A Day in the Life

I do Weekend Recaps a lot on the blog, but I thought it would be fun to do a Weekday Edition to switch things up.  This particular weekday happened to be a Wednesday (which is my favorite weekday, unless you count Friday, and you'll see why at the end ;))

5:15-5:25AM 

WAKE UP. 

I wake up at this time if I need to wash my hair. (As you can see from the inspiring notes I leave myself on my alarms).  I probably don't really need to wake up at this ungodly hour but I'm also really slow in the wee hours of the morning.

I don't know what time it is now.

But I'm done showering, and it's time for coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee and makeup! (Side note: Erik wakes up about half hour after me and by then I'm on my second cup of coffee and he always laughs is insanely jealous of how much energy I have. But hey! I need to keep up with 19 5-year-olds...gotta be prepared!)

Rimmel Fix & Perfect Face Primer.  I discovered this (and the Revlon ColorStay 24 hr Foundation) over at Hello Newlywed Life. And hello! My life has been changed.  If you have oily skin, these 2 (inexpensive) products are little miracles. After being at work all day & never reapplying any powder or blotting, I get home and my face has no slick spots. Zero. None. NADA! So thank you, Megan!

Revlon Photoready Powder.  I brush this all over my face after applying my foundation to set it and give it even more of a shine free, "luminous" finish.

Sonia Kashuk Concealer & Illuminating Bronzer. I recently discovered this concealer and it has quickly become one of my faves.  Blends easily to cover any blemishes and/or under eye circles.  I use a little bit of the illuminating bronzer over my Nars Casino Bronzer to give my cheeks and bridge of my nose a bit of an extra glow.

MAC Divine Desire.  My all time favorite blush is Nars Orgasm but I am all out and this blush was a gift, so I thought I'd try it out before buying more of my fave, and it's not too shabby, if I do say so myself.

Benefit They're Real Mascara. Perfect mascara for giving you long, thick lashes, without having to apply mass amounts of coats.

Maybelinne Age Rewind Brightener/Illuminator. After applying my foundation, I swipe this under my eyes and it really brightens that area up!

Milani Shadow Eyez. I dot this in the inner corner of each eye, just for that last bit of extra brightness.

7:00AM

Ready to go!

Grab some breakfast (& more coffee) on the way out!

My favorite breakfast is oatmeal with a little EVOO & sea salt.  It's quick, easy, delicious, and I'm not starving again an hour after I eat. 

7:20AM

Arrive at work and prepare for the day.

8:00AM

Morning Work.  I always have the kids come in and work on some type of Morning Work worksheet.  It varies depending on what we have recently been learning.  And Wednesday, it was a Color by Sum, doubles fact practice.

9:15AM

Snack time! That means snack time for Ms. Rienzo, too :)

As the day progressed on, I started to fail on the photo front. Shocking! But refer back to the first picture of our Objective Board to be reminded of all the fun things we learned this day.  Next time, I promise to be better with the pictures!

9:30AM

Back to those Doubles Facts, baby!

Okay, and here we are skipping to 1:30PM

The kids go to their special (art, on Wednesdays).  And I enjoy 50 minutes of a quiet classroom -- entering grades, putting together Homework Folders, making copies, wishing I had more coffee.

 4:30PM

Workout & Bethenny time!

Erik gets home from work around 5:30PM and I mentioned at the beginning of this post, Wednesday is one of my favorite weekdays. And no, it's not because I can go around asking people WHAT DAY IS IT TODAY?! (HUMP DAY!) although, that doesn't hurt.  It's because a few months ago, Erik & I decided we would try to do something extra fun every Wednesday.  It could be cooking a nice dinner together, watching a movie, going to trivia night, etc.  A couple times, we have purchased Groupons and used them on Wednesday, and that's exactly what we did on this particular Wednesday.  I got a Groupon for a place called Brush & Bottle.  It's a painting class, where you can bring your own wine to drink while you paint. Can you say awesome?! We had so much fun and our paintings didn't turn out half bad ;)

Keeping Up With Kindergarten

Did you know Thursday was Johnny Appleseed Day? No? Yes? No? Well ya learn something new everyday! And where would we be without good ol' Johnny Appleseed?! Appleless and sad.

I don't know how this guy travelled across the country with a pot on his head. It's not as comfortable as I'm making it out to be in this picture.

We've also been learning about patterns.  And decided to brighten up our room with one of the best patterns out there...rainbows!

On September 11, we got together with one of the First Grade classes to make American flag ribbons.

Finally, these smart cookies are learning to add! 

