Five for Friday...A Linky Party!

What.a.week!!! The last week of school can be CRAZY...and this year was a doozy. Field Day was rescheduled because of bad weather, but it seems the bad weather never went away, so we went with an indoor field day. I'm really glad our PE teacher pushed through and that the kids were able to have fun, but between having it the last week of school, plus an awards' assembly, plus finishing DRA testing, and random students in and out on the last day going to sibling/cousin graduations...it was like taking a ride on the Hot Mess Express. 

But alas...it finally ended on Thursday, and I spent today packing up the rest of my classroom to move home while I wait to move into my new school!!! Eeeeeeekkk!!! I'm so excited!!! 

That's it for my recap...now on to Five for Friday! You can link up by clinking on the picture below.

I checked out all of these Mo Willems books from our city library in anticipation of our author study, but May just FLEW by. Nonetheless, the kids really enjoyed reading them. I really love being able to get so many books from the library that I can add to my personal collection. Checking them back in is a whole different story. 

This was another great activity we got from Kim Bearden during our visit to the Ron Clark Academy. Basically, it's a football field made from masking tape. The kids are split into 2 teams, but I also gave them partners to work with. I would ask a science review question, and then they would discuss what they thought the answer was and write it on their whiteboard. I would have them reveal their answers, and if they were correct, they got to roll a die. They got to move however many yard lines based on the number on the die. They scored points for their teams when they would get to the other sides of the field and made a "touchdown". Then they would go back the opposite direction. The kids LOVED IT. I will definitely be using it next year!

I loved the parachute when I was growing up. It's the one field day activity that I'm always really excited about!!! Plus we did it in the lunchroom, so that made it extra fun for the kids.

This picture doesn't do it justice, but this was the amazing gift basket I received from the staff at my school as a going away gift. It was full of Hershey bars, Dr. Peppers, gift cards, a grade book, a journal, and a pretty cool Wonder Woman hand towel, among other sweet gifts. 

 From here...

 To here...

And, finally, via 2 trips in the hubby's truck and 3 in my SUV, to here! The space formerly known as our dining room. For a while.

At least, that's what I told the husband.

Here's to summer!!!

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Five for Friday

There is no tired like 4 days left of school tired. Add a school carnival on top of that. And 78 antsy second graders who are waiting for their postponed-because-of-never-ending-rain field day. Oh-and DRA testing. Don't get me wrong...I love to see the growth on DRA. But...there comes a moment when a kid-or several kids for that matter-keep passing those tests. Again. And again. And again. Yay! But when you've given what feels like 150 individual tests and you still have 20 kids to go, and you're like...for the love. You just did awesome on that. Sigh. Now I have to do ANOTHER one. Seriously-it's a love-hate relationship. (But on a serious note...I cannot BELIEVE some of my reading class's growth this year!!!)

But-despite how tired I am, I just had to link up for Five for Friday! You can link up to by clicking on the picture below!

Here is my week!

Okay...so this was technically last Friday. But...it's Ron Clark! I cannot even begin to explain how amazing my visit was at his school. If you can ever go...do it. You will not regret it.

While I was at RCA, I learned some great new activities to use in the classroom. This was similar to Headbandz, and I used content specific science vocabulary (habitats) as a review activity for my students. The went nuts for it. We used it again today, but we used weather vocabulary from the beginning of the year. I'm sure I will use it again at some point in the next 4 days! I got the headbands at the Dollar Tree.

I took a personal day on Wednesday, and anytime I do, the next day seems to be pure chaos. My table that afternoon serves as evidence. (See that DRA book hidden in the tray?!?!)

I wanted to do something different to wrap up the year. With all the DRA testing, I feel like my paras and specialists are getting to do all the "fun" stuff, and I'm stuck in the hallway all day. So, I thought it would be fun to do a novel to wrap up the year. I saw this Chocolate Fever Novel Unit by Amy Lemons from Step into Second Grade. You can check it out by clicking on the picture below.

One of their favorite activities by far has been creating their own "fever". Some of these cracked me up!

Probably one of the highlights of the school year is the Star Lab. usually we get to go in and see constellations and such, but this year the kids learned a lot about travel to Mars.

This is what the Star Lab looks like. It's inflatable and the kids have to crawl in.

