A real lesson plan BOOK - for real! I can't wait to get this!

I was blog hopping this weekend and ran across this fabulous blog... http://www.teachingwithatouchoftwang.blogspot.com/ .   Cutie pie blogger Sambra,  posted a picture of her new planbook for next year.   I fell in love.   I had never heard of Erin Condren and have not used a real paper lesson plan book for YEARS,  but I visited her site and I fell in LOVE with this...

It has EVERYTHING, can be totally personalized - like you can even change the color of the paisley design to any colors you like or pick a totally different design.   It was kinda spendy - $59 - but is on sale until the end of the month for teacher appreciation!  

I tried to talk myself out of it,  but I kept going back to the site and looking at it again and again.  I watched the whole video.... then I rationalized that am writing curriculum this summer for project based learning,  and know that I will need to "write" a lot more notes than I have previously, so I justified it!  I CAN NOT wait to get it!   Are y'all shopping for next year already?

Five for Friday!

I have not blogged for a while.    We have had a case of what I can only assume was the bubonic plague go through our house.  Every one of us has had it now but most of us are finally feeling better.  Thank God!    I have been busy trying to keep up with the laundry and catching up on sleep.  But Five for Friday seems like a great reason to get back to it!

I have also been trying to learn to sew.   I might not have mentioned that I didn't know how when I insisted that I get a new sewing machine for Mothers Day.   My sweet husband,  having known me for 21 years and never having seen me sew a stitch,  did question me when I told him what I wanted.  I looked at him incredulously and just re-asked the question,  "do I sew?".   Of course, the answer was no,  but I kept that to myself.    I have not sewn since I was in home ec. in the eighth grade and I was very bad at it then.   In fact,  my very weird interesting teacher told me that my purple duffle bag looked like,  "a piece of puke".   She was not one to hold back to spare the feelings of her students so much.     But as I do,   I believe that anything on Pinterest is within my reach, so I have been working at it.   A lot.     Here are a few pics of things I have been working on.

This week has been very stessful.   The Moore tragedy has been heavily on my heart.   I have had a hard time even wrapping my mind around it.   The following day,  we had tornado watch warnings all day and some strong storms blow through. The kids were very upset and we were all on edge.   We were so thankful that our storms did not live up to the hype.   I hate tornado season here.   Hate it!

Thankfully the next day was full of sunshine!   It was my favorite day of the year in my district.   Each year,  we host the Special Olympics.   My son Grant,  is an athlete.    It was such a special day for our family and so many others.  Our boy was so proud of his medals and enjoyed every second of being in the spotlight. 

We have less than two weeks left of this year!   I am getting a little emotional about saying good-bye to my kids.... but excited for summer!

My new toy!

This was my Mothers Day gift and I love it. 

Now,  remember I really BELIEVE I am crafty,  but that is not always the case,  but I really try. So,  I just plan on believing I am a seamstress, until it happens or someone forces me to stop.  This thing is SUPER easy to use,  so the only thing to really mess me up is me.   I have been planning what I want to do for next year, and I found some super cute navy and white chevron print duck material.   I think I am going to mix it with Kelly green and some hot pink.   I am going to cover one of my bulletin boards with it and maybe make a table skirt.  I made a partner read pillow to go with it tonight and I think it turned out really cute and MUCH cheaper than any of the ones I have seen to purchase!   

 Hope everyone had a happy mothers day!

 

Random socks, no underwear, and Five for Friday!

Linking up with Doodlebugs for Five for Friday again.   I missed last week because I was in North Carolina at my sweet cousin Chad's wedding.    It was SO much fun. I love my family so much. The wedding was at a farm,  the weather was awesome and the whole mood of the wedding was so fun.   The wedding party was introduced to the song "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air", and they all came out dancing.   Here is a picture of Chad and his new wife Elsbeth dancing.  Are they the cutest couple ever?  I think so!  And the truth is they are even sweeter than they are cute,  which seems impossible! True story.

