Recycled Giveaway!

I began this blogging journey just the past November. One of the first blogs I came across was Tabitha's blog called Flapjack Educational Resources. I LOVED her idea of using recycled lids to create educational games! Talk about two great teaching tools in one. Students learn the value of recycling, while also learning some basic math facts. You can see the post that inspired me here.



So I began saving lids. I have lids from pop bottles, dressing containers, Tide detergent, and anything else I thought I could write on! My plan was to create some fun, educational math facts for K-2 students. However, my plans have greatly changed in this past week! I found out I will be teaching 6th grade. I know I could probably think of some way to use these lids for them, but I'd rather give them away to an amazing follower like you! (I hate moving things that are not an absolute necessity!)

THE GIVEAWAY IS NOW OVER!

Thank you to everyone who participated. I hope some of you are inspired to try this idea in your own classroom.

I would appreciate you to follow me on Facebook - Pinterest (any or all boards) - Teachers Pay Teachers - or my Blog. 



If you can't be reached within 48 hours of me e-mailing you, I will select a 2nd winner! (I have to get these mailed before I move in less than a month!!)



The giveaway starts right now and goes through June 6. At that time, I will use a random number generator to e-mail the winner, get their address, and then mail them the materials. Make sure to include your e-mail with your comment/s!!




(If you live in a country other than the USA, please make sure shipping will not be an issue. I often mail things to family in France, so I have no problem shipping internationally. However, I just ask for your patience as it gets to you!)


Thanks for entering!
~HoJo~


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
P.S. Here is exactly what you are getting!

1. 0+0
2. 1+1
3. 2+1
4. 3+1
5. 4+1
6. 5+1
7. 6+1
8. 7+1
9. 8+1
10. 9+1
11. 2+2
12. 2+3
13. 2+4
14. 2+5
15. 2+6
16. 2+7
17. 2+8
18. 2+9
19. 3+3
20. 3+4
21. 3+5
22. 3+6
23. 3+7
24. 3+8
25. 3+9
26. 4+4
27. 4+5
28. 4+6
29. 4+7
30. 4+8
31. 4+9
32. 5+5
33. 5+6
34. 5+7
35. 5+8
36. 5+9
37. 6+6
38. 6+7
39. 6+8
40. 6+9
41. 7+7
42. 7+8
43. 7+9
44. 8+8
45. 8+9
46. 9+9
47. 10+10

StarBase Department of Defense FREE Field Trip

We had some of the luckiest 5th graders around this year! We were able to go on a field trip courtesy of the Department of Defense's Star Base program. It is amazing! The program is very big on STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).


 

Our students became "eggsperts", worked with rockets, practiced the military phonetic alphabet, made robots go through various courses they created, did mathematical conversions, talked about science laws of motion, discussed airplanes, got to visit a geodome, discussed matter, and so much more!

If you are anywhere near an area where you have an opportunity to participate in these events, I strongly recommend it! The program was completely FREE for all of our students and chaperones. We just had to get ourselves to them and pack our own lunches. Not bad though for a day of hands-on, fun learning!

Click on the picture below to go to the website and learn more! The map will help give you an idea of whether or not this might be available in your area.

Tell me about your field trips this year.

~HoJo~

Picture Book Linky! I {heart} the Pigeon!!

Jeannie over at Kindergarten Lifestyle is hosting a linky party to showcase our favorite picture books! While there are a lot of great books out there, I knew exactly which one I needed to do!


Back in undergrad, I had an amazing college reading professor. She would read books to us as if we were the age students she used to teach. It may have seemed a little childish at times, but I LOVED IT!


The first time she read us this book, I absolutely fell in love!

It almost felt wrong to get to yell at a book! Seriously, I was a little lost for the first couple pages. I really got to talk back to a book, and I could even yell?!


