Saturday's Snapshot

Hello Lovely Followers,

Today was a really busy day. I took one of the new teachers at our school clothes shopping for Salwar Kalmeez. We had a blast. I got some really cute new outfits for this year. I wear western style clothes quite often, but I really enjoy the life and color of Indian clothing. I especially love all the jewelry! Here are a few pictures of my new wardrobe!

I love the blue and yellow combo here! :) It comes with really cute blue salwar pants ( a baggier style of pants).

I really liked this one because it is simple (for Delhi styles). The pink is really pretty and it comes with pink salwar pants. 

I love the mix of the blue, green, and pink in this one. It also has pink churidar (which is Indian leggings) 

You can probably see a common theme here of pink. I love the pink and black here. The neck and sleeves are also really pretty. It has black churidar pants. 

Yup, more pink and green! I just can't help it! :) This one has pink salwar pants as well. 

Any outfit in Delhi wouldn't be complete without a new set of bangles! Can't wait to wear these beauties around! 

In other news, the little man has been having an awful time lately. He really misses America and especially his family. As soon as he wakes up he talks about going to America and seeing his Mimi, Nana, and two Papas. We feel really bad for him and are looking for new ways to make living in Delhi exciting so he doesn't feel quite so homesick. It is difficult to find things to do in the current Delhi heat. Two seems to be a really hard age for all of us! I am holding out that three will be much better!

Lastly, I have been thinking of ways to show you all more about my life here in Delhi. Last year I had a lot of camera problems, but this year I have a new camera and I am really excited to give you all a taste of life here in Delhi!

Each Saturday I will post a different picture "snapshot" from happenings around Delhi. Some of the picture will be my own and others will be from fellow teachers at my school. I hope you enjoy them! :)

This week's picture is of a rickshaw driver near a main market in Lajpat Nagar. The picture was taken by the principal of my school. Stay tuned for a new one next Saturday! 

Thanks for dropping by!

New Blog Design and Sale/Giveaway Celebrations!

Hello Friends!

My new blog design is up and running! :) I love it. Thanks so much to Honey Bunch for this fabulous new design!

To celebrate I am having a 20% sale this weekend at My Store and 3 weekend giveaways!

 Giveaway #1
 $25 TPT gift certificate for back to school purchases!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Giveaway #2
Forest Friends Classroom Set

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Giveaway #3
Hawaiian Classroom Set


a Rafflecopter giveaway

New Year, New Name, New Layout: "3rd Grade Theatrics" is now "Digraphs Decimals and Discoveries"

Hello Fabulous Followers!

My first day back at school is in 10 days! I start setting up tomorrow, lots of pictures to come...

I mentioned in a recent post that the wonderful ladies at Honey Bunch Blog Design were hooking me up with a new look! It is in the works and it is looking fabulous! :)

I also changed my name (I am sure you noticed this and were like who the heck is that?) I chose the name 3rd Grade Theatrics because of teaching 3rd grade in New Delhi, India. Those of you who teach 3rd Grade know about the "hams" our students are. These kiddos are full of life and laughter and can be real drama queens/kings!

I have one more year teaching in New Delhi, then I land back in PA. At this point I am not sure what grade I will be teaching next, so I decided to change my name to something more generic; something that can move with me from grade to grade. I started my blog back in October but it was a sitting duck until about March. Since it is still so young, I figured that this was the time to make some switches and then set it in stone.

Why Digraphs, Decimals, and Discoveries? This name pretty much sums up my experience as an elementary teacher. Digraphs: I love to teach students how to read and working with digraphs is a lot of fun. This part of my name ties in my experiences with lower elementary. Decimals: I really enjoy teaching math and decimals was something that we started to tackle in 3rd grade. I also remember teaching it to 4th graders during student teaching. This part of the name ties into my experiences with upper elementary. Discoveries: My philosophy of teaching has always focused on hands-on learning and discovering our world through books, interaction, and technology. It is so important to give our students the keys to life-long discoveries!

So there you have it. A New Year, a New Layout (coming very soon), and a New Name! :)

Thanks for being such amazing followers! I really appreciate your comments, advice, and participation in my giveaways.

Blessings,

3rd Grade Reading Mania Sticker Book

Good Morning Lovely Followers,

I am really excited to share with you my Reading Mania Sticker Program. I have been working on it a lot lately and have just finished the first 3rd grade sticker book today for September. I designed the program to give your students reading opportunities from over 300 3rd grade favorites!

