Five For Friday! Finally Up and Running

Hello Dear Readers!
I can't tell you how GOOD it feels to be back on my blog. It's only been a week (or two :), but Monday my laptop crashed and it's been out of commission all week long.
I just got it back and it feels nothing short of AMAZING!! I'm so relieved and most of all thankful all of my files are still intact.
Apparently computers are somewhat persnickety and they do not do well with certain cases.  (I used to have a really cute plastic turquoise case on mine) -NOTE TO SELF-  *Computers+plastic case= system failure!!! I found out that the plastic case was trapping in all the heat that my laptop was expelling and it pretty much just burnt out. Lesson Learned Oh, and I thought I'd save money by getting a replacement charger off of amazon (they are like half the price), but turns out the cheap charger completely fried the wiring in my computer. Uuuggg! So to sum it up- if you have a macbook, you have to buy the "suggested" apple approved products or you may run into much bigger problems down the road.
Okay- thanks for reading my technology rant! Needless to say I'm very happy to be back and I have lots to share with you.

doodlebugs teaching

100th Day A few weeks ago we celebrated our 100th day of school.  We all wore100 things on our clothes.  I loved how creative the kids were!

 

This was our little 100 things collection. I absolutely love the pom poms. Such a fun idea :)

We also did rotations with the whole elementary and enjoyed activities related to the 100th day.

Some of our activities included:

Building a structure with100 blocks

 Doing 100 exercises

And building a tower with 100 cups.

We also played a game where we rolled dice and raced to one hundred.

All of our 100th day centers were an amazing FREEBIE I found over at The First Grade Parade courtesy of Cara Carroll (love that woman!)

OW and OU

We've been working hard learning the sounds of 'ow' and 'ou'

Thanks to Mrs. Kilby  and Gail's Reading Rubies
I managed to use some of these fantastic freebies to help my kiddos get excited about phonemes and their special sounds.

Our Class Has Some New Members 

I told my students after Zero the Hero visited them (on the 100th day) they would also get to meet Even Steven and Odd Todd.

I think after they actually met Zero the Hero (I had a high schooler dress up and burst into my room to surprise them) they thought Even Steven and Odd Todd would be real people.

But after they "met" them, they realized it's more fun to have them around and are happy they don't have to leave (like Zero the Hero did).

 Biography Bubbles and MONSTER manners

One of our main topics this month has been the presidents.
We are doing an extensive biography study this year in 2nd/3rd grade and the students are thoroughly enjoying it.

 These are the presidents we've focused on so far.
I think Teddy Roosevelt was the class favorite.
Did you know he was a cowboy, a war hero and also won the Noble Peace Prize?
We thought that was pretty cool :)

 

Monster Manners

We've also been reviewing manners and behavioral expectations at school this week.

I thought it was time for a refresher :)

Aren't our Love monsters so cute?
We made them in art class.

If you like this unit, you can download a copy HERE

Doughnuts and Daydreams

This is one of our new favorite finds.

Seriously, these doughnuts are incredible. Usually I eat a doughnut (from the grocery store) and I feel like I could eat 10 more.

The Doughnuts from this place are unreal and they actually make you feel full and satisfied.

For real- I couldn't even finish my doughnut! It was so good and filling, I got stuffed and had to save the rest for later.

I highly recommend paying this little shop a visit and even if you don't live around here- add it to your bucket list. 

These doughnuts will CHANGE YOUR LIFE!

 Me and my little (taller) sister enjoying our sunny Sunday afternoon!

Wishing you all a beautiful and restful weekend!

100th Day of School!!

So we did it! We made it to the 100th day and boy was it packed with activities! (our hundredth day was actually last Thursday, but there has been an incredible amount of stuff going on and I couldn't manage to post until now)

Leading up to the 100th day we brought in 100 little things to add to our classroom collection.

I found a fabulous unit by Sheila Melton that I used for morning work all week leading up to our 100th day celebration.
You can purchase it from TPT 100th Day of School Celebration (70 page unit)!

Here are some samples of student work that turned out really cute!

This worksheet had them draw the following:

 1. What they would look like when they are 100 years old

2. Their favorite memory from the past 100 days of school 

 3. What they would buy with $100 

4. They could eat 100...

They thought this 'I Spy' worksheet was so fun!

As promised Zero the Hero came and brought them a snack that was round (resembling a zero)

Every year, I have him bring mini bagels and cream cheese (it is a fun way to wrap up our counting by ten's unit)

*I plan to post more on Zero the Hero another day

Then on the 100th day we made 100 posters.

Here is the list of all the things each poster needed

1. Write 10 numbers

2. Write your name 10 times

3. Write 10 friends names

4. Write 10 words

5. Glue 10 shapes

6. 10 stamps

7. 10 sequins

8. 10 stickers

9. 10 paint dots

10. 10 thumbprints

Here is my sample poster I used to give my students an exampleAnd here is how the kids posters turned out (well at least one of them anyways)

Pretty cute don't ya think?

In the afternoon, we made 100th day snack mix. As I'm sure you can see, we had 10 different snacks and the kids used these tens frames to separate the snacks into 10 groups of 10 totaling 100.

I was able to download these fantastic 100 day tens frames HERE

To finish up our day, we did 100 exercises (Wow! I was not expecting that to be so exhausting :)

Well, thats about it for now folks. Hope you enjoyed my little post. 

Happy Monday!