Five for Friday (EOY Fun and Slideshow Edition)

Today was work day number one!
I got absolutely nothing so much done!
I found out my teammie and I would be moving classrooms/hallways.
So 2nd grade will have two rooms on one hallway
and the 2 of us will be on another hallway
I must say I'm kinda excited
I've been in my classroom for 5 years and it needs a good purging!
I threw every single thing from my file cabinet away
and
I'm not bring the file cabinet with me!
We both bought binders for filing
and I'm hoping it will help us remember what we already have!

I am the ultimate procrastinator. Tuesday night I was up until 1AM working on our slideshow for Awards Day the next morning! Why or why do I do this every.single.year? 

I really didn't think I would get emotional either, but I needed Kleenex just making the damn thing!

It's funny how memories make you miss someone so much

I used Smilebox again this year

and it was the first time I ever bought songs for the slideshow

I usually just use what they have

which is a lot

but I just found the perfect trio!

Started with Here Comes the Sun (Glee version)

then to Bruno Mars Count on Me (obsessed with it now)

and ended with Taylor Swift Never Grow Up (tear jerker, just try and listen to it!)

SMilebox is just so freakin' easy!

I click add song and wa la!

easy to share through email, facebook, blogger, twitter, wherever!

I generate a link and emailed it to parents

I also chose to disallow sharing on facebook

I like having that option since not everyone wants their kid's face on there

And with Smilebox's Teacher Toolbox program, you can get it for a whole year free!

Lots of the designs are free anyhow though

Just my opinion here, they are not paying me to tell you all this

though Smilebox, if you want to just email me! 

 

The Carson Dellosa Lookbook was mailed out this week
Guess who's in there???
She's fake blonde.
She has some tattoos.
She is wearing a strange headband on the back cover.
Yep
ME!
and some amazing other bloggers!
Like
Cheryl from Primary Graffiti
Kristen from Ladybug's Teacher Files
Denise from Sunny Days in Second Grade
Erica from Erica's Ed-Ventures
Erin from Kleinspiration
yea, I know! right?!
I was like the odd new girl among the popular ones!
But guess what?
they are human just like me!
and simply the sweetest!

I was very lucky to be asked to work with CD this year
this was the 2nd year they had teacher bloggers design rooms for them
I won't lie
it's hard to design a whole room in 2 days
including planning and shopping!
But we did it!
Monday the interactive online version will be posted and I'm pumped!
I mean, this is as close to famous as I'll ever be so it is exciting!
My room was also on the email you *hopefully* received about their annual contest!
I'll be sharing more soon!

My babies all finished up school last Friday,
so I was the only person in the house that had to get up before 6AM!
Boo!
But my how they have changed in the past 10 months...

But these crazy boys aren't my only kids!
This right here is why I love my job most every day!
this gorgeous young lady was in my first 2nd grade class
and she "graduated" 6th grade yesterday
so we said goodbye
so sweet
and bittersweet
and that cutie is another one of my babies!
oh! some kids you just never get over
Happy Friday Everybody!

five for friday (sunday edition)

Only 2 more fridays after this one folks!
Whew!
I might be a little excited.
But then I think about all the awards days planning (trying something a little different...)
plus all our festivities for the last 10 days, but we can do this!
So here's my week!

the butterfly unit is from Linda Kamp and the rest is from me. I haven't posted the quad stuff yet because we are still using and testing it!

and here's the winners from my growing bundles giveaways last week!

congrats y'all!

Five for Friday April 17

It's five or fraturday since I started my post last night and forgot to finish!

In all honesty I really do not have that much to share. My week was pretty ho-hum.

We made these little money butterflies to add some color to our room and review our money counting skills after spring break (which was last week.)

I'm back to my diet and visiting my nutritionist every week again!! I've been a bad bad eater for about a month and chocolate is my go to food. Isn't it funny that there is a vitamin water zero right next to 25 chocolate munchkin donut holes! #irony 

I did officially launch and an Etsy shop too! That was exciting! I don't expect to get rich off of it but I do love making prints and I figured I could share them! And a lot of them will be things I make for my school, classroom, or home office so here's a lot of teachery things. You can use the code WELLHELLO at any time as a blog reader to get a discount!! 

 

So I had to get a new printer too. Obviously. This is like the only laser printer that is color and wireless...my 2 must haves! AND I only paid around $200! 

