Happy Mother's Day and Teacher Appreciation!

I have been so very spoiled this past week and the surprise just keep coming!   You see I am one lucky lady...I get to celebrate 4 holidays all in one week.  I started off this week with Teacher Appreciation Celebrations.  Our sweet assistants threw an ice cream sundae party during our lunch time Tuesday and an amazing breakfast during our specials time on Thursday.  Silly me for not taking pictures because I was so excited about all of the festivities. But, I did get to capture all of the precious gifts that I received from my students and peers.  I am feel so {LOVED}!

 I absolutely adore these cupcakes!  They were tasty too!

When I got home, my daughter wanted stole my chocolate necklace that one of talented students had made for me.  Isn't this such a great idea????  It is made of saran wrap, ribbon, and chocolate (my fave)!

We also celebrated Bus Driver, Cafeteria Workers, and Custodian appreciation Week.  My class was in charge of taking care of the bus drivers so we made this banner (with the help of my fabulous teammate Paiton who is beyond amazing at cutting shapes).  My room volunteer also helped with coloring the bus which was an amazingly tremendous task.  The hearts are little message that my students wrote for the bus drivers.  Melts.My.Heart!

Courtney and Paiton giving me some silly poses!

On Friday, I celebrated Military Spouse Appreciation.  My husband has been in the service for 13 years and I am SO very proud of all he has accomplished.  I applaud any spouse who has dealt with the hardships of deployments and TDYs.  i get asked all of the time how I do it and the simplest answer I can give is , "I have no clue!".  I really don't know how I do it, but I know where my heart is and that is with him.  So, last night he took me to dinner at a little place here called Carl & Chelles and the steak dinner was melt in your mouth De-Li-Cious!  

Today, I am celebrating Mother's Day with my mini me.  I am so blessed to have such a bright, beautiful, and happy-go-lucky daughter.  She is my EVERYTHING!

This is the pretty frame she made for me at school.  Girly and all!

FREEBIE ALERT!!!

My class made these Muffins for Mom magnets.  We attached THIS poem to each magnet.  

You can pick up the template to make these HERE!

And...tomorrow I will celebrate my 32nd Birthday!!!  I am so blessed to have such helpful and caring family, friends, and coworkers who make each day special.  I imagine there are more surprises in store for me beginning tonight through tomorrow.  Some neighbors are throwing a birthday party with my favorite food FAJITAS!  I miss me some Tex-Mex!  And I can't wait!  My mouth is already watering!

 

Teacher Appreciation Week and A Sweet Sale

Did you know that TPT is having a HUGE sale for Teacher Appreciation Week???  I bought so many amazing resources today and can't wait to use them!  (I'll share all of my purchases later in the week so be on the look out!)

My entire store is 10% off, plus receive an additional 10% by using the code: TAD13).  The sale runs may 7th-8th so hurry up and grab all of the resources you need for the rest of the year plus a few for next year.

Graphic by: Zip-a-dee-doo-dah Designs

Did you also know it is also Nurse Appreciation Week?  We've got some plans cooking for our school nurse and he's going to love it!  {Insert Evil Laugh}  Pics to follow soon!!!

 

Oriental Trading Gift Card

Just wanted to share that Teacher's Notebook is having a Giveway for a $100 gift card to Oriental Trading.  What teacher doesn't like Oriental Trading????  Plus, they are offering an additional 10% off all sale items for Teacher Appreciation Week!  Click on the link below and enter the giveaway.  Don't forget to pick up all of the awesome items created by teachers while you are at it.

It's May! Hooray!!! Five for Friday

I can't decide if this week flew or crept by, maybe a little of both.  We've been super busy learning about triple-digit addition, main ideas, summarizing and animal habitats. We are getting ready to start all of our 2nd grade assessments next week so it should make the next two weeks zoom by.

1.  My kids made these awesome animal dioramas.  They were actively engaged the whole time which is A-MAZ-ING!  I got this template from Scholastic.  We talked about the similarities and differences between an American Prairie and an African Savannah. Look at this awesomeness in 3D!!!

You can get this Scholastic Book too!  It is full of cool stuff!

2. Other news...our caterpillars arrived!  The kids were so ECSTATIC! And so was I!  I love insects, I just don't like to touch them.  As long as they are in a container or not too close to me, I am fine.  But, we will be observing the metamorphosis of a butterfly in the coming weeks so stay tuned for more pics.

3.  SCOOT!  The hands-down best classroom game around!  I created a  triple-digit addition  packet to use with my students.  I saw so many light bulbs go off and it was super quiet as a mouse for once.  Talk about a teacher's dream!

4.  I had the pleasure of working with a wonderful parent volunteer for the past 6 years.  I had her son when he was in my 1st grade class.  I can't believe he is in 6th grade now!  Anyway, I am so blessed to have her in my class for all of these years.  I really do not know how I would manage all of the work without her.  THANKS SO VERY MUCH PAM!!!!

