More Open House Bulletin Boards

Hi all,

I put up some more random bulletin boards in my classroom as we are finishing up projects for Open House.  We still have more things to tackle the next couple of days before Thursday night, but the walls are now DONE!  Here is what I've added... and changed...

We made up book recommendations today by using index cards.  Basically they folded an index card almost in half (leaving about a cm), then folded it the other way (also leaving a cm) to create the spine of the book.  On the outside they had to write the title and author of the book (some decided to draw a picture), on the inside is their favorite part, and on the back is their name.  I think they are cuter in person.  

Our kites were on the windows, but today I moved them to flying over the desks.  Since I didn't want a huge amount of kites flying high (plus the backs are blank), I had the neighbors put their kites together and we paper clipped them.  Now we just have 16.  They look so cute - but I also can't wait until Friday morning when we can take them down.  :)  I'm not used to so many things flying above.  

Our Braille names made it onto a pocket chart on my magnetic wall.  I tried these things in different places and they just looked odd.... but they were the perfect size to fit into a pocket chart - so there they will stay.  

Last up is our Literal Idiom wall.  I mentioned these the other day.  They love them.  I stuck them on my Reading Vocabulary Word Wall.

Today also started Teacher Appreciation Week at school (I'm sure you all know).  Our office sent home notes last week with ideas for the kids for each day.   Today was flower day... after my monologue last week with my class I honestly didn't expect much of anything - but I was so surprised.  I guess this firm teacher actually is loved.  :)  

Hope you had a great day!

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Sale, Giveaway, and Giveaway Winners :)

Happy Almost Birthday to ME!  I love the fact that my birthday falls on Teacher Appreciation Week.  

So... I'm joining in on the fun over at TPT and TN for their additional percentage off on May 7th and May 8th.  :)  Just in case you have been waiting for a sale.  

Button by Zip-a-Dee Doo Dah Designs

Over at TPT the extra percentage is with the code TAD13

and over at TN the savings are automatic on any of the sale products (my entire store is on sale 5/7 - 5/8)


The buttons to the different stores are on the side bar - so come visit me!

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Then I wanted to share that Holly over at Fourth Grade Flipper is up to 500 followers!  :)



Her giveaway is huge (and I'm lucky enough to be a part of it).

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Last, I wanted to let you know that my boys were too busy cleaning their rooms to pick the winner of my Party Game #2 - so I had hubby do the honors.

Congrats Wendy, Karen, and Marcia  - I'll send those things right off to you.  :)  

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Party Game #2 - Pin it to Win it

I started another birthday party game over on FB - then someone nice told me that I wasn't supposed to be doing giveaways over there since it's against the rules.  :)  Whoops!  Maybe I should have gone back to read all that fine print.  Anyway, we'll have fun over here.  

Pin it to Win it!

Here is the link to my store - it's pretty simple - just pin something you would like win and my kiddos will choose 3 random comments from the bunch of you tomorrow (Sunday) night.  The people that commented from FB have already been put into the system.  

Have fun!

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Sparking Student Motivation with Theme Moments!

I'm linking up today with Joanne to share something that I'm sure we all do...

Celebrate!  

Going to be honest and say that sometimes the basic curriculum is just so boring... maybe the writers of the textbooks could actually ask a teacher how to spice it up...  

Since I'm bored at times, I'm sure the kids are bored too - which leads to celebrating the different holidays and making everything as fun as much as possible.

You all know that if it's fun most kids will want to do their best (if for no other reason they will lose the opportunity if they misbehave).

Since it's that time of year to reflect what worked and what didn't - here are some of the things we've taken time out to celebrate this year (not including regular curriculum projects):

The Seasons - 

Fall,

  Winter, 

Spring

... and we won't be there in Summer but we are still celebrating...

Holidays:

Thanksgiving, 

Halloween, 

President's Day, 

Chinese New Year,

  Christmas, 

St. Patrick's Day,

Valentines, 

Cinco De Mayo, 

Black History Month, 

Earth Day, 

Easter....

Fun events:

Superbowl, 

Baseball, 

Dr. Seuss' Birthday,

and the 100th Day of School

It really has been a fun year - full of learning - full of patience growing - full of good memories.  :)

Now go link up!

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Five for Friday

Today I'm linking up with Doodlebugs Teaching to share 5 random 

things about this week.  

1.  Testing is DONE!  I know I said that the other day, but of course something else came up and there was more to do... ugh!  Counting and more counting, and recounting, and bundling, and more recounting, and checking numbers vs. numbers vs. numbers, and finally boxing... the back room of the library is back to looking the way it was meant to be (well other than all of the consumables for next year that was stuck in there with all the 50 million testing boxes).  :)  My job as testing coordinator is really DONE!!  (I will most likely sign up again in August when we do adjunct lists... my testing buddies like me too much to let me go...) 

2.  Open House Paper Overload!

We have tackled a ton of projects this week.  I think the walls are now basically done.  What we did today (Friday) was work on this neat craft I found over at The Peanut Gallery.  There is a girl and a boy template, as well as a huge list of different idioms for the kiddos to choose from.  I had my kids choose 10 different idioms to place on their person, and they had to label it.  It's the newest bulletin board in my classroom.

