It's a Blog Hop...Hawaiian Style!

Aloha!

I am so excited to be writing this post today because I am teaming up with some amazing bloggers, who also live in Hawaii, for this super fun blog hop...in celebration of all of us Hawaii teachers heading back to school today!! 

Most of the freebies being offered today are geared towards those teachers who teach in the islands...but if you can use it..by all means we'd be more than happy for you to snag our freebies :) We've also got a little special something for those of you who don't live here...

Today I have a file you can use for students to self-assess themselves at the ending of each quarter in regards to their GLO's (General Learner Outcomes). This was actually done a few years back by an amazing teacher at my school who has retired, I just tweaked some of the wording and added a cute border! 

These are great to show parents during conferences. You could also use this to evaluate each student while assigning grades for GLO's as well. You can pick this freebie up here. 

I've also just added these cute welcome posters to my TPT store. Best thing about them...they're editable and free for this hop!! :) Head on over to my store to pick these up. 

And I promised a little something for those of you who don't get to head back to work today in Paradise.....

Yes, that's right. All items in my TPT store will be 20% off today and tomorrow. Great time to stock up and get ready for heading back into that classroom! 

In case you missed it, head on over to Nicole's blog at Teaching with Style for the first freebie in our blog hop! 

Monday Made It, a Peek into my Class, and a FREEBIE Bloghop Sneak Peek!!

Hello out there! 

Tomorrow is officially my first day back at work, but I've been working throughout the entire summer changing up my classroom theme and getting it all ready for the first day. We actually don't get our students until the 5th of August, but we begin PD training and have 2 teacher work days. I am so happy for this, because this if the first time in 2 years we are getting paid to set up and train for PD. We will be heading to the Okinawan Cultural Center, and Pearl City Country Club on Thursday and Friday to learn about our new Teacher Evaluation program that is being piloted this year!! 

The past two years I've had a beach/ocean theme going on in my classroom. You can check those pictures out here and here. 

This year, I decided to switch it up...I asked my students what they'd like to see for next years theme and it was pretty unanimous that they would like RAINBOWs! SO instead of actual rainbows, I decided rainbow colors! AND..because the MR and I are really trying very hard to save money for our wedding (hopefully sometime next year!), I decided that I would use my summer days to work on creating my own things for my classroom. I've spent many days and hours creating, editing, printing, laminating, and cutting. Here are some of the things I've made. Linking up with Tara at 4th Grade Frolics for her weekly Monday Made it!

These are my labels that I used to label pretty much everything around my room. Love how they turned out! 

This area is where students turn in all of their work. White trays are regular class work and pink trays are for homework assignments. 

This is my cart that houses all of my copies for the week....

Some photos of my class library. I bought a TON of books this summer and also had a ton donated by some generous families who moved out of state. It took me so long to get them organized. I've finally found a set up on my bookshelves too that I like as well so that my students know exactly where to put the bins back on the shelf when they take them out to book shop. 

These are my two bulletin boards in the back by my library. My CAFE Board...totally in love with these colorful posters from Ginger Snaps. You can pick these posters up for free in her TPT Store.

The second board is where I will display student work. I love using scrapbook paper to display student work because you can easily put the work samples landscape or portrait and either way..it'll still have a nice border around it. 

My classroom doesn't have much wall space to put things up on...so I had to resort to using the door to display my Genre Posters by the amazing Beth Newingham! 

Speaking of having no room....I had NO ROOM AT ALL for my Daily 5 rotation charts! I was walking around my room today trying to figure out where I could hang my 3 charts and then I got a brilliant idea. 

I decided to velcro them to my teacher desk. This works out perfectly because 1. My desk is pretty ugly,  and 2. All students need to pass by here in order to go to their reading spots. 

This is what my charts look like. There are 3 charts, one for each rotation. The students will be dismissed by reading groups to go and make their daily choices. They will each have three of their name cards in their reading boxes/binders and will go and mark their choice on their way to their reading spot. 

