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Friday, May 17, 2013

Five for Friday :)

Wow! I have been M I A !
My first of five things is the reason why I have been missing for about 2 weeks...

Our new puppy!
Meet Cow :)


May Day was today at school...another reason this time of year has been so crazy!
The kids did an amazing job and looked gorgeous in the beautiful sun!
I am so proud of my almost-fifth-graders! Yay!


I have updated the Yearly Binder! The calendar has been updated with the adjusted dates for the 2013-2014 school year. If you already purchased this item, you can simply go to "My Purchases" to download the item again with the updates. 


Just in case you were wondering where she has been in this Five for Friday post...don't worry! Turkey, the cat, is still puuuurrrrrfect :)
(And yes, I have cow the dog and turkey the cat....I now have my very own farm)


Oh yeah..and of course, so is this little angel! 
Miss her and love her so much! 
I will be home to see her in 3 weeks!!!


Check out what everyone else is up to at the Five for Friday Linky with Doodle Bugs Teaching


Wednesday, May 8, 2013

My 1st Wordless Wednesday!

Sometimes it is nice to just let the pictures do the talking...





Link up or check out other wordless Wednesday blogs by visit Fabulous 4th Grade Froggies!


Monday, May 6, 2013

Teacher Appreciation Sale on TpT!

I appreciate YOU! 
Let's all appreciate each other! 
Teachers never get sick of being appreciated! 

You all work so hard throughout the whole year, and I bet right now....when everyone else in the world thinks we are just relaxing and counting down days to summer....you are already thinking in the back of your mind about what you are going to need for the new school year in August. I would definitely have to raise my hand and admit that I am certainly doing that already. 

Have you had things on TpT in your wish list for a while now? Do you need some activities for next year, or for the end of this year? Get them while they are ON SALE!! Just use the code TAD13 at checkout to get up to 28% off! 

My whole store will be the full 28% off! Below are just a few of the items you can get on sale at the Little Lovely Leaders TpT store sale!



Check out my TpT store by clicking on the image below

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Win the Editable Binder & SO MUCH more!

I am taking part in this great giveaway with Krystal and Joey! I totally want to win this!! Here are some of the items you can win (SCROLL DOWN TO ENTER!)

Editable Teacher Binder *** That's mine!
Time Flies - End of Year Literacy Activities
Class Votes Awards Kit
End-of-the-Year/New-Year-Introduction-Student-Brochure-Project
Seasonal Demand Writing Prompt Bundled Set
Traditional lit versus Fractured fairy tale
Combining Like Terms - Quick Review
Alien Text Talk Full Year Daily Language Practice ~ Grammar, Spelling
Measurement Wars Bundle
Fun with Probability
20 Figurative Language Posters
Create a SMART Goal Board

 
Plus: Choice of any 3 items in the hosts', Krystal and Joey, TPT Stores
$35 Amazon gift card!

Umm..who would not want to win this great list of prizes? 
I mean, really, this is a great giveaway!!

The binder I am giving away is an editable binder, so you can type any information you need into it. You can also adjust charts and tables to make them suit you and your number of students.
This is my favorite way to stay organized and every time I need something quickly for a meeting or conference, I can just grab my binder and know that I have everything I need!



Check out the other bloggers who are giving in this giveaway - 
SCROLL DOWN to enter! :)

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Little Lovely Leaders Addie Education – Teacher Talk
The Teacher Wife 2PeasAndADog Blog
MissMathDork Composition Classroom The Teaching Bank
An Educator's Life Numbers Rule My World The SuperHERO Teacher's Adventures and Advice!

Friday, April 26, 2013

Five for Friday!

Wow! I cannot believe there are only 28 days left of school! What!?
I have had a great week! I hope you have, too!!

This past weekend was my birthday and my best friend and sister came to visit me! It was SO nice to see them and be all together! My best friend was my 'random' roommate in college...didn't I get SO lucky! I am still so glad I met her :) Here we are missing some of our best friends who were not able to come! Sad! Haha!! We had fun hanging out with their photos though ;)

My husband and I got new porch furniture! Orange for our Auburn Tigers!! Yay! We looove this furniture! A great World Market purchase! So glad we found them! I am really enjoying sitting out there!

Speaking of our Auburn Tigers...
Last weekend was the "Last Roll" ...for those of you who are into SEC football, you probably know that us Auburn fans roll the oak trees at Toomer's Corner as tradition when we win sporting events (especially football). Well, a silly 'Bama fan poisoned our trees and thought he would get us down....well, he didn't! There is a reason they call it tradition! It is what we do, and will always be what we do! So this year, at the Spring game, all of the town of Auburn rolled the trees of Toomer's corner for one last time before the dead ones were removed. They will be replacing them and beautifying the corner at the same time :) Hopefully in time for next year's season!?
Here is a few photos I took of our corner when we won the National Championship while I lived in Auburn...Isn't it GREAT!? 
War Eagle!!!


I got my order of VersaTile answer cases in! I love these for centers! I use them in ALL subjects! The cases allow the students to check their work before turning it in. They know that if they open their case and don't have a pattern, then they did something wrong somewhere. It is a great way to get the kids to assess themselves, go over their work, and they loove the tiles!!! They get excited to use VersaTiles! :)
You should really check them out if you have not seem them before!

