The Best Pencil Sharpener is PURPLE!

Many of you have heard of The Best Pencil Sharpener by Classroom Friendly Supplies. I have had a blue one that I love for a few years. It still works just as well as when I received it back in 2013. You can read my original review here.

I was recently given the opportunity to get a sneak peak at the newest sharpener, Popular Purple.

This sharpener is a fabulous purple color. When I brought it in and set it up my students were begging to try it, but I told them I had to try it first. (I am a meany, I know.)

 I absolutely love the purple color. The pictures really don't do it justice. The sharpener is as quiet as ever, and makes the pencils super sharp.

I have three sharpeners in my classroom, one electric (that came with the room from the previous teacher) and now two of these sharpeners. My students NEVER use the electric. They actually wait in line in the morning to use one of these sharpeners. I highly recommend getting one for your classroom, you won't regret it.

A New Season and a Freebie

It has been way too long since I have blogged. I am so sorry. Lots of changes have happened since I last blogged. My daughter had her first birthday and has gotten way too big. She is totally a toddler now, and keeps me on my toes!

I am back in the classroom, teaching third grade this year. It has been quite an adjustment getting used to being mom and teacher, but we are starting to get into a good rhythm, so I am excited to be back blogging again.

Being in a new grade, means creating new things. I made a small QR code task card set to help my third graders practice identifying the four types of sentences. You can grab it for free here.

50th and 100th Day of School Freebie

It has been way to long since my last post! Abigail is growing up quickly and we are finally getting into a schedule that gives me time to create and blog!

Ready for the Super Bowl

First Snow Day

Okay, enough showing off my little cutie.

I know many of you have already celebrated your 100th day of school. Many of us in the north have not because we have had so much snow! Last year, I wanted to do something with my 4th graders that helped us to celebrate those days of school, but everything that I found was geared for lower elementary students.

So I created this product to help us celebrate the 50th day of school while my students dressed like they were from the 1950s!

Then I edited the product a bit and created it for the 100th day of school. We had the students dress like they were 100 years old, and we enjoyed 100 M&Ms while we worked on our activity together.

If you looking for an easy activity to do with your students to celebrate the 50th or 100th day of school, you can grab it here for free.

What do you do to celebrate the 50th or 100th day of school?

Student Self Evaluations-Getting Ready for Conferences

Time is flying by and many of you are getting ready for Parent-Teacher Conferences. As a teacher, I had a love/hate relationship with conferences. I loved being able to share with the parents what was going on in their child's life. I loved the insight I gained from the parents when we met together.

I hated the long nights, teaching all day, meeting all night, and then teaching the next day again...It made for a very long week leading up to Thanksgiving. To make things easier I created a Student Self Assessment.(Free in my TPT store.)

I created this form to help students evaluate themselves and to give me a starting point for conferences. We all know some conferences are easier than others to hold. Having students share what they need to work on in their own words was a great way for me to get started. It is amazing, because most of the time the students knew the exact thing they needed to work on, and parents were more perceptive to anything "negative" because it was their child's idea.

 What do you do to get ready for conferences? What does your conference schedule look like?

Teaching Children about September 11th.

For many of us, September 11th is a day that causes us all to stop and remember. We trade stories about where we were when we heard the news and morn the losses that happened that day. Many of our students weren't alive for 9/11, either that or they were too young to remember. That makes this topic something important to discuss with our students. Below is my post from last year sharing what I did to teach my students about 9/11.

To start this conversation I ask my kiddos to tell me what they know about 9/11. We listen and talk. As the conversation turns into more questions than facts I play a video from BrainPOP.
The video is normally the featured video on Sept. 11th, so even if you don't have a BrainPop subscription you can still show the video for free.

After the video the kids and I read the story Fireboat: The Heroic Adventures of the John J. Harvey. The students and I talk about the book, and how normal people became heroes that day. Fair warning to read it first before you read it to your kids...I get choked up every year.

Then we read September 12th: We Knew Everything Would Be All Right. This book was written by a first grade class. It shares how the students knew everything would be okay. Many of you know that I am in a private school, so I am able to share with the kids that we can trust in God when bad things like this happen. I remind them that it isn't a surprise to God, and that even though we don't know why He allows bad things to happen we can trust that He will help us through it. It's a good lesson for me to remember too.

How do you explain 9/11 to your students? What are your favorite activities to do with your kiddos to help them deal with such a heavy topic?

September Currently

It's September already...where has the time gone? I hope those of you that have started back to school are enjoying your new classes. It is so weird for me to not be in the classroom this year. I'm thankful to be home with my daughter, and don't regret my decision at all, but it is weird to not be teaching each day. Here's a few new pictures...sorry, but I'm a proud mom.

2 weeks old

8 weeks old (yesterday)

I'm linking up with Farley at Oh' Boy 4th Grade for September's Currently.

Since my schedule is crazy now with a newborn I have started watching shows via Netflix. I'm currently rewatching Bones.

I'm loving being a mom and my daughter is such a good baby. I really can't complain, but I am tired, and so is my poor husband. I at least can take a quick nap during the day, my poor man has to get up and head to work. He is exhausted right now, so I think we are going to let him sleep in this weekend. I know once Abigail sleeps for longer chunks at night I'll have more energy to get back to blogging and my TPT projects.

I love to travel, we have a Disney Cruise booked for December (it was booked before we found out we were pregnant) so we will be taking a four almost five month old on a cruise. Any tips for flying/traveling with a baby would be helpful! Ireland and Italy are two places that I want to go...they are on the bucket list.

What are you Currently up to?

Speical Delivery-Baby girl has arrived!

Happy Wednesday friends! Time has flown by, and I now have a two week old baby girl! Abigail and I are doing very well. She is such a good baby, we are very blessed to have her.

She arrived on July 9th, 2014 at 2:03 pm weighing 6 pounds 1 ounce and measuring 19 3/4 inches long.

 That means that Laura had the closest guess to her actual birth date and she is able to pick out any item from my TPT store. Laura, be on the lookout for an e-mail from me! Thanks to those of you that played!

Once baby girl and I get into a routine my posts will be more teaching related. Thanks for celebrating with me for now.