Hi friends!  I am so excited for Vegas!  I can't believe that in less than a week I will be there!  I have been looking forward to this week since last summer!!  I had an AMAZING trip last year, and I know this year is going to be just as amazing!!

I am linking up with Teach. Inspire. Change and It's Elementary, My Dear! to bring you my outfits for next week!  Really, just what I have planned for right now!  I know I don't have enough yet, and I still have to pack!!

Both of these ladies have an amazing fashion sense, and I may secretly want to dress like them!

I bought my dress for the Wednesday night meet up a couple of months ago!  I saw it on Red Dress Boutique, and knew that it would be perfect for the meet up!!  I plan on pairing it with my Toms wedges that I grabbed on Zulily!!

Friday night I know I will be hanging out at The Primary Pack meet up!!  I am very excited for this meet up! I grabbed this dress from a second hand store we have never me!  I LOVE it!!

During the conference I wanted to wear something that was comfortable, but still business casual!  I decided of course to go with some dresses.  Do we see a theme here yet?

       

Of course I have to pack some of my favorite maxis and shirts, because I don't know what I'll be doing on Saturday!  Both of these are ready to go!

 For sures I am trying to get as minimalist as possible so I have room for more clothes!  Plus, I am going to be walking pretty far every day so I need comfy as well!  My Toms are a must for my dress Wednesday night!  I figured the brown and black sandals go with everything!  I need my comfy walking shoes for the days when I am hiking back and forth up the strip and my feet are killing me!

Since we are going to be getting there on Sunday I do have some other outfits that I know I am taking with me.  It is going to be HOT in Vegas, kind of like our AZ weather, so I know that I need to pack to stay cool!

I'm excited for these new Target shorts and tank I bought!  I can't wait to show them off in Vegas!!

I am really excited to show off my new lanyard this week too!!  I just put it together, and LOVE it!!  Now to figure out how to attach all of my name tags to it!!

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Cassandra

I had the pleasure of spending Thursday with some AMAZING ladies!!

There are some pretty amazing women in this group picture!  I love that Ashley, Adventures in First Grade Jungle, brought her daughter too!  She is a cutie!!

Ashly, The Creative Classroom, did AN AMAZING JOB hosting the party for us!  Her house is adorable, and she should be a party planner if she wasn't a teacher!!  I told her I was going to hire her for my next party!!

We had SO MANY amazing giveaways!  There were so many companies that agreed to help us and gave so generously!!  On our giveaway table we had amazing TPT gift certificates, a C. Jayne Teach planner, Remind 101 shirts, Creative Teaching Press bulletin board sets, an Origami Owl locket necklace, a THINK sign from Creations by Beth, and an adorable apron from Grandma Annie's Shop!!

Check out our fantastic winners of these AMAZING prizes!!

   

Pam had an AMAZING day and was a very lucky winner!!  Congrats Pam!!

We also had a TON of fun at with all of the photo props that Ashlyn got for us!!

Make sure to head over to Ashlyn's page for a special surprise just for you!!!

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Cassandra

I am so excited to be sharing in the Summer Stock Up!!

I am so excited about my NEW monthly math centers that I wanted to show them off to you!  They are going to be a great asset to my classroom, and I know you'll love them too!

I have put a lot of time, and effort into my new math centers, and I am loving that every month the students will be practicing FIVE core concepts!

To help you become familiar with my new centers I am giving you my graphing center from my August centers!

These graphing activities are perfect because they have no prep!  All your students need is a pencil, paper clip and I used some colored pencils to color in my graph, but they don't have to.

I love these types of graphing activities because the students are the ones creating the data.  They get to spin their paper clip to create their tally marks.  They could do this with a partner to make sure that they are creating the graphs correctly, as there is no way to know for sure how many times they spun each ball.

These bar graphs force them to know that the lines are only the even numbers, and that the odd numbers are half way between the lines.  You can then tell if they can count their tally marks, and correctly draw the bars.

There are two different spin graphs available to you in this center!  One with the three balls, and then another one with four different sports!  This way multiple sports are given!

I hope that you will enjoy this freebie!!  You can grab it by following this image below!!  Make sure you continue on the Facebook hop so you can find even more awesome freebies as well!!  If the Facebook page isn't working, you can also grab the freebie HERE on TPT!

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Cassandra

Today I am excited to be bringing my Five for Friday and linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching!!