So to help us better understand addition number sentences, we did Ladybug Addition.

Help Make a Big Difference to Our School With Target

For those of you who don’t know, I am a kindergarten teacher at a Title I charter school in Tucson, AZ. And although there are some days I want to sit in a corner and have a temper tantrum myself, I absolutely love my job. Every day is pretty unpredictable working with 19 5-year-olds, but I can be sure of one thing: at some point during our chaotic day, a huge smile will be brought to my face. From these kids being ridiculously hilarious, to watching them discover they learned something new-how could I not be the happiest (and most stressed out) person on the planet?!

Aaaaaand for those of you who don’t know exactly what a Title I school is:

“Title I is the largest federally funded education program for elementary and secondary schools. Title I is also designed to focus on special needs populations and to reduce the gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students.

States that have Title I schools have several requirements to keep the funding. Schools must have a child poverty rate of at least 40% to operate a school wide Title I program. A school wide Title I program can provide benefits to all students and is not just limited to those students who are considered to be economically disadvantaged.”

This year, our school is participating in the Give With Target (gotta love Tarjay!!!) program. That means if our school receives just 25 votes, Target will donate $25. For each additional vote, our school will get $1 more. It is super simple to vote, all you have to do is click on the link below, then click VOTE! AND I (& OUR STUDENTS) WOULD BE FOREVER GRATEFUL TO YOU!!! From this one small gesture, you have made an unimaginably huge difference in our school & to our students.

CLICK HERE to vote once a week until September 21. :) :) 

Catchin' Up With Kindergarten

Well. Well. Well. I survived my first 3 weeks in kindergarten of the 2013-14 school year (and so did my kids) so to celebrate, I thought I'd share 3 projects we've done so far this year!

The first project was actually a homework assignment (I know, what a mean teacher, assigning homework the first week of school).  The kids had to find letters in magazines, newspapers, etc. and create their names.  I think they came out so cute & were all so unique!

Within the first week of school, I also introduced my kids to Pete the Cat.  And if you don't know Pete, you need to get to know him.  He is awesome... he sings, he's silly, and has a fantabulous message, "it's alllllll good." 

Bonus! His stories are simple and there's a lot of repetition, so after kids hear the story a few times (and before they can actually read) they can pick up the book and "read" the pictures, which makes them (and me) so happy.

I bestow upon you our Pete the Cats!

"I'm love my red shoes, I love my red shoes."

And finally, the first science subject we cover in kindergarten is Our 5 Senses.  And what better person is there to teach you about the 5 senses than Mr. Potato Head?!

Happy Saturday!

Back To School!

Oh, hi. Remember I posted my "work in progress" classroom and then fell off the face of the Earth?  I had big plans, not only for my classroom, but for documenting it's progress.  But alas, everyday I would come home with no pictures, because I never quite finished one area of my classroom before moving on to start another.  So it wasn't done, until it was ALL DONE. (Totally random, but relatable, I'm watching Family Feud right now and the category is "jobs that stink" and the girl buzzes in, "Teacher!" By the way, that answer wasn't on the board. Yay.)

Remember this?

Here is the same view now! (Ignore the paper all over the desks I was too lazy to move...)

& some close-ups...

 Carpet/calendar/morning meeting/storytime corner

Word Wall 

Calendar board 

 Behavior Chart

 Gotta love a montage ;)

PS. Clearly, it looks like my classroom theme is birds (and it kinda is I guess) but I just want to throw out there that I haaaaaate am deathly afraid of birds.  Fun fact-in our old apartment, Erik opened our back patio door and a pigeon flew right in.  I hid in the kitchen screaming for a while until I felt safe enough to run into the bathroom and lock myself in there (because birds know how to unlock doors??) I was convinced our neighbors probably thought I had been murdered that night. 

But instead of my awkward bird story, I'll leave you with this.  My kiddos from last year doing something cute.

A Work in Progress

I wanted to post a picture of my classroom before I did anything to it.  Okay, that's kiiiiiiiiinda a lie, I moved stuff into this classroom from my old classroom (or box as my BFF liked to call it).  Yes, my current classroom (the one pictured below) might not look like the biggest room ever (it's not) but compared to my old classroom-it's a freakin MANSION!! And I couldn't be happier to call it my own.  Although, I will miss my close & comfy old classroom (I said goodbye to it several times) I can't wait to jazz this one up and make new mems with my kiddos!  

I have big plans for this space. BIG. PLANS.  Including paisley, pennants, polka dots, and owls.  UGH, alliteration fail. 

Stay tuned! :)