Summertime's Callin' Me!

If you're from the South, you know what real beach music is.  No, it's not the Beach Boys!  It's our own style, a laid back kind of dance music...in fact our state dance is the shag, and it can only be done to beach music.  Summertime's Callin' Me is one of my favorites, and is loaded on my ipod, along with all my other faves, so I can listen to them all the way to and from school every. single. day.  Even my daughters are requesting beach music this time of year!

I've been inspired to create a few summer-themed resources for you to use for these last few days of school, while summertime's calling all of us!

I finally finished up my Multi-Brights Mega Digital Paper I blogged about here, and you can get it here.

Tonight, I was trying to think of a way to make rounding "stick" when I came up with this:

My students love playing with these beach balls on craft sticks, and I usually have them draw me a picture of the beach and color a beach ball.  No more!  This adorable mini-unit saves lots of time (crunch time), and is reusable year after year.  Click on the picture to pick up a copy for just $2!

After all, you need to save your bucks for the beach, right?

See you shaggin' down by the sea!

Monday Made It and a FREEBIE!

I'm with Tara...just making it to school must count for something, right?  I know the kids are ready for school to be out, but honestly, I think I'm ready, too, although when I'm out, my FIFTH grader is out, and I mean really out.  Never to return.  Going to middle school.  OUT!  There's a tiny pity party in my mind now.

Really, this weekend, I made some pretty cool stuff.  I found some old shutters out by the street in my neighborhood a few weeks ago and knew they'd make the perfect privacy screen.  I spray painted them black, hinged them together, and got this:

Then I finally got around to sewing extra fabric to store-bought panel drapes for my living room.  Didn't hang them, but did make them!  They bring the blue from the left side of the living room to the very coral right side of the room.  I'll have to post a picture after hanging them - right now, they're lying on the sofa!

And I made about seven or eight new animal activities, printables, and more in individual and an Animal Mega Pack that I talked about here.

Lastly, I just about finished up a fun new digital paper pack, soon to be available on Teachers Pay Teachers.  Here's a sneak preview with a little freebie!

Have a great week, y'all!

Five for Friday on Mothers' Day???

You know, I really love Doodle Bugs Teaching's Five for Friday, but I can never get it together to post by Friday!  I've decided better late than never, right?

We've been in full swing studying animals for the past few weeks, and it's been like Wild Kingdom in my classroom.  These tiny fellas showed up - painted lady butterfly larvae:The kids have been watching them grow, change, make the "famous J shape", form their chrysalis, and I'm hoping for adults next week!

Another tiny friend grew into an adult...he was no bigger than my thumbnail, and I'm not kidding!  We had to let him and his friends go home to their pond, which, of course is their natural habitat.

We also had a temporary visit from some rescued baby groundhogs.

1. That brings me to show you a new unit I made for life cycles:

It's available at my store on Teachers Pay Teachers, or you can just click and go on the picture.

2.  Here we are observing mini-ecosystems inside hula hoops.
Click on this photo to see the activity at my store.

I was TOTALLY inspired at Sunday School last week, where I saw these, and many, many more animals...having a field trip to our state's largest zoo Tuesday, I can't wait to make these to go with our study on animal classification and characteristics!

3.  

4.  I touched and fed a giraffe!!!  My favorite animal, ever, is the giraffe, and this guy was super-friendly, not at all shy, and A-MAZ-ING!  Then I saw a kangaroo, up closer than I ever have before...If you're studying animals, try out my Animal Mega Pack.  It includes all the activities above, and many more.

 5.  Finally, my students and I hand-painted these "grow kits" for Mothers' Day.  We also made the cutest poems on paper flower pots with paper flowers, but it was SO close to the end of the day, that I couldn't get a photo before the bell!
 

Before I go, I have to tell you about a fantastic give-away at Tori's Teacher Tips.  Click on her graphic to go enter...

Happy Mothers' Day!

Whooo's Having a Teacher Appreciation SALE???

Although our school celebrated Teacher Appreciation Week early, I am so happy to be able to share my appreciation for you with a huge sale all over Teachers Pay Teachers.  All items in my store are 28% off, when you use code TAD13, and you can click the graphic below (courtesy of Megan at Teaching Superpower) to go directly to my store!

The sale is just in time for me to show off my newest products for you, as well:

I'm so excited to be able to finally be able to use my undergraduate degree in graphic design and minor in art to offer you exciting new digital classroom decor sets...

Introducing: The Chevron Classroom Digital Stationery Set!

I'll be working on more classroom decor sets soon, but be sure to stop by and pick up a bargain or two to treat yourself this week.  Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!

Testing FREEBIES!

I've read so many blog posts lately about testing anxiety, and I'm feeling it, too.  I hate to think our kiddos feel it, though, so I have a couple of freebies for you to give your class. Actually, the way I used these is, I made a deal with third grade teachers, asking them to have their students sign one card each in return for having all the second graders sign one card each.  Then we exchanged cards, so all the second and third graders will receive a card on the first day of testing, wishing each other good luck on their respective tests (they're different, in SC, from second to third grade).  You could even do that school-wide - I just couldn't coordinate all that, myself!

Click on any of the images below to go to the Google Docs FREE download of all three cards.  I left the center one "generic" for use for any test.

If you and your students are feeling the testing season stress, let me know how you're handling it at your school...I'm always looking for new ideas!

Good luck to every teacher and every student during this crazy accountability season,

Currently Prioritizing and a WINNER!

Oh, me, oh my, it's May???

