A Little SPRING in Your Step!

I have to do it and start today's posting with this...

   Yup! It's HUMP DAY! This was last week during my kiddos Spring break. My break is this week and it has been nothing near a break. Monday was our first official day out of our home of five years. I have mentioned before that we are having a new home built, but its not quite ready yet. Just a couple more weeks. In the mean time we are "vacationing" in my families town home. It has been so much fun for my kiddos the last couple of days. This morning though it was like driving with the Walking Dead in the backseat. Our new home is 45 minutes south from our old place and my families town home is an additional 20 minutes from there. So I had a couple of sleeping boys on the way to school and on the way home. Only 6 more weeks I keep telling them. Although, my eldest is trying to justify just staying home and homeschooling my youngest. I can just see them now swimming in the pool all day, making forts around the house, and eating as much junk food as they can find. Not so fast little kiddos...only 6 more weeks!
   I spent my day today at Barnes and Noble working on some Spring activities for the classroom and getting reacquainted with Starbucks. 5 hours and four drinks later (OMG how did that happen?) I have finally finished my Spring Math & Literacy centers and just in time to pick the kiddos up from school. Is it bad that I felt like I spent the day at the spa? The over-sized leather chair, soft music, no tattling or boogers, classroom antics, and overabundance of Starbucks put me into a Zen state of mind. Here is a look at some of the Math centers in my Spring pack.

 Skip Count by 2's

 Skip Count by 5's

 Skip Count by 10's

A Fraction of Rain

 Time for Tweets

 Springtime Measurements

 Bumblebee Fact Families

 Springtime Graphing 

 Buggy Odd & Even

    Here is my little bug testing out the activity hot off the presses before my classroom kiddos get to play next Monday. He was very impressed with himself that we could sort them all...even the 3 digit numbers!

   You can put a little "SPRING" in your step by picking these 9 Math centers and 6 Literacy centers from my TPT store by clicking on the image below. And because my mind is racing from my caffeine high I have a literacy center FREEBIE for you. "It's Raining Plurals" is just one of the activities you will find in my Spring pack. P.S. My April Common Core Aligned Math Journal is ready for your printing too. See what a little caffeine can help me accomplish??? It puts a little  huge SPRING in my step!

Dash Spelling & Compare and Contrast Unit

   This will be a quick post tonight. I think I am finally getting over the lingering sickness that I have had over a month now thanks to a weekend of sleeping. So I am trying to get all the rest I can get at this point before things get crazy with our big move next month. Here are a couple pictures of what my kiddos have been up to the last couple of days.
   We celebrated our schools first Leader in Me Parent Night by writing what we wanted to be when we grow up. The kiddos really had to think about Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind to plan how they would prepare for their future career. Here is what they all looked like hung-up in our hall.

   Today we worked on spelling multi-syllable words using dash spelling and vowel tag. Because our schedule was changed, because of state assessments and it was snowing, we turned our spelling lesson into a craftivity to get through the 45 minute block at the end of the day that usually occupies our specials time.Here are our little Lucky Spelling Leprechauns. 

   I wanted to give you all a preview to one of my favorite activities that my kiddos will be completing the following two weeks. We will be comparing and contrasting character traits, themes, settings,and so much more with the classic stories of Jumanji and Zathura. You can get a copy of this unit in my TPT store by clicking on the image below. 

A Little Luck for the Kiddos

   This will be a quick post as I am going to have my pictures do the talking for me. This sinus infection (going on three weeks and counting...BOO!) is making my brain squeal so my pillow is a callin'. I took some pictures of our St. Patrick's themes around our classroom today. Here is a quick peek at our writing center...

 (the shamrocks are from the Dollar Tree with story starter prompts written on them)

 (mini gold pots from Michael's with pictures glued to the bottom. Kiddos take a pot and write a story based on the picture on the bottom)

 (St. Patrick's themed "fancy" paper)

 Our Math Centers

 Our Literacy Centers

You can get both these Math and Literacy centers bundled together in my store by clicking on the image below. 

    On a side note, here is a look at our classroom door ready for our Leader in Me Parent Night this upcoming Thursday. Each grade level was responsible for representing one of the 7 Habits on their doors. Our habit was "Think Win, Win." My teammates and I each took one part of the habit. Those are my kiddos inside of the "win"!

Out With the Old, In With the New, and a HUGE Sale!

