Mother's Day and End Of The Year

Insane. It'll be May in a few days and then June is just a hop and a skip away! As the end of the year comes, I'm busy busy busy subbing because there are personal/sick days being used up, etc. I'm working this week in 1st grade except for Friday.

One awesome thing the teacher is doing is messaging me and I upload the photo onto the screen. The kiddos have to guess what their teacher is doing, what she's thinking and feeling, and where is she? Every day I'll do this and they'll write about it.  I would show you today's picture, but she does come on this blog sometimes and she may kill me! Lol. Love you A!


Then I finished up my Mother's Day Craftivity, which could also be Father's Day or any appreciation really! Shout out to Squirrels for helping me think of the title!

Then I worked on some memory book stuff and came up with Snapshots Of The School Year.

I'm loving it because you can use it for any grade :)

I just love that the kiddos draw/write in Polaroid frames :) Amazing graphics by Ashley Hughes!

I'd love to give away both of these to a few followers! Leave your email and your choice of pack in a comment and I'll pick a few for each in the next few days!

Hope you are all surviving too!

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Instagram Linky Party

Instagram and a Linky Party? Yes please! Some bloggy friends decided that we should post pics on Tuesday on Instagram! Just hashtag it with #teachertalktuesday

You can find me on Instagram @ teacherjourney!

http://instagram.com/teacherjourney

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Paper Products

I LOVE paper products. You know I love me some office supplies! 

First up is the Note Taking System.

It's a small notebook, 5x8 and has 50 pages. I like that it has notes, date, and a side column.  I've never seen a book like this before.

Here's it's Mama at 8.5x11.75. You can see a comparison of the Mama and baby at the bottom of my post (they're the ones on the left). I'll be using this for Relay for Life stuff for sure!

Next is the Tops Idea Collective Notebook (or should I say notebooks, it's a 2 pack!) Can't go wrong with that. I like the soft cover and that it's wide-rule and 96 pages in each!

Last but not least, is the Tops Idea Collective Journal. Love that it has a strap. It also has a bookmark. I think this could be a place for me to write down unit/pack ideas.

Here they all are! 

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Job Switcheroo

I hate those calls. The ones from the District Office. My heart palpitates fast because I know that it means my job is cancelled or switched or something. She rarely calls.

I was supposed to be in 1st grade today and then the call came. "We need  you to go to the high school and..." and at that moment my blood rushed in my ears and my palms got sweaty, but she finished the sentence with "and sub in the preschool." Ok. Preschool. Sure. Not the HS. But then the panic came again. PRESCHOOL?!?!? Little munchkins? What am I getting myself into?

A fun day for sure and a new experience. Broadening the horizons and such. Served breakfast (a first for me) and then did centers. We did calendar and outside time, I read stories. We had lunch. We did art. We had nap time. NAP TIME people. Like for 2 hours. It was supposed to be 1 1/2 hours but they were WIPED. And my job was to rub their backs to fall asleep. Snack time followed, and then it was reading and outside sensory time.

They asked me if I would consider coming back again. Yep!

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Earth Day Giveaway

Happy Earth Day everyone!

I love me some Educents (think Groupon for teachers!)

Educents and Conscious Box have teamed up to offer you a chance to win a free Conscious Box-delivered to your door!

Conscious Box offers a monthly subscription service that delivers the purest, most natural products on the planet, right to your doorstep! You’ll be introduced to the purest, most ethical companies on the planet, every month!  So what are you waiting for,sign up below for your chance to win and teach your kids about being eco-friendly!

PLUS, if you aren’t the grand prize winner, you can still get a 3-month subscription to Conscious Box for less than $12/month by heading over to Educents.com. For one week only, Educents will be offering the Conscious Box for 40% off!  In addition, ALL profits from the sale of this box will be donated to The One Fund, which will provide funds to help those families most affected by the tragic events that unfolded during Monday’s Boston Marathon. So enter to win, and then head on over to buy the Conscious Box for yourself or a friend to celebrate earth day and support our fellow Americans in Boston!

It all ends on the 26th! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Five For Friday

What a week! There were rough moments and funny moments. Like yesterday, we were looking at a Presidents chart and the kids pointed to Obama. And I told them I've had more than him as a president, five to be exact. One kiddo got all excited and pointed to George Washington..."I bet he was one of your presidents!" Oh boy. I may seem old to them (I'll be 28 in June), but I am not THAT old hahaha.

