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!

Five for Friday, Big News and My June Goals

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching's Five for Friday for the first time! Of course I've seen lots of others link up before, but I've just never had 5 things to talk about before I guess!
So, here we go with #1!

We've been popping a balloon each day with a couple of surprises inside for the next day. This week we had a PJ day, a Rock, Paper, Scissors Tournament, played some minute to win it games, wrote thank you notes to support staff, had lunch outside, made balloon rockets, and a few other fun things. The kids are excited, and popping a balloon before we leave each day requires "excellent behavior" for that day.
And, #2!

My kids having been wrapping up what I call their "Personal Passion Projects." It's our multi-genre culminating writing project. I have the kids pick a "people problem" and then make a 'zine about their topic. They have time to research and complete control over the topic as long as it is a "people problem." They make some pretty killer end-products, and their presentations about their 'zines are usually pretty awesome too. My kids this year have chosen topics like dog fighting, breast cancer, frakking, modern slave labor, etc. 
Here's a freebie copy of the rubric I give them. Most of the kids are so excited about their topic that they go overboard and work on it at home as much as at school!
#3!

I decided to take this ol' blog up a notch! I have been pretty proud of my patchwork self-made blog design that I've had going on here for the last couple months, but I think it is time for an upgrade! So I've sought the help of A Bird in Hand Blog Designs! Many of my favorite blogs have been designed by her, so I'm going to challenge her with designing a blog for a man (who's only kind of manly) that teaches elementary! I'm on the list for an upgrade in mid-June! I can hardly wait!
A linky within a linky for #4!
I'm linking up with I {heart} Recess for her June Goals linky! Here are my goals!

And the BIG one for #5!

An opening appeared in our school for an intermediate teacher, and I put in my request for it a while back. My principal has honored my request to change grade levels! 
I'll be moving to a 3rd and 4th grade multi-age class next year! I got to meet next year's 3rd graders today!
Before moving to 5th grade last year to fill the spot of a teacher who moved, I had previously taught K, 1st and 2nd for the previous ten years. 5th grade has its charms, but my heart is with the younger grades. I think 3/4 will be a really great fit for me and the science and social studies units we teach in intermediate here are awesome. The units change every other year. Next year we'll be teaching Africa, Japan and Festival of the Arts for Social Studies. Ecosystems, Air/Weather/Aviation, and Energy and Electricity will make up Science! I taught a Japan unit for years in GA as part of 2nd grade and I think it is probably my favorite unit ever.
I am beyond excited about the move. Learning two grade levels worth of curriculum and teaching two grades at the same time will be interesting, but I taught a 1st/2nd multi-age class for the 5 years before I moved to 5th so I know I can handle it. 
So now I need to go find about a hundred boxes to pack up my classroom, AND I get to dig through my spare bedroom and pick out all of the things from my 2nd grade boxes that I think I will be able to use with my thirdies! 
So, any exciting changes coming for the rest of you out there?

Tried it Tuesday and What I'll do differently!

I've got two this time!
So, I've tried the old shaving cream on the desk routine before, but not with 5th graders until today. 

 As I somewhat anticipated, some of the kids took it a step further than they needed to. Before I knew it these three had smeared the shaving cream all over their faces to make beards. Usually I'd cover my kids' faces on here, but that would have defeated the purpose of this picture, so I got permission for this one. The kiddo in the middle told me he was Santa Claus and that "he sees me when I'm sleeping." It cracked me up so much because it was SUPER creepy when he said it and he wasn't trying to be creepy. 

So, my second one is my Human Body Systems lapbook activity. The kids have been studying the human body for the last few weeks and we've been keeping KLEW charts inside the flaps. 

We learn about a new system every couple days. I've been doing a series of cool experiments, watching Brainpop clips, reading informational texts, and of course having class discussions to go along with the lapbooks.  The kids have learned a lot and have come up with a lot of great wonderings. I think the best part of the lapbook has been that they've got a place to record their wonderings.

Find the lapbook in my TpT store:

Finally, I'm linking up with the brand new "What will you do differently?" linky from joyin6th! 

I was a little late to the party when it comes to using task cards in my classroom, I think. Though I think I'm the only teacher in my school who uses them. Reading a thousand blogs has its advantages I suppose! I've blogged before about how I've used task cards to great effect since I learned about them, and I'm looking forward to making a set of them for all of the math units I'll be teaching next year. I want to use them throughout the year as part of my math workshop. They make a great independent center.

In other unrelated life news, I'm officially down 17 pounds since I started trying to lose weight 6 weeks or so ago! I'm pretty excited. It's crazy how I don't even crave or want some of the bad foods that I used to snack on with reckless abandon. I'm looking to make even more progress over the summer!
I've also got a bunch of great TpT products in the works that I'm super excited about. One of the big ones is one I'm working on collaboratively with my brother! He's a high school English teacher in GA, and also happens to be an awesome artist. I've told him all about the unexpected success I've seen with my TpT store and he has decided to set one up himself  for his secondary lit resources and to start working on clip art! The stuff he's made me for my current project is just ridiculously good and I see lots of cha-chings in his future as a clip artist. 
Whelp, 9 days of school to go! Still trying not to be too jealous as I read everyone else's posts about summer!

Social Studies Mentor Text Linky

I know, two posts in a day is taboo...but they're both short ones!

I'm linking up with Collaboration Cuties' Mentor Text Memo Linky. This week they're looking at historical fiction texts. 

When I was a kid the biggest fad in books were these fun and weird "Choose your own adventure" books. I think I must have read 30 or 40 of them. I still have some in my classroom now! I loved reading through and seeing all the different endings. 

Well, some smart people have taken this idea and applied it to historical fiction! 

