Show and Tell Tuesday: A Free Valentine’s Font

I was reading blogs this afternoon and I was disappointed because I didn’t think I had anything to share for Valentine’s Day.

 

Then I remembered this font I’d started a few weeks ago.

 

That was the push I needed to finish it up!

I plan to use the font for my the class list I send home before Valentine’s Day. It is just a little something fun. Enjoy!

Join in the fun at Sunny Days in Second Grade!

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It is a little late, but here are the results to my mini-giveaway.

The Irishman is soundly snoring next to me, so Random.org had to do instead! Congratulations to Amanda and Stacia at Collaboration Cuties & Catherine at The Brown-Bag Teacher! I’ll e-mail you (Math) Operation Snowball Fight tomorrow.

Five for Friday

 

I'm linking up with five random things from my week:

1. Date Day with the Irishman
My husband and I were both off on Monday. We don’t have family or babysitters around, so we try to go on a daytime date on the two or three days a year that we are both off and the day care is open. We splurged on the new movie theater with the recliners. Such a treat! We saw Les Miserables – I loved it! My sister-in-law is coming to visit from Ireland next month, and my husband has already decided it should be his pick for the movies. Nothing says,”Happy Valentine’s Day” like the latest Die Hard movie!

2. Division Strategies
I had this popcorn clip art and wanted to find something to do with it. I came up with “Poppin’ into Division.” We used popcorn as manipulatives and recorded multiple division strategies. We are fortunate to have a color printer at school.



We also have a giant printer. I sent it off to the right person and had posters printed for my bulletin board.  I love the way it came out. I hope to have the activity pack posted to my TpT store next week.

3. Balance
I was talking to a second grade teacher this week who said, “I don’t know how you find the time." I’d been sharing something I created for our “Revising Knowledge” deliberate practice group, so I thought she was referring to time in the classroom, but she meant home/work/etc. Most days I feel like I am just getting by. If I’d been quicker on my feet I’d have given a more honest answer. My house is a mess and I have been known to skip a shower on cool days in exchange for time to sleep. Funny how that would have seemed a crazy idea before I had kids! The things you do as a mom...

4. (Math) Operation Snowball Fight
I have had this planned for a few weeks now. I put in in my plans this week so that I would have to get it finished.



After spending the last few months on multiplication and division, my students are trying to multiply or divide every word problem that they come across. I wanted to create some mixed operation word problems to get them thinking.



There are two versions included – one with QR codes and an recording sheet for the cards without QR codes. These Florida kids were happy to have a snowball fight, even if it was just math word problems!

For my first little mini-giveaway I'll give away two copies of (Math) Operation: Snowball Fight to lucky readers who follow my blog and leave a comment on this post with an e-mail address. The Irishman (my husband) will pick a pair of random numbers on Sunday night.

5.  Giving it up
My student teacher is at 50% next week. It is always at this point that I struggle to hand over a subject. I’ve had some amazing student teachers over the years, but each time I reach that point. Do I give up my reading block? Do I want to have her introduce fractions to the class? Decisions, decisions!

Have a great weekend!

Currently

Santa brought me a new phone for Christmas. My last phone was the Irishman’s hand-me-down. I am loving my iPhone and found an app I like to allow me to read my Google Reader on the phone. One of my favorites to read are all the Currently Link Ups. I’ve decided to join the fun this month:



Listening: Okay, so I paused it to work on this, but this is what I have been listening to all day. I recently discovered that I can play audiobooks from the public library on my phone. I discovered audiobooks after my first was born. I was too busy to read once I went back to work, but I still had to drive to and from work so audiobooks became my go to. Now that I can listen to the books from my phone, I am no longer limited to my car. Better yet I can download the books from home without going to the library and they automatically return so there is no late fees. Love it!

Loving: Each afternoon this week I have taken the kids to do something special. Wednesday my daughter and I went bowling. Thursday I took the two of them to the pet shop. All we did was walk around PetSmart for 40 minutes. They shrieked with delight! Today is my son’s turn for a solo date. I’m thinking we’ll try the indoor playground. Special times!

Thinking: I should be working on something else. Due to two personal days, the ASCD Common Core Institute in Orlando, and then getting sick I was only at school for 7 days in the month of December. Considering we went through the 21st, that was a lot of days out! It wasn't suposed to be that way! I designated three days this week for catching up. I spent hours just cleaning! I *should* be working on an award application. Blogging is more fun!

Wanting: The Irishman and I both had two weeks off for Christmas. Unfortunately they were not the same two weeks! I much prefer the week before Christmas off. This week after because all about catching up. Haircuts, doctor appointments, cleaning, and more. It is all needed, but not fun. I’m ready for another break already!

Needing: I know what I want to do. I know what I need to do to get it done. I just can’t find the time to do it all. I need to stop being so hard on myself. That is easier said than done!

OLW: Balance. I feel like working full time with two small children is like juggling. Most days I am just trying to keep all the balls in the air before they fall and hit me in the head. My goal this year is to work on balance. It might be letting go of some of the balls, or asking for help. I don’t know yet, but I’m hoping to figure it out!

