A Day in the Life

I just stumbled upon this awesome linky party from Where the Wild Things Learn!  I love finding new fourth grade teachers like Amelia in the blogging world.

Here is what the schedule outside my door says.

Now, I think we all know that these times are not exact by any means! Our bathroom breaks and snack time are not in my schedule, nor are the minutes we take to walk to and from each part of our day.

So school officially starts at 7:40.  Students are let in the building at 7:00 Teachers are supposed to be at school by 7:15. We open our doors at 7:25.  These fifteen minutes before school starts, the kids are trickling in and working on their morning work.  

My day starts with our intervention groups which we call Renaissance Round Up.  We have 11 different groups going during this time.  Some are intervention (tiers 2 and 3) and others are enrichment.  I currently have a group of 3 tier 3 math students that I am working with during this time.

I teach with a partner teacher this year.  She teaches all of literacy including reading and writing workshop, words their way, and grammar. I teach math and science or social studies depending on the quarter.  I teach social studies the 1st and 3rd quarters and science the 2nd and 4th quarters.  We keep our homeroom classes for the morning block and switch for the afternoon block. 

Our mornings are quite a bit longer than our afternoons, which I'm not a huge fan of.  I am constantly trying to find ways to balance instructional time.  My math lessons are my main focus and I spend a smaller amount of time on science/social studies. I really wish we had a way to give more specific time for science and social studies by incorporating literacy.  I'm hoping our schedule next year might change so our blocks are more equitable.  

We also don't have recess until the end of the day.  On the days I don't have duty, I really like it because I can get a few things done before the end of the day and leave a little earlier. When I have duty, it feels like the day never ends!  I wish we had recess right after lunch, but no such luck here!

That's what my day looks like.  What about you?

Math IS Real Life: Coupons

So I'm little on the late side for this monthly link up, but there have been so many other things to post about this week!

A monthly REAL WORLD math blog link-up hosted by

 4mulaFun, Fourth Grade Studio, Teaching to Inspire in 5th, AND MissMathDork,

I love this link up because it really showcases what I try to tell my parents all the time!  Math is all around us and if you want to help your student in math, then help them see math everywhere they go!

My mom was and still is a bargain hunter!  She never goes to the grocery store without her coupons in hand.  The hubby and I like a good deal, too, but we don't do nearly as well with our coupons, but we try!  On a recent trip to Target I had 2 coupons for Blistex.

I use chapstick regularly(even tho my hubby hates it!) and it disappears often into the hands of the little one!  I wanted to get the best deal using my coupon but I didn't need an abundance of chapstick. I decided to only use one of the coupons on this trip.  I could either buy one item and save $0.25 or buy two items and save $0.75.

Target didn't have a ton of selection in the Blistex department.  Ok so with my 2 coupon choices and my two Blistex package options, I had 4 different combinations of coupon/Blistex to choose from. I figured that buying the three pack was the better option as it cost less for one package of 3 verses two one tube packages, but I wanted to figure out exactly the cost of each tube in each of the four options.

So after doing the math the cheapest option was Choice #3!  $0.67 for a tube of chaptstick is a pretty awesome price!  Now I have a tube in every possible place I could need one and the Little one can even carry one around! 

I love using math in real life!

Budding Blog - A Linky Party

I started this blog on June 24, 2013 and I have so enjoyed sharing my teaching life with other blogger buddies across the country.  Jess over I {heart} Recess is hosting a Budding Blog linky party for those of us with less than 200 followers.

1. Why did you start blogging?

I started this blog over the summer as part of an agreement with myself that because I got a 21st Century Classroom grant, that I better get on the ball and start blogging.  I also wanted to join the community of teachers that I had watched from afar share ideas, engage one other, and inspire other teachers!

2. What is your favorite subject to teach and why?

I really love teaching science.  It take a little more preparation, but the kids, especially at this age really love it.  One of the reasons I like to teach science is that it is in the world all around us.  Science is real life and it gets the kids excited about learning!

3. Describe your teaching style.

Well, if you had asked me last year, I would have said cooperative learning is my main style of teaching.  I am still using cooperative learning, but now that I have my cart of laptops, I am doing everything possible to incorporate technology into everything I do.  I like to teaching using hands on items as much as possible!

4. Give three interesting facts about you.

* I love to garden.

 I have 2 raised beds in my backyard where I grow a plethora of vegetables. I've already planned a project for my students to plan how to build a raised bed to incorporate my love of gardening into the classroom

* I like to think of myself as an amateur wine connoisseur.  My hubby and I love to go wine tasting, especially at local vineyards.  We also have a wine party every spring where our friends bring wine to share!  It's a blast!

*I love Pinterest and making things from there!  I even have a blog (not very well kept up) dedicated to my Pinterest inspired projects!

