This week, one of my students had a birthday. Common occurrence, right? Well, his grandparents decided they wanted to send a surprise to him at school, but didn't figure he'd want flowers like they sent his sister. They called the flower shop to see what they could come up with, and this is what arrived in our classroom:

 How precious is that???? :) Obviously, I made him take the Dr.Pepper home to drink, and made him choose just two pieces of candy to eat during school. 

I took a really close look, and I KNOW that I can make this the next time I need an awesome award for something!

All you need: 

A can of Coke, bottle of water, bottle of Gatorade, can of Pringles... the choices are endless!

A colorful straw

LOTS of curly ribbons in different colors/sizes/patterns (or you could keep it simple)

Bite-sized candy bars

Hot glue

Take the ribbon and hot glue it to the top of the can. Curl, fluff, and decorate to your heart's content. Then, use small bits of hot glue to nestle the candy in. Be sure not to use too much, or you might melt the candy! Don't forget to slide the straw in as a finishing touch!

The theme possibilities are endless. Color themes, candy themes, movie night themes, seasonal themes, coffee themes...

And of course, the giving opportunities! Birthdays, Valentines, Christmas, Teacher Appreciation, School Parties, Children's Party Favors, Secretary Day, Get Well Soon, Just Because...

I now want to make one for everyone I know!

School Crafts

7:19 PM

Teachers deserve to be appreciated. Lots of times, I feel very, very under-appreciated. Long hours, crazy kids, grouchy parents, boring information-packed faculty meetings, spending our own money on the classroom... The list just goes on.

I can't change any of that, for myself, or for you. But I can join in with my colleagues at TeachersPayTeachers to say: We Appreciate You! And because we appreciate you, we're throwing a SALE! Come shop TPT on May 7th & 8th to find some AMAZING deals!

 (Thanks to Learning in Wonderland for the awesome sales banner!)

Everything at TPT is 10% off with the sale code TAD13. Everything in my store is also 20% off, for a total of 28% OFF! (Yes, I can do basic math. The 10% is taken off after the 20% is taken off.)

One awsome savings you can find at my store:

This bundle is already a 20% discount from buying each product separately, and now it's 28% off of that price! That's over a 40% discount!!

Close Reading not your thing? I (and the other amazing sellers at TPT) have TONS of items on sale right now, just for YOU! Head on over and take a look!

Happy Shopping!

Sale TeachersPayTeachers

7:07 PM

Working with Literary Heroes has really given me some AWESOME ideas. The boys love it so much, I simply cannot express it. And of course, the gushing blood from Saint George and the Dragon put them over the top! :)

I just made a close reading passage for my kiddos, because we needed to focus on pulling information out of the text. The hero books were just too long for a good close read, plus, I didn't have a class copy of the shorter ones. This is what I ended up with:

It's in my TPT store here if you want to take a look.

Graphic Organizers have been great for this unit as well. This one I am especially fond of:

Students fill in the hero trait on the left, and then have to draw details from the text to support their responses. This works AMAZINGLY with the Essential Question for Literary Heroes:

"Can Heroism be conveyed in words?"

The kids are learning to use the language, "He was a hero because he was _______. I know that because the author said _________."

I put together the graphic organizers that we have done so far, and they can be purchased at TPT here, if you're interested. :)

Jillian

Close Reading Literary Heroes

5:51 PM

So this is the type of week it has been. A week of Mondays, as my husband put it. (And yes, that stool is very broken)

But my kids have absolutely ROCKED at learning to use protractors to measure angles this week!!
We did a sorting activity with angles (Obtuse, Right, Acute), and then measured them to the whole degree. They worked with partners, and you wouldn't believe the math language I heard them using! :)

We also did another angle measuring activity, and one of my students looked right at me and said:

"Mrs. R, this isn't math, this is fun!"

Bless him. He has no idea how much that made my day. So now I'm working on putting some finishing touches on it. Be prepared for an awesome freebie when I get it together!

Jillian

10:05 PM

We're beginning our Literary Heroes unit (finally!) tomorrow!! I'm so excited to introduce it to the kids, and I know they're going to love this unit. I've been searching all over for ideas on how to introduce the unit, but I haven't had much luck finding anything. I did find this awesome video by Matthew Winkler on YouTube about What Makes A Hero:

I can't decide if it is a little complicated for my fourths, but I keep thinking I'll show it at some point. I don't think I'll use it as an introduction, though. Has anyone else found a great multimedia resource for literary heroes?

Jillian

Literary Heroes Video

8:31 PM

So with the launch of my new blog, I decided I needed to put my best foot forward. I redesigned my profile picture for Teachers Pay Teachers, and am working on making a blog button as well. Here's my new design:

I'm hoping to get the blog button up and working tonight, but I'm having some trouble with the coding. Ah, the wonders of the modern world! :)

Jillian

6:48 PM