Five for Friday-It's March!

OH MY GOODNESS... It's March PEEPS!!! Where did the time go??? I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for this week's Five for Friday! And boy was my week BUSY!


1. This week we kicked off our Read Across America activities. I saw this adorable idea somewhere in my Pinterest world and had to do it will my kiddos. My team partner went and got a wooden frame and painted it red so we could take all the kids pictures with it for today. Here I am modeling for you!  I am going to frame each of the kids pictures and decorate it for them.

2. Each child in my class also got a new chapter book, book light, Lorax stickers and bookmark to celebrate our special week. 

3. We made these adorable cupcakes to celebrate "someone's" birthday this week. Thank you Linda Kamp!

4. Earlier in the week I found out I was the lucky grand prize winner of Jessica's Blog-iversary giveaway at the Polka- Dotted Teacher! What a fabulous way to start the week! Thank you to all the amazing bloggers who donated items! You guys are amazing!

                                               

5. I put my report cards in the mail today! DONE...FINISHED... COMPLETE! 

Head on over and link up to share your week too!

Read Across America Kickoff

This has been a jammed packed week for me and my kiddos. We have been working non-stop! This whole week we have been doing activities for Read Across America. Tomorrow is our big assembly and the kids get to wear their pajamas to school! You would think the President was coming to visit or something with all the excitement on campus. Today we were FINALLY able to finish our Happy Birthday to You cupcakes.

This adorable activity is from the awesome Linda Kamp! I am ALWAYS looking for new and creative ideas for Read Across America and this one stole my heart! I could just "eat it up!" 

 Our classroom is now in full spirit and ready for all the classroom visitors that we will have in our room tomorrow! I can't wait to share all the pictures of our super fun day.

We are also gearing up for St. Patrick's Day in my room. I finally was able to finish my 

Luck of the Irish: St. Patrick's Day Literacy Centers. 

I am so excited to use these with my kids next week because I added a bunch of activities for skills reinforcement that they have been struggling to master. We just completed our district quarterly literacy test this last week and my kids had trouble with parts of speech and multiple meaning words. I made sure to hit those skills hard in this packet. 

Recalling story details and sequencing is another big skill we are going to practice some more. The kids are  going to make a Pot of Gold BME book after I read them Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato by Tomie DePaola.

I am also participating in a HUGE giveaway over at Adventures in Room 129! Ciera is celebrating 600+ blog followers with some incredible prizes from some amazing bloggers! The giveaway ends on Sunday so hurry over and check it out!

Five for Friday {on Saturday}

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for this week's Five for Friday on Saturday! I have a REALLY good reason why I am a day late...

1. So right after school yesterday, my family and I went to do this:

Yep, that is me in a giant air tube! We went skydiving at iFly! OMG, what an awesome experience! Friends of ours asked our family to join them on this incredible adventure. My boys (5 and 8) were so excited! When you get there, you watch a quick video to teach you hand signals you need to understand from your instructor while your are in the tube. Then we got suited up: earplugs, goggles, helmet and all! There are parts of your body that start flapping in the wind, that you didn't know could flap in the wind-HA!

2. After our adventure, we went to dinner at a Brazilian restaurant. If you have never been to this type of restaurant, they bring your food to the table on giant "swords" and cut off the pieces right in front of you! Another crazy, fun experience!
                      

 Now on to some teaching fun!

3. We are in the middle of our telling time unit and my kids made watches and went around the room asking each other "What Time Is It? You can read more about this activity HERE. The kids loved it!

4. This week I ordered more of these from My Binding. I think I have been a laminating machine lately. I can't believe I already need more. 

5. And finally I completed activities to compliment my Wild and Wacky Weather Unit which we will be starting in a few weeks. I am super excited to use this unit. It has literacy activities, graphing practice, common core writing activities and craftivities. I am in the process of laminating and getting it all ready!

Excuse Me, What Time Is It? + FREEBIE

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend...three days long or not!!! I loved the extra day off and was ready to roll today! We are in the middle of our math unit about telling time. The kids are loving all the hands on activities and really catching on to learning to tell time to the nearest five minutes. Today, we had a watch making party! Yes, that is right... we made watches. I saw this idea on Pinterest and modified it for my kiddos. I gave each kid a blank clock face and a strip of paper. They needed to draw the hour hand and minute hand to make any time to the five minutes they wanted. Then they glued it to a construction paper strip and I stapled it together for them. They ended up being more like watch "bracelets" but the kids loved them all the same.

Here is my modeled sample for all of you to see!

 Each child was then given a grid with the numbers 1-20 to represent each student in our class. The kids went around the room and said to a friend, "Excuse me, what time is it?" The friend could only reply by showing their watch! The student who asked the time, would then write the watch time on their paper next to the correct student number.

After everyone was finished, we went over each time, as a whole class, and the kids corrected their work to see how well they did with reading each watch time!

This is the template each student used to collect their answers from each other. If you would like a copy of this template to use with your students, click HERE to download a copy. Please leave a comment and let me know how your kids like the activity. I love hearing from each of you. 

I am also using my Time Will Tell packet during this unit. Here is an inside look to see what is included. I hope it can help your students learn to tell time as much as it is helping mine!

Five for Friday

I am linking up with Doodle Bug Teaching for this week's Five For Friday!


Last night for Valentine's Day, my husband and I surprised each other with the same dinner for one another. How crazy is that??? I found a recipe on Pinterest for scallops.I went to the store to get fresh ones (we had frozen ones at home, but I didn't think they would defrost in time for dinner) Picked up a bottle of his favorite wine and headed home. When I got home he had taken out the other scallops from the freezer to defrost and was going to cook them up for us. SO... we both laughed and I made these guys and my hubs made cauliflower "mashed potatoes" to go with it. It was perfect!
                                 

2. We got out of school at 12:30 today! Love early dismissals-hate the PD afterwards (especially at the start of a 3 day weekend).
                      
3.We started our unit on time and I have a bunch of hands on activities planned for my little kiddos. We started by making clocks to use for each of our lessons.

4. We had an in school "field trip" today too. The Wildlife Experience came to our school and showed the kids live animals from around the world that had been rescued. We saw a squirrel monkey, African fox, snakes, and a skunk! Each animal had a sad but wonderful story of being rescued and rehabilitated. 

5. Last but not least, I just finished a Spring glyph to welcome in the warmer weather. It is an umbrella glyph about the things kids love about spring along with writing prompts and data collection charts.

Head on over and link up your fun activities this week!