If you follow me on IG, then you saw that this past weekend my babies got BIG beds!  This is a big deal for us! My son had been in a futon that we had borrowed from my in-laws, which we were thankful for, but it was time for an update!  My daughter LOVES that her Bubba now has THREE beds, and that they get to keep playing on them!  Of course with new beds we had to get new sheets too, so now we have dinosaurs, Minnie Mouse, Ninja Turtles, and Batman sheets in our house!

I'm almost embarrassed to show you this picture!  This is what my "home" office looked like before!  This is the first time you have seen this room because when I did my #2getherwearebetter post I didn't even talk about it because as you can see I NEVER worked in here!  It was a MESS!!

Luckily, this week we have gone through, purged, cleaned and organized!  Now it isn't done yet, but it is getting a lot closer!! I can't wait to share more when it is even closer to being done!

There is nothing I love more about summer than being able to play with my babies and summer nights!  This is another post from IG, but one of my favorites!  My babies LOVE swimming!  We go TWICE a day!  I am so glad that we still have another month of summer nights to enjoy!

Today I took my oldest and one of his friends to go see Inside Out!  Have you seen it yet!?  I LOVED it and can't wait to find a way to use it as a teaching tool in my classroom!!

Here is this week's video!  I am loving this video this week, and my hubby pointed out again how great she is!

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Cassandra

Good morning!  I can't believe that this is my last post about Mindsets in the Classroom, linking up with Hello Sunshine Teachers!!

Chapter 10 was just a quick summary about the whole book!  I loved that it once again talked about that we need to have a classroom that is differentiated, and that we meet our students where they are at.  We need to make sure that we are helping our students to grow, and letting them know that we believe in them!!

I truly hope that you have enjoyed your time this month reading Mindsets in the Classroom with us!! If you haven't picked it up yet, I strongly encourage you too!  It is FANTASTIC!!  Don't forget to link up with Hello Sunshine Teachers for your chance to win a gift card as well!!

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Cassandra

I am so late in my post today, but it has been a crazy, busy, fun day!  I am linking up this evening with Ashley and Jen to bring you my insights on chapter 4.

This chapter was all about the culture that we have in our classroom, and how WE can influence that culture!  It is so true, as we are able to set the tone for what our classrooms are going to be like!

This is something that I know that I have to work on!  I know that I talk through problems with the kids, but I'm not really telling them when I'm thinking through something, or why I need to work on something.  This will be a great learning lesson for them as well, so they know that I am also thinking through things, and working things out!  Plus, it will help me to be more PRESENT!

I loved the part of the chapter where she talked about the fact that she knows she can't be thinking about the to do list sitting on her desk.  GUILTY!  Even at home I know I do those things!  I have a to do list a mile long, but I need to be present!  Having that to do list shouldn't be a burden, and I'm not going to let it get in the way of being in the moment with my kids at home or in my classroom!  When we ask our students a question we need to make sure that we are really listening to their answer.

I would like to think that I give my students many opportunities to think, but I don't know if I do enough.  We have lots of think time as we are reading the bible during religion, or reading a story in Daily 5.  They get to think about what they want to write about, and then later in the day we get to think about our science or social studies lessons.  But really, how much are they thinking, and how much are they just sitting there!?

I love the idea that Debbie used to carry around a notebook and record students answers.  "It lets students know that thinking matters.  When children are immersed in classroom cultures where thinking is well documented, it reminds students of the results of past endeavors and invites and encourages new ones!"  I LOVE THIS!!  We need to remind our students of thinking they have done in the past as we tackle the future.  As we are working through a difficult math problem, we need to be able to remind them of the steps they took yesterday, or even last week.  When we are exploring new spelling or vocabulary words, we need to be able to help them remember what they know about these words already.

I know I am going to be going out to look for a notebook where I will be able to do this, or a fun ap!  If you already have a suggestion to share, please do!!

I often give MULTIPLE students the opportunity to answer a question before we talk about what the correct or incorrect answers are.  I love doing this because it gives many students an opportunity to share, and they are willing to share what they truly think because they know that they aren't going to be judged for what they answer.  They also know that I am not going to tell them yes or no when they are done, but instead I thank them for their answers.

I also remind my students that we will wait for them to answer, so that way they don't feel rushed, and they know that we aren't just going to skip over them.  Students are allowed to pass, or ask for me to come back to them, but I want them to know that they are going to participate in the conversation.  This way it also gets away from the same four or five students ALWAYS answering the questions!

I can't wait to see what everyone else thought of this chapter!  Make sure to check out Ashley and Jen's blogs to see what everyone else thought!!  Time to go buy my notebook, or find a new ap to download!!

