5 for Friday on Track Break

Hello! Hello! Just blogging over my track break! I have been so busy with a new school and my crazy life that I can't keep up with this! But I have had the week off for track break and will be heading back on Monday. Yer Round school has its ups and downs. For the most part I don't mind it. Having my 3 month vaca split up throughout the year isn't too shabby. While still having some time off in the summer. I am linking up with  Doodle Bugs for 5 for Friday!

Let's start with a couple of things from before I went out on track break. Leadership Day. This year I moved to a new school and started a new program. It is called The Leader in Me. It deals with the 7 Habits of healthy kids. Have any of you heard of this or use this at your school? I will say I was a little iffy about it at first. I figured it was just going to be ANOTHER program to implement into my teaching and just add more stress to trying to add it into my lessons. At first it was a bit of a pain. But now I am loving it. My students love the program and so do I. It gives them more of a role in our room and in our school. They literally help plan everything now. They know the habits and can explain them to anyone. They recognize them in books and activities in the classroom and at home. Here is a link to the webpage all about it...

The Leader in Me

So Leadership Day is a day to invite the community in and show them how the 7 Habits are used in the classroom and how children use them in their lives. We sing songs, we make sure we are doing leadership lessons and have community members come and observe and see our goal charts in our classroom. I did a lesson on Rainbow Fish this day. Now we had already read  Rainbow Fish at the start of the year and when my students first started to learn about the 7 Habits. Now when we went over the story again they could identify different habits in the story. They knew that Habit 4 was showed in this story a lot. Think Win Win. Rainbow Fish shared his scales and everyone got to have some shiny scales. Everyone won. Below are a couple of different activities we did with the story while people came in my room and observed. All my students could explain what they were doing, why they thought this habit and what other habits were in the story. 

This was us at the end of Leadership Day. Our 5th grade testing buddies got us Popsicle to thanks us for encouraging them during their testing! We enjoyed them outside in the 109 degree weather with the tortoises. 

I hosted a bachelorette party at my house a week ago and made these adorable lil bum cookies! They were a hit with the girls!! 

I took myself out for a nice little breakfast on my track break. Giada is one of my favorite places on the strip for breakfast. It is a lil pricey but its so good! I always purchase the $8 vanilla latte with the G for Gardner on it! :) They have these yummy turkey sauage meatballs and lemon potatoes. Yum. It makes me hungry just thinking about it again! 

I also went to Portland for the first time last weekend for a kickball tournament. Yep I am still at it. I played on a team with a bunch of sweet people from all over the US. I got a chance to make some new friends and have some fun while doing it. Didn't do as well as we should have but it was still a great time!

Also went and did a little sight seeing. I made these two take me to some park so I could see the view of the city and the mountains. So pretty. Plus there were tons of roses all around the park and I love rose gardens. Wish I could have seen a little bit more of the city but hopefully I go back again. Next up is DC, next weekend! 

5 for Friday: Spring Time

Wow! This year is just flying by! I stay so busy with school and extra life stuff that I am slacking on the blog and my TPT store! I am just trying to continue going right along with the rest of year. I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday...or Saturday for that matter. HaHa! Better late then never right!

This is HUGE! I got nominated for The Heart of Education Award in Las Vegas. And I am one of the finalist! I am so excited! The chances of winning or being one of the top 20 is very slim but you never know! So please go vote for me!! I am the 18th one down! Alison Gardner

I saw this on someones instagram this week and I could not stop laughing! This is so my students this year! I swear they eat them! Especially my student that I just got. I swear she goes through 10 a day! Anyone else have this problem! 

Wayne Newton and the Killers at the new T Mobile Arena in Las Vegas! This concert was amazing! My mom flew in to go with us! Oh did I mention is was a school night! And the concert did not end till midnight! I may have been a bit tired on Thursday. 

But this was my fuel! This is how I made it through the day! Venti Latte and a donut!! 

Here is the link to the activity! I know there are others but I have used this one the past few years and totally love it!

Guess what we did Friday to finish up our contractions! Contraction Surgery! My students loved it more then anything! They were so engaged and could explain it to everyone that walked in the door! I had my Principal and Asst. Principal come in and see the lesson. They loved it too! This is my first year at this school, the past 9 I was at another one. 

I set everything up the night before so when we walked into school we were ready to begin our surgeries. 

This little girl was so excited to be a doctor and couldn't wait to go home and tell her mom all about it! 

