January Currently

It's January (almost first)...a big month in this household as both the hubs and I were January born babies! And since I'm close enough to the first (ha!), I am linking up with Farley from Oh Boy Fourth Grade! for her January Currently. I love filling these out...so fun!

LISTENING: So, over the break, I have been doing a little Netflixing and my current binge may or may not be a little bit of a guilty pleasure! I'm really enjoying Jane the Virgin; it's so ridiculous you can't help but laugh!
LOVING: The sun is out today.  Although the temperature is quite cold, the sun is out!  It's been a while since the sun has been out.  We've had some nice above average temperatures, but it's been quite gloomy. I guess the sun coming out is a trade-off I can live with to have a little sunshine grace my life!
THINKING: This one is pretty self explanatory.  It's the same way I feel after all of my breaks! I just need more time!
WANTING: I love the Christmas break. But with the large family I have married into, I have easily doubled the amount of holiday gatherings I am accustom to...I used to have 3 tops, and now I have 7-8! So I am just needing a little bit more of the vacation-y, do what you please aspect of this break!  Plus, we've (mostly the hubs!) done lots of demo over the break, so that' kept us busy as well!

NEEDING: I still have all of my Christmas decorations out, which doesn't really bother me. But I really should pack them up as January is a busy month for us and I'm not sure when I'll really have time within the next couple of weekends to do it otherwise!
ONE LITTLE WORD: Of course I couldn't pick just one! But my two words go hand in hand with each other.  I want to make an effort to be more present in life. To me this means making sure my planning time is well utilized and my "the mister is still working" time is well utilized.  That way, when I do have time to do things with friends, family, and the hubs, I won't be worried about getting lesson plans together or finishing up a task on the computer. I want to be present and focused so that I can utilize the rest of my time to make as many wonderful memories with my husband, family, and friends as possible. Kind of a little resolution-y, if I do say so!

Product Exchange

So I was recently offered the option to take part in a product exchange that is being hosted by Kovescence of the Mind...

It's always a great way to try something new or find a new favorite TpT'er.

I was partnered with Christin from Shifting Teacher K-2. I asked for her Let's Sequence Sentences: Winter Edition. And let me tell you, it's great! I taught Kinder last year and am currently teaching Fourth. I would've definitely used this item with my Kinders last year, for sure! But this year, with my fourth graders, this is perfect for my second language students who are in the very early stages of their reading and writing skills. 

I love that each image has two sentence options, one that is a bit shorter and one that has a very more sight words packed into it!

This is a shorter sentence. 

This one had a few more sight words. Sorry for the shine, my laminated cards did not want to lay nicely.

Check out the different products that people swapped and complete the rafflecopter to enter to win them for yourself!  Links for more products and the rafflecopter are below! Good luck!

Kovescene of the Mind Product Swap Products

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanksgiving Fun!

Hello! I wanted to pop in and share with you a couple new ideas I have for keeping my kids on task, engaged, and having a little educational fun as Thanksgiving break fast approaches. Both of these items were posted in my store this morning.

We have been doing a lot of inferencing in our classroom. So I thought it would be fun to do an inferencing activity to go along with Thanksgiving! And my Thanksgiving Dinner Picky Eaters Inferencing was born!

My next activity is a math activity. We will be finishing our current math chapter and be testing later this week. So I wanted to come up with something fun for my fourth graders to work on without starting a new chapter before we went on thanksgiving break.

So we will be planning Thanksgiving dinner for our families. The kids will have to fill out some questions about their guests and the foods they will be choosing. Then they will have to decide how much of each food they should get to feed everyone and then figure out the price of all the food they will be needing!

The first person to comment with their email and which of these items they would like the most, will be sent the item of their choosing! Happy Tuesday!

Autumn Mix Place Value

We are trying a new math curriculum at school...not my favorite. The kids have a been having a hard time with a few of the place value skills we've been learning about. So I thought it would be fun to review these skills while using Autumn Mix candy. I usually graph with Autumn Mix candy...

but since I have switched grades to fourth, I wanted to do something a little more on their level. Thus was born my Autumn Mix Place Value.

