Five for Friday! A Whole Lot a Science and a Little Bit of Classroom Shenanigans!

It's that time again!  I now look forward to Fridays with a new found energy and excitement because I know I get to link up with other bloggers, share what we've been learning and get inspired by other awesome teachers! It is so much fun!!

So thankfully I'm posting this in time to join the link up (sometimes it turns into Five for Fraturday or just a Sunday post)

How funny and cute is this sign? I recently found it while browsing TPT and my students think its awesome! 

It's also a great classroom management tool, whenever kids shout out, I simply point to this sign and call on someone who has a quite hand raised.

We have been totally engrossed by our science projects over the past couple of weeks. 

It took awhile for the experiments to produce results, but after a long waiting period, we finally saw some pretty amazing stuff!

         

We started this experiment with white bread and nothing was happening, so we decided to try a different approach. 
We added brown organic bread and did the experiment again. 
What do ya know, the second time it worked and Wallah! MOLD!
I used this experiment to talk about health and nutrition. 
Can you believe the white bread still doesn't have any mold on it? After a month???? EWW- That totally freaks me out!

We discussed how white bread has flour that's been bleached and that it also has more sugar than brown bread.

Didn't they do such a great job journaling?

Biographies Galore!

Please excuse the very blurry picture :)

This is our biography bulletin board. Over the course of the year we will be studying the following themes: 

The American Revolution, The Civil War, The American Presidents, Inventors, Famous Women, and Famous African Americans.

I am loving this biography unit! 
Check it out Right Here

These signs are helpful reminders for my students. 

I created this timeline as an example for my students to give them context and help them understand how to create their own.

My hope is that after they create their own timeline, they will have a deeper understanding of the timelines of famous Americans that we study.

If you like my timeline and would like your own template, feel free to pick yourself up a copy over at my TPT store.

Check it out HERE!!!!

Here's what the unit looks like:

Check out our new reading buddies!!! The kiddos and I were SO excited when these little fellas arrived in the mail :)

And lastly, this little guy. I found these really funny goggly eyes in the target dollar section and I just couldn't resist! 
I had to buy them and give our little recycling bin a personality. 
We voted as a class and decided to name him "Peter."
Now whenever the student go to throw something away, I remind them "only paper goes in Peter."
It has already reduced the amount of accidental food spillage (which used to get thrown in the recycling bin instead of the trash can) by about 99%.

Pretty stink in cute and effective!

Well, I think that pretty much wraps things up.

Have a fabulous 3 day weekend!!!

Wordless Wednesday: Pumpkin Science

I'm excited to join Miss DeCarbo over at Sugar and Spice and join the link party again for Wordless Wednesday!

And Now... A Little Bit of Pumpkin Science!

A learning activity I tried last year that I absolutely LOVED, and my students went gah-gah over was, planting a classroom pumpkin patch.

As we learn about pumpkins, we grow them in our classroom and see the life cycle unfold in front of our very eyes. 

It is pretty awesome!

Before we planted:

After we planted our seeds:

We planted our seeds and now we will be recording our observations daily to track our little seeds growth.

Stay tuned :)

What do you do to teach pumpkin life cycles in your classroom??

October Currently

I am very excited to link up again with Farley from Oh Boy 4th Grade for her Currently link up.


Here's what's been going on currently in my world:

Listening

This song has been helping me feel peaceful and calm in the midst of the crazy storms of life. We all know life can feel overwhelming at times and I definitely need a reminder that its all gonna be OKAY.

It is Well- by Kristen DeMarco

Loving

My new blog design! Its still a work in progress 

(but I should be able to reveal the finished product soon!)

Here is a little sneak peak:

Doesn't it look incredible!!!! I am chomping at the bit to do a big blog unveiling, so stay tuned for that :)

 Last week I stumbled upon the blog gabbys classrooms that I thought was so cute, I had to find out how I could get my own custom design. I've been searching for awhile trying to find the right style for my blog and I finally feel like I found one that is a perfect fit!

 I have wanted to upgrade to a custom template for a LONG time, and I'm so happy the day has finally come! Hallelujah and Thank You Jesus! My blog finally has a personality!!! :)

Check out this creative lady 

Right Here ----> http://www.gabbysclassrooms.com

Thinking

All about Mercy, our new sponsor child (I'm not going to include a photo, since I want to protect her privacy, but let me tell ya- she is the sweetest, cutest little girl and I'm so excited to start writing her letters!)

For awhile now, my hubs and I have been looking for practical ways to do more to help others and we felt prompted to respond when we saw this simple add:

http://www.worldvision.org

I have wanted to sponsor a child for such a long time and it was always one of those passing thoughts I had, like "that's such a good idea, I totally need to do that," and then 2 seconds later I'd get distracted and forget. Horrible, I know, but hopefully since I've finally decided to DO something about those positive thoughts, me and my hubby can help make a small difference.

Wanting

Some gosh darn cold weather please!! Okay don't get me wrong, I am not complaining. I know my relatives in Wisconsin would gladly trade their snowy weather for our 90 degrees everyday, but I would love for the weather to turn and it to finally feel like fall. 

Also, it wouldn't hurt to have AC. Since we don't we are just hoping and praying the heat will drift away and the natural cool weather will make its graceful appearance.

