This post brought to you by the letter Ss...

Ss is for setbacks, Smartboard, and Schroeder...

I bounced out of bed this morning because today was going to be THE DAY.  The day I got my superfabulous Smartboard.  Well...things don't always go as planned.  And long story short, I'm still Smartboardless.  Fingers crossed for later this week!

BUT!  Over the weekend, I scheduled a Smartboard Bootcamp session with Mrs. Schroeder over at The Schroeder Page because I love her blog and her Smartboard Bootcamp totally caught my eye.  Well, even though it was disappointing to not have one this morning... I'm so glad I had the opportunity to spend an hour with Mrs. Schroeder BEFORE I got my Smartboard.  She gave me the rundown on how to use Smart Notebook and taught me some fun tips and tricks!  Now I can take this time in limbo to really familiarize myself with the Notebook software and maybe even have some lessons made so I can hit the ground running when I'm finally all hooked up!  She got me super pumped for my Smartboard and I can already tell it's going to make a huge difference in student engagement in my classroom.  I can't wait!  And I may have a heart attack from the pent up excitement if I don't get hooked up soon!  If you just got a Smartboard or are getting one in the future, I totally recommend Bootcamp with Mrs. Schroeder...she'll have you ready to go in no time!

Wait...there's more!  Mrs. Schroeder is having a fun giveaway over at her blog!  She's giving away a super cute necklace.  Who doesn't love jewelry?  (And it's monogrammed, so you know I'm ALL OVER IT.)  Head on over and enter by Friday!

Facebook Linky Party!

There for a while, I was spending so much time over here in blogland that I would go a day or two without logging on to Facebook.  I know...the horror!  My friends thought I had dropped off the face of the earth.  But now I can find so many of my favorite blogs on Facebook!  I just started my own Facebook page a couple of weeks ago and am working on getting it together.  I added a cute little Facebook button in my sidebar.  Baby steps... 

The Lesson Plan Diva is having a fun linky party for you to find all of your favorite blogs on Facebook!  They're organized by grade level to make it easier to find what you're looking for.  So head on over and like away! 

Busy, busy, busy!

Oh my goodness!  Please tell me I'm not the only one who can't catch their breath this year.  I don't remember last year being this busy.  But it's a good busy.  It's a productive kind of busy and really, who doesn't love taking care of business?  And I've definitely been taking care of business here lately.  Here's a little catch up chit-chat tonight...

Over the weekend my school hosted our first annual Cars 4 College car show to raise money to send our kiddos on college tours this spring.  It was a great success!  I had to girl it up a bit, so my fundraising booth was feather hair extensions.  Oh yeah, I can teach AND I can make you look feather fabulous.  I'm a Jill of all trades.  They were a HUGE hit and tons of fun.

Today I was out of the room doing assessments and when I returned, I was met at the door by my assistant who was holding a Ziploc of hair.  HAIR!  One of my darlings cut her hair and it was a sight to behold.  This had never happened to me before and I hope it never happens again!

Then this afternoon I got my first set of Invisalign trays!  I'm way excited about having nice, straight teeth.  They're not really that crooked, but it's bothered me for years and I figure I better do it now while I can.  But I'm a little nervous about taking care of them at school.  I have to take them out to eat.  So no snacking during the day or grabbing a cookie at a staff meeting.  Because holy saliva, Batman!  Taking them out is pretty disgusting.  It's sinking in that tomorrow during lunch (you know, that whopping 15 minutes we all get after walking the kids, going to the bathroom, and walking back to get the kids), I also have to take out the aligners, eat, brush and floss, and put them back in.  I have a feeling I'm going to drop a few pounds during this process!  Have any of you ever done aligners?  Any tips or tricks?

I hope to be better about posting this week.  And I need to go catch up on all of your blogs!  Really, what I need is a personal assistant...wonder if Karen Walker or Cacee Cobb are available?   

And the winner is...

Jennifer over at Herding Kats in Kindergarten!!  Please shoot me an email at mspreppyblog (at) gmail (dot) com!

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Wow, Wow, Wednesday!

Whew!  You'd think a three day weekend would make for a smooth week right?  Wrong!  I can't quite get myself together...don't really know what day of the week it is and my schedule is all off.  I'm just as dependent upon consistency and routine as my kiddos are.  I'm not even sure I'll be able to type out complete sentences here.  So I'll just share a little game with you and call it a night!  We are working on numbers to 10 in kindergarten, so I made a couple of tic-tac-know boards for my quick finishers to play with a partner.  They each pick a color unifix cube and can place their cube on a spot if they can identify the number, amount, or number word.

You can download them here.

Don't forget to enter my giveaway!  $25 gift card to Sephora or Amazon!

Time for a Giveaway!

I know I'm not supposed to post twice in one day BUT...I was so excited to see that I hit the 100+ follower mark this morning!  Thank you for following little ol' me!  I didn't realize how addicting this would be when I started a month ago!  You all give me so many great ideas and inspire me to be a better teacher. 

Another one of my addictions is hair, makeup, and face products!  I seriously can't get enough lip gloss, hair spray, or face "stuff".  So...I'm going to give away a $25 gift card to Sephora!! 

(If you're not a product junkie, I'll give you a $25 Amazon gift card instead!)

There are a few ways to enter:
- Follow my blog and leave me a comment--or leave me one saying you already follow.
- Blog about my giveaway and leave me a comment with the link.
- Like me on Facebook and leave me a comment to let me know!  (Seems like everyone else is Facebooking it up, so I figured why not?!  I'll have a cute little FB button soon!)
- Follow me on Teachers Pay Teachers and/or Teachers Notebook and comment to let me know.

You have until Friday, September 9th at midnight to enter the giveaway!  I will announce the winner on Saturday.  Good luck!!

Need a little help!

Hope you guys are having a fabulous Labor Day!!  I'm just excited about sleeping in 3 days in a row and cleaning out my DVR! 

OK, I need your help.  I'm getting my Smartboard this week. {YAY!!!}  I've been told it's going to be mounted, but my projector will be on a cart for a little while.  Do any of you have this set up?  I'm a little nervous about kids--and me because let's face it, I'm super clumsy--bumping into it and needing to realign eleventy million times a day.  But I'm unbelievably grateful to have one, so I'm searching for a way to not only "make it work", but totally rock it out.  I would be ever so grateful for your suggestions on how to arrange my room to accomodate my new technology!  If you have a similar set up, please leave me any ideas and pictures you may have already posted on your blog.  I remember seeing a few, but didn't take very good notes...  Thank you!!

Top 10!

Big thanks to Sarah over at Kindergarten Korner for putting my little ol' blog in her Top 10! 

She's definitley one of my top ten as well.  We both teach in the same district and as far as we both know, we're the only teacher-bloggers in the district! 




Here are some more of my favorite blogs:

Where did my week go?!

Well, I did a good job of posting daily last week when I was Blog Hoppin'.  But this week?  Ehhh, notsomuch!  This week kicked my booty and I am ever so grateful for a three day weekend.  Three days of sleeping until I'm not tired anymore!  Ahhhh...I'm definitely looking forward to that.

I brought home my external hard drive that holds ALL of the worksheets, games, etc that I've ever made with plans to edit them and get more stuff in my Teachers Pay Teachers and Teachers Notebook stores.  I've posted a few things in each and hope to post several more primary math activities over the weekend!  Check them out here:

I also noticed that I'm *thisclose* to 100 followers!  How fun!!  I totally love blogging!  I've found so many amazing activities and ideas out there in the blogosphere...I have a feeling this is going to be my best year yet thanks to all of you guys!