Five for Friday! Holla!

Hey y'all...I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for another edition of...

 

Can I get a Holla!!

 

 

 

Check out some of the great things I bought at the big TpT sale earlier this week.  I got Clutter Free Classroom's Hand Signal Signs.  I've been using hand signals, but these graphics are just too perfect.  I got Jen Jones hello fonts, task cards from Teaching with a Mountain View, and 4mula Fun's Commercial License for the flippable templates.  I can't wait to start creating with those babies!  Also, I am hoping that Schroeder Shenanigans in Second's Blo(r)ganized pack will help me make (and more importantly KEEP) some creating and blogging goals this year.  I MUST do better.  Okay...full confession...this is only a portion of my purchases this week.  I may or may not have filled my cart FOUR times.  Ah, well...it was worth it!  I got several clip art sets, digital papers, Pond Fonts from Graphics from the Pond, and added more licenses for my KG fonts.  Eventually I had to stop because I.  Wanted.  It.  All.  For realz though.

 

So, I am doing a superhero theme in my classroom this year, and I wanted some décor that had more than just red, blue, and yellow so that I could continue to use my current table colors and caddies.  I decided that I would get myself a set of superhero clipart and make some flair pieces to match just what I wanted and needed.  One thing I did was buy several different black-and-white patterned borders, and when I can start setting up my room next week I will start with those and black paper.  Then I will add colorful tissue paper poofs, and I am going to print some of these flags to mix and match and string together for little banners.  I decided it would be a good idea for me to create my Facebook Fan Freebie tab!!!!  (Lord have mercy...that was some work.  I was having technical difficulties.)  Can I get another Holla!!!  Anywho, these cutie patootie banner flags are there for your downloading pleasure.  I would LOVE it if you would like me on Facebook and invite your teacher blogging friends to do the same.  I only have 9 likes, because I have NOT been using it, but that is about to change. 

 

So I made this activity back in ummm February.  I never did get around to adding the cover page and credits so that I could put it in my little shop.  Today, I finished it up and it is for sale right now...just click here or on the pic!  Yay!  I'm putting it on sale for 20% off for the next two days since I missed the sale.  If you teach 5th grade math in Texas this is something you can use...I PROMISE.  Our students have such trouble with the 5.12 B TEKS that says use experimental results to make predictions, and so that is exactly what they practice using this fun, hands-on, activity!  They spin the spinners various amounts of times (on the booklet page directions) and they tally the results.  Then they make a fraction to describe the results. (TEKS 5.12A). After that, they use their fractions to make predictions by setting up equivalent fractions.  My students REALLY enjoyed doing this last year, and I know it helped some of them GET.IT...ya know what I mean?  Now, I'm sorry...I'm not sure about you common core folks, but if it does meet one of the CC standards, I'd love for you to tell me which one in the comments.  It looked like maybe they did this kind of thing in 7th grade, but of course then the numbers were more complicated.  I don't know...I only speak TEKS.

 

I took a road trip to Blue Bell factory with my munchkin, my momma, and her friend from college who was in town for a visit.  It was H.E.C.T.I.C. let me tell you, but that free scoop of Magic Cookie Bar ice cream made the waiting soooo worth it.  Ohmygoodness Yum!!  I really enjoyed the little tour, and now when I see Blue Bell in the freezer case at the store I want it even more.  I might have bought some from HEB the next day.  #igotnosugaraddedchocolate #itsnotasgoodasmagiccookiebar

 

Last, but not least, we got some new little patio furniture on sale.  I love it.  :)  (BTW...ignore the crazy paint job...they are in the process of painting our apartment complex.  They will come back for trim and doors later.)  We sat out there and enjoyed coffee the other morning.  It's the little things y'all.  Well...I'm off to enjoy my last *sniffle* weekend of summer.  Let the work begin full force on MONDAY! 

 

Freebies, Lapbooks, and Math Tubs..oh my!

Yay for getting my act together for two weeks in a row!!!  Also...a super yay/ holla that there are only 12 days of school left.  Which is exciting in and of itself, but that also meant my favorite day for our A-Z countdown: N for Nachos!!!! 

