five for friday (feb. 20)

long time, no see!
I've been insanely crazy lately, but I am so thrilled with all the great feedback I am getting about the VIP Table and how y'all are tweaking it to fit your needs! That is what this blog land is all about! I love it!
We've had quite the week here in NC as far as weather goes.
Mon-early dismissal at 12:30
Tues-no school (icy conditions)
Wed-No school (cold day)
Thurs- 3 hour delay
today-3 hour delay
I know people up north think we're crazy for cancelling school at the thought of snow, but we seriously do not get snow! We get ICE! and that's about it!  I personally love that our district calls school by dinnertime the night before. It gives time for families to plan. We used to have it called after a "special driver team" drove the roads in our county and school wouldn't be called off until 6 or 7 in the morning! that sucked! So there's my soapbox defending NC!

Anywho, I'm linking up with Kacey for Five for Friday to get back into the swing of things!

We got so much done on Monday, Thursday, and Friday. I think having less hours in the day leaves much less down time for me! I'm like a drill sergeant! And boy we got everything done I had planned for the whole week!

I posted this on Instagram Monday! So true!

We didn't do anything for Presidents' Day, but here's a few blog posts I have done in the past.

Monday we finished up time, introduced graphing and surveys with my Penguin Hunt, and wrapped up our Saint Valentine unit!

Both of these are fairly rigorous for my kids. I LOVE this penguin hunt! I know it doesn't look like much, but it is and then some! There are 20 grammar/language questions (all aligned to CC) for students to answer. But they ALSO have to put a tally on which penguin in on each card. Then we gather at the rug, check our work, and make a tally chart of the types of penguins we found. Next, students complete a bar graph (which they are already familiar with) and then I introduce a line plot. It's so much goodness rolled into literally two sheets of paper! I like to give you a bang for your buck! (or three bucks as it is!)

and this baby is loaded with history, nonfiction, character traits, locating evidence, and recall with a fun quiz! I included a flap book, powerpoint that matches the text and is beautiful thanks for some amazing ladies who made clipart just for this unit!, as well as lots of follow up comprehension activities! and there's also a Saint Patrick version!! 

haha, choice B...#starwarsreference

Happy Friday!!

monday made it {instagram style} and more common core

So we take all these cute pictures and put them on Instagram to share with the world...then what? About a year ago I saw a site called insta.print. So cute....so expensive! and I am not even sure it's still around.
Then for father's day I wanted to do a poster of each of the boys at baseball games for Mr. Lamb. I went to walgreens.com and lo and behold...I saw this!

instagram + kevin and amanda font=love!

and here's what I ended up with!

It still needs some more pictures {which I just ordered-see below!} and I think some lace or ribbon and definitely a little bunting, but it is pouring rain and I like it just fine for now!!

so here's the 411 and I am sure a tutorial is not at all necessary, but they sure are pretty!

and here's the frame directions.

I chose an unfinished frame {Hobby Lobby} without glass for $39 minus 40% off coupon. 

Scrapbook clothespins {Hobby Lobby} I fully intended to go through the ordeal of glittering and papering myself, until I saw these things! I got two different packs that matched my home. 

plus my Instagram prints {$2.73}

mauve-ish colored wire {Hobby Lobby in the jewelry aisle} they have lots of colors and thicknesses.

{$1.99} I only used one spool and the frame is 18x20

thumb tacks {free from my desk drawer}

I pushed in the tack in the top corder and I wrapped the end of the wire around the base of the tack before pushing into the wood frame all the way. I just unraveled and zigzagged until I got the look I wanted. One part of the wire got twisted and has a kink in it, but I covered it with a picture!

ain't he a doll!?

I love the unfinished, scrappy look of it and the ease of changing out pictures to keep them current!

AND I did manage to squeeze out one TpT file that has been on my list thanks to Miss Tara! 

click me to see

I finally got the 4th grade posters made. I will blog about how I use these later on, but my 2nd grade ones are best sellers {and newly updated and on sale!} and I'm pretty much in love with how this set turned out! If you follow Tara at all, you recognize these colors! And a Big Ol' thanks to Ashley for making the Tara paper pack!

I may venture and take color requests on these sets, but let's see how things go! 

So go and link up with Tara now so I can spend more money and get more crafty!

We {love} Dad! care of Pinterest

Since everything else I can think of comes from Pinterest these days, why not our gift my my hubby, too?!

It turned out great! And I love the effects from Instagram! and I love the little feets even more. Of course they were supposed to stand in their "cell phone bar" formation, but little lamb couldn't hold up the DAD sign!
Happy Father's Day!