Now I read this book to my students every year. I don't care how old they are, it's just plain good ol' fashioned fun! I make sure to front load them by saying this is a book they have to interact with. They can do/say whatever they would like, as long as they are respectful and we don't get so loud that we bother the classes next door.


This is a great book to read when you have a couple extra minutes to spare (my Kinders would beg me to read one of the many pigeon books at least once a day!). It's also a great energy release on those days when you maybe don't get specials or recess like you normally would. Finally, it's just plain fun to read as a teacher! I am naturally loud, so this books fits with my style perfectly!


Last year I did a big activity with my Kinders where we made our own book that we called Don't Let the Pigeon Be the Principal! The students absolutely loved creating it, and our principal loved receiving it toward the end of the year.


Here's how we created the book. (Sorry I don't have any pictures! I wasn't a blogger at the time, so taking pictures of our little book never even crossed my mind!)


First, we sat down as a class and brainstormed different things that our principal does each day (bus duty, meetings, lunch duty, walking through classrooms, talking on the phone, etc). Then I went into our principal and asked her to pose for two pictures - one of her standing in her office and another of her sitting at her desk. Each student picked which of our brainstormed list ideas they wanted to draw out.


I typed up little cartoon talking bubbles, and each student drew their own pigeon on their page. The first page had the principal sitting at her desk saying, "I have to go to a meeting for a little while. Can you watch things while I'm gone? Oh, and don't let the Pigeon be the principal!" The last page had our principal standing in her office saying, "Thanks! You didn't let the Pigeon be the principal, did you?" And, if you are familiar with the books, you know what all happened in between!


Finally, we presented our book to the teacher. I started by reading her the original book Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus because I didn't think she was familiar with it. Then I read the students' book Don't Let the Pigeon Be the Principal. It was the first time the students had seen the whole book together, so it was a blast! The kids had a great time yelling at the book, and our principal was a little teary eyed before it was all done. She said it was the nicest gift she's received in her entire teaching career.


Alright, I've rambled on long enough! Is this an activity you could see yourself doing with your class? What other Mo Willems things have you done in your classroom?
~HoJo~

Homemade Teacher Gift #3

Here is it - the last homemade teacher gift I made this year. This is for the teacher whose room I spent the most time in. She has a lot of the little teacher trinkets throughout her room, so I wanted to create something that would be functional, yet cute!


Hmmm - this one took awhile to come up with, but I finally decided to create her a candy dish! She has one sitting on her desk, but it's not in the greatest of shape. Plus - it's very boring.


Here's the pin that inspired me.


So I sent out for the store trying to find the perfect container. That was harder than I thought! I actually found this tub in the dollar section - imagine my delight! I also knew my coworker is not nearly as much of a chocolate fan as I am, so I decided to go with Tropical Starbursts.

The first step was to unwrap all of those stinkin' cute little starbursts. I threw them all in a container, and the plan was to make this Starburst Popcorn Ball recipe, but my boyfriend got into them and ate them before I could get that accomplished. (If you try this recipe - please come back and tell me how it worked! I really wanted to try it...)


I then put those little wrappers carefully between two binders to try and smash them down a bit. It seemed to help a little bit.


Finally it was time to start covering this guy! I simply modge with a small paintbrush.

It took awhile to get it completely covered, but it came along nicely. So then I took a couple cups to let it dry.

I ended up putting about four layers of modge podge on over the course of four days. I also added a little tag to personalize it up a bit.

Here's the final result.



Compared to the last two days, I think this finished product has a totally different look compared to the original pin. And I LOVE IT! =)


This was another relatively cheap project, but by far the one that took the longest! The container I found was only $1.00 (if I would have had time to rummage - trust me I would have!). I used modge podge I had here at home. Then all I had to do was add the candy, so that was the most expensive part!


Here's the card I made to go with each of my gifts.

And here is what they looked like all packaged up and ready to go!

Head back to the last two days' posts to see the other homemade projects I created for my coworkers.


