Spring Break

For the past TWO weeks I've been on Spring Break! I had every intention of posting these earlier, but I was in vacation mode. Here are a few activities that we did before we left. 

Preposition Airplanes: 

I found this activity on Pinterest via Smart Chick. After learning about prepositions, the students were able to write sentences of their own in a really fun way! We first made paper airplanes using plain computer paper. I made them take an oath vowing that they would not make paper airplanes in class unless I give them permission! Then, the students flew their airplanes anywhere in the class. On their whiteboards, they had to write down where the plane landed using a preposition. They did this five times. After, I had them write where the plane landed in complete sentences. To save paper, I just had them write the sentences on their airplanes. It was fun! 

Junk Art:

For Earth Day coming up, my city hosted a junk art contest for kids. I had the students bring in their "junk"-- anything that can be recycled-- and they were able to create anything they wanted out of the material. I will admit that I was really freaking out with the amount of "junk" that was brought in. While they were creating, I was walking around cleaning! Ahhh! In the end, the projects turned out really cute and the kids were very creative. Aaaaand, they did a great job of cleaning up the classroom too. This was a fun way to connect recycling and Earth Day to the arts. 

Shamrock Art: 

For St. Patrick's Day, we did a fun shamrock art activity. I pre-printed the outline of a shamrock on paper. Then, I had the students use a ruler and pencil to draw as many intersecting lines as they wanted through their shamrock. This was also an opportunity to talk about angles and lines. In the space created by the lines, the students were able to draw any design that they wanted, or some just drew different colors. I just told them that they couldn't use one color and to try not having the same colors touching. After they finished, they went over the pencil marks with a black marker. I think they turned out really cool! 

Chambray: Nordstrom Rack

Skirt: Old Navy

Boots: Calvin Klein

Top: Gap

Jacket: Old Navy

Jeans: Old Navy 

Top: Old Navy

Pants: Gap

Jacket: Target

Cardigan: Gap

Skirt: Kohls

Watch: Fossil 

Sweater: Gap

Skirt: Jane.com

Necklace: F21

Top: Target

Pants: Old Navy

Watch: Fossil

Vest: Kohls

Tee: old

Jeans: Old Navy

Boots: Nordstrom Rack

Necklace: Styles 

Dress: Sonoma at Kohls

Shoes: Toms 

Camera Roll

My sister-in-law sent me this pin yesterday and I thought it was hilarious, and exactly how I'm feeling right now. So much to do, and no time to do it! 

Some outfits from my phone:

Top: Gap

Jeans: Old Navy

Scarf: Old Navy

Boots: Franco Sarto

Bracelet: Old Navy

Top: H&M. Similar here. 

Jeans: Old Navy

Vest: Macy's

Necklace: JC Penney

Top: Forever 21

Jeans: Gap

Shoes: Target

Necklace: Personalize Me

Dress: Old Navy

Boots: Franco Sarto

Sweater: Old Navy

Jeans: Old Navy

Blouse: Marshall's

Boots: Old Navy

Sweater: Nordstrom Rack

Leggings: Nordstrom

Boots: Aerosoles

Boot Socks: Target

Top: Nordstrom 

Jeans: Old Navy 

Boots: Nordstrom Rack

Jewelry: Linda Webster

Jacket: Aeropostale. Similar here. 

Skirt: Target

Top: Nordstrom 

Boots: Franco Sarto

Blazer: Cynthia Rowley

Top: No clue 

Jeans: Old Navy

Boots: Franco Sarto

Scarf: Wish Jewelry. Similar here. 

Solar System Exhibit

In science, we just wrapped up a unit on the solar system. As a culminating project, I had my students each research a different planet (not including Earth) and create an alien to go with their planet. I used this awesome resource that I found on TPT. In addition to the alien, the students created a passport for the alien, which housed all of the research that they conducted on their planet. Fun right? 

The students could make their alien out of anything and it was so cool to see how creative and different each one looked. I was really impressed with them all. In addition, my students held a Solar System exhibit at school and presented their projects to the 3rd and 4th grade students. They did such an awesome job! 

Here are some pictures of some of the aliens and some posters that the kids created. 

Tuesday 1-28-14

Jeans: Old Navy

Cardigan: Old Navy

Chambray: From KMart. Yes, seriously. 

Boots: Franco Sarto

 Wednesday 1-29-14

Dress: Target

Boots: Calvin Klein

Watch: Fossil 

 Thursday 1-30-14

Sweater: Target

Leggings: HUE 'Ultra' Wide Waistband Leggings

Boots: Franco Sarto

Scarf: Gift show

Casual Friday 1-31-14

Jeans: Old Navy 

Boots: Old Navy

Shirt: KWU. Supporting my lil' bro's baseball team. Go Yotes! 