 

 

 

 

This is a picture of my crazyass brother, Karl, getting ready for the wedding.   He is as funny as he appears to be.   He has been sporting this insane mustache for a couple of years and he knows how to work it.   My brother knows how to be the center of attention in any room.   He is awesome.   You can't NOT have fun when he is around.  He also has the kindest heart and would do anything for anyone.   I love him so much.

One of my kids walked into the classroom this morning and shouted, "Hey, I'm not wearing underwear today!".  That sort of set the tone for the rest of the day.... our field day.  Our shirts say field day is good,  but I am not entirely convinced.  It was a weird and kind of gross day.  I am not feeling all that well (sinus infection and huge headache) and it was a really weird weather day.   It was foggy and cold in the morning (when we were doing water activities) - and hot and humid and sunny in the afternoon (when were playing tug-a-war)- which led to a LOT of whining about being too hot or too cold.   The kids didn't like it much either....lol!  It was not a bad day,  just exhausting I guess.   My kids were out of their minds excited,  which can be go in a lot of different directions - and did. 

 

Field day at our school has some water events - like my favorite on a cold day, "Squirt your Teacher", and some field events.  The kids take their shoes on and off a lot and are sometimes too excited to remember to pick anything everything up before moving on.  After a few events,  we always have a lot of random wet,  socks laying around the playground.  Ewwwwwww.....

 

 

This was one of the kid's favorite events, but it GROSSED me out.   They stepped into this little pool with another person.... and used their toes to grab "gemstones" out.  Then they ran back to the line and the next person set their monkey toes in action.  The team with the most at the end won.   Oh that water....foot juice.

All my whining aside,  our PE coach Sara,  and the specials team, did an amazing job coming up with all the activities.   I would venture to guess that it is the most organized field day in America!  I have no idea how long it must take her to organize and plan all of it.   Volunteers run every station - which is wonderful! The kids had a BLAST - and that is what it is all about.

Our amazing  PTA also made the day a lot easier by providing a great lunch for us.   They made a ton of delicious salads and sandwiches for us.   And they brought us all a bag of AWESOME school supplies!   Pink duct tape,   pink patterned duct tape, post-its of every size, Command hooks, adhesive tape, Crazy glue, labels, Post-it pens.... Seriously, the best gift ever for this school supply obsessed girl!

 

 My sweet kids gave me lots of extra hugs, cards, letters, poems and love this week.   I love this one.   She made an acrostic poem for me.   I LOVE that she used my first name!   Her mom is one of my teammates,  so she hears my first name as often as my last!  So sweet!

 

 

 I am looking forward to Mother's Day this weekend.    We made these cute little Pinterest inspired cards for moms in class.   They turned out really cute.   Their messages were adorable.  One of my boys wrote,   "I love you Mom,  thanks for feeding me."  They had a lot of great ideas ready for their moms this weekend.  I hope they spoil them all day!

http://doodlebugsteaching.blogspot.com/

Sharing my treasures! I sure APPRECIATE these teachers!

Of course,   I did some TpT shopping today,  and yes,  I will most likely do more tomorrow.... but here are some of the treasures I picked up today.   

First,  one of my favorite teacher's,  made another incredible product - Linda Kamp.   I am SOOOO impressed by this incredible resource.   She has included complete lesson plans,   incredible resources and posters. 
 http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Continents-Oceans-Landforms-A-Science-Writing-Literacy-Unit

I can't wait to use this next year!   It is so full of great ideas and perfect for second graders!

 

 

My next purchase was this fabulous biography unit.   I love how Abby started with interviewing the children and writing biographies about their classmates.    http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Cross-Curricular-Biography-Unit

 

Then I grabbed up this great thing.   Every year we have to make a sub binder for emergency plans.   Every year I hate it.   Now I have a total jumpstart on 2013-2014 with this cute thing!  I love it. http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Sub-Tub-Substitute-Binder-Resources

 

And the last thing I bought today was Amy Lemons new division set.   I love her multiplication packet so much that I was hoping she was working on a division set - and she was!   It is full of fabulous division activities that go way further than typical worksheets!  I love it! http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Dishing-Out-Division-Basic-Lessons-to-teach-Division



Now I just have to figure out how to pay for all the ink it is going to take me to print this all out!!!  