We used it to help review for our math test and the kids did great!

I am putting this up on Teachers Pay Teachers at a discounted rate until I get home from work Monday! Head over and grab it while it's on sale!

Not posted...

Well, today got away from me. I spent some time with my mom today and then ran into a very emotional blast from my past. And as you can tell, my newest product did not get posted today. But it will be posted first thing tomorrow. And it will be on sale!

Sorry for the delay...but sometimes life happens and we just need to roll with it!

Five for Friday

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching again this week! Love Five for Friday. A quick and easy way for me to make sure I've got a blog post even if I feel I've got nothing to share! This week was easy to crank out five things to share...

Did a little shopping for DIY Halloween costumes for me and three other teachers. And if you saw my insta post, you know we're going to be ninja turtles!!!!

The hubs and I had a nice Sunday date at the apple orchard and pumpkin patch two minutes from our house. As a born and raised city girl, I fall a little more in love with our country living everyday!!! We got pumpkins, apple cider, and homemade apple donuts. Heaven!

A bit of science fun with circuits. Thank you Five Below for the $5 all included (minus the batteries) science experiment! Don't mind my energy drink...it was one of those mornings!!!

My newest creation...autumn mix place value. Stop back tomorrow for a more in depth look and a first day to purchase sale!!! The kids loved it and it helped them to figure out the skills we were learning the much easier!

We had our first two classroom birthdays this week and both of my boys loved their treats from me!

Hope you e had a fabulous Friday! Check back tomorrow for a first purchase day sale and a look at autumn mix place value!

Double Linky and My Winner Reveal!

So last weekend I had a giveaway and then this week got CRAZY! New students and field trip paperwork and all sorts of crazy, plus a field trip yesterday! With all that being said, I've yet to name my winner for the giveaway I had! And so, my winner is...Crystal G! Congrats!

Now, onto the linky portion of this post.  I am linking up a bit late to both, but refer to the above paragraph for my excuses :P
I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday and with Oh Boy Fourth Grade for Currently...and here goes!

1. My mom loves star gazing and all that goodness, so the moon eclipse was a big deal! And since the hubs and I have the perfect location for observing, my parents drove out.  We had a nice fire and some s'mores too!

2. My class size has doubled so far this year.  I started with 14 students and have since made my way to 29! It's been a learning experience for all of us.  My kids have become very good helpers when we gain a new student.  They are good at helping them to learn the expectations and jump in to our Daily 5 rotations! But I think it has also been tiring for us...especially me!

3. Since we have had such an addition to our classroom, we have added in a bit of community building so that we are making sure everyone feels like they belong in our classroom.  This week we worked to complete puzzles in our table groups. It was great watching the kids work together. Even my few second language learners with minimal English skills joined in. This is the puzzle of the first group to finish!

4. We had our first field trip of the year yesterday...holy paperwork, Batman! The field trip went really well...we walked around for five hours! There were no complaints until the end. I think we were all tired of walking by the end and were so ready for the bus ride back to the school!

5. It's October! I love October it means that it is time for pumpkin spice, apple cider, and all other things fall! Plus it means it's time for Currently...

Listening: well, I was going to watch Pitch Perfect 2 while I got work and tpt stuff done. And then I put it in the player and it will play everything except the movie.  So I will be heading back into town tomorrow to get it exchanged! Instead, I got onto Netflix and am delving into How to Get Away with Murder!

I'm loving fall, but I could live without the crazy wind that is here with it. The weather went from higher than normal temps to lower than normal temps in less than a week.  I love the sweatshirt weather, but I could totally do without the wind!

I could totally go for a pumpkin spice latte right about now! It would be a great boost to my productivity since I have so much to do today.

I love that my husband takes time to ask questions about my day! It's very sweet!