You Oughta Know About…

Welcome to the You Oughta Know! This is a blog hop featuring several of my good blogging buddies who will share things that you “oughta know” for your classroom. Make sure to hop over to each person’s blog to learn a few new things.

Linking Up: Ten Things I Want To Do This Summer

Happy Saturday to you! I am linking up with the fabulous Mrs. Jump for her Ten Things I Want to Do This Summer linky party. School is “unofficially” over for me as my students’ last