5. Do you have a TpT store? If yes, post the link :)

I do have a TpT store, with only a few items in it.  

I'm working on making more things for my classroom that I want to add to my store.

Thanks for visiting my blog!  Make sure to go check out the other budding blogs!

Monday Made It: September (A Day Late)

I've been busy working on all kinds of project this past month, but I was a little behind writing about all of them!  Here is my Made It Monday: September!  Sorry it's a day late!

 I really wanted some kind of whole class reward system for both of my classes.  I found this at First Grader at Last.

Here is my version

I used a little washi tape to spruce up the pans.  I found the brownie image through Google and they look so real!!!!

 My second project was quite the under taking!  My huge wall of windows needed some curtains! This is the final product!

I used lots of math to complete this project and you can read about the details here on my Math IS Real Life post for September.

Finally, here is a little tutorial for making a burlap wreath.

Here all of the supplies I used.  I bought the burlap at Wally world for $3 a yard!

Cut the burlap into 4 inch strips.  This little tip was a life saver for making straight cuts!

Cut squares that are approximately 4 x 4 inches.

This is how may squares I got out of my yard of fabric.

Fold each square so it bubbles.  I tried to pin them on the wreath but they didn't stay.  I resorted to hot glue and that worked great!

Here is the first row complete.

Keep adding burlap bubbles until you are satisfied with the look.  I glued some of bubbles together so you couldn't see the wreath.  

Here is the final product!  I glued some fall colored flowers to the side and it looks so cute!  It is now hanging on my classroom door showing that I am ready for fall regardless of the temps in the 90's!  

Don't forget to go check out all of the other projects for the month!

Five for Friday

How is it that short weeks alway wear me out the most???!!!!  I'm so happy that it's Friday and it's time for ...

We had a very busy week, but it was a really good one!

 We took advantage of the Labor Day Weekend sales and we bought a new sectional!!!!  The current sofa set we have is looking a little rough and we needed an upgrade.  We were going to buy a custom sectional, but the sample one in the store went on sale and we were able to get a 4 piece sectional for what we were going to pay for a 3 piece custom sofa.  We got a great deal and our sales tax paid for!  It will be here at the end of the month, just in time for all the guests we will be having around the holidays! Here it is in the store.

 I said in my Peek at My Week post, that I was going to be tackling subtraction this week in math.  Well I did my introduction lesson on Tuesday and my kids were bored!  I went home upset and decided I needed to find something different that would help my kids practice subtraction, but that would be fun and exciting!  I found this wonderful project from Teaching with a Mountain View.

This is a great project that is real world and has the students practicing addition and subtraction!  My kids have loved working on this project this week.  They have been so engaged and love coming to class.  I've also added a writing component to the project and my students are having to write journal entries telling what they did during their vacation.  A little creative writing in math never hurt anyone! :) I also have a personal connection to this project because I spent 6 weeks in Ireland and Northern Ireland in college as part of a study abroad program.  I've been able to share my pictures and experiences with my students and it's been a great way to share part of me with my students!

 I finally got my laptops out this week!  It was exciting and frustrating all at the same time!  All we did was log in and I ended up have several issues with kids being locked out and/or having the wrong username and password.  I'm working with our technology department to get these issues fixed.  I'm trying to plan for how I'm going to take all of the projects I'm currently working on including the one above with my laptops.  It's going to be interesting getting this all set up.

 We went to our first Jr. High football on Thursday!  Ainsleigh had a great time and our little family looks great in kelly green and navy blue!

I have to give mad props to my husband this week!  He is training for his second marathon that he will run in November.  He got up 3 days this week before 5 AM to go run 4-7 miles each day!  I'm so proud of his hard work and dedication to his training.  He is such an inspiration!  I need to get my butt in gear!

What happened in your life this week? Don't forget to go check out the linky party and what everyone was up to this week!

Five for Friday

I'm so excited to be linking up for the first time with Doodle Bugs for Five for Friday!

I updated my schedule and job board this past week!  I love the way it looks and it's easy to change.

This is the before.

This is the after.

I already blogged about this, but it is so exciting that it is definitely worth mentioning twice.  I got my 21st Century Technology Grant laptop cart!

I've finally picked up some projects that have been on my to-do list for a couple of weeks.  Neither of course are finished, but at lease I've gotten them started.

Brownie Points: Class reward system

Burlap Wreath for my classroom door.  I ran out of hot glue at home, so I'll be finishing this tomorrow!

I did manage to finish this project! I've loved having it in my classroom and it has saved me a lot of hassles!

One of the perks of being on the non-traditional calendar is that I got a 4 day weekend!  I took today to play with baby and bring the hubby lunch at work.  This is what the little one discovered she could do this morning.  One of the things on the to-do list for the weekend is baby-proofing the drawers and cabinets.

I hope everyone has a great Labor Day weekend!