For some reason, crawling in is probably their favorite part! They giggle nonstop. But-my favorite part is hearing the "Ooooohhh!!! Ahhhhhh!!!" when they get inside. Plus, this year I caught a moth that was distracting ALL of them inside. I'm ninja like that.

It's hard to give a good visual of what it's really like inside, but this was projected on the ceiling. It was pretty cool!

Well, that was my week in a nutshell! Only four more days, but they are JAM PACKED. I can't wait!!!

Have a happy weekend!

Currently May

I always tell myself that I am going to better with this whole blog thing. Sigh.

I will get better at this!!!

In the meantime, here's this month's Currently. You can link up with Farley to join in!

Listening: I love that my daughter loves the Disney movies that I grew up with. And-I know most of the songs by heart, which she loves!

Loving: My friend/teammate and I are headed to Atlanta to visit The Ron Clark Academy this week. We are so giddy with excitement. I need inspiration, and I hope to find it here! My mother-in-law lives nearby, so I get to sneak in a visit with her, also. 

Thinking: I want to have my room cleared out by our last workday. The past few weeks I've taken a tote in with me and started packing things I haven't been using or know I won't use the these last 3 weeks. The only problem is I have to find a place at home to put it until I move into my new school. It's a good problem to have, but one that must be solved!

Wanting: Since I'm moving to a new school and changing grade levels, I think I want all new room decor. I love what I've had this year, which were more mute colors, but I really think I'm primary colored at heart.

Needing: I really need to just finish out my lesson plans for the year. I will be so happy I did.

Summer: I told the hubby that the garage is officially a dump, and I am OVER it! It will be purged my first week out of school while the girl is still in daycare. I don't care if I have to bring in one of those huge dumpster things in my driveway. What's the point of a 3 car garage if you can't get the cars in it???

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE going to Canton when we're in Texas. Our visits haven't really lined up with the dates though, so I always miss out. I'm trying to be very strategic on when we go this summer, so I can get there!

Last summer, I thought teaching summer school would be fun and a great way to earn extra money. I was WRONG. I was exhausted from the school year, even more exhausted when it was over, and then only had 4 weeks before starting all over again. It felt like I didn't even have a summer. My dream this summer is to just RELAX. (I'm really just naturally high-strung, so relaxing is a hard thing for me to do.)

Here's to 14 more days!!!

February Currently

It's been a while since I linked up with Farley for her monthly Currently. Since it's a long weekend for me, I thought it was better late than never!

Listening: Since I'm working on this while piled up in the bed, I get the added joy of listening to one of the hubby's favorite shows. He loves Kevin Smith and comics, so he can't go wrong with this show. He was beside himself when Adam West walked into the store. Eh.

Loving: A 3-day weekend? Yes, please! Let's see if I am actually as productive as I plan to be! (Since I'll be stranded at home thanks to the never ending snowfall!)

Thinking: Ah, yes. I do have to finish my lesson plans. And the laundry. And the dishes. Sigh.

Wanting: I am in desperate need of some allergy relief. The constant weather changes this year are killing me! One day it's 70 degrees, and then the next day it is 20 and a foot of snow. Enough already!!!

Needing: My literacy block has 37-yes, 37-kids in it. The good thing is that they are all at or above grade level. The problem right now is that with every new concept, I have the same 10-12 kids that move at a slower pace. Now, if the class was only 20 kids, this would pose a huge problem. But with those 12 students, there are 25 that are ready to move on. I have a para for one hour during literacy, so I'm looking at changing things up to try to better meet the needs of everyone. Any ideas you would like to share???

And I really need to watch the movie I rented from Redbox 2 days ago!!! It's today or never!!!

Pageant Title: I never do one thing at a time. In my mind, that is a waste of time. I will only watch TV if I'm doing something else-like folding laundry, running on the treadmill, making dinner, grading papers, or cleaning up. I read in the bathtub. I read standing in line at the grocery store. I was even downloading my antivirus while working on this. It's out of control.

And that's it in a nutshell. Hopefully I'll do better next month!

Happy Presidents' Day!

Five for Friday

This is the first time I've ever done Five for Friday...and it's Saturday night, but-oh well!

Four of my pictures actually focus on our Exploration Stations from Tuesday of this week. I used them to introduce the concept of force and motion. I usually like to introduce key vocabulary at the beginning of each unit, but I thought they could use some actual examples this time. That way-when I introduced the key word-I could connect it to one of the stations from Tuesday. It worked great! I will definitely do it again next year-and-I'm already trying to think of how I can do it before our next big unit-weather!