HP LaserJet Pro 200 M251nw Wireless Color Printer (CF147A#BGJ)

And...it's officially baseball season around here! Now that middle lamb is 10, we get later games. Monday's game was called at 10pm. And we were only in the fourth inning! I like to be in the bed watching tv or reading by 8, so this will not conducive to my sleep cycle! Which at the moment is like 2am-12pm...so it's not too conducive to my job either!

I hope your week was a little more exciting than mine. Here's to the weekend! Go link up with kacey too!

Five for Friday Seuss Week Edition! {freebie!}

This was our first FULL week in almost a month! Between Leader in Me Symposium, Leadership Day visits, and SNOW it's been kinda crazy. And it's been exhausting too! Nothing like returning work full swing on Read Across America Week! So here's what we were up to this week!

It's an EXTREMELY busy board, but I love it and everyone stops by to check it out! I bought the Seuss Camera app two years ago and I always use it, but this year I had them printed at Walgreens! So cute! and perfect for these little mini expert books! They range from a few about Pokemon, to chicken (as in the food), to Darth Vader (that's mine!) Here's a little tutorial on accordion folds if you need it, but it's really a no brainer! None of mine were perfect! I made 3 per sheet of white construction paper. They just worked on them while they were not in a guided reading group.

I love these! We are adding a little Leader in Me writing to them too, but here's where they hang their art as they finish! They love putting it on the board for "inspiration"! Download it here! You don't have to be a Leader in Me school to use it! I only added the 7 Habits to the large size writing paper! I also included ways my kiddos and I thought the Cat used the habits!

need help downloading? Read this!

We had a different theme each day! But this is the only one I got a picture of! boo!

happy weekend!

and don't forget the Iditarod Sled Dog Race begins MONDAY! (they moved it back due to weather). So go grab my classroom activities file while there's still a freebie inside!!

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!!

Five for Friday!

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for five for friday!

I don't know about y'all, but this has been the loooooooongest week of the year! Shesh!
Full moon? I don't know if the lunacy is related, but I will use it as an excuse!
But the show must go on, so here's a peek at what I was up to this week! and be warned this is really random!

I have problems with Instagram, as in I see lots of cute clothes and jewelry and follow the IG'er and subscribe to their liketoknowit accounts, and click LIKE on EVERYthing, get the email about the outfits, and then buy it...
luckily one account I LOVE is a set of twins who love target! Go follow the double take girls! such cute outfits! I would've passed this flannel right up at Target if they had not styled it so many cute ways! oh, and the necklace too of course!

My teammate Katie and I have started switching classes in the afternoons. I LOVE teaching science and she loves SS, so I teach science to her youngins twice a week while she covers all the holiday jazz. Mondays are reserved for Letterland and Library and the other two days I repeat the lessons with my kiddos. She used my Day of the Dead unit and this powerpoint! The kids EATitUP every year. They've never heard of this holiday and it's the perfect followup to Halloween, plus it's just so different than our culture! If you didn't snag it for free earlier in the week, it's included in my unit now, as well as separately!

Now I was across the hall teaching matter. Which I love. When I had a kit to use. Y'all, it's hard to teach matter without my kit! But, I just supply my own little experiments now! I started out with a little refresher of what they learned about in first grade, and after watching BrainPop Jr, we broke out the magazines and searched for examples. Finding gas is always a treat! This activity is from Inspire Me ASAP! I've used it for  years now! Next week we will start with experiments because they sure do not believe air takes up space! =)

While I obviously use my unit for teaching the bulk of this unit, I always supplement with a few other amazing resources, especially ones for any crafts, reading, and more experiments! Here are the ones I use! because 2...or 5 Heads are better than one!

  

My team has tweaked our schedule just a tad to allow for some whole group reading. We actually only had time for our reading groups as it was. So I snagged Cheryl's The Ugly Pumpkin unit and off we went! Oh MY! They LOVED the book (and I do too!) Of course they all thought I was crazy for reading a Halloween book on Monday, Nov. 3, but I promised not all was as it seemed! I won't spoil the story, but it is for THANKSgiving! She focuses on making connections in the unit, so we watched Thank You, Mr. Falker on Storyline today (because Pat writes some great books, but they are long!) and I could believe all the connections they made! And I mean, seriously...look at these gourds! Oh My Gourd! I also love her unit because it has just what I need and not lots of fluff! She has some great book companions! and why yes, I DID hand write that title...I can copy a font like a pro, I just have to look at it and I'm obsessed with this font! I type whatever I want, pull it up on my screen, sit with my sharpie and go!

I also got a couple of tattoos this week. Not great pictures, but the twigs are above my elbow and I just can't get a good one anyway!