Five for Friday and a TpT Sale!

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I MADE IT THROUGH WEEK 1!!

       I just finished my first week back to school!  It has been rough!  My kiddos are great --talkative, but great!  The only snafu has been transportation!  When it takes almost an hour to get the kids finally out of the building, that's a problem!  On the first day of school, one bus didn't even show up!!!  They finally had to call the kids' parents to come and get them.  CRAY CRAY!!!!!! And, the worst part, it wasn't just our school involved in the bus debacle of 2013!  It was the WHOLE county!!  Talk about frustrated parents! ( Not to mention the teachers!)  It even made the Atlanta news!  

    But, it's Friday, Friday, Friday!!!!  And that means it's time to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday!  I'm so excited to get to link up!  This is the first one I have done since they started back in August!
                                      

      Since I haven't been able to blog for the past couple of weeks, I'm going to give you an overview of getting my room ready and a peak at my classroom and our first week.

This is a mess, but it is starting to take shape at this time!  Also, a little panic was taking shape too!!!

                                     

Still working...

This is right before open house for Meet Your Teacher Night.  The top left shows the wreath I made for Monday Made-It over the summer.  The top right shows my wish list.  We put things on it like glitter, brown and white paper bags, popsicle sticks, etc.  

                                        

      

      The kiddos have arrived!  This is one of my sweeties with the frame I made for the first day!  I don't think I ever posted about it, but I got the super-cute frame from Michael's and painted it and added the tag.  

      And, here are some of them working on our first "real" math task from our math frameworks.  They did a fabulous job and I already know they are going to be great mathematicians.  I can hardly wait to dive head-first into our math talk!

      Also, this Teachers Pay Teachers is having a little sale.  Stop on over and pick up all those things on your wish list!  My whole store is 20% off from August 18th - August 19th.  Enter the code BTS13.  Hop on over and check out this huge sale!!

                                         

Till next time...

Classroom Catalog of Good Behavior

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Hi y'all!

      I've had several people ask me about my classroom management system so I'm here today to explain what I do. :)

      I know so many of you use the clip chart, but for me, I don't think I could keep up with it.  I love the idea of the clip chart and maybe one day, but for now, I'm sticking with what works for me!  Kudos to all of you that can keep up with it, but man, it's enough to keep up with just this!

      So, I have this wooden clip stand.  The best pic I can find on this computer is this one...and it's from 3 years ago!!!

       At the top is a green circle, in the middle is a yellow circle, and at the bottom is a red circle.  As you can see, the red is at the bottom and you can't see the green at the top.  Sorry...that's the best I could do...

                          

      All the clips are clipped to the green at the start of each day.  If they have an infraction, they move down a level to yellow.  If they have another infraction, they move to red.

      At any time, they may work themselves back up a level.  Each level is represented by a number.

Green = 5

Yellow = 4

Red = 3

      At our school, they are given a spiral bound agenda.  I write the number that they earned each day in the agenda and I expect my parents to initial each night.  That way, the parents are always aware of how each day went for their student.  If they have a number less than a 5, I always jot a little note telling the parents what the issues were.  This also gives me a chance to write a little good note too :)!

      At the end of the week, I tally up their points that they have earned for the week and based on the points, they get to pick out of my Classroom Catalog of Good Behavior!!!  They absolutely LOVE this!! 

      I am pretty strict with the points so they really strive to keep their five for each day.  It usually just takes one time to miss out on catalog orders and they are right back on track!!

      This little catalog has been a great classroom management lifesaver, as well as a teacher budget saver. No longer am I purchasing lots and lots of items for my treasure box because my students are choosing rewards that don't cost me a single penny! 

      I just print out the pages I need, place in sheet protectors, and then place in a binder.  That way, they can browse through like a real catalog!     

  Now, that's what I call AWESOME!!!!

Throwback Thursday

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I'm finally getting to participate in Cara's Throwback Thursday linky! I have enjoyed reading everyone's and decided it was time to link up my own!


