I've Currently got a 5 for Friday post going!

I'm linking up to Doodle Bugs Teaching's Five for Friday, and my Number 1 is Farley's Currently!

Listening - I just finished up watching the season finale of The Hero. It's a reality show. When one contestant was asked what a hero is his answer was "an educator." Loved that part, but the final winner was super disappointing to me. Sigh. Moving on...

Loving - I finally started playing Candy Crush Saga and it is kind of addicting. There's nothing worse than waiting to get another life or a stinkin' ticket to move to the next set of levels... Also, I'm wrapping up my summer vacation this weekend... 

Thinking -  Even though school isn't back in session til the 20th, I have a weeklong workshop on teaching about energy at Penn State that I'm being paid to attend every day next week, all day long...and then it'll be back into the classroom to start setting up!

Wanting - I feel like I write down two things on my to-do list for every thing I cross off!

Needing - I have 12 years and now 6 grade levels worth of files on my computer...'nuff said?

B2S must haves - I've talked before about the need for a huge classroom library. I've been working on weeding out "older content" books and filling in with some 3rd/4th favorites this summer.

I use my document camera every single day, usually in several ways. I got it through donorschoose.org!

The biggest thing you need for back to school is a plan! I find it's better to plan twice the activities you think you need!

Number 2 - Followers, Blog & TpT

This week I saw my store followers shoot up! I'm just a few away from 400 TpT followers, and I just exceeded 400 bloglovin' followers! I'm so grateful and so excited to see both of these grow! I'd love to have more of you join me on instagram and facebook though! Click on my little social media buttons to head in the right direction! You wouldn't want to miss out on FB only sales or freebies, right?! And if you're not on instagram then you missed out on my recent picture of a hot blonde on the beach... Okay, it was me back in college for Throwback Thursday ;)

Number 3 - TV Marathons

In the summer I become a crazy night owl. I mean like going to bed when the sun comes up type night owl. Netflix isn't helping. I've watched literally 30 episodes of Mad Men in the last week. And I'm usually working on my computer, reading blogs, etc at the same time. How am I going to fit it all in starting next week?! 

Number 4 - Intern

In PA starting next year, college kids have to choose between being certified Pre-K through 4th (Elementary) OR 4th through 8th (Middle School). I think this is stupid. I'm certified Nursery through 6th grade, and while not all schools are this way, the majority of elementary schools here at K-5th and NOT departmentalized. So, for example, there are going to be a bunch of 5th grade teachers out there who are getting middle school degrees and specializing in social studies(or something else) who are going to student teach in middle schools, then have to teach math, reading, etc. with no preparation and no experience in elementary at all.

Anyway, because of this change I thought that I would not be able to have an intern this year because 5th grade teachers can't mentor elementary student teachers anymore. Then I got moved to 3rd/4th, but all the mentors/interns had already been paired up. Well, I was recently contacted by the head of the program with an opportunity to take an intern whose mentor has moved, and I'm super excited! I take mentoring super serious, but that's a post for another day!

Number 5

I just wanted to show off a TpT product if that's okay! I'm in a unique situation where I'm going to be teaching cursive to kids who have never learned it at all, and have kids who have a year of experience with it. I only want to put ONE alphabet up on my wall, and usually I'd put a cute cursive one up with a picture to match each letter. 

But then I figured, kids know what a Z is in 3rd grade. They know it goes /z/ like in zebra. But they may NOT be able to match it up to its cursive counterpart! So I made my combined alphabet! I've already printed and laminated one for my room! 

It's just $2.00 in my store! That's better than the two cans of pork and beans you could buy with that. They might both last 30 years, but you'll get more use out of the alphabet! And I threw in some nameplates I made too!

July Currently!

Today I'm linking up to Farley's July Currently! It's early, but I'm still probably the 50th one on the list!

Here goes:

Listening: I've probably heard that "Thrift Shop" song 5 times in the last two days, and every single time I hear that 'cha-ching' sound in the middle of the song I get excited...then saddened when I realize it isn't my TpT app going off after all! The song still trips me out though. Thrift Shop was my style back in high school, and I literally wore my grandad's clothes all time! Here is an ancient picture of me in my grandfather's old green leather jacket with yellow piping. Sweet, right?!