That’s it for me! Head over to Farley’s blog to join the fun!

New Year, New Fonts

Happy new year! I am still on break and trying to fit in as much family time as possible. I can see the end of the break looming ahead.

New Years Eve we went out to eat as a family and treated the kids to ice cream. The Irishman and I debated whether or not to stay up for midnight. By 11 he was dozing on the couch next to me so I decided to try the app I’d been eyeing for a while now.

I brought in the new year by creating my own fonts. To be fair I did shake my husband awake before the ball dropped. I *might* have then stayed up another hour getting things just right.

The next night I was again up past midnight figuring out how to download the font and post it to my TpT store. They are freebies – be sure to check them out! I have a heart themed font in the works I hope to post in the next week. I think I found a new hobby!

Here is the first one I did:

 

My second attempt:

You can click the pictures for the link to my TpT store. Check them out!

Unpacking

About three weeks ago I was asked to go to Orlando for a Common Core institute. After getting my husband to agree to play Mr. Mom while I am away, reservations were made. It wasn’t until I went to submit my sub request that I realized that the Orlando trip was directly after the only two personal days I plan to take this year.

Meaning I would be away for SIX days straight.

Meaning I had to write SIX DAYS worth of sub plans.

Then on the day before we left for our fun little family cruise the school was on lockdown for SIX hours due to an armed robbery on the university campus. My class was on our way back from a field trip at the time so we had turn around and spend the afternoon at the park.

I have the BEST parents in my class this year. I made one phone call and had 5 parents there. They brought the kids pizza and drinks. My darlings declared it was the best day ever and didn’t even seem bothered about that fact that we were at the park until 4pm.

While all ended without incident and we had a great time at the park, it meant I had no time to a) write my sub plans and b) get my hair cut. It pained me to cancel that appointment!

Anyway….

I had a great time on the cruise. I was nervous about cruising with the kids, but it was fantastic! We did my two favorite things: sleep and eat!

As soon as I got back I repacked a bag and headed off to Orlando. Tomorrow is day three of the 4 day institute. So far we’ve had a very disappointing ELA presenter and a pretty good math presenter. We’ll see how the rest of the week goes! We hope to be unpacking some standards – hence the title of the blog.

I miss my family terribly, but I have gotten SO much work done! I posted two more items to my TpT store (Student Self Reflection Cards and a Pirate Map Activity) and have one more in the works.  I have wanted to get that done for weeks!

I am honored to be nominated for a Liebster award by the lovely Jessica at Wild About Firsties, but that will have to be another post. I have to go convince myself to grade papers tonight before I go to bed!

Florida Fall Leaves

One of my schools traditions is the annual Thanksgiving Feast. The entire school sits down at once to eat a turkey dinner. As in everyone. They close the office and all.

The idea is wonderful. In practice, it sometimes leaves a bit to be desired. Thankfully due to some…errr…issues with our cafeteria staff this year’s feast was catered by Boston Market. Yum!

I had my Synonym Turkeys hanging in the hallway, but I wanted to make name cards with my class. We have just finished states of matter, so I channeled my inner Girl Scout and came up with these:



We started with a solid (crayon shavings), sandwiched it between layers of wax paper, and added heat until it melted and became a liquid.



There *might* have been a bit of a boogie involved as we acted out how the particles were moving once heat was added.

I’d planned to make one big one and then cut out smaller ones. It didn’t work that way. I also played with the thickness of the cloth on top and the setting of the iron. I ended up using an old men’s shirt and a medium heat to get the desired effect.

In the end I gave each student a piece of wax paper. They sprinkled a little crayon shavings onto their paper and put a matching square of wax paper on top. They watched as I ironed each side quickly. Once they were done “ooh-ing” and “ahh-ing” I let them use a Sharpie to draw the outline of the leaf and write their name.



I am thrilled with how they came out. This is as close as we come to fall leaves here in our part of Florida!  Better yet I have enough left overs to take it home to repeat the project with my favorite three-year-old.

Multiplication Array Chart

I have more things I *should* be doing than I care to admit. I taped a lesson as part of a case study last week and tomorrow I have to watch it with a coach. I created a Nearpod presentation for the lesson and took a bit of a risk. My students’ behavior left a bit to be desired. I am not looking forward to watching the video tomorrow.

I also need to write sub plans and figure out what to wear on camera.

Oh, well!

We are in the midst of our multiplication study now.  I saw this idea on Pinterest and knew I had to try it. I have the best parent volunteers ever, so I recruited help to tape together the squares of construction paper.



I wanted to color code the boxes for demonstration purposes. To fill it in I gave each student flashcards and centimeter grid paper.



The students drew the array that matched the the card and then came over to show me where on the chart it belongs.



The completed chart is posted in the hallway for all to see. I’ve heard more than one 4th/5th grade student comment about our arrays. Mostly things like, “Why didn’t WE do that last year?” and “Oh! I remember arrays!” 

I’ll take that as a good sign!