Lie Revealed and Friday Flashback!

Before I start my Friday Flashback and link up with the amazing Amanda from Teaching Maddeness, I wanted to reveal my LIE!  I was giggling reading the comments about which one my blogging buddies thought was the lie...hehe!

Again, here were three things about me (two truths and one lie)...post with pics is here

1.  My favorite vacation destination of all time is Walt Disney World in Orlando, FL!  

I first made the trip with my parents when I was 5 and my sister was 7 (my youngest sister wasn't born yet).  Since then, I have been back 8 times and always have a great time, no matter my age!  Right now, we are planning to take our own kids next year at ages 4 and 6.  

I can't wait!

2.  I worked at McDonald's for 5.5 years throughout high school and college.  I went back and forth working at my home time store and college store.  The time always went by fast and I love how busy it was.  During college I worked the 4:30 am to 1:00 pm shift on the weekends.  Try that schedule with a roommate who partied until 3:00 am!  Oh... the fire alarms in the middle of the night that happened frequently were great too:)  My husband and I even met working at McDonald's when I was 16 and he was 17!  

3.  Speaking of my husband, here we are at our wedding:)  He is my best friend and ONLY boyfriend I ever had in my life!  We started dating the summer after I graduated high school and dated all through college while attending colleges 100 miles away from each other.  

We never broke up and I have never had another boyfriend!

The lie was....#1!  Sadly, I have NEVER been to Disney! This is not really by choice but I have never had the chance to go:(  It was on my mind because I knew I wanted to take my two kids as soon as I felt they were old enough.  Well, next February they will be 4 and 6.  We just booked a one week trip to Disney for Feb. 2014!  Yay!!!  I am beyond excited for my little family:)  I will be emailing anyone who chose #1 to choose an item from my TPT store!

Now marching on....my Friday Flashback!  This week was like a blur.  It was the last week before a two week spring break in which the state tests are the second week we come back (ELA followed by math).  I was torn all week between my students, my own health, and my daughter's health.  

Monday:

This was the day after St. Patrick's Day and I just had to make some "positive character trait gold coins" like the ones I read about here on Ideas by Jivey.  She has quickly become one of my favorite bloggers!  Check her out:)  Mine are on basic yellow construction paper but I did laminate them since taking the picture and plan on putting them on the side of each student's desk.  They just loved playing scoot (I played with them!) and writing a positive character trait on each coin.  

There was a buzz of excitement when they were back at their desk and read their coin!  

 On the back of each coin, we glued this quote:

Wealth stays with us a little moment if at all,

Only our characters are steadfast, not our gold.

~Euripedes

Tuesday

I had an all day writing workshop on the modules for the Common Core.  I had to leave at the half day point to go home to my sick, feverish daughter:(  The workshop was great and I have a couple things I would like to share with everyone after I try them out.

Wednesday

Daughter still has the fever...hubbie stayed home.  This was 5th grade science fair week at our school.  The other grades always place science related projects in the hallway.  We still have our natural disasters projects (you can read about those here) on display and added the fourth graders "reuse projects" to the tables.  The students bring recyclables from home and repurpose them for another use.  It is wonderful to see their creativity!

Thursday

Daughter still has the fever (over 104 at night) and she went to grandma's....crying all morning for me to stay home.  It is so tough being a working mommy sometimes:( So torn!

We played King's M & M's to demonstrate the Stamp Act before the American Revolution.  I actually used skittles this year due to a peanut allergy in my room:)  I found this link to the directions.  When we play, the students who lose their M & M's (skittles) never get them back and I do not give them more candy.  We discuss this before beginning and I think it makes it more meaningful to have them feel a little hurt when their candy is taken away, knowing they won't get it back.  I tell them that they didn't "earn" the skittles, so it is not nearly as bad as the colonists losing money that they earned and need for their livelihood!  A student said to me this year, "I would rather lose money than skittles!" Haha!!

A room mother dropped off these darling Easter containers filled with jelly beans.  She works with adults with disabilities and they made these for us!  The bottles are recycled little water bottles and the color around the bottles is decorative duct tape.  Then there are white little paws over the duct tape.  Those are muffin cups for the tops with ears laminated and stapled to the cups.  Aren't they cute?  They made the little "goodie" bags I made them for Easter seem pretty lame.  I won't show you a picture of those!

Friday

Daughter STILL has the fever and we had to cancel her tonsillectomy that was scheduled for today.  I stayed home with her since I already had taken a sick day for the surgery.  My two week break started today and I was so pleased that we could have her surgery and I wouldn't have to worry about taking so much time off of work.  

Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans...

