Five for Friday!

Phew!  The warm weather hits and my calendar sure fills up!  Yesterday was our last Friday of the school year since this Thursday is our last day.  I will definitely miss my kiddos, but I am looking forward to spending more time with my family and friends.

Since it's {obviously not} Friday, it's time to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to share my 5 random  photos of the week!

1. We did a simple Father's Day craft yesterday that I got from Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy.  The kids decorated the shirt and glued the pocket on.  Then they wrote a note to their dad (grandpa, uncle) and placed it in the pocket.  How cute is that?!

2.  I got to order teacher supplies this week!  We were given a dollar amount and a list to choose from.  I was so excited!  I have never done this before.  I'm not sure if we weren't given the option or if I just missed the memo every year.  Probably the latter.

3. I have been organizing and packing up my classroom for the end of the year.  My construction paper was in neat piles in my closet (take a peek here) but the colors were all mixed up.  Yeah, my OCD didn't like that.  With some help from my kiddos, we got it to color coordinate a little bit better!  I started packing it into plastic file bins.  The construction paper fits perfectly!

4.  We went on our field trip to the Mystic Aquarium!  You can read more about that here.

5.  Summer is {almost} here!  We headed down to our beach house this weekend and broke our the beach chairs.  They needed a little cleaning, so this is what the yard looked like:

Happy Weekend!

Five for Friday!

Yay for Fridays!  Only two more this school year - I can't believe it!  Today was a warm one.  We ended our week with two 90 degree + days.  My poor kiddos were awfully lethargic in a classroom that only has a fan.  Luckily it will drop back down into the 70s for the next few weeks.  But we definitely got a taste of summer!

Here are my 5 random pictures of the week..

1.  I found this on one of my student's spelling envelopes. I was very touched by it.  I am not sure he totally understands what it means, but it was cute.

2. I got to use some Reusable Dry Erase Pockets in my classroom this week.  The kids were so excited!  They decided that it should be a permanent word work center.  Dry erase markers are like gold to them!  Check out my post here to learn more about them.

3.  The library down the street had their book sale today.  These sales are a-ma-zing!!  Children's books are only 25 cents.  Most of them are in great condition.  If I get there early enough, there are a lot to choose from.  I got 32 books (and one VHS) for only $8.00!!  Definitely check to see if your local library has sales like this.  My goal is to donate all my books back to the library when I retire (a LONG time from now!).

4. We started reading Charlotte's Web today!  I haven't read this book in so long, but it is one of my favorites.  I'm planning on ending the year with this read aloud.  I've never done a whole-class book study before so this will be new for me.  I promise to share with you how it goes!  If you have any good tips for me, let me know!  We still have three weeks left, but I'm not sure that we will finish it.  It's worth a shot!  I am so excited about this!!

5.  We have been working on our Non-Fiction writing pieces.  We are creating All About books about an animal that we will see on our trip to the aquarium.  I am very impressed with how well my students are doing so far with their research.  Be on the look out for future posts on this project!

How was your week?  Go link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching!

Five for Friday!

Yay for Friday!  It's that time of year when the days go by way to fast and way to slow at the same time.  If you're a teacher, you know what I mean.  There is so much testing and loose ends to pull together before we release our students to the next grade.  On the other hand, we can taste summer (and so can our students!).  It's a crazy time of year.

1. I shared the blog planner I've made for myself for Made-It Monday this week.  I received lots of requests for it, so be on the look out for it soon!

Click the picture to learn more!

2.  For the #PADteacherchallenge on Instagram, I shared photos of my handwriting.  I've been told all my life that I should turn my handwriting into a font.  With all this new-fangled technology we have now, I could actually make that happen.  What do you think?!

3. I can't let a Five for Friday go by without sharing a photo of my puppy.  He was keeping an eye on the neighborhood at my friend's house.  Yes, he's standing on a computer tower.  Whatever works!

4.  The Tooth Fairy came today!  The dentist from our town comes every year to do a presentation for the second graders.  She brings along what I can only imagine is her secretary, dressed as the Tooth Fairy.  The kids get a kick out of it.  The kids get a goodie bag of floss and toothbrushes.  This year the teachers got a present too.  Missed out on getting a picture of the Tooth Fairy, but here's my present!

5. My special ed teacher is getting married this weekend, so I had my kids make cards for her.  They came out so cute!  Hopefully she's too busy to read my blog this weekend, since it's surprise!

Happy Weekend!  I have a double graduation and a wedding over the next two days.  I'll be one busy lady!  What's in store for you this weekend?

Five for Friday!

Happy Friday everyone!  How many Fridays do you have left??  That's way more fun to count than Mondays.  We only have 5!  It's exciting but nerve-wracking at the same time.  I am looking forward to the warm weather and sunshine, but how am I going to finish everything before the last day?!  Eek!

Here are my 5 random pictures of the week:

1.  My husband graduated this weekend!  So darn proud of him.  I think he is relieved to be done.

2. Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!  Our parents bought us Panera for lunch today - yum!

 3.  Also for Teacher Appreciation Day, our PBIS team put together folders for each teacher.  We had each student in the school choose at least one teacher and write a note/draw a picture describing what they liked most about that teacher.  The students loved helping out and it definitely put a smile on many teachers' faces!  You can grab a free copy of the cover and the student template here.