Another Five for Friday, which is seriously the perfect way to sum up the week.  Thank you Doodle Bugs Teaching! 
Here we go:

1. Finally set myself up with an Instagram.  I'm so excited, because I love my personal Instagram, and I know this one is going to make it hard to pry myself away from my phone!  Can't wait to hashtag all my firstie fun.  #hashtaggingiscool @FirstGradeWolves
2. We have been all about the lapbooks this week.  I found a picture on Pinterest of one for Thomas Edison.  It was for upper grades, but it only showed the front cover.  I decided to make one for my firsties that used content aligned with our district curriculum.  If you want any of the sheets from that lapbook, you can click on the picture below to download. 

 

Then we also made a lapbook for the book Mouse Soup.  We read a little bit each day, and we did a different activity after each lesson.  I used the I-Can summarize from the Guided Reading Flip Flap Books by Simply Skilled in Second.  I love all the flip-flap books in this packet...you should really pick it up.  I made the pocket full of predictions modeled after her pocket full of Author's Purpose, because I really wanted my kiddos who were about to do the higher level DRA soon to practice making quality predictions using the words might or maybe.  If you want a copy of the pocket full of predictions click on the picture below to download a copy. 

3. We are learning all about the suffixes er and est.  This amazing packet from The Teacher Wife is what I bought to use for this, and my students love it.  They especially like the spinner bingo game, and they actually cheered when I said I would keep it in centers next week.    Thank you, Lindsey!  You guys should all buy this thing.  Who doesn't love phonics games mixed with superheros!?1?

4. In DRA-LPAC prep-math assessment-desperation mode, I made this quick little worksheet for my kids to practice using their balances and using the weight vocabulary while I was busy testing.  They loved it!  You can click on the picture below to download a copy for yourself.  (Don't worry, I went back and added a border before uploading it to Google Drive once I was less frantic.)   :)

 

 5. In my last post, I talked about the fact that I have a *relatively* new student who is legally blind.  Which meant that all those cute match and record card games I had been using for math tubs from all of you fabulous bloggers just weren't going to work, unless or until I learned how to adapt them for her.  I found out right away that they had playing cards in Braille, and I got straight to work making some review math tubs that used nothing but a deck of cards, paper, and a few plastic bags to hold them all.  Also,  yay for the Dollar Tree with their 2 decks for a dollar!  There are six math tubs.  One is place value with two-digit number, word form, expanded notation, and a model.  There is a fact family tub, a counting on tub, a subtraction tub, a parts of a set tub, and a certain or impossible tub.  They are really easy to prep and use.  My kids really enjoyed using them for several weeks and my newest student got to be totally involved as well.  It was awesome!  Sadly, I was so frazzled that I forgot to take pictures of them in use.  :(   Ah well...there's always next time.  If you want to buy these math activities, they are for sale in my TpT shop.  You can click on the picture below to purchase.

 

 

 And an unofficial #6...my daughter and I got this movie from the redbox last night, and it was sooooo good.  If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it.  Tons of laughs and a tearjerker too!

  

 

Have a wonderful weekend! 

 

Five for Friday...Finally!

I haven't blogged in a month.  Epic.Failure.  :(  I had been doing so well, and I need/want to create and blog, but it has just been so darn busy.  About a month ago, I got a student who is legally blind.  She is a sweetheart, but the planning has gotten so much harder.  I had to do about 3 weeks worth of plans in a matter of 5 days, and ever since then I have to stay a week and a half ahead at the least.  Y'all....let me tell you.  I just don't work well this way.  Some people would love it...being ahead and knowing what's coming up...for me, um no.  I can't keep straight what I'm supposed to be doing anymore.  Am I teaching long i or suffixes?  Am I teaching inherited traits or life cycles?  Are there two weeks of school left or four?  Is it April or May?  Seriously...one day I thought it was almost May, and my daughter was like, "No it's not.  It's only April 6th."  Ha!  I feel like I'm going a little bit kooky.  Anywho...Hallelujah!  Finally a post.  And it's a Five for Friday to boot! 