I have also been so sick this week and it was by the pure grace of God that I made it to Friday.  Finally, today I was able to go back to the doctor and got a stronger antibiotic this time to get rid of this sinus infection.  Better days are ahead:)

So, there is my week in a nutshell!  

I can't wait to knock some items off the to-do list over break:)

I started working on a little something today with the help of the super talented Michelle from 3am Teacher.  With her help, I should have a reply option soon in my comments I NOW have a reply option in my comments!  Yippee!!
Check out the 3am Teacher's post here about this add on!

I also have Michelle working on a linky button for my very first linky that I hope to start next Thursday!  I am planning a weekly Thursday linky...light and fun!  It is pretty nerve racking because I keep thinking that nobody will link up, but then I just decided to go for it.  What's the worst that can happen?  I hope you will stop back and see what I have planned:)

Get Acquainted Linky-2 Truths and a LIE:)

Latoya at Flying Into First Grade is having a super fun weekly linky party!

This week's topic is 2 truths and a lie!  

See if you can comment and guess which of these claims about me is a lie.  

Check back at the end of the week to see if you were right in another post.  

How fun!  Now, let's see if I can you a little about myself...

1.  My favorite vacation destination of all time is Walt Disney World in Orlando, FL!  

I first made the trip with my parents when I was 5 and my sister was 7 (my youngest sister wasn't born yet).  Since then, I have been back 8 times and always have a great time, no matter my age!  Right now, we are planning to take our own kids next year at ages 4 and 6.  

I can't wait!

2.  I worked at McDonald's for 5.5 years throughout high school and college.  I went back and forth working at my home time store and college store.  The time always went by fast and I love how busy it was.  During college I worked the 4:30 am to 1:00 pm shift on the weekends.  Try that schedule with a roommate who partied until 3:00 am!  Oh... the fire alarms in the middle of the night that happened frequently were great too:)  My husband and I even met working at McDonald's when I was 16 and he was 17!  

3.  Speaking of my husband, here we are at our wedding:)  He is my best friend and ONLY boyfriend I ever had in my life!  We started dating the summer after I graduated high school and dated all through college while attending colleges 100 miles away from each other.  

We never broke up and I have never had another boyfriend!

Now, which ONE of these three would you say is a LIE?  I will choose a random correct responder to win one item from my TPT store. 

Be sure to leave your email if you are a "noreplycomment" blogger!

Check back to the other "2 Truths and a Lie" posts here!

St. Patrick's Day Sale!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!  

I am going to check out all the amazing TPT products on sale today.  

Check out Mrs. Wheeler's First Grade Tidbits linky party and everyone hosting a sale today!

Here are some products that I have on sale in my TPT store:)

I am off to take a little nap on a lazy Sunday:) 

 TPT shopping later tonight!  

What can I stock up on for the spring?

This is the forecast for the upcoming week.  Spring can't come soon enough!

Five For Friday TGIF!!

TGIF is the phrase of the day!! 

It has been snowing and blowing the past two days like it is January, 

my sickness (cold, fever, blah) is back with a vengeance, 

and it is crunch time for the state tests.  

If that doesn't deserve a TGIF, I don't know what does.  

Good thing I can do a link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to brighten my spirits:)

1.  Pen Pal Letters-We have the best pen pals from Indianapolis this year!  Since we live in a rural district, I wanted pen pals from an urban area.  Jill replied to my blog post plea here and we just exchanged our third set of letters back and forth!  In the last set, I sent a video message of the whole class and each individual saying a quick "hi" to the pen pal and word about themselves.  We just received a video and letters back from them and my students were so thrilled!  I love the buzz of the classroom as they read their new letters:)

2.  American Revolution (FINALLY!)  I am so far behind in everything this year it seems and social studies and science are no exceptions.  This is my favorite unit in social studies and we started these pockets to hang on the students' desks this week.  

This is the Boston Massacre pop-up.  The students really love the activities that go with this unit!

I use this book for the resources that go with the pocket folder.

3.  American Revolution #2-In ELA (different grouping than my homeroom-social studies group but there are some crossovers) we started reading "Can't You Make Them Behave, King George?" by Jean Fritz.  I love all her books and the interesting, fun spin she gives to historical events.

4.  Math Review-We studied area and perimeter weeks ago and I added this tic-tac-toe game that I found on TPT to my math centers as a fun way to review both concepts.  With the test approaching soon...dun dun dun...any review of concepts that will surely be tested is always a good thing!  

One side of the card has a question.  Students answer the question and show their work on the recording sheet.

 Next, they flip the card over and if the answer is correct, they put their "x" or "o" on that spot of the board.  If they are incorrect, their partner gets to place their "x" or "o" on the board.