Needing

Some ant traps! ASAP!! This is my current pet peeve- Ants…In my house…Invading my living space. AHHH!!

  I think the heat (hence my wish for cooler weather) is driving ants inside our house and it is driving me just a little bit CaahhRAZY!!! Ants are super gross and I am SOO ready for them to go! YUCK!

And A Little Treat

Here's a little Fall Freebie! Hop on over to my TPT store and download yours today! 

Fall Writing Activities

           

Happy Fall Ya'll!

September Art Projects and a Little Perspective

I really wanted to post on Friday and then I spent all morning yesterday trying to post a fun Five for Fraturday and for some reason, my blog was not cooperating. I'd try to upload and the bottom part of my post was just completely cut off.

I have no idea why! Grrrr! (deep breath, AND moving on now)

So let's just try this again.

Here we go, 5 fun things from this past week:

#1) Classroom Decor: Student Faces!

*The purple one in the middle is me :) I like to have an example for the kids to see first.

Every year I lead my students through a directed drawing activity where they create their own face, then we paint it and add hair and put it up on the wall in our classroom. 

I did not come up with this idea on my own, but saw it in the kindergarten where I student taught. It's one of those projects that I have always loved and it's always stuck with me.

Also, I don't know about you, but I have my kids line up in ABC order (by first name) and on days when I am feeling frazzled and can't remember the line order, all I have to do is look up at the wall and VIOLA- Name order right up there with a picture to go along with it!

It's worked out pretty well for us.

Oh and if I ever have a substitute, the kids can never trick them by pretending to have someone else's name. All the sub has to do is look up at the wall and see what each of the kiddos looks like.

 #2) A last Ode to Pete The Cat (this year anyway)

Okay seriously how cute are these cats???

If you would like to make them with your students, feel free to head on over to TPT and purchase a copy of the template created by Krazy About Kindergarten

Grab your template HERE

#3) Apple Scriptures Oh My!

Okay, so I know this is a horribly blurry, but I forgot to take a picture before I stapled these to the wall (go figure!) 

But in any case, how adorable are they??

Thanks to Abby Mullens from The Inspired Apple, I was inspired once again.

You can download this little art project for FREE right HERE

Here is what her apple looked like:

I fell in love with it and wanted to try it with my students.

I was really happy with the results, and now I have to confess a new obsession with washi tape (it can make anything adorable!)

#4) Permission To Post

I have been waiting until recently to post student work/photos, since I wanted to wait until I got signed permission slips from students parents. I was so touched and thankful almost every student brought back a slip with signed consent for me to show their work and photos! How cool is that?   

If you are wondering what my permission slip looked like, head over to The Teaching Twosome and download a FREE copy of a parent permission slip to post student work and photos on your blog.

I also have to add I think it is so cool that there is another teaching husband/wife duo (just like me and my hubby, and the husband's name is Brian, just like mine! Crazy I know) out there making the world a better place. To learn more about them, check them out 

Right Here

#5) Inspiration for the Weary

This week I stumbled upon a blog that I could NOT stop reading. My mom had preordered this book ----->                and totally forgot she had. Well it arrived on Wednesday and after she started reading it, she felt compelled to share it with me and my sisters.            The excerpts she read us were so moving, beautiful, grace filled and amazing, we decided to search for more information online and that's when I found the authors blog.

This woman truly amazes me! She is a mom of 4 little ones who was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.

Her journey in writing her latest book The Hardest Peace and the brokeness she shares from is so beautiful. I was completely undone when I started reading (and listening to her videos).

If you need a little perspective, this would be an amazing book to read and blog to follow. 

mundanefaithfulness.com

I must also add this hits especially close to home for me and my family, because we have been fighting with my amazing aunt for the past 10 months in her fight against stage 4 breast cancer. She has 3 small kids and the same zest and passion for life.

Life is such a gift, and every day we are faced with the choice to be grateful for it or focus on things we want to complain about. 

It has been an incredibly difficult time, but in the midst of it, we have felt God's goodness and presence.

We aren't sure what the future holds, but I was so encouraged by Kara Tippets brave choice to accept each day as a gift. 

That's what I'm choosing to do, see everyday I'm alive as a GIFT and live it to the fullest.

This is my daily prayer and proclamation:

Have a restful Sunday! 

Wordless Wednesday- How do you Cheer up?

I'm linking up again with Miss DeCarbo for Wordless Wednesday!

Miss DeCarbo at Sugar and Spice

What do you do when you've had a horrible day? I know we all have those occasionally :)

A strategy I have been using since I started teaching is to have a "good day" folder. 
I did not come up with this idea, but can't remember exactly who did. I believe I heard about it when I was student teaching (back in the day)

So here's how it works:

When I'm having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, I open up this little folder and re-read all the sweet notes I've accumulated from my students over the years.

The goal is to turn my horrible day back into a good day- and it usually works!

Sometimes when you're down in the dumps, the best cure is a little encouragement.

This is what my "good day" folder looks like:

 

 

 

 I have this little mailbox on my desk that my students can use to write me notes.
Whenever I get a little note from them, I write them a little note back.

It's a fun way to brighten up the day!




Have a WONDERFUL Wednesday!