Great Day

Love days like today when I can just thoroughly enjoy my class.

We had a great play this morning to go to...each year our school does a program we call PARP - Parents As Reading Partners. In this program, the kids log minutes reading weekly for 6 weeks. They get small prizes for participating each week and a bigger prize if they do at least 5 out of the 6 weeks. However, the best thing about it is always the plays the teachers put on. The teachers kick off the program with a play the Friday before the kids start reading and introduce a problem that the kids can solve by reading the required amount of minutes. The program always closes with the second act of the play which is what the kids REALLY look forward to. I have never been in it myself (even though I love the stage) due to the time constraints of my second job I would have no time to attend practices. However, I really must give KUDOS to my fellow teachers who do this each year (and yes it is almost the same teachers every year). The play always goes along with our theme, and this year it was written by our wonderful media specialist. Since our theme is "Diplomat is on the Case of Learning" (secret agents, mysteries, etc) she created a very cute play of Scooby Doo and Crew solving the case of why the Big Bad Wolf was so upset all the time (and tied in many storybook favorites - Sleeping Beauty, Hansel & Gretel, Rumpelstiltskin, Belle, Goldilocks, and Little Red Riding Hood). The play was fun for kids and teachers too! The cast really did wonderfully.

We then came back to our room to make fun campaign posters for Judson Moon the boy who would be President from the book we are reading The Kid Who Ran for President. The kids are loving this book and their posters were truly original.

Finally, best part of the day was a compliment party. The kids elected to watch Shiloh Season since we had just recently read Shiloh and watched the movie they wanted to know what happened next. I crazily allowed them to bring in any fun snack they wanted and a soda to go with it. I have never done this before, but they were so AWESOME about it. They truly worked hard for this compliment party and deserved every minute of it. I thoroughly enjoyed our day and hope they did too. This class makes teaching fun! :) I LOVE IT!!!!

Just had to share because it's so easy to get bogged down, but when you have a day like today it's nice to share with fellow teachers because it's really what it's all truly about.

Fall Favorites/ New Item Freebie/ Currently Linky

I love Fall. Even though I live in Florida and fall is just an illusion (especially with the heat and crazy stormy weather we've been having lately), I love the season. I just got my classroom all decorated for fall (the kids love it, but they ain't seen nothing yet - Christmas is even more fun).

Right now I am reading The Kid Who Ran For President by Dan Gutman with my 5th graders. It is on the lower end of the 5th grade Lexile range, but I am finding so much to teach from it. First we have talked about the election process, the rules of government, the ages/rules etc. for the different offices. Second, the book is rich with idioms and figurative language. Then, an unexpected teaching lesson came about. I have a few old copies of the book and bought 17 new ones to make a class set since 17 of my old ones walked away over the summer. Well, interestingly enough the book isn't EXACTLY the same as the original. Names have been changed to protect the innocent or not-so-innocent. LOL Instead of jokes about Arnold "The Terminator", now the jokes are about Chuck Norris. The new book references Google, You Tube, texting, etc., while the old one references calling directory assistance and using a video camera. Why? Well the book was originally published in 1996 BEFORE all that stuff came out. What a great lesson for my kiddos who think that stuff just always existed. We even turned it into a center where they looked up the dates the stuff was invented - and get this - they actually asked to do that! I LOVE it :) SO much better than just reading a boring old textbook story, they are actually diving in and getting to know characters and learn about real life, plus they are developing a love for books.

In keeping with the fall theme, I just made a fall/Halloween/Thanksgiving center at my teachers pay teachers store for the younger grades (2-4) for practicing ABC order, making words, and finish a story prompt. Check it out at here. Comment below - first one to comment favorite fall memory will win a FREE set. PS - I will be holding a 10% off sale on all my fall items and a few others October 8-10 at teachers pay teachers.

Finally, I am linking up with Farley at Oh Boy 4th Grade for her Currently October Linky Party. She has also created a cute set of Currently's for use in your classroom. Check them out at her blog.

