Friday Favorites {8-26-16}

Although I'm a day late, I still want to share my Friday Favorites with you guys! I just got done with my first full week of school and it was exhausting! But I loved (almost) every second of it!

My first Favorite of the week was that one of my students brought me a cup of Braum's vanilla ice cream for breakfast! Is it totally against my diet? Yes. Did I eat every single bit of it? YES! It was so thoughtful and sweet!

My second Favorite of the week was how I taught the Scientific Method to my Science classes.  I used The Tiny Teachers 'The Cat's In The Bag' lab and my students absolutely loved it!  It made the scientific method real to them, as opposed to a set of questions on a worksheet.  I will never introduce the scientific method any other way!

My third Favorite of the week was the following two letters I received from students.  The top one is absolutely hilarious, and the bottom one is the sweetest letter I've ever received!  

My fourth Favorite of the week was when my homeroom class and I created our Social Contract.  Our district has each class create a social contract each year as a document that will reinforce how we should treat each other.  My class this year had wonderful answers!  We started with each student creating a flip book and answering the 4 questions that form the social contract.  Then we all got to discuss our answers and write them on the board.  Then I got a piece of poster board and wrote their answers on it and they all signed it.  It was a wonderful experience that truly bonded us as a class.

 My next Favorite is LULAROE!  Over the past few months I have fallen in love with LuLaRoe and a friend and I have decided to become independent consultants and actually sell their clothes! It is exciting and scary at the same time, but we can't wait to get our inventory and get started. I just hate that it will be about another 5 weeks! Patience, grasshopper!  These are some clothes I bought at online sales this week: A Carly Dress, an Irma Shirt, a pair of BUTTERY leggings, and a Cassie skirt in the bottom right!  I love them all and can't wait to wear them to school next week!

And lastly, what I would have to say was my Utmost Favorite of the week was a few nights ago when my family and I played outside. My super sexy, 30 year old husband was gettin' it on his skateboard and was even teaching our 4 year old daughter the basics!  And my 4 month old was smiling the whole time!  It was one of those rare evenings that I put all of my 'to do's' in the rearview and just took some time to play with my family. And I enjoyed every second of it!

I hope everyone else's week was as great as mine!

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Back to School! Lots of pics!

I was truly SO excited to get back to school! Of course I missed my girls every day, but I enjoyed the routine, the challenge, and getting to know my new kiddos!

Monday morning was our district's convocation and it was awesome! They brought in the drum lines from all three of our high schools and it took me straight back to when I was in high school! This is a pic of me and my teammate and right-hand-man, Mrs. Vann, at convocation!

Tuesday, the second day of "Back to School" for me was a FULL DAY OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT.  I literally spent the entire day with this look on my face.

Wednesday morning we had a whole-school meeting in the morning, and then we FINALLY got to work in our rooms in the afternoon! Then that evening we had Meet the Teacher Night! It was so great to see my new kiddos walk through the door with huge smiles on their faces as they got to pick out their seats for the year!  I also got visits from many previous students and that truly made my day!  Get my Back 2 School Pack HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How I collect supplies on Meet the Teacher Night!

My Classroom!

My Welcome Back Pack and Parent & Student Information Pack!

Thursday was my baby girls' 1st Day of School!  It went so well! She loved every second of it!  My husband got her donuts and 'pink milk' and had breakfast with her in the cafeteria the first morning.  It was a great day for her, as well as for me and my students!

Breakfast!

Painting! One of her favorite things to do!

Her teacher took this and sent it to me!

Her precious name tag and backpack!

And finally, Friday was field/team-building day and my 29th birthday! My students loved competing against other classes playing fun games like Sharks and Minnows, Over/Under, Relay Tic-Tac-Toe, and Tug of War!  

Playing girls against boys tug of war! The boys had to take their shoes off but they still won! 

And my incredible husband came to surprise me at school and bring me my gift- A Fitbit Charge HR!  I was so surprised! I absolutely loved it!  And after school we went to dinner at my favorite Mexican restaurant, Teds Escondido!

My husband and I at dinner!

My awesome present!

And lastly, today has been a day of lesson planning and relaxation.  I've gotten to spend a lot of time with my husband and girls and I've loved every minute of it after having such a busy week!  But my favorite moment of the entire week?  This...

Classroom reveal and something you MUST do NOW to help you later in the year!

I was so excited to get back into my classroom and get my room together! To my surprise, when I entered my room the desks were already put out into tables so that saved me a lot of time and sweat!

Here are some pics of my room!

Right behind my desk

Middle wall between windows

Scientific Method 

Some personal items on my counter so my students can see that I'm a normal human being with a family! Ha!

