5 1/2 Days and Some Open House Pictures

It's been a while since my last blog post. I  still haven't figured out how to keep up with my blog when things get crazy busy with school and home life.  The past several weeks were filled with state testing, preparing for open house,  the actual open house night, a few get away weekends, and now the end of the year and all the additional chaos that brings. Some days I wish cocktails were served at lunch...did I say that out loud?? LOL!!

I thought I would share a few pictures of our open house. This year we had an ocean theme. I have never done it for open house. We have studied whales, but this time we chose to go more in depth and make it our theme for the big night!!

The above two cuties were posing with their 3d animals they made to go along with their animal reports that we completed at school. These were just 2 out of the 23 amazing creatures that were  brought in. The Giant Squid is made out of wetsuit material!! It is so cool!!

Below are pictures of different areas throughout the room.

The kids made scuba divers to sit at their desk. We did a giant acrostic with the letters "Scuba Diving". If you look closely the kids were given a gold fish inside the small fish bowl when they came to open house that night. I am not sure if all of the parents were super thrilled with that...LOL!!

One of my student's grandparents made this submarine for the class. They brought it in and the kids painted and decorated it. Since open house, the kids have been using it for a "Read to Self" spot!!!

Wishing everyone a Happy Tuesday!!

Teacher Appreciation Sale!!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Teacher Appreciation Week. I just finished state testing and now getting ready for Open House. It has been craaaazzzzzy!!!!! Just wanted to  let you know that I am  participating in the TPT sale!! Thanks to everyone for supporting me!!! Happy Week to you all!!

Click below to be taken directly to TPT!!

Thanks to Ashley Hughes for the adorable button!!!

Get Ready for Bloggy Olympics!!!

Join The 3AM Teacher, the Reading Olympians, and over 80 SUPREME education bloggers as we take you through a tour of the Reading Olympians Root Study Program!!

I came across this program as I was doing my daily blog stalking...I mean blog hopping. I am a big fan of Michelle from 3AM Graphics. So...when I read her post about the Reading Olympians I thought I would take the leap and participate in this reading adventure. 

We just came back to school on Tuesday so I was only able to do a little bit with the program. But with the little I did I must say my kids loved it! I was amazed with our discussions and their enthusiasm. We have been working on prefixes and suffixes for a bit so this made introducing the Greek roots a bit easier.

First, I gave them a blank piece of white copy paper and had them divide it into 6 sections. 

In the first box I had them draw a water drop. Then I had them label the drop of water with the word "aqua". I had to laugh because they all were saying "agua". 

I read them the rap for the aqua root. Then we came up with other words that had aqua in it. The next thing I know they start shouting out words like aqua socks, aqua man, etc. You might be thinking...no big deal. However, the cool thing was that they were now saying oh they are water socks. Socks you wear when you go in the water...like when you are at the beach or lake. Aquaman goes in the water. He is a man  in the water.

Next, we drew a stick figure for bio. I read them the rap for bio. We talked about biology and biographies. Once again they were super excited as they started to make the correlation that the roots helped them figure out what a word means.

I continued with all 5 of the junior Nike roots. The above drawing shows the symbols I used. I thought for future use and for the other roots that it would be cool to make picture symbols to put the roots with.

It is definitely something that I am going to incorporate at the beginning of our new school year!

Discover the program IN ACTION in more K-6th grade classrooms as you Pass the Torch!! Get ideas, discover the progression of the program, and enter the Raffle for a chance to win ONE of the three prizes listed below!!

First Place Winner : Gold Medal

  Prizes: Complete Reading Olympians Program
            $50.00 Amazon Gift Card
            50% off Discount Code for a 1-Day shopping spree at The 3AM Teacher's Etsy store!

Second Place Winner: Silver Medal

   Prizes: $25.00 Amazon Gift Card
              40% off Discount Code for a 1-Day shopping spree at The 3AM Teacher's Etsy store!

Third Place Winner: Bronze Medal

    Prizes: 30% off Discount Code for a 1-Day shopping spree at The 3AM Teacher's Etsy store!

Pass the Torch!!!
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Rainy Day Fun!!

Yes, it was a rainy day today. I teach in Northern California and we have been teased with the sunny weather lately...except today it chose to rain all day. I am ok with rain right now because my beach body is so not here right now...not sure if it is ever going to arrive this year!! 

Anyway...as I was driving to school thinking about the day that lay ahead...I decided that the rainy day would be a perfect opportunity to do another practice opinion writing and I could also use my cute rain craft from my TPT unit:

When my students arrived I told them that we were going to give our opinions about rainy days. Then I showed them the craft. They were super excited. Below is a few samples. I was quite impressed with how much easier it was for them to do opinion writing. We have done several opinion pieces, but today just seemed like the lightbulb went off!!!

I also introduced two dimensional shapes today. We did some exploration with pattern blocks. I forgot how fun geometry can be! My kids thought math was the best ever because they got to build with the pattern blocks! I love that the simplest things make them happy!

Hope everyone has a fabulous Friday tomorrow! I am off to cook dinner  reheat leftovers!! It is another new episode of Scandal tonight!!!

Back to Work

Spring Break went way too quickly! Yesterday was my first day back boo hiss yippee...and it was my birthday!! I am not going to lie...school was the last place I wanted to be! I was greeted with some super amazing birthday gifts from my grade level partner and amazing friend!!

This was on my back table. The balloon sings to me! There was also a container full of m and m's with the cutest poem ever. I do love my chocolate !! 

My amazing friend also got me this movie! I may be cheesy, but I love the singing in this!!

And the necklace too! She really made my day!!

If you have read any of my previous posts then you do know that I am a Diet Coke freak!! Look what one of my ROCKSTAR students brought me!!! Is this not the coolest thing ever????

My husband got me this awesome Michael Kors bag! I am so loving all the bright colors this year!!

He also got me a great pair of shoes, but they don't arrive until Friday. 

Before spring break I  had my kids do  a How to Catch a Leprechaun writing. They actually did a really good job. Here are a few samples:

This was a sample from one of my girls.

Here is a sample from one of my boys:

Today I introduced the beginning of multiplication. We talked how the first number means how many groups and the second number tells how many belong in each group.

6 X 2

The above problem would mean I have six groups of 2. I then taught them the game circles and stars. Students roll 2 dice. The first number rolled tells them how many circles to draw on their paper. The second number rolled tells them how many stars they need to put in each circle. Then they add up the stars to get their product.  They enjoyed it!!! We will do more with multiplication tomorrow as well as begin our geometry unit. 

Happy Thursday to everyone!! If you are on your final days of Spring Break...live it up!! If you are like me...Friday is almost here...woohoo!!!

Spring Break!!

Spring Break is finally here for me!  I finally put the final touches on my fraction unit and uploaded it to TPT, so it's time to relax and enjoy my time off.

Here is a freebie to use when you are doing fractions:

Happy Monday to everyone!!