Five for Friday

I'm actually remembering to do my Five for Friday post this week!  I can't believe it!  To read more Five for Friday posts, click on the image below and it will take you to Doodle Bugs Teaching.

I LOVE Pumpkins!!!  Actually, as a kid I don't know if I noticed that they even existed.  Then, I became a school teacher.  Can I tell you a secret?  I've still never really carved a pumpkin.  I tried a few years ago in my classroom.  I bought one of those pumpkin carving kits and was REALLY excited.  Well, let me tell you, those kits don't actually work.  So, still haven't carved a pumpkin.  That being said, I spotted these Sharpie pumpkins on Facebook and I might just have to make one of them.  No idea why or what I would do with it, but it looks like fun.  Oh, and I linked the picture to a tutorial of one of my favorite bloggers - Little Blue Boo.

This saying makes me laugh every time I see it!  Now, if I could just remember it when I jump into the circus :)

Why yes, this is a paper airplane.  I keep drawing paper in a drawer for my kids to use when they finish their work.  It's supposed to be for word work, but sometimes they want to draw and I'm okay with that because I love drawing.  Plus, brain breaks for some kids may be drawing.  It was for me!  Well, that drawer now has some new rules thanks to this little airplane.  My kiddos decided to get creative after morning work this week.  I should have known something was up when it was so quiet. This little plane went zooming across my front table.  Good news is my students are creative and I now know what we will be doing for our next Fun Friday.  I think I'll name it Paper Play.  Each kid will get three pieces of paper, scissors, glue, markers, etc. and they can create whatever they want.

For future reference, this is what happens when you let your kids try to color a glossy paper plate blue.  Stick with the crayons.  They won't fail you.

Do you like Oriental Trading?  Well, I love them, especially their sticker sheets.  We were studying frogs this week and I grabbed these.  My kiddos did the Life Cycle of a frog on a paper plate using the stickers.  This was an easy activity and the kids loved it!  A matter of fact, half my class asked if they could take them home to show their parents instead of filing them to go home on Monday.

I linked the picture, so you can go grab them if you want.

 Have a great Friday!

Wordless Wednesday: Pumpkin Writing

I'm linking up with Miss DeCarbo's Wordless Wednesday.

This week, my kids made pumpkins using sticker sheets from Oriental Trading.  Before we write, we always talk about our question words and what I expect when they write.  How do you get your students started?

Measurement Fun

Are you as excited that it's Saturday as I am?  I have to say, I am so thankful for Saturday naps, college football, and the leaves changing colors.  We've already been in school for around ten weeks and it feels like we just started yesterday.  We are moving so fast that sometimes I forget that it's okay to slow down a little.

So, last week I slowed down a little.  I looked to see what we were covering on our Scope and Sequence and it was non-standard measurement.  Well, and honestly, I looked at our math series and most of it wasn't that exciting.  You can do so much with measurement, so spending a week doing workbook pages just didn't seem like fun.  So, I decided to cover the portions of our math series I thought my kiddos would need and spend the rest of the time letting them do non-standard measurement centers.  It was the best decision I could have made.

We made measurement books, graphed what we were measuring, used our Activboard to measure items, and we did a shorter/taller activity.  Everyone was on-task and I think one of the days we even forgot to take our restroom break before specials.

The best part about measurement is you can really use any items.  We stuck with Unifix cubes and paperclips, but I've used giant paw prints, leaves, markers, and other items to measure more than once.

Here are some of the pictures I took of our centers.  The last picture is a center I added after the week was done.  My higher kids like things a little more challenging, so I created this activity to challenge them a little more.  I also wanted an independent activity for the kids that finished quickly.

One thing I would suggest is make sure you pull all the materials ahead of time and have the supplies sorted into each center group.  I use these carts to organize my centers.  The one on the left is for word work and the one on the right is for my math centers.  This way, all I have to do is pull out a tray of items and we are ready to go.  The top trays (1-5) have extra centers for early finishers.  They usually include dice games, flash cards, or other fun, individual activities.  The bottom trays (6-10) have the group centers.  Since the trays pull out, I just pop out the tray and put it at the group.

Oh, and one quick tip... I got these carts at Sam's Club before school started for around $25 each.  You can also get them on Amazon.com for around $30 each.  My teammate saw them in a magazine this past week for $95 each, so I wanted to make sure you knew you can find them MUCH cheaper than that.

Another thing I do to try to help them run smoothly is I appoint a captain for each group.  The captain is the only one that can come ask me questions.  It helps a lot because usually while all the kids are working on centers, I try to pull my students that are struggling.  They do the centers, too, but by pulling them, I can see where they may need some extra help.

If you are needing measurement centers, be sure to check out my Fall Non-Standard Measurement packet.  It includes centers, activities, and printables.  It also includes several versions of each center, activity, or printable so that you can use the set multiple times in a year.

Hope you have a great Saturday!

