Classroom Setup Linky Party!!

One of my all-time favorite ways to kill time is to look at other teachers classroom setup, especially during this time of year!  Materials are organized, desks and cubbies are clean, and all those cute supplies purchased over the Summer are on display!  What could be better?!  I've decided to host one final hoorah Linky Party before we all head back to school...so show me those classrooms!

I'll start!  I've posted this pic a few times already, but here is what I was working with:

And here is what I was able to squeak out:

My book quote wall up close...I <3 it!!

Check out what other teachers are up to, and show off your Back-to-School Prep by linking up!

1. Down the Hall in Third	2. Teachers Are Terrific!: My Lab!	3. The Creative Classroom
4. The Balanced Classroom

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New TPT Favorite!

Have you ever bought something on Teachers Pay Teachers that you absolutely love?  Of course you have, but I'm talking L-O-V-E, love, keep a picture of it in your wallet love (kidding...maybe), so cute you don't want to use it love.  Last week, I bought this exact product from Miss Math Dork.

I had been eyeing her Perfect Personalized Planner for a few weeks.  I saw it first on her blog, and have had it in my TpT wish-list for awhile now.  Last week, I finally bit the bullet and ordered my own, because every teacher needs a planner.  She quickly sent me the Google Doc to fill out, and we were off.  Within hours, Jamie was sending me proofs of covers to look, which totally floored me!  Within 24 hours, she had created this beautiful creature:

She was so accommodating, even taking last minute tweaks I had.  Needless to say, I followed the directions she included on her blog, and sent it to Office Max to be printed that night!  I chose to put glossy cardstock front and back covers, and it came out perfectly. 

 

It has 2-page calendars, a place for notes and my to-do lists, product and blog ideas, TpT stats, and a year-at-a-glance calendar. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see, it came out great.  I L-O-V-E, love it, and would highly recommend Miss Math Dork and this planner.  It is easily my most favorite purchase from TpT, which considering how many things I've bought on there, is saying a lot! 

 

What's your favorite TpT purchase?  Feel free to share links in the comments, I'd love to see some of your favorites!        

Five for Friday!

 

Even in the Summer, I get excited for Fridays because they just feel special.  But it is the end of June, which means my Summer is half-way over!  Eeeeeeeeeeek!  So in effort to not think about my quickly-fleeting summer, here are the five random images that sum up this past week. 

 

1.  Rainbow Chevron Labels

 

 

I made these for my TPT store, but they're just so...cute.  Never mind that I already have my supplies labeled. 

 

 

 

Forget the fact that it took me several hours to print, laminate, hole-punch, and attach my book basket labels last summer.

 

 

I. Just. Have. To.  So needless to say, my printer is printing, and my laminator is warming up.  Time to do it all again!  You can get your own Rainbow Chevron label cuteness here.  

 

2.  It's been SO hot here.  Like too hot to function.  

 

  

 

It's been so hot that I don't even have the energy to elaborate further on this one. 

 

3.  Because it's been hot, we've spent most of the week inside!  Yesterday, we went to a local jumpy balloon place where my boys ran like wild animals for a few hours.  The air conditioner in this place was icy, so we were all happy! 

 



 

 

4.  Because it's been so hot (see #2 above), we've spent most of the week inside (see #3 above).  We decided to hunker down in a cool, dark theater and see "Monsters University".  

 



 

It was so stinkin' cute, I would highly recommend it.  Both boys loved it, but my 9 year-old said, "That was my favorite Pixar movie of all time!".  If that doesn't seal the deal for ya, I don't know what will. 

 

5.  Finally, I tried something new this week.  For the first time in my entire life, I put on soccer cleats and joined my hubby on the field for a just-for-fun game.

 

 

 

Was I any good?  No.  Were the matchy-matchy pink socks necessary?  No, I didn't even wear shin guards...but they sure are cute!  Was it hot?  Yes (see #2, 3, and 4 above).  Did I have fun?  Yes.  Will I do it again?  Yes.  Moral of the story- try something new, you might surprise yourself.

