Sneak a Peek With a Peach: September Version

Is September stretching out in front of you with no end in sight? Want to make it a little lighter and FUN? Then I've got just the right thing to keep you busy this month.
Definitely check out the Primary Peach blog all month long!

Check out my Favorite Classroom Spot on September 10th!

Shark Week as a class theme

Color me crazy, but I love Shark Week.

They are such amazing creatures who have weathered the passage of time. Yes, they can be scary, but they really don't like the taste of humans. So I'm good with that. I just won't be going surfing off the coast of North Carolina any time soon.

It was during this shock filled week that some blogging friends got together and created a super fun Blog Hop. As I was carefully going through the Hop so as not to miss any of the goodies to be had, that it hit me.

Why not have Shark Week as a class theme this year? What a great way to extend the summer fun.

Love it!

I started the wheels turning and did some research into ideas that I had. There was a perfect book to read during the first week

Clark is a shark with zing, bang, and BOOM. Clark zooms into school, crashes through the classroom, and is rowdy at recess. Clark loves life—but when his enthusiasm is too much for his friends, Clark's teacher, Mrs. Inkydink, helps him figure out a way to tone it down.
Clark the Shark celebrates boisterous enthusiasm—and knowing when it's time for indoor voices!

I immediately ordered it from Amazon and when it came I left it in the wrapper so I can truly share a moment with my new group of students.

I tracked down some plastic sharks to give to each of my kiddos as they arrived on the first day. They were not cheap, let me tell ya. But they are fun. I also looked into shark teeth necklaces, but my wallet was already groaning. Maybe for Christmas?

On a trip through Jo-Anns I bumped into a fun little 50 piece puzzle for Shark Week. It fit perfectly into my evil master plan to conquer the world build some teamwork into my class.

Tomorrow is the first day of a new year. I think I am ready. As they come in I have a large shark tooth out on their desk with their names on it. I'm going to have them color and decorate them with things they like to do or are good at. Then I'll string them along the back of the room to create a class banner.

I'll let you know how it goes! Wish me luck in a comment below and let me know what your class theme is going to be.

Congrats are in order

Congratulations go out to Anna Y! She won the Back to School Rafflecopter.

Back to School 2015 Giveaway

Yep, it's that time again. Teachers go back tomorrow morning!! I can't believe how easy this summer slipped from my fingers. Even after 24 years in the teaching business I still get this anxious feeling in the pit of my stomach when the Great School Machinery begins to turn.

Not sure if you know yet, but Back To School means a huge sale at TeachersPayTeachers. They do this every year to help you get ready for your new kiddos. If you use the code (BTS2015) you will be able to score a whopping 28% off.

I did manage to find time to work on three new TpT products that I am really excited about. The first thing I completed was a total Brain Gem. You know how something just comes to you out of the blue? I love those ideas.

I was thinking of how to get my students more interested in one of our last Social Studies units of the year. We look at Westward Expansion, which I think is pretty cool. The kids are usually in their summer mind mode by now and aren't soaking up any new information. I was tossing around some ideas and suddenly it hit me, "Why not write a Choose Your Own Adventure story?" Do you remember those? I loved them as a kid and could sit for hours flipping back and forth trying new adventures. That's how the Westward Ho! Packet came to be. It has some fun stuff in the full packet. There's a couple of task card sets on Main Idea and Cause and Effect. There's also a ppt presentation to use as a daily writing activity as you study the Oregon Trail.

 

 

My next project was something I've been meaning to put together but never had the time. A Grammar Interactive Notebook would be a perfect addition to my class.  I sat down one day and started on it. As I kept working on it, I kept finding more information that was needed in this packet. I had the Common Core standards handy and kept finding new pages that were needed to cover a 3-5 Grammar unit. By the time I got done with this I couldn't believe how many pages were in it. Coming in at Ninety-Two, it is by far my largest single project to date. Check out Interactive Grammar Notebook 3-5

 



Last, but not least I managed to complete a full year of Mentor Sentence lessons. That's a total of 40 Grammar lessons. If you aren't familiar with Mentor Sentences, check out my post from earlier. A customer had contacted me and asked when I'd be done with a full year of lessons. Since I only had two of the 10 week lessons up, I had no answer for her. So I got to work and found some great Mentor Texts to use for the second half of the year.  Full Year of Mentor Sentences

If you've managed to get this far into my blog post, you are in for a treat.

Tomorrow is the beginning of the annual TpT sale that lasts for only two days. What are you to do after that if you've missed some of your favorite products? Well, I've put together a little Rafflecopter Giveaway to help you out with that. It ends Saturday night (Aug. 8) at 11:59 P.M.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Hope it helps make your week just a little easier.

Leave me a blog post below and let me know what you were able to work on this summer.

Classroom Makeover 2015!

Our school was downsized this year. On the one hand it is fantastic news. We've been so overcrowded for the past 15 years, it was time. On the other? Lots of changes this year. Including the fact that I got moved to a new room, a lot smaller room. If you know me this is a cause for concern.

I have a LOT of stuff.

After 20 years of teaching you just accumulate things. Things you can't willing part with unless there is a tornado or they are ripped from your fingers by a giant shark. Where am I going to put all this stuff? What do you mean I won't have any handy cupboards underneath a sink to cram place my art supplies in?

Ugh.

So I braved the change and packed up all my stuff at the end of the year. I will sort through it over the summer. Right?

Well, it took forever to get into my new room. First they had to clean all the carpets. That took a really long time. I kept checking with no success. Then the day that they had cleaned my carpet I was at a staff development and was going on vacation the very next day. Then to find out that I couldn't get in  until they finished waxing the floors. Really?

Finally, finally I was able to get in there and get started. I simply had to put some desks out to see if they would all fit in this room. But this is what it looked like the first day I arrived.

A mess.

I came in for a couple of hours every day for a week to go through all those boxes. I threw out a bunch of stuff. I decided that my motto this  year was if I haven't touched it in two years, I don't need it.

The boxes were slowly being emptied and I was arranging the furniture in the room in a hopefully functional way. Can you see on the back  wall how that board is painted black and stenciled with gold? Yeah, those were our old school colors. There was also an original mural painted of a castle to go with our school mascot, the Knight. I had to paint over those with our new school colors.

 

 

 

Then I started getting more relaxed about this new year. After asking the Head Custodian for a second cabinet to store all my math manipulatives in, things were coming together. It was starting to look like a classroom.

 

 



But a problem arose. The more days I spent working in my room, the closer the beginning of the new school year approached. Which means more and more colleagues started showing up. They would stop by to chat (read help them move heavy furniture) and I started getting less and less done.

But today I was able to get to a place where I started in on the real grit of teaching. I sat down an opened up my account at Planbook.com. Look for this in a different post. It was time to seriously start looking at my daily schedule and think about lesson planning.

Here's how my room looks the day before pre-planning: