Survival

Our motto for the week... Outwit, Outplay and Outlast!!! How do you survive the last few days of school? We use our end of the year fun packs. Check them out if you need a fun way to review standards, engage students, and have fun!!! It's been a great year. We have learned a ton and cried some while cherishing every relationship built and memory made!! Enjoy the end of days!!

Time to get your "SHOP" on... It's a SALE!

TPT is throwing a HUGE Teacher Appreciation Sale  beginning tomorrow...Tuesday, May 5th and ending Wednesday, May 6th!

We are offering 20% off ALL of our products in our store...and we mean ALL of them...even bundles that are already marked at a 20+% savings off the individual packs!

Enter code THANKYOU at checkout and you'll save another 10% off the sale prices courtesy of TPT!

That's a TOTAL of 28% off ALL products and you end up saving about 40%+ on our bundles!  

Here are some items that may be perfect to finish out your year!

Math

End of the Year THEME Days FUN!

We hope these last few weeks FLY by!  

Stay strong, keep calm...and teach on! 

 Because frankly...you ROCK! :)

Student-Led Conferences: Um, Yes Please! Part Two

So...time to finish up our post about our AMAZING student-led conferences!

Now that the kiddos have completed all of the legwork, it's time for them to practice and get ready for the main event!  Now the level of your kiddos will dictate how much practicing they will need.  When I first started these, I felt they needed practice.  Now...to be honest...we wing it!  I sit in on the conferences and I can gently guide them to the next section or give them a little nudge to get them going, but they really are pretty amazing at sharing their own work!  When the parents come in, I have them sit on either side of their kiddo.  I sit on the opposite side of the table.  This allows the parents to see their kiddo's conference form, view their math and writing samples, and see the actual book their little one is reading.  I sit opposite them so that I am present, but NOT the central focus.  This is after all, a STUDENT-LED conference!  Can I get an AMEN!

Basically the kiddo runs the conference by reading each section of their form and then sharing the work from that content area.  I only interject to keep them on track or ask them questions to help them share what they are thinking.  When they read the book, we do only have them read 2 or 3 pages to save on time.

This is BY FAR the best part of the whole process.  The kiddos are beaming from ear to ear with pride as they truly see just how far they have come.  I'm talking not being able to write jack at the beginning of the year, to writing spin-offs of their favorite class read alouds!

This was from about 3 weeks in.  She was using sight words we had been working on to write simple sentences.
 She was already using some good phonetic spelling even at this early stage!

This is actually a piece from early February, and we didn't have conferences until late March...so she was doing some fantastic writing already.  She didn't use punctuation here, but she wrote over a 4 page story based on My Lucky Day.  She kept the characters, but changed the story line as the story progressed.  She has phenomenal skills happening here!

This is always a favorite part for the parents too because when they see their little one flip the first page over to the current writing, there is literally an audible gasp escaping from them!  They too can not believe just how much growth has happened, but alas...it's right there in front of them as living proof!  

Here are some examples of the math journal entries they share.

We try to encourage them to choose newer entries so it reflects their current level of thinking.

A little more about the reading portion... we have the kids choose a book from their Daily 5 book box.  That means they already have a "good fit" collection to choose from.  We encourage them to choose the highest level book that they can read with fluency and understanding.  We don't even check them on this before the conference as most of them have had a ton of practice deciding if something is the right fit for them.  If they do choose a book that's a bit too easy (maybe one that has been in their box longer and was used to build fluency, but really is a bit too easy), then we just grab another out of their box and get them to have a go.  They are usually pleasantly surprised to find out it wasn't too hard after all.  After they have read a couple of pages, we stop them and show them and their family what level that came in reading at (for 90% of our kids it's a RIGBY level ZERO!) and what level they are currently reading (this ranges from a level FIVE to TWENTY THREE this particular year!)  Level 5 is considered "ready for 1st" so everything after that is gravy!!!  **Disclaimer....We do have 2 cuties who are not reading at all at this point.  They joined us mid year and were far behind at the time.  They are making slow gains, and we will keep on keeping on!  They'll bloom soon enough!  :)

To keep track of the book they wish to share, they again stick a sticky note to the front to mark it.