I read this one on Colonial America to my kids earlier this year and they loved it. I have several books from the series. Each book comes with 3 or 4 different stories from that era. They have these books for everything from Ancient Egypt to the Titanic. 

Usually the kids beg me to "go back in time" and read the story over again from the last choice...just like I did as a kid. 

The stories in the books are interesting, accessible, and historically accurate. I'll definitely be looking to add more of these to my library in the future. 

Check out some of the other books in the linky! I see some of my other favorites there already!

Helping Moore, OK

I know a lot of you out there have already hit up the ridiculously good deal over at Teacher's Notebook, but in case in you haven't yet, you should! I have been going through and downloading just the 3rd-5th grade stuff that has been donated and it is truly amazing how much good stuff there is. Of course, that's the bonus to the fact that you'll be helping to assuage some of the devastation in OK with your monetary donation. 

I started selling on TpT in earnest on March 1st of this year, and I have to say that I am thrilled with how successful my store has become. I had no idea how it would work out, so I feel truly blessed. In an effort to do a little more and offer up something in exchange for donations, I'm putting my 10 Math Games for $10 bundle into a mix of bundles that people will be donating the profits from on Monday, Memorial Day. To make it easier I'm going to cover TpT's cut too and just donate $10 for each one sold to The Red Cross. 

While I was checking out Teacher's Notebook I decided to go ahead and start a shop there. I've only put a couple items up there now, but I think I'll add more. I have to admit, I'm kind of partial to Teachers pay teachers, myself. But I know some people prefer TN, so any Math Bundle sales from there on Monday will go towards my donation as well!

I'll be back this week to share some of the fun things we're doing for the last 10 days of school! We've still got lots of learning and fun ahead of us!

Workshop Wednesday - Reading Response

I'm linking up with Workshop Wednesday from Ideas by Jivey again! This week's topic is how we get our kids to respond to their reading.

One of the big things I do is have my kids keep a reading response journal that they must write to me in each and every week. In fact, we count it as part of their "Write about Reading" during our Daily 5 rotations.

A rubric is included for the kids to make sure that they include everything they should. I ask them to briefly summarize their reading in one paragraph and then write two more paragraphs that include a thoughtful response. The kids have a ton of options to include in their response, and the most common ones are included in a list on the other side of their rubric. 

I read, score (using the rubric) and respond to each of the letters each week. This can be time consuming, but I really value doing it. It's almost like having another reading conference with the kids. I learn a lot about their understanding by reading what they've written, and it often gives me ideas about what to talk about with them during their next conference. 

I compiled my reading response journal materials in this handy packet that's available on my TpT store! Check it out!

Jivey may have had her last day of school, (I'm making my jealous eyes even though you can't see them) but I've got 13 days to go!

I try to make the last bit of school bearable for myself and the kids by doing a little something fun each day. We've been using my 32 End of Year Activities to help do that. I do the tried and true "hang balloons from the ceiling with an activity inside" for each of the last days of school. I'll be posting about some of the fun activities we're doing in the next couple weeks!

Check out my activity cards in my store! Just a buck!

Grants, and uncomfortable parent night, and clovers, oh my! Plus a "squach" for fun.

 Our school has been awarded 3 grants this month! 

The first is money that will allow our school to continue our inquiry into expanding our inclusive practices as part of our Membership, Participation and Learning initiative. I wrote in detail about MPL in a previous post. It truly has been a great thing for our kids, and I'm excited that our school will be expanding it into 3rd and 4th grade next year. 

The second grant is one I wrote to participate in a program called "PA Trout in the Classroom." As part of the program I will be outfitted with a HUGE 60 gallon aquarium and all the materials to insulate and keep it chilled so that I can raise trout right in my room. The trout eggs will arrive this October and will hatch (hopefully!) and then be released into the wild once they reach a certain size. I think it'll be a great chance for the kids to see a life cycle in action.

I didn't have anything to do with the 3rd grant, but it is really cool. Our school has been donated 20 bicycles so that the PE teacher can teach bicycle safety to kids as part of PE! Also, we got a visit from a pro BMX X Games winner, Jamie Bestwick! Here's a picture of him right before he jumped his bike over our principal and two teachers!

On another note, in my district we teach a Human Body unit in science in 5th grade. As a part of the unit we teach the reproductive system...and are required to hold a parent night where  we show the materials we use (all over 20 years old), and answer parent questions. It's always a kind of awkward evening. Most of the parents wish we were allowed to teach more than we are. We have to inform them that we pretty much just name the parts. No talk of safe sex, STDs, etc. is allowed in school, so it's on the parents to teach that. I'm glad to have the parent night over for this year!

Before the parent night tonight I accompanied Killer B while she took our younger German Shepherd tracking. Tracking is just one aspect of the sport she does with the dogs. And unfortunately, it's kind of the most boring. While I followed along I was looking at the ground and was pretty psyched to find this 5-leaf clover!

Well, that was just the tip of the iceberg. As I walked along I ended up finding another 10 four leaf clovers. All within a 30 minute span of time! Too bad some joker already won that $600 million powerball! Dang it. I tape all the 4 leaf clovers I find to preserve them. Up until today I only had 4 that I keep in my wallet. Some of these are too big for that. I'll have to find a place to keep them. Maybe this means something good will happen soon.

And just for the heck of it, here's a random Sasquatch statue Killer B and I came across out in mid-western Pennsylvania this past Saturday! To give you an idea of how big it is, I'm 6'1" tall.

I know everyone's hearts are heavy with the news from Oklahoma these past couple of days. Hopefully this post brought some levity. Our prayers are definitely with the people struggling with this disaster, and I hope yours will be too.