I finished up the week by teaching primary colors to the firsties. The comments were precious! "I made green!" "We can make our OWN colors!" and I may have heard, "This is the best day EVER!"

They were amazed they could make purple and orange, even with crayons.

I let them go at it with butcher paper.They're only little so long you know? And I mean, they worked cooperatively at their tables, helped each other with colors, and this one even wrote numbers! I just told them to draw things in primary colors.

Just watchin' the neighbor's cat who attacks her when she's outside lol.

My new obsession. I have K-3 sub plans and am on 4th now with 5th after and *maybe* middle school?

Re-doing a cover and decided to revamp the whole packet!

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Plants, Nature, Oh My!

I've been blessed by getting a week in one class this week. It can be love/hate because it's nice to be in one spot for a bit, but if the kids are naughty, you're stuck! Luckily this is a pretty sweet class.

They're finishing up their farm unit and I just introduced them to their plants/animals unit, with emphasis on plants right now.

We did KWL on Monday and some weed plant collection and sorting Tuesday.

I'm having a blast and the kids are too! They thought it was the coolest collecting specimen for their science journals. Plus it was sunny, so it was an added bonus!

Today was soaking a lima bean and studying it with a magnifying glass and then seeing the different parts of the bean and what it's used for. Tomorrow we're observing the plants that were planted last week.

Soaked lima beans (for about 4 hours)

Look Ms. T! I see the 'baby'.

Exploring and observing.

Writing down seed parts.

Can we eat it? No thank you.

Then after school, a bunch of teachers were chillin' in the pond that you can see from two sides of the school. LOVE this school the most (my fave, but don't tell the other schools that ;) ) and I love that they have two outdoor areas  atriums << ooh look at me using fancy words! One atrium has two picnic tables and a tree (and flowers/weeds). The other has a picnic table with a pond.

The pond has 4-6 turtles. One said turtle happened to have snapped a bullfrog's leg and was dragging it around the pond. At one point, the frog was riding on top of the turtle. We didn't know what to do? Help the frog? Let nature take it's course? A male teacher was cheering the turtle on. One teacher was covering her eyes in horror.  I stood there watching the whole debacle. Kindy teacher came (she has a snake and used to work at a zoo) and debated about the pros and cons. Meanwhile the frog got drug underwater a few times and a ride or two around the pond...conclusion? She grabbed a net and scooped both out of the pond and the turtle still had its jaws clamped around the frog's leg. Male teacher who had been laughing tapped the turtle's head and then it let it go. Poor frog :( It's leg did not look good. It hopped/limped away to the other side of the pond. I don't know if it will make it.

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Stepping Stone Fun

Yesterday I was our biggest class with the kids at my other work. We have three classes on a Saturday, once a month. Normally 15-25 each class. We expected 90-100 however. Yeah. Thankfully it was more than just myself and the other two regular workers.

I run the registration and check in normally. I had to do that, plus bring the stepping stone forms, and get the kiddos situated. I don't think I barely had a chance to rest for three hours. And I loved every minute of it!

But the downside to being so busy, was that I only got two pictures!
So what do we do? Kiddos get a choice of a flower, heart, circle, square, or hexagon (or whatever has been poured) form that's been filled with cement.

They hop on over to one of the 'work tables' aka a stack of lumber that we threw plastic on and get decorating!  We have glass beads, broken china plates, screws, nails, and letter stamps.

Paper towels to dry the too wet cement and buckets of warm water for cleaning are at hand too.

That's my friend's daughter :) 

I love the creativity that comes flowing out of the kids. They can design however and whatever they want and it will last for a long time! And all for $5!  I made one too, with stamps and porcelain plate pieces (mosaic flower) but forgot to snap a pic. I'll post a pic after I go pick it up later next week when it's dry.

You can do this at home too! You just buy a plastic form, stamps/jewels, and the mix. I know our boys were using Sakrete mix, but you can buy some online too if your hardware store doesn't have any.

 

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Five For Friday

This is my first Five For Friday, woop woop!

1. Cute new sandals I got. Under $10, holla!

2. My bilingual alphabet that I made for my friend up in her class when I subbed for her. It rocks seeing my stuff in use!

3. Spotted my mug on the front of TpT for the first time ever!

 4. At my friend's house. She took the tailgate and made a hanging shelf. So neat!

 5. Local aquarium came today and talked about fur/feathers/scales and brought a Mr. Easter (rabbit) and a Caiman Lizard. Which apparently are like $400 to buy.

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