Five For Friday!

It's Friday and it's a 3 day weekend!!  Whoop Whoop!!  Only 9.5 days of school left too!  I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday.

My best friend, and 2nd grade team mate is the mother to the cutest and sweetest 2 year old I know!  Well, when Riley was born, she was born with only part of her left arm but she hasn't skipped a beat yet!  Her mom has entered in her a contest with Parents Magazine to be on the cover where "Difference Should be Celebrated" and I would like to ask you to go vote for her!  This morning she was in 15th place, but let's see if we can get her to #1!  Click the picture below.  You can vote once daily on each device you have - phone, ipad, computer...

I don't know about you, but when I was in college I started my checklists towards the end of each semester to make sure I had everything done...well I do that as a teacher too!  I'm sure this list will get longer before it's done, but I LOVE checking things off my to-do list!

What a better way to practice spelling words on a beautiful and warm morning than to go outside and practice writing them with sidewalk chalk!  We practiced our words and picture coded one word from our list and now everyone can see our spelling words as they walk down the sidewalk!  The favorite word to picture code this week was...BACON!

Well, we had field day on Thursday and boy did we have fun!  After playing all morning outside and inside, we had Chick-Fil-A for hot lunch, and then all went to the gym to watch Frozen.  We more so had a Frozen sing-a-long!  I know the kids and teachers had a great day!

This year I've had the pleasure of having a wonderful first grade TA come help me in the afternoon during math for about an hour each day.  I wanted to thank her for "pitching" in so I go her a big pitcher, some lemonade, and three insulated "party" cups as a thank you gift.  The labels are from What the Teacher Wants if you want to grab them!

Have a great Friday y'all!!

Five for Friday...on Saturday!

Hey everyone!  I'm a day late on this week's Five for Friday, but since I missed it last week too, I decided it was better to be late than never!  Plus, we've had an exciting week...or actually an exciting Friday so I have to share what we had going on!  I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five For Friday...so let's get started!

So a couple weeks ago the teacher blogger and instagram world went crazy over the PaperMate Flair pens and their extremely low price at Staples...well I stopped at a Staples on the way home from dinner that night and didn't have any luck, but didn't get too upset about it because I'm obsessed with Staedtler pens.  I've had a set of 10 for about a year and half and just love them...but last week when I "had" to wander around Target waiting for my eye drops to be filled at the pharmacy (darn eye infection!) I stumbled across these beauties.  So earlier this week I took the plunge and used a gift card from teacher appreciation week to get myself a big pack of 20!!  So many colors to choose from!

Last year a couple of my team mates and I decided to do buckets for our kids end of year gifts.  We put a Scholastic book, some summer activity games, and some other fun things like bubbles, jump ropes, kool aid, etc.  Last year after spending a few hours getting those blasted stickers off of the buckets, I wrote their names using black/white paint pens.  This year, I wanted to use my new Cricut Explore to put their names on their buckets with vinyl.  I just love how they turned out!

If you are a follower of mine, you caught my post earlier in the week as part of the Keep Calm and Survive blog hop where I blogged about my QR Code countdown.  We are going to start scanning QR codes Thursday afternoon...I'm excited to start!  Anywho...as I began getting things ready to copy for the last couple weeks, I decided to whip up some language arts and math centers with a beach theme to use the week after Memorial Day.  Our last Day is June 6..but that week is a joke, so we are doing all of our fun educational activities the week before!  Click the picture to check them out in my store!

I LOVE GoNoodle!  I wish it calmed my kids down as much as it does for other teachers but I love it nonetheless!  The kids have a several favorites and we got up and moving to those many, many times this week!

Okay, so now for our exciting Friday!  Warning: there will be several pictures to follow!

Let me begin by saying that last year my school sought out and adopted Letterland, a child-friendly phonics program that began in England over 30 years ago.  This program is WONDERFUL and I cannot give it enough praise.  It is used in countries all over the world and is slowly making its way across the United States, but is mostly concentrated here in NC.

So, every year Tweetsie Railroad in the NC mountains hosts Letterland Days and turns their park into Letterland.  Since a local, and large, public school system has also adopted Letterland, they worked with Letterland to host a Letterland Day at Pullen Park in Raleigh NC today.  Because of all of these events, the creator of Letterland, Lyn Wendon, made her way across the pond to visit Tweetsie, Pullen Park, and came to our school yesterday!  We were over the moon excited and have been planning for her arrival for weeks!  Not only did our Letterland Rep bring Ms. Wendon, but also her son and some of the other "higher up" Letterland reps for a 2 hour visit.  After an assembly in the gym with our K-2 students which included our Kindergarten students singing, 1st and 2nd graders asking questions, and watching a video of 1st Grade's Letterland day back in October, our administrators gave the team a tour of our classrooms and what we were doing with Letterland.  So, I had the creator of Letterland IN MY CLASSROOM watching me teach her program!!  My principal, superintendent and other school staff members told me that Ms. Wendon and her "team" loved my classroom, my teaching, and what I was doing with their program in my room.  I was so humbled and excited that I about cried.  It was a very exciting morning and about lunch time, it hit me that I was exhausted from all that excitement!  Now for a few pictures from our morning!

