Daily Five- a refresher!

Now that the school year is almost over (7 days here!), I've heard from lots of teacher friends via e-mail who have questions about how I do Daily Five in my class.  I just wanted to do a quick Daily Five refresher.

Soooo... click on the picture below to see all of my Daily Five posts.  You can even get that freebie on one of the posts!  :)

Happy Monday!

Luna Winner!

My first giveaway using Rafflecopter was a success!  Congrats to #121 Lynnea!  I've sent you an e-mail address, so be looking for it!

I'm STUFFED after a tasty cookout at my parents' house!  I'm ready to spend the rest of the night watching TV and mentally preparing for school tomorrow.  8 days left!

Top Teachers SALE-a-bration!

Happy Memorial Day weekend!  I'm joining up with lots of other bloggers to offer 20% off in my TpT and TN stores today, tomorrow, and I'm extending it until Tuesday.  Enjoy 20% off everything... that means my classroom theme packs are only $8.00 for those of you looking for some cute items to spruce up your room next year!  You can find more sales at the linky party over at A Cupcake for the Teacher.

Hope you're all enjoying your long weekend!

My TpT shop          My Teacher's Notebook shop

Classroom Things I Can't Live Without... a linky party!

Kelley over at Teacher Idea Factory is hosting her first linky party and it's great for the end of the year, since we're all thinking about ways to be better in our classrooms next year!

Not only does this linky appeal to my love of perfecting my craft in the classroom... but it's also giving me ideas of ways to SHOP!

So, here are my favorite resources that I couldn't live without in my classroom... clicking on the picture for each one will take you to the vendor site so you can check them out if you want to!

1.) My Mimio Pad!  I love this thing!  We use it all day long, every day.  I was fortunate enough to have one sent to me after my proposal was funded on Donor's Choose and then the parent group at my school bought one for everybody else too!  If you aren't familiar with a Mimio Pad, it acts as a portable mouse.  You can control anything on the computer from anywhere in the room.  This, coupled with my document camera, has made my overhead projector and transparency film obsolete!  Not only that, but my students LOVE the Mimio Pad.  We use it for everything!

2.)  My rug!  This was another item funded for me on Donor's Choose.  I love that it gives us a clear area for group work, my students each have an "assigned" spot, and the squares give boundaries for bodies and personal space.  We do most of our learning here together on the carpet.  Love it!

3.)  My daily organizing bins from Lakeshore!  These live behind my desk and store the things I need for each day of the week.  It makes keeping materials together a cinch and I can *usually* find everything I need!  I am a planner and this helps me be able to plan things in advance (ie. projects and other things), toss them in the bin for the day I want to use them in a week or so, and then know right where to find it!  With 8 days of school left, it's way too messy behind my desk for me to let you see my actual bins... here's the stock photo from the Lakeshore website!  :)

4.) Daily Five.  Can I say that?  It isn't really a resource, but it has really changed and intensified reading instruction in my classroom.  This past year was my third year using Daily Five and my 2nd using CAFE too and I love it.  So do my students!  I've done loads of blog posts about Daily Five and CAFE.  Click those links to see loads of pictures and find out more about it in my classroom.

5.) Last... I would say my books.  My classroom books are among my most prized possessions.  When my school caught on fire in August 2008, my classroom was destroyed from water damage and all of my possessions were trashed.  The clean-up crew did salvage my books... which was AMAZING as I have a huge collection.  Reading and teaching reading is my favorite thing and I am very proud of my classroom library and my own personal collections of books that I use for teaching.  Here's a snapshot of part of my classroom library.  Oh... and my gutted classroom after the fire... just for kicks!

What are your favorite classroom resources?  Head over to Teacher Idea Factory and link up to share!

Memorial Day Giveaway!

 Happy three day weekend!

I have one last giveaway up my sleeve from Learning Resources.

Remember this box?

Well, it's time for the last item... the Luna Interactive Projection Camera! FYI- that is not me below... I've been wanting to blog about this, but keep forgetting my camera at home!

We've been using this in my classroom and it's great!  I have a document camera provided by the school, but one thing I especially love about the Luna is that it has a light, which mine does not.  The images are so clear and bright on the screen and we love that!

This little gem just pops out of the box, plugs in to your USB port, and installs easily in minutes.  Then, you open the software it comes with, place something under the head, and... it's instantly projected on to your board or projection screen!

You can easily zoom in just by moving the arm closer to your document or items you are showing off.  And... not only can you project objects and documents, but you can use this to record too!  I haven't tried that yet, but I think students would love recording themselves reading and then watch the video back!

