Bad Blogger and a Meet-Up

So this summer has definitely gotten the better of me, when it comes to blogging! I've been very busy. But now that Back to School time is fast approaching, I'm trying to get myself back into the swing of multiple things...planned bathroom breaks, waking up before 7:30, and blogging regularly!

With that being said, I'm quite excited about my plans for today. I am off to Lansing for a Michigan blogger meet-up! 

I can't wait to meet up with other teacher bloggers from my own state. I've gone to a meet-up once before and really enjoyed the conversations and meeting other bloggers, whose blogs I enjoy reading!

Have a fabulous Thursday! 

One Little Thing Wednesday...The End is Near!

It's Wednesday! My favorite blog day, since I've started my linky! It's One Little Thing Wednesday!

Here's how it all works: Each Wednesday, I will post what the One Little Thing question/topic is. You will then be able to share and detail your response to the One Little Thing question on your own blog. Then you can come back here and link up using the link tool at the bottom of this post. Use the button image above in your post and then link back here. It's as easy as that!
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Here's this week's topic:

I have about a week and a half left, so I've been getting all of my end of year activities planned out. I have a couple things that I added this year that I absolutely love! But before I get to that, let me tell you all about my "usual" end of year stuff.

Since I'm teaching older kids this year, we are doing Minute to Win It as part of our year end activities. We played some of the holiday themed games around the holidays and my kids STILL talk about it. So it was a no-brainer to bring round two to the end of the year! And of course, we will be playing Face the Cookie...look it up, if you don't know what I'm talking about...it's hilarious! I don't know who enjoys it more, me or the kids!

We've added in a lot of tech stuff this semester as we had a set of chromebooks donated. It's been great! So one of my year end activities, to go with all of our kindness activities, was for the students to write one positive character trait about each of their peers. They made a copy of a google doc I shared with them and then shared back the filled out version. I then compiled them and made each student a wonderful 5x7 subway art

personalized for them using those positive character traits...best $1.75 I've spent recently on TPT...check it our here. It's not my creation, but definitely worth a share! The glare doesn't do it justice...stinking lamination glare! 😁

So my kids will get their candy awards, a new book

(at their reading level), some fun Minute to Win It time, the personalized subway art, and a popcorn party 

where they'll see why keeping some of our economy money to the end was so important (but that I'll save for another blog post!).

Don't forget to link up with your own end of year activity!

One Little Thing Wednesday...Book Review edition!

It's Wednesday, which means it's time for One Little Thing Wednesday.

Here's how it all works: Each Wednesday, I will post what the One Little Thing question/topic is. You will then be able to share and detail your response to the One Little Things question on your own blog. Then you can come back here and link up using the link tool at the bottom of this post. Use the button image above in your post and then link back here. It's as easy as that!

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This week, the topic is One Little Book Review. And let me tell you, it's really nothing little! I am super excited to get to share a review for a new book with each of you.

I absolutely love the books that Maria Dismondy writes, so when I had the chance to receive an advance copy and write a review for her newest co-authored book with Stephen Tulloch of the Detroit Lions, I jumped at the chance!

This book, The Little Linebacker, is fantastic! I loved this story of determination and never giving up, even when you feel the odds are against you. This is such a great lesson for kids! This story is that of Tulloch's life and his determination to become an NFL player. This book shows some of the hard times that Tulloch went through as a student and really resonates with all readers the importance of believing in yourself and always pushing yourself forward to reach your goals. Plus, it never hurts to have positive people in your life telling you to, "dream bigger dreams" and that "hard work pays off."

This is a great book to read at any point of the year to your students, as we all sometimes need those reminders of determination getting us to our goals! I definitely recommend this book, it's fabulous!

Here is the trailer for the new book, which will be released June 1st!

You are definitely going to want to grab a copy of this book for yourself! And don't forget to link up below with your own Little Book Review!

One Little Thing Wednesday (May 18)

It's Wednesday again! Which means it's time for One Little Thing Wednesday!

Here's how it all works: Each Wednesday, I will post what the One Little Thing question/topic is. You will then be able to share and detail your response to the One Little Things question on your own blog. Then you can come back here and link up using the link tool at the bottom of this post. Use the button image above in your post and then link back here. It's as easy as that!