Here is what the sticker book looks like:

Colored 

Black and White

Each 3rd grade book title has a sticker:

Each sticker books has a spot for the stickers. First, the students set a goal for the month of how many books they want to read and write that in their sticker book. Then they fill it up with stickers!

Colored

black and white

After the students read the book, they can fill out one of the 10 response sheets for that book:

At the end of the month, if the students reach their goal they get an award:

Here is the link :)

This program is a fun way to get your students excited about reading and give them a lot of amazing titles to choose from. I will be releasing the Oct-June books throughout the school year as well as books for 2nd and 4th grade. I will also be adding new book title stickers along the way. So be on the look-out for new Reading Mania Sticker Books and stickers! :) 

To kick it off, I am offering it free to the first 4 people who comment on this blog post leaving me their e-mail!

Blessings,

New "School" Year's Resolution Linky Party!

Hello Lovely Bloggers

I have decided to run my own linky party. I have seen a lot of them and participated but haven't done my own yet. So I decided to run a...

I love to make New Year's Resolutions, but let's face it, they never last past January 31st (if they even last that long!) I find that the only way I can stick to them is when I have a friend who wants to accomplish the same thing and we "check up" on each other.

So here's how this is going to work:

1. Blog about a New School Year Resolution. Something for your classroom and if you want to add something personal as well, go for it!

2. Link it up (Be sure to link your blog post back to the linky party so others can join in on the fun!)

3. Look for someone who has a similar resolution as you and connect with each other.

4. Check up on each other and encourage each other throughout the school year.

My Resolution:

My classroom is tiny, I mean literally tiny! It's hard to fit the student's desks, my desk, the library book shelves, and shelves for general school supplies in the room, let alone any space for centers or a cozy spot for the students to read. This has always been a frustration and challenge for me. The second half of that challenge is that we are not able to get into the school building to set up our classrooms (we tear them down at the end of the year) until a week before school starts! 

Last year was my first year teaching. I think everyone can relate when I say that the first year of teaching is insane! I didn't find out what grade I was teaching until three days before school started last school year. I felt rushed in setting up and getting my beginning of the year lesson plans done. Needless to say, a midst all those things, I have not learned the secret to an organized classroom. 

I always felt discouraged and guilty because I ALWAYS had a really unorganized desk, yet my students  kept their desks clean. It was always the joke that the Messy Desk Monster would come to Mrs. H's desk and eat all of my most prized possessions.

At the end of the school year, as I was packing up my classroom, I organized all of my units, centers, and put them neatly away for this coming school year. 

So, I resolve to keep my classroom organized. :) In fact, this coming week I will be setting up my classroom, and I look forward to blogging about all the organizational ideas that I have collect from pinterest and how they work in my tight space.

I also resolve to get back into shape. Wesley is going to be three in December and I still blame him for being overweight!(It's just so easy to blame being overweight on pregnancies) I am 40 lbs heavier than I was on my wedding day almost 4 years ago, and I would LOVE to be that weight again, but more realistically I would like to lost 25-30 lbs.

I absolutely adore Lindsay Brinn from Moms Into Fitness, and have used her workouts in the past, so I decided to get her Pretty Fierce Lean Out dvds. I ordered them back in March...and they have been staring me down ever since.

So, what say you, anyone want to buddy up with similar resolutions?

Flash Freebie Time!

I had a lot of fun today updating most of my products! I feel so accomplished, that I want to share my joy by having a Flash Freebie! It's really late here...almost 2am so it will only be available for 25 minutes, so you have to snag it fast! :)

I ask two things of you: 1. Please leave some feedback 2. Check out my newly updated freebies! Currently my store is half freebies!

Enjoy!

Tuesday's Teacher Tidbit {and a freebie!}

I can't believe how quickly the school year is creeping up on me! School starts back up for me on August 1st, which is right around the corner! I have sooo many things to accomplish before then. I can't wait to get back in my classroom and set it up. I have a lot of organizing to do.

This school year, I want to be more consistent with blogging. I feel like I have had a year to acclimate to life in Delhi and also one year of teaching under my belt. I am especially excited to see my blog "spruced up" a bit. I am letting the experts at Honey Bunch Blog Design make me and epic blog design. I am SUPER excited to see them work their magic. 

