Hitting the Pavement!

I NEVER would have thought that I would live in the middle of the corn fields in Indiana, but this is where I am and I love it!  I love sitting on the porch, having great friends, watching the kids play outside, and just being away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life!

With school starting back and trying to get ready for school, I was slacking a bit (ok, A LOT) on running and being healthy!  Since last Thursday I have logged a little over 13 miles on this country road and I feel great!  Well, maybe not great, but I feel better and like I have accomplished something!  Hopefully, I can keep it up over the next few months before the cold hits and I have to run inside!!

While running this week I realized that I have time alone to think and I have been able to come up with some GREAT ideas for my classroom.  I can't wait to put some things together and share them with you here.  I hope you all are having a great start back to school and find some inspiration in something that you do this week!

Welcome Posters!!

Who else starts playing around at night, doesn't pay attention to the time, before you know it you haven't accomplished ANYTHING on your list of "Things to do," but instead created something you didn't even need??!!!!

Well, that was me tonight!

Here is it for FREE on my TPT Store:
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Welcome-Posters-1356853

iPad Signs...

This year will be my second year teaching 4th grade and having 1:1 iPad devices.  Last year was so much fun with our iPads, but it was more of a learning year.  This year I have a lot of new ideas on how to incorporate our iPads to reinforce the skills that we are learning about!

I made these signs that have our iPad rules on them. I'm going to attach rings to the signs and hang them in my room.

Here they are on my TPT store:
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/iPad-Classroom-Use-Signs-1356407

Brown Bag Activity!

Each year I have my students fill a brown bag with 5 items that represent them and their lives.  Then they share them with the class.  They then pick 3 of the 5 items and use those three items for their body paragraphs for their "All About Me Essay."  They love sharing and then it is A LOT easier to get them to write when they already have connections to the items that they brought in to share!

I have it on my TPT site....http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Kristen-Richardson-8363
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Get-To-Know-You-Brown-Bag-Activity-1347940

Birthday Bags...DONE!! :)

I love giving my students a little something on their birthday each year, but last year I wasn't the best at it!  I decided to make birthday bags this summer so they would be ready to go when school started!  I also made certificates that I'm going to put on their desks when they come into the classroom in the morning.  As you can see, I put in a few coupons (eat with a friend in my room, free homework pass, and sit by a friend pass for the day), candy, markers, and a chapter book! This really only took about 30 minutes to put together and now they are all done and ready to go!

I also had a helper that cut the ribbon and put candy in the bags! :)

I put these together outside because it has been SOOOO nice outside and I was watching the boys throw baseball! :)

If you are interested in the coupons, tags or certificates visit my TeacherPayTeachers page at
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Kristen-Richardson-8363

New Things...

I hopefully will get a blog with lots of bells and whistles soon, but until then, here we go! :)

I love reading blogs and learning from others, so I thought I would share things that I do in my 4th grade class too!