4.We've been practicing our math facts to get ready for 3rd grade!

 5.  We also created a chart to help us remember how to get ready for third grade.  We choose 3 to read during Morning Meeting every day.  I think it has had a positive effect!

How was your week?  Go share with Doodle Bugs Teaching!
Happy Friday!

P.S. - I vow to be a better blogger next week!

Five for Friday {April 26}

Happy Friday...err Saturday!  It has been a super busy week and I have been a slacker blogger.  The end of the year is quickly approaching, so much to do!

Anyways, it's early in the morning, so this still counts as a Five for Friday post, right?  I'm going to share five of my random photos from this week, thanks to Doodle Bugs Teaching!

Here they are:

1. We finished up our solids unit in Science and have moved onto liquids.  We had a lot of fun rolling around these bottles to discover that liquids can be thin or thick.

2.  Teacher Appreciation Day is coming up (May 7th), so my students have been writing notes to their favorite staff members.  Our PBIS team will collect all the notes and give each staff member a folder full of appreciation notes.  I thought this one was awesome:

What I like most about {the janitor} is...whenever I come to school it looks cleaner than last time.  You make our classroom clean for us.

3. Some of my kiddos are working on sentence structure.  I wrote out sentences and cut them up.  They had to put them back together so that it made sense.  They quickly learned that some were easier than others!

4. Bought myself a to-do list.  I saw it at Staples for $1.00 and didn't buy it.  I couldn't stop thinking about how helpful this would be for me, so I went back and grabbed it!  It might be the best $1.00 I've ever spent!  There was a moment of panic for my husband when I took it out of the bag.  He thought I got it for him!

5. My sister's bridal shower is today!  I've been working hard all week creating fun stuff for it.  I hope she likes it!  And I may have found a new calling...anyone need some bridal games??  I'll create them for you!  Etsy shop...here I come!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Let's Pretend That It's Friday...

Can we pretend that it's Friday?  And pretend that it's not TWO whole days past Friday??  I wanted to share my week with you because it sure has been a busy one!

1. It was Reading Week this week!  On Tuesday we celebrated by "snuggling up with a good book" in our pj's.  So comfy!  We also had Pirate Day but of course I forgot to take pictures!

2.  I found this comic in the newspaper this weekend and found it very appropriate for Reading Week.
I love the Family Circus!

3.  We also spent a lot of time learning about Earth Day this week since we are on vacation next week.  We read The Lorax.  Such a great read for Earth Day.  However, the word "thneed" is awfully hard to say!

 4.  To go along with Earth Day we created this cute guy from My {Not So} Elementary Life.  We don't do a lot of craft activities in our classroom so this was a big treat!  You can grab it from Heidi's store here.

5. On Friday we ended our Reading Week with a school-wide scavenger hunt and it was so much fun! The students were given a maze and they had to choose a path.  They followed the path by answering questions and completing activities.  Look for more about this in a future blog post!

Happy {end of the} weekend!

Five for Friday {Linky}

Yay for Friday!  And yay for a Friday off!  Since it is Friday, I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching again for Five for Friday, where I share 5 random pictures from my week.

I don't have any pictures from my classroom this week since I was out all week.  I got the awesome opportunity to go on a 4-day, 3-night field trip with the fifth graders in my district to Nature's Classroom.  If you haven never heard of it, I highly recommend it!  Tomorrow's post will have more details  but here are a few sneak peeks!

1. The motto of Nature's Classroom is IALAC - I Am Loving and Caring.  Or you can make up your own phrase to fit the acronym. I Am Learning And Curious was mine.  The teachers and leaders wore these pins all week.

2.  At Nature's Classroom, the students are constantly learning (they just don't know it).  At mealtime, the students learned about ort.  Ort is leftover food from a meal that isn't compost.  Here's a picture of our compost plate from lunch.

3. At each meal, the students got to be a waitron.  They were in charge of getting all the food for their table during that meal and cleaning up afterwards.  They loved the responsibility!

4. While the students were in their groups, the teachers had a little downtime.  We decided to go for a walk and came across a part of the town that had been destroyed by a tornado in 2011.  Most of the houses had been rebuilt, but we saw the destruction of the trees.  New England rarely gets tornados, so this was an eye-opening experience for me.

5. And last but not least, tt's time to clean out those TpT wishlists!  I'm having a Spring Cleaning Sale!  Everything in my TpT store is 20% off this Saturday and Sunday!

Happy Weekend!

Five for Friday!

Yay it's Friday!!  Here are five {very} random pictures from my week!  It sure was a busy one.

1.  We have been getting more of our postcards from around the United States in our mailbox!  We have been adding them to our wall next to our big map of the country.  Learn more about our postcard exchange here.  The students are loving it!!  They really enjoy learning about each state and then finding it on the map.

 2.  I finally finished my Blog Planner and started using my fancy pens.  It is so much more fun to write in color!

3.  We started measurement this week in science.  We started out by measuring objects around the room in inches and in centimeters.  Look for a full blog post soon!

 4. March Madness has arrived!  I am very much a sports fan, but to be honest I don't really pay attention to college basketball until March.  Sometimes I totally rock the brackets and sometimes I just hang my head in shame.  So far I'm not in last place...yet.

Umm...I only have four good pictures this week.  Four for Friday sounds good too, right?

 Happy Weekend!