You can head on to my Teachers Pay Teachers Store and grab a free copy of the file I created for the stations by clicking the picture below. It's the first time I've ever uploaded something that used purchased images or fonts, so I was pretty nervous! Hopefully I'll get better at it. 

Quick note-I'm using Primary Graffiti's Interactive Science Journals this year. I am so excited to see how they fit in with our new writing expectations as I work to incorporate more writing in Science and Social Studies. I love the idea of them having an organized notebook to always be able to go back to. Not to mention they go crazy for scissors and glue. The kids will get their first taste of the notebooks with the new vocabulary introduction that will accompany the stations. You can check the journals out by clicking on the picture below.

 On to my 5...

This was the "Ping Pong Blow" station. They each had 2 ping pong balls, a regular straw, and a coffee stirrer. Their task was to decide which straw would make the ball go further. One of the follow up questions was to explain why they thought one straw worked better than the other. 

This was the spinning top station. They would place a top in each hand and then spin them. They had to determine why one would stop before the other one.

This was the Cars station (aptly named for the 4 Lightning McQueens they used). Their task was to test out 4 different surfaces (the tile, the regular carpet, the rugs, and the carpet squares) and see which surface the car traveled the furthest on. They had a hard time describing what was actually slowing down the cars, describing the carpets as bumpy and rocky and the tile as slippery, but they also said that the cars' wheels couldn't move on the carpet squares or that the bottom of the car dragged along the carpet, slowing it down. This will definitely be our connection to friction. 

This was the Marble Run Station. I had cut a pool noodle (the LAST one at the Dollar Tree...special thanks to my hubster who picked it up for me at the last minute!) in half down the middle, and then I cut one half into 2 different lengths. I ended up with 3 ramps. They had to race a marble down each one and determine why one went farther or not as far. Some of the groups got creative and started changing the heights of the ramps to see if it changed the results. Great thinkers in the making, I tell ya!

I just had to include this cutie pie...my sweet E! We taught her to do the "Dirty Bird" this past weekend to celebrate the Falcons touchdowns. RISE UP!

Have a great week!

September Currently...

Hmmm...I'm sure I remember how to do this, right? It's been a LONG two years since I last posted. I'm really going to try hard to get this going again because I really did enjoy doing it. Life, in the form of a pretty little girl, go in the way and life has only picked up speed. But...I will still give it a go!

So...to get me started, I am linking up with Farley over at Oh Boy Fourth Grade for her September Currently.

Here's what's been going on...

Listening - Emmalyn recently discovered Blue's Clues, so we recorded several episodes for her. The best part today was walking into the living room and seeing my almost 11-year-old watching it.

Loving - The weather has changed here in central Colorado, and I am sooooo happy! I love opening my windows and feeling a nice, cool breeze.

Thinking - Gah. I need to do my lesson plans. Every week I say I won't put it off until the weekend, but alas, I do. The only thing that prevents me from doing them at midnight on Sunday nights is that our principals want to review everyone's by noon on Sunday. Don't get me wrong...I have an entire plan for the week in my head. But organizing them into plans is mega-time consuming. I am a perfectionist, after all.

Wanting - I've been looking at the awesome material I bought to make pillows for my library. It's been sitting on my craft table for over a month now. I.MUST.DO.IT.TODAY!!!!

Needing - My home printer bit the dust, so I'm in the market for a new one. Any suggestions? I'm really leaning towards a laser printer because of all the black-and-white printing I do, but I still want a color printer. Decisions, decisions...

3 Trips - I lived in Europe for 3 years when my husband was stationed in Germany, so we've been to the "big ones"...Paris, London, etc. But I would LOVE to go back one day.

In the meantime, I would love to go to Washington D.C.. We wanted to wait until the boys were older to go, but now we have E to tag along, so we might just have to bite the bullet and go one day soon before they all grow up!

Rome is on my list, too, because I really want to go see the amazing historical buildings and such. We'll see...

And last-but not least-Hawaii! I think the challenge is getting everyone there. I want to take the kids with us, but we have one who has MAJOR flying anxiety for some unknown reason. I'm hoping he outgrows it.

Well...here's to a nice weekend and hopefully the relaunch of my little blog!