"How I Get Home" clip chart and my "Voice Levels Clip Chart"
Get my Voice Levels Clip Chart HERE!!!!!

Behavior Process, Hand Signals Poster (get it HERE) and my Scale of Understanding (get it HERE)

"I CAN" magnets so I can post my daily objective under them with expo markers.
My Choice Board so I can write down what my students can do when they finish their work.

Fifth Grade Photo Booth! The lights in the building were off, so I couldn't get a good pic.  The kiddos will stand in front of it for our Meet the Teacher Night and their parents can take pics of them!

Here is a close up of the border and letters!

Now on to the most important part of this post- Something you MUST do NOW to help you out later in the year!

One thing that I always make sure to do before school starts is to make Substitute Packets for days that I have to miss school with short notice.  I get sick, my kids get sick, my car could break down, and I always like to have at least 3 sets on hand for if I'm gone multiple days.

All I do is copy multiple pages (I'd rather them have more work, than not enough) of mazes, coloring sheets, 4th grade math worksheets (since I teach 5th), reading comprehension worksheets, and other fun things, and I make them into a packet.  Then I make copies of the packet for each student in my class.  That way, if I'm gone, one of my team teachers can simply go and get my sub packets and the students have something to do for the day!  It takes all of the stress out of being absent.  And it takes pressure off of my teammates who would be stuck coming up with things for the substitute to do with my students if I didn't leave anything for them to do!

Making Substitute Packets has been a HUGE helper for me and takes most of the stress out of being absent.

What is something that you do in the beginning of the year that helps you later in the year??!!

Leave me a comment and let me know!

Well that's all I've got for now! Enjoy!
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Essential Back to School FREEBIES!!!

It is officially 'Back to School' time! I wrote this blog last year and am posting it again so you can get my FREEBIES and check out a few other things I use at the beginning of every school year!

I can't believe it, but the beginning of the school year is quickly approaching! In my district teachers report back on August 14th and the student arrive on the 20th! It's going to be here before I know it! (insert anxiety here)

I have recently spent some time preparing for our Back to School Night.  I absolutely LOVE Back to School Night but it can be an absolute nightmare if you're not prepared!  There are a few things that are VERY important to me that I must do at the beginning of each year.  The first and most important thing I do at Back to School Night is make sure parents get my welcome packet!  Before the students arrive on Back to School Night I put this packet on each student's desk.  That ensures that the parents get it, because they will often pass over a stack of papers that say "TAKE ONE"!

Below are the contents of my Back to School Night Welcome Packet...  If you want a copy of my ipad contract (I made it generic by taking my name off), or my Parent/Student Info Papers you can get them for FREE HERE!!!!!!! (The years have been updated to reflect the current school year!)

1.  The first page in my Welcome Packet is my 'All About Me' page.  This helps the parents and students get to know me a little bit.  I find that the parents are more relatable when they know their child's teacher is an actual human being with a family and interests outside of school!

The black boxes are personal information such as names, places and contact info.
They are blacked out for online purposes only, not in the actual packet!

2.  Right behind the 'All About Me' page is a page for the parent to fill out their contact information. (I use that constantly through out the year!) On the back of that is a page on which I ask the parent to answer some simple questions about their child.  Reading these in the first week of school has helped me immensely in the past few years.  I truly believe that knowing a little background on your students is key to building relationships. :-)  (The years have been updated to reflect the current school year!)

3.  Up next is my iPad contract. I have every single student read and sign the contract before they can even touch one of my iPads.  If a student breaks a rule on the iPad I can bring this bad boy out and show them which rule they broke and ask them how they can be sure not to break it again.  Holding my students accountable with this contract has helped the iPads be a huge success in my room! 4 years with NO broken screens!!!! (crossing my fingers--knocking on wood)  (The years have been updated to reflect the current school year!)

In my TpT store you can download the generic version of this with my name removed!

4.  Next is my F.A.Q. page for parents.  This is a list of commonly asked questions I get through out the school year.  I explain my grading policy, behavior management, how I hand back papers, my classroom food/drink policy, etc.  Very useful for parents to know this information right off the bat!

5.  And lastly, I give parents a copy of my classroom procedures. In a perfect world the parents would go over these procedures with their student during the first week of school, but I'm pretty sure that is just wishful thinking on my part!  I like that no matter what, I KNOW the parents received the basic procedures of my classroom so they kind of have an idea of how an average school day in my room is run.  Of course I cover these with my students in the first week of school, but I like the parents to have a copy as well.

Well, there ya have it! I hope this post has given you some ideas of what to include in your Back to School Packet for parents!  Grab the Parent/Student Questionnaire and iPad contract for free from my TpT Store HERE!  Oh, and follow my store while you're there!