Five for Fri...Sunday?! Make that seven...

Okay, I've seen other bloggers fib on the Five for Friday, and I figured I had a good excuse this time around with all the packing and grass mowing and last minute dropping off of class pets to their caretakers before my vacation, so I'm doing Seven for Sunday! Forgive me!

1. Movie Star Madness

I've been really popular this year apparently because I've had two different film crews visit my room, recorded another two interviews about mentoring student teachers and teaching reading, and had two different photographers come to take pictures...all from different organizations! I was recently sent one of the videos that I'm in that will be used to show new teachers in my district how I (and 3 other teachers from different grade levels) teach reading using a reading workshop model. Watching this video made me realize a couple things...first, that 24 pounds I've lost recently is really starting to show! I've probably lost about 10 since this video was shot. Second, my voice is not as cool sounding out loud as it is in my head. 

2. The Old Look

I figured I should make a record of what this blog looks like now, because pretty soon I'll be sporting my new look from Megan at Bird in Hand Designs! I'm next on her list, and can't wait!

3. Summer Reading!

I'm kind of ashamed to admit that I haven't read 32 Third Graders and One Class Bunny yet. But it'll be in my hands soon! Also, excited to get my copy of Teach Like A Pirate, which many blog readers will have heard of by now. I've already started Igniting A Passion For Reading, and I'm a fan. It's a little more dry than I anticipate the others to be, but there's good information here. I'm also planning to skim through my favorite read from last summer, The Book Whisperer.

4. School's Out!

I shared my End of Year gifts in a previous post, and here's my class on the last day posing for a silly picture. I thought it was a fun filled, but kind of sad day. Still, I'm super excited for both summer and next year! So many ideas for next year! I'm going to try to just relax for a little bit this summer though.

5. But...Planning will happen

And when that planning happens it'll be in my new Erin Condren planner! I'm finally biting the bullet and getting one. I know... they're expensive. Technically it's a gift from Killer B (like that matters with our shared bank account!) I've only ever heard good things, and quite frankly my 5 different calendars, 3 different to do lists, and 18 different locations for keeping those 8 things aren't working anymore for me. This is my attempt to get my crazy level of planning under control. And I am a serious planner. I went with one of the manlier designs, like the one pictured. I think this year I'm going to give up on the attempts (keyword: attempts) to be manly and embrace the side of me that just wants things in my classroom to be cute though. 

6. Vacation Time!

 So, Killer B and I have already made the awfully long drive from PA to GA. Now we just have to relax! We're visiting family in Atlanta for a bit and then heading to Savannah and Tybee Island for a week. The suitcase on the left is mine, B's is on the right. Meanwhile, our dogs have about twice as much stuff as us. 

7. Fun or no?

I've been toying with the idea of doing my own monthly linky for a bit, but all the good ones are taken! Aargh! I wish I didn't read so many blogs sometimes, because if I know someone else is doing something I can't do it because I don't want to be a copycat. Anyway, I read a site sometimes called PostSecret. Basically, people anonymously post digital postcards with a secret on them to the postsecret site. It made me think it'd be fun to have a TeacherSecret linky. I remembered that padlet.com will let people with the link post anonymous messages(without even signing up or anything!), so I set up this link as a test. 

Would people think it's fun to monthly post a secret or two about your teaching/blogging habits? I figured it'd be fun to anonymously post your secret, then link your blog up, people could try and guess which secret is yours. I would seed the board with a few starter secrets of my own so that the first few to link up aren't obvious. If you're interested, check it out! If there's any interest then I'll fancy up a new board each month and make a button and an inlinkz. 

So, that was my Seven for Sunday. Sorry for breaking the rules, but I wanted to get in a good post before vacationing kicked into high gear!

It really is that good...

I was super excited to see this box waiting for me when I got home. And inside, was something I've been eagerly awaiting. You guessed it, one of the pencil sharpeners from Classroom Friendly Supplies! 