3.  Carnival Time

This week was a long one - between the Volunteer Tea this past Monday, then counting tests on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday - and then today our school hosted the annual carnival.  It's amazing what leadership and PTO put together.  PTO is in charge of the food, auction, vendors, raffle baskets (each grade level collects donations), etc.  Leadership organizes each grade level with 2 different games to manage, this year complete with a Chuck E. Cheese style prize system.  It ran so smoothly.  Our grade level booths were running soccer (score a goal and get a ticket), and Plinko (get between 2-10 tickets per turn).  We went through a ton of tickets.  It was just hot, and sweaty, and fun, and tiring.  At least it wasn't windy and my allergy medicine was working.  

4.  My student's presented their Who's Who Book Reports on Tuesday.

I'll have to take some pictures of it next week.  I forgot, sorry.  Basically the point was they got to choose a person they wanted to learn more about  - way back before Spring Break.  They read a biography about that person and gleaned (yes, big word) facts about that person, filling in specific information on a 1 page document.  The last part of the project was taking what they learned about the person and creating a puppet that resembled them - having specific details.  My students presented on Tuesday, and while they presented the rest of the class was making a fun fact sheet to remember key details.  It was fun!

5.  I made up some new stuff this past week for the store.  :)

My newest things are my Fiesta Centers 

(I changed my idea to celebrate Cinco De Mayo to Monday - today was just going to be too jam packed already.)

   

Also made up some different Baseball Centers for another fun review day at school,

and then started thinking about my soon to happen birthday and made up a cupcake themed Birthday Pack.  I want to change some things up next year, and I want to be able to prep it before summer starts.  :)    

I'm going to soon be 35!?!  How did that happen?  Well - keep an eye out because I love to celebrate my birthday.  This year will be my first official one in Blogville and on TPT and on FB as a page - so I'm thinking that a sale and/or giveaway should happen...  I started celebrating tonight already by hosting my very first birthday party game.  15 fans over on FB participated and won the Birthday Pack.  :)  Take home prizes are a must for a birthday... don't you agree?     

Have a wonderful evening and a blessed morning tomorrow.  This is definitely a TGIF!

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Currently

Hi everyone!  I'm linking up today with Megan over at Oh Boy Fourth Grade to share my currently for May.  

Yeah - it's pretty much self explanatory...  My birthday is on May 8th and hubby took the boys out to find the perfect gift.  He's shopping blind though, since even I haven't been able to give him a list of what I really want.  It doesn't really feel like my birthday, at least not yet.  Next week, I'll bring in a treat to share with my class - usually doughnuts, and we make it a breakfast party.  It's also teacher appreciation you know... so it's a fun week all around. 

I'm loving that testing is finally over.  This was my second year of being a testing coordinator (there are 4 of us at my school), so I have had the honor of helping to count 800 answer documents and 1,200 testing booklets many many times over the past 3 days.  The past 3 weeks I have been busy almost everyday after school checking the books back into our "secure location".  Oh the joy!  I would do a little dance if I wasn't so brain fried.  I can just start to imagine what my classroom will look like when I actually have time to work in it after school.  :)  

Open House is next week - one week from today - and the minute I think I'm okay with projects and walls, then I start to rethink everything.  Like the Braille names that my students made yesterday - I have put them up in 2 different locations, and I don't like them there.... thinking that they might just end up on their desks...

Dinner - who needs dinner?  I'm too tired to cook - but I guess we can't go out again this week...  After the 2 hour counting fiesta on Tuesday I talked my hubby into it, then last night after another 2 hour counting hubby made dinner... and tonight - well could we have cereal?  That's nutritious, right?  All those vitamins?

I need to go shopping - but that would require actually having a moment to go...

As for my bucket list - yes, in a month I will be heading to Alaska with my husband's side of the family.  I'm so looking forward to it, though I'm not looking forward to having to bring a bunch of diapers with my littlest one.  He just doesn't have it down pat yet...

 Hope you had a great day!

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Open House Bulletin Boards: Learning is Sweet (Fraction Sundaes)

Last Friday my class made Fraction Sundaes.  By far, Fractions were the toughest math concept for my students to grasp this year.  In fact, for this project I had to simplify the directions even more than what Runde's Room had mentioned.  Ha ha - get it?  Simplify...

Basically, here are the steps I used:

1.  I gave my students the template from Runde.  I had printed one out and drew lines on the template before I copied it to add a name line, and 5 lines underneath.  Her template has the bowl and some ice cream scoops on it.  Some of my students saved the scoops to use as templates.  

2.  The students chose 4 ice cream flavors and wrote them on the lines 

underneath their names on the right hand side.  

3.  Then we came up with different ways to make 10, and they decided how many scoops of each type of ice cream to make - but it had to equal a total of 10 scoops.  These numbers went on the far left side of each ice cream line.

4.  Then we added our denominator /10 to each line to complete the fractions and had a discussion reminding them how to simplify the fractions.  They added the simplified fractions to each line (if possible).  On the very bottom line on the template we added "10 total scoops".

5.  Then it was craft time.  I had them glue their dishes to a blue half sheet of construction paper, and we cut out 2 triangles on each side to still make a dish shape.  Yes, there was a discussion how these triangles were right & scalene...  

6.  We cut out all 10 ice cream scoops using a basket of old construction paper.

7.  After all 10 of their scoops were cut, I had them glue them on from the bottom up.  We talked about putting the colors in the way they wanted them displayed - some wanted to make a pattern, some wanted a random assortment.  I told them to think a bowling pin pattern to glue the scoops down.    

4 scoops were glued to the bowl.

Then 3,

Then 2, 

Then 1.  

Then my students asked it they could add a little cherry on the top, so I cut out about 1 inch circles that some of them wanted to add.  

They turned out really nice.  I love the colors on the board.  :)

Have a great day! 

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