Love that Dirty Water

Boston you're my home.

As a Rhode Islander, Boston is my city.  I'm a Red Sox fan.  A Patriots fan.  A Celtics fan.  A Bruins fan.  

Sally, over at Elementary Matters, wrote a wonderful post about this beautiful city.

Yesterday, my brother was on his way home from vacation and landed in Boston in the middle of the marathon.  He was able to connect with his boyfriend who works mere blocks from the explosions.  Although they have not been able to make it home yet, I am extremely thankful that they are both safe.

This photo has been floating around social media over the last day.

Watching the news, it is evident that there were so many helpers yesterday during this devastation.  It made me proud to call Boston my city.  Watching police and bystanders run towards the destruction to help those who were hurt is amazing.  Hearing about the marathon runners who kept running past the finish line to the hospital to give blood.  

There are good people in our world.

Earth Day

We are on vacation this week, so we celebrated Earth Day last week.  I won an awesome pack from My {Not So} Elementary Life and it was perfect for our class!

Look at everything that is included!!

Each student completed the "Is it Good or Bad for the Earth" activity.  They started out with a blank page that had an Earth with a heart (good) and an Earth with a bandaid (bad).

The students then cut out a set of pictures:

And sort them into the good or bad side of the page.

It was eye-opening for them when they realized that cars and buses aren't good for the Earth.  We had a great discussion about that one.

We also put together this cute little Earth Day craft:

After a class discussion about how we can help the keep the Earth clean and happy, we wrote about it and put the Earth guy together.  They came out so cute!  

Go grab this set from Heidi's store now!

We also read The Lorax, which has to be one of the best Earth Day books for kids, in my opinion.  Such a great message!

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!

Friday Journals

This post can now be found over at The Colorful Apple.  Click here to visit!

Bitten by the Poetry Bug

Are you buggy for poetry??  April is National Poetry Month!  I love me some poetry so I put together a packet to help you teach poetry in your classroom!

There are posters with examples of 5 different poems (written by me!).  I'm a poet and I didn't even know it!

Also included are posters to hang on your wall with a variety of poetic devices.

There are poster definitions of each type of poem.

 And poem templates for your students to create their own poetry journal!

Check it out in my {TpT store} or my {TN store} before Poetry Month is over!  Don't worry...they'll still be available after April!

I'm Not Hereee

Ever wish you could be in two places at once?  You're a teacher, of course you do!  Today I am in two places at once and it's not here!

First, I am guest blogging over at Bunting, Books and Bainbridge while Christina is out of town.  This girl has been my idol since before I started blogging so I am super duper excited!  Go check out my post!

And then, make sure to come back so that you can see me over at The Hands-On Teacher In First.  I will be sharing some organizational tips for the classroom while I am there!

Go show these ladies some love!

Currently...

It's April?!?  Yay!!  So excited for the weather to get nicer!

As for April Fool's Day...I don't like it.  Not into it.  But my kids didn't try a thing!  I was so surprised.  Usually I get at least 15 "your shoe is untied" or "there's a spider on your back" but nothing!  Huh.  Baffled.  I did give them a word search with none of the words in it.  I'm not sure they appreciated it.

Well it's that time...

My advice for blogging/TpT?  Love what you do and everyone else will see it!  The more you love to write on your blog and create items for TpT, the better your products will be.  Are there times that I feel as though I'm dragging?  Definitely!  So I take a break.  Then I come back refreshed! 

Have a great week!