The "Write" Stuff--FREEBIE!!!

So my daughter is in 4th grade in Florida and if you are in 4th grade then you know that you WRITE ALL the time.  I decided to make her class a little treat bag for all of their hard work before the BIG Test!!  Can you guess the inspiration?  umm, yes I did listen to NKOTB and they were the first concert I ever went to. (cough, cough)


Below is a little flag I made for the pencils in the goodie-bag. 

Also in the goodie bags are a cap eraser, a smartie (candy) and 2 of the soft-sweet mints.  My pharmacist told me peppermint helps stimulate the brain, so why not? Here is how my goodie bags look. 

My daughter has been working her little fingers off this year, and I just want her and her friends to know they don't need to worry or be nervous. Hopefully, there are some of you out there that might find this useful and enjoy a little NKOTB!!
Click Here to Download

I mustache you to.....

I recently received some great products from Creative Teaching Press. They asked me which items looked appealing and fun to me, and I have to tell you I found quite a few. Over the next few weeks I will share some product reviews with you and how I decided to use them in my life and classroom. I say 'life' in this instance, because my 9 and 1/2, 10 in 2 months year old daughter absolutely loves mustaches.  I don't know if you have noticed, but mustaches have invaded the world of fashion and accessories for the young pre-teen and tween generations. 

When I opened the box of Goodies, she took one look at the Mustache Medley and stickers, grabbed them and ran to her room!
She came back with this...

She taught herself how to make balloon animals, and what balloon animal is complete without his mustache?! But seriously, I think she is on to something here, don't you?

There are 2 different size mustaches.  Of course, when I got to school she punched all of them out for me. The larger mustaches have small cut-outs so you can place them on the end of a pencil.  The small ones have a million uses. I used them to create reading pointers for my students.
I mustache you to read.....

Mustache reading pointers have really engaged my students. They all grab the mustache pointer hold it under their noses and just grin from ear to ear!

Once the grinning has subsided, they use them to track and point and find their answers. Can you say Text Dependent Questions?  When I am in my small group, I want ALL of my students to answer. They are all required to find the word or phrase in the text that answers the question--How can you have 5 kids answer at the same time? They point to the word in the text with their reading pointers.

Another way I used these mustaches as well as the Happy Hearts Cut-outs, was for my Valentines Gifts.

First, my daughter helped me glue the small mustaches on to the hearts. (She will do anything mustache related!)

I added the phrase, I mustache you to be my Valentine!

I also taped a lolly-pop to the back :0)

In addition to this little Valentine, my students used the hearts to decorate their Valentine's bags.

They also used the Dots On Turquoise Stickers to add their names to their bags. We also made little cards for parents using the Color-Me Hearts. I actually used the Color-Me hearts in my regular classroom and my Sunday School Classroom as well. Both boys and girls were able to choose a design they liked and add a sweet message on the back.

I MUSTACHE you TO find something new and creative to use in your classroom. Stop back in next week for my product reviews!

Throwback Thursday!!

Common Core says First Grade needs to learn to tell time to the hour and half hour. Well guess what, the math series we use does not have time!  So I spent the whole weekend creating a unit for my firsties. Now I have some pretty smart kiddos, so I also made activities for telling time to the 1/4 hour as well, just in case I need to challenge some of them.
This is what we did today from my new unit Time Keeps on Tickin'.

My daughter helped me out this weekend and made my example clock for me.

I got these adorable numbers from Ashley Hughes-Colorful Chevron Numbers

Time scenarios to read aloud and kids to practice moving the hands on the clock--and writing on dry-erase boards.

Telling Time Anchor Charts

Glue to the plate and add hands with a brad (brass fastener). I did have to put the whole in the plate for my kids, I guess the plates were thicker than I thought. I also punched holes at the end of the arrows, so they would spin easier.

We are also researching different Famous Black American Inventors. Today We learned about Garret Morgan the Inventor of the Traffic Light. We made a Traffic light out of construction paper, after reading about him in our Time For Kids Scholastic Books.

 I bought a great unit from Teach 123 for Black History Month Activities, which compliments my writing Unit. Her unit, is full of fun ways to experience the different inventors inventions. So today we also made a Traffic Light Cookie out of graham crackers, Frosting and skittles. After this yummy snack they also wrote a "How-To Make a traffic Light Cookie"! 

We will be doing more with Time, Valentines, President's Day and Black History Month, so stop back in for more fun all February!

47 days and counting

47 days and counting...
For The last 47 days, my "free" time has been devoted to getting myself healthy, being with my children and husband whenever possible and school. It seems like forever ago, but in reality 7 weeks is really not that long.  Let me preface this by saying I am ok--now, but about 7 weeks ago, I lost my cousin to a massive heart attack at 36 years old. Then, right after Christmas, I got sick.  So sick, that for the first time in 15 years of knowing my husband, I think he was actually scared. I won't go into the details, because as I said I'm all better, but getting sick and having to spend time in the emergency room and seeing my kids worried looks, made me re-evaluate some things. The Dr. said it was most likely stress induced and that I needed to rest and be healthy. After going through the whole ordeal  I needed to be healthy, I needed to be around for a long, long time--It was like a switch went off in my head that some things needed to change.
Balance is a very hard thing, especially when you are a teacher, with 2 children, a husband and a dog. Unfortunately, the thing I had to put on the wayside, has been my blog--I'm hoping now that after 7 weeks of healthy eating, exercising and juggling, that my blog will once again be a place of reflection, fun, freebies and more fun!. I hope to have some product reviews and good music for you soon, too. If you are reading this, thanks for stopping by and I will be "seeing" you soon!