Duck Dynasty Review, and I won!

I was not the happiest when my doggies woke me up before 6am on this Monday morning...until I checked my email. Courtney from Swimming into Second emailed me to let me know I won her giveaway! I cannot WAIT to get my personalized product from C. Jayne Teach, but I may be addicted to her products. Seriously! If you haven't been to Courtney's page, you need to get there...like yesterday. You can follow her on TpT here. If you teach 2nd or 3rd grade- her resources like hitting the TpT jackpot. Seriously! I LOVE using her fun games and centers for the beginning of the year to review, and to send home with the 2nd graders so ***HOPEFULLY*** they will get in some practice throughout the summer before 3rd grade. 

So, like many of my fellow VA teachers, I am in testing mode. Our state test (named the SOLs....yeah....just like the other thing) are going on at our school now because our last day is May 28! We have already had Science and Social Studies, and we still have Reading and Math. Yes-- I teach 3rd grade and my kids are expected to take 4 test. Thank goodness SOMEONE with half a brain realized this was WAY too much for a little 9 year old person, and next year we only have to take Reading and Math. It only took them a couple of decades to figure out. So -- all I can say about the testing is...we took it. My kids tried their best, and what more could I ask for. After our Reading SOL, which will be split into two days, the kiddos are going to need some FUN. The problem is we still have our Math SOL next week, and we missed like a MONTH of school this winter. Seriously-- everyone missed like a month of school this winter! So, I used my new Robertson Family clip art from Melonheadz, and created a file based on last year's released SOL. I'm going to let my kids work in partners/groups to solve the problems. Next week I may use the review for task cards, or Scoot. You can get it for your review in my TpT Store.

If you are testing this week -- may the coffee be with you! Especially in VA -- all we can do is be in the room. Don't sit too long, don't stand too long, don't read the screens, don't grade papers, don't write anything down, don't fall asleep! I wish I could grade some papers from my never ending stack during this time...but I can't. So- if you are testing in an environment like that -- bring COFFEE!! :)

Five for Friday with the Pencil Sharpener that Will Change Your Life

Happy Friday Ya'll!!! When Friday gets here, I just want to leave school and go home and take a NAP. I packed up my bag this afternoon and headed out so quickly, I almost forgot my laptop!! That would've made me SO upset, because this weekend I'm putting together a GIVEAWAY for my 100 followers!!!! Stay tuned for that. 

Since it's Friday, I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching! 

This pencil sharpener will change your life. We've all read that -- and seriously -- didn't we think the teachers who said that were crazy?! Welllllllllllll....................they were RIGHT. I got home on Wednesday afternoon to see a box on my front porch, and believe you me -- I was EXCITED. I immediately knew my pencil sharpener from Classroom Friendly Supplies had arrived. There are a few things I have to say about this sharpener. 

1) It is VERY nicely made -- like SERIOUSLY. My teaching partner Joanne tried it out, and she couldn't believe that this sharpener was made with such amazing quality. It really is a heavy duty sharpener. 

2) You have not seen a sharp pencil until you sharpen a pencil with one of these. 

3) The quality of my students' work increased. You know that kid whose writing you can't read? This sharpener gets the pencils such a nice point, that it actually helps the legibility of your students writing! 

4) My electric sharpener is going in the trash. Seriously. Once you go Classroom friendly supplies, you never go back! 

5) This is KID friendly. I showed all my kids ONE time how to use it - and they're all old pros now! I don't think I'll EVER  have to sharpen another pencil as long as I live - but I want to! This sharpener is that cool! We have pencil sharpening only in the morning, and you wouldn't believe how much faster my kiddos are coming to the room from breakfast. 

My next step -- is ordering a couple more of these! I want one for my colored pencils, one for my desk, and one for the kids! 

Area vs. Perimeter - Post it Note Style

So....students ALWAYS mix up area and perimeter. They just do. The more hands on interesting activities you can do, the better. We started off the week by creating our own Area and Perimeter Robots on Tuesday and Wednesday! The most fun activity however, was today's Post-It note activity. 

I handed each group of students Post It notes. My directions were, "These are your units. Tell me the area and perimeter of a desk in your group. Go". I didn't answer any questions, and FORCED my students to do what they thought was correct, and talk in their groups about their methods. It worked AMAZINGLY. I must give these kiddos credit-- they usually do pretty good with cooperative learning. 

I know I'm not the only one doing this.......Seriously

Check out the new design.....

This is a blog design I worked on with some backgrounds and banners from the Cutest Blog on the Block. They have super cute designs, and I love all things Nautical. Even my hubby commented that he liked the new look! 

GIVEAWAY..........

I'm putting together my 100 followers giveaway. If you want to donate a product, and increase the flow of traffic to your site, join by filling out this form! 

Thanks for stopping by!!

Jessica 

Five For Friday Easter Edition!

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs for Five for Friday!! 

Wow!! I blinked, and April was here! Then I blinked again, and now it's 1/2 way over. Does anyone else feel like that happens to you? Spring Break officially started yesterday, but my niece and I have a tradition to do lunch and a movie on Spring Break. (Her birthday is in March, and this is her present from me). This year, she decided she would rather go shopping and have lunch and ice cream. (She is MY niece after all!) So, she brought her birthday money and gift cards, and we headed out. I was excited too, because I had $40 in Max Rewards from Office Max and a save $10 off $40 coupon. 2 hours later in Office Max, and we walked out with $50 worth of merchandise for only $1.13!

