Five for Fraturday!

Trying to get back in the habit of blogging regularly! This week was filled with a lot of celebrations! So here's my Five for Fraturday! If you wanna link up just press the button below:

Can I just say I LOVE California weather(sorry I'm not sorry east coast peeps)! All of President's Day weekend weather was beautiful! I just had to photograph these signs that spring may be coming early here on the west coast! 

Like I mentioned on my last blog post my mom moved back to Louisiana for work. That is where my mom's family is from so being Creole is part of my culture. Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) is a BIG deal down south. So I was so jealous that my parents got to enjoy Mardi Gras down south that I decided to bring Mardi Gras to my school. We talked about the colors and traditions. Then they got to pick a mask and bead necklace, they loved it! I caught all of them wearing their beads and mask throughout the day! Wednesday they got another (bigger) bead necklace sent from my parents in Louisiana to my peaches. Only thing missing that day was some Gumbo!

 

Of course we also had to celebrate President's Day! Luckily I found this awesome freebie from Mrs. Rica's Kindergarten! I had so much fun coloring my example! The peaches had a lot of fun too making their books! 

My second grade peaches story this week was Ant by Rebecca Stefoff. I found many additional book resources. We kicked things off with a KWL chart and the What I Know section had me cracking up! I love this story because we get to delve into this very interesting insect! After learning so much about ants I've decided that we will be doing All About Ant books next week. My favorite part was teaching them the ant life cycle, by the end of the week they were all experts!

We also learned about r blends with my firsties! I found the most fantastic resource from Miss Giraffe! I really thought first graders couldn't do crossword puzzles but she has proven me wrong! I loved he R Blends packet! My kiddos were able to use these four worksheets to guide them through their homework! It was an amazing resource for my peaches! It was easy using the worksheets and can't wait to continue using them next week. I also used  a freebie from Lavina Pop! 

 

We also celebrated the Chinese New Year on Thursday during art! We talked about the traditions, the Chinese zodiac and zodiac race, and then made these cool Chinese dragons from First Grade Blue Skies Chinese New Year Close Read and Make a Dragon Unit! I had them work in teams to make the dragon and the results were very creative! They really loved finding out what zodiac animal they were and what place they finished in!

 

Bonus: 

I love finding pictures lying around my room when the kiddos go home. I have a few little illustrators in my class and I always enjoy their drawings! So here is a cute little picture about Mario, Peach, King Koppa and other characters. A little translation for Mario: "I love princess" Koppa: I love everybody" Hmm... who should Princess Peach pick!

Five for Friday!

Linking up this Sunday with Doodle Bug for my Five for Friday. I must say this has been the busy couple of weeks.

Last Wednesday we celebrated the 100th day of school. Boy did we have fun! You can read all about what we did and some helpful tips to make your 100th day of school smooth sailing here!

 

I LOVE Valentine's Day! I also love spending it in the classroom with the little ones that I love! So I try to match the theme for the day. So on my special birthday shopping trip with the hubs I picked this shirt (from Forever 21) out in preparation for February and saved it for our celebration on Friday! I completed my outfit with jeans and pink chucks! 

 

 I've tried the last three years to give my students non-candy valentines. This year I saw these cute tags by Sarah Kirby from Permanently Primary and knew exactly what I was going to get my peaches! (I did sneak a little rice crispy in there) Check out their valentines below: 

 

 Thursday we decorated in class some valentine boxes. I spent the entire time helping my peaches that I didn't have time to make mine until after school. First I said I wanted a little castle and it turned into a full on Disney castle! The one below mine is an example from one of my peaches! They all had fun decorating!

Take 2 second grade boys and a lesson on writing a poem and this is what you get:

Pretty hilarious! They then recited this poem to the older grades to their enjoyment! 

Bonus: 

My hubby surprised me with these for valentine's eve: 

We rocked 100 days of school..

Well it’s been a busy two weeks in my classroom. Between my mom’s going away party, the peaches learning about the spelling of /ar/, getting our valentines in the mail to exchange with other schools,  getting pneumonia, getting ready for Valentine’s Day and celebrating the 100^th day of school I hardly had any time to catch my breath! So I’m going to be on picture overload for you this evening. 

