Another One Bites the Dust Linky Party

Amber over at adventures of a third grade teacher is hosting a linky party based on reflection. She is celebrating the end of the year and asking for people to list three GREAT things about this year and three NOT SO GREAT things about this year.

Click on the button below for more info:

Three GREAT things about this year:

1) Finding teacher blogs. I don’t know how I found them but I have a hunch that it was through my best friend, Google. I’m glad I took the leap and started my own blog. I love hearing encouraging comments and getting new ideas from teachers. We are collaborating on a national level and that blows my mind.

2) My creativity in writing projects – anyone who has followed my blog knows I have been trying to incorporate an art project into our writing pieces. The kids love it and it encourages them to finish their projects so they can participate in the fun project.

3) iPads – the kids love these as a center! I love them as a center. It is a win-win situation!

Three NOT SO GREAT things about this year:

1) Teaching Content – I have really slacked off on teaching health, science and social studies because I was doing such in-depth writing pieces. I really struggled to find that balance. Of course I found it when the year was almost over!

2) The kids’ and their experiences – this year was very hard for me. Several of my students shared personal things about their home life that were extremely disheartening. Some examples are fathers in prison, never living with their parents, domestic violence, and more.

3) 6 + 1 Writing traits – again, with my projects I kind of let the trait crate fall to the side.

So now that I feel horrible, why don’t you link up and share about your year? Have a great Wednesday.

P.S.Today is an early dismissal day for us. :)

Vote for me, May Birch box, News & Theme 9 Week 3 Freebie

First I’d like to thank all of my followers for your support so far. The year is s-l-o-w-l-y coming to a close. The last day for students is June 11th. On June 12th & 13th, teachers will be in in-services to let us know about the Common Core Curriculum. We are starting a two-year transition period next year. Joy! That leaves us teachers with one whole day, the 14th to pack up, complete cumulative records, etc. Then I found out I get to go to a PBIS training on the 15th! Hmm…

Anyway, you may have noticed I put the little badge thing on the right side of my blog, in case you’d like to vote for me.

Oh, I know why you’re here. You wanted to check out my Birch Box huh? Well, here it is: It had a Gossip Girl theme. I’m not really a fan of the show, but I heard the themed boxes were awesome !

 

 

fresh Sugar Rose Tinted Lip Treatment SPF 15 (LOVE THIS)

Atelier Cologne Vanille Insense Petite Cologne Absolue

Twistband Hair Tie

Dr. Jart+ Water Fuse Beauty Balm SPF 25+

 

Color Club Foil Collection

Or are you looking for my Houghton Mifflin Theme 9 Week 3 freebie? Take a look at my new unit:

The entire unit is only $2.00. WOW!

Here is your freebie for stopping by:

Please leave a comment if you download, or go by my TPT store and follow me.

Oh I almost forgot.. the ‘news’… my principal said I will be moving to second grade next year. Ahh!!! It makes me nervous (everything does) but what do you think? I will be glad that the kids are more independent but I will also be looping with the same children.

I’m also curious.. is there anything I should spend my money on (or the small budget we get)… like something that would be a pain to make or extremely time consuming? Let me know please!

Hmm… Hope your week is excellent!

A fascinating blog?

So evidently they are having nominations for blogs again and I received this in my inbox:

Voting begins May 14th at 12:01 AM (EST).The blog with the most votes by May 21st at 11:59 PM (EST) will win the grand prize, a $100 restaurant gift card.

TPT Sale and Discounted Prices

So if you haven't heard, TPT is having a teacher appreciate sale that is good through midnight tomorrow. You can get 15% off items in my store and an additional 10% off if you use the code TAD12 at checkout.

On top of that I have lowered my rices on all units except my one page units which are $1. I did this after receiving some feedback and I think the new prices are more fair. Let me know what you think. The units are discounted in both my tpt and tn stores.

Teachers notebooks is also having a sweepstakes so head over to their homepage for more information.

HM Theme 9 Week 2 (Plurals, Prefixes, Synonyms, Story Structure), Currently Linky Party, and a Freebie!

Below you will find my newest unit that is available in my TPT and TN store:

This includes seatwork that accompanies Theme 9 Week 2 of Houghton Mifflin but can be used in first grade with any stories. The skills in this unit includes base words / plurals with the spellings –es and –ies. It tells  the students when to use each spelling.

It also includes the prefixes un- and re- and explains what this means. Students sort words by the prefixes and then write sentences to show that they understand what the word means. (Example: how would they write the word unwrap in a sentence?)