One thing I wanted to start up is a Tuesday's Teacher Tidbit. Every Tuesday I will share a little tidbit of information that I have found and used, or a guest blogger has found useful. Please feel free to link up! The more tidbits of information out there, the better :)

I like to do something in my classroom called: Discover and Share. I usually do this a few times throughout each unit. I gather up all the books I can find in my classroom library and the schools library for sources. I tell the students that they have twenty minutes of discovery time. They select a book from the pile and fill out the My Discoveries Notebook (see at the bottom of post) At the end of the twenty minutes I give the students five to ten minutes to gather their thoughts and reflect on what they just discovered. Finally, we share our discoveries. This can look different each time. Sometimes I tell my students to partner up, other times I put them into groups, or I have them present their information in front of the class. During the sharing time, the students take notes from the other discoveries. 

I have found this method to be very effective! The students remember the information that they find in the books because they claim it as their own discovery. They are really excited to share it with each other and eager to learn from their peers. In fact, at the end of the school year when we debriefed together, my students told me that this was their favorite activity and that they remembered more from this activity then from the other things we did, even review games! 

Try it out, tell me how it works in your classroom :)

Snag the notebook freebie by clicking on the picture!

Flash Freebie :)

I have two major products in the works right now, so I haven't been keeping up with my blog and FB like I wanted to. So how about a flash freebie? You can snag my US Geography and State Capitals for the next 45 minutes. Please leave some feedback! :)

More Giveaways! :)

Whew, it seems like this summer has been packed full of awesome giveaways! :)

Check out this giveaway by Live Love Math:

Be sure to stop by Creation Castle's Fabulous 300 Follower Giveaway for a chance to win some incredible products by great TPT seller :)

I donated my Snow White and the 7 Prefixes and Suffixes. It really cute way to help your students master...

 7 prefixes: un, dis, pre, re, mis, non, and com

 7 suffixes: less, er, ment, ist, ful, ness, and ly

Blessings :)

Liebster Award

I was really excited to find an e-mail in my inbox from Michaela Almeida from The Center Based Classroom nominating me for the Liebster Award. :) It totally made my day!

This was the first time I have head of the award. It is such an amazing way to connect with new blogs. There are so many incredible teacher bloggers out there that are just waiting to be discovered! 

So here is how it works:

To accept the nomination I must:

1. Link back to the blog that nominated me

2. Nominate 5-11 blogs with fewer than 200 followers

3. Answer the questions posted for you by your nominator

4. Share 11 random facts about yourself

5. Create 11 questions for your nominees

6. Contact your nominees and let them know you nominated them

I nominated:

Danielle Krantz at Live Love Math

Andrea Halterman at Eltigger

Verevna Scrivens at Scrivens 5th Grade

Teresa Kwant at Sixth Grade Scoop

Jenifer Stewart at All Four Reading

Questions from Michaela:

1. What is your favorite subject to teach? I love to teach reading! :) I had so much fun this year teaching one of my students (a young girl who spent most of her life living on the streets of Delhi) how to read. I haven't started my Master's yet, but I am planning on becoming a reading specialist in the next few years! 

2. What is your favorite book? What a hard question! I am an avid reader so questions like this are very difficult. I think I would have to say that it is currently Jane Eyre. I really enjoy the poetic language and classic love story.

3. Do you have a piece of clothing or an accessory you can't live without? In the states it was cute shoes. I love to shoe shop (I think it runs in my family) and I usually can't turn down a cute pair of comfy shoes. I haven't been able to indulge in my shoe passion in Delhi because shoes get really disgusting really fast and they need to be durable.

4. Do you have any pets? If so what kind and what are their names? Currently we don't have a pet. It would be really hard to take care of one right now, but Wesley and I have been working hard to convince my husband to get a puppy when we land back in the US. 

5. What was your first job? My first job was waitressing at Perkins Family Restaurant, house of the world's best pancakes (not that I'm biased.) I started at age 15 and worked there throughout high school and most of college. 

6. What is your favorite type of school supply? A sharpie! I love how clean it looks when you write with it. I didn't realize how much I loved it until I found that it was hard to find a nice permanent marker in Delhi. I brought two packs with me from the US after my visit this June. 