Happy Shopping!

My Mothership... Hobby Lobby

I LOVE Hobby Lobby.   Like, I have to try force myself not go in anytime I am anywhere near it.   Like,  I am happy they are not open on Sundays because I could not stop myself from going in on Sundays.   I fancy myself a crafter.   In much the same way I fancy myself an internet doctor.   I am not good at it,  but it doesn't stop me from trying and believing.

So I went in the other day to buy some tulle for some baby shower gifts.  And I found this.

 

 

and this adorable ribbon...

I fell in love.   Now,  I don't really know what I am going to do with it.   I am thinking I have found my color scheme for my room for next year.  Maybe the backing to a bulletin board and some toss pillows?  I may have bought a LOT of it.   I loved the navy.  And they have that 40% off coupon...

 

Is anyone else already doing this?   Planning their room for next year?   It is a sickness.   I should be finding drink recipes for summer,  but I am making a bag of things to get ready for the fall.  Who else already has plans for the fall?  New themes?   New colors?  Please share!

 



 

 

Super Serious Sale and a Chance to Win $100 from Oriental Trading Co!

I have to say I truly prefer Teachers Pay Teachers over Teacher's Notebook.   It is just easier to use,  and obviously way more visited.  It is just a more established site and seems to do almost everything "bigger".    BUT one thing that Teacher's Notebook does bigger than TPT, is a sale.   Right now, and for the rest of the week,  everything in my TN store is on sale for 55% off.   Seriously,  it is almost free.  Please go take a look!

http://www.teachersnotebook.com/shop/InThatRoom

They are also giving away $100 gift cards to Oriental Trading everyday.  You can enter each day for a new chance to win.  Just click the link on the side of my blog ->.  Good luck!

Teacher Appreciation Sale!

I am joining the giant TpT sale and have put every single product in my store on sale for 28% off.    Why such an odd percentage off you ask?   I am giving 20% off of every product and TpT is giving an additional 10% off of that - which comes out to 28%.   Please go check out some of my products,  like my new Ladybug Love set.  

Currently....May!

I totally missed the fact that it was May 1st,  until I started seeing Currently popping up on my blog like crazy!  I love Currently.   I love Farley! Go link up if you haven't.

Pretty self explanatory this month!   Happy May y'all!   Summer is so close!

I love stealing....

I love stealing ideas from other blogs!  It has totally changed teaching for me, and makes everyday sort of new adventure. I found this super cute idea on Amy Lemons' blog and filed it away in my brain - which can be a risky practice. But this time I remembered, and even better than that,  I remembered while we were actually teaching the subject matter!   SCORE!

I loved her idea of Measurement Olympics.   I have a big ol' bag of pom pom balls,  so it was a cinch.   We went outside with rulers,  a yardstick and a tape measure.   I didn't anticipate how WINDY it would be,  so we had a some interesting results.    First we kicked the pom. 

Then we measured the distance each person kicked the pom.   The kids had to determine what the best tool to use would be,  and which unit of measure.   They had some good discussions about that.

 Then we tossed the pom - the odd numbered kids vs. the even.   Then we measured again and had tie breakers.

We decided that it was too windy to do the next event outside (plus we have evil fire ants all over the place and I didn't even want to think about the bites they would get with this activity).   We went into the hallway and had our last contest.   They had to blow the pom as far as they could with one blow. 

 

 Then,  they measured again.   They decided to use rulers inside.   Then one of my little smarties figured out that our floor tiles are exactly one foot long.  She explained that they could just count the tiles and measure the extra inches in the tile the pom landed.   I love them. 

Super fun and super successful!  Objective met without a single complaint.  Thank you Amy!