1.) I have been wanting to make some awards that are hornet themed for my sweet firsties, because our school mascot is the hornet.  They would work great for bee or bumblebee too though.  I finally had time to sit down and finish them!  Yippee!  You can click on the picture below to go to my TpT store if you need some bee or hornet themed awards too!

2.) We are doing an ABC countdown like so many others.  Today we had Ice Cubes gum for I day...seriously one of the easiest things I have ever done.  And, the kids thought I was a rock star for it.  Gotta love that!  Also, we had H day, which meant crazy hair.  Here's mine...a little rainbow ponytail action.  :)

3.) We have been learning about the three Rs ever since Earth Day, and so we decided to put the reuse idea into action for our Mother's Day present.  I took pictures of all the kiddos, and then we used some old cardboard and a puzzle that was missing pieces to make a picture frame.  On the back we glued a page that says: Mom, I love you to pieces!  They loved making these, and we got our science lesson in there too.  Bonus!  I'm going to add a little ribbon for hanging, and then we will present them to our moms on our Monday breakfast celebration.  :)

4.) I finally made the glue sponge containers from Pinterest.  I can't for the life of me find the original pin that I saw it on, but can I just say enough....LIFE CHANGING.  I'm not joking.  I spend a small fortune on glue sticks each year.  Not anymore...these things are my new favorite invention.  Thank you to the smartie genius that invented these things.  It looks like there's no glue in there, but that's because the sponge has soaked it all up.  I poured about half a bottle of Elmer's into the containers I found at dollar tree, and then I just popped in a sponge from WalMart.  They have been sitting on my shelf for about two weeks just soaking up the glue.  I finally got them out to try them (see above, about trying to keep my head above water), and me and my students are in love.

5.) Last, but definitely not least, I am officially done being this year's yearbook coordinator.  The books have come in, and I have gone through my spreadsheet and sorted/labeled them to hand out on Monday.  Praise the Lord...I did it!  Yahoo!!!!  (These in the picture are just some of the yearbooks BTW.)

 Now then...a blog post and the yearbooks are done.  A girl's gotta get out of here and celebrate.  Where's my margarita!?!? ;)

Five for Friday

Hi, all.  I'm linking up with Doodle Bug's Five for Friday linky party.  My very first linky party ever...kinda nervous.  Hope I do it right!

1.  We were learning about making inferences, and I just could not find a graphic organizer that I wanted to use, so I created this little one for my firsties.  Feel free to click the picture and grab yourself a copy if you can use it too.

2.  Our students are learning how to find our country, state, and community on a map this week during social studies.  Of course we pull out the globe and explore, pull down the big maps and explore, but this is still difficult for them to keep straight sometimes.  Thanks to an idea from my sweet friend at a neighboring school, I got maps from http://www.nationalatlas.gov/printable/reference.html#list and had the kids use three crayons to outline the US, Texas, and then place a dot just south of Austin to represent our little city of Buda.  Then we practice tracing the crayon lines with our fingers to get a little more kinesthetic input in there. I also used said maps to create the tracers you see below. (click to get a copy)  The students use the tracers to draw the outlines of the country, state, and city, and then they add labels and decorate.  This really helps them remember where the borders are.  Plus, they are adorable to hang outside our classroom!

3.  I am trying to get (empty) cereal boxes to create the valentine containers you can see here on Mrs.Morrow's blog for a change from my usual this year.  I have had the notice in my newsletter for two weeks, and I only have 5 boxes.  I'm starting to get worried.  I'm about raid all of my friends' pantries, Ziploc bag their cereal, and take off with the boxes.  

4.  I am the sucker who said yes yearbook coordinator for my school.  :)  Ever since the yearbook company sent our bill, and I saw how much we owed, I have been stressing about these orders all week!  But here they are: opened, recorded, counted, and balanced.  I am happy to be done with that!  (for now anyways)

5.  Last, but not least, we used the Magic e Read and Write the room from my last blog post.  My kids love this, y'all.  I'm serious.  I want to find a way to make a read and write the room for every part of my day.  Okay, maybe not THAT much, but still.  ;)  You can pick this little activity up in my TpT store here.

All in all, it's been a great week.  I'm not gonna lie though, I'm pumped about the three day weekend ahead of me!!!  Hope you have a great one too!