What is the best end of year gift you have received from a coworker or student?
~HoJo~

Another Homemade Teacher Gift Idea

The 5th grade English teacher probably lost over 100 pens this year. (I wish I was exaggerating!) The students simply wouldn't bring any to class and she kept lending them out. Several different times she said, "I really need a way to hang on to pencils." So I decided to help her out as a token of my appreciation!


Here is the pin that inspired this craft.


First I took a used spaghetti can and washed it off. Then I started gluing the pencils down all the way around it. (Make sure to space them out correctly, particularly at the end! oops... And decide whether you want the pencil's brand on the outside or not. I had one little pencil that had it's "brand" showing while the rest did not.)

Once the pencils had been glued around the can, it was time to start with the flowers. The first step there was to cut the flowers apart. Then I took flower tape and wrapped a flower (technically two in this case) around each pen. This part got a little sticky, but I had to apply some pressure or I found the tape kept falling off.

At that point I threw the flowers into the can to see what I thought. Unfortunately, I wasn't impressed. It was just too boring... So I decided to add a label saying, "Please return to ___________ =)" I also put a brown ribbon around the pencils.

One final touch and I was all done. I simply felt that the flower pens were falling too far into the container. So I went to the dollar store and bought a $1.00 bag of those little decorative rocks. They were just the right thing! Now the flower vase looks perfect, plus the rocks will make it a little more stable on a busy teacher's desk.

This project was a bit more spendy than yesterday's. The can was obviously free, and the pencils were only about $2.00. (I believe I used 38 of them.) Flowers only cost $3.00 and the flower tape was about $1.50. Where things got more expensive was the pens. I didn't want to buy just any cheap pens, so these were about $1.00 each. However, they were a brand I trust and one that should last all school year! The ribbon and scrapbooking paper were things I had laying around the house. So the total cost of this project was about $16.50. Not bad for an amazing coworker if you ask me!!


What other pins do you think would inspire me to create more?
~HoJo~

End of Year Teacher Gift Idea

I have worked with some amazing people this year - particularly my 5th grade team! To thank them for their "awesomeness", I decided to make each of them a homemade item that they can use in their classroom.


Here is the first one. It was inspired by this pin on Pinterest.


First I bought a relatively flat picture frame and a 48 pack of crayons.

Then I put the crayons down to experiment and see how I wanted them. (I knew I didn't want to take the time to cut them like the Pinterest link had if I could help it. I got lucky and didn't have to!) I took out most of the brown crayons because I only needed 35 of the 48.

Next I took out my trusty hot glue gun and got started!

Here's the final product. I think it turned out pretty darn cute if I do say so myself! This gal absolutely LOVES her grandson, but I was surprised that she didn't have a picture of him in the room. So I included a little note explaning to use the frame however she wanted, but that I thought it would be a great place to hold a picture of her grandson. =)

For those of you who are on the thrifty side (which I totally can be!), this was a pretty cheap project! I spent a whopping $2.00 on the frame at a dollar store and got the crayons at Wal-Mart. If I had been planning ahead, I could have gotten them a LOT cheaper in the fall. Oh well - live and learn...

Also - this entire project from start to finish only took me 30 minutes to create. I was impressed! Plus, I only have one little burn on my finger from that darn glue gun.


I have had three amazing 5th grade team members this year, so check back the next two days to see what I created for the other two! =) (Can you tell I'm just a little bit excited about this?) ;)

Do you give your coworkers gifts at the end of the year? Do you have a link or picture to share?
~HoJo~

2nd Grade Common Core Reading Literature Ideas

I am so thankful I have patient blog followers. You've asked for it - and now - here it is! Click on the picture below to get your FREE second grade Common Core activities for Reading Literature. =)

Alright, all that's left is 1st grade and Kindergarten. PHEW! I hope to get them done in the next couple of weeks...


