Finally Five for Friday!

Three more Fridays left in the school year, peeps! Holy smokes this school year has flown by.... I am excited another Friday has arrived so I can link up the Doodle Bugs Teaching and share my week in pictures.
                                   

1. My Mother's Day weekend started with a few fireworks! The first was at the Dodger's game and the second was at our little league! We had a fantastic time!

2. The hubs and I at the beach in Santa Barbara-my favorite place to be!

3. We made special bookmarks for our pen pals to thank them for an amazing year of friendship and letter writing! I put them in the mail this week, so hopefully they will arrive soon!

4. I'm starting to get ready for next year (slight sickness). I decided to change my room theme, so I "needed" to make new student sticks for my turquoise and black theme.

5. Today's after school snack with my own kiddos-Fro Yo baby! YUM! I couldn't commit today to just one or two flavors. I mixed it all up!

Also, don't forget to check out my A-M-A-Z-I-N-G giveaway to celebrate my first year of blogging. You have until Sunday to enter. So, head on over and check it out if you haven't already. Some of my dearest blogging friends are sharing their talents with all of you and I wouldn't want you to miss out.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! Happy Friday!

Quick Tip Linky and Giveaway

I am super excited to be joining a new weekly linky from Diving Into 2nd Grade and Hippo Horray for Second Grade.
                                      
I have been preparing and getting ready for next year. I am a planner and once I found out I was going to be teaching second grade again, a got my planning groove on! Here is my Quick Tip for this week:

Student Number Sticks

At the beginning of the year, my students each are assigned a number. I use these numbers for many things:

-numbers on papers

-cubbies

-behavior clip chart

-line order 

-class room helpers

-call on students in class etc.

I use these student number sticks to fairly call on students in class to answer questions, help with tasks, to make smaller groups etc. I keep them in a basket on my desk and use them throughout the day. I decided to change my room theme for next year. Our school colors are turquoise and black, so I am going with that color theme for next year. I "had" to make new number sticks to coordinate with my new colors. 

I hope this is a quick tip you can use in your classroom too!

I also want to remind everyone that I am hosting a fabulous giveaway to celebrate my first year of blogging. Several of my blogging buddies have joined up to help me make this extra special. I hope you will stop by and check it out! There is a little party favor FREEBIE for you to grab too!

Blogiversary Giveaway Celebration

Happy Mother's Day to all you mommies out there! I hope your day is filled with love and relaxation. Each and everyone of you deserves it! I am getting ready to spend the day with my boys at one of my favorite places- Santa Barbara! Brunch + the beach= one happy Mom! I can't wait to share pics with you later on.

But first, I have some exciting news:

It's hard to believe I started this amazing journey into the blogging world one year ago today! I have been incredibly blessed this last year. I have connected and formed friendships with so many of you. I have been able to share my teaching adventures and ramble about my crazy ideas- and you all have supported me. I can't thank you enough!

If you can't tell, I have been looking forward to this milestone and wanted to make it meaningful and special. In order to help celebrate this milestone, I have asked ten of my dear blogging friends to help spread the cheer. They have all touched my life in different ways. Some have helped answer my silly blogging questions, others have inspired me with their own blogs and all of them are supporters of my journey. They are a few special pieces of my blogging journey puzzle!

A party, wouldn't be a party without a party favor. I created a little something for each of you to take with you, as a way of saying thank you for being a follower. Make sure to enter the giveaway and before you leave, grab your FREEBIE!

 Now it is your turn to join in the fun and celebrate with me! This giveaway will run for one week. I will announce the winner next Sunday! Good luck!

Here are all the items you can win:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 Now that you have followed some of my favorite blogging friends, here is your prize! I created a little packet called A Day at the Beach Multiplication Activities to help you bring a bit of summer into your classroom, all while helping your kiddos review their multiplication skills. It includes a flap book and two array review sheets. Just click on the picture to download it now.

Thanks for helping me celebrate my first blogiversary and Happy Mother's Day!

Five for Friday Fun

Only 4 more Fridays until summer break!!! But who is counting right?? I am so happy to be linking up this Friday with Doodle Bugs Teaching.
         