Here's what we did {this morning mind you...}

and here's the pin...

Source: mypigeonpair.com via Rachel on Pinterest

and don't forget my summer long sale!

Common Core Galore SALE all summer long!

On Monday I make my second trip to our district’s Common Core mapping team workshop. I am working on the ELA mapping {thus my recent ELA vocab cards cause that’s what’s on the brain!} Our job to to create the I Can statements, vocab lists, and eventually map out the standards as they fit with Scott-Foresman and other resources that our entire system uses K-5.

Now I don’t know about you guys, but I think the idea of most every state using the SAME CURRICULUM is awesome! It’s about time in my opinion. So, I will specially price all my CC tools until I go back to work on August 1!

Here’s what I have to offer. I change my mind A LOT, so there are a few different versions.

 

My best seller-a Top 10 on TpT {2nd grade version}

 

Half Size {TpT}

Full Size {TN} {tpt}

and last but not least

A Potpourri Post, a freebie, and a lot on the way

A completely
random
post
But, do you ever make a file or sheet to share, then when you use it, decide it’s not what you want? or there are a lot of things to change?
That’s me with  my Common Core posters…cute, but just not exactly perfect for me…
Especially since I discovered KPM Doodles! Love her!
So I spent my weekend revamping the file into full size options {because apparently administrators are blind} and adding new graphics and “I Can statements” that are reworded to be kid-friendly since I just found out that is what I will be required to post next year! Love how expectations change
every
single
day

Well, I am really happy with how they turned out! See for yourself! Click the images to go to TpT

I Can Statements in half size for pocket charts

I can Statements full size with full color and printer friendly format

And “Teacher Version” in full size

And Whoooo’s On Target with little owl subject headers that are freakin’ adorable!

I also posted a few other tidbits I made to use with my kiddos this week.
We attended a performance of Cinderella Around the World by our local theatre and it was great and laced throughout with good humor! Since we were not leaving school right away, I made a story problem mini-book with a Cinderella theme. You can snatch this freebie on TpT

We also made Amy Lemon’s watch pattern to show how characters change over time {a Common Core goal y’all!} I had my kiddos divide the watch face into halves or fourths and illustrate her growth as a character. We will also use the Invention idea this week. For the life of me I cannot locate a copy of Bigfoot Cinderrrrella and my students like are obsessed with the show Finding Bigfoot! I guess I will have to wait on Amazon to ship!

I will be doing a camera dump on our weather unit we just finished up soon. I am also working on putting together our unit as well as a Mealworms and Life Cycle pack! I am waiting on some custom clipart cause who in the world makes mealworm graphics?? I love those little boogers and so do my kids!

And I just saw Sara Cooley’s Lemonade stand file and had just read about Alex in a magazine this past week. Can’t wait to use it and teach my kids about caring for others, and give to the cause. We just completed the St. Jude’s Math-a-Thon and I encourage you all to participate next year!

J’adore Common Core

I normally need to spend time at school on workdays, but today our district had their first required “Common Core Day” out of 5 mandated days. I spent my 7 hours at the ELA Common Core workshop. While I am familiar with it, I was glad I attended. I learned a lot about how they are setup and the “Anchor Standards” which I had not previously looked at.

I also am happy to announce that I FINALLY finished the 3rd grade version of the Common Core Standards posters! Woo-hoo! I also became a Thistle Girl reseller! To celebrate my relief I am throwing a TpT sale; 10% off all products until Friday! Click the picture to visit my TpT store

I also want to highlight a new store on TpT! My fellow teammies started listing some of their ah-ma-zing creations, too! My personal fav is actually the freebie! It’s a Headless Horseman Costume Shopping activity. I have used in with my 4th and 2nd graders! Check my girls out here!

A few Requests Fullfilled and a Bloggy Button!

I finally created a blog button. I honestly didn't think I needed one, but I felt left out! And I will soon be posting to Me and the Gang as a contributing author for 2nd grade {exciting}! After an hour of messing around and googling the preferred button size, I ended up making it in Powerpoint of all things! The little program that could...

Grab her here!
I love my character by the way. My Vistaprint banner I made with her came today! Adorable. You can snag one at Jessica Wieble's amazing site!

And here are some requests I had that I'll share with the rest of you guys.
Addition to manners posters-The bg looks funny in Google docs, but the pdf printed fine for me. Let me know if you can't print it correctly.

And some new titles for the common core posters (these will be freebies). After my one millionth update to them...they are $10 so I want them to be perfect for that kinda money...I think they are good to go! You can purchase them on Teachers Notebook {preferred} and TpT!