                                         

      I'm linking up this post from last year for Monday Made-It.  It's my version of the Where Am I? board that is all over Pinterest.  When students leave the room, the students move their magnets that have their magic number on it.  (The magic number is what I call the number I give them for my organizational purposes!)
                                                  


      Since I've been using this board, I know where all my students are at all times!  I know, I know, we're supposed to always know that anyway, but there are times before when I was like, "Now, where did I send them?"  Please, please tell me I am not alone!!

      Anywho, I have included a little FREEBIE to go along with this post so you can make your own board!  There are a few different color combinations for you!

     
Till next time...

School's Out for the Summer!!

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      Happy Friday y'all!! OOOPPSS!  Now, it's Saturday!!!  I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching and Teaching Maddeness for a look back at our week(s)!




      It's been a hot minute since I've been able to blog, but...

      Yipee!!! School is out for the summer!! Today, yesterday was our last day of post-planning! (I've been trying to write this post since last night, but with some tech issues!)  Anyway, we have become so used to getting everything done in like two days, so having four days seemed to drag on and on! We decided to have a bit of some team building activities to pass the time --- roller chair races and wii. We had to sign waivers to make sure that everyone was competing on their own accord and wouldn't claim worker's comp if they got hurt. Yadda...yadda. All the legalities had to be covered! We had SO MUCH FUN!!

      Since I haven't blogged in the last couple of weeks, I'm just going to hit a few of the highlights. It has been jam-packed as I'm sure your weeks have been as well!

      My oldest son turned 20! It is so hard to believe that this sweet baby boy is now a grown man! Treasure your time with your babies. It is true that time truly does fly by! When you're in the midst of it, it doesn't seem that way, but you look back and you wonder how in the world so much time has passed by!

      Our media specialist always shares what she's reading and asked if I had read The Maze Runner.  I had not so she brought it to me.  It's very Hunger Games-ish.  A little strange and hard to get into right away, but if you just keep reading, you just can't put it down.  I have since finished that and moved on the the second book in the trilogy - The Scorch Trials and almost done with that one.  (I have finished now and just waiting for the 3rd!)  It is so good!  I was not planning to even start reading until next week, but I can't put them down!  And then, I found out that they are making it into a movie!  Very cool!  I can't wait to start the third book!

      

                                    

     

      A few weeks ago, I blogged about the fitness website, Adventure to Fitness, that you can use with your class.  You can read about that here.  I was so excited to get this tweet from them! And...they followed little old me!!  ♥

                                         

      Ok, this next little thing happened this week.  Our principal does not like clutter so she highly encourages us to declutter as much as possible during post-planning.  Plus, next summer, they will be renovating our school and we will have to pack up everything and move it out of the building so less stuff = less stuff to pack and move.  I digress though...my coworker was getting rid of this little baby below and I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it!  I saw the fabulous Amanda at Teaching Maddeness had one and I absolutely loved it!  It will go in my classroom perfectly, which leads to the next pic...  

    At our staff luncheon, I received the Martha Stewart Award for Best Decorated Classroom.  Cool, huh?  

                                 

                                          

      Well, that's it for now.  I hope you are enjoying your summer and if you aren't out of school yet, I hope your time passes by quickly and you can enjoy your sweet summer time!!

Till next time...

Robin

Five for Friday...Flashback {May 10 edition}

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      Happy Friday y'all!   This has been a really long week.  It was just Tuesday and felt like it should be Friday already!  We have sooo much end of the year stuff going on that I just feel exhausted thinking about it.  And, I don't think next week will be any better!  I will have no - none - zilch - absolutely no planning at all next week.  Ugh!  I'm sooo not looking forward to that!  But, on the brighter side, we only have ten days of school left!!  Yipee!!

      Friday also means linking up with Amanda at Teaching Maddeness and Doodle Bugs Teaching.  I just love these two linkys!!

                                      

      We are anxiously waiting for our caterpillars to turn into butterflies.  They should be in the pupa stage when we return on Monday.  I sure hope we don't miss them hatching since we only have ten days of school left!  I can't complain though!  They were a gift from a sweet mom/teacher who sent them down as a surprise when we returned from our butterfly center field trip last week.  The caterpillars are really getting big and were starting to make their way to the top of the container today!  So exciting!!

