Five for Friday...A day late...

Well, my Five for Friday post is a day late!  But, I'm making a commitment to try and post a Five for Friday every week, so I'm keeping my commitment!  :0)

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching...

1.  I dropped my daughter off at SFSU on Sunday!  It was an exciting and sad day!

This is her dorm room.  It's small, but looks nice with her personal touches!

Tearful hug goodbye with Dad!

Nobody took our picture, so here's my mom sticker I proudly display!

These girls are going to miss their big sis like nobody's business!

 We all miss her!

2.  Monday was the last day before school started to get my room ready!  I have to say this is my favorite School-wide Theme!  I love the way my room looks this year!

 






 3.  My Erin Condren planner finally arrived!  I have to admit I was jealous that my teaching partner, Renee, got hers before me, but that's ok.  Our other team member, Karin, has been having quite a hard time so we made sure she had one too!  A little love from her team!

We are so silly!

4.  Oh, yeah, and I did teach this week!  I have a fun little group!  There are some wigglers, some silly gooses and some squirrels, but aren't there always!  We had a fun time learning (attempting to learn) procedures, listening to stories and doing some fun crafts!    But, alas, I didn't take any pictures!

We used Renee's Jitterbug Unit, which was totally fun!

5.  And I'm thrilled to say that we are going to visit my DD,  Nicole, today!  She needs to get set up for classes tomorrow and needs a little family support!  Oh.my.gosh. It has only been a week and I can't wait to see her.  HOW.AM.I.GOING.TO.MAKE.IT?

So that's it!  I'll try to post class updates next week, but I'll promise to be back for Friday!

Have a great week!

Reaching for the Stars!

Lights, Camera, Action!  

Well, I've been non-existent in the blogging world...but busy in my classroom!  School started for me this week!  Here is the finished product of hours (days) of hard work before the kiddos arrived for the new year!

Yearlong Theme Board with 8 components for the year!

Each year we choose a school-wide yearlong theme to keep our entire student body unified and focused on academic goals.  It is amazing how our staff works together K-8 to share ideas for every aspect of the school and classroom. I love this year's theme!  First grade is approaching the theme, "Reaching for the Stars", from the movie angle.  So we have lots  "catchy" titles in classroom!

The "HollyWORD" Wall

"Meet the Cast" - I'll replace the stars with first day of school pics!

$ dollar store finds to house our "Popcorn" word work tubs!

"A Star is Born" - Birthdays (A work in progress)

Classroom Library

My new "director's" chair.

Action!

That's a quick tour!  I'll post more about my new little group soon!  They are so sweet and little!  I am always amazed how little my firsties are at the beginning of the year.  I've got a sweet little group with a good mixture of "chatty!  This week we are practicing procedures....a LOT!

I'm exhausted and heading to bed...so I'm bringing down the "curtain" on this day!  :)

Back to School Sale!

It's finally time for the Big Back to School Sale at TpT! Be sure and check it out! My entire store is on sale for 28% off! You can click here and head on over to my little store and see what's new!

Back to School Sale!

The sale we have all been waiting for will be here this weekend! I can't wait! My wishlist is overflowing with great products! I've added a back to school bundle to my store. Check it out here. This weekend it will be 28% off! http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/sale_images/comingsoon/bts2013-300x250.jpg

Sight Word Freebie...coming soon!

Happy Wednesday night!  Today was my first official day back to school meetings.  Overall, it went well and I actually got lots of time in my classroom with my teaching partners!  I am absolutely exhausted, however, so I'm not linking up with Teacher Week!  :(  But, I did manage to finish a much needed project for my class.  I'll explain more later about how I use this.  Be on the look out for this freebie...coming soon!

Classroom Digs!

Welcome to Day 2 of Teacher Week!  I'm supposed to give you a classroom tour of my room...which isn't ready and I'm a little panicked!  I've been at school every day since last week trying to get it ready!  I posted pics and here they are again...I've actually made some progress, but didn't take any pics today!

So, I'm hoping for new pictures tomorrow and maybe I'll even create a bulletin board!  

My official start back day is tomorrow and I'm presenting on PBIS at our training in the morning.  I have to admit, I get pretty nervous presenting to adults...kids, I'm fine with, but my colleagues make me nervous.  I think because I really do respect them and don't want to make a fool out of myself...I'll try not to!

Hoping for a better post tomorrow!

Meet the Teacher

This title reminds me of Toby Keith's song...."wanna talk about me, wanna talk about I, wanna talk about ......)  Anywhoooo.... :)

I'm linking up with Blog Hoppin' for Teacher Week '13!

Welcome to First Grade Friendly Froggies! If your just finding me, welcome!  I hope you'll become a follower and check back often.   Let me introduce myself with 10 fun things..

1. My name is Susan Efseaff.  I'm a First Grade Teacher in Northern California!  This is my 16th year teaching!  I've taught K-3, but First Grade has my heart!  I love the Firsties!

   

   Me and my Mac!!
   

   
   

2. I'm originally from Texas, so I am a Texan, but I've lived in California for the past 23 years.  I realized earlier this year that I have now lived in each state half of my life!  I'm not sure how I feel about that, yet.  I love both!  My father, brother, sister and all the kinfolk still live in Texas.
   