Included in my haul were these goodies for me! I LOVE new pens...I bought them because I have about 1,000,000 papers to grade over break. Yet -- I'm blogging instead of grading.... I think I need more coffee! 

After shopping, lunch at Chipotle, more shopping and ice cream at Sweet Frog -- she was DONE. 

Does anyone else remember these? While in the Dollar Tree my niece and I found these! She had never had them, but my sister and I used to eat them ALL the time. I bought her some, and she and her sister LOVE them. 

All the pretty things........... 

Spring Break Organization  Project #1 complete! Thirty One party supplies and collection somewhat organized. Keep in mind...all those totes are FULL of Thirty One, and my everyday use stuff isn't even in there. My house looks like a Thirty One Catalog. I'm okay with that -- everything has a place, and a place for everything! So happy to get some of this organized! My goal is to do something productive each day -- but considering we only get Thursday-Monday off -- that will be HARD! 

Happy Spring! This is my newest Thirty One tote -- I'm in LOVE! 

I am doing a Jamberry Party from now until the end of the month! How CUTE are these Lolipop Chevron nails? Perfect for Easter!! 

Capacity!!! I love, love, LOVE teaching measurement! Hands on lessons EVERY day! Yes - I know it takes planning - but it's SO much fun! My kiddos LOVE measurement every year. Our state standards require my 3rd graders give the best estimates for capacity. I still teach customary conversions using the Measuring Monarch - because I believe that's a life skill, and I know the 4th grade teacher thanks me! This year, I have a VERY visual group. So, what better way to understand exactly how much is in a gallon than to dump it out! We picked a day that was over 80 degrees, and headed outside! It was amazing to see the kids faces as they got to DUMP water onto the blacktop. Of course I worked in the water cycle, as we saw how quickly the cup evaporated! 

The cup was so tiny! 

The pint wasn't much bigger-- the kids could quickly see this was about like spilling a full bottle of water. ( I was a proud teacher when they started having math talk without being prompted!! One of the kids said -- hey -that's about how much a bottle of water spilled looks like- remember when I spilled my bottle last week!) 

No - we weren't being mean making this child go far away from the rest-- he was dumping a Liter-- and since liters are only used in Europe - the kids said it should be away from the US Measurements. 

What a cool action shot -- every time the kids dumped water, the whole class screamed and cheered! Then, they would talk about how big/small the puddle was and how it compared -- WITHOUT being prompted! My hard work with Math Talk this year has paid off! 

Ahh...the gallon. This child had a look of pure joy on his face. Like he hadn't EVER gotten to just throw water for no good reason. :) 

Here's the anchor chart for the Measuring Monarch we made! 

Then, we wrapped up with small charts "I would use a ________ for" with all the measurements. The kids wrote their responses on sticky notes and added them to the posters. 

Measuring the Track: 

So - after capacity, we started measuring length. We have a pretty nice track (each lap is 1/8 of a mile) that wraps around our soccer field, and we had such an awful winter that we needed to get OUTSIDE. So -we took meter sticks and yard sticks, and set to measuring the track - "Goal to Goal" (length) and "Bench to Bench" (width). Then, we came back inside and converted our yards to feet and inches, and converted our meters to centimeters. 

 

 
 

 

100 Followers Giveaway....

So I posted a few weeks ago that I wanted to do a 100 Followers Giveaway!! Then, April happened! So, during Spring Break I will be gathering some items to attempt to do this!! If you are interested in donating to the giveaway, comment and let me know! :) 

Tried It Tuesday- Fraction Tiles and Car Organization Thirty One Style

 I am linking up with Fourth Grade Flipper for Tried it Tuesday! I'm very proud of myself because I'm actually writing on Tuesday! Ya'll just don't understand.... Today my Principal stopped by my room, and gave me a hug (she's just that kind of awesome about that stuff), and told me I looked very pretty today and that something looked different. It was that I have had SLEEP! All the snow days have allowed me to catch up on SLEEP. So here I am, blogging ON TIME :)

First -- for my Tried it Tuesday, I organized the backseat of my truck. Now - the hubs and I don't have any two legged children, but I do drive my niece to school every day, so M-F she is in the backseat. I am in LOVE with the new spring patterns and organization that Thirty One has. With all this snow the south has been seeing, I really want to be ready if I ever get stranded in my truck. So, check out my organizing solutions! 

Now -- on to school things. I'm STILL on my fraction unit. I should be on to graphs, but I CAN'T do that because we have only had ONE full week since Christmas. Since we have lost so many days, I have to condense some lessons. I usually do a comparing fraction introduction that last 2-3 days where students use fraction tiles to make comparisons with like denominators and unlike denominators. We always use the tiles, and just do some illustrations on paper. I knew that I needed a VERY structured lesson to get my kiddos through this lesson in half the time. I created a worksheet to guide my students through comparing fractions using the tiles. I have students trace the fraction tiles onto the paper because this is an easy transition to drawing their own fraction bars. My students LOVED the structure and organization of this lesson, and they did awesome. (This wasn't their first experience with fraction tiles - and it won't be their last!) I am so excited to move into drawing their own fraction bars tomorrow. Check out a few samples of my student work below:

Best of all -- this Comparing Fractions printable is available for only $1 in my TpT Store! 

Check out all of the link ups in the Tried It Tuesday over at Fourth Grade Flipper!