 

Happy Friday!  



End of a School Year!

School is out here in New Mexico, which sort of explains why I have been such a blog slacker!  That, combined with packing up my classroom, report cards, five field trips (yes, five!!), and everything else that comes with end-of-year craziness.  So here's a bit of what I've been up to:

Field Trips:  

While we had more field trips in the last few weeks of school than I had during my first 3 years of teaching, my favorite was a our third grade trip to White Sands National Monument.  We had TONS of parents come along, which made this trip a total blast.  We spent the day cooking out, playing in the dunes, and celebrating the end of a very successful school year.

 

Slime Time:

We finished our matter unit by making slime.  The students had to determine which state of matter their slime belonged to, and then justify their reasoning with proof.  This was tons of messy fun, and a great way to keep the kids engaged during the last hectic days of school.  In case you're curious, our slime recipe included equal parts water and glue (we did 1/4 cup of each), 6 drops of neon food coloring, mixed well, and finally, 1/4 cup liquid starch.  As soon as you add the starch, it begins to 'slime-up'...so disgustingly awesome!

Owl Pellet Dissection:

This is something I have never done in my classroom before, and I was...apprehensive, to say the least.  All I knew was that students would be picking through Owl throw-up looking for treasure.  Needless to say, I had it all wrong (mostly).  The kids LOVED this activity.  They dissected their pellet and matched the bones they found to bone-categorizing sheet I found on TPT to determine what the owl ate.  They were like little detectives and found some interesting loot.  I would absolutely do this again, and it wasn't nearly as gross as I imagined it to be.

Field Day Fun:

Field Day is like an end-of-year rite of passage, and this year, it was perfectly timed.  It just so happened that on this day, my kiddos NEEDED some sort of physical activity in the same way that they need air and food.  I'm sure any teacher in the final weeks of school knows what this is like!  They competed in potato sack races, hula-hoop contests, tug-of-war, and other perfectly exhausting activities that helped to reign in that extra energy they came to school with.  

 The end of our school year was a blast, and I'll miss my sweet students, but I sure am glad it is Summer!  Are you out yet?  If not, when does your school year end?

Happy Summer!

Scientists in Action!

We are down to our final 5 weeks of school and it is DEFINITELY Spring, which means my students are full of energy and excitement!  I've learned that for my own sanity, instead of trying to control and minimize the Springtime-craziness, I must take advantage of it.  So in these final weeks, we are pumping up the engagement with lots of hands-on, minds-on learning in all subject areas...especially science!

We've saved the best for last, and are using our final weeks to learn all about different states of matter.  Last Friday, we took our learning outside into our school's courtyard to observe each state of matter within a balloon 'shell'.  We filled several balloons with water and froze them to represent the solid,  Balloons filled with water represented the liquid, and balloons filled with air represented the gas.    

These little scientists took their jobs very seriously!  They wrote down lots of 'sciency' words like 'airish substance' and 'liquidy inside' to describe the different balloons.  Of course, we had to "remove" the shell to truly see what the insides looked like.  You would have thought we took the kids to Toys 'R Us because they were SO excited!  My favorite quote that goes along with the pic below: "THERE'S MATTER EVERYWHERE!!!!"

 

Next, we used resources from Hope King to observe what the molecules look like within different states of matter.  Using balloons as the molecules, I filled clear garbage bags up- the solid had tons of balloons tightly packed together, the liquid had several balloons that could move and flow, and the gas had very few molecules that had tons of room to move and float around.  The kids were quick to make the connection, and ready to make their own molecule models.  

 

Today, we explored the differences between observable and measurable criteria, created TPR to help differentiate between "volume" and "mass", and used our super science skills to classify a foreign object (Poprocks) based on its observable criteria.  Much to their surprise, we discovered that our foreign substance had a solid shell, but a gas (Carbon Dioxide) center.  It was also helpful that students came to the conclusion that by combining different states of matter, like solid and gas, and even solid and liquid (Poprocks and spit), weird things can happen!  

Where will we go from here?!

I still have a few tricks up my sleeve!   