***5.30.12 UPDATE***
On Pinterest, I was shown this amazing site with all of the literacy standards covered! It is put together by Read Tennessee. They have media, teaching strategies, lesson and unit plans, activities/centers, and assessment ideas that are all FREE! Click on the picture below to go directly to their website! This has soooo many more resources than I can find!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


What would you be interested in seeing after I complete K and 1 Reading Literature?

Reading informational text? Reading foundational skills? Writing? Speaking and Listening? Language? Or would you rather see math? What portion - Operations and Algebraic Thinking? Numbers and Operations in Base Ten? Numbers and Operations - Fractions? Measurement and Data? Geometry?

Thanks for your input!
~HoJo~

Friday Funnies - Part 8!

Sorry I missed out on this last week! It's been a crazy ride here at the end of the year! On that note, this will be my last Friday Funny until this fall. (Check out previous Friday Funny posts here!) It is my last Friday in school, so I won't have new little sayings from my wonderful kiddos until fall.


Here we go ---

We were working on a review of references. Our 5th graders were given this question, "Where would you look to find the part of speech of the word “shower"?" One of the girls immediately shouts out, "The bathroom!"

The entire classroom started to laugh. I'm still not sure whether she was kidding or not...

 

 

What interesting things have your kiddos said lately?

~HoJo~

 

~~~~~~~~~

P.S. Next fall I am hoping to get some other people to guest post for me once in awhile about their Friday Funnies. I will include a link back to your blog. It can be an entire story or a one-liner. If you are interested, please e-mail me. =)

End of the School Year Ideas & Activities

This time of year can be challenging, but it can also be a lot of fun! I love doing activities with my students to help the end of school go a little better. It often requires more work on my part – but I find it worthwhile, and it sends kids off into summer on a positive note about school. This post is going to throw a lot of ideas and info at you, but I hope you find them useful!

Last year in Kindergarten we had a lot of fun painting with kool-aid! I used this simple recipe, and we went to it.

We also made a pinata and had a lot of fun breaking it! But, if you don't like the pinata idea, maybe you want to try this balloon breaking pinata like activity instead?

One of the fun things we had our 5^th graders do this year was to create book covers. They brought in their favorite book from any point in life and created a new cover for it. They had to include information about the author, the illustrator (if applicable), the publisher, and totally redesign the cover. They turned out pretty cute!

Here’s all of the end of year ideas I have pinned to my Pinterest page. Check them out! I particularly love this balloon activity, and I will find a way to incorporate it in the future. J

Here are some other misc. end of year activities that I think look especially fun on Teachers Pay Teachers. (All of them were free as of 5/1/12!)

·         Think Tac Toe by Cooperative Learning 365 – Taken directly from the product description…”Use this Think-Tac-Toe as a culminating activity to your school year. Students have a chance to reflect on their school year, come up with ways to help future students, and think about the summer.“ This is for grades 2-7.

·         Cara Carroll has a great end of year School Memories Keepsake. With over 27,000 downloads, it must be popular! It is intended for grades K-4. Here is her product description: “This FREE reproducible is perfect for the end of the year! These black and white printables are great for reflecting on the year and all the memories made. And it makes for a really sweet keepsake, too!”

·         Krista Mehrtens has a fun end of year Memory Book and Activity for grades 4-6. Here is her description of the product: “Included in this packet are 2 activities to use at the end of the year. 1. Memory Book- Great place for students to record some of their favorite memories. Also a great place to attach photos taken during the school year. 2. Bursting with Balloons activity- A 20 day countdown to the end of school with unique activities each day.”

·         Here are some adorable parent letters to send out to families at the end of the year. They are by Randi and could be used for any elementary grade.

·         Here are some fun Would You Rather – End of School and Summer Questions for students in grades 1-8. They were created by the talented Rachel Lynette of Minds in Bloom.

