Skittles: Let's Get Acquainted

I was absolutely shocked to hear the news about the Boston Marathon this afternoon. I lived in Boston for 2 years and watching the marathon inspired me to run 5 marathons of my own. Never would I expect a bomb to go off during a marathon! I can't imagine running 26 miles and then having to run away from an explosion.

If you're like me tonight, I'm trying to find a few light hearted things to read tonight.  I decided to link up with Flying Into First Grade's Let's Get Acquainted Linky. 

This week's topic is a Skittles Game!

Favorite Ice Cream - Mint Chocolate Chip! I really like the Publix Yogurt Mint - it has balls of mint in it.  

Favorite Memory From College - All I can think of is my most embarrassing moment EVER. I was taking a history class (by the same professor I had for several classes - I really enjoyed his assignments). Well, the class was US History 20th century. The first day of class he called me and another student to the white board to write down other students' thoughts about US History in the 20th century. Students were shouting out answers. 

Let's just preface with, I'm not the best speller.

Someone said "Atomic bomb." Well, I totally blanked on what to write, so I had to ask "How do you spell bomb?" (In a 3000 level college class)

But that's not it.

After someone told me, I wrote boob on the board.

BOOB, people!  On the first day of class!!! 

Favorite Sports Team - I'm not big into sports, which is rare in the South! I cheer for Georgia Tech, mainly because all of my high school friends went to UGA.  Luckily, I married into a family that cheers for Georgia Tech.

I accidentally typed "Teach" instead of "Tech" first. Yeah, that would have been funny if that got posted!

Hopefully if you cheer for UGA we can still be friends.

Favorite Fast Food - Chick-fil-a!

Anything About Yourself - I have 13 nieces and nephews with 2 more on the way! One on the way is a boy and we'll know about the other one in a few weeks. There are only 5 out of the 13 that are girls (and 4 of them live in other countries). If I'm ever lucky enough to have a baby, I think it'll be a boy!

I also wanted to mention a few giveaways!

Amanda from Teaching Maddeness is hosting a giveaway for a Mother's Day and Father's Day Magazine.

Head on over to check it out!  It's a pin it to win it type of giveaway (my favorite kind).

Hilary from Second Grade is out of this World is hosting a 200 follower giveaway.

I found her blog during a blog hop and it's super cute! You can win a copy of my Landform Posters.

Kelly from First Grade Fairytales is hosting a 400 Follower Giveaway. Click to picture to hop on over!

Have a good night!

It's Time to Shop!

I can't believe it's already Friday! Why does the week go by so fast when you have spring break, but not when it's the work week?

I do have a freebie for you, just not the one I had planned!

I'm still working on my conjunction unit, but it got put on hold because I have a gazillion papers due for my M.A.T. class.  Let's just say that there are 4 reports due on Sunday.  I could have finished them each week, but I write so much better under pressure.  Between the papers and discussion posts (and creating assessments to go along with the papers and posts), I have written 2 papers and a discussion post.  Well, when I put it in writing it doesn't sound like much, but I promise it is!

The class requires me to design a variety of assessments for my two-digit addition unit.  The last assignment I have to design a performance task and a rubric.

Are you bored yet?  Maybe I'll just get to the freebie.

Students are asked to go shopping for a friend's birthday party. They have to choose two items to buy (no limit on money) and add the amount together.

Just click any of the pictures to download a copy! Let me know what you think!

Spring Break: Mentor Text Edition & More

My first day of spring break had a few bumps in the road.  I went to take my dog to get her shots and didn't realize I needed an appointment. Then I headed up to the Mall of Georgia and got there at about 9am...too bad the mall doesn't open until 10am.

At least Target was open! I was also supposed to meet a friend in the afternoon, but she ended up cancelling on me. Instead I got a mani and a pedi, took a nap, started putting my winter clothes away, walked the dog and made burrito bowls for dinner. (You have to try this recipe!) 

Luckily yesterday was a little more relaxing. I can't even remember what I did.  I took a walk with my husband....and I think that's about all.

Today I'm linking up with Collaboration Cuties' Mentor Text Linky.

I discovered The War Between the Consonants and Vowels my first year teaching. I distinctly remember asking my students the first week of school to name all the vowels.

There was a blank stare, people.

And then one student said "What's a vowel?"

Now I know you kindergarten teachers taught them about vowels and consonants. It's just that summer took it out of their brains.

Therefore every year, I read this book the first week of school.  Perhaps even the first day of school.

You see, in this book, the vowels and consonants don't get along.  They strongly dislike each other (you know I can't use the h word).

A war breaks outs.

Don't worry it's not violent. The capital T's turn into airplanes.

All of the sudden a squiggle comes to town. 

Eventually the vowels and consonants work together. They form words and scare that darn squiggle out of town.

Because squiggles are Scary (with a capital S).

Since I have a lot of time on my hands, I decided to link up with Flying into First Grade's Let's Get Acquainted Linky Party. 

This week's question is "What 3 things would you take with you if you were stranded on an island?"

1. Sunscreen.  I'm a redhead and I burn fairly easily. Except if I use that spray on sunscreen.  I started using that stuff about 2 summers ago and I haven't gotten burned since. A-mazing!

