Philly Fun and another visit from the Terrible Trivium!

So I survived the longest day of school so far in my career! Last Friday morning I arrived at school at 4:45 AM and began greeting my students around 5AM. By 5:30 we were all loaded on the bus and had begun the long journey to Philadelphia! Later that night, I handed over my last student into the loving arms of her father. It was 10:00 PM. That was a 17 hour school day!

I think the kids really enjoyed themselves. I think they were more excited about the gift shops, the bus ride and eating fast food at a truck stop than they were about the Liberty Bell though!

They did me proud by answering all of the National Park Ranger's questions in Independence Hall! Their behavior was excellent, and no one got lost! All in all, I have to say it was a successful trip!

I only slept til 11 in the morning the next day too!

George W. was a big dude. The life-size statues in the constitution center were a huge hit with the kids.

On a more sour note...I had to spend an hour after school preparing my classroom for a visit from the Terrible Trivium. Tomorrow begins our week of state standardized testing for Reading and Math. Like in most states, I'm required to take down or cover up all of my posters, student work, etc. I think it really makes the room look awful. All the butcher paper hanging on the walls makes the room look disorganized. I have to believe it affects the moods and thinking of my students.

Either way, we'll work our way through this week's tests and then be done for the year! We're also still reading Wonder, starting a new list of Greek/Latin roots, and studying our Westward Expansion unit. The kids love all of those things, so they'll be a nice relief in between the morning and afternoon tests each day. We're getting close to the first part in Wonder where I think kids might cry. I hope I can hold it together while I read it!

In TpT news, I finally finished up a game to help review telling time and practicing elapsed time. It's another "I have, who has?" game. I like to have the kids play these in a small group during math workshop. Both games come bundled together for $3! Check it out here by clicking the cover picture:

My kids love the "steampunk" look of the victorian pocket watches.

Finally, another great piece of news is that the weather here has finally gotten reasonably Spring-like! There's nothing better than breaking out my Vespa and riding it around the countryside here in central PA on a slightly warm evening. I'm so excited to be able to start riding to work again now. You can't beat 74 mpg!

Not a whole lot of entries on my recent giveaway!  :(  Sign up, it's ending soon! 

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Happy Easter and new Math games

I've been enjoying my Easter weekend thanks to the upswing in the weather around here. We finally broke into the high 40s and low 50s! That's Vespa weather!

Killer B and I will be visiting her elderly aunt later today for Easter dinner. And then I get tomorrow off due to having collected enough "trade hours!" I spent some time yesterday classing up and compiling three of my fun math games for my TpT store. Check them out!

These are "I have, who has" games for practicing the conversion of customary units of measure. I have a game for length, weight and capacity. I've also put all three into a bundle for $5.

The cards are fun because they play off of the kids' love of anything with a mustache on them. For example, "I have 3ft. I mustache(picture), who has 24 inches given in feet?" 

I've included some of my custom made mustache clip art to print off and use as pencil toppers. I have my kids write the basic conversions on the back of the mustaches and they can peek at them if they need to. I think making the activity fun and memorable with the mustaches helps them remember the conversions.

I've also bundled the games here!

In other TpT news, I was super excited to reach my goal yesterday! Woohoo! 

Check out my Peer Editing Freebie in last Friday's post if you haven't already! And we're on our way to a 50 Follower giveaway! Everyone have a great Easter!

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!