Budding Bloggers Showcase {Meredith from Creativity to the Core}

Hi friends!  Thanks for popping back in this week to meet another new blogger.  This week, you're meeting Meredith from....

After reading more about her, drop by her blog and leave her a little note to welcome her to the blogging community.  Go ahead and follow to see her creativity unfold throughout the year!

 

 Hey! I'm Meredith from Creativity to the Core. I live in sunny South Florida, just west of Ft. Lauderdale. Living a half an hour from the beach is a beautiful thing, although I need to get there more often than I do. :) 
 
I have been married to my husband for a year and a half now. We met at church my senior year of high school on Halloween when he was dressed like a chicken {yes, a big yellow chicken} and I was in my ballet costume from 7th grade! Quite the picture! He is so relaxed and silly, which works to keep my Type-A personality in check. I never go a day without laughing!

Typical man trying to "fake" push me off the railing at our engagement shoot.

We enjoy going to our pool, volunteering in the kid's ministry at our church, and spending time at Disney since it is only 3 hours away. I am currently in the last year of my Master's in Reading, but when I have a free moment, I'm always creating products for TpT or items to use in my classroom.

The last day of school with my babies!

I taught high achieving first grade this past year. It was my first year teaching, although I interned with the same kiddies the year before in Kindergarten. All in all, my first year was great. Knowing the kids from the year before worked wonderfully. This year, I have accepted a position as Communications Director at the elementary school I grew up in. So I'm stepping out of the classroom to switch from public school to a private Christian school in August. I will also be teaching Character Education as a special each week for grades K-5. I'm excited for what this year has to hold!

Math centers on the floor are my students favorite!

My favorite subject to teach is math. In first grade, I absolutely LOVED incorporating math center rotations into my day. We stopped using our textbook after about one month, and I began creating the curriculum for my high firsties. I have found that students are really engaged with the activities and truly understand the concept more when they are allowed to practice in many different ways. 

If you were to pop into my classroom, you would see students working in centers almost all day long. We incorporated reading centers and math centers with lots of writing every day while integrating science and social studies. I firmly believe that this is THE best way to get kindergarten and first grade students proficient in those early math and literacy skills. My classroom is quieter than most, and sometimes we work with the lights off, but students are communicating with each other and moving about the room freely. Last year, my principal said, "Your classroom functions like little men and women!" That was the truth! Independence was key.

Coffee, goldfish, and GoNoodle get me through those rough days. Weird combination I know... My students know that I need my coffee in the morning, and that goldfish are my favorite snack. However, when the kids are just having one of those off days, GoNoodle does the trick. It lets them get their wiggles out!

This is one of my students from summer camp who was very hesitant to come to reading because he didn't like to read and had trouble because of his hearing problems. But dice made reading fun!

I cannot live without dice. I swear, give a child a dice {or "Number Cube" as we have to call them in my district...Say no to gambling! lol} and a math or reading game, and they are SO concentrated. I'm not quite sure how it works. But, boy oh boy, it does!

Letter writing & homophones after reading Dear Deer.

My favorite classroom activity is when students get to listen to a fun interactive read aloud and then do a project that coincides with it. Usually, I pair a writing prompt and a craft together after we read. Sometimes amidst all the testing we forget, but they are still six and seven years old! Because I had to prepare the kids for gifted classes, I also incorporated a lot of choice in the products that students created at the end of our units. I often gave 4-6 options for students to pick from. This keeps the kids on task and interested in their final product.

Harriet Tubman "I Am" poems was one product option after reading learning about Harriet Tubman.

This year, my goal is to blog at least three times each week ALL year long, including linky parties. I enjoy getting together with other teachers, sharing ideas, and collaborating on projects. Most of the time, it's better than professional development from the county! I hope to meet more teacher bloggers soon!