Freebies First

Here is where you can find all of my freebies first before they are posted in my store!

All About Me

Blah Blah Blah

Currently June

I know I'm a week late for, but school is finally out, and I'm able to breathe a little easier. The end of the year is filled with lots of fun and exciting activities with the kids and families, and it was "controlled chaos" most of the time, but definitely a BLAST! So, now to share summer plans, ideas for next year, and what I should be doing instead! Haha!

{Listening}

The great thing about being home now that school is done is that I will get to enjoy more of the little moments with my son. He turns three this month, and listening to his laughter is priceless!  Add on the fact that I can still give him lots and LOTS of kisses (and he blows them back to me), and this summer will be just what I need to get recharged for next school year!

{Loving}

I love the time I have with my children, and I give it every ounce of energy I have when I am with them.  Coming home each evening absolutely exhausting is rewarding, and leaves little room left for the time I have with my family.  So, I'm looking forward to spending more of my energy with them this summer, and making lots of memories!

{Thinking}

Lacking energy during the school year to get little else done also means I have a mountain of laundry, dishes, cleaning, and organizing to do around the house!  We also seem to have filled our weekends with graduation parties and weddings this summer...when did I become a grown up?! ;)

{Wanting}

The school year is barely over and I'm already thinking of how I would like to decorate my classroom for next year! (Yes, I know...I need to give it a rest!)  My classroom is going natural next year, with lots of frames, pictures, and plants to bring the outside indoors, as inspired by Reggio Emilia.  

I'm in L-O-V-E with the new Chalk It Up! collection from Creative Teaching Press! I plan to use the Dotted Swirl Border, coordinated with a polka dot border and black bulletin board paper to give my classroom a vintage schoolhouse look.  I can't decide which color of polka dots to do to make it have the nature vibe but still bring in some color.  What do you think?

{Needing}

An overhaul in classroom decor means I'll be going to some garage sales and doing some thrift store shopping this summer to find wood/wicker baskets, bins, and other natural containers and materials to make my classroom feel like home when families walk in the door.  I can't wait to see how it turns out!  This also means I need an on/off switch when it comes to work.  I need to be able to spend quality time with my family and not worry or wonder all of the time what next year is going to bring! Ugh!
{Summer Lovin'} When I'm not sharing my ideas with all of you and making things for TpT this summer, I'll be taking short family trips to local places, reading, and spending some much needed time in my garden.  Like my house, it's been sorely neglected. Thanks for reading.  Hop on over to Farley's Currently linky to find other teachers to follow!  

Meet the Teacher

Although school doesn't technically start for a few more weeks, I am now starting to panic!  I walked into my room this week and spent two days getting practically nothing done.  I have to say I felt a bit overwhelmed by all of the decorating I would like to do.  And it doesn't help that when I'm at home, Pinterest just happens to show me more ideas of all of the AWESOME things I could do!!!  So to procrastinate further, I decided to join the "Meet the Teacher Blogger" linky from Falling Into First. ;)

Hello!  My name is Ashley Copeland and I have been teaching for four years.  I've taught a year of second grade, a year of kindergarten, and two years of preschool.  This year, I will be returning to preschool with an awesome team of teachers that are passionate about working with young children and engaging them with creative activities based on their interests!  

I have been married to my high school sweetheart for four years, and am a mother to a sweet and adorable two year old, Noah.  Life is always an adventure!  The pic of my husband is from our trip to Gatlinburg this summer to revisit where we got married and to go to the Wonderworks Museum.  I would definitely recommend it for the whole family if you're ever in the area!!!

 THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS...

Fall (the colors, pumpkins, cooler weather, sweaters, rain...everything!!!)

Dancing

Gardening

Scrapbooking

Crafting

Drawing (pencil)

Exercising

Coffee

 IF YOU WEREN'T A TEACHER, WHAT WOULD YOU WANT TO BE?

An ecologist working and studying animals in national and state parks.  I'd love to advocate for endangered animals, since one of my favorite animals is the Siberian Tiger.

THREE LITTLE WORDS THAT DESCRIBE YOU.

Passionate, Creative, Loving.

 FINISH THE SENTENCE, "________,  SAID NO TEACHER EVER!!"

"We're ecstatic that this year our program is going to get audited...said no teacher EVER!!"

Q: IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY AND YOU CAN INVITE ANYONE {DEAD OR ALIVE} TO THE PARTY. WHO ARE YOU INVITING?