Last...I am taking part in an AMAZING giveaway over at Lessons from the Middle and Create, Teach, and Share! There are SO many products being given away! This is an end-of-the-year themed giveaway! I will be giving away my Editable Teacher Binder! :) I just looove this product and am already looking forward to setting mine up for next year! I just love to be organized! It is a great way to start the year! Be sure to check it out!!!!! There are TONS of prizes - including a $35 Amazon gift card!!

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Go ahead and check out what everyone else is doing this Friday at Doodle Bugs Teaching, it's not hard to stumble upon something great when blog hopping!


Saturday, April 13, 2013

Central Tendencies


Phew! This took me longer than I anticipated! I just kept thinking of things to add to the unit! I cannot wait to use this with my students throughout this “test review” time of the year!
And finally...the Central Tendencies Unit!


This pack includes a poster for each of the central tendencies: mean, median, mode, range, and outlier. There is also a worksheet for each of them so that you can make sure the students practice the skill. It is really important to master each of the central tendencies before moving on to the rest of the packet, where they are finding mean, median, mode, range, and outlier for each set of data. That is overwhelming unless they feel comfortable with each individual skill. 


After the students have gotten comfortable with each of the skills separately, you can move on to the fun science-related topics!! There are five different sections in this packet that use a science-related topics (environment, weather, archaeology, outer space, and chemistry). These topics are not used in a ‘teaching science’ kind of way, though. I have used them in a fun and interesting way in order to engage students. For example, in the chemistry unit, the students will be using data from a recipe to answer central tendency questions. The ‘recipes’ are silly - the recipe for a “sneezer” and a “smiler” - and engaging for the students. Each science topic includes an introduction page for the teacher, a large chart (to be used whole-group, at a center, or in small group), a worksheet for assessing the students/practicing, and Common Core discussion questions related to central tendencies. 



The last section in the packet includes data set cards, with worksheets to match, for student practice. There is a set of data cards that will result in decimal answers for the mean, and a set that will result in whole numbers for the mean. You can choose one or the other, or both! 

I also use these data cards after testing when we do a lot of calculator practice work. The students need to prepare for middle school and using a calculator is actually a surprisingly difficult skill. These data cards end up as a great way to reinforce mean and range with calculator practice later in the year!

Click here to take a closer look at this unit

& ... just for fun ... I wanted to share this e-card because it sounds exactly like me:

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Burlap Wreath!!

Okay so this is NOT a typical post! Not a teaching-related material, at all! I am just so excited about it!!! I can't help but share it!

Now...just to warn you all...I am a teacher, not a self-proclaimed crafting professional...BUT, I think my burlap wreath came out pretty good!! I wanted to share with you all how I made it because it was an idea in my head that actually turned out right! That never happens!


You will need a few things first. You can get everything below at Michael's...but I am sure there are other places, too! :) You can also use real flowers if you want to! That could be fun! 

1. Flowers or decor of your choice. It can be little buttons or whatever you choose to decorate your wreath with...this can really change depending on what you want!

 2. Burlap! I went through three of these rolls from Michael's. It will depend on how full you want your wreath to look. I wanted mine to be really full; however, your taste may be different.

3. Pipe cleaners or wiring. I was looking for wiring at Michael's, but was struggling to find a tan color. The lady at the store suggested the tan colored pipe cleaners! She is a genius! :) They worked perfectly. I needed 2 bags of the tan pipe cleaners (the tan was the same color as the burlap). Cut the pipe cleaners into thirds.


4. A green wired wreath shape (found in the wreath section at Michael's) - you will see part of this in a picture below.

My steps :)

Below is what you will get when you are part of the way through. I felt it was easier to explain this to you if I showed you this first - this might be part of my "Begin with the end in mind" trait I have from the Seven Habits ;)

To get started, just attached the end of the burlap to the wiring by slipping a pipe cleaner through the burlap and twisting it behind the wiring (you want to hide the pipe cleaner).

Then you will just continue on by looping the burlap in whatever size loops you like. 
I found this was super easy to do while sitting on the ground. You have so many supplies around you that it is just so easy to just sit on the ground :) Also, burlap sheds a little bit, and I did not want to have to clean that up inside of my house!


Above you can see how the burlap is attached in some spots, then hangs off. You never have to cut the burlap! It just goes on in all one piece :) Great, right!?

Take the burlap in your hand and loop it to the size loop you want. 

Scrunch the burlap together where you will be wrapping the pipe cleaner around it. You are going to push this into the part of the wreath you have already added some burlap. The closer to tie each loop to the others, the more full your wreath will be. They will slide a little once tied, but that is good because then when you are all done, you can adjust the burlap to fill in any spots that don't look as full as others.  Remember to attach/tie to all 4 wires on the wire wreath so that you can a full wreath and don't see the wires. I just went across each row of wires as I went.

Stick the pipe cleaner on from the top, toward the back of the wreath. Put it around a green wire from the wire wreath, so that it has something holding the loop of burlap back to the wreath. Then twist!

 Here is what you will see from the top until to pull the burlap up and "fluff" the wreath. The pipe cleaner will be hidden by the next loop you do, as well.

Last - I wrapped the flowers and burlap and attached them with a pipe cleaner, also. I want to get a little "P" for our last name, or something "AU" for Auburn to put on there next to the flowers, but for now, I think it came out great! :) Another cute idea I have seen is people bought a different color fabric and tied a bow around the their wreath - that look super cute, too! :)

Let me know if you decide to make a burlap wreath! I hope I helped :) Trust me, if I can do it - you can definitely do it! :)