Ms. Wendon in the the rocking chair before our assembly began.  She loved looking at all the Kindergarteners dressed up as their favorite Letterland characters. 

Intently watching the video of 1st Grade's Letterland Day last fall!

All of our Kindergarteners singing some of their favorite Letterland songs, dressed up as their favorite characters.  So cute and sang so very well!

Ms. Wendon during our reception beginning to open the "Lyn of Letterland" engraved spoon that we gave her to go along with the tea pot that our art teacher made with student thumbprints. (Sorry for the blurry pics!)

She loved that it was etched "Lyn of Letterland"

There is so much more that I have probably forgotten.  It was such a wonderful experience that I know our students will never forget and I hope that Ms. Wendon will not forget either!

Have a great weekend y'all!

Keep Calm & Survive Second Grade - An End of Year Blog Hop

Hello Blog Hoppers!

Allyson here from Going Strong in 2nd Grade to share an idea to make the end of your school year a little more fun!  I don't know about you, but I think around April when we return from track-out, we starting counting down to summer!  We have about 6 weeks off in the summer, or the kids do at least, and we are all ready and waiting for that last day of school to arrive.

This is my 3rd year of teaching and each year I have done a 10 day countdown to summer and each year I have done it differently.  My first year, we popped balloons, last year, I made scratch off cards that I hung from the ceiling and we scratched one off each day..but this year we are going all techy and doing QR codes!

We still have 17 days of school left..but my QR code surfboards have been hanging in my window for over a week!  Beginning on May 22nd, when we have 11 days left, we will scan a QR code each afternoon to see what we are going to do the next day.  I do it this way so that if students need to bring something like a beach towel for read to self outside, they know to do so the day before.

Some of the things we are going to do during our 10 day countdown include:

*Read to Self Outside

*Popsicles

*Shaving cream spelling

*Game Day

*Sidewalk chalk

*and more!!

So, I have a product to share with you so you can surf into summer too!

Not only are the QR code surfboards included in this pack,  I've also included posters if you choose to go that way.  These "posters" are what picture will link up to each QR code when you scan it with your device.  There are a total of 24 activities so you have a lot to choose from, or start counting down sooner!

So, click the image above to head on over to my TPT store and grab your QR codes!  The QR codes and a couple of my other end of year products will be on sale through Thursday, so grab them while they are on sale!

Now, head on over to Diving Into 2nd Grade for your next stop on our blog hop!

TPT Loves Teachers Sale!

Happy Cinco de Mayo friends!  We didn't do much celebrating today since we are right in the middle of our end of year assessments.  I do good just to get the normal stuff done, so nothing else was added to our day today!

But...my kiddos did have Spanish has their rotation day special class today, so I'm sure they did some celebrating in Spanish class!

My whole store will be 20% off Tuesday and Wednesday!  Head over, fill up your cart, and save a little while you are there!

Happy Shopping!

Five for Friday

It's May, my friends!  We've had a lot of thunderstorms and yucky weather this week and as one of my kiddos said "Ms. Sutton, we should have a lot of May flowers, because we have had a lot of April showers!"  I sure hope she was right.  I'm here linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday!  Here are my five randoms from the week!

Well, on Monday mClass and I met again for the last time this year - PRAISE!  We had to switch kiddos to administer the TRC part, but I was able to do my own kiddos for Dibels.  Got all of my Dibels done by Tuesday and started on TRC on my team mate's class Wednesday.  We aligned our schedules so we assess from 8:30 - 10:15 each day and then we stop.  She has fewer kids in her class, so I'm hoping to finish Tuesday or Wednesday!

We have had Teacher Appreciation Week at school this week and boy have my kids and parents gone above and beyond!  Goodies each day from our parent group, PAL, ranging from popcorn bar on Monday, breakfast, soup/salad, and Sweet Tomatoes catered lunch today.  Wednesday was "take your teacher out to lunch" themed day, so I got some gift cards to go out to eat...I loved the way this one was packed up - so cute!!

I've mentioned that I have flipped my classroom for math since January.  My kids and I love it!  Well, Wednesday we had to complete our AIMSweb math assessment and had time left over, so I passed out the iPads and the kids got to do their math homework at school before going home - talk about happy kids :)

I don't know about you, but I our school can really put some wear and tear on a copy machine.  Our high school has a loaner because theirs died, and ours in elementary is about to that point.  Out of a 5 day week, the repair man has been to school 4 days I believe!  I've heard administration is waiting until June to buy each house a new copier at the same time..something about contracts and yadda yadda yadda (copier guy needed somebody to talk to the other day and I guess I was his ear - haha).