Side note - I bought a Groupon for a spray tan.  Any advice? I've never done one before and my legs are 12 shades of pasty. 

2. Bathing suit.  Would it stink to get stuck on an island with no bathing suit??

3. Kindle.  Because you know my stranded island would have an outlet and access to Amazon. Honestly I love to read so much! On the note of stranded islands, you should read On the Island by Tracey Garvis-Graves

Ok, if you've managed to read through the entire post, I hope you come back tomorrow!  I'm finishing up a new unit and there *might* be a freebie.

5 for Friday: April 5th Edition

I'm especially excited for this week's Five for Friday! 

I had my post already to go yesterday, but once I got home I was tired. Like couldn't keep my eyes open and went to bed at 8pm tired.

Which is why I'm just now posting.

But it's SPRING BREAK!  Finally!

So I'm going to share what's been happening this week and then go lay on the couch for a week.

1. Introducing Connie Conjunction! She loves to join two sentences together using or, but, because, and so.

I just realized I misspelled conjunction. Eek! I'll be fixing that ASAP!

Wait. Did I just say but?

No, not that kind of but.

I'll let you get your giggles out.

Oh wait, my firsties giggled all week long every time "but" was said.

Thank goodness I have more girls than boys this year.  Last year's class would have had a field day.

Each student drew their own Connie Conjunction, labeled the poster, and wrote a sentence using a conjunction.

I found blank glue bottles in a packet on TPT (freebie alert).

Each student wrote a sentence using a conjunction and wrote the conjunction on the glue bottle.

2. It's first grade's month for the bulletin board out in the hallway.  We went with an Earth Day theme.

Each student wrote about a way they would help the Earth.

3. We wrapped up our weather unit.  Students chose a type of storm to research and write about. This one did an excellent job writing, but her picture was a tornado.  Oops!  We are still working on graphic features!

Let's compare anchor charts for a moment.

Here's the beautiful one about the different weather instruments.

I keep telling my parapro that she need to make her own font and sell it on TPT!

And here's mine that I made for our new plant unit.

Inspired from First Grade Parade

I made it during lunch while eating. :)

4. April family projects were due this week.  I don't usually have a family project due in May since it's such a crazy month.

You can tell the parents and students are ready for school to end. The beginning of the year the projects are elaborate and this time almost everyone just colored their flower.

5. I forgot to share these beautiful crosses we made for Easter!

I gave each student a card stock cross, messy glue, and tissue paper.  They folded the tissue paper over the end of the pencil (eraser end), held onto the tissue paper and dipped in glue.

Look the end result!

Now for a week I won't think about teaching or find any super cute ideas that I want to use, right?? Because it's Spring Break! Happy Saturday!

April Currently

I'm fashionably late to the party!  Here's my Currently for April!

Listening - I just started watching reruns on the Big Bang Theory. Sheldon cracks me up, but he does get annoying real fast!

Loving - Spring has arrived (until tomorrow when it's supposed to be in the 40's). At least it was in the 60's and sunny today!

Thinking - I struggle with getting my centers organized and ready each month.  I'm hoping to organize them as a summer project.  

Wanting - I tried quitting Diet Coke yesterday.  I have failed so far.  One time I gave it up for 6 weeks.  The first week I lost 3 pound alone! I know I need to do this.  For my wallet and my health!

Needing - The class serious must eat glue sticks. I've now taken their glue sticks out of their table bins and they can only use them for our in class craft activities.  I think I'm going to hoard them this summer when they go on sale for 25 cents.

Advice - Think before you speak.  I need this remember this!  I always stick my foot in my mouth and I hate it!! (Ok, so when I went to link up it said give advice for blogging, creating, etc.  Oops....teachers need to read directions! This was meant as general life advice!)

Be sure to check out other bloggers!

Wacky Weather

In Georgia, we've been having some wacky weather.  Spring keep trying to come out, but then disappears.  The weather forecast for tomorrow is 73 degrees and on Thursday it's supposed to be 50 degrees. Once I bring out the flip flops they stay out! My toes are going to freeze later in the week!

In science we are wrapping up our weather unit.  We've had a great time exploring clouds, learning about the types of precipitation and writing about different types of storms. 

My students loved becoming experts in the different storms.  As they wrote their non-fiction pieces, I had this poster on display.

Click on the picture to download.

The students were able to refer to the poster to help them spell weather words correctly.  Especially needed this time of year - you've already said "Sound it out" a zillion times.  This way you can just point to the poster! ;)

Now, I have a creative bunch of students this year! One day, my room mom gave me a container full of notes that each student wrote what they liked about me. Over 50% of them were "I like you because you give us crafty things" or some variation. (Thank you A Cupcake for the Teacher!) Well, during the weather unit they started thinking of names for the different storms.  On. Their. Own. We studied tornadoes and they started calling any tornadoes "Tony Tornado."

We had a class discussion about a name for a thunderstorm.  Honestly, I didn't like any of the ones they were throwing out during our discussion. One of my students brainstormed a list at HOME with her mom.  Of course, we had to do a class vote that morning!

How do you like that name? I think it fits perfectly! 

You can find a set of Wacky Weather Posters over at my TPT store.