Five For Funday + End of the Year Student Awards!

It's Five For Friday time and I'm a *little* late!  Whoops....

The most exciting part about this weekend is my oldest daughter did her first presentation at 4H today.  We made dirt cups and it was too cute!  Oreos, pudding, whipped cream all over the place.  She did a great job, I'm so proud of her!

We have 14 days left of school, people!!!  I am trying to squeeze so much in the last few weeks.  We will be covering dogs this week, and I'm so excited to use an awesome pack by Amy Lemons, A Boy and His Dog.  We will be reading three different Henry and Mudge books, hooray!!

Our school is *thinking* about getting a new reading series, and it sounds like we might be getting Journeys!  So pumped for new readers with color pictures, woo hoo!  Does anyone have Journeys now?  Any comments???

I'm stoked about my teacher appreciation gifts I made this week.  I used awesome chalkboard frames from the talented Krista Wallden to create some cute graphics.  Slip them in some $2 document frames from walmart and bingo!   A cute and cheap teacher gift!

Finally, I set up a mock awards ceremony in my classroom today to show you how to celebrate your kiddo's success over the last year.  My Superstar Student Awards and Medals are finished and I'm so happy with how they turned out.  Here's some pics from my room:

Our class mascot, Baby Dolphin, did a fab job modeling the lovely medals. :)  You can also use ribbon for the medals and that would look great too.  I am planning on doing this the day before the last day of school.  IF I have time, I would love to laminate the awards, but we shall see.  

Have a great week!!

Five For Friday! Plus Baseball Week and IKEA finds

It's Five for Friday peeps!!  This week was exhausting with a capital E!  With four weeks left of school, I'm pretty sure everyday is going to be a whopper.

Wow, my first trip to IKEA was C.R.A.Z.Y!  That place is huge and I don't think I was fully prepared for the impact.  I tried to snap some pics of good classroom items for next year.  The turquoise art caddy is a must have in my ocean theme room, just perfect!  I was absolutely exhausted, but it was totally worth it. :)

I put this baby on TPT last week and made it a flash freebie, I love doing that!  I just feel all warm inside when I get to give things away for FREE!  I received some great feedback, so I'm feelin' the love!  Click here if you'd like to take a peek.  I am currently using this with my lowest reading group as their fluency passage of the week.  It's perfect for homework, too!

While I'm super jazzed about my students' academics right now, they are totally blowing me away!  I'm also bummed out from their rude and unfriendly behavior towards each other!  They are acting like brothers and sisters on a week long road trip trapped in an RV!  And tattling like no other, ugh.  So I whipped up a behavior system that focuses on those students who are friendly to everyone and deserve recognition.  Hopefully this will spread through the classroom.  Here's some pics of how I'm using it now.

Oh yeah, and it's FREE!  You can find it here.

We just finished Baseball Week and I have to say my boys in my class were enthralled!  Even when we created a baseball shape poem, they were all ears!

My Baseball Close Reading pack turned out to be a home run, baby!  I was so proud of my firsties when I tracked their fluency today.  They have come a long way!

Enjoy your weekend bloggy friends!!!

Five For Friday

It's' Five For Friday (post-spring break) and I still have my sanity!!  Go Meg go :)
This week was soooo busy!  Once again, I have too many fun activities planned and it ends up with my students having a blast and me stressing out...just a bit.  Here's what we did!

We studied a unit from my World Traveler Pack on the Rocky Mountains.  I whipped up some headlamps for the kids.  They loved them!  Especially those rowdy boys :)  We also made some quick pickaxes and golden nuggets.

I took some pea gravel from my house, spray painted it metallic gold, and TA DA!  Panning for gold was a blast!  They took home a bag apiece to fool their parents on April Fools.  Too funny!

Speaking of April Fools, I tricked my firsties with brownies (brown E's) and it was pretty cute!  They were psyched to get some dessert.  I can't blame them...

We celebrate Easter with Fry Phrase Easter eggs!  This was the first year I've done this, and it went so smoothly.  I cut out the Fry Phrases and gave one to each student.  Then I told them to find the egg that matches the Fry Phrase.  This was a challenge for a couple kiddos, but exciting for the rest.  It was a success!

Finally, my World Traveler pack is on sale through the weekend!  Grab it while it's hot :)  Happy Easter everyone!

Five For Fraturday!

It's Five For Friday (plus one day) and SPRING BREAKKKKK!!!  I'm beyond excited for this week of rest I've needed for so long.  Even if it's an extra 30 min of sleep in the morning, I'm totally grateful!

We celebrated St. Paddy's Day a little early in the classroom.  I tried the shrinking leprechaun hats from Mrs. Miner's Monkey Business and they totally worked!  Came out soooo cute and the kids loved it!

Our first grade friends are getting into a friendship funk....too much tattling, too much whining, and too much rudeness going around.  So when we get back from break, we will be starting the Friendship Rainbow.  This freebie will be in my store soon!  

I'm all jazzed about my new succulents!  I love my mint-colored pot and plan to plant these babies soon!

Anyone else love Easter candy??  I'm all about those Reese's PB eggs...gimme gimme gimme!!

My Complete Core: Play Ball pack is on sale this weekend in honor of my fav team, KC Royals!  The first three people to comment on my blog below, will get the pack for FREE.  Yes free!!!  

Enjoy the weekend!!!

Five For Friday!! Just a little late.....

Happy weekend to everyone!  I'm so excited for this link, I have lots to chat about! :)

February is packed full of so many opportunities for fun stuff, I just can't fit it all in!  BUT, I made sure I am ready for President's Day with a new product.  I started looking at the TPT items I was creating and thought to myself, what if I added directions, word for word, to create a full blown lesson 
plan for me and others??  And aligned them to Common Core standards??  I loved the idea and this is my first installment of "The Complete Core".  Each Complete Core will have detailed lessons and activities aligned to standards, plus extra fun stuff for things like reading/math stations, and of course, the Daily 5.  I hope you can check it out here!

I love to read!  I mean I L.O.V.E. to read.  My favorite is romance and my favorite author is getting ready to publish her newest book.  Guess who got to read it early and write a review???  MEEE!  I was so excited!  I'm the lucky duck who gets to read it before it comes out and I get to gush over her writing.  Pretty good deal.  

So this is "With Every Heartbeat" by Linda Kage.  It is the fourth book of her Forbidden Men series.  Forbidden is a good word in the world of romance novels, trust me.  All of her books take place in college, a great spot for finding true love and good ol' drama.  The men in her book are gorgeously described, and unfortunately for the women, they are 'forbidden'.  But that's what makes her books so good you are up at midnight still reading!!! whoops....  Make sure you stop by her Facebook page and blog to score some sweet Forbidden men gift items.  She gives away some awesome loot!  Plus, for the next few weeks until the big release of her new book, the prior novels will be on sale!!  A little romance for Valentine's Day doesn't hurt anyone. :)

Linda Kage

Hallelujah!  The sun is shining!  That's all.....

My hubby's bday is is a few days and I have a few tricks up my sleeve for him...hehehe.  He will be surprised! :) 

Finally, my students were so excited after recess yesterday.  They saw a meadowlark and were ecstatic!  One boy even said, "It had a yellow tummy, just like you said Mrs. Baker!"  *cutest thing ever*  I will surprise them with my knowledge once in awhile :)