Five For Friday!

It's time for Five for Friday Saturday already! This was the longest, fastest week I've had in a while! This week seemed to be dragging on FOREVER through Tuesday, and then I blinked. Suddenly - it was Friday! A lot of exciting things happened this week - which is probably why the second half of the week flew by!! I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching -so hop on over and see other bloggers Five For Friday!

1. What a perfect way to start a Friday -- I got an email from Carrie over at Anchored in 3rd Grade to say her giveaway is underway!! Click on her blog name or this picture to check out her HUGE giveaway. I am so honored to be a part of this - my FIRST EVER giveaway! I donated a few things from my store - including a zip file with an entire YEAR worth of spelling list & parent letters to send home! 

2. Thirty One announced a FLASH SALE!! As many of you know, I am an independent Thirty One consultant, and I love that it has helped my husband and I in so many ways, especially in January when he lost his job! I was SO excited when I got an email saying select classic patterns would be 50% off! I can't WAIT until Sunday morning at 10:00 to shop for MYSELF! I need some mini utility bins for wedding gifts for this summer, baby shower gifts, and toy boxes for my nieces! Some of my out of town friends are shopping the link and choosing to have their items sent directly to their house -- who can pass up 50% off!

3. Kate's Saint Patrick's Day Fun

Okay - so this is another Thirty One comment, but I did a party Friday night with a St. Patrick's Day theme. It was SO MUCH FUN! Most of the women were parents from my school - and they have the BEST sense of humor. Who wouldn't love hanging out, talking and eating good food and drinking wine all while SHOPPING. Seriously - we had the best time. It was so refreshing to not talk about work too! Usually people want to talk to the teacher about school - but they were SO amazing and never brought it up. They all have some amazing kids who were there too -- but of course they looked at me like I was crazy because I was a teacher who wasn't living at the school :)

 4. I started AND finished my graphing unit!

Okay - not really finished ALL the way -- we test on Monday. I have really taught bar graphs and pictographs all year long, so it wasn't like starting from scratch. I made this awesome pack, and copied the pages small enough to fit in the kiddos math notebooks, and we were able to work through the sheets to review our graph skills, and to learn line plots. On Friday, we celebrated being done by doing our review work on iXL! You can grab the graph pack for only $2 on TpT!

5. I don't even want to write the next one. Seriously. It's after midnight - so technically this is Sunday's forecast. I haven't went to bed yet, so to me "today" is still Saturday. It was 70!!! I kept the side door open ALL DAY while the doggies played outside and slept in the sun, and by Sunday night SNOW....Seriously Virginia -- get your act together - I want a spring break and my kids NEED to be IN SCHOOL. We have missed TOO many days! I know all the other VA people are feeling your pain. I don't mind the cold. Really I don't. What I do mind is a 50 degree difference in a day! I've been getting bad headaches because of this - and I could really do without those! lol 

I hope everyone has an amazing weekend -- I know that I am going to enjoy SLEEPING IN :)   tomorrow while the hubby has to work :(  Happy for me - sad that he is working -- but then again - so happy that he has found a job! 

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!