The best part is how affordable the Luna is!  It's under $200.00 and is a great tool for the classroom!

Learning Resources has proven time and time again what a wonderful company they are for providing high quality resources for teachers at good prices and they have SO supported the blogging community by sending bloggers these items to test out!  Well, they have not disappointed... they are also allowing me to give away a Luna to one of my lucky bloggy friends!

All you have to do is enter by Rafflecopter, which I'm trying for the first time... just leave a blog comment, like Learning Resources on Facebook, and follow my TpT store.  You can do as many or as few of those as you would like for a total of 3 entries!

a Rafflecopter giveaway


The winner will be chosen on Memorial Day.

Want more info on the Luna?

Learning Resources website
Read reviews for the Luna on Amazon
Find Learning Resources on Twitter

End of the Year Memories Freebie

I am so TIRED!  We spent the day at a historic (an historic?) one room school house and then to the fruit farm!  I'm burnt and tired, but it was super fun.  And I got the last of the pictures I needed to finish my end of the year movie... which is being burnt onto a test DVD right now!!!!!!!

The fabulous most teeny tiny teacher, Kristin, wondered what songs I included... well, I would never want to violate copyright laws by including music I don't have the rights to... but... if I DID include songs, I suppose I would have things like "Hoedown" for our first day of school pics (Western theme and all), Chuck Berry's "School Days" and the Jackson 5's "ABC" for classroom stuff, Bruno Mars' "Count on Me" and "You've Got a Friend in Me" from Toy Story for other stuff... possibly "Thriller" for Halloween, "Jingle Bells" by the Glee cast for Christmas, ELO's "Beautiful Day" and Jack Johnson's "We Are Gonna Be Friends" might also be included.  I would probably also add some instrumental stuff like "Chopsticks", "In the Hall of the Mountain King", maybe some "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies" for holiday stuff and also the Green Lantern theme... the version from the movie "Kill Bill" is a good one.

So... there's my two cents!  ;)

Yesterday I took in the pictures of each kid that I didn't use for the scrapbooks that I made and they had to pick their favorite one and write about the memory of that day for one last hallway display.

Here's a picture of how they turned out.

They had so much fun looking through them and sharing pictures with friends.  It got me super excited about actually giving them their scrapbooks!

You can get your own copy of the writing paper below!  This could be a nice keepsake for your kiddos too, if you're looking for a quick end of the year gift... possibly a framed picture and a piece of outstanding writing to go with it!  :)

I'll be back around this weekend!  Have a good Friday!

My End of the Year Gift for My Kiddos...

This is my 6th year teaching and each year, I have made my students a sort-of-scrapbook as an end of the year gift.  I can't take credit for the idea... my fabulous first principal's daughter's 2nd grade teacher (did you follow that?) made them and my principal thought it was up my alley so she showed me and I've been doing it ever since!

It takes a while, but I do a little bit each month when I scrapbook and then at the end of the year, it's just a matter of cropping and sticking the pictures.

Tonight I got them DONE DONE DONE... well, except for the spot on the front of each where the class photo needs to go.  It's hard to get everyone at school on the same day!  I'm hoping that will happen tomorrow and I'll be able to get someone to take our picture so I can print and finish them this weekend while I'm wrapping up our end of the year DVD.

Anyway... here are the pictures for one of my kiddos.  The big space on the front is for the class photo which, as you now know, is impossible to take.  And the big white splotch is where I edited out the rest of this friend's name.  I use a big scrapbooking letter for their first initial and then finish their name with colorful stickers.  Everyone gets different stickers and big letters (whatever "leftovers" I have from my own projects) and they love seeing everyone's names!

We're working on an end of the year memory book right now, which I bind inside each one of these.

Making these was especially fun as I had half of these kids last year too... wow have they grown!  It's fun to look at the pictures and see where teeth grow in and baby fat goes away... these are such big kiddos now!

When I get invited to my first high school graduations in 2017, I hope I see these out from when I had my first class of 2nd graders in 2007!

I'm linking up with Courtney at Swimming Into Second... can't wait to see what everyone else is doing for their sweeties!

12 Days Left and 1000 Facebook Fans FREEBIE... KITES!!

How did THAT happen?  How are there 12 days?  How?!  Please tell me!!!!!

We're gearing up for a fun week...

Wednesday is KITE DAY!