Another worksheet asks students to brainstorm words that are synonyms of given words. This is best as a review since it does not explicitly teach synonyms.

Finally there are two worksheets for Story Structure. One is one sided and another is a manipulative that you can fold open and closed. Directions can be found here.

Here is  my May Currently… sorry is super late but I’ve been busy:

And if you are still reading, here is your freebie from my newest unit:

  

 

OMGawd… the kiddos are off the hook!

So today is Monday. Spelling pre-test day. Homework day. Newsletter day. Planning day. Chilly weather day. Observation week. Are you following me?

Awesome reading lesson… customized main idea, topic and details worksheet (which you can buy in my previous unit that I posted here). Leveled Readers, teacher modeling, focus wall is up and children KNOW how to use it. They remembered the skill. It was magical.

Then came lunch and recess. Specials were next. Yup.

I knew the math lesson today would be boring. In fact, I was counting on it to be boring so that the kids would calm down after specials. It was an Investigations ‘discussion day’…so what strategy did you use to count the sets of squares? Hmm, really? Who tried it a different way? Anybody else? Any other strategies? Designs? Patterns? Hmm…

The other teacher even warned me it was going to be boring. Did I listen? Nope. So the principal walks in two minutes before math. Yup. And sits down in the back. How’d it go you ask?

Well one of my kiddos was on the floor, then I made him sit by me. When I turned by back he was up sharpening a pencil. I re-directed him: “crisscross applesauce…” I turned my back again… when I turn around he’s gone! “Where’d he go?” … “He’s in his locker…” SIT DOWN..

Another one decided to have a pencil party during my discussion. He lost all of his pencils during this time. All 27 of them (that’s a guess, probably under-estimated too).

My favorite friend decided to laugh, giggle and make fart noises during math. OMGawd! Tried erasing a letter for angry birds. Tried giving them the super-duper evil eye. Steps (consequences), time out, action plans, dreamcatchers (rewards), hole punches, warm and fuzzies!

So this week I will meet my doom that is known as my second evaluation. Prepare yourself for that post.

Anyway, here is the new unit that I made for my TPT store. It’s technically only 4 pages long so its only $1. I’ve also gotten some comments on my units lately. Thank you! Let me know what you like and don’t like.

This one has base words and endings but it deals with words with a short vowel and a consonant so you have to double the consonant (example: clap to clapped) and words that end in e that require you to remove the e before adding an ending (example: make to making).

Take a look:

What are you planning on doing for Mother’s Day? When is your last day of school?

P.S. There will be a may-day sale tomorrow only at my TPT store.

April Birchbox (Late) & Earth Day Writing (Also Late)

Happy Friday. The past two weeks have gone by slowly for me. Hmm..

Anyway back at the beginning of April when I wasn’t keeping up with my blog I got my first Birchbox. Below are the pictures of what it looks like from the outside and what was inside. I’d love to hear what you got in yours. I also heard that there is a website where you can trade the samples you got but I can’t remember what it was called.

   

The outside and what it looked like when I opened it up. As well as the welcome card. I didn’t realize there were helpful hints on the back … make sure you hold onto it. I can’t wait until May!!

 

This month was my first Birchbox so I don’t know if these are samples they send to every customer in their first box or if this is what other people also received in their April Birchbox but I’d love for you to share yours. Above you can see some Fashion Tape. Being a teacher (as most of you are) I don’t see myself needing that but I have held onto it just in case.

As for the Be Fine products, there was a brown sugar exfoliate and a cucumber SPF moisturizer. The moisturizer was expired (at least the SPF was) so Birchbox emailed me asking me to throw it away. They also credit my account with some points and assured me it will never happen again. I heard rumors that the next Birchbox will be a Gossip Girl one. Although I’m not necessarily a fan of the show / books, I can’t wait to get my first themed Birchbox. So I will not be cancelling…

Here I had a smoky eye palette from stila that I have not used yet but plan on using this weekend! I will let you know what I think.

   

I loved how these came wrapped up. This is a Viva La Juicy perfume sample which smelled amazing and some fancy hair oil that I like and have used but that I wouldn’t buy.. its too greasy (for my hair).

What did you get?

Finally, on to a school related post: What did you do for Earth Day? Our curriculum actually had us research Earth so students could write about the origins of Earth Day, the earth itself, the earth as part of the solar system, etc. After they finished their final draft, we colored a picture of the Earth with green crayon and painted the water with watercolors. Then we added stars with a white crayon and painted outer space.

The process:

Here is what the final product looks like:

 

 

Here is the writing paper you see on the final projects: Click on either picture to download.

Have a good weekend!