Teacher Appreciation

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!  I hope you are feeling appreciated this week.  Today I got several notes from my kiddos that made my day!  One card I got even had a few scratch-off tickets.  It was very fun, I even won $1 with one!

One of the highlights for me is the Teachers Pay Teachers Teacher Appreciation Sale!  I know I have a few items on my wishlist I am ready to get.  I am having a 20% off sale in my store, then if you add the promo code TPTXO you get an additional 10% off from TPT.

This weekend is also Mother's Day.  I think it is a very fitting end to Teacher Appreciation Week.  After all every child's first teacher is their mother!

I have a cute "Mother's Day and Learning Too!" freebie for you.  Click here to download it from my TpT store.

I'm Linking up with Classroom Freebies Manic Monday!

Things Kids Say!

Days like today remind me why I love teaching the little guys.  You just never know what they will say!  Today I had 3 funnies to keep me smiling on a Monday.

Here is #1

We were discussing our vocabulary words this week and demand was one of them.  "Little Johnny" raises his hand and was excited to tell us what demand means.  He proceeds to tell us that it means you can watch any TV show any time on the demand channel!  They even have movies on the demand channel!  

Here is #2

We were finishing up several Earth Day/ environment papers today.  I had the students turn their paper over and draw a picture of things they can recycle.  One of my favorite students (who happens to be the son of one of my dearest friends) shows me his picture.

He then tells me "I drew a picture of wine bottles!  We put wine bottles in our recycling bin."  I couldn't help it and giggled out loud.  Of course then I sent a text to his mom!

Here is #3

I definitely saved the best for last! We were reading a story and it said "She gasped when she saw the picture."  I asked the class "What does the word "gasped" help us infer about the character and how she is feeling?"

The first student to answer said "It tells us she was surprised."  The "Little Johnny" raises his hand and I call on him.  He says "It means she farted and probably feels better!"  I had to ask him to repeat his answer...  So he repeats it and elaborates by telling me she had gas so she "gassed" or passed gas!  Well then I gasped and had to chuckle!

Happy Easter and Earth Day!

Good morning and Happy Easter!  I hope you are enjoying a fabulous day with friends and family.  May you also be able to sneak candy from your child's basket without being caught!  (How awesome are those Reese's Eggs!)  Even more importantly, may your students not eat Easter candy for breakfast in the morning!!!

I am excited for next week and teaching about Earth Day.  It even falls on a non-story week/ assessment week in our reading series, so I will have a little more time with it. 

Here is my packet of Earth Day activities I use with my class.  It is available in my TpT store.  I am going through it today and will probably be adding to it today.  If you have already bought it, you of course will get the update free, so keep an eye out.  I'm feeling a QR code activity coming!

Here are two freebies you may like!  The first is a Spring Break writing graphic organizer and paper.  (We had our Spring Break weeks ago, but I know many are beginning or ending their break now.

The second freebie is a "I Can Recycle" graphic organizer and writing paper.  I love doing this activity with the class.  I bring in a bag of "trash" from home and we sort through it to determine what we can recycle and what is trash.  You could even take it further and and add in composting.

Looking for more freebie fun?  I will be linking up with Classroom Freebies Manic Monday linky!  Check it out!

Five for Friday and a Freebie!

Happy Good Friday!  (I can't believe I have school!)  Anyways I am linking up with Doodlebugs Teaching Five for Friday once again.

I was so excited to get an e-mail this morning with this exciting news!

The featured blogger on todays TBA Friday Freebie!  It made me hop up, run in here and write a post.  (Hubby was like "Really, that's all it takes to make you get up quickly?  I am so not a morning person!)  This Friday is starting out Good for sure!

This week I went back and updated my very first file I created for TpT.  I can say, I have deffinitely improved over the years.  It went from this...

To this...!

Not only is the cover way cuter, but I also added several more things to the pack.  Then I recreated about half of the pages because of all of the "not quite perfect" things that now bug me immensely!

This week I finished up the graphing and data analysis with a the best, tried and true math activity for the skill, graphing M&M's.  I found this great graphing sheet free on TpT from Mrs. Henke! (I also realized one more reason I love TpT and the internet, it is so much easier than digging through my resource books and files to find things!)

Do you Go Noodle?  We do and we LOVE it.  As I prepare for two weeks of inside recess due to state testing for grades 3-6 at out school, I cam across this fun site.  It is FREE and have many great brain breaks!  They even have them broken down for you as calming and energizing.  My students love it.  Another one of our favorites is Adventure to Fitness, also FREE for teachers!

Now a freebie or two as we prepare to celebrate Earth Day! I hope you enjoy them.

Five for Friday and a Freebie

Happy Friday!!!  I am linking up for Doodle Bugs Teaching Five for Friday.

Check out my newest addition to my Lego classroom!!!

I am so excited!  The dad of one of my students works at our movie theater.  I know it is big, but it is so much fun.  My plan is to use it to display "awesome" student work.  I need to cover the bottom and add clips for students to display their work.

 

Target Dollar Spot finds!  I am planning for S.T.E.M. week at our school.   We are going to start with these pull back race cars to help us understand force and motion with equal and opposite reaction play.  

 

Then I found these fun balloon rockets.  I can't wait to see the students exploring and learning with these.  They will have so much fun outside with balloon rocket races.

 

Then I am going to put these two things together and make balloon powered Lego cars.

I was able to candle my little eggs this week and happy to see little ducks growing in many of the eggs.  Every year seeing this amazes me.

By the way did you know the overhead projector works great for candling eggs?  It is the only time I use one all year!

 We have beautiful weather forcasted all weekend!  This is where you will find me come Sunday!  I will work tomorrow to play the next day.  Love living in Florida!

Now a Freebie for you.  Drawing conclusions is a tough skill for firsties to grasp.  This is a graphic organizer I made and it really helps students understand to look for clues while we are reading.  Doing this and drawing conclusions will help us understand what we read.  Click here to grab it free!

Looking for more freebies, check out Teaching Blog Addict's Friday Freebie.

3 B's

I have used the "Bee" rules in my classroom in the past.  I have always used something like

• Be Ready
• Be Respectful
• Be Responsible
• Be Safe

I have also seen

• Be a Hard Worker
• Be a Good Listener
• Be Kind

I was just watching the new series Crisis (which is a really good new show) and heard a new version of the 3 B's that I fell in love with.

• Be Smart
• Be Careful
• Be Curious

I think I am doing to start to use these in my class.  I love the "Be Curious" one!  Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it sparked the child's imagination and creativity.

Egg-citing Freebie

Follow my blog with Bloglovin It is just another Manic Monday!  Did you see the great "Tech Tips for Teachers" freebie in the TpT newsletter.  I was happy to contribute to this, and even more excited to read all of the great information from the amazing 40+ contributors.  The eBook is meant to be viewed on the computer, not printed (wow the ink it would waste!).  Also make sure you are viewing it in Adobe, not Preview to make sure all of the hyperlinks work.

Inside you will find a informational tech tip from each contributor.  I must admit I learned several new things.  Each author also has a freebie for you!  Make sure to download you copy today!

Speaking of Tech Tips, have you checked out my new blog?  It is Technology with Class.  My latest post is a quick tutorial video showing you and easy and safe way to share a YouTube video with your students.  Click here to stop by and view it.

I have more egg-citing stuff for you!  Here is a few fun pack of activities & centers for the kiddos.  Click here to get it.  My students love these Easter themed centers so much they forget they are learning.

Want more Freebies?  I'm linking up with Classroom Freebies' Manic Monday.