Picked up those SUPER CUTE Daily 5 cards from Lori Rosenberg. I absolutely adore her work! You can find them in her tpt store as well for FREE! 

These charts fit perfectly across my desk!

I also hopped on the Homework Club bandwagon and decided to try this out. I've always had a difficult time with student turning in their  homework...so hopefully this will be some motivation! 

This is a board I set up for our character traits of the month. I was planning on having the kids do a writing assignment each month as to how they demonstrated that character trait. However, I found out that we weren't doing this this coming school year and just focusing on Habits of Mind instead. SO that means I'll be swapping this out tomorrow for my Math Rotations board. 

These are my attendance cards. They are double sided. When students come in, they flip their cards over to ready to learn. When they leave for the day they flip it back to the blank side. This will be an easy way for my attendance monitor to see who is absent. 

I'll be sharing some final pictures as I finish up my room in the next 2 days. 

Until then...please come back and visit me tomorrow for a bloghop that I have planned with some amazing bloggers who also live here in Hawaii. 

Long Division Style!

I'm not sure about your school, but at my school PSY has taken over with the semi-inappropriate song Oppa Gangnam Style. If you've never seen this video before, you can check it out here.  Kids of all ages were walking through the halls, and running around at recess singing and dancing to this song. I must admit, every time I see this video I can't help myself but laugh. 

Anyways..last night I came across this AWESOME parody of Oppa Gangnam Style..
It's called Long Division Style. Unfortunately, we don't teach long division in third grade but it is such a good video I just had to share it! Hopefully some of you upper grade teachers could use this in your class. 

This video was created by students at Meyer Levin School for the Performing Arts located in Brooklyn, New York. Check it out!!

Hope your students will love this as much as I did!! 

4th of July Flash Sale!

Hey there!

Since tomorrow is the 4th of July, I'm hopping on that flash sale train and putting all the items in my TPT store on Sale until tomorrow midnight :)

Click the beautiful image below to go straight to my store..

Special Thanks to Rachel from the Tattooed teacher for this cute button!

Looking forward to stocking my cart up again... :)

Currently: July and 50% off Lesson Plan books!!

Hi Everyone!

Although it's only the 2nd of July..I feel like I'm late to the Currently party!! Of course, it's got to be a group of teachers who are super on it and get this thing done a.s.a.p! :P 

I'm linking up with Farley again for this months currently. Seriously?? Does July need to come this quickly?? Every summer when July hits I come to the realization that my summer is pretty much over..I pretty much spend the entire month of July working on getting ready for the new school year. Wait, what am I talking about? I've spent the whole summer doing that! lol! Oh, the life of a teacher I tell ya...and people think that we have summers off?! 

Anyways..here's my currently!

Listening: To the fiance frying some turkey bacon. I love being able to actually sit down with him during the summer for breakfast!!

Loving: Who doesn't love summer, right?! I'm loving that I have all the time in the world to do whatever I want- although it still feels like I don't have enough time in a day! BUT..I love that we're headed off to the beach today for another fishing adventure! Hopefully I catch something...

Thinking: As I'm eating breakfast...I can't stop thinking about the yummy food we'll be eating for lunch and dinner. Yes, I'm constantly thinking about food...lol. We're going to be trying this place He'eia Pier for lunch and the picture on yelp look SO GOOD!
Follow me here on instagram to follow all of my teaching and food adventures here in paradise.
I'll be posting a pic of my lunch..and crossing fingers to be posting a catch for today!!

Wanting: there to be one more summer of vacation. I'm not ready to go back yet!

Needing: To continue working out and eating healthy so that I can shed some pounds. I've put so much weight on since I started teaching..it's crazy! I guess it doesn't help when everyday the kids tell me how good I like...when I really don't! lol Plus, I need to trim down for my wedding, which is still tbd.

Tips, tricks, or hints: Do what works for you!! Don't try to recreate something that you've seen and liked from someone else. Don't try to meet other peoples expectations for products or blogging...Do what you will use in your own classroom, post what works well for you..and what didn't! People love to hear about success stories but I think that they also like to hear about those not so good moments...because hey, we all have them!

