I'm on Teachers Pay Teachers!

I haven't blogged in FOREVER...but I've been getting requests for the inserts to my Parent Binder.  The inserts have been remodeled and are up for sale!  The only page I couldn't create was the All About My Child, because that was copied out of Carson Dellosa's Parent Conferences book.  I hope to get more things posted on TpT, so please follow me! 

Gone with the wind....

Wow.  I knew I hadn't posted in quite some time, but I didn't realize it had been early April since my last post!  I have some new followers (thank you!)  and just wanted to pop in to say I'll be back when school starts. 

I'm doing a pirate theme next year in the classroom, so check back in August to see pics.  Have a great summer!

It's Gallon Man...to the rescue!

I borrowed this project from a coworker my very first year, and he's made a comeback year after year!  I enjoy teaching capacity, and mostly because of this little guy!  Each student gets to make one, and they end up being half the size of the student.  I think it really helps students remember, too.  I had a child from one of my 2nd grade classes impress her 6th grade teacher because she was able to recall the different equivalencies.  She said it was this project that helped her!  *tear*

You'll need 5 sheets of construction paper, each one a different color.  One will be for his head (or her head, as the girls always  want to make a Gallon Girl), one will be kept whole and labeled "gallon".  The next sheet will be folded into fourts, cut, and labeled "quart".  Then, fold another sheet into eighths, cut, and label "pint".  Finally, fold the last sheet into sixteenths, cut, and lable "cup".  My kids had a ball making these, and stayed focused the entire time.  When trouble comes your way (in math), call for Gallon Man to save the day!

Keeping Up With the Joneses

I'm sure you all have your own way of keeping up with parent contacts, but I thought I'd share my system.  It works well for me, that is....when I remember to keep thorough records!  However, I am diligent with students/families that are....um.....difficult challenging.  You know the type!

In this binder, I keep a sheet in the front that lists each student, phone number, and parent names.  Nowadays, it seems like fewer students share the same last name as their parent(s).  I have a hard time remembering all the different names, so this is an easy reference when I need to make a phone call.  (Not too professional to say "Hello Kevin's mom, this is Mrs. T", LOL!)

Then, each student gets a divided section.  In this section, I keep the "All About My Child" questionnaire I give parents at the beginning of the year, a documentation form for each time contact is made with the parent(s), any notes that parents send me, and a page protector to hold the small notes that I can't hole punch.

This binder has saved my tail on occasion!  How do you keep up with parent contacts?

Ten Things I've Learned About Teaching

I've never joined  a Linky Party, but I came across Rowdy in First Grade this morning and thought I'd give it a try! 

10 ~ Size matters!  You can do so much more with 18-20 second graders than with 28.  I wish the higher-ups would get that.

9 ~ My to-do list will never get shorter.

8 ~ I will never get tired of searching for ways to make me a better teacher.

7 ~ I don't handle feeling stressed and overwhelmed well....I need to work on that.

6 ~ A band-aid and a trip to the water fountain cures just about anything when you're 7.

5 ~ Teaching blogs have changed my life!

4 ~ I love the Back to School displays.  There is something about new school supplies that gets me excited about heading back to school each August.

3 ~ Expect the unexpected!

2 ~ Just when I think I need a career change, I get an idea or read something inspiring and it gives me a good dose of motivation.

1 ~ For every child that makes my job impossible, there are 5 that remind me why I'm in the classroom!

Show Me the Money!

*sigh* We have had a time with counting money this year!  Half of the class has it mastered, but the other half....not so much.  I made some games that students can play during math centers or if they finish an activity early.  The Carson Dellosa coin and bill stickers were a huge time saver, and I love that they are in color (saved me printer ink, too!). 

I need a cute name for this game....I was thinking "Pirate's Booty" but I can hear the giggles now.  Let me know if you've got a name for it! 

We also have "This Little Piggie Went to the Bank":

And my favorite, "Ca$h Cow":

If you have any other good good strategies for counting coins and bills, please leave a comment!  Thanks in advance! :)

Luck of the Irish

Things have been so busy lately, and as much as I've wanted to add new posts I just haven't had the time!  We had SO much fun on St. Patrick's Day this year!!  I normally don't do much, but that will change from now on.  I had a parent that volunteered to play Leprechaun and destroy our room.  I though second graders were old enough to know leprechauns aren't real (after all, many of them tell me all through December that there is no such thing as Santa Claus), and boy was I wrong!  I arranged to walk in the classroom with them when the bell rang so they thought I had just arrived at school.  From the moment we walked in, it was pure chaos!  They f-r-e-a-k-e-d out when they saw the room in shambles, and the funny thing was watching them instantly run and clean it up.  Boy, did that leprechaun search hard for that gold!

The best part of all was our pencil sharpener.  This was TOTALLY a fluke.  One student was sharpening his pencil in our electric sharpener, and when he pulled the pencil out the motor on the sharpener kept running.  I have no idea what happened.  I unplugged it to let it rest for a few minutes, but when I plugged it back in it kept running.  The kids just KNEW it was the leprechaun.  (Still have no clue what happened, but a few days later it was fine.) 

In addition to all of our St. Patrick-themed work, we had a snack of.....what else?  Lucky Charms, of course!  I also whipped up some Rainbow Punch (rainbow sherbert and Sprite).  I just so happened to have a black cauldron from Halloween, but it worked well as the pot at the end of the rainbow! 

Well, that leprechaun missed out......we found his gold in a green box sitting on top of my desk!  The kids said the reason he didn't see it was because he was too short to see it.  I love this age group!

I almost forgot.....our sneaky little leprechaun didn't have very good manners.  While he searched the room, he used our class bathroom and didn't bother to flush.  One unsuspecting student got a nice little surprise....a little green food coloring was all it took.  I actually got the idea from my principal.  I guess we're still 12 at heart, but it sure was funny!

Since our leprehaun snuck in and out without getting caught, we decided to write about how you would go about catching a leprechaun.  I get art projeccts in whenever I can, and got the idea for these little guys on the Primary Perspective blog. 

Last, but not least, we finished up our prefixes unit with some gold.  Hope you had a great St. Patty's Day!