·         This is just the tip of the iceberg as far as FREE end of year ideas go on Teachers Pay Teachers. Click here to see the 250+ free end of year ideas. You can even go to the left-hand side and narrow the selection down to better fit your grade level.

Did you miss some of my other end of year posts? You can check them all out here!

Alright, what end of year “must haves” did I miss?

~HoJo~

4th Grade Common Core Reading Literature Ideas

You've been waiting - and here it is



After compiling 3rd and 5th grade activities, I decided 4th grade had to be next. I know many of you were wanting K-2, but I have some great friends who teach 4th - so I had to go with that.

Click on the picture to download the activities I've compiled.

Alright, upper elementary is done. Now - what grade level would you like to see next? I know I won't get these completed until after May 22 when we are done with school, but I do plan on doing all grades K-5!


I'd love to hear whether or not this was helpful and how you plan to use these activities!
~HoJo~

End of Year Student Gift

I wanted to make something simple for the students this year to send them off to summer right. Knowing I'm not returning to this school next year, I also wanted to clear out the stash of stuff I have in my classroom and home.


When I started looking around, I saw a bunch of pixie stix. So I decided to modify the birthday balloon pixie stix I've seen all over the internet and make these.

I am very impatiently waiting to give these out on the last day!



If you'd like to do this, I created a simple little freebie for you. There are six sayings included. Print them out on colored paper or color them, cut them out, and you should be all set! =) Click on the picture belowto get your freebie.

If you're looking for more great May Freebies, check out this linky party!

I would love to hear how you plan on using these! Or, what end-of-year students gifts do you give out?
~HoJo~

Teacher Appreciation Week gifts

This has been such an amazing week! I've been through several Teacher Appreciation Weeks, but I don't think I've ever been treated so well!


Here are two of the little tokens of appreciation I received.

This is just a simple water bottle with the attached saying and a packet of Crystal Light. Totally awesome!

This was from two of the teachers I work with. They gave them to all the staff!

We also received a Dove candy bar, two lanyards, nachos from PTA for dinner one day, a Starbucks portable coffee bar from PTA on Friday, constant goodies in the teachers' lounge, sub sandwiches for lunch on Friday, and - best of all - I received a note from a student that I don't even teach. I'm in her room once in awhile, but she wrote to tell me how awesome she thinks I am. How precious!

How was your teacher appreciation week?

~HoJo~

3rd Grade Common Core Reading Literature Activities

A couple weeks ago one of my coworkers asked me to compile some activities for her to use next year in 5th grade. Naturally I posted it here on my blog, and the response was great! Many of you liked the activities! One fan ("Crazy" Danielle) even asked if I would consider compiling 3rd grade activities next. How could I turn her down? After all - I have some coworkers that I knew would love them as well.


So - without further ado, here are the 3rd grade Common Core Reading Literature Activities, as promised!

I would love feedback on whether these resources are helpful to you, and how you plan to use them in your classroom!



***5.30.12 UPDATE***
Thanks to Pinterest, I have seen these AMAZING Common Core Literacy standards put together by Read Tennessee. They have media, teaching strategies, lesson and unit plans, activities/centers, and assessment ideas that are all FREE! By clicking on the picture below, you will get WAY more resources than I was able to find!

Are these new resources more helpful than the originals that I compiled?
~HoJo~

Mother's Day Tulips Gift with FREE Download

Looking for a quick and easy (not to mention last minute!) Mother's Day gift? Then this is for you!

Simply click on the picture above to get your free mother's day tulips. Have your students color them, cut them out, and then create some type of stem for them. Here are my suggestions:

• Attach pixie stix as a stem
• Attach pipe cleaners and give in a vase of some sort
• Attach pipe cleaners and put them onto a picture with a vase or grass growing
• Attach them to pencils

These were whipped up quickly because the Preschool teacher at my school needed something last minute. She is using these on the end of pixie stix. The students will also have a little bag of flower seeds. She's going to do some saying like, "Look at how much we've blossomed all year" or something to that effect.