Twitch and Alex...just to see them dance the "Outta Your Mind" routine again from So You Think You Can Dance.  I could watch them dance all day!

Q: IF SOMEONE WROTE A BOOK ABOUT YOUR LIFE, WHAT WOULD BE THE TITLE?

 Ashley in Wonderland 

 Q:YOU GET TO PICK ONE SUPERPOWER. WHAT IS IT?

ICE!!!  I'd love to have control over water in all forms!

Q: WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE QUOTE OR SAYING?

"She is clothed in strength and dignity, and she laughs without fear of the future." 

~ Proverbs 31:25

Q: IF YOU HAD TO SING ONE SONG ON AMERICAN IDOL, WHAT WOULD IT BE? 

 "You Were Meant for Me"

~Jewel

 Q: ARE YOU A MORNING PERSON OR A NIGHT OWL?

Totally a morning person.  I get my best stuff done in the first two or three hours of the day, after I've had my coffee of course!  As a rule, I don't usually do any work after dinner.  That's reserved for family time.
 

Q: WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE RESOURCE THAT YOU'VE CREATED IN YOUR TPT SHOP?

I created a Beach Theme Clip Chart to match my theme this year.  It comes with calendars so your students can record where their behavior was for the day.  It's flexible so you can include all pieces of the chart or mix and match as you like, and includes several size options!

Q: SHARE SOMETHING WE MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT YOU! 

I draw Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  I love to draw, and I draw and shade with pencil.  My husband requested I draw him the Turtles for his "man cave," so I delightfully drew them for him!

Now it's your turn!  Visit Falling into First to participate in the linky and get to know some fellow bloggers. 

Five for Friday and a FREEBIE!!!

I officially started counting down the days left until the end of the school year...last week!!!  Seven days to go with the kids (They don't come to school on Friday)!  Then a week of home visits, and another week of paperwork and packing up my classroom, and the school year will be over!

I keep telling myself that I need to give as much energy and excitement to the happenings going on in our classroom as I did at the beginning of the year, but every day this gets harder and harder to do...

{One}  Last week, for one of our small groups, we taught the kids how to make a flower.  We discussed what shapes flowers can be in, and then let them have at it.  Then, we cut out the shape of their flower (as you can see, they're all different) and glued them onto a stem that we cut based on how tall they are.  We are going to glue something on the back that says "  This is how tall your child was in preschool 2013-2014" and take these to their families when we go on home visits.  Rather than do a Mother's Day gift - since we're not in school for Father's Day - this is their end of the year gift for their family.

We added the flowers to our bulletin board to make a backdrop for families to take pictures on the last day of school, as we are inviting them in that afternoon for a slide show and memory book project.

{Two}  This week, we read Dinosaurs Love Underpants and I planned a few activities that went along with the dinosaur theme, which the boys in my classroom absolutely LOVED!  I saved this unit for the end of the year because it is one of my favorites and I wanted to have some engaging activities that still kept the children interested in school.  The story gets them laughing every time, and I couldn't help but laugh too!  

I created this Dinosaur Number Match 1-10 activity specifically for this unit, which you can pick up FREE on TpT.  

The kids counted the number of dinosaurs, found the clothespin with the number written on it, and clipped it to the correct number on the card.  If you download the activity, please rate it and follow me on TpT.  I'm a fairly new seller, and would really appreciate the support!

{Three}  We have toy dinosaurs that have been in our classroom all year, and the kids love to play with them, especially the boys.  For this art activity, the kids dipped the dinosaur's feet into paint and walked or stomped a trail on the paper.  I had kids that never go over to the art table try this activity several times!

{Four}  Why read this story if we weren't going to decorate our own pair of underpants?  I found this Underpants Writing Activity on TpT last year when I taught kindergarten, and it's still FREE!  It's also easy to adjust to any grade level.  We just painted them with watercolor, and I wrote down what their favorite part of the story was, so we could hang our underpants out in the hall for everyone to see!!!  The kids got a good laugh out of that one!

{Five}  The last few weeks, we've been making cosmic suncatchers, which I found on the blog Babble Dabble Do.  We quickly found out it takes approximately 3-4 days for them to dry, so you either need to do them several at a time over a few weeks (we only had 5 lids) or ask for donations before doing this activity.  Also, 2-3 drops of food coloring is plenty!  The color does spread while the glue is drying, so you don't need much, but they turned out pretty cosmic, I would say.

Hop on over to Farley at Doodle Bugs Teaching to check out all of the other blogs participating in Five for Friday.  Thanks for reading!