Pinterest Scavenger Hunt Contest

We know that you're thinking about all of the items on your TpT wishlist as you are switching into back-to-school mode. Wouldn't it be nice if you had a $50 TpT gift certificate to use? Well, it's your lucky day! These upper elementary bloggers are going to help foot the bill!

Here is what you need to do to enter for a chance to win the $50 TpT gift certificate:

• Click the picture above or {here} to take you to our collaborative board.
• Follow the board.
• Find the pin description that contains the special code.
• Enter the code in the Rafflecopter.
• Easy-peasy!!
• Contest ends Sunday, July 28th at midnight.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Have a great day!

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Throwback Thursday: Traditions Books (and Student Treasures)

Good Morning everyone!  I can still say Good Morning being in CA.  :)

Today for Throwback Thursday I wanted to share my post from last November where I talked about my students making a Traditions book.  Now usually I do this around Thanksgiving & Christmas since it's that time of year that I usually really think about Traditions BUT this morning I was also thinking that perhaps I should make it a year long writing activity since throughout the school year we have so much time together as a class.. a little here... a little there... and all done without the stress overload.

Anyway, just wanted to share in case you've never heard of Student Treasures and wanted to look into it before the stress of the beginning of school hits.  

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This time of year I really start thinking of traditions.  I personally love them.  I love the special routines surrounding a certain holiday. So, the time between Thanksgiving vacation and Winter break I have my students create a book that includes all their special family traditions.  
Last year I had the idiotic idea of trying to have them do the entire book in a 2 day span to be able to submit it to Student Treasures on time for our publishing date.  

click to go to their website

Student Treasures is a company that publishes student work into their own hardback book.  It's a free service, they just include a note that asks parents if they want to order additional copies.  They were beautiful when they came back and we wrapped them up in Christmas wrap as a gift for their parents.  But it was absolutely nuts of the hours upon hours of creating rough drafts and final drafts for those days, plus then hauling it to UPS to be able to mail it off.... nervously waiting if it would be delivered in time.
So I'm going back to my normal routine this year, and saving the Student Treasures hardback books for a later date - perhaps an end of year memory book?   
Anyhow, below is the breakdown of the book.  The students are writing one page per day about their traditions.They create a rough draft, edit, and do a final draft on just plain lined paper (copy paper with lines printed on it) that they then illustrate with their family traditions.  I start with Thanksgiving since it's fresh in their minds.   Pages
New Year's Eve and Day
Valentines Day
St. Patrick's Day
Easter
Mother's Day and Father's Day
4th of July
Halloween
Thanksgiving
Christmas and Hanukkah
Birthdays
So, 10 pages in total.  When they are done with everything inside their book, they will create their own personal cover and a dedication page to their families (with their cute little cum picture on it).  Then I stick everything into 6 sheet protectors (back to back pages) and use red & white ribbon through the holes to call it a day.  Their own little personal books to give as a gift.
I'll take a picture when it's done for this year.  :)  
Hope you had a great day!  

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Back to School Night Packet - Want to see mine?

Tonight I decided to take the plunge and staple my Back to School Night packet.  Yes, it's been approved - I take care of that business back in May before we even leave for summer.  It's even been copied before school even got out.  Anyway, while I was doing the tedious task (all this paperwork isn't really fun), I posted a picture of it over on Instagram and some teachers posted that they would like to see it.  

So here it is.  The formatting is off since I had to take it from a PDF and copy/paste it into a powerpoint to be able to turn it into an image... and I had to take out the specific contact information... but there was no way I was going to retype it all.  :)  I love you all, but seriously not going to retype all of this...  

In the packet it turns out to be 4 pages long - but to make it large enough for you to read, on here it's 6 pages. :)  Please know that in my parent/student copy I have things in bold, underlined, and italicized.  They can't miss the big things!

The whole 1 hour for a 4th grader is dictated by my district.  20 minutes of reading, plus the nightly stuff is supposed to equal an hour.

Basically everything is the same as it normally is... though I did decide this next year to give the kids the opportunity to "move up" with their behavior.  Coming from last year I also decided to make up an understanding page.  Usually I have a little note that parents and students sign that says they went over the packet at home... this year I want it all spelled out.  I want something on file that shows me that parents know about the online grading system - that they know they can see their child's grades at any moment of the day/night/weekend... etc.

This next year I'm all about working smarter NOT harder - not going to be doing a separate behavior log in their folders - not having a separate Friday folder at all - simplifying and recording right where the kids take home the work.  All this because this year I'm in charge of their supplies... I am giving them exactly what they need in the format that gives me the least amount of headaches.

Anyway - that's it for my BTSN packet.  :)  I just need to update my powerpoint and I'll get that out to share too!

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Day 7 Winner :)

Congrats!  