If you want even more great May freebies, check out this linky party!

What other suggestions do you have for how to use these flowers?
~HoJo~

End of Year Turtle Compliments

As we near the end of the year, I always try to do some fun activities with the students. One of these is to focus on what great students I have had all year!

TURTLE COMPLIMENTS!

This is an activity we did in college on one of our last day's before student teaching. Each students puts a paper plate on their back (their shell) with a small piece of tape and grabs a marker. You then walk around the room and write compliments on other people's "shell". You really have no idea what other people are writing because - like turtles - this is a quiet activity. You just walk around the room and write down compliments. They might be one word, they might be signed - it totally depends on the "rules" the teacher gives.



I do recommend using markers/pens for this activity. The reason is that in the last 5+ years the comments on mine that were written in pencil have really faded!


You may want to set a timer for how long you want students to sign. Or maybe you want students to give everyone a compliment. Perhaps they only have to sign 10 "shells". Set some guidelines and let them go!


Here is the "turtle shell" I still have from undergrad. It is honestly something I really treasure. (Hence the reason it's in my scrapbook!)

You can tell that some people wrote a word, while others included a small novel. It's a great boost for the end of the year and let's you know just how much others appreciate what you do/are - no matter how small.


What end-of-year activities are a "must-do" in your room each year?
~HoJo~

TpT Loves YOU - Teacher Appreciation Sale!!

Teachers Pay Teachers is throwing a huge "TpT Loves You" Teacher Appreciation Sale for 3 days, May 6-8, and I am participating!!


My entire store in 20% off from May 6th-8th. Add in the coupon code (TAD12) that Paul (TpT owner) is offering, and you could save up to 28% off on thousands of items!


Click on the picture below to go directly to my store.

Thank you to my faithful followers! I know I have had some awesome buyers in the past, and I truly appreciate it. People who buy from my TpT store make it possible for me to spend even more time creating more great freebies for you right here on my blog.


One last thing before I let you go. Don't forget about the HUGE Teacher Appreciation Jackpot that is going on right now. It is for all teachers grades K-12, so make sure to check out this link to get 130+ bloggers' freebies today only.


What are your thoughts on the Teacher Appreciation Jackpot? Something we should do again next year??
~HoJo~

Friday Funnies - Part 7!

This one just cracks me up!

One of my students wrote this on his paper:

80HD

I had to look at it several times, and then it took everything I had not to start laughing. Apparently he diagnosed himself as having ADHD. lol ;)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Looking for Friday Funnies posts from previous weeks? Go here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Have anything to make me "lol" this week?

~HoJo~

Teacher Appreciation Jackpot

The Jackpot is now over - but please head around to the different blogs at the bottom of this post to see some of the greatest teacher-bloggers and what products they have to offer.

Next week is Teacher Appreciation Week 2012! We just had the first ever Teacher Appreciation Jackpot!! It was an amazing "blog hop" event with over 100 bloggers!

Many of the teacher-bloggers out there wanted to show our appreciation for you in a BIG way, so we all agreed to give away one of our TeachersPayTeachers products for free! All those participating gave away an item valued from $3.00-$8.00, so many got a "jackpot" worth over $500!

There are so many bloggers involved, that it had to be divided into three categories - here they are (coordinated by these amazing women!!):

• PK - Grade 2 - April McNair on A Modern Teacher
• Grades 3 - 6 - Laura Candler on Corkboard Connnections
• Grades 7 - 12 - Adrianne Meldrum on The Tutor House

**I gave away my Multiplication 0-12 Magic Squares. It was given away for free during the Jackpot, but can now be purchased for only $3.00! You get seven puzzles that "magically" create a square when students put them together correctly. Click on the picture below to go directly to the product.

Check out the other awesome bloggers' posts by checking out the linky below! Remember - the giveaway is now over, but you can still see some awesome products by checking out the folks below!



Thanks so much for all you do! The teaching profession can be tough at times, but you truly do influence those kiddos you work with every day!!
~HoJo~