Five for Friday (5/31)

I'm linking again with Doodle Bugs Teaching for her Five for Friday! 

1. After today, we are now in double digits for days left of school.  The count down is so real now...9 days with kids (only 7 full days and 2 early release days) and 1 work day.  Since my husband is a teacher too, we leave the day after school is done (usually a Saturday) and go to Nags Head for 2 weeks.  I cannot wait to have my feet in the sand!!

2.  We bought my daughter a sandbox on Monday!  She loves it so much, we spend about 2 hours each afternoon in it before the nightly preparations for the next day.   Here is the sandbox she got:

3.  My kids will be making these for their Father's Day gifts next week.  I had some extra foam stars that I found several years ago at Target along with some foam that I cut into 3x3 squares and cut out the middle.  They will glue their picture to the star and the frame over top and decorate around it.  I think they will turn out nicely.

4.  I posted about the Writing Through the Year Units here that I bought from Deanna Jump and DeeDee Wills.  I LOVE them already!!!!!  I cannot wait to start using them!!

5.  SOL testing is finished for this school year!!!!!!!!!  Next week, we will go back to our nomal schedules!!!

Sorry for the lack of pictures in this post.  Our wifi at school has been turned off due to the online testing so I haven't been able to use my iPad to take pictures and upload to the computer.  I will have more pictures for you next week. 

Happy Friday!

 

Writing Through the Year Units by D. Jump and D. Wills

Last week I won a giveaway of $20 to TpT.  I have looked and looked to find something that I just knew I couldn't teach without.  This year my writing instruction was not my favorite.

Well...I'm here to tell you about these AMAZING units from Deanna Jump and DeeDee Wills.  They are avilable on Deanna's TpT store. 

Click either unit above to see more details about them.  I am already loving them and can't wait to get the other units.  These units are brief but detailed and because they are made by teachers, they get it.  These ladies know what writing workshop is like in the regular classroom and can speak to it in their descriptions.  My favorite part so far is that they have already MADE the anchor charts that they reference.  And they are in color to print from the computer.  No more of reading about writer's workshop and then having to create your own anchor charts.  These ladies have done it for you!!

They do have Units 1-4 bundled for $32.  You can find them here. 

Here is the list of titles for each unit.  You can click the name to find it on TpT:

1 - My Pictures Tell a Story

2 - It's All About Me!  Writing Personal Narratives

3 - "How to" Writing

4 - Writing for Reason

5 - Informational Text

6 - Writing Small Moment Personal Narratives

7 - Fiction Writing

I did see in a few questions on Deanna's TpT store that there should be a Unit 8.  She does not answer the questions of what the title will be.  However, she did say that once it is finished, she will bundle units 5-8 as well. 

Happy Friday!!!

HORRAY! I have 10 Followers!!!!!!!



 

Thanks to Sonya Dehart Design for the digital paper and to The 3AM Teacher for the fun boarder.

 Ok, ok, ok...for you advanced bloggers this is no big deal.  However, my first post was on April 16, 2013.  So I have only blogged for 1.5 months.  I am so thankful to those teacher friends who have chosen to follow me.  If you haven't checked out my TpT store, do so now and pick a product that you would like.  (click my button below to get to my store) I'll email it to you.  Please leave a comment with your product request and your email address so I can send you the file. 

For those of you who are not following me, my store is on sale for 20% off in celebration of 10 followers.  Consider following my blog and I'll have another celebration at 20 followers!!



Question....I need your help!!!

Since I'm new to this whole blogging thing, I have tried to figure out all the cool things I have seen on my favorite blogger's pages.  One of the biggest things I've enjoyed most about blogging is commenting on other people's posts.  I usually just leave my blog sight address but would love to know how to hyperlink it in my comment. 

Do you know how to do this?  Please help!!!!!!!

Next Year Linky...

I am linking up with Finding JOY in 6th Grade!  Click the picture below to see her linky post and all the others who have linked up.

Here are a few things I'm going to do next year....

This year I begun to create or alter products that I have found based on my students needs and abilities.  It has been the most eye openning experience for me to see such a value in my student's ability to practice more challenging skills.  (Click the image to see my TpT store)

I have re-created my classroom with such a wonderful resource of teacher bloggers!  The past 2 years, I have spent time reading and following my favorite bloggers.  Now, I'm trying to encourage my teacher friends to follow me in this journey.  Just in a few months of blogging, I have earned 5-10 free products through posting comments and  free giveaways.

When I decided last Fall to begin selling my creations on TpT, my goal was to eventually blog about them.  My experience with blogging has helped me to reflect on my teaching as well as share ideas with other teacher bloggers out there! If you like what you're reading....follow me!!

What do you like most about blogging? Do you have any other suggestions for me in my new adventure?  Do you like buying products from others or creating your own geared toward your students' needs?

I won! I won!

What an awesome way to start a Monday!  I woke up this morning and had an email from  Julie at The Techie Teacher  because I was the winner of her 100 Follower Giveaway!

 

I won a $15 gift certificate to TpT!!!!!  And I got to pick 2 items from her store.  Check it out here.  She has some great resources. 

Thanks Julie for offering this giveaway!!
 

Five for Friday Linky

I'm linking for the first time with Doodle Bugs Teaching for her Five for Friday! 


Well, our school has been testing all week so our students have to stay in the classroom ( no resource classes) until lunch at 11:05.  We start our day at 8:00. I have loved spending this time with my kids and experimenting with different things.

1. We made these cute paintings by putting tape strips on white construction paper and then painting over it. Once it dried, I pulled the tape off and they looked like this!  I'm so pleased with how they turned out!!

2. I had a parent volunteer to come in and do a craft with the kids. She read them a few fish stories and then using baby oil, made these:

They turned out awesome too!!

3. I finished giving my students the PALS assessment (only in VA) and have recorded all of their scores in the cummulative folders.  I can check that off of my end of year to do list!

4. I have been assessing my students this week on their math skills.  They have practiced all of the first grade SOLs the whole year in math work stations, so I thought I would create a few assessments that would tell me what they learned. Click the picture below for a freebie from my TpT store. Please share your thoughts by commenting here or at TpT.

5.  And today we used the clickers to review some math concepts we have practiced this year.  Do you have clickers? Or have you ever used them?  My kids LOVE them and they are VERY easy to use!!