What do you do to wrangle in the end-of-the year jitters?

Literacy Night...Seuss Style!

This week, our entire school has been invaded by Dr. Seuss-mania for literacy night!  Each hallway selected a Seuss book, and then went to town decorating bulletin boards, walls, and doors using their book as inspiration.  Our hallway chose, "Oh, The Thinks You Can Think!", and each class chose a page.

My class chose the page that says, "Think and wonder.  Wonder and think.  How much water can 55 elephants drink?".  Naturally, my students immediately curious about this question....and many more.  How much water DOES an elephant drink?!  What about a baby elephant?  Do African Elephants drink more than Asian Elephants?  Man, it's as if Dr. Seuss intended to make kids curious about this stuff!  You have to take advantage of these curious, teachable moments, so my lesson plans changed (EEEEEKKKK!!!).  I mean, we can do auto-biographies next week, right?

So instead, this week we shifted into researcher-mode.  Students worked in groups to research how much water an elephant drinks in one day.  They checked several sources, because good scientists use reliable information.  They then narrowed their focus, and averaged the information from several sources. Finally, students used multiplication to determine how much water 55 elephants would drink in a single day, and they presented their findings to the group. 

While all that was a blast, we also had to take care of our Literacy Night bulletin board.  The students drew and colored 55 elephants, and of course, we had to include the fantastic Science and Math work because we all know that literacy is not taught in isolation! 

   

 

It's a little more busy than I'm used to, but the kids love it, so it will have to do.  Tomorrow night, we will showcase some of our very favorite 3rd grade books, make an awesome bookmark craft, and chat about end-of-year reading goals.

Does your school have a Literacy Night?  How do you get families involved and excited about literacy?  I'd love to hear all about it! 

A Few (more) of my Favorite Things

A few weeks ago, I posted about some of my favorite things.  Needless to say, that was only just the beginning!  I am constantly in awe of the amazing resources that other teachers have found, so I'd like to share some more of the things that keep me a sane and happy teacher.  

Book Retriever App
This app was so worth the $0.99 I paid for it!  Over the summer, I was able to catalog my entire classroom library by scanning the barcodes on each book using the camera on my phone.  My.  Mind.  Was.  Blown.  Not only does it keep track of your books alphabetically, but it also levels them (DRA, AR, Lexile, etc.), which means I can easily check a reading level by scanning the barcode.  It also has options for inputting student lists and parent contact info so that you are able to check books out to students (and alert their parents if a book goes missing), but I have yet to play with this feature.  If you knew how many times I've stood staring at the endless shelves in Barnes & Nobel wondering if I did in fact already have a book I was considering buying, you would also know how handy this app has been for me. 

Teachers Pay Teachers

This is a no-brainer, and I'm sure any teacher nowadays would agree that TPT is on the top of many of our favorite thing lists.  My love for TPT is two-fold: I have found TONS of high quality, cute, creative resources to use with my class, and it has provided me with a (small) second source of income.  My students have loved each and every activity, and I appreciate not having to create everything myself...because there is no way I am that creative!!   

Donors Choose

We all know how much money teachers fork over from their own pockets to supplement their own classroom.  From supplies, to books, to technology and more, it all adds up so quickly.  Our students are like our own children, and we want to give them the world, but unfortunately, we cannot always afford to provide everything we would like.  That's where Donors Choose comes in.  Teachers can create a project by selecting items through their online mall, write a rationale for potential donors, and post up their project on the DC website.  Friends, family, corporations, and even complete strangers can make tax-deductible donations to help fund your classroom project.  Many large companies (like Kia, Horace Mann, Sonic, etc.) offer match opportunities where they will automatically fund half of your project costs.  Over the past two years, I have been fortunate enough to have had four projects fully funded on DonorsChoose.org. I've received math centers, science supplies, and most recently, five Google Chromebooks!  It is definitely worth a shot to help supplement some of the costs associated with loving your students!



So again, I have to ask...what are some of your favorite things?  Apps your students love?  Sites you frequent?  Products that make your world go round?  Share away!