I just wanted to say THANK YOU to everyone for all your support and encouragement over the past year of being in Blogland.  You have made a girl feel very welcome.  :)  I'm thankful for all the wisdom you have given, all the encouraging comments and emails, all the warm fuzzies sent my way.  My "bucket" is full!  It has been a wonderful week and I look forward to the future. 

Thanks again!

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Monday Made It

It's Monday!  I'm so excited to link up with Tara once more for her Monday Made It.  I love this linky party - all the ideas every single week!!  

I'm going to share some things that I posted about over on Instagram :)  I really need to learn how to hold back!  In my defense though, I'm usually just sooo happy to be able to check something off my long to do list.  

First up, a little background - At present I am mommy-sitting my mother - actually since Friday.  My grandma passed away a while back, and this past weekend my dad, aunt, uncle, and sister made the trek to southern California to clean out her mobile home - giving away a ton of stuff, getting it ready for a relator to take over, and to have a very small ceremony to bury her ashes next to my grandpa.  My mom wasn't able to make the trip due to her health - hips and heart aren't working super great.  Since it's summer and other than having the responsibility of 3 kids I'm pretty much free... you get the point why I've moved back into my parents house for a long weekend.  Of course my boys wanted to come with me!  So, I'm missing my hubby, but at least one of us has to stay home to take care of the dog at night.  At least we've been able to see each other every day.  Because of the jaunt over here, I don't have many options to complete other than the huge amount of stuff I brought with me... and since there really isn't any housework to do here (it's been so nice) it's been basically been watching girly movies with mom, playing board games or legos with the boys, or doing school stuff.  

 Of course I head home today for a bit to reload and see what mess my house is...  :)  

Here's what I've accomplished since last Monday!

I made my behavior chart with colored iPods as the color level.  I'm using my pocket chart sized labels.

I laminated and made up my student achievement necklaces.

I collated/stuffed and filled my Student Homework Folders.  Inside I have Reading Menu from 3rd Grade Thoughts, a Monthly Spelling Menu from Christine Statzel, my first unit spelling list, the 4th Grade Common Core Mathematics Overview set by Jivey, and the Homework Sheet from Teaching in Room 6.  Printed on both sides to save paper.  :)

I sorted my objectives by standard in these expanding file folders - one for math, one for ELA.

I designed and printed out my Student Notebook set - they are all ready to go into the students' binders when I get into my classroom.  Another gotta love technology moment!

I made up some subject pendant banners - one for each subject to hang as the titles above my bulletin boards.

I ended up counting to 9 over and over again (specifically 33 times), putting 9 of each of the popsicle sticks into sandwich bags.  At least they are all sorted and ready for place value!  

I also made it through a week long giveaway with 7 different Rafflecopters :)  I'm exhausted but it was fun chatting with so many people through email.

All done for now... so much fun!  

I also made 880+ new friends over on Facebook and over 200+ Bloglovin' friends in the past 2 days!  Some cool 2nd grade bloggers asked me to join them in a Blog Hop (I guess since I used to teach 2nd grade for years and years...) - It was so much fun.  Lots of free resources that we put up for grabs in those fan freebie tabs.  If anyone wants to organize a 4th grade one, sign me up!  

Well that's it!  If you aren't following me over on Instagram - well I'm there and I've decided it's actually fun.  Kind of like a picture only version of Facebook.  I love my pictures!  :)

Have a great night/day!  

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500 Follower Giveaway {Day 7}

It's the last day?!?  What a week it has been.

What did I accomplish the past couple of days?  Here are some pictures I've shared on Instagram.

I laminated a ton of stuff...

and then I made up my student necklaces to start the year.  I've also printed a bunch to get everything ready to put together my student notebooks.  

Yesterday was absolutely NUTS over on Facebook.  On Friday night I got everything ready to go for joining in on the 2nd grade Blog Hop (Yes, I know I don't teach 2nd grade anymore, but I love 2nd grade), and there were around 520 people joining me over there... at this point in time it's nearing 1,200.  Completely absolutely crazy with the notification emails of Facebook and Pinterest and Bloglovin.  

I LOVED EVERY MOMENT OF IT!!!  Guess we'll see where today takes us.  :)  

So - today is the last day for Rafflecopter (at least for a bit).  I hope you have enjoyed this week of fun! My freebie is still over on Facebook if you want to pick up the Popsicle Place Value to Thousand.  It corresponds with the my Place Value set to Hundred Millions (in case you want something with smaller values).

My store is also still on sale throughout today if there is something you have been eyeing.  I appreciate all your support and encouragement!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Day 5 Winners :)

Short sweet post (again).  Here are the winners from yesterday's Rafflecopter and Pin it to Win it.

Congrats!  

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