Take a Peek!

Tonight I'm linking up with Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for her Peek at my Week Linky!

This upcoming week we are beginning our Social Studies unit called "Road to the Revolution"!  I am super excited about it.  Even though my students don't love social studies I try to make it as interesting as possible.  We will be writing lots of essays in preparation for our state writing test next month.  I truly enjoy history and writing, so I hope that I can teach my students to enjoy it just as much!

In math I will be teaching finding the greatest common factor and simplifying fractions.  I am super duper excited to use two of my TpT products this week!  Check them out below!


This one is called "Find the GCF Scoot/Task Cards".  These can be used as a center game, as a class Scoot game or as task cards under a document camera.  Love these!  These task/scoot cards can be found HERE!

This one is called "Simplifying is Fun"!  It's a bored game in which students move their game piece each time they correctly simplify the fraction card they pull from the deck.  I have to do just a few more tweaks on this and it should be up by the middle of the week!

One goal I have for this week is to go to both of my Zumba classes!  One of our kindergarden teachers instructs Zumba twice a week at my school.  I used to go every single week but I have fallen off the wagon.  I've gotta get back into it!

Today was an absolutely beautiful day but we are supposed to get another "Arctic Blast" tomorrow so unfortunately it will be another week of inside recess.  I am sooooo ready for Spring!

I hope everyone has a wonderful week!  Don't forget to link up! :-)

A Peek at my Week!!!

Tonight I'm linking up with Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for her "A Peek at my Week" linky!

First, a quick rant about last week...
Well my first week back to school was quite a doozy!  My body didn't agree with my alarm clock going off each morning and each evening I just couldn't fall asleep no matter how tired I was!  I had so much on my mind.  So much I am wanting to get done this semester.  This is the time of year when testing stress starts to unravel me.  Thinking about how much I have left to teach is almost overwhelming!  I've just got to take it one day at a time and do the best I can!

Now for the upcoming week!  I am starting our themed unit called "Road to The Revolution", which I love!  Teaching history is one of my favorite things to teach, especially the American Revolution.  In math we are beginning fractions.  I've made a couple of resources I plan on using this week to support my instruction.

First, I created a set of task/Scoot cards to help students practice Finding the Greatest Common Factor of two numbers! They are yellow Chevron with a super cute tulip and butterfly on each card! I love them!

Check them out HERE!!!!!

Next, I created an Ordering Fractions Sorting Cards game to help students order fractions!  I can't wait to use these in my room next week!

Get this activity HERE!!!

Thanks for reading! :-)

Christmas Vacation Pics!

I have had a wonderful Christmas vacation!  I haven't done a whole lot but relaxing has been lots of fun! I've gotten to play with my daughter and spend time with my husband, which is always a good thing!  She got so many wonderful gifts and got to spend a bunches of time with her family, especially her little cousins that she just can't get enough of!

Now is the time I have to show off how adorable my daughter is!

We made yummy Christmas cookies!

We also made a super cute gingerbread house!

Here is one of her Christmas pics!

Here is the one we used on our Christmas cards!

She was obviously very excited to meet Santa!  Hahah!

Laying around relaxing and not having to focus on school has been wonderful.  I must admit that I am (almost) ready to get back into the swing of things, but I am already looking forward to Spring Break and Summer!  They will be here before we know it!

Just about the only productive thing I've done for school over the break is create a new item on TpT called 'Simplifying is Fun!'.  It is a board game that can be used during centers, for early finishers or really at any other time as well!  I will begin teaching fractions on Monday and I definitely plan on using this game to help reinforce the concept of simplifying fractions!

Here is a preview of it!  Please check it out at my TpT store!  

This is the game board!

These are a few of the cards for the game!

Go get it HERE!

I hope everyone's break has been as wonderful as mine!  Follow me on BlogLovin'!

Five for Friday! (late, of course) 12-15-13

Good evening, all!  Linking up once again with Doodle Bugs Teaching 

for her Five for Friday linky party!  

1.  I am loving being on Teachers Pay Teachers!!!  It is seriously so much fun buying and making items to sell!  Please take a look at my newest product!  Winter Fraction Scoot!  It can also be used as a Math Center or as task cards on a document projector!

2.  Staff Christmas Party!  We had our staff Christmas party last night and it was awesome!  We had a great time eating at On The Border and then had an ugly sweater party afterwards!  Here is a pic of some of our ugly sweaters! (I'm the one in the snowman sweater!)

3.  5 days until CHRISTMAS BREAK!  We have Benchmark testing this upcoming week and I am absolutely not excited about it!  I really hope that my students try their very hardest!  This is kind of how I've been feeling...

4.  We had our PTA movie night this past Friday and it was a success!  The students appeared to be having a lot of fun and I know that the teachers had fun socializing as well!  I honestly work with some of the most fun people of all time!