I know a lot of people have heard of these sharpeners before, but just in case you don't own one yet...you should! It might seem kind of crazy to get excited over a pencil sharpener, but once you've used one of these you'll understand. The sharpener is crazy easy to use, and gets the pencils nice and sharp. The sharpener kind of lets you know when it's done sharpening by easing up and it won't let you keep grinding away at the pencil. Finally a solution to kids sharpening their pencils down to little nubs!

I'm really impressed with the metal body of it, how sturdy it feels, and the nice bright color. I had a decent sharpener in my old classroom that I'm leaving behind, but this one puts it to shame. 
I will more than likely buy another for my students to use, and one for my personal use. The website has a deal when you buy 3, so I'll probably go that route and have a nice gift for a fellow teacher or a future student teacher! The site takes school purchase orders too!

In other news, all of the 100 Follower Giveaway winners and runners-up have been notified and have started receiving their prizes! Congrats! I'm a third of the way to 200 now! Wow! 

End of year gifts Monday Made It, Field Day, and Summer here we come!

I love reading the Monday Made It posts, but I rarely have the time and creativity to contribute something as cool as most of them...BUT I decided to go ahead and throw in what I did make tonight anyway! 

Tomorrow is our last half-day of school! Then just one day of in-service and I'm off for summer!

So, this is what my world has looked like for the last hour or so...

These are the End-of-year gift bags I made for my students. The theme was "A Seriously Silly Year." Going to the store and buying the final pieces was the first step. Handwriting 21 notes, stuffing components into bags, and then tying them off took about 45 minutes or so. 
Inside each baggie I've placed some Silly Putty, a silly straw, a glow stick bracelet, a ring pop, a couple Jolly Ranchers, a handwritten note, and a pair of comic glasses with nose attached. We have a big end of the year assembly and a 5th grade movie to view tomorrow before the 5th graders parade through the halls on their way to the buses. I imagine my kids will love wearing these to the assembly! I usually also get my kids one of the dollar books from our Scholastic book club.

We had our Field Day today, and the kids a great time despite it having to be moved indoors due to rain. 

We basically set up a bunch of stations and then kids free roam to the different stations at their leisure! They can complete these bingo sheets by doing different activities to win prizes. This kind of field day is definitely different than others I've had at different schools. I like it though!

We have a Tug o' War Tournament as part of our field day, and I'm sad to report that my class lost every single match that we competed in! Oh well! Good thing I'm not the competitive type! 

In other news, my 100 follower giveaway is ending tomorrow! If you haven't entered yet, what are you waiting for? There are some great prizes up for grabs! And welcome to all of the new people who have started following this week too! I'm on my way to 200 now!

Perfect timing with my 100 follower celebration is the upcoming redesign of my blog, being done by Megan at A Bird in Hand Designs. I spent a good deal of time last night making some design choices, and I'm definitely getting excited about the new look! It'll be here in about a week!

Anyway, tomorrow is sure to be full of tears. It's a little bittersweet to me. It will be my last day of teaching 5th grade. I'm SUPER excited about my move to a 3rd/4th multi-age classroom, but I will definitely miss a lot of 5th grade's unique charms. Saying goodbye to your 5th graders is a lot different than kiddos of younger grades. My kids will be heading off to the middle school, so it's likely I won't be seeing them very often from now on. 

But, I'm truly excited about spending my summer stalking 3rd and 4th grade blogs, pinning 3rd and 4th grade ideas, and planning 3rd and 4th grade lessons though! If any of my 3rd/4th grade blogging buddies out there notice a must-read blog missing from my blog roll, or an awesome pinterest board I must follow, clue me in! 

Killer B and I will be visiting family in Georgia for a couple weeks soon, and we'll also be spending a dog-free week in Savannah and Tybee Island! I can't wait! And when we get back up to PA I have even bigger news to share! ;)

Whelp, off to bed to rest up for my last exciting day as a fifth grade teacher!

End of the Year Awards Ceremony and Giveaway reminder

Taking a bow after "fashion walking"
down the red carpet!

Friday was such a fun filled day at school that it really flew by! We started the morning off with our Classroom Awards Ceremony and ended with the 5th grade carnival.  

For the awards ceremony, I like to get a length of red butcher paper and "roll out the red carpet" for the students to walk down as they come to collect their awards. They usually end up dancing down the runway and high-fiving each other on their way back to their seats on either side of the paper.