Loving: Savannah has this store called The Peanut Shop where you can taste test like a million different flavors of peanuts. Killer B let me visit the shop twice on this trip, and on the second visit I bought myself some delicious dark chocolate covered cashews. I've dedicated myself to only eating a few each day though!

Thinking: Despite being on vacation, my mind is still full of ideas for my new classroom theme, freebies and other TpT items I want to finish and "pretty up," and of course my potentially flooded basement. I've hit the point where I just figure if it flooded, it flooded. Not much I can do about it now!

Wanting: I know it's cliched, but I can hardly believe it's pretty much July and the whole first month of Summer vacation is over. I have a week long workshop at Penn State the first week of August, and then shortly after that I'll need to start working on my classroom and prepping for the new year!

Needing: Yesterday Killer B and I got BURNED. It hurts sooo bad. Just trying to fall asleep last night was a challenge, and this morning I could hardly walk! Aargh, darn sun.

Tip: This is a tip for myself, but figured others might need it too. I need to remember that I don't have to do everything myself. I'm a natural DIY'er, but sometimes what you need is already out there. My new Erin Condren planner (which should be waiting for me at home!), Jivey's units, some classroom decor I just bought, and the pre-made classroom mailboxes I'm planning to buy are all good examples. Sometimes I need to let others do things for me, and then spend more time on the stuff I LIKE to make. 

Enjoy reading all the other fun Currentlies! There should be DAYS of reading there for you!

Monday Made It, June Currently and 100 Follower Giveaway Soon!

First, I'm linking up with 4th Grade Frolics' Monday Made It linky!

So my Monday Made It is actually something I've been working on for a while with the help of my brother, but I did finish it today. I'm a big fan of old movie monsters, and one night I was trying to fall asleep and I had a thought...why not have Monster Math Fights? So I came up with this:

 Basically, this is a bracketed tournament of "monster battles." Each day two movie monsters will do "battle" by solving math problems. There are 32 different monsters!

For this first tournament, each battle consists of 5 rounds of 2-digit addition problems (with and without regrouping). The monster with the highest sum for each round, wins that round. The monster with the most rounds won, moves on to the next battle!

There are 31 battles in the tournament, with 10 math problems on each battle worksheet. That's 31 days (310 problems) of fun math practice! 

These worksheets could be used as morning work, small independent math group work, or as a fun way to start off math each day.

Full color monster cards are included to post on your board so students know who will be doing battle that day. A blank bracket, and a tournament key bracket are included as well!

Students are really motivated by this activity, and have begged for more tournaments in the future! I'm planning to make more with different math skills.

This activity is Common Core aligned too!
CCSS.Math.Content.2.NBT.B.5
CCSS.Math.Content.2.NBT.B.6

Find the first of my Monster Battle sets here on my TpT store:

The Monster Clip Art I used is courtesy of Peter Reitz (my bro!) and can be found here:

Even though I'm late to the party, I figured I'd throw out my June Currently, from Oh'Boy 4th Grade! Click on my currently, to head over to Farley's blog to see the others!

Finally, I'm at 99 followers! Woohoo! I'm preparing for a 100 follower giveaway! If you're willing to donate something for the giveaway then head on over to my googledoc sign up sheet:

Click here to sign up to donate!

It has been a crazy busy week! This is our final full week of school, but we also have Field Day next Monday and then a half day next Tuesday! Meanwhile, I'm busy packing up my classroom and getting all of my other end of year stuff done! I'm hoping to be back later this week with an update on some of our fun activities...and maybe if one more lovely person out there stumbles this way, a 100 follower giveaway!

May Currently and Tweet Board pic!

I'm linking up to Oh' Boy 4th Grade's Currently Linky! Click the image to visit her blog!

Listening - I've been working my way through the entire series of Scrubs seasons on Netflix. I usually put it on in the background while I'm working on my computer. I never watched it on TV, but it's a pretty funny show. I switch it up with Eureka now and then too.

Loving - In my school we group the kids for math, and on my team I teach the students who typically work at a slower pace and struggle with math. I love helping these kids, but sometimes their level of participation is a bit low, and admittedly it can be draining sometimes. We have decided to switch back to teaching our homeroom kids for the last 6 weeks of school though, and this past week I was able to do my math workshop with my homeroom kids for the first time. They LOVED it, and the mix of kids was really nice. I'm able to differentiate with the groups, so it still works for the different levels. Math just seems to fly by now for both me and the kids.