      Were you spoiled for Teacher's Appreciation this week?  I hope so!  Our school, PTO, Partners in Education, and parents really spoiled all of us!  I wish I had gotten some pics, but I wasn't thinking apparently!  So, I give you this:

      My son rescued a cute kitty this past week!  We fell in love!  Well, almost all of us!  My sweet hubby would say, "Who is you little friend We?"  He did not fall in love!  We kept it overnight, but that was it.  The mister found a forever home very quickly!  A man, from his work, and his wife fell in love with the pics because it reminded them of a kitty they had many years ago.  They decided to name it - Mira, but pronounced more like Mirror because she was a mirror image of their former kitty!  Sweet!

      We also this week got to try out Adventure to Fitness!  It was soooooo much fun!!!  I blogged about it HERE!  If you haven't tried it with your kids, you must try it!  The kids love it!  

                                       

      And, for Mother's Day, we made ceramic tiles with their handprints.  They turned out so cute!  

      All I did was use 6x6 ceramic tiles, acrylic craft paint, a Sharpie, and clear spray enamel.  Easy peasy!  And mom's everywhere like to be reminded of how sweet their little one's hands are!   They can hang them up, use as a coaster, or trivet, or anything they'd like!

I hope your week was great!  Can't wait to read about it!!

Oh, and there's one more day to enter my giveaway!  Enter before it's too late!!!!

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Till next time...

Robin

Our Week in Review AND a {{GIVEAWAY!!!}}

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It's Friday, y'all!!   That means it is time to link up for Five for Friday with Doodle Bugs Teaching and Friday Flashback with Teaching Maddeness!  Both of these linky parties is so much fun!  You need to check them out!

                                   


      Since getting my masters in math education, I have really tried to stretch my students' thinking in mathematics.  We did a little bit of work on algebraic thinking using growing patterns.  I chose to do a growing pattern using caterpillars made with circles.  The 1 day old caterpillar was made with 3 circles.  Two day old caterpillars was made with 4 circles.  Three day old caterpillars was made with 5 circles, etc., etc.  They had to then find out how many circles would be needed for 5 days old, 10 days old, 25 days old, 50 days old, 75 days old, and 100 days old.  It was amazing listening to their reasoning and solutions.

      Our county offers Partners in Education grants every year.  They range from $300 to $1000 for various classroom projects.  This year, they added a category of field trip grants.  Our principal required us to either write an individual or grade level grant for any of the grant categories.  We decided to try for a field trip grant.  The prize patrol came around about a month ago to tell us the news that our field trip grant proposal had been approved!!  Happy Day, Happy Day!!!!  We had written the grant to go visit the Day Butterfly Center at Callaway Gardens since our science focuses heavily on life cycles.  This was an amazing field trip while we were there, however, the bus ride was not fun!  We were on the bus for a total of FOUR hours of our school day because our drivers got lost going and coming home!  They had to hold the buses for us because we late getting back!!!  I was never so glad to be back to school!!!  And, as soon as I could, I high-tailed it right outta there!!!

      We have an amazing ballet/dance school here and they put on great shows.  We got to go to see their performance of The Lion King of Mali.  It was a bit weird in the beginning, but was really beautiful!!  It is very different from the Disney version, but the director said that this is the story that the Disney version is based on.  Anyway, we didn't get lost!  Thank goodness, since the auditorium is just over a few streets and I really didn't want to get back on a bus after yesterday!

      And now, for great news!  I have finally hit 100 followers and because of that, I am having a giveaway!!  Classroom Friendly Supplies has agreed to giveaway one of their awesome and amazing pencil sharpeners.  I have already blogged about how much I love mine.  You can read about that HERE.  I am also giving away a $15 dollar Starbucks gift card!

      For your chances to win, enter below!  Spread the word!!  It will start at MIDNIGHT TONIGHT!!

