When it rains really does pour...

I'm back and let me tell you what I've been dealing with for the last week.  An out of town husband and 3 kids under the age of 6 with the stomach flu!!!  And then to top it all off, I got it too.  What a horrible week.

I'm happy to report we are all back in the pink and ready to begin summer break!

We found this little guy in our yard on the weekend and named him Mr. Shady.  Except that we found out Mr. Shady is really a Mrs. Shady who laid an egg in our sandbox turtle home.

Of course being the "teacher mom" that I am, I promptly suggested we go online and learn all about turtles and their eggs.  Our investigation led to me finding this cute turtle craftivity freebie from Stephanie Stewart that I just had to share.  Included with this craftivity is a can/have/need graphic organizer, baby turtle pattern and a fact sheet that the kids will use to show what they learned about sea turtles. I'm going to test it out on my kids first and then I'm tucking it away until next school year.  

Have you taught a unit on turtles?  If so, I'd love to hear about it!

Happy Teaching!
Erin Palleschi
Once Upon A Classroom

Introducing Me

I was what you might call a "spirited" child.

If it wasn't nailed down, I'd move it, change it, break it or otherwise do something with it I'm sure I wasn't supposed to do.

At the age of 5, I skipped school.  For a week.  

Thankfully, schools call parents now when their children aren't at school by 10 am.

I was one outgoing, happy, fearless, busy kid.

I did pretty well in school ...when I tried... and when it was interesting.

I wanted to be, and went to school to become a police officer.  

It's interesting how priorities change when you get married and think about having kids.  That's me marrying my best friend Michael 9 years ago.  WOW... that went by fast.

Not long after we got married I went back to university to earn a second degree...this time in education.  I knew I found my calling with the very first cut of construction paper and dab of white Elmer's glue.  

Seriously, what other sane person would be able to put on a yard waste bag and call themselves a Paperbag Princess and love it?

My teachers would never believe I have become one of them.

Fast forward a few years and meet our 3 healthy, full of life, spirited (I know...the apple doesn't fall far...God help me) children.

  Other things I love 

Pinterest!  

It has shown me all of the things that are wrong with my house that need to be fixed...now.  

I'm on an organizing tear these days, diligently documenting my success for prosperity because I know that my house will NEVER look like this again :)

My fridge before...

and after...

and if I were to take a picture of it today...

See what I mean?

I love art and all things creative.

I loathe putting away laundry.
 
I am

well intentioned

creative

hard working

slightly clumsy

 a wife

a mom

a chaffeur

an aspiring organizational goddess and

I'd love to have you follow along my journey in the blogosphere!

Happy Teaching!

If You Build It...

If you build it....they will come!

I have finally decided to take the plunge and start up this humble little blog!  I'll document all the exciting happenings in my classroom, share fantastic new resources and awesome ideas with you.  I'll post freebies and paid items from my TpT store, feature other amazing educators and hopefully inspire you to try new things with your littles.

As a token of my appreciation for following along here is a special freebie from my classroom to yours.  It's an adorable little reader that introduces basic punctuation (. , ? ! ") to your kiddos.  You may wish to read one page at a time and then do a mini-lesson for each type of punctuation.  Kids love to read this book to a partner while practicing their best punctuation voices!  This book is a great way to introduce basic punctuation and it would also be a great review activity for the beginning of the year.

Happy Teaching!
Erin Palleschi
Once Upon A Classroom