7. What is the most played song on your iTunes?  Detroit, Lift Up Your Weary Head! by Sufjan Stevens. (We used to lived in Detroit)

8. What is the last movie you saw? Finding Nemo, all snuggled up with Wesley. I look forward to the days when I have time to watch a "grown up" movie again! :)

9. Have you ever been out of the country? Where did you visit? Yes, quite a few times. I went to Honduras when I was 15 to help teach English to students from different schools; to Australia when I was 16 to spend a summer with some friends and also help run a sports camp; to China when I was 17 to work at an orphanage; to Bermuda (does that count?) when I was 21 to celebrate graduating with some of my besties from College; to Malaysia last year to get a break from Delhi (it is one of the most beautiful places!); to Nepal also to get a break from Delhi; and right now I live in India. 

10. What is your favorite hobby? (outside of blogging!)  Being crafty; I enjoy cross-stitch, d.i.y. projects, and creating cute things for my classroom. 

11. If you weren't a teacher, what would you be? I would be a nurse. I thought about taking an 18 month nursing program a couple of years ago, but then I decided that it would be a lot of work keeping up with continuing education for teaching and nursing. 

Random Facts About Me:

1. I danced for 13 years (ballet, tap, swing, hip hop...)

2. I graduated from high school when I was 16.

3. I love watching old movies like, A Touch of Mink or Court Jester.

4. I used to be a barista at a cute little coffee shop.

5. I have seen 4 shows on Broadway and one Opera at the MET (I used to teach in NYC)

6. I started working on a trilogy that I might try to get publish when I have more time to work on it. So maybe in like 20 years!

7. I am double jointed in my knees and elbows.

8. Sometimes when I am nervous I still bite my nails.

9. I met my husband when I was 14 working at a camp but we didn't start dating until I was 20.

10. My favorite color changes depending on my mood. Right now I am loving green. :) 

11. I used to have a pet rabbit who I think thought it was a dog! It was litter trained, loved to snuggle on people's laps, and would lick someone's hand until they pet her. 

And now my 11 questions...

1. When did you know you wanted to be an educator?

2. What is your favorite classroom memory?

3. What is your dream vacation?

4. What was your funniest teacher moment?

5. What is your favorite summer activity?

6. What is your favorite brand of handbags/purses?

7. What is your favorite movie?

8. What is your favorite children's book?

9. Which holiday, during the school year, do you look forward to the most?

10. What is your favorite on-the-go snack?

11. What is one piece of technology that you can't live without? 

Thank You!

I wanted to say thank you to everyone who entered this contest. I hope that you found some great new blogs, facebooks, pinterests, and TPT stores to follow! I love to do flash freebies, so be sure to stop by again soon ;)

Just wanted to give a big shout out to the sellers who donated and made this giveaway possible. If you haven't stopped by their stores yet, go check them out! These ladies have AMAZING products :)

Classy Classroom 
Sallie Borrink
Reading and Writing Redhead
Robins Resources 
Danielle Krantz
Corinna Woita 
The Traveling Classroom 
Tabitha Savage 
Create-abilities
Juliana Suarez 
Cahills Creations 
The Kinder-Garden
Who is Ready to Teach 
Mjcreations
Teri And Tiffs Creative Resources 
Second Grade Stories 
All Things Elementary 
180 Days And Counting 
The Fabulous Life Of An Elementary Teacher
Teresa Kwant
Jenifer Stewart 
Teacher Treasure Hunter 
Krazee 4 Kindergarten 
The Fun Factory 
Zoom Zoom Classroom 
Mrs Mathis Homeroom 
Janet Rainey
Carol Martinez 
Its A Jungle Out There 
The Third Wheel 
Teacher Tam 
Differentiation Station
Christine Cadalzo - Making Meaning 
Katie Orr
Diary Of A 5th Grade Teacher  
Mrs Hug-a-Bug 
Lovin Lit
Always Learning 
Bouncing through 3rd Grade
Teacher Gems 
Shanons School Supplies

Pin it to Win it Winners

Thanks for entering my 100 likes on FB Pin it to Win it Contest. The contest ended yesterday at midnight and here are the randomly generated winners :)

The winner of Forest Friends is Cherie! (Check your e-mail)

The winner of Maps and Geography Bundle is Disneymum! (Please send me your email)

The winner of Hawaiian Classroom Set is cwhaccent! (Please send me your email)

The winner of Popcorn Palooza is Jordan Piacenti (Please send me your email)

Don't forget to enter my 100 TPT Follower Giveaway with amazing products and lots of winner's choice! http://3rdgradetheatrics.blogspot.in/2013/06/3rd-grade-theatrics-100-follower.html