1. This week, I created a little Mother's Day FREEBIE to share with all of you. There are writing activities and a Mom, you are "TEA-riffic" gift idea. I glued the bookmark template to scrapbook paper to make it stronger and more durable. Then, I added a tea bag to the front. I hope you can all use it and put it in your files for next year, if you have not grabbed your copy yet.

2. This sweet little gift was in my box this week for teacher appreciation. Cute idea!

3. I finished up an inference packet for my kiddos to use as review. Each of them made a magnifying glass and detective notebook to collect clues to solve the Beachside Mysteries. We started some of the activities in class yesterday and the kids LOVED it!

4. I got to go to my son's school for a special Mother's Day celebration today! They served us tea and cookies. Then, they sang, danced and read us stories. These were waiting for us when we arrived. Melt my heart...

And a sweet little card.

5. Today is the hub's birthday and we are off to the Dodgers/Marlins game tonight-fireworks and all! What a great way to celebrate for a baseball lovin' guy....

Here's a little sneak peek of what I am going to share with you this weekend...Sunday (Mother's Day) I have a special giveaway to share with all of you. I will be celebrating my first blogiversary and I have some very special blogging friends helping me celebrate. Make sure to come back and check it out.

I hope you all go and link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching so I can see what you all have been up to this week.

Keep Calm and Shop On + Mother's Day FREEBIE

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week to all you fabulous teachers out there! This week is all about you. I want to thank each of you for supporting my blog and store. I am joining many others for TpT's sitewide sale starting tomorrow. Are your TpT carts full? If not, it's time to shop 'til you drop, my friends! My store will be 20% off May 7-8. You will get an additional 10% off at checkout from our friends at TpT!

                                       

 I have recently added several items to my TpT store to get your kids ready for summer, as well as many common core aligned units. So head on over and start shopping!

As another way to show each of you how much I appreciate you, I have created this little Mother's Day Fun freebie. I hope you can use it with your students and ease the stress of creating the perfect Mother's Day gift for your students to give their moms.

It comes with writing ideas and forms as well as this adorable idea above! I hope your week is FULL of appreciation! You are all the best!

Teacher Appreciation Sale

It's time to appreciate all the educators out there. This week is ours! Happy Teacher Appreciation Week! I am joining many other bloggers and teacher authors this week and having a sale in my TpT store. All my items will be 20% off, plus TpT is giving an additional 10% off on top of that May 7-8!

Thank you to my sweet friend, Aimee at Primarily Speaking for the great button.

I don't know about you guys, but I am a planner. I have already started preparing for the next school year. So, I can't wait to stock up on some items I have had my eye on. I also need a few end of the year items as well. I can't wait to go through my wishlist and add everything to my cart!

Here are some new items I have in my store that you might want to snatch up during the BIG sale!

This packet is Common Core aligned and reviews language arts, writing and math skills taught in second grade.

This glyph and writing activities are a great way to get your kids ready for summer.

What a fun way to get your kids to think about all that they have accomplished or want to accomplish in the school year!

This packet included several prompts, graphic organizers, writing pages, rubrics, checklists and a craftivity to engage your kids in the common core writing standards. 

Make sure to stop on by TpT to take advantage of all the savings May 7-8!

Five For Friday-It's May, You Say?!

Yes, yes my friends...it is May!! Where has the school year gone? I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to share my week of randomness with you!
           
1. I joined the Instragram craze! I opened an account for my little blog and got to posting some pics. I love "seeing" what we are all up to in our classroom and lives. I just need to figure out how the whole #hashtag thing works. I got a quick lesson from my incredible teaching assistant the other day. Hopefully I am using it correctly. Fingers crossed! You can follow me HERE.
                                      

2. I finally finished and posted my summer packet of activities for my second graders! I don't want them forgetting any of those common core standards we have covered throughout the year. It covers language arts, writing and math. Head on over to my store and check it out. Just click on the picture below. If you download the preview, there is a FREEBIE attached.

3. We continued working with arrays this week. Each student made their own array with buttons and identified the number of rows and columns. They, they turned it into a multiplication problem.

4. Today we had our annual school wide Peace Day event. We celebrated different cultures through dance, art and food.

Russian dancing

Catered lunch!

4. It is hot today in So.Cal. Summer hot.... I know some of you are still freezing, but this extreme heat is ridiculous!

I hope your weekend is off to a great start!