Crazy busy week, new pencil sharpener, and Whole Brain Teaching LOVE

Wow! This school year has gotten off to a bang! I must say I LOVE my class this year. They are an AWESOME group of kiddos. I was totally prepared for this to be my last year in fifth grade, so what does God do - He gives me a teaser by giving me a group of kids that reminds me why I moved to fifth in the first place and how much fun it can be. However, this year has been full of challenges. We have changed our work hours 3 different times so far so I never know now when I am supposed to be at work and when I can leave. We are possibly having off Monday due to Tropical Storm Isaac, but no one knows. Our school is a shelter for a command post for Emergency Workers so today I had to put up a lot of the stuff I just put up 3 weeks ago - wow can't believe I have only been back 2.5 weeks so far - feels like forever. My kids are so good that I feel like we must already be in October/November already. I must admit I feel a HUGE part of it is that I have fallen in love. L-O-V-E with my new main squeeze - whole brain teaching! It is AMAZING. Thank you Pinterest and you fellow bloggers who led me to this lovely universe. I also must thank whoever came up with the "clip" behavior chart. It holds me so much more accountable. The whole brain teaching thing is just wonderful though. It saves me so many teacher hours of lecturing that i find at the end of the day we have time leftover because the time I used to factor in my day as "lost" time, isn't there any more. I am flabbergasted daily at how well this works, even for my big, bad fifth graders who I thought would look at me and laugh the first time I said "Class, Yes" and then I thought they would laugh again when I added in "Eyes and Hands". But, they LOVE it. Especially since they consistently beat the teacher. And, I don't have to lecture anymore about wasted time for talking (which is also wasted time). The eye-opener was when I earned my 3rd point to their 1 the first day and one of my lovelies said "I couldn't hear you - that's not fair." To which I replied, "And, that's the point!" Of course his make me laugh reply was, "Oh, so we DID get the point?" which nicely led to a vocabulary lesson. Anyway, before I get off my whole brain soapbox, if you aren't doing whole brain teaching - try looking into it. It is bringing me so much sanity. Did I feel dumb the first time I did it, Yes. But come on, aren't we all actors and actresses in disguise anyway?!

On another note. I got my Pencil Sharpener from http://www.classroomfriendlysupplies.com/. The kids and I are in love with it. I have never seen such a great classroom tool. I really thought the buzz was crazy (I mean come on it's a pencil sharpener), but OMG! It is FABULOUS! Pencils are sharpened from brand new to pointy perfection in about 10 seconds or less. It is quick, quiet, and oh-so-easy to use. I have shown it to a few fellow teachers who are equally impressed. The next goal is to get my principal to purchase some for us.  I love the suggestion a former colleague of mine had, which is she bought one for each table group. How cool! Kids then never have to ask to get up to sharpen a pencil and since it is so quiet & quick, having students sharpen at their table isn't distracting to others. I highly recommend this product to others!

First Day Back

Well today was my first day back with students. I LOVED using my new "clip chart" for behavior. I was so excited to see how well it worked. THANK YOU Pinterest. I was much better at enforcing my rules today with that up, plus my new classroom rules posters thanks to Mrs. Nichols at the Polka Dot Patch.   I was much more consistent when the rules and the behavior chart was right in the front of the room as a constant reminder.

Plus, I loved getting compliments on how "organized" & "nice" my room was today courtesy of all the Pinterest projects I did over summer.

Looking forward to a great year!

Twenty-five Follower Freebie

Little freebie for tonight. I just made these for my own classroom, so I thought I would share.

Classroom jobs and 24 matching student number cards (I put these in a pocket chart)

Get them at my TeachersPayTeachers store.

A second freebie, is calendar numbers which match the jobs and student numbers. I have made 31 calendar icons and a few "no school" day ones too.

These are also available at my TeachersPayTeachers store.

This Classroom is Brought to you by Pinterest & Me :)

Here are a few pics of my "detective" theme room and the final products of my Pinterest items...

 Bins where students turn their work in - spray painted black and gave new labels to match the ones I made

  Classroom storage bins inspired by Pinterest - these are back to back along side my desk - one set is for students with printer & notebook paper, math manipulatives, and clipboards; the other is for me with craft materials, extra supplies (folders, new crayons, etc.), and other odds and ends. They perfectly fit the length of my desk. :)

 Drawers where I store pens, staples, etc. - inspired by Pinterest (spray painted)

 Clipboards - courtesy of Pinterest project

 New bathroom passes - final Pinterest project for the week

 Calendar board - would you believe I did this one board the most - didn't like anything I did

