Teachers Pay Teachers Flash Sale

Just quick post to let you know that TpT is having a surprise "flash" sale this weekend in honor of 100,000 Facebook fans and I joined in!  I have tacked 10% more onto everything in more store for Sunday and Monday only!  Make sure to use this code when you check out to get the full 20% discount!

Check out this adorable button from Whimsy Workshop! I love her clipart and she is having a sale too!  Also, don't forget to enter to win a $25 Teachers Pay Teachers Gift Certificate for even more shopping fun! Enter here.

Win a $25 Teachers Pay Teachers Gift Certificate

Ready to make a dent in your Teachers Pay Teachers Wish List?  Enter to win a $25 Teachers Pay Teachers Gift Card.  All you have to do is follow my Teachers Pay Teachers Store to be eligible!  You can also earn additional entries!  This is a monthly contest, so even if you don't win this month, you'll still have additional opportunities to win!  So, what are you waiting for?  Enter today!

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What Do You Want Your Teacher To Notice? Reflecting on September With a Freebie!

I absolutely LOVE Pernille Ripp!  She is one of my teaching heroes that I have been following on Twitter FOREVER.  I always get the greatest ideas and inspirations from her, and this one was no exception.  I read this blog post of hers entitled - What Do You Wish I Would Notice - this weekend and I knew I had to ask my kiddos the same question. I was nervous to be sure, but I was not disappointed with their responses:

This student was so honest about their behavior this month I really had to chuckle as I read it.

 

This one had some advice for me on dealing with bad behavior in the classroom.

 

 

This one wanted me to set harder goals - I love it!

 

I had told my students that my own goal was to be better prepared - I am constantly stopping lessons to find my white board markers or materials because I set them down somewhere.  This student obviously agrees with me.

 

These two were from the same student who has been acting up lately, which is not like her at all - I had no idea she needed a seat change, so that was definitely in order and an easy fix.

 

This was such a great way to get the students to reflect about their own work habits, but it really gave me a few ideas of ways I could also improve my teaching.

I have decided to have my students reflect each month, and have made a packet of reflection pages which I have made as a Teachers Pay Teachers Freebie For you! You can download it here.

Five For Friday

I missed last Friday because I was so sick, but I'm feeling better, so time to link up for 5 for Friday from Doodle Bugs Teaching!

Five random things from this week:

 

 

This week has been absolutely crazy busy!  We started the weekend with a little baseball. Tyler was playing catcher here:

 

Then we did a little shopping at Build a Bear Workshop.

 

 

 

Which was a little safer than the shopping we did at the pet store - ( I really need to learn to say the word no).  As I had mentioned previously - Cody had a snake that escaped his cage, and after tearing apart and putting back together the house several times, we have not been able to find him, so we got him a replacement. This one is a little bigger, and hopefully not able to sneak out of the cage.

 

 

But... we also got new pets for Tyler and Luke while we were there.  Can I use the excuse that I was medicated (I've been taking medicine for bronchitis)?

 

 

This week at school we were lucky enough to have a mom of one of the students come in and teach us origami.  The kids LOVED it!  She will be coming once a month and we can't wait to learn more!

 

 

And last but not least, this week we have awards assemblies at our school and Luke was honored with the Citizenship award for his class.

A good citizen deserves a bearded dragon right?

 

Thanks to Jen at Hello Literacy for making these fun number buttons! You can grab your set of numbers here!

 



October Currently

Wow!  October already!  And... I am super late for the party, but I can't miss Farley's fabulous Currently!  So here it is..

 

Our district has set aside monthly collaboration time for teachers at different schools to get together to share ideas for teaching our common units.  Each month a different teacher from each grade goes and brings back what they learn.  This month is my month, so I will be going today.  I always hate having a sub because it is more work.  I also have a challenging class, so I usually come back to bad notes :(  But.. on the bright side, I am excited to work with teachers that I don't normally see on a day to day basis.

I have been sick for most of September and I am just over it!  I am on day 8 of the antibiotics and just starting to feel a slight improvement.  I just want the sickies to go away!

As my treat for you I have a problem solving freebie for you to download over at TpT!

 

 

 

  You can download it here

 

And... don't forget to enter to win the World's Quietest pencil sharpener (now in pink) - in the color of your choice here.

Win The Quietest Pencil Sharpener (In PINK - or your choice of colors)!

Even though I live in a house full of boys, anything in pink is cool according to my kiddos.  As one of them says, "Pink is the new black!"  Tyler even custom ordered pink men's Reebok for back to school.

So, when my boys were looking over my shoulder as I checked my email from Troy, at Classroom Friendly Supplies announcing their new PINK quietest sharpener they were excited to say the least.  "Mom you can get it pink!"  They know that I love my sharpener that is in my classroom, and now they want one of the pink ones for at home.

 

You can also get a pink sharpener for your home or classroom here - and the best part? Part of the proceeds of every sale will be donated to cancer research and awareness.  This is very dear to my family's hearts because we lost both of my in-laws to cancer.

 

And even better, you have the chance to win one of these amazing sharpeners! You can pick pink or any of the other colors they offer (green, red, blue, or black).  Just enter using the Rafflecoptor below:

 

(To sweeten the deal - you will also win an item of your choice from my TpT store as well!)

 

 

 

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Problem Solving Math Journals

At the beginning of the year, we talked about why we wanted to be better mathematicians.  The final conclusion of our discussion was that we needed to be able to solve problems.  To help us become better problem solvers, we solve LOTS of problems!  We use our math journals four times daily, and weekly solve a problem as a whole group.  Here is a glimpse at some of our problem solving:

At the beginning of each unit, I print out several problems from my math journals (available here on TpT) that fit with that unit.  I then put them into folders and gave a folder to each student.

 

The students then work on solving them as part of their independent work.  Occasionally we will go over them whole group if they are having problems or if I see interesting approaches to problem-solving that I want to share.

This week we worked on the following problem because we are working on rounding and estimating:

 

We read the problem out loud and then worked together to solve it.

 

Yes, they are wearing pajamas - it was spirit week at our school for our high school Homecoming celebration.  Our town is small and has only one high school, so the whole community really gets behind it which is fun!  Most of the businesses in town are decorated in honor of it:

 

(And now back to our regularly scheduled programming about problem solving! LOL!)

Here are a few samples of answers from my kiddos:

 

In our state, 4th graders start answering constructed response questions on the state tests for math, so I want them to be prepared!