TPT

Friday, January 30, 2015

Pen Love

We are all teachers here, so we can post about our obsessions, our addictions, our loves. :)

I know that all of you have a secret love of pens. I got to try some new Inkjoy pens and I must say, they are awesome. I got a free sample of many different colors from Smiley360. The pink is my favorite, but I like them all. They write so well, don't smear or fade, and give just the right pop of color. They are perfect for all of the list making that teachers do. Just look at my shopping list for school! Beautiful! My hand writing could be better, but hey, I was in a hurry!

Don't you want my shopping list? It's full of food! Haha! The celebration committee provided a coffee/hot chocolate cart for the faculty a couple of weeks ago. It's our schools' most favorite day of the year. :) Then I went ahead and got stuff for our Vday party and then a bunch of stuff needed for my classroom, 100th day, snacks, etc. I had money to spend, so I did!

Back to the pens... I recommend these awesome colored pens. Go get some!
Click here for more info and fabulousness- InkJoy Pens

Hopefully this weekend I will get to tell you about my ordeal this week!

Be fun and fabulous!

~Mrs. Sweeney

Friday, January 9, 2015

Back to Life, Back to Reality!

Whew! Being lazy over the break made it super duper hard to get back in the swing of things. It was a tough week for me. I just wasn't feeling it. Next break, I will just be my normal, busy self, so I welcome going back to school. :) Thankfully, we did lots of fun things this week. We also didn't have intervention times, so I felt like I actually had time to really teach and dig in this week. if only every week could be like that!

I thought you might like to see some of our fun!

We built a snowman and estimated how long it would take to melt. They LOVED this! It's super easy, too. Just fill up some balloons with a small, medium, and large amount. Put them in a bowl. Then put a plate on top of them so that one side gets a little flatter. Stick them in the freezer overnight. The next morning, stack them up and decorate with felt pieces. The ice balls did keep sliding off of each other, so I used some salt to help stick them together. He lasted a LONG time so you might want to make them smaller.

He wasn't even close to being melted by the time I left school, but when we came back in the next morning, his pieces were just floating in the water. The water was ice cold, so I don't think he had been completely melted very long. They loved seeing the pieces floating there and we got to talk about how sometimes our guesses or hypothesis's won't be correct and that's ok!

Then we did another experiment to show what happened to a hibernating bear and an awake bear in the winter. Thanks Teacher to the Core! I filled up baby food jars with water. Then I put a pat of butter in each jar. The hibernating bear, just sat on the table sleeping in his cave. The awake bear was up roaming around. He was climbing trees, running down hills, rolling in the dirt, swimming witht he fish, and so much more :) We passed him around the room and the kids shook it up while we decided what activity he was doing. By the end, that poor bear was super tired, super hungry, and had no energy left. 

As you can see, the hibernating bear still has all of his fat. He loses it very slowly since he isn't active. The poor awake bear really used up a lot of his extra fat though.Uh oh. He probably wasn't going to make it through the winter. Poor bear! There just isn't enough food around for him to be that active. 

We also read this comprehension passage from my January Printables packet. The kids thought it was very interesting and got to learn some words to go on our vocabulary tree, like the word "scarce".

Finally, I wanted to show you our Math journals. We do a word problem a week in them and then we do other activities on skills we are working on each week. I plan on making them even more interactive the rest of this year. Here's what we used them for this week. 
Number Lines!

Here is the number line page, next to one of our word problems. 

They wrote their equation underneath. They think it's so cool that they can "lift the flap". :)

It was a fun week, even though I couldn't get back in the swing of things". I faked it well. :)

Tomorrow is my first graduate class at Lipscomb. Fun, fun!

What fun things are you doing this month in your classroom? 

Be fun and fabulous (even when you don't want to be)!

~Mrs. Sweeney


Thursday, January 1, 2015

January Is Upon Us!

Man! The years just fly by! How is it 2015 already? That's like the future! I remember the 90s, for heaven's sake, and that was just like 10 years ago, I'm pretty sure!

This year will be full of new for me. It starts out with my first semester of Grad school. It's a little scary, but  exciting , too. I am excited to learn more, work on some of my weaknesses, and delve in to what I love. I'm also excited because I get to help future teachers learn about the classroom. I am working with Lipscomb to allow students changing careers to come into my classroom to see education in action.  Should be fun!

Some other newness will happen in my family. My oldest will get his Learner's Permit this year. My youngest will start Middle School. I will have no more children with me at school. That's a little sad. How do they get so big?

I'm excited for this part of the school year. The kids just explode with learning. Plus, all of my favorite units and activities happen in this half of the year.

I actually was a little lazy on this break. I relaxed, watched tv, read a book, and some days did not think one bit about school. I know I'm going to be insane after this break, so I wanted to decompress. I did, however, make some new products. Fun, fun!

First, I finished up my Homework Packet for Unit 4 Reading Wonders. Only 2 more units left! If you haven't checked it out yet, and use Reading Wonders, you should. This homework goes right along with each story. It includes reading comprehension, fluency, spelling, and math. It's everything you need in homework so each week is easy and ready to go. Here are some pages for you to take a look.



Make your life easier for the rest of the school year. Easy peasy.

I am super excited about my next product. My January Print and Go packet is up and ready. More pages, more cuteness. Can't wait to use it!








Back to work on Monday. This will make my life easier and yours, too. 

Be fun and fabulous in the new year!

~Mrs. Sweeney