Homework Hotspot

Over winter break, I spent a lot of time on Pinterest and reading different teaching blogs. Since it's my first full year, I am definitely trying to improve and form my teaching and management style. One thing that I found that I loved was this great idea from Young Teacher Love for turning in homework. She calls it the Homework Hotspot. Instead of checking homework each morning, or having students turn in their homework to an inbox (what I was previously doing), they each have their own slot to turn in their homework each morning. It is so easy to just look over and see who doesn't have their homework, rather than have to go around to each student or check each paper individually. I've only been using it for a week, but I am already loving it. 

Check out the blog post from Young Teacher Love here. 

Here are the exact pocket charts that are ordered from Amazon.

Tuesday 1-21-14

Dress: Old Navy

Boots: Calvin Klein

Wednesday 1-22-14

Blouse: Merona at Target (and it's paisley!)

Jeans: Citizens of Humanity

Shoes: Old Navy

Earrings: Forever 21

 Thursday 1-23-14

Jeans: Gap

Tank: Target 

Cardigan: Old Navy

Boots: Franco Sarto

Necklace: Forever 21

On a non-teaching note. My sister just gave birth to my newest niece, Aubree Kate. She is absolutely perfect. My boyfriend and I got to meet her this past weekend. Here he is holding her for the first time. He acted as if he was scared out of his mind, but I think he looks like a natural. (:

"I can't look up. I have to watch the baby." 

MLK Jr. Legacy of Service

“Everybody can be great...because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.” - Martin Luther King, Jr. 

For those of you who want to help your students understand that MLK Jr. Day is not just a day off, but a day of service, Scholastic has some great resources for that. I especially like this first video, which explains how MLK Jr. Day came to be a national holiday. Click the video to go to the site. 

While you're there, check out the Student Art Contest. It's a great way to combine art and the message of service to others. 

New Year

My sister-in-law sent me this ecard today and I thought it was hilarious! I could definitely use some Starbucks in my life this week. I feel like I've been going and going and going. I know we just had Winter Break, but I am seriously in need of another. Luckily, it's a three day weekend and I have one more day off tomorrow for MLK Jr. Day. 

Speaking of which... I wanted to do something a little different to teach my 5th graders about MLK Jr. this year. Instead of talking about his life and listening to his speech (as they've done so many times already), I focused on his legacy. We started off by talking about the Civil Rights movement and different forms of peaceful protests on Day 1. We also shared with them the importance of song during the marches and I played this amazing video of the Morehouse College Glee Club performing "We Shall Overcome."

On Day 2 I had them do a quickwrite about the question: "How did MLK Jr. change America?" We talked about how life is different today than in the 60s and how their lives are directly affected by the Civil Rights movement. We then discussed what a legacy is and then I had them discuss and share what they thought was MLK Jr.'s legacy. 

By discussing MLK Jr. and the fact that one man was able to create so much change, I wanted the kids to begin thinking about their own impacts and how they can influence others. Since they are going to middle school next year, I had them think about what their elementary school legacy would be when they graduated. I had them list their accomplishments, service, and characteristics on a graphic organizer. You can get it here: 

My intent is to make this into a writing assignment and then have the kids create a picture board of their legacy to show to parents at Back to School night or graduation. I was thinking of using Glogster, but I haven't decided just yet. Hopefully the project will help the kids see just how accomplished and important they really are! 

Here are some random outfit pics from my phone. I'm not sure of the dates. 

Dress: Mossimo

Boots: Franco Sarto

Necklace: From my mom :) 

Long-sleeve: Old Navy

Jeans: Old Navy

Boots: Frano Sarto

Vest: Charter Club at Macy's. Similar one here.

Pants: Merona at Target

Top: Old Navy

Cardigan: Mossimo at Target

Close up of my monogram necklace from Personalize Me Jewelry on Etsy. 

Top: Marshall's 

Leggings: HUE 'Ultra' Wide Waistband Leggings

Boots: Calvin Klein

Shirt: Teacherwear

I got it at the CTA Good Teaching Conference last weekend. I love that it matches my favorite cheetah scarf! 

Here's something new that I created over Winter Break: new Hall passes!! I previously had just a normal pass that the kids carried with them to the restroom or office. However, they were really cheap and the kids broke them in half. They were also just really yucky looking. I found these cute lanyards at our local school supply store. I printed and laminated the labels, attached them to the lanyard, and that's it. I told the kids that they have to wear them around their necks (no excuses) so they don't have to set them down in the restroom (let's hope).