one of the best kept secrets ever! I tell all the teachers that I come across to check out the blogging world to find a whole new group of sensational teachers to collaborate with and to share ideas....and definitely borrow a few.

Another great resource that I have come to love this summmer is Pinterest. If you haven't checked this out....oh.my.word... you are going to love it! It is like a visual file cabinet of all the great ideas that you find on the internet. Come and check mine out and become a follower. I am pinning all the time and love to share new ideas through this website.

Enjoy!!!

 

Teacher Talk Tuesday- Advice to New Teachers

Tonight, I am giving advice. The funny thing is that I am having some of those new teacher feelings! I taught first grade for 11 years and am now teaching second grade (which I am LOVING!!). The last few days have been a whirlwind and I am definitely on a learning curve!

 My advice to new teachers would be:

Study your lessons and know what you are teaching BEFORE you teach the lesson. There is a lot of studying that needs to happen so that you feel prepared.

Ask questions....lots and lots of questions.

Find a friend on campus that will make you laugh, wants to hear about your day and can give sound advice.

Beg, borrow and steal (fabulous ideas)!

Be willing to learn from the wonderful and experienced teachers around you. The best teachers always learn something new everyday.

Breathe.

To all the new teachers, welcome to one of the most amazing professions that exists. Teaching is a calling. Listen to your heart and remember that everyday is an opportunity to touch the life of a child. You DO make a difference.

Are you Blog Hoppin'?
Check it out for more fabulous words of wisdom!

Meet the Teacher: Ms. Morgart

Welcome!

I'm Ms. Morgart and this is my little blog, Curls and a Smile! Today was the first day of school and although I am exhausted, I just had to participate in Teacher Week 2011 at Blog Hoppin'!

Here's a little about me...

Today began my 12th of teaching! I taught first grade for 11 years and this year started my new adventure in second grade. My class is so sweet and I am amazed at how mature they become over one summer!! When I was going over procedures (such as how to put your backpack away) they didn't ven skip a beat! They were pros! This first day has to be the easiest that I have had in a long time....I think I am going to love second grade!

Something that you might not know about me....

I am a proud penguin! When I was in college, I pledged Kappa Delta Chi (a service soroity) that allowed me to provide community service to the Bryan/ College Station area , gave me opportunities to develop as a leader and where I created lifelong friends. As an alumnae, I hope to become more involved with the soroity on a national level and continue to find new ways to serve my community.

What I have Learned From Teaching...

Teaching students has taught me patience, compassion and faith in each one of the children that I am blessed to have in my class. One of the most amazing feelings in the world is watching a young child develop the ability to master skills that they will use for the rest of their lives. Watching a child read for the first time is inspiring and reminds me of why I became a teacher.

A few other things I have learned...

Always be prepared (great tool in classroom management)

Always be willing to grow and learn as a teacher. The day you feel you know it all, it is time to retire.

Practice what you preach.

Don't be afraid to tell your students that you love them.

You may the only adult that they hear that from each day.

Enjoy what you do. Your joy will radiate through everything you do in your classroom.

I am so tired but extremly happy to have had a successful first day and I am looking forward to a wonderful year full of amazing memories, new ideas and great new bloggie friends!

A new adventure with Me and My Gang!

I am so excited to announce that I will have the complete honor of being an author for a new and fabulous blog! This is a wonderful group of teachers that are working on great ideas to share with our readers!

Mrs. McCumbee of

and

Mrs. Schroeder of

are the wonderful teachers behind this new blog and are also looking for additional teachers to author creative and unique ideas for Me and My Gang. If you are a k-3 teacher and are interested in participating check out their blogs and join in on the awesome blogging!!

Come by and check it out!!

Color Chart Clip Board

Earlier this summer, my wonderful former teammate Alyce, create a super cute clip board version of my behavior color chart. It is a great way to have a portable version of a color chart that can be shared with your partner teacher, teammates or specials teachers. Here is a set-by-step of how it was created:

1. You will need a clipboard, scrap booking paper (in the colors that you need for your color chart), Modge Podge, sponge brush, and a title/picture to name your chart. Pictures from google images.

2. First glue your scrap booking paper the way that you would like for it to look on the clipboard and allow that to dry so that the paper doesn't move when you are covering the entire project. Glue from underneath the paper...don't try to cover the whole clipboard at one time (the paper tends to shift and bubble).

3. Add the title/picture label on top of your scrap booking paper. Let dry.

4. Once everything is thoroughly dry, it is time to cover the entire project with Modge Podge. Use even strokes. from left to right, until the whole clipboard is covered. Feel free to use the Modge Podge as needed because if your sponge is not wet enough, it tends to pull and give the clipboard a "streaky" look.

5. Allow it to dry completely.

6. Now you are ready to make your clips! These numbers were purchased at Hobby Lobby and are used for calendars. All you need to do is peel and stick!

                 

Here is the final product:



This one is a little different than the original post. The stripes really give it a a nice touch!!

I am currently working on some cute titles for you....so tell me, what are your themes?

Linky Party Fun!

Are you decorating up a storm in your room? Have you created a new space or implemented super cute ideas from other bloggers? Does your room look FABULOUS!! Join my linky party and show us all the hard work that you have done to transform a plain old room to an amazing place to learn!!