First up: Mom's going away party. That's right my mom who has been around for 28 years of my life is now living and working over 2,000 miles away in Louisiana. All night I heard the question, "Do you want your mom to go?" OF COURSE NOT! But do I want my mom to be happy, yes! Do I want her to be successful and enjoy her retirement when the time comes, yes! The only way these things could happen were if she moved. I miss her like crazy already but I'm trying to stay strong and be happy for her!

 

 Next, our Valentine's Exchange. I decided to sign my school up for a Valentine's Day valentine exchange hosted by PAWSitively Teaching. I decided to have my kiddos make animals out of hearts. Let me say the results were just adorable. Then it hit me, what could make this project even more exciting? Let's put facts about that animal on the backside of these animals. Of course I didn't account for some peaches to take a little more time and the fact that I was absent for two days to try and get better. So I was rushing to finish these up last Friday so I could mail them out. Everything came together and hopefully reached their destination.

We are also charting all of the valentines we have received on a map on our bulletin board. The kiddos always get excited to see another valentine added. 

Alright, I found out at the end of January that my  kiddos were going to learn how to spell /ar/. So I cruised on over to TPT and Pinterest and found some amazing things! I purchased the fabulous Babbling Abby's Learning /ar/ with Pirate Mark. So I dressed up like a pirate, Captain Bell to be exact, on Monday to introduce the topic and my kiddos got so into it. I told them I like /ar/ words and they started asking me, "Do you like star?" I'd respond with a pirate voice "Arrggh, I like star because it says /ar/" They bought the lesson hook, line, and sinker. They even began writing stories about pirates, I love when learning takes over my classroom like that!

My pirate gear!

Arrgh ye ready to learn /ar/?

It's hard to read my peaches handwriting/phonetic spelling, it says:There was a good pirate it’s name is Miss Bell(that’s me hehe). She sails across the sea with her crew.

Finally, Pièce de résistance! The 100th day of school celebration!! 

So this is my 6th 100th day celebration and I only get wiser as the years go on. Here are some tips I'd like to pass on to you to make your 100th day celebration easy peasy lemon squeezy! 

Tip #1: Try to have your celebration on an off week. It felt so easy to just slip the 100th day of school in during this four day week because things are already off because of a holiday on Monday and Valentine's Day on Friday. Granted it wasn't the 100th day but my kiddos had tons of fun!

Tip #2: Try to have it on an early release day. My first plan was to work myself all weekend and have the celebration on Tuesday. BUT let me tell you how easy it was to have it today (our early release day). We skipped the language arts period, did our celebration, had lunch, cleaned up and they went home all sugared up! Easy peasy lemon squeezy! 

Tip #3: Use the free aging booth app!! If you haven't used the aging booth app, do it! So many times I have my students try to think what life would be like when they are 100, some imaginations were bigger than others. Now they can use a picture to visualize it! I took their pictures, printed them and added them to a "When I'm 100 years old" page. So what are you waiting for??? Go get the free app!

Vocabulary Wall I created to help with writing

My example!

Tip #4 If you have older students, use them! In the past I would enlist the help of my husband and we'd spend our weekend prepping (aka blowing up 100 balloons). The past two years I've enlisted the help of our oldest students to help keep my insanity during this busy time. 

My two 5th grade helpers!

Tip #5 Have them dress up! For the past 5 years, I would make my students shirts saying "I survived 100 days of..." and their grade but I decided to mix things up this year. I had my students dress up (with only a days notice, shame on me) and let me tell you it was the best Decision EVER. All of my students participate and I even had an awesome mother stay and do make up for all the peaches!  

These two cracked me up!

Amazing make up!

My coworker and I all dressed up err down!

We had a fun time being elderly today!

Happy 100th day of School from Union School!

 Tip #6 Do Stations! I can't tell you how easy it was to set up the stations and rotate during our celebration. I had 4 stations 2food, 1 craft, and 1 writing. I walked them through the directions and they took off running, in pairs! It's so amazing being at a school where upper grades are readily available. They all picked a name, or two, and were paired up for these stations.

Snack Station

Our 100th Day Collection

Rock Star Station

When I'm 100 Station

Fruit Loops Station, yeah that's me!

 

Top 10 of the school year!

Well I'm blogged out for the night... here are two more pictures I wanted to share! Good night everyone!