5.  My Little Buddy is 3!!!  I can hardly believe that my little guy turned THREE today!

Seriously, where does the time go?

He only asked me about ten times today, "Mommy, am I three now?  Today?"

He has the sweetest little soul and just melts my heart!

When we brought him home from the hospital three years ago, it was 75 degrees (yes, mid March in WNY).  I actually like colder temps but the 20's can go now!  

Fifty degrees would be all I ask...please? 

Have a great weekend everyone whatever your weather is like:)

Monday Made It!! (classroom jobs)

It's Monday!  I am excited because I can link up with my favorite linky party and the amazing Tara at 4th Grade Frolics!!

Made It #1-I decided to do a major change with my classroom jobs (I know it's March!) but I couldn't resist!  My books from my personal library keep getting misplaced or not returned.  It is so frustrating when I just happen to find six or so books in a student's desk or they have gone missing entirely!  Ugh!  I have spent a lot of time (and money) building up my mediocre library.  A better system was needed.  I have tried the self check-out system but the same students were not returning their books and either not signing them out or in and it was nearly impossible to keep track of who last saw the book.  Then, I saw this post from the Peanut Gallery's post at All Things Upper Elementary.  This setup is amazing!

Did I mention that I WISH I had that many books in my library?  I would need more shelf space first though!  Her system was so inspiring that I knew I had to make a change.  It could not wait until next year!  So, I began searching for ideas for classroom job applications.  Why stop at just a classroom librarian?  I have always had a "teacher's helper" but the more I read, the more I realized I could have many more jobs in the classroom.  I found this FREE editable classroom job application on TPT and edited it for my needs.  The students were ecstatic when they found out they would be applying for various (new!) classroom jobs!  They couldn't wait to find out their new jobs.

Once the students applied for jobs, I made a job calendar for March and April based on the students' top three choices.  There really is a job for everyone and even my most reluctant helpers were excited (well, at least mildly:)  

I made this job chart...well, sort of made it on my own.  The adorable owl graphics are by Tracee Orman and you can find them here at TPT.  The chevron frames can be found here and the borders by the talented Megan at I Teach, What's Your Super Power below the owls are here at TPT.

I laminated the signs and put the magnetic strips on the back.  The little magnets holding the students names are Oxo magnets and they are super strong!  Pictured below is the little basket holding extra student name cards.  I knew I would find a handy way to use this magnetic basket I bought at Dollar General last summer!

The student jobs I have are:

• homework handlers (2)
• administrative assistants (2)
• classroom librarians (2)
• attendance assistant (1)
• pencil police (2)
• line leader (1)
• board boss (1)
• classroom caretaker (1)
• homework checkers (varies based on needs)

Some jobs change every week and some change every two weeks.  So far, this has been working better than I ever could have imagined.  It might be because it is new but I hope changing the jobs often keep the interest alive.

I am using this box with index cards for my classroom librarians to keep track of books checked out and check them back in after they are returned.

Made It #2-I added these labels to two baskets inspired by the Peanut Gallery's post again:)  Students place their index card in the book before placing it in the book return basket.  My classroom librarians make sure it is shelved properly and check off the return on the index card.  The book hospital bin is for books in need of repair and donations to the library that need to have the AR level sticker added by the librarians.  So far, they are loving this job and I am loving the help!

Made It #3-Besides the classroom librarian job, the pencil police job was the most desired job on the applications.  These helpers have the privilege of keeping pencils sharpened and placed back in the "ready to write" can.  Why do they like it so much?  Because they love using the Quietest Pencil Sharpener!  They also monitor the sharpeners use and make sure no one is using it to sharpen colored pencils or special pencils with foil wrapping.  

I wanted to find a way to mount this sharpener on the wall above my old sharpener.  The clamp did not hold well on any of my counters and I was so nervous that it would get knocked on the floor.  One of my awesome maintenance guys came up with this contraption for me!  He received a nice bag of my homemade chocolate chip cookies in return:)

Made It #5-I really cheated on this one but wanted to share this great resource with you.  I downloaded and printed this fraction dominoes game from Jivey at Ideas for Jivey and my high school volunteer cut out and laminated them. I have had her volunteering for two weeks every other day and it has been like heaven!  I also used a simplifying fractions game freebie from her store.  You have to check it out!  She is having a 200 follower giveaway right now with amazing prizes!

Made It #6-I also downloaded and printed these idiom and main idea task cards from the task card queen, Rachel Lynette.  I just love her task cards!  My students BEG to play scoot and I also use them for practice at Daily 5 centers.

