I did it again!!!

After much contemplation, I decided to do it!

What you ask???

OPEN MY SECOND STORE!!!

I am so excited to have opened up another shop at Teacher's Notebook.  I absolutely love Teacher's Pay Teacher's and melt every time I get a notification in my mailbox, but I wanted to expand further across the web! :)

To celebrate this new adventure I'm having a 3-day sale starting right now!

{click HERE}

While you're there pick up the newly revised End of the Year Awards!  I added two more awards for many of you who have more than 20 sweeties in your classroom.  Here's a peek:

Phew! I had such a wonderful weekend full of relaxation!  I started my weekend off with a school function benefiting the arts in our school.  It was wonderful getting to see everyone outside their green shirts and jeans and in their "finest!"  Saturday begun with a delicious breakfast with the hubby followed by endless hours in the sun reading the last of the Hunger Games.  Today wasn't much different.  Slept in. Sunned all day with great friends! Perfect weekend!

 

Mother's Day, Testing, and Germs :(

I am home.  Sick.  It is NOT fun.  

We are in the middle of testing {we take the IOWA Test for K-2...even though don't live remotely CLOSE to Iowa! ha}.  I had to go in this morning, give my kiddos the test, and then leave.  I have to be back at 3pm for a faculty meeting in which I'm speaking about our Relay for Life that is scheduled for next weekend.

I THINK this might be why I'm home right now.  I'm stressed.  I'm exhausted.

So here I am.  Trying to shut my mind off and take a nap.

Before I cuddle up with my pups and take a nap, I have a freebie for you!

Mother's Day is right around the corner {so hard to believe}.

This year I will have my students complete a sweet mother's day present that I did last year.  Here's a picture of what they look like:

First, I have the kiddos draw a portrait of their mother.  Then, they complete the Top 10 Reasons I Love my Mom paper.  I can NOT for the LIFE OF ME remember where I snagged the cute writing paper from.  If you are the original creator, please let me know so that I can pay credit where credit is due!!!  

As another easy gift, my students are going to be giving them potted flowers that they have been growing.  We will attach the follow gift tags to the potted plant with some really cute ribbon and bows.

 I created the same tag in five different colors.

 

You can download these Mother's Day tags at my TPT store here for FREE!!!

Thank you for all your sweet comments on my end of the year awards and other products that you've purchased.  My heart skips a beat every time I get a notification in my inbox! :)

And to the many readers who have purchased my awards, I am working on adding four more awards to the set to accommodate the MANY of you who have more than 20 sweet kiddos in your room.  Hoping to have those posted and updated by the end of the weekend.

Yay! It's almost Friday!!

28 days...

I am so excited that we only have 28 days left of school!!  I mean I. AM. EXCITED.  I'm not sure how your sweet little's are doing as the end of the year approaches but I am really struggling with classroom management right now.  All the wonderful management tools I've used all year {that have WORKED beautifully...I promise} are all of a sudden chopped liver!  Are you having these issues or is it just me?  And if your sweeties are getting a little "out of control" what are you doing to ring them back in?  

Aside from the stressful week I had last week and the "oh so fun" week ahead {we have a FULL week of IOWA testing...side note...I don't live in IOWA} I got some sort of stomach bug Friday night and was out of commission ALL DAY yesterday.  No fun!  This morning after 12 {yes, 12} hours of sleep I feel a gobzillion times better.  I even finished whipping up my end of the year awards.  I've used these awards last year, however, they were in need of cuter font and clipart.  Here's the preview:

You can check them out at my TPT Store HERE.  There's a sample download too!

Here's how I give the awards.  I first let the kiddos vote on who they believe deserves each award.  They LOVE doing this!  Usually they're right on target too!  After they're done voting and I tally up the awards I write the kiddos names and laminate them.  Then, I present them at our classroom awards ceremony.  Last year was my first year holding a classroom awards ceremony and it was SO much fun!  I created somewhat formal invitations for the parents and we decorated our room to look like a hollywood awards ceremony!  It was so much fun.  This year I will be rolling out the red carpet one more time!