I made her this super cute mint basket.  I found it on Pinterest and downloaded the tag at this wonderful blog Darling Doodles.

5.  Have you ever heard of IPSY???  A friend of mine introduced me to this.  You pay $10 a month and get a bag filled with expensive goodies (some trial size and some full size).  My first bag should come in soon and I am impatiently waiting to see what is in it.  The preview shows a ZOYA nail polish and I am hoping to get either the purple or the yellow.  Fingers crossed!

If you want to check IPSY out, just follow THIS LINK!

And there you have my Five for Friday!  

Check out Doodle Bugs Teaching to find out what all the teacher bloggers did this week.

Hope you have a fabulous weekend filled with lots of warmth!

  

Fractions Poster

Well, we are still working on fractions, but will be wrapping it all up tomorrow.  Then, we begin three-digit addition and subtraction.  YIKES!  I am sure they are ready though.  This group has outstanding math skills.

If you are or will be working on fractions, then this poster may help out a bit.  Click the picture below to get this poster freebie that I created to help my students understand numerator and denominator.

Happy Monday Friends!  

I hope your week is off to a great start.

Five for Friday and A Little Bit of Fractions

I am seriously exhausted beyond belief this week!  I cannot wait until tomorrow when I can sleep in until at least 7.  With a preschooler running around this mommy can't catch a break.  But, I enjoy every minute of it!

1.  My kiddos have been hard at work with fractions.  I think I have been saying the words "numerator" and "denominator" in my sleep because fractions seem to be the first think I think of when I wake in the morning.  My kids played a cute fraction game called "Auntie Pasta's".  They kept asking me to let them play all week, so after they finished their work I let them take turns playing this.

I want her shoes!!!!  Soooo awesome!

2.  We made these over-the-top cute Fractions Sundaes created by the fabulous Amy Lemons.  I am in love with everything she creates.  I have done these the past 2 years and it is a very hands-on engaging activity.

3.  I usually love April, at least when the weather is warmer.  What has been going on this year???  I am still wearing sweaters and pants to school instead of short sleeves and capris.  UGH!  I am so over this month!  It did rain quite a few days which led me to have my students make a up a creative story.  We titled it, "The Day it Rained Cats and Dogs".  I knew the kiddos would have a ball with this.  This was the most they had written all year!!!  The stories were presh!  Pick up this freebie HERE! (Cat and Dog Graphics by KPM DOODLES)

4.  We have an annual Career/Hobby fair at our school.  This year my class learned about an airplane mechanic, firefighter, martial artist, horse trainer, and a ballet dancer.  It is always nice to see my available career options! Ha!  I'm only joking!  But, it is fun to spend the day learning about other people's jobs.

5. I went to let my sweet "Chunky Boy" (bull-mastiff mix) out in the backyard on Wednesday morning and I was greeted by a family of 4 deer.  They were soooooo cute!  Unfortunately, the minute they saw Chunk they took off into the woods.  Oh well!  It was great to enjoy nature from the comfort of my home.  HAPPY SPRING!

Enjoy your weekend friends! :)

Five for Friday

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching with all of the happenings in my classroom this week.

The closer it gets to the end of the school year the slower time seems to go by.  Trying to keep 25 kids busy at the same time is no piece of cake!  I barely have time to catch my breath.  Anyone else feeling this way?

Our focus for today was EARTH DAY!  I love teaching about the EARTH.  The students grabbed a partner and read the latest Scholastic News.

Then, we used the digital resources that go along with each issue.  I truly am in love with the digital resources.  If you aren't able to use this I am sooooo sorry.  I cannot live without my computer and projector when it comes to Scholastic News.  I usually let my students teach the Scholastic News, but with all the new terms (resources, renewable, nonrenewable, turbine, generator) my kids would have been completely confused.  So I decided it was best for me to teach it and then play the game that accompanies each issue to assess student understanding.  They did FANTASTIC!



I MUST integrate all subject areas.  I don't know if it is my OCD ( not that I actually have OCD, but I'm diagnosing myself) or what?!?  Anyway, my class created a picture graph about "Our Favorite Ways to Save the Earth".  Thanks to my lovely coworker and partner in crime Paiton who created the earth background.  Isn't she amazing?  I am just not so good with Scissors.  In fact, I remember my Kindergarten teacher giving me Unsatisfactory comments.  (I still have those report cards somewhere.)

We also completed our tally table, bar graph, and analyzing questions as we completed this graph.

I created this free resource for you to use with your students on Monday (Earth Day).  Click on the pic below.

A few other things we did this week included working on ph and gh sounds.  Again, i let the student teach this concept.  I enjoy seeing how they model their thinking processes.

Lastly, my heart is heavy for Boston and West, Texas.  I cannot even fathom what all of the families and friends are going through.  It saddens my heart to know that evil exists everywhere.  being a TEXAS girl, the plant explosion hits pretty close to home.  I'm originally from the Dallas area and West is only a few hours away.  I am praying for all involved in these terrible events.  :(