   

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Cassandra

Good morning!!

This morning I am linking up with Hello Sunshine Teachers again to bring you chapter 9 of Mindsets in the Classroom.

This chapter talked about how even when we initially begin our studies into growth mindset, and we begin implementing it into our classroom, we need to make sure that we are continuously doing it.  This is not something we should talk about on the first day of school, and then forget about for the rest of the year.

Mary went on to state that we should spend AT LEAST 15 minutes of each staff meeting talking about this!  We all need to make sure that we are looking at our classrooms, or our places of learning and interactions with students and make sure that they are a safe environment!  We need to make sure we are talking to students in a way that is caring, and uplifting.  We need to make sure that we are continuously preassessing our students, and then using that information to guide or groups or compact our curriculum.

We need to continue working to make sure that we have a safe, friendly, differentiated, hard working, goal achieving classroom!

Hard to believe we only have one chapter left on Thursday!  Hope you've enjoyed this book as much as I have!!  Make sure to link up your thoughts with Hello Sunshine Teachers!

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Cassandra

I am a day late to link up with Hello Sunshine Teachers for chapter 8 of Mindsets in the Classroom, but I took the weekend off to spend with my sweet babies, and then my hubby for Father's Day!

This morning I am bringing you my insight on chapter 8!  I LOVED this chapter, and I know I've said that often, but I cannot tell you how awesome this book is and I cannot encourage you enough to go grab it and read it before you head back to the classroom this fall!

This chapter was all about how we can teach our students about the difference between growth and fixed mindsets.  It was also about introducing them into the ways that our brains work, and how the brain can grow!  There were so many great ideas in this chapter, I just kept marking them as lesson ideas!  My friend Ashley, Adventures in a First Grade Jungle, and I were texting last night, and she already has her first week of science planned thanks to this chapter!!

One of the first games that I am going to play with my class is the guessing game!  I am going to have an object in a box or a bag, that they cannot see!  Then we will take turns asking yes or no questions to figure out what is in the box.  I will have to come up with an easy way to record the questions so they can see them, and write them quick enough so that way we are not wasting too much time.  This game will be a great way for them to get thinking, and to be thinking critically as they try to figure out what is in the box!

I loved that we would take it a step further later in the week, and put a sponge in the box!!  What a great way to have them guess again, and then talk about how a sponge is like our brains!!  LOVE!!

There were many recommendations for read alouds to talk about how we need to keep trying, work hard, and never give up!!  I am putting these on my amazon must purchase list this month!!

I'm excited to continue to share with my kids that it is okay to make mistakes, it is okay to fail, and that we are going to be working together to reach our best!  I don't want my students to try once and then give up!  I want them to know that I am going to be there with them every step of the way, pushing them to reach their full potential!

In case I haven't said it enough, I strongly encourage you to go purchase this book!!  You can even get the kindle edition from Amazon and it is only $10.99!!  That is the price of two Starbucks drinks!!  If you are disappointed you let me know, and I will send you a Starbucks or Amazon gift card!  I promise though, tou won't be disappointed!  

Check out what my friends at Hello Sunshine Teachers thought about this chapter too!

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Cassandra

Good morning!

I am up early again during my summer vacation.  Who in the world keeps waking up at 5:30 when your alarm goes off during the school year!?  Am I the only one!?  At least tomorrow I'll have little people who will be up with me.  This morning though I am enjoying the quiet while I type my Five for Friday post to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching!

I am SOOO excited about Vegas in just a few short weeks!  I can't believe that it is almost here!  This week I received my next piece for Vegas.  I am LOVING my new shirt!!  I can't wait to wear it in Vegas!  You can check out some amazing shirts here!

Earlier this week I was excited to have lunch with Jennifer!  Jennifer was the first blogger I met "in real life."  

My babies have been staying with my mom this week as my hubby has been recovering from minor surgery last week.  He has had to lay down for the past week, and he is going stir crazy!  We are both excited that our babies are coming home today!!

Wednesday I was able to meet up with my new teaching partner and we were able to set up our schedules for next year.  I am really excited about some things that we are going to try and do!  Now to just get to the planning so that way we can show how it will work!!  Thank you Learn Like a Pirate, Mindsets in the Classroom and Teaching with Intention for showing me better ways to reach my students!

Phil Wickham is one of my favorites.  I love this song too!!  I hope that you enjoy it!

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Cassandra