This school year has literally flown right past me!  I need another nine weeks grading period to finish all the plans I had for my kiddos!  Really, we've covered just about everything in reading and writing, but the 'rithmatic?  Not quite there yet, and we're feeling the test anxiety about taking the MAP testing next week...After a slam, bam review, I have to squeeze in at least one game of circles and stars (awesome game to introduce multiplication), get on board the rounding train, and throw in some geometry.  Now how am I going to do that in four days, plus go on an extended-day field trip?  No idea...if y'all have some, lay 'em on me!

I am happy to announce that Heidi at In That Room is the winner of my Fab Forty Giveaway.  She has won four products from my TPT store.  Congratulations, Heidi!

May Day (well, really the first day of any month) means Farley's Currently Linky Party, so here are my currents:

I can hear my girls watching Victorious in the den, as I write, and although I am loving that there are only 21 days of school left, because I'm wanting to go to the beach, I'm also hating it, as you can see by the fact that I am needing more time before testing...talk about confusion!

I LOVE it that Farley added a summer bucket list this month.  It really made me think about what I want to do this summer, and to prioritize my time.  Usually, I work and take classes all summer, every summer.  I take my laptop to the pool.  I read stuff like Fountas & Pinnell at the lake and Debbie Diller on the beach.  This morning, I had the best talk with my assistant principal, though, and he reminded me that I'll never have these years back with my girlies, and that it really is okay to put my own children ahead of other people's.  That's the hardest part about being a teacher...I want to "save the world", "fix everything and everybody", and be perfect at everything I do every day in my classroom.  That's all great, except that my own family doesn't get the best, or fixed, or saved or perfection.  Y'all know what I'm talking about.  We give everything we have to the kiddos in our classes, happily, expectantly, constantly.  It's what we do.  It's why we teach.  But I have to thank Mr. Craig for reminding me that I am allowed to love those people who live at my house even more than those people who "live" in my class.  A good lesson...

Tech Tuesday Tips Weekly Linky Party

So I thought I knew a little something about technology, and would add a tech tips page to my blog, right?  It seems that no one less than a computer programming genius can get around the pages posting issue, so I'll be hosting a Tech Tuesday Tips Link-Up for now (oh well, at least I can still share a little knowledge with you, and hopefully, more tech-savvy bloggers will link up to share theirs, too)!

Today's Tech Tips from me are:
1.  Visit Megan from:
 You might already know Megan's main blog, but her "Blog, Baby, Blog" site is FULL of helpful blogging tips.  She is super-powered!

2.  Check out this list of free apps to use in your classroom.  I have it pinned, but the link is to the original website.  you can check out my Pinterest Boards here for TONS of ideas.  My"It's Elementary, Dear" board is for pretty much anything related to school, but I also have math, science, and social studies boards separate from this one...not sure why, it just seemed easier at the time.

 3.  Kids L.O.V.E. technology, so incorporate it whenever you can!  If you have laptops for each child, you are SO ahead of the ballgame.  If not, maybe you have a laptop lab, a mobile laptop cart, or some other way to get enough laptops in your room for at least partners to use.  You'll need that to be most effective.  I have four laptops for kids to use, and my personal ipad, so I often take my class to our "mini-lab", which is basically a room full of old laptops.  That said, you need to lay down the LAW about technology rules:
     A.  Keep to the "Ask Three Before Me" rule you probably already use in your classroom.  Kids go NUTS when they're using technology of any kind, and even though they may have computers at home, you'll be a raving, and possibly raging, lunatic trying to help everybody at once.
     B.  Use 4x4 inch sticky notes as "I need help" signals.  Put a sticky note beside each computer.  The notes should stay there unless the user needs you.  Then, if the three before you can't help the user, the note can be stuck upside down (so it really sticks up) on the top corner of the back of the screen.  You can choose whether or not to have your students write the problem they're having on the note, but my rule is, wait quietly and patiently after sticking your note up, and DO NOT CALL ME!  I'll get to you ASAP.  Meanwhile, minimize the "problem program" and work on another site you know how to use, like Brainpop, Accelerated Reader, www.thinkcentral.com, or anything you've already trained your kids on how to do.
     C.  Use your laptop and Promethean board, Polyvision board, Show Me on your ipad, or Smartboard to walk the kids through every single step.  This can be hard in my case, because I have Windows 7, and the kids have Windows 1, maybe (I made that up, but it's an OLD version).  Really, I just show them what my screen looks like, and point out where the differences are, so they know what to do on their laptops.  This is only really a problem in using PowerPoint, etc., for the children to publish their work via multi-media applications.

4.  Use Microsoft Publisher to make almost anything!  I read so many bloggers talk about how they use PowerPoint to create their documents, and, yes, I like it for some things, but it is SO much easier for me to use Publisher!  I can make anything in half the time, and as far as having to flip pages around in PowerPoint, it's totally not necessary in Publisher.  Just rotate your text box left 90 degrees to have some pages in portrait, and others in landscape.  Simply said, I start out in landscape, in most cases.  If I want a page to print in portrait, I insert a full page sized textbox, click on the Drawing Tools tab at the top, click on Rotate, near the right, and choose "Rotate Left 90".  Then, everything I do is sideways on the page, but that doesn't bother me, because I don't have to fool with opening two different documents at once to insert pages of different orientations.  You can also save anything as a picture, so go ahead and create those Teachers Pay Teachers preview pages right there, too.  Save the page as a picture, and viola, it's your preview!  No more cutting and pasting from program to program to get your preview.  I promise next week, I'll make my whole Tech Tip Post on using Publisher for TONS of details, screenshots, and more!

Go ahead and link up with your tech tips...we can all learn from each other that way, and I know I can learn WAY more from you than you can from me!