Click this image to get your own set of awards!

I use my "End of Year Awards Certificates" from my TpT store. There are 48 different awards and they're all in black and white for easy printing. They feature vintage style pictures that the kids get a kick out of, and there is literally an award for everyone. The kids love having their hard work recognized with awards like "The Hypnotist Award" for the student who writes the most compelling persuasive pieces, or the "Hermione Award" for the best girl speller in the class. (Get it?!) 

But some of the awards are silly and poke a little fun at the kids. My favorites are the "Cold Seat Award" for the student who is never sitting in his/her chair, the "Tiny Bladder Award" for the kiddo who makes more trips to the bathroom than should be humanly possible, and the "Chicken Scratch Award" for the kid whose handwriting is pretty much unreadable. Of course I try to make sure that everyone gets at least one serious award and one silly one. 

I'm still excited about my 100 Follower Giveaway that is still going on! If you haven't already, be sure to scroll on down and sign up for a chance to win! I've got 4 different giveaways going on, and a runner-up will win a surprise from my TpT store, so along with the 4 prize packs, there will be 4 more winners!

Ridiculously cute.

In other news...check out my new neighbors! 

BEARS! 

These guys have been hanging out in the trees in our neighborhood for the last week or so. This city boy isn't used to seeing actual live bears living a block away from his house. You definitely don't see this living in Atlanta. Crazy! Just one of the charms of living in a sleepy college town in central Pennsylvania, I suppose!

Mama is somewhat less cute and quite a bit scarier!

Today I'll be heading up to my classroom and spending my Saturday finishing up my packing and starting the move to my new 3rd/4th grade multi-age classroom! I was SUPER lucky because the teacher who is leaving the room has already moved out and is super clean and thoughtful. She's leaving a ton of great supplies and resources too. This is a first for me. I'm used to having to dig through leftovers or scrounge for supplies in boxes in a supply closet. Pretty much every time I've moved classrooms I've inherited an empty room.

Still one and a half days to go! Monday is Field Day and Tuesday is a half day school-wide assembly...so the teaching is pretty much over for the year! Summer, here I come!

Clipart Challenge!

Several fabulous clipartists and bloggers have come together for an amazing Clipart Challenge hosted by Primary Possibilities!  Each blogger is featuring a clipartist and a product they made using that artist's images!  This is a great way to discover new clipart creators for your summer creations.   So keep reading and following the linky at the bottom to head on to the next post!  You may even pick up some freebies along the way!

I was matched up with Oddball Science! 
Click the image below to visit his TpT store!

I decided to harken back to my years as a Kindergarten and First grade teacher and make this fun little packet of Frog Life Cycle activities! His frog and wetland habitat clipart packs were a perfect fit, and the item I made is a great partner to his "Let's look at frogs" pack.

There are a lot of other unique packs to be found on Oddball Science's TpT store too, be sure to go and check him and the other clipartists in the linky out!

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Don't forget to keep scrolling down and sign up for my 100 Follower Giveaway! Lots of great products are up for grabs!

100 Follower Giveaway!

I'm pretty excited about reaching 100 followers, and I'm also pretty excited about this giveaway! I was almost overwhelmed with the response I got for donations, which was really great. I thought it made the most sense to split the donations into grade level categories. More winners that way, and hopefully people will be directed to blogs and stores that actually interest them! We've got K-12 covered here! 

The worst part of setting up a giveaway like this is seeing all the great prizes that someone else is going to win and being jealous of them! 

Seriously though, I hope you'll check out all the blogs, facebook pages and TpT stores of the people who were gracious enough to contribute. I'll also be contributing a surprise from my store to the winners and a runner-up of each of the giveaways! So even if you don't win the big prizes, you still have a chance to get a little something! So without further ado...start entering!

 a Rafflecopter giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks so much for taking part in the giveaway! 200, here we come?!

We're wrapping up the school year here! Just 3 and a half days with kids left! I'm packing my room up like crazy in preparation for my big move, and we're having lots of fun at school! I'll be back to post about all of that later this weekend!

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!