I don't know if you can tell, but the sweet Mama in the pink shirt up top has a tissue in her hand!  She literally broke down in tears as her baby read.  You see, reading wasn't really his thing right away.  As a matter of fact, he wasn't really loving the whole writing or math thing either.  He lacked confidence and was always worried he wouldn't get things right.  It has been just amazing watching this kiddo bloom right before our eyes.  He read his book with such confidence and didn't even pause to look at either of us to get help when he hit an unknown word.  He just picked a reading strategy, chunked the word, and kept on reading like he was a professional 1st grader!  She is our school's counselor which made it even sweeter!  She was glowing with pride and adoration for her baby's accomplishment.  Now if that's not worth giving these student-led conferences a go...then I don't know what is!

The last piece of the puzzle is our surveys that we send out to our families.  We ask them to be brutally honest, and to be frank, they do!!!  I had 2 families tell me that they loved them, but that I needed to allow longer than 15 minutes per conference.  (Did I mention that my students and I share an affinity for chatting...ANNNND we tend to go over our allotted 15 minutes and then MAYBE the whole schedule gets a bit behind!!!!)  But this feedback helps us evolve and make these conferences even more meaningful!

SO...go wild, have fun, and give STUDENT-LED CONFERENCES a shot!

Bubbles Bubbles Everywhere!!

Awesome day today!!! End of the year theme days are so much more fun when you have structure and academic goals!!

Today we used our end of the year, Bubbles are a Blast pack!

We also used our new Bubbles, Bubbles Everywhere S.T.E.M. activity! It was really, really fun!

Check it out! We are giving it away to a randomly picked friend who let us what he/she thinks!!

Cinco de Mayo!!!

WHAT??? It's almost May...not even sure how that happened!  This year has flown by especially with all of the crazy snow days that are FINALLY over!

So it's almost May, which means it's time to dance, listen to a mariachi band, and sit on the deck of my favorite Mexican restaurant to celebrate Cinco de Mayo!  Woo-hoo!

Now I am pretty sure that's not exactly how my kiddos will celebrate, but this is a great time of year to focus on the importance of remembering the heritage and traditions of Mexico as we have many Mexican-American kiddos in our school!  So many of them love sharing their language or unique foods with the class. This is the perfect time of year to focus on the things that make each of us unique and share it with others.

So we created a simple packet that's both FUN and touches on why we celebrate this day in America.  It also has some printables that let all of the kiddos think about what Mexican traditions, music, and foods that they might have experienced.  Hopefully this will be a great way to get your kiddos talking and sharing all about who THEY are!

So here's a peek at what we included...

 Click on any of the pictures to head to our store!

So please leave us a comment and let us know what you think! 

 We'll pick 2 of you to get the pack for FREE!  

The pack will also be 1/2 price ALL day today so you can scoop it up for a BUCK FIFTY!!! :)

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Theme Days Bundle-Comment to Win!

Whew!  We are LOVIN' our summer break!  Only a few days in, but man are we loving the time with our fams!

OK...so we know that some of you still have a couple of weeks to go---that makes us sad for you (but we'll be the ones crying when you guys are still beach and poolside in August when our boo-tays will be back at school...like August 1st...ahhhhhh!)

So in case you are one of our bloggy buddies who still need some goodies to keep your kiddos focused these last few weeks...here's your chance to WIN our END OF SCHOOL THEME DAYS BUNDLE!  We used all of the packs our last week of school...and I'm telling you...it's all that kept us sane!!!

Please leave us a comment and let us know how you are hanging in there those last few days/weeks!  We'll pick 2 winners to get the BUNDLE for FREE.  We hope it helps you have a FUN, yet meaningful last week with your kiddos!

Happy Summer everyone!

Volunteer Gift and Beach Bound

Wow what a crazy, but fun end of the year!!

Are you still in school with Kiddos? Is it your post planning? Are you finished for real?

Not to celebrate or anything because we do love, love, love our jobs, but we are officially out for Summer Break! And no, we are not doing a little dance of course, or smiling from ear to ear!! Just kind of a small grin that goes from ear to ear!!

 It is a bittersweet end to our year!! We are losing our most awesome Principal of the Universe! She is retiring and we wish her lots of luck and fun times to come!!

While we are really sad to see her go, we are super, super excited about our new adventures to come at Arbor Springs!!