Make sure to grab my button and tell others about the linky!!

Click here to join in the linky party!

Before and After Classroom Linky Party

Hi everyone! I will be back on contract and getting ready for my new class on Monday but before then I want to see all your classroom makeovers and fabulous ideas for making your room an inviting learning enviroment!

As I work on my room, I will post pictures and share how I oranize and decorate my room. Here are a few pictures from my first grade classroom last year.

This was my calendar and carpet area ....

This is a picture of part of my reading station...I took this pic as I was packing up so the pillows and books had already been put away. The pictures that are on the wall are from a children's literature calendar. They worked out PERFECTLY!

As I start to get my room ready, I will post pics of my new monster themed classroom...but for now, it is your turn!!

Link up, grab my button and tell others!

Need some inspiration? Check out the TBA Ultimate Linky Party!

A little help from her friends....

Brenda, over at Primary Inspired, has a wonderful project that she is trying to get funded through 

 Let's help Brenda and her sweet little kiddos get a FABULOUS easel to use during instruction!

Here is how you can help....Brenda is offering everything in her TpT Store for a $6 donation to her project (just leave a comment on her blog when you make a donation and don't forget to leave an email address). 

Her products are amazing! Here is a sneak peak at what you can receive:

You get great products and most importantly you are helping out a fellow teacher and her class. What could be better than that!

Top Ten Reasons That I Know I am Heading Back to School

I can't believe how quickly the summer seemed to pass me by!! It really doesn't feel like school should be starting in two weeks (and I report back to school in a week)!

Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits is having a linky party... and here are my tops ten ways I know it's time to go back to school!!

10. I have bought an entire wardrobe of clothing for my daughter in sizes that are mostly too big...

9. My living room looks like a small school supply store full of new shipments of every kind of school supply possible.

8. The "lists" of things to do before Aug. 19 have begun and are getting longer each day.

7. The number of emails I receive each day is growing exponentially.

6. My printer is running about 23 hours a day with amazing ideas from fabulous bloggers!

5. My night stand looks like a college students desk....stacks of professional books, highlighters, notebooks, pens and about a 12 million post its with notes about ways to improve instruction, classroom behavior, decorating the classroom, etc.

4. I am on the pursuit to recruit anyone I can to come by and help set up my room (I barely 5'1, so the taller the better...lol)

3. I am staying up later and later every night, blog hopping and stretching each day out just a little bit longer (I am such a night owl....)

2. Next week is full of appointments that have to be done before school because I won't have a free moment until November.

1. As overwhelmed as I get sometimes, I get excited to think about seeing my school babies and sharing with them all the things that I have been preparing all Summer and knowing that this year will be the best school year yet!

So, what about you? How do you know that the school year is fast approaching?

Join in on the fun at

Currently I am....

I couldn't help myself! This linky party looked like fun! 

It was inspired from an idea found on a blog which was called

Inspiration Everywhere

So...what are you doing? Linky up with Farley at

and have a little fun!

Sending my love to TBA !!

I am so grateful to be able to share and collaborate with such wonderful teachers in the blogging world. It has become an indispensable resource to share ideas, find fabulous ways to teach fundamental skills to my students and and venue to continue to grow as a teacher. I am lucky...not only am I able to do this through Curls, but also through Teaching Blog Addict.


It has been an amazing opportunity to be an author of this extraordinary blog and is an experience that has allowed me to continue to grow an educator and as a collaborative teacher using blogging to strengthen my students' learning experiences.  

Teaching Blog Addict is an amazing blog that has over 70 authors, 1539 followers/members, 2456 readers, 1530 Facebook followers and 237 Twitter followers!! I want to encourage all of you to check it out......you will be amazed at the wealth of materials that we share. Just click below and make sure to become a follower! Already a follower? Share this blog with your followers and join the linky party at TBA!

WOOHOO!! I got it!!!

So I was playing with Microsoft and tried about a thousand combinations of text boxes and page borders and pictures and....well, anything that I could think of ..and it turns out it was much more simple than I thought!! If it had been a snake it would have bitten me!! I was able to recreate the border that I had seen and now I want to share this with you!!

Here are the steps that I took to make the super cute polka dot border:

1. First, open a new document.

2. Click on page layout and click page borders.

3. Choose the first style. From there you can choose the width and color that you would like.

4. Once you have done that, click on art. You will see many different designs and the polka dot one is toward the bottom of the list.

5. Click ok and TA-DAH!! You now have a adorable polka dot border!!

You can also change options on which pages have borders (so that you can choose to use it on the first page, whole document, etc.)

It really was easy and pretty much right in front of me the whole time.....but YAY!!!

A little help from my friends....

I can't believe that it is already AUGUST 1st!! Time is flying by and as school draws closer, I am slowly beginning to plan what the up coming year will bring (I say that but my teammate and I already have the first nine weeks planned...woohoo!)

 I am in the process of making a new product for TpT and Teacher's Notebook but need a little help.

I have been looking for a specific border and I was hoping that you guys might know where I can find it! The border is rather simple- solid colored rectangle border with a polka dot strip running down it. I have seen it in several colors on other products but I haven't been able to find it for purchase.

I would LOVE to purchase them if anyone might know where I can find it....if so, please leave a comment :)

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!! I promise that you will love it!