It's Five for Friday

I'm joining Doodle Bugs weekly linky.

On Wednesday I reported back to work for Teacher Prep Days and had to leave Harley at home solo.

He was so happy to see me come home at the end of my first day of work.

As part of my prep work at school I put together and Emergency Sub Tub Cart.

I have it permanently up at my front teacher desk in a rolling cart.

It will make needing to be out unexpectedly less stressful.

I'm still recovering from a recent surgery, so being up and about all day at work has been a bit exhausting this week. I've been using heat packs to curb my pain a bit and then I come home and use the heating pad while sitting in this MOST comfortable chair.

My district has adopted Go Math for our new curriculum so I spent a good chunk of my time today lesson planning and trying to find my way through their technology pieces. It's going to take some time to get the hang of things.

My most recent addition to my TPT store is a MEGA bundle of all my reading and language task card sets. It's a total of 40 different skills at a 20% discount AND if gets even better. TPT's Back to School sale is coming up on Aug. 4th and 5th.  This MEGA bundle will be an additional 28% off (be sure to use the TPT code BTS14 to get that extra 8% off). Task cards are a great resource in any classroom.

If you've never used them, give them a try.

Click picture view this MEGA bundle

Don't miss out on the shopping TPT spree!

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Five for Friday

My 5 random sharings this Friday are:

  My task today is to assemble this adjustable stool to use in my classroom this year.

Wish me luck.

 This morning my dog got scolded by this squirrel sitting on the telephone wire.

Harley had no clue he was being put into place by a little ol squirrel.

 So, I mixed up a lavendar home spray using essential oils the other day.

I used it a handful of times and now just take a look at the spray bottle on the right hand side of the picture. It is all collapsed in. The bottle cannot even stand upright now like the empty one on the left.

I assume I bought cheapo bottles for this to happen.

 It's been heating up here so the past couple of days I drive myself (with Harley of course)

to Chick Fil  A for a yummy vanilla ice cream cone.  Harley usually gets offered a biscuit treat by the employees if he is spotted sticking his head out the window like a pretty boy. He pouts if he happens to be ignored though.

  I'm trying to put to the back of my mind that I go back to work next Wednesday.  BOO!

I have been window shopping and wishlisting some things I need on TPT, but mainly I'm practicing School AVOIDANCE right now.  If you want to window shop, I did get some of my popular items bundled into sets this summer.  My Swat It Grammar Bundle and my To the Point Grammar Pack may be worth your looking at.

Join the fun in Doodlebug's Linky

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Happy July

Back in March a bird nested on my patio. Well this summer I've had the daily pleasure of seeing the baby birds grow and leave their nest.

Other summer happenings include helping my nephew host a yard sale at my house to help fundraise for his Eagle Scout project he will be completing later in August. My whole garage was filled to the brim with things to sell. He raised over $800 to support his project.

My summer has been pretty low key. I'm recovering from a recent surgery and just taking it easy.

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Spring Happenings

Hope spring is treating everyone well.  I recently returned from an 8 day vacation in Mexico for my spring break. This is the 3rd time I've gone to the Tulum, Mexico Riviera Maya area with my family to have some much needed rest and relaxation.  As I walked the beaches each day I found heart stones to add to my growing collection.

There are signs of spring in my own backyard too. A bird has set up her nest on my patio.
It right in front of the sliding door so I'm not sure if mama bird will be happy with Harley's "protect the yard morning barking" every morning.

And I get to see this mule pulling his owner in a rickshaw on the walking path near my home.

Happenings in my classroom include administering the state field test. We took the first portion on Friday. One down, 2 more sessions to go! My kiddos did their best!

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Pupster in the family

Meet Bodie, my dog nephew!

He's my brother's new pup and just meant to be with him.

My brother's elderly dog died about a month ago and I just knew my brother would have to get another companion soon.

One night, mid February he called me and was so excited to have found a beautiful female lab running loose. He couldn't find the owner right away, and was willing and ready to be her new owner, but she was a mom and was obviously still nursing pups. So he posted signs and called local vets to try and find where she belonged.  The next evening, he called again and was happy to have found the owner along with her 9 pups.  The puppies are part lab and bull mastiff so Bodie is going to be a bruiser!

On another note, have you heard about TPT's 3 Million Teachers Strong sale coming up this Thursday and Friday?  You can shop away with BIG savings at this site wide sale! Use the special TPT3 code at checkout for an additional 10% off.

You might look to pick up some staples for the classroom like my many task card sets. Some of my best selling task card sets are

Or you might want to pick up my NEWEST money saving bundle of Swat It Grammar Games

Get 7 games for $5.00 off buying them individually!

Don't forget about stocking up on Spring lesson ideas like Earth Day!

My best seller is my Litter Bugs Project

or my Power Over Trash Writing

On your mark, get ready, set, GO fill up your carts!

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Teaching the Dream of MLK

I posted about the resources I've used to teach about Martin Luther King on the ATUE blog the other day.  See it HERE

And today I just found this tribute song to add to my lessons.

    

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Snow Beautiful

Well, it's a sunny 75% in California and I just got back from walking Harley.

He's decked out in bells and jingled all the way on our walk.

Since snow is a rare occurrence here I wanted some holiday inspiration.

"Snow" Beautiful

Falling Snow from Matt S on Vimeo.

Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday!

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Happy Turkey Day

Happy Turkey Day Song!

Click to listen:

Boy my Thanksgiving this year has me feeling like I'm running around with my head cut off.

To give some background, my family dinner is postponed this year until Sunday since my mom and dad are out of town. And since they've always cooked the turkey no one else wanted to take on that job. My ONLY job today was to take the turkey out of MY freezer and drive it over to their house to thaw out in their fridge for the next few days. Sounds simple, but not really. Yesterday my automatic garage door was acting up and not shutting properly, so I put it into manual mode.  So I got up this morning, put the frozen turkey in my car, manually lifted up the door, pulled my car out and then the trouble started. I got out of the car to pull the door back down and my middle finger got caught and pinched in the now closed garage door. I was literally stuck to the garage door. I started hollering for help like crazy.

Luckily some volunteer workers for the annual Turkey Trot heard my ruckus and I told them to call 911. After what seemed like forever a police officer saved the day and pulled up the garage door and I was released. Now I'm nursing a big, fat bruised finger and I REFUSE to park my car back in the garage until I can get someone to figure out how to get my garage door to work properly. Said car is sitting in my driveway and I'm icing my finger.

Hope everybody else's Turkey Day was a little less hectic.

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Teaching about Immigration, Ellis Island and Today's Pilgrims

My class just finished an in depth author study of Patricia Polacco.

We learned how her family immigrated to the U.S. from Russia.

I read the book Coming to America to teach more about the immigration process.

Then we explored Scholastic's site on immigrants which includes video clips of immigrant children today as well as background on Ellis Island.

Finally, we connected Patricia Polacco's family history of being Russian immigrants to the novel Molly's Pilgrim. A video is available for the story too that we compared the book to.

View a video clip

To wrap up our pilgrim and immigration focus students made their own Molly's Pilgrim doll.

 

I recently started a Facebook Group for teachers to share ideas, questions, and inspiration. 

Come Join the group!

Classroom Management: Tips for Keeping Kids on Track

I posted over at All Things Upper Elementary today about ways help students stay focused and on track.

Pop on over to read more

~Enjoy

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