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Good luck!!

Till next time...

Instagram Fun

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      So...it was back to the real world after my wonderful, awesome, not-long-enough spring break!  Now, we only have 19 more days of school!  Whoop-whoop!  I really am going to be sad to see this sweet bunch of kiddos go!  But, so excited for summer!  This will be the first summer in a couple of years that I have not had to work on grad school classes!

      On another note...do you instagram?  I so, so love this app!  Now, I have The Bomb-Diggity Classroom on instagram!  Come follow me and join in the fun!

      I am so excited to link up with What the Teacher Wants and Apples and ABC's for their #teachertalktuesday.  The idea is to post a pic that you want to share every Tuesday with the hashtag #teachertalktuesday so that we all can connect with teachers around the world to see what they are up to.  

Sound fun, right?

      Here are a few of my favorite pics:

Flowers from my sweet hubby!

You might as well... :)

My little math team!  So smart!!

            Now, head over and join the party!  It's going to be so fun to see #teachertalktuesday in action!  See you tomorrow!  :)

Till next time...

     

My Classroom

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      It's Sunday Funday with Latoya over at Flying into First.  She is hosting a great linky that I am so excited about!  The topic is:  My Classroom!  How great is that?  It's always great to see other teachers' classroom and  see the cool stuff they have and are doing!

                                   

     We will get acquainted today by sharing three(3) of our favorite areas in our classrooms.

      Ok, so my desk does not look like this right now, but I like my little "teacher cave."  It's over in a corner of the room.  I don't get to sit here often while students are in the room, but when they are away, this is usually where you'll find me grading, paperwork, etc...  You know the drill.  :)

      I also love this little corner of the room.  This is my reading area.  I have a little wicker loveseat and chair over there with a few little stuffed friends too.  They get over there and cuddle and read and I just love it!  It is so cozy!  

      Ok, so this is a terrible picture.  It was taken at the beginning of the year when I was just moving into this room, but you can see the beginning of how it's going to shape up.  Anyway, the things I love about this are...my round tables.  I love these tables.  I have moved classrooms three times in four years and these tables have gone with me each and every move.  You can also see my reading area in the background taking shape, and I also love my decorations hanging from the ceiling.  BTW, did you notice how big my room is?  I got to move into a mansion of a room this year!  I hope I never move again!!!  (And, so does my family!!  Ha!!)  

I can't wait to see your favorite spots in your classroom!  

Hope y'all have a great week!

Till next time...

Fraturday Flashback!

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      I am a day late linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching and Teaching Maddeness so it's officially a Fraturday linkup!  Better late than never, right?!?!

                                     

Soooo, I hope your week week was fabulous!  Here is a rundown of mine....

    I got to celebrate with one of our teacher's on Monday for her 50th birthday!  We had such a fun time with food, fun, and fellowship!  It's nice just to hang out with my coworkers, because we NEVER get to just talk!  When we're at school, it is a constant go, go, go!  I know you can relate!

      Our school is part of a program called Healthmpowers.  We have to complete a lot of health activities as well as fitness things.  We have to track our time, and the more time our school logs, the more materials they give us!  Pretty cool, huh?  One of the programs that Healthmpowers does for us is brings the Body Walk to our school.  The students get to travel through the body and learn about the different organs and how to stay healthy!  It is really cool and the kids LOVE it! 

      We also got to have field day this week!  I told you it was a busy week!  Ha!  I had not been feeling good  this week so I was really dreading field day!  But, I woke up feeling some better.  It was a beautiful day and my class was SO, SO sweet the entire day!  There was no meanness, just preciousness all day long!  Loved it!  

          

So Much Fun!

       And last, but not least...I am finally on SPRING BREAK y'all!!!!  After all these weeks of you guys enjoying your spring break, mine has finally arrived!  I cannot wait to wake up to NO alarm clock!  Sleeping is one of my favorite things!  We have no big plans for the beginning of the week, but later in the week, we are heading to the beach for a little R & R!  So excited!

Hope you guys have a great weekend!

Till next time...