Since I'm feeling better and I've had the wonderful joys of blogland to keep me occupied during my stint on the couch this weekend, I will give these awards away to the first 3 people who comment!  Make sure to leave your email! 

Bees

As part of our insect unit we learned a lot about bees (and ants, and butterflies, and dragonflies, and SO many more)!  Ms. Frizzle and the Magic Schoolbus gang were of big help in really sparking an EVEN greater interest of insects.  I love their books and fun videos! I mean who doesn't like Ms. Frizzle!!  They're so engaging.

Okay.  Back to bees.  So I'm so overwhelmed with all the testing and stress of this year and trying to "fit it all in" and my favorite thing to do with the kiddos is make super cute craftivities that allow us to either paint, glue, cut, draw, and/or use our imagination.  So...I DID! This is a super easy 'art' project that we created as a culminating activity.  And while we were at it I gave each kiddo a large index card which we then wrote an acrostic poem for bees!

 {So annoyed that the picture will not rotate properly...sorry}

The bee is made out of a paper plate.  I then drew lines on the paper plates for the students to paint (have them paint all the yellow stripes THEN the black).  The wings are wax paper, the stinger is just construction paper, and the eyes are black beans!  Quick, easy, and super cute! 

lately and a freebie :)

We have been some busy little bees lately! It's crazy to think that there are only 36 more days left of school OR 6 more Mondays of school! :)  That is so exciting and nerve racking at the same time.  Still a lot to squeeze in!

We spent two weeks learning about plants and how to grow plants.  Here a few things we did:

 

Then, we got our lima beans and began our four-week seed observation.  Here are our "greenhouses" hanging in our windows!

Our bean seeds are days away from needing to be planted into our soil pots!  It's always a SUPER exciting time when we open up our papertowels to see our sprouted bean seeds! Every day is more exciting as our roots continue to grow!

In math we have been learning about 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional shapes.  We first did the marshmellow and toothpick hands-on activity.  Of course we had a blast AND I forgot my camera! 

For the 2-D activity we created "Shape Creations!" For this we used 2-D die cut shapes.  We then used the shapes to create our own creations and then completed a corresponding recording sheet. 

Here's a few that we created:

And here's the recording sheet for FREE:

Shape Creation

 

The fun plant activities are just two from my Spring Fever unit.  You can find at my TPT Store along with my brand new Flat Stanley Unit!!!!!!! :)  

{heart} some Flat Stanley! 

Today is the start of a very super busy week! Phew! I'm tired thinking about it.  Hope you're week goes just as well!

Flat Stanley and SALE!!!

Happy Good Friday! I'm so excited, I took today off and headed to the beach!

 Now I'm here, sitting on a beach deck and getting this post done! :) Did any of you lovely ladies {and gents} get today off?! 

After a couple weeks of slowly working I got my Flat Stanley unit done and am SO excited! I will be beginning this next week so pictures will come soon! This is a great mini-unit to incorporate when reading the amazing book Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown.  My kids absolutely LOVE Flat Stanley and all his fun adventures.

Here's a peak at what you will get in this fun mini-unit:

Another wonderful thing about uploading this new mini-unit is I am having a sale!

Click HERE to be directed to my TPT Store!

Thank you all for your continued kind words and helpful minds! I am trying hard to get the hang of this whole 'making units' thing! :) 

Enjoy your weekend and time with family and friends.  I will be spending Easter with my inlaws and nieces and nephews! So excited!!

I {LOVE} this time of year!

  

Currently

I always love Farley's "Currently" posts.  She absolutely CRACKS me up!

I apologize to those of you who DID grow up in the 70's. Don't feel old by any means... you're NOT. I grew up in the 80's and 90's. They were fun but not as much fun as I KNOW I would've had in the 70's.  The clothes and hairstyles alone are means for me wanting dying to time travel back to that time. 

I mean I frequently sport this hairdo:

bahahahaha!!! {this photo cracks me up every time} This was taken on my friend's bachelorette cruise..this was on wig night!

I love my afro! Happy Sunday! :)

Link up with Farley HERE