3. I  moved to California after college graduation, met my husband, got married, had 4 kids and the rest is history!  Ha!  
4. My oldest daughter is starting college this fall and my younger 3 are triplets and are starting 8th grade!  We are taking my daughter to her dorm next weekend for move-in day...we are all dreading it...we will miss her so much.  I love how close my girls have become over the past 13 years.  I know we'll see my oldest often.  She will only be 3 hours away and will be playing Volleyball so we'll see lots of games!

This is my oldest on the left!  She is a ham in front of the camera!

OK, that's a little of my personal background.  

      5.  Now school...I work at an Independent Charter School in Northern California.  I've worked there since it's 3rd year in existence!  I'm one of the "old timers" at this point!  Since we are a charter, we have lots of flexibility in choosing curriculum, preparing lessons, presenting lessons and curriculum design.  We also have our own School Board and two teacher board members, of which I am one.

      6.  I've worked with most of the staff members for 10 years or more with very little turn over.  My staff is truly my extended family.  I'm so fortunate to love the people I work with on a daily basis.  Our parent community is extremely involved and supportive.  I'm looking forward to this next year and finding out who my new firsties will be!  I can't believe I haven't seen my class list yet!

     7.  This year I am looking forward to a few changes.  My teaching partners and I are going to dive into teaching the Daily 5!  We have tried it in the past, but are committed to making it work this year and are going to be there to support each other!  

     8.  Also, I love teaching with technology and this year I got this "bad boy" installed my room...a 60inch flat screen television!

Don't look at the rest of the room...it's in progress!

    9.  Now I need an apple tv and I'm set!  I can't wait to demonstrate apps for the kiddos and then have them come up and show off to class.  The opportunities are endless and I'm excited to learn!  This is another area where I'm so thankful for my teaching partners!  We will be there to help each other learn and teach with technology!

   

    10.  This is my late night helper...I love her sooooo much.  No really, it's kinda ridiculous!  

Ok, that's me in a nutshell...until tomorrow!

Teacher Week '13

I'm joining the ladies over at Blog Hoppin' for Teacher Week '13 next week!  Be sure and check in daily for a new post on a new topic!  You can also find me on Instagram (friendlyfroggies) #teacherweek13.  See you Monday!

Until then...

The Great Classroom Makeover!

I was in my classroom last week to try and get ready before my report date next week!  Well, I'm not sure why every year I tear up the room, purge, rearrange and come up with something totally different!  I am really purging this year.  I think it's due to technology and realizing that all of that stuff in my file cabinet, has been there forever!  Untouched!  My go to resources are online!  I don't even look in that file cabinet anymore...Pinterest is my file cabinet!  So here are some in progress pictures:

So it's definitely a work in progress.  I have so much to do .  There are school supplies and "junk" on top of all of the tables!  

This is my new 60 inch flat screen TV!  (I don't even have one that big at my house.)  I love this TV and have been asking for one for so long!  But it had to be hung by the computer so I had to have it by my desk and right on top of one of my only bulletin boards!  :( 

 This is my library!  I do actually love this!  I still have to straighten it up, but I love the carpet (Walmart $19)!

 These three cabinets were not my choice. My former principal ordered them for all of us who requested storage (yuck).  They store my math supplies, craft stuff and theme stuff.  They used to be all next to each other along one wall.  The custodian is awesome and helped me stack the two on the end to make for floor space!  I have all of my shelves and cabinets along the perimeter of my room now which allows for lots of floor space!

I moved this long blue shelf below my long bulletin board.  It will house my math tubs.  The smaller shelf on top will hold my construction paper.

It's coming together, but it's a process!  I'll be up there tomorrow finishing up!  :)

Facebook Frenzy!

Facebook Frenzy!  This month's Frenzy is hosted by Creation Castle and includes so many freebies I can't wait to download them all!  I've loaded up on printer ink and cardstock!  Get ready!  It begins Friday morning at 8:00am CST.

Click below and get started!

Back to School!

Well, it's finally over, almost!  Summer has ended...I went into my classroom today and worked all day cleaning and purging!  Technically I have one week until I report back, but we all know it takes longer than that to get a room ready for the first day!

So for the past several days, we have been working hard at home to rearrange bedrooms and purge stuff!  We have a garage full of "junk" for a garage sale (like I have time for that) and some stuff to post on ebay!  I'm going to try and list some of my daughters' gently used toys for them.  They want to sell them to make money for their school trip to D.C. in the Spring.  Anywhoooo....

I got to my classroom today and had the purging bug!  I filled a huge recycling bin full of papers, posters, charts, and misc. junk!  I love it when I can get rid of junk!  Of course, it doesn't actually look like I did anything.  It's still a mess.  But, I'll be back tomorrow to rearrange desks and computers.    On the way home from my classroom, my mind started wandering to planning for the first few weeks.  I got home, picked up my computer and remembered that I had created several games over the summer! I quickly polished them up for you and printed them out for me!   I thought you might enjoy taking a peek!  Click on the pictures below to head over to my TpT store and take a closer look!

And, you won't want to miss this Facebook Frenzy I'm participating in!  There will be some amazing FREEBIES!!!!  And, who doesn't love Freebies?!  Right?

Have a great rest of the week!