Five for Friday August 1, 2014

Goodness Sakes!!  It has been over 6 months since my last post!  So, I am dusting off this keyboard and blowing away cobwebs from the corners of this little blog to say "HELLO!" again.  :)  Many things have changed in the past several months, including the fact that I am moving back to 1st grade!!! It was a wonderful three years in 3rd grade!  I learned so much from my students and how to extend reading comprehension in an older grade level.  However, I am so excited to return to 1st grade!  There is not a grade level quite like 1st!!  If you have taught 1st grade...I think ya know what I am talking about!  :)  So, today, I am linking up with Doodle Bugs for her 5 for Friday weekly linky party!!  Happy Weekend everyone!

This summer my husband and I committed to eating healthy and working out together.  We started to dabble in the Paleo diet and we LOVE how we feel!  It is no longer a diet, but a lifestyle change!!  The blog, Paleomg, has been a lifesaver!  I am not exaggerating when say both Joe and I and the girls LOVE EVERY.SINGLE.ONE of her recipes!!  They are YUMMY!!!  Click the pic below to visit her awesome blog.  :)

This morning, I finished updating my newsletter freebie!  I read some of the reviews from my buyers, and made adjustments accordingly!!  :)  Thank you for your input!!  All text is now completely editable!  Click Here for your free download.  

Last week, I started heading into my classroom! It is a lot of work, but I really do love setting up a new classroom each year!  :)  This is the start....I will have a full tour up on the blog soon!  :)
    

3 weeks ago, my sweet friend Katie convinced me to join her in selling Stella & Dot jewelry. Oh my goodness!!  I did not realize how much fun this little side job could be!! :)  This is such a great company, and I have already met so many sweet ladies!  I LOVE the new Engravables line.  This week, for my "Back to School" shopping :), I ordered this gold bar with my favorite verse inscribed on the front...Philippians 4:6-7.  Click here to learn more about this awesome company!

And finally.....I cannot WAIT to pick up this sweet girl from church camp!!! This picture is from the ride up to camp last week. I know she has had an amazing week, and I cannot wait to hear all of the ways God was working in her life this week...but I miss her!!  I cannot wait to pick her up! :)

Have a WONDERFUL weekend!  I can't wait to hop on to the linky and read to see what everyone else is up to!  :)

Christmas in July...Day 3 Plus a FREEBIE!

Yesterday was a rainy, Summer day in our little corner of Northern Indiana....so I was secretly happy to stay in my pj's for way too long and dive into two books I purchased during the school year!!  Oh my!! They are both FANTASTIC!! My colleagues and I are working on implementing a Math Workshop next year in 3rd grade, and I am so excited!  Does anyone else use this method to teach Math?  If so, do you have other resources you enjoy?  :)

                                                        

Now....On to Day 3 of the "Christmas in July Sale"...with a BONUS FREEBIE at the bottom of this post.  :)  

Today's Theme is all about Writing!!  You will find each of these items priced at 20% off on Tuesday, July 9th!! 

Click Here 

Click Here 

Click Here 

And now for a FREEBIE!!  Just a fun little extra to use in your classroom!! Have a great day, everyone!!

Click Here for Your Copy!! :)

Point of View Freebie and Finishing Up Summer School!!

Summer Reading Camp has flown by, and I have had so much fun with these kiddos!  I cannot believe that our time together is coming to a close.  Only a few days of Summer Reading Camp left.   I have to admit, I am looking forward to not setting an alarm during the month of July!!!! However, it has truly been a pleasure working with these third graders this summer!!


Our comprehension focus today was Point of View.  We read The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs to discuss this comprehension strategy.  I love reading this story!! It is written in such a clever way, and the students LOVE  listening to this funny tale!!  After the student listen to the story, we discussed how this book was written in a very different format from traditional versions of The 3 Little Pigs.  After our discussion we created Point of View Flipbooks to practice what we learned!!  We practiced retelling the story from different characters point of view.  Click below to download your FREE copy of the activities we completed in class!

Click HERE to DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE COPY

Summer Reading Camp!! and Stellaluna Freebie!!

This Summer, I have the opportunity to work at Summer School!  It has been so fun to meet all of these great students and work with them on their reading over the summer!  We started out by working on finding Characters and Setting in a story.  We used the familiar and lovable tale of Stellaluna as a starting point!  What a great way to start off!!  The students LOVE Stellaluna! They also loved sampling the mangoes that I brought for the kids to try.  They loved eating the same food that Stellaluna eats at the end of the story.  Many of the students had never tried mangoes before so it was fun to watch the expressions on their little faces!!


We used the following anchor chart below to record our knowledge. The students then got a chance to practice finding the Characters and Setting in their own Independent Reading.  Click Here to Download all of our Stellaluna activities for free!!

The mangoes were a hit!!  

Summer Pen Pals Freebie and Field Day!!

I cannot believe this year has come to a close!!  What a fun group I had this year!  I just loved having each and every one of them in class!! :)  I had to post some of these sweet pictures from Field Day and also share a little Summer Pen Pal Freebie that is now available in my TpT shop!!  Happy Summer!!

The Cheetos Shower Cap toss was hysterical!!!

Mr. Hawblitzel was ready for the Dunk Tank! 

It was bittersweet adding these letters to report card envelopes today....I will miss these kiddos!! This is a fun way to stay in touch!!  Click Here to download this letter!!