They were all just working away!

HAPPY WEEKEND!! ENJOY IT!

5 for Friday- WINTER BREAK!

Happy Friday! I survived the last week before Christmas Break!! BARELY! I am linking up with 5 for Friday with Doodle Bugs Teaching to share a few things that we did this past week! 

I am exhausted! But it was all worth it! This week is usually one of the most fun with my students. I love watching their little faces light up from different things in my classroom! 

We read the Grinch and did lots of different activities with it. Character Traits, Character Changes, Adjectives. They had so much. So I figured I would surprise them with some Grinch Cookies! Look at how adorable they look! They tasted yummy and were very easy to make too! Which was a double bonus! 

I figured Sparkie Red our elf could deliver them to us! 

Sparkie Red was up to no good all week and my students loved it! They walked in every day so excited to see what he was up to! I had them write in an Elf Journal every day  about what he was doing. It helped us practice days of the week, writing the date, and writing simple sentences. 

Look at these pretty flowers my fellow coworker made for me! Aren't they lovely! She said this is how she destresses! I wish I was this talented! 

 These are the Christmas ornaments my students made for their parents! They used their finger prints for the reindeer head, and one for the body of the snowmen. This was the simplest parent gift and my students loved making them. They took such pride in them and then they got to wrap them themselves. I will just say that my 1st graders are not the best wrappers but it was the cutest thing watching them do it. Do you let your students wrap their own gifts? 

 So 1 look at my table! I made table clothes on my students tables  with butcher paper. I am not sure who loved them more...me or them! I take full credit on these....Apples and ABCs posted it on Instagram because someone decorated their staff lounge with these and I just had to do them in my room. 

We decorated cupcakes at our Christmas party! They really enjoyed this! They all looked completely different and I loved them! We put them in cups and wrapped them up for them to take home! 

I hope everyone made it through their last week and last day! Now it is time to enjoy the holidays with our families and relax! Happy Holidays everyone! 

5 for Friday! 2 Weeks into the School Year!

HAPPY FRIDAY! And the end of week 2 for me! I have been so busy the past month that I have  had no time to blog! The first 2 weeks of school have been crazy busy! The weekend before school started I was in San Diego for a kickball tournament, got back Sunday night and started school Monday! Then the next weekend my parents and best friend were in town! I have had NO time to breath! 

I am linking up for a late night of 5 for Friday! With Ms. Doodle Bugs Teaching! 

Meet the Teachers! Well 1st off, let me start with that I am at a new school this year! And I was so nervous for meet the teachers! I didn't know any of my students and worse I wouldn't have any students coming back to see me. I had taught at the same school for the past 9 years so I was a part of the community. So meet the teacher night before school started was nervous! I only had 5 students come see me! I thought that was going to be a bad sign of the students I was getting. 

Anyways this is what each students desk looked like at meet the teacher! OH OH OH BUT wait I forget to tell you something! Meet the teacher didn't get to be in my classroom that I had spent so much time working on...it was in a random empty trailer. Why? You ask....because the AC was broke it my trailer and my room was 110 degrees!!!! IT WAS HORRIBLE! I was so discouraged that night. I might have had a break down after it was all over. I cried in the car on the way back to my house and thought, maybe I made the wrong choice changing schools. :( 

This is me on the 1st day of school. We don't get dressed up on the 1st day of school. We all wear our school shirts so parents and teachers know who the teachers are. This was kind of nice, not having to worry about what to wear. That is BIG Ben. He is one of the turtles who live in our school atrium. I love them!  

The 1st week of school went very smoothly. Considering meet the teachers night had me questioning a lot! My students are amazing! I have 14 students! Only 5 girls! We did the Save Fred Activity, The Toothpaste Activity and Building Towers. Anyone else do these?! My students really enjoyed working together on all of these. It was so much fun watching them and listening to them. They are really good synergizing going on! I am also trying to get better at using the 7 Habits terminology.  

We worked on short a word families. My students did a sort of gallery walk. They wrote down words that belonged in the correct word families. I knew some of my students wouldn't be able to come up with ones other then the one I had. I encouraged them to rewrite one that was already on the paper. This still gave all my students a chance to participate and still had them practicing the words in that word family. 

 I always like my number 5 to be something kind of funny. I saw this ecard and thought it was a good one! I hope everyone had a lovely week and had a chance to relax a bit with a nice glass of vino.