Made It #7-I updated my Natural Disasters Project pack to make it TPT ready (thanks for the comments, friends!).  My students loved this project and it is great for promoting informational text and many core standards.  Check it out here:)

Anyone here a Bachelor fan?  I cannot wait for tonight and will be sad when the season is over:(  Mondays are so AWESOME when I know I can come home and reward myself with an episode of Sean!  Will he find love????  

Two more weeks for me and then a two week spring break!  It will be a staycation since we chose my vacation time to have my daughter's much needed surgery of tonsils and adenoids removed.  It should be restful vacation and I am really looking forward to the first break since Christmas!  It has been a long haul!  Have a great week everyone!  Go back and check out the other Monday Made Its!

Workshop Wednesday-Writing Must Have!

The amazing Jivey (don't you just love her name?) at Ideas by Jivey is hosting a linky every Wednesday on a new topic.  This week's topic is, "What is your must-have item for Writer's Workshop?"

I don't have a Writer's Workshop exactly.  Our ELA (English Language Arts) is grouped into one 80-minute block in which reading and writing are both taught.  I would LOVE to have more time for ELA and maybe a separate Writer's Workshop someday....hmmmm...

My number one go to item for writing instruction is my Step-Up binder.  I don't know how I could live without it.

This method of teaching writing is so user friendly for the teachers and students.  I love how it helps the students visualize how to organize their writing.  We use highlighters all the time.  This is a compare/contrast paragraph for social studies using the colors.  

Green-Topic Sentence and Conclusion

Yellow-Detail

Red (pink)-Explain details

Back of multi-paragraph planning page:

Multi-paragraphs using colors:

Green-Introductory and Concluding paragraphs (2-3 sentences each)

Yellow-Topic sentence of body paragraph

Red (pink)-Details in body paragraph that support the topic sentence

 

The highlighters help the students immediately notice is something is missing from their organization.

Is it just me....

or do students like to finish their writing quickly??

It is like...the teacher gives me a question and I will answer it...quickly!

Who needs a topic sentence?

Then, I just say...where is your GREEN?

OR...you have a lot of YELLOWS but where are your REDS? (specific explanations and elaborations)

I am always looking for new ideas to teach writing.  I started using Daily 5 (Daily 4 for me) this year and all the work on writing ideas I have learned from the blogging world have been truly life changing.  I hope I can only continue to improve each year.  I can't wait to get a copy of Pathways to the Common Core by Lucy Calkins that Jivey blogged about.

It is always a work in progress...I am off to grade some on demand extended responses that the class worked on today...yikes!

Natural Disasters Projects, Currently, and NY:)

Can you believe that it's March?  Wow!  I am linking up with the fabulous Farley (my blog crush:) from Oh' Boy Fourth Grade for her Currently.  I love reflecting on what is happening "right now".

We are heading out within the hour to go to one of our favorite seasonal spots.  It is only open during maple syrup season.  They serve all you can eat pancakes and sausage with their own maple syrup.  Yummy!  It is set in the boonies (most places around here are when you live in towns with one to zero traffic lights!).  We love the cozy log cabin atmosphere and fire:)  

Vacation cannot come soon enough...two weeks off starting March 23, then we come back to two weeks of ELA and math state tests.  I am looking forward to them just being done!

I like honesty!! You cannot imagine what little fibbers we have experienced this week in 4th grade!  My goodness!  Do they really think we were born yesterday?  geesh...

I love my honey!  We have used this term since we started dating in 1996 and it has stuck.  There are different tones of "honey"...elated, excited, angry, tearful, you get the idea...My roommates in college used to always pick on our different "honey" voices!

I hate HOT summer days.  If it could be NY fall weather all the time, I would be so happy (another "H" word!).  The humidity in NY can be just unbearable and exhausting in the summer.  We do not have central air (not a staple in NY), so those sleepless HOT nights can be torture!

NEXT...The natural disasters projects were quite a success!  The students enjoyed presenting them and it was a great learning experience incorporating much "rigorous" nonfiction text.  

Since I had some interest in my materials for the project, I have revamped them to put on TPT.  From now until tomorrow morning, you can get the 10 page packet of materials from TPT as a flash freebie!  After that, the pack will be $2.50.  It is a culminating project and addresses so many common core standards.  

If you download, I would be so grateful if you could take a moment and leave feedback on TPT or pin the project:)  

I also want to link up with Diane at Fifth in the Middle (so sorry that this post is all over the place!)  She is hosting a wonderful linky where bloggers link up by state!  Genius.  I cannot wait to see all the other bloggers from NY:)  Go check it out and link up for your state!

Thank you friends and enjoy the rest of your weekend!