   Has it really been two weeks since my last blog post?!?! The past two weeks have been an absolute whirlwind. The fact that I am still fighting a killer sinus infection from before Valentine's is draining and annoying. My poor classroom kiddos keep asking when the frog is going to leave my throat and my voice not sound so funny. Especially when we are trying to sing our math songs. I have to admit I sound like one of those poor American Idol contestants that you watch sing and are just embarrassed for. One day soon kiddos...fingers crossed!!!
   On top of my brain feeling like a washing machine I have had to fathom that in a month we will be out of our house and "hopefully" in our new house. Oh, yeah. Did I mention the hubby and I found the perfect house last Monday that we put a contract on? The house is projected to be completed at the end of April or May. It is my absolute dream home. We put our current home on the market the next morning and had a contract on it within 10 hours!!! Luck you say? Yes, but the thought of packing and moving so quickly is SCARY!!! And the fact that I will be commuting 40 minutes one way instead of 5 minutes the remaining of the school year is a little daunting. I have to keep telling myself that if my hubby did it for 10 years I can do it for about a month or so. But with March approaching I feel like the saying, "In like a lion, out like a lamb" is so fitting for my family in this new journey! Its time to go out with the old, and in with the new. New house, new school district for my kiddos, and new opportunities!
   With being so under the weather for the past couple of weeks I have not been taking as many pics of the classroom kiddos as I would have liked to. My classroom is getting ready to transform into Leprechaun city at the end of the week so I will force myself to take some lovely pictures. I have uploaded my March Math Journals and Lucky Leprechaun {14 Common Core Math & Literacy Centers} into my store for your St. Patrick's enjoyment. Do not forget the AMAZING TPT 3 Million Sale this Thursday & Friday. Take advantage of my and your other favorite members sale. In less than a year, I would have never imagined the success that TPT would bring to my classroom and my family. So add those items to your wishlist, set the alarm clocks, and get ready to shop!

Da, Da, Dada, Da, Da....The Olympics Are Here!

   How excited are you when you here the Olympics anthem? Maybe I am just a little obsessed, but I cannot get enough of all of the coverage the past couple of days. I have mentioned before that I am not that big of a sports fan, but the Olympics are different. It is a time to celebrate your country, root on the athletes that have worked their whole lives to get close to the medals podium, and see the pride in the athletes faces at the finish line. It is a perfect way for my classroom kiddos to see perseverance and the 7 habits in action!

   This week we will celebrate the Olympics classroom style! I am planning on using our 20 minute free choice reading block to learn, play, and love everything the Olympics stands for. Here are just a couple pictures and ideas of what my kiddos will be working on and I will post more pictures throughout the week (in between my parent/teacher conferences of course)! I purchased all the materials for our activities at the Dollar Tree. 

   Spelling hockey anyone?!?!?

    My kiddos will be working together in their table teams to be making "goals" based on the clues I give from their spelling words. We will tape the blue suffix cups around the tables. Kiddos will take turns at their table to try and score a goal by using the duster hockey stick to hit the plastic cups spelling puck into the suffix nets. Here is a look at how I am storing them until tomorrow. Everything kiddos will need are in one gallon baggie. My teammates will be using these too throughout the week.

    My kiddos will also be Snow "Blowing" with Equations. Just like the cups above we will have cups with numbers and then tape around the tables. Kiddos will have ping-pong balls that they will have to blow into the correct answer cup. I cannot wait to take pictures of this game!!!
   And what is the Olympics without some medals??? We will be making gold medal cookies on Thursday which just so happens to be our Valentine's card exchange. Look at my little kiddos proudly wearing his medal.

   I got all of the supplies, except the cookies, at the Dollar Tree. The gold wrapping paper actually has silver on the inside so you can make both medals. My dollar tree also had silver ribbon that would work perfectly for silver medals. Here is how my kiddos will make their cookie medals. 

   And we are also using my Olympic Math & Literacy centers the next two weeks. You can grab this pack in my store by clicking on the image below. 

Well it is off to watch the games with my kiddos! 

My Heart Skips a Beat for the Simplest Things

   So I have been going back and forth about what to put out for my classroom kiddos this upcoming week in our writing center and in math & literacy bins. I know all kiddos love Valentine's Day, but with the Winter Olympics beginning next week too it has been a HUGE dilemma in my life!!! But a quick glance in the Target dollar section (a teacher's treasure trove) solidified the answer for me. Look at the cuteness I found...

   Yes, those are miniature mailboxes with lids that pop off! My own kiddos were so embarrassed with the little squeal of excitement I made when the mailboxes and I made eye contact. I know it is the little things that make me so excited. So with the mailboxes sitting on my counter, and a couple little plastic heart containers I had leftover from last Valentines Day, I busted out 8 math centers this morning. My plan is to have a LOVE theme in my classroom the next two weeks and then transform my room into Olympic central the rest of the month. You can grab a copy of my math centers below by clicking on the pictures below. And as an added treat everything in my store is on SALE for the entire weekend to celebrate our BRONCOS in the Super Bowl.