It was a super year in our rooms because we have great assistants, great kids and several very, very helpful and generous volunteers!! For our special, room mom who did everything for us we wanted the perfect gift for her that was thoughtful, not too expensive, but showed her how much her time and help meant to us. Well, we found this idea on Pinterest. 


This is the sample we found on Pinterest. Click the picture to go to original idea! Thanks for sharing Fairy Dust Teaching!!

It was super easy! Mrs. Archer cut out a red heart large enough for all our kiddos to put their hands around. Then we put the heart on our blue picnic table outside and the kiddos all placed their hands around the edges of the heart. After we got the picture printed, we had it matted and framed. The kiddos all signed around the edges of the mat with different color pens. It was so beautiful and she loved it!!



These are my cuties' hands!!

 So we have to brag a little!! Our own, personal kiddos (you know the ones that go home with us in the afternoon), received lots of great awards at all of their awards ceremonies!!! We are some proud Mamas! Awesome Job BOYS!!! We love u guys!!

Speaking of BOYS! Here are my two right after the last day of school! What better way to end a fabulous school year, but with a yummy ice-cream from Brusters! Listen to this friends! It was my lucky day! I don't know if your like me but I am very reliant on my debit/credit cards! I am not one to carry around cash!! It goes way too fast. Anyway, I went to pay from our ice cream and guess what??

What you ask? Well, the credit card machine went down and the nice Ice-Cream Boy told me it was on the house since the machine went down. I told him I would come back and bring cash and he told me, NO WAY!! Enjoy and have a great day!! Wow, that was super nice :). 


I know what you are thinking! Yikes those boys need haircuts!! Don't laugh but they just had haircuts last week!!
Hair only a mother could love, right? :) Well I have to love that hair because it is just like my hair!! CRAZY!!
Thank goodness for the invention of products like mousse and flattening irons!!

So,  We hope all of our blogging friends have a great end of the year!! Let us know what you are doing this summer!!

Well Cristy and I started our summer off right!! Pedicures right after we left our last planning day! Check out my Skittle toes!! Cristy thinks they are crazy, but they are my favorite!! What do you think? Too much??

Any way, this is Page!! I am Off to Valdosta for the weekend, Daytona for 2 weeks, back to Valdosta for a week, St. George for a week, back to Daytona for a week. Then, I guess finally home for a week before I go back to Daytona for a long Girls/Cousins' Weekend!! And yes friends, that is my summer and by the time I get it all planned it will be over.

Not to mention I am very scared about what will go on this summer! I am not sure when or what will happen, but it will happen. The birthday fairy has been sending cards since I turned 39 last July! The cards are all warning and foreshadowing about the many things that are to come when one turns 40! Yes!! I will turn 40 very soon!!

FREE Popcorn and Movie Day Pack for Everyone!

Just a quickie post to remind you about our FREE Popcorn and Movie Day Pack!  Next week is our last week...wahoo!!!  Whether your year is wrapping up too, or even if you have a few weeks to go, this pack will hopefully bring you some much needed peace and quiet to your classroom!

We joke that using theme days the last week ensures there are no tears...not even from the teachers!  We created and used this pack last year and ---oh---my---gosh, the last few days were actually FUN again because we weren't going crazy with chaos and disorder, just focused fun!

It's an easy pack to use too.  You just need to gather 4 bags of popcorn-butter, cheese, kettle, and caramel.

Then the kiddos have a tasting party, poll classmates on their favorite kind and graph the results, and then do some fun and creative POPCORN and MOVIE writing like narratives, acrostic poems, and more.

(Click on ANY of the images to snag it for FREE over at our TPT store!)

There's also a GREAT game to play with your whole class that involves "popping" some words and kiddos use phonics skills taught throughout the year to decode each "theme" word.  They LOVED this!

If you need more THEME DAYS to keep your kiddos focused, then be sure and check out our other theme day packs...Beach Day, Bubble Day, Ice Cream Sundae Day, and Game Day!

Hope you have a FUN, FOCUSED, and PAIN-FREE end of school! :)

Awards Ideas for your Kiddos!

Wow!! Yahoo!! What a relief!! Our kindergarten play, EIEI OOPs was a huge success. The kiddos looked adorable, did a fabulous job and we are relieved to leave all the stress behind us.

Play

Class DVD (What a nightmare! Crashed about 4 times! New computers are overrated!!)