ALSO..If you've made it all the way down here...

My bright colored lesson plan book is on sale in my TPT store until Thursday midnight Hawaii time for only $3.50!  If you missed it..take a look at my blog post where I give you a detailed look at what's inside..

I also have a black, white and gray version that is quite similar but saves on a TON of ink. This is also available in my TPT store for only $3.50

Until next time!!

Monday Made It #2: Lesson Plan Book!!

Hey Everyone!!

I'm so happy/proud to be posting my second Monday Made it...2 weeks in a row! Hopefully I'll also have something to share next week as well. Linking up with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics for this week's Monday Made it! 

I've been busy at work tweaking my plan book for next year. I currently have one up in my TPT Store  from last school year. Last years book was a black and white version..because I wanted to save my ink for all of the other wonderful things I had purchased and printed at home. This year, I decided to update the plan book because I wanted it to be fun and colorful, like my classroom theme for this coming school year! 

I took it to Office Max yesterday and got it bound..I LOVE how it turned out. I was so shocked that it cost less than $4.00 to get this book put together. 

Last summer, I decided to create my own plan book because I couldn't bring myself to paying an outrageous price at the teacher supply store for a plan book that I really didn't care for. The prices of those plain and not cute books are so expensive...so I decided why not create something that i like, and that has everything that I want/need in it?! 

I will go through each of the sections in this book. 

I had a few more sections that I had planned for...but unfortunately, I ran out of paper to print with and I was so anxious to just take it to get it bound...otherwise, I'd keep obsessing and adding things and this would be a never ending project!

The first section is this student information sheet. 

Behind are pages where you can fill out the following:

• Student and Parent's name (for those students who have different last names from their parents..it's always good to have it down just in case)
• Email address
•  Cell phone and home phone numbers
•  Allergies
• Extra Notes
• and a place where you can circle if the child is a bus rider, parent pick up, after school care, or other...

Next up is the Long Term Planning Section.

Here is where I will plan out what big ideas/standards will be taught during what month. 

This is always helpful for me to keep up with my pacing as I teach...and to make sure that I cover everything!!

Next comes the Monthly Calendar section...

I decided to use circles so that each year you can just go ahead and fill in the numbers for each month. 

This year, I've also decided to add a quote for each month. This is a very basic and plain calendar template but I plan on jazzing it up with colorful pens as I fill in all the gazillion things that teachers always have going on in their busy lives

Then comes the Grade Book

This is pretty self explanatory. The little line up at the top is where you can write down the date of the assignment/assessment..and then below you can either write down the assignment title and/or the standard. 

Lesson Plans

This is the template that I like to use for my lesson plans. The top has a spot where you can jot down the subject area. I like to leave this blank because sometimes my math block may take up 2-3 boxes depending on the day. This gives me some flexibility. 

I've also decided to add a Things to Do box at the ending of each lesson planning week.

I'm constantly making lists of all the things I have to do each week....but I am also constantly losing those lists and am having to remake them. This way..I won't lose them and it'll be all right there! 

The last section in my book is where I keep a list of my CC math and ela standards. 

Please note that when this product is uploaded to TPT, I will not be including standards for each grade level. You will need to find your own copies and add them in. 

I had planned on having one final section which would  have been Parent Communication. I ran out of paper so I couldn't include this in here but I'll probably bind another little book to keep track of my parent communication. This is where I wanted to document all the phone calls/emails that I made to parents and the purpose for the contact...Documentation is key and it's always a good thing to record when you do contact parents!!  

That's it for this week's Monday Made it!. I'm really happy with how my plan book turned out this year!! Hopefully I'll get this uploaded to TPT soon. I have a few more things to tweak on here and have to add in a credits page.

**Planner is now up in my TPT store!  It is marked down to $3.50 for today only!

My black and white version of this is also marked down to $3.50 until midnight Hawaii time :D