It was back to working this afternoon and that is such a wonderful thing!

So, our school dress code for staff on Fridays is usually jeans and a school shirt...but yesterday on my way home...I get this email:

So excited to represent my alma mater on Class Day/graduation weekend and rock my Rainbows!

Have a great weekend y'all!

Oh...one more...5 just isn't enough some weeks!

My kids have really started rocking back in their chairs here lately and I've tried explaining to them that it just isn't safe...that fell on deaf ears.

So, after a few threats and warnings to take their chair if I catch them rocking back...I finally did it!  The other kids kind of felt sorry for this poor little guy since he couldn't squat, sit on his knees, or anything...he had to stand at his spot.  Took his chair about 10:45 AM too!  He got it back at lunch because he does need his chair to sit and eat lunch.  But...he lost it after specials, which comes just after lunch, and had to stand during math! 

Freebie on a Monday!

Hello friends!  Stopping in really quick tonight to post a fraction freebie!  We are going to begin tackling fractions (2.G.3) this week and needed an activity for next week.  I love task cards, so I whipped some up tonight!  Head over to my TPT store to check them out!!

Monday is out of the way...one down - four to go!

Five For Friday!

I'm back again this week for Five for Friday!  It has been a short week for us finished off with a field trip today and boy, am I tired!  I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five For Friday this week...so here we go!

So I am someone who likes change - like things on the walls and furniture kind of change.  This is my third year of teaching and I've been in the same classroom all three years.  My room setup has been pretty much the same for those three years.  Back in January I started thinking about how I wanted to move furniture in my room and move stuff around NEXT school year.  I convinced myself I needed to wait as it was going to be too much work to move stuff for the second half of the school year.  Well, I am also a person that when I get something on the brain, I can't forget about it.  So about once a week since January I've been trying to move my student tables to get some sense of change, but never found an arrangement I liked.  So....last Wednesday I got to seriously thinking about moving all of my furniture and when I came back to my room during my carpool planning afternoon, I took the plunge and worked for an hour moving stuff.  Came back the next morning and moved more stuff and waited to see my kids reactions when they came in - they were stunned and are still walking all over the room because their little bodies are used to going to the back corner to turn papers in and it is now on the opposite side of the room at the front.  Below are pictures from before...circa last July before our open house and after...finally taken today.

Before:

And after...I am in love with it!  The {tiny} room seems so much bigger with pretty much the same furniture just rearranged!  Still working on getting it just like I like it and trying to finish building more cubbie bookshelves that I finally received yesterday.

Arrays galore!  We have been studying arrays this week in math and the kids are excited to know that this is getting them ready to learn multiplication next year.  If only we can learn what a row is...

We used Soaring Through 2nd Grade's new arrays pack during Work with Teacher some this week.  We were building arrays from the repeated addition sentence and the kids loved it!  If they didn't finish during Work With Teacher, they wanted to come back and finish after they finished their math journal, so I had a table full of kids sitting and standing at one point working on their arrays!  Love it!

I won an art field trip for my class!  Whoop whoop!  We have a parent at our school who was offering art field trips to the first 3 teachers who emailed her, each trip valued at $175.  It will be an in class field trip and I am excited to surprise my kiddos with this after our end of year assessments which begin this week!

I finally got around to finishing my first set of themed/monthly math centers - baseball themed, perfect for May.  Can't wait for my kiddos to start using them next week!  Now I can start thinking about making sets for next school year - already have ideas for October, but need to come up with July/August and September first!  Those will definitely be a review of a lot of first grade concepts since it is the beginning of the year!

Head over to my TPT store to check out the centers!

We had our 2nd (and last) field trip of the school year today to the NC Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh.  Because we are a charter school, field trips at our school are a little different...meaning that we have almost as many chaperones as we do students.  The woman at the front desk couldn't believe it when we told her we had close to 80 chaperones!  And we only have 92 students in our grade level!  It makes field trips so much less stressful for us!  We toured the museum for about 2 1/2 hours and then went to see the 3D movie, The Last Reef, in the WRAL 3D Movie Theater at the museum.  It was a good movie, but after walking around the museum...I think half of us fell asleep...soothing music and nice calm voice of the narrator meant I nodded off as did some of my kiddos and my bestie beside me too!  If I hadn't had my students beside me asking me questions throughout, I might have really nodded off to la-la land!

Here are some pictures from our field trip adventures today!

My silly kiddos!

Bestie and me with our one of our other team mate's granddaughter!

I'll leave you with a couple pics of my rotten kitties enjoying our sunroom earlier this week!

Have a great weekend!!