Relaxation and Revision

I love summer! I feel so relaxed and still have time to get things done. 

I worked on revising my Daily Editing Word Problems for a few hours today. I have posted about my oral language/word problem combo before and how much I think this daily practice has helped my students. {Use the topics list on the side bar to go read those old posts if you like.}

 Anyway, I am working on aligning this packet to the Common Core. This means no more coins which makes me a little sad.  If you are not moving to the Common Core yet and have thought about purchasing this you might want to go buy this original version now before I update it. That way you can have the original AND the Common Core version once it is revised.

 I am also working on some formatting changes suggested by current users:
1. All the questions for the week will be on the same page.
2. Each question strip is shorter to better fit in smaller notebooks.

If you have used my Daily Editing and have any other suggestions I am open to hearing them. You can comment below or email me at jenn@finallyinfirst.com.

End of the Year Student Gift

I made it!!!! This school year was a tough one so I am determined to RELAX this summer! Do you have any good book suggestions for me? I already read 2 books in the last 48 hours!!

I made these little gifts for my students this year. I thought of this myself while walking around the Dollar Store so if this idea is already on Pinterest don't tell me! Let me feel clever for awhile. ;-)

 

Most of the kids have never had Pop Rocks before and they thought it was SO COOL how it exploded in your mouth. 

My boys' baseball season is still going since one team made it to the Tournament of Champions and the other started practice on the All-Star Team!  I splurged and bought myself a new purple stadium chair since my baseball days will continue into July. Now I can cheer in comfort.

Volunteer Gifts

I have 12 terrific moms who volunteer regularly so I wanted to do something a little more personalized this year for a thank you gift. I am pretty happy about how these turned out...

The letter is the initial of their first name.

 How did I make them? The nice people from Silhouette America sent me a Cameo. Oh my word, I love this machine! I found it very easy to set up and use. It looks like a printer but it actually is your own personal fancy cutting tool! For this project I used vinyl but this machine can also cut paper, cardstock, and fabric! I have a future post planned to show you how it can cut printed materials.

For my first project I bought the Silhouette Vinyl Starter Kit. It had a sampling of vinyl colors I liked and some tools that were helpful. I especially like the short instructional DVD since I am a visual learner!

Also on Amazon, I found a 12-pack of acrylic tumblers. I recently saw some at the Dollar Tree which would be more economical but these are better quality.

I then used the included Silhouette software to make my design.

You can use any fonts you have installed on your computer and the circle is a basic shape available on the left side under ellipse. A $10 gift card to the online shop comes with your Cameo so you can go shop for additional images. The site also gives away a FREE shape of the week! Need a new blog to follow? There is also a Silhouette blog featuring project ideas.

Next, I loaded the vinyl into the Cameo. You do not need the cutting mat for vinyl. Different media might require the mat or a change of blade size but both are easy to do.

The vinyl is already adhesive so after it is cut you smooth transfer paper (think clear contact paper) over it so you are able to lift and position your design without touching the sticky back. I found it helpful to cut the circles apart while on the transfer paper so I didn't accidentally rub and get an extra neighboring circle attached.

I found cute ribbon and bags at Micheals to complete the look. I added a half sheet of tissue paper to each cup which looks cute in person but the letters disappear in this picture. I first tried green tissue but it was the wrong green and I didn't have black. If I had known I was going to end up using pink tissue I probably would have made the letters black instead of pink. Of course this imperfection is driving me a little crazy but I am going to let it go. Any minute now...really.

I am off to go complete report cards which go home with the kids on our last day, Thursday!!!!!

I have been so crazy busy I have not been in blogland but I heard Erica Bohrer gave my Me on the Map project a shout out so thanks girl! That means a lot coming from someone as talented as yourself!

Would you like to share what you do to say thank you to your volunteers? Link up below if you'd like.

Sparkle

Happy Mother's Day!!! My boys made me my favorite fresh fruit crepes and hash browns. Yummmm!!!! They bought me jewelry and Yankee Candles that I love. But best of all they wouldn't let me do any chores! I snuck out to start the laundry and they insisted on folding and putting it away. My hubbie is making a yummy dinner too so I have been spoiled all day.

Today I thought I would blog about the game SPARKLE. Have you played it? My students beg to play and it takes no prep!
1. Students sit in a circle.
2. I say a spelling word, let's use AWAY as an example.
3. I point to the first student and they say the first letter, A. I then point to the next student and they say W. Third student says A and fourth student says Y. The fifth student is out and we all yell SPARKLE!  (I have my students go back to their desk so it is clear who is out.)
4. If a student says the wrong letter, they are out and play continues on to the next player.
5. Play continues with the next spelling words around the circle until everyone is eliminated leaving the winner!
6. Not only a great review before the spelling test but practices listening skills as well.

Off to go enjoy the last of my leisure time!

Teacher Appreciation SALE

I love Teacher Appreciation Week! Our school PTA is awesome and we get breakfast tomorrow, homemade cards from the kids on Tuesday, each student brings a flower on Wednesday and Friday they provide lunch! With 2 field trips and a big outdoor assembly this is going to be a CRAZY week!

 

Even with all of that though, I am going to find time to head over to Teachers Pay Teachers to shop! My shop will be 20% off on Tuesday and Wednesday if you want to visit. Here are some of my best sellers:

 I also have a ton of math games and book club packets! Hope you find something you like at a great price during the sale! Don't forget to enter the Promo code TAD13 to get the extra 10% off in addition to the 20% I'm offering.  I appreciate all of you!