5.  I am PUMPED for more Christmas parties and activities to come this upcoming week!  There is so much going on and so many fun things happening, but it is my hope that I keep in the forefront of my mind the real reason for the season.  Merry CHRISTmas!

Thanks for reading! 

Follow me!

Monday Made It! TpT and Christmas!

I am linking up with 4th Grade Frolics for her Monday Made It Linky Party!

1.  Last night I created two new products for my TpT store!  They are super simple and super cute!

First is my Math Mania- I Have, Who Has? Division Edition!  Great for review of simple division facts and mental math!  Check it out HERE!

Second is my Math Mania- I Have, Who Has? Multiplication Edition!  Again, super simple and a great way to quickly review those multiplication facts that every student needs to know!  Check it out HERE!

2.  Today I also made a ton of goodie bags for our staff Christmas party this weekend!  Inside is candy and a little card that may or may not have a secret code for a secret game that each person will play for prizes!  Can't wait!  Here is a picture of one of the goodie bags!  Nothing super special, but it will be fun nonetheless!

3.  I don't have a picture for this one, but I will post some soon!  Today I got together with some of my coworkers and crafted our "ugly sweaters" for an upcoming get-together!  We had a blast!  I am so blessed to work with such fun, genuine, and funny people.  Love my ladies!  

Thanks for reading!

Jamie

Follow me on Bloglovin'!

Peek at my Week [Snowed-In Edition!]

I just got word that my district is closed again tomorrow!  With frigid temperatures and residential roads still a mess, they have decided to close another day!  That makes for one happy mommy! Until the end of the year when we have to make it up, that is!

I am linking up with Mrs. Laffin's Laughing for her Peek at my Week linky party!

The first thing on the agenda this week, if we ever get back to school, is Benchmark Testing.  Blah!  It is super stressful for the students but it gives us good data to go off of for small groups and such.  Based on my class's last benchmark scores they have a lot of improving to do!  

We are also going to continue our "Myths, Gods, and Goddesses" unit.  My students love it! I don't think they have been this enthralled with anything this year as they are with this unit.  They really enjoy listening to the stories and learning about mythical characters.  This week we will be reading myths out of the book D'Aulaires Book of Greek Myths and extracting sentences within the text to discuss their impact on the story overall.  Exciting, huh?!

In Math we will be finishing up our unit on Dividing Decimals.  Going to do some activities relating word problems to real life situations in which they will have to use division with decimals in their future.  I try to make math as real as possible for them since so many of them struggle with it.

I hope everyone has a great week!  And be sure to link up!

Five for Friday Linky & Recipe!!!!

This is my first Five for Friday in forever!  I am linking up with Doodle Bugs for her weekly linky that I have missed so much!

1.  I had an INCREDIBLE week with my students!  Something seems to have finally clicked with them and they realize that if they give a little, that I will as well!  We had so much fun!  I am still doing the app called Class Dojo with my class and they really love it.  Each time they earn 50 points they get to scan a QR Code that I created and it gives them a prize of some sort!  They love it and so do I!  I love me some Class Dojo!  If you haven't tried it out yet I highly encourage that you do so!

2.  Teacher's pay Teacher's!  I have made a couple new items this week and posted them!  I am really excited to get some of my hard work out there for other teachers to use!  Please check out my super cute and super cheap stuff in my store!  My Christmas Division Scoot is my favorite so far!  Here is a pic of it! 

3.  New Slow Cooker Recipe!  Today I wanted to make a delicious slow cooker chicken dish so I decided to try something new!  It is super simple and only takes a couple of ingredients!  My family LOVED it! Even my little girl!

Slow Cooker Mexican Chicken

4 Chicken Breasts

1 package Taco Seasoning

1 can Cream of Chicken

1 can Rotel (drained)

1/2 cup Sour Cream

Tortillas

Place chicken breasts in crockpot.  Pour taco seasoning over chicken.  In a bowl, mix together cream of chicken and rotel.  Pour cream of chicken/rotel mixture over chicken.  Cook on high 4 hours.  After the 4 hours, shred chicken with with two forks, add sour cream, and mix gently.

Serve in a warm tortilla with a side of mexican rice for an easy, delicious meal!

It was seriously SOOOO delicious!

4.  TODAY WAS OUR FIRST SNOW DAY OF THE YEAR!  We got about 5 inches of snow, if not more!  My family had fun playing in the snow for a few minutes today!  Isn't she soooo adorable?!

5.  And finally, I got most of my Christmas shopping done this week!  I love the holidays, but gift buying certainly is a little stressful!  I can't wait to give them out!

Follow me on BlogLovin'!  

Check out my TpT store!