Thinking - I've got a decent list going for fun, quick and cheap ideas to do with the kids but am still looking for more!

Wanting - I feel like the household chores are really piling up and not all getting done! Now that the grass is growing, we've planted our garden and it's nice enough to go outside, it seems like there are more chores than usual and less time to get them all done!

Needing - I've been working on a Human Body lap book for my upcoming science unit that is almost done, and I've been writing a novel unit for a fun book called Fake Mustache by Tom Angelberger that is nearly complete!

Summer Bucket List - I've got a big list of things to do this summer, but one of the biggest is our upcoming trip to Savannah, GA and Tybee Island, GA. It's our favorite vacation spot, and I'm looking forward to some stress free relaxation!

I had a request to share the Tweet Something Sweet board in my room. I heard about this idea from a teacher in my school, and thought it was perfect for this blackboard in the back of my room that I never use. The kids can take one of the bird cut-outs and write a "tweet" on it whenever they'd like to compliment a classmate. We wipe the board clean every once in a while and the kids get to take their tweets home. Here's what it looks like:

The birds add a bit of color to what would otherwise be a big unused black rectangle on the wall. It's so great to see the kids light up when they notice a new tweet under their name!

April Currently

I'm linking up to the April Currently from Oh' Boy 4th Grade!

I think mine are pretty self-explanatory this time around! But here goes:

Listening: I'm a big fan of the Office, and after the last episode with Dwight's family singing that weird song at the end, Killer B couldn't get it out of her head. We finally downloaded it from iTunes.

Loving: I've been playing video games since they were invented. I still make time to veg out and play a video game even now. Since I had today off, I got to squeeze in a couple hours of play time! Good stuff!

Thinking: I can not stop stressing out about our trip on Friday. Taking 100 kids between 4 teachers, 3 interns, and a handful of parents to Philly for the day will be both exciting and stressful. Add in the 4 hours on the bus (a charter thank goodness) both ways and it's going to be the longest day of school known to man.

Wanting: I'm ready for all those things. And none are coming! Boo. hiss.

Needing: I'm SO behind on laundry it isn't even funny. I literally own 35 polo shirts of different colors and like 8 pairs of khakis. And none of them are clean. Sometimes I'm a little jealous of the variety women teachers have at their disposal for dressing for work.

Advice: My advice might be obvious. If you're making stuff for TpT, stick to stuff you can use in your own classroom. It's more authentic that way, and that way even if you don't sell it, you can use it for years to come. Everything in my store is stuff I use or used for years (for the K-2 stuff).

And that's it for me! What's everyone else up to? 

Currently in March

So, for a while I've been reading others' blogs and I've always seen the fun "Currently" posts that originate from Oh' Boy 4th Grade and now I get to do my own!

I'm a little to the party this month, but here goes anyway:

Listening - I'm a fan of 1940's music, especially jazz, and Billie Holiday is one of my all time favorites.

Loving - Wonder by R.J. Palacio is one of the best books I've read in a while, and I'm an avid reader. This is going into my rotation of books that I'll read with my kids every year.

Thinking - We have our state standardized writing tests this upcoming week. I feel like I've done my best to prepare my students, but I'm still dreading them. I hate having to sit there and watch the kids do formulaic writing to a prompt for hours on end, for 3 days. 

Wanting - A big mug of coffee and a donut would be great right now. I can remedy the coffee problem, but the donut is not worth driving to the store for. Alas!

Needing - My wife and I have a horrible habit of eating out, getting take-out or eating from a package. We haven't been blessed with any kids to feed, so it's usually just easier to grab something for two than it would be to cook for two. Still, we really need to stop!

Like/Love/Hate - I like new teaching blogs that I can add to my list to read. Nothing bums me out more (okay maybe some things) than seeing my little Google Reader App displaying "0 new items" to read.

I love a good novel. I read more than is probably good for me, and I've usually got 3 to 4 books going at once. It's a real problem. 

I hate this winter weather! It's time to end! I typically ride my Vespa pretty much everywhere I go, but for months it's been too cold. We've been teased with warm weather this weekend, and I can't wait for it to warm up enough to ride again.

So...time to go make that coffee and smash an english muffin into a donut shape! So long for now!