Awards

Volunteer Gifts

What next??? We will just finish out the year strong continuing Café, Daily 5, Measurement, and our unit on Animals. We are even having a learning celebration the last day of school to share our animal projects and our PowerPoints from our Community Unit. I am a little behind Cristy! She is the WOMAN!! Her class shared their PowerPoints of course at the logical point in time, which was at the end of the Community Unit :).

So how can we help you with the little time you have??? 

Well, the most challenging part of award night was coming up with an individual award for everyone that was special! Some of the individual awards we gave were related to academics but some we gave showed how well we know and love each baby :).

Below is a list that we came up with by GOOGLING awards or just thinking about our own kiddos. Sometimes with just some award ideas, we were able to think of kids that fit that award.

Hope this list helps!!! Let us know what you think or if you have any other special awards that you give in your classroom. We are trying to compile a list to save for next year, so we are not thinking for days about the most special awards :).

Enjoy the rest of your school year!! It's downhill from here! Sad the year goes so quickly. Wish we could slow down time just a little bit :).

Game Day Give Away!

Hi Pals!! Hope all is well and your year is winding down with a little LOT less stress and craziness than our year!

Yikes, we are having nightmares about all the things we have to do: get ready for the play, finish assessing and enter GKIDS by Friday, make photo stories for kiddos, awards, volunteer gifts, animal projects, PowerPoints, end of the year theme day fun, and the list goes on and on and on!!!!

Could we just add an additional week to the year, then maybe we could fit it all in! Just kidding! We are ready to hit the beach :).

Did I mention end of the year theme days??  We just updated our game day pack. We added a few more ideas and activities! We love the end of the year theme day packs because they help give our fun days some structure. We still have fun, but also keep the kiddos engaged and reviewing the curriculum as we race to build words, collect data about our favorite games, write steps to play a game, and tons more (including enjoying our favorite Game Day Munchies! :). Check it out below.

Leave us a comment and include your email address.
Then, we'll pull a lucky winner from the HAT :).

We can't wait to see what you think about the new Game Day pack! Well--- off to shop in the last few hours of the TPT teacher appreciation sale!! So much good stuff!! Can't wait to get lots of bargains!!

TPT Sale (up to 40%) and Buy 3, Get 1 FREE!

I am a coupon-a-holic!  I LOVE to make our money s-t-r-e-t-c-h as FAR as it can go.  Can I get an "AMEN!"

If you are a kindred soul...then THIS will be music to your wallet ears!

TPT is throwing a HUGE Teacher Appreciation Sale this Tuesday and Wednesday - May 7th and 8th!

We are offering 20% off ALL of our products in our store...and we mean ALL of them...even bundles that are already marked at a 20% savings off the individual packs!

Enter code TAD13 at checkout and you'll save another 10% off the sale prices courtesy of TPT!

That's a TOTAL of 28% off ALL products and you end up saving about 40% on our bundles!  

We hope this saves you some extra cash for an awesome beach trip with your toes in the water and boo-tay in the sand! :)

AND...for EVERY 3 products you purchase from our store on May 7th and 8th, you can choose ANY product priced $5 or less for FREE!  Oh yeah!!!

Simply email us at foglem@bellsouth.net after making your purchases.  Be sure to include the name you purchased under (your TPT username), your email address, and the item/s you would like as your FREE choice ($5 or less).  That's it!  Easy, right!

Here are the latest products we have listed, updated, or just think you might enjoy this time of year!

This is our "End of School Theme Days" bundle.  The popcorn pack is a freebie and the other 4 packs sell for $3.50 each for a total of $14.00.  The bundle normally costs $10, but is on sale for only $8!  Wahoo!

Or you can snag them on sale individually for just $2.80 each!

      

This one is a FREEBIE!  Just click on the image below to grab it on TPT for FREE!

 Here's a fun Father's Day Craftivity on sale for only $2.00.

And finally, if you are already thinking about next school year, here's out BEST SELLING Back To School Lessons and Activities MEGA Pack on sale for $8.00!

We truly do appreciate all of you!  You are our brothers and sisters, the ones who get in the trenches EVERY SINGLE DAY to touch children's lives one kiddo at a time!  We know it's not easy!  Thank you!

Thanks to Beth over at Zip-A-Dee-Do-Dah Designs for the cute TPT Sale button!