AND... thank you for following me on Facebook!  This morning I hit 1,001 followers!  :)

To celebrate, I'm sharing my Kite Day activities with you... click the picture of the page below!  It's just a few things... but I love kite day!  I do it every year.  We read kite books, talk about safety and history, and make our own paper kites that really do fly- there's a link to the kite directions I use in the packet below!  This year I'm so excited that my 1st grade teacher friends are going to do Kite Day with me!  You friends are the best!

Here are my last year's kiddos flying their paper kites... we actually use straws instead of wooden skewers (I think that's what the directions call for).  And it works great!

Thursday we're going on a field trip.  One of the perks for my kiddos of being in a split class is that they get to go to both grade levels' field trips!  Last week we went to camp and it was SO fun!  We made pet rocks, brushed donkeys, made s'mores, did a nature hike and silly camp songs.  This week the 2nd grade field trip is to a local stone school to experience the past in the one-room school house and then we're going to a fruit farm for a day of talking about plants in the spring.

On Friday, I'm taking the day off.  It's not all fun and games for me- doctor appointment in the morning and then the rest of the day is my own!  Now, before you go and think I'm just skipping out... I'm using a comp day that I've been saving all year for just the right moment.

With 12 days left, that moment is now!  HA!

If you download my tiny tiny kite pack, I'd love to hear about it!

Yesterday I never got around to working on my end of the year gifts (the file folder picture was the hint!) but I did get totally caught up on the end of the year DVD I make every year!  All I have left to do is add the Kite Day and field trip pictures!  Whoot whoot!

I'm going to attempt to work on some of the file folder goodness now... wish me luck!

Winner Alert! And Another SUPER Giveaway!

Well, friends, the dreaded stomach flu hit me again.  I spent the entire day yesterday running from the bathroom to the couch.  It was miserable.  My hubby took such good care of me and my dogs didn't leave my side all day!  :)  Fortunately, this one only lasted about 18 hours, where when I had it last month, it was a four day ordeal.  Today I feel like a new woman!

On to happy news... the winner of the giveaway for products from me, Sandy, and Lori is...

I'll be e-mailing you your packet of fillable end of the year awards (which I'm going to leave on sale at TpT for another week or so!) this morning and sending your e-mail address along to Lori and Sandy so they can send you your winnings too!

Now for another SUPER Giveaway... Mrs. Sykes is celebrating 200 followers with a mega giveaway full of goodies from other amazing bloggers.  I'm giving away the winner's choice of any 5 of my flippy books!  There are 10 bloggers participating in all... click her button below to head over and enter.  You won't want to miss out on this one.  It ends on Wednesday, May 23.



So, today it's my goal to catch up on all of the things I neglected yesterday.  I was supposed to go scrapbooking with my group and had to cancel.  I missed last month's when I had the super-evil-mega-miss-two-days-of-school-and-sit-on-the-couch-for-the-entire-weekend flu!  And last month I had planned to work on my end of the year gifts for my students... no problem, I missed it but I was going to do them yesterday.  AHHH!  I'm going to try and get a few of them done today so I can show you what I make for my kiddos.  I'm excited to show them off!  Here's a hint...  Who was doing the linky party for end of the year student gifts?  I want to link up when I'm done but I can't remember who it was!  Hopefully it's still open!

My Class Dyed Yesterday!

You can imagine the giggles when I said, "When you are ready to dye, bring your paper over to the table".  It took me a minute to catch on... 2nd graders are so silly!

So, this is a favorite art project of mine...

well, not just one favorite project- but a favorite material to make projects pop!

I LOOOOVE using my powdered dyes that I got at a conference a few years ago.  You just mix a bit with water in a jar with a lid so you can save the extra.  The kiddos draw a picture, pressing hard with their crayons, and then paint over the pics with the dye.

It resists the wax of the crayon and makes the drawings pop!

We made these yesterday... it was too fun!

My kiddos had to draw at least 8 landforms in a make-believe landscape.  We used our crayons and then pained the green and blue dye over the pictures.  When they dried, they glued labels on their landforms.

The dye I have is FAS brand and I bought it several years ago when two ladies from New Zealand were doing a literacy conference in my area- they were H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S and the conference was awesome!

Here's a pic of one of my little bottles of dye. 

 
I've checked out their website and it doesn't look like they have a distributor in the US... so if you know of a similar product, I'd love to find out where you got yours so I can get some other colors.  I have red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and vermillion... whatever that is.  We use it often and just LOOOOVE it!

Want your own copy of the landform labels?

Click the picture below!

Don't forget about our giveaway... winner announced on Sunday morning!