 Welcome back board - the red cards have all the different things we do in 5th grade and the yellow header says "Hot on the Trail of 5th Grade Success" - all are done in a cute font called Earwig Factory which looks like ransom letters

After the first week, I will change this to "Hot on the Trail of Reading Success" with my CAFE Posters and other reading strategy posters

 "Investigating Science" board - this will change to be decorated according to the unit of science we are studying - first up is The Scientific Method"

 New Guided Reading area set up - bookshelves hold all my teacher stuff, bins on top are for each reading group's materials, pink drawers will hold pencils, highlighters, post-its, etc. for groups, and filing cabinet has graphic organizers and forms, etc. for groups, as well as book units for literature clubs

 Math Problem Solving Board above my window - cute set that went with theme "Math PSI: Problem Solving Investigators" - each poster talks about the different strategies for problem solving exactly like our math series does

Busy Worker Bee Today & Freebie

I feel like I accomplished so much today, but when I look at my still to do list it is overwhelming.

Finished list...

• Got all clipboards finished today (I definitely need more clipboards I discovered)
• Got desks arranged
• Finished all bulletin boards
• Rearranged room
• Made signs for the all the subjects for my front board for our daily schedule and objectives - keep reading for a freebie of these
• Made a clip behavior chart!
• Made CAFE signs!
• Finished lining the rest of my drawers with scrapbook paper - thank you Pinterest (I think I can now do this professionally I have done so many)

To do list...

• Spray paint draw holders - they are currently blue and I lined all the drawers with black/silver scrapbook paper so painting them all black
• Change calendar - I don't like the way it looks with everything else in my room
• Put kids' textbooks in desks and clean out cubbies from the summer
• MAYBE make a cute little curtain to cover my teacher bookshelves & cubbies?
• Get my teacher bulletin board area set up
• Set up my desk (we had our school painted over the summer so EVERYTHING got packed up)
• Make (OK edit) back-to-school PowerPoint I put up for Meet the Teacher
• Finish editing back-to-school newsletter
• Sit back, relax, and wait to meet the kiddies!

The fun news is that on my first day back to work, I get to celebrate by going to see the musical "Grease" with a bunch of family and friends and people from my dance studio. Should be lots of fun!

Freebie Time

Head on over to my Teacher Pay Teachers page and download this freebie.

There are 16 pages of cards (2 cards per page) for a variety of subjects and school events. I have also included a few blank ones so you may write on them yourselves. Please view the credit list in this document for information about the fonts used. Fonts for these documents are from

http://www.kevinandamanda.com/fonts/  and

www.helloliteracy.blogspot.com.

Clipboards Made

OK so here are the clipboards I made. I am trying to decide if I like the tape ones better or the scrapbook/mod podge ones better. If anyone has done either of these before, how well did they last? I got this really cute tape for $0.97 a roll at JoAnn's last week.

Front of tape clipboard

Back of tape clipboard

Front of scrapbook clipboards

Backs of scrapbook clipboards

I finished doing most of my drawers today, but ran out of scrapbook paper. Off to JoAnn's in the morning for some more. I got a 20% off total purchase coupon through my app today so that will help. Trying to get everything done this week since teachers go back next Wed. Going to try to finish up the room tomorrow and Friday.

Making Pinterest Projects

   Today I began making my new Pinterest inspired classroom drawers (hiding the stuff inside with the bonus of making them look cute on the outside. I also tried 2 different ways to repair old clipboards. On one I used some very cute packing tape I found at JoAnn's for $0.97 on clearance - cheap option as this barely made a dent in the tape roll. For the other two I attempted, I tried different ways to Mod Podge some scrapbooking paper on them (got a pack of 5 sheets of paper from Dollar Tree and used a 50% off coupon from JoAnn's for the Mod Podge so this was a cheap option also). I can't decide which ones I like better.

   I do know, I love the drawers and I am now going to do this with all of the drawers in my classroom. May even do them for my dance studio's drawers too. I will be adding cute new labels to the front where the old blue ones are, once my order arrives.

Quietest Pencil Sharpener Ever

I have seen a lot of teachers writing about these and I am anxious to try them out. I have so far seen only 100% positive reviews on this sharpener. Since pencil sharpening drives me crazy, I am looking forward to seeing if it truly works, but I believe it will based on my research!

Check it out by clicking on the picture or here.