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Here is this week's topic:

It's definitely that time of year when you start to think about EOY gifts for all of the people who have helped you or supported you with your class. For me, I have a pretty big group of volunteers. They come in the form of mentors, tutors, and PTC parents. Which means I always try to do something, but I can't spend a ton of money because there's quite a few people.  So, here's what I've come up with...

The kids will also be writing thank you notes to go along with these! I really like how they turned out!

Have a Wonderful Wednesday!

Show and Tell Tuesday

I don't know if you've noticed this about me yet, but I love a good linky! 

So today, I'm linking up with Forever in 5th Grade for Show and Tell Tuesday.

                                  

My husband is the biggest Garth Brooks fan I've ever met. So when Garth announced that he was going to be touring, I knew I would need to make an attempt on tickets. I was lucky enough to get tickets last year when he came to Detroit. The show was awesome! And I knew I needed to do whatever I could to get tickets since he was coming to Grand Rapids, which was way less travel time than when we saw him in Detroit. And thankfully, I got tickets for us to see his this past Friday night. And the show was amazing!

And the best part was we had floor seats about 20 rows off the stage! My husband was in concert heaven!

We've been working really hard to make sure that we are showing kindness for the end of the school year. It's definitely helping to get rid of some of the drama that was starting to creep in...good ol' end of the year drama...blah!

A few days ago, the kids got to roll a dice to find out their kindness goal for the day. They did a great job of following through on their goals. We loved it!

We had field day, which means the school year is coming to a close. The teachers made tie dye shirts with our names on the back. The kids thought it was amazing! Who knew Teacher's could do stuff like that??? 😉

Since we are fully into end of year testing season, I've been trying to do some "keep it fun and engaging" activities! So we made a class story. Each student could only tell one sentence at a time and could not have another turn until everybody told their first sentence. Talk about focused and engaged! We took three pages of poster paper to make our sentences. The kids were proud of each other for their ideas and verbalizing it..."awesome, idea" or "I wouldn't have thought of that." It was great!

Be sure to stop back tomorrow so you can link up for One Little Thing Wednesday!

Five for Fraturday

So...I'm definitely late with this post. But I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching anyways!

 (This should've posted yesterday, but apparently decided it had other plans!)

And here we go...

This week, we've started our state testing 😕 Definitely not the most fun we've ever had! But I am doing my best to keep them upbeat and feeling good about their tests...testing treats! 

These little sweet hearts can always make me feel better about a crappy day. And with all the testing we've been doing...I've definitely made a few stops to the farm after work lately!

My air pressure light can on this week. Of course the hubs is quite busy at the farm, so I checked over my tires to make sure they were drive-able until hubs could get to them a couple days later. And here's what he found, in one tire!!!

We set some kindness goals this week. The kids did a fantastic job of getting a goal and sticking to it. There was lots of smiling and positive attitudes! It was wonderful!

We had field day yesterday, so the teachers made tie dye shirts. The kids were amazed with the shirts and had fun with all the games.

And the best part of my week?? The hubs and I went to see Garth Brooks last night. And it was fabulous. Even a bit better than when we saw him last February, if that's even possible!!!

One Little Thing Wednesday

Hello Bloggy Readers! It's Wednesday, which means two things...ONE: I've made it halfway through the first week of our state testing time and TWO: it's time for One Little Thing Wednesday!

Here's how it all works: Each Wednesday, I will post what the One Little Thing question/topic is. You will then be able to share and detail your response to the One Little Thing question on your own blog. Then you can come back here and link up using the link tool at the bottom of this post. Use the button image above in your post and then link back here. It's as easy as that!

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Kindness is something we have been working on all year. Whether it's showing kindness to each other, showing kindness to strangers, or just being kind in general...we've been working on it all year long! As the year starts heading to the close, I wanted to share a little bit of kindness that will be taking place in our classroom. We already use Kindness Shout Outs. They are a great way to see a kindness, write it down anonymously, and have the person showing kindness receive a shout out at the end of the day as we read them all!

Today, we will be writing little notes to each other to show encouragement on our state testing (that will continue tomorrow). I will have sticky notes on the board and the students will have to pick two.

 The names will be on the back, so my students won't know who they will be writing to until they have chosen their sticky note. I think my students will love this idea as we've been talking about great ways to show kindness without having to spend any money! (Thanks to Miss 5th...I felt inspired by her cute whiteboard posts on IG and thought I'd try one!)

So what's something you personally do or you do in your classroom to promote and foster kindness? I can't wait to hear what you do!

An InLinkz Link-up