FarFaria Giveaway and Graphing Freebies

Do you ever have that moment that you wish you could rewind?  Well, I am having that moment right this second.  So, we had Fall Festival on Friday night.  To help us all keep up with each other and things that needed to be done, we downloaded an app called Voxer.  This app basically turns your cell phone into a Walkie Talkie.  It was great that night!  You would send quick messages and all of us on that channel could hear what was happening.  Great app!  Loads of help!  Well, that is until tonight.  My sweet hubby decided to grab my phone because the little orange box caught his eye.  People, we are in the middle of DINNER in a RESTAURANT!  The next thing I know, I spend the next thirty minutes with him downloading the app, talking to himself in my phone, then in his phone, and then in my phone again. We get home, I walk to the bedroom to change clothes when I get home and hear the little "Chirp! Chirp!"  We are ONE room away from each other and message after message.  The good news is my phone is now silent, yet I still hear little chirps.  Do you want to know why?  Well, now he is messaging all of his buddies and getting them to download the app, so they are now messaging each other.  Yep!  That's my night!  I owe my room mom for this one!  I'm on hour number TWO of listening to that little chirping noise.  You hear me Katie?  That's my night teacher friends!  Stay far, far away from that app!

Now, in other news, if you didn't get a chance to enter my FarFaria giveaway last night, be sure to check it out tonight.  They are giving me ONE 3-month subscription to giveaway.  If you have iPads in your classroom and your kiddos love books, then this is the app for you!  If you aren't sure, then download it for free and check it out!  You can read one book a day for free.

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Would you guys like more freebies?  Well, I was filing TONS of papers into my notebooks this afternoon.  Seriously friends, I pull things, copy them, and then they pile up for a few months and I'm like, "Oh, guess those need to find their home again."  Am I the only one that does that?  I hope not!  So, I started filing and while I'm filing, I found a few fall goodies from last year.  The second I spotted them, I got all excited!  It was like Christmas because I seriously forgot I did these last year.  So, hope you can use them too.  If you click on the images, you can download them.  Oh, and to do the graphs, I ordered some of the beads from Oriental Trading last year.  They worked great and the kids loved them!  If you don't have time to order, then you could easily find similar items at a craft store, you could use a die-cut machine,  or you could draw the shapes.

Hope you enjoy the freebies and have a great day tomorrow!

This review is based strictly on my opinion. Others may have a different opinion or experience with the product listed above. I was provided the sample free of charge by FarFaria.  I provided my honest opinion. No other type of compensation was received for this review.

Book Reports and Giveaways

Oh my goodness y'all!  Do you realize it is finally fall?  I have to tell you, I love this time of year.  The temperature is finally below 80 degrees, the leaves change color, there's college football every Saturday, and this girl loves pumpkin muffins!

I just finished what felt like the longest week of my life.  My county evaluates each school in the county every five years and this past Thursday was our turn on the calendar.  It's kind of like preparing for guests that have never been to your house to come visit.  You want everything to be top notch, not to mention you want to break out your real plates, not the paper ones you usually use.  I LOVE my school, like seriously, I hope I spend my entire career there.  My school is a HUGE part of my heart, so definitely have been working over time perfecting all those little things.  Plus, let's be real.  Visitors always give you the opportunity to get a few 'new' things.  I, of course, went for a few new things.  Mainly, I'm in love with my new storage containers, new rugs for the kiddos to sit on, and new electronics.

So, now that all of that is over, here I am.  I have so missed my little blog and my fan page the last few weeks and couldn't wait to start blogging again, well after I took a couple of naps and caught up on some much needed sleep!

First of all, since I love fall, here's a freebie for you to grab.  It's my October Book Reports.  Just click on any of the images and download them.

Now, here's another little surprise I have for you.

All this giveaway requires you to do is follow my fan page, my blog, the Farfaria fan page, and the Farfaria Twitter page.   The winner will be announced Tuesday night.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

FarFaria contacted me around six weeks ago and asked me to check out their iPad app and asked if I wanted to do a giveaway.  Well, honestly, I've been running like crazy, so I held off until I had some time to look at it and friends, you are going to love it.

Here's what I like about it.
1. It has LOADS of books (750+)
2. It has a Read-to-Me feature
3. It has reading levels
4. It has multiple types of books
5. It has zero advertising
6. You can try it before you buy it

Screenshot of all the different areas in Farfaria.

Screenshot of what it looks like once you pick an area to visit.  You can also sort the books by level.

Screenshot of what it looks like when you pick a book.  I love how the buttons are big and easy to spot.  If you click, "Favorite" the book will download, so that you don't have to have Internet access to read it.

Screenshot of one of the books.  This book actually highlights the words as they are being read to the child.

If you want to have unlimited access, it is $4.99 a month.  For me, I love that because I have multiple iPads in my classroom, so $5 a month to access 750+ books just expands my classroom library.  

I also like that it has books that are interesting for my boys and that most of the books are aimed towards younger kids (Pre-K through second).

I hope you guys have an incredible week!

This review is based strictly on my opinion. Others may have a different opinion or experience with the product listed above. I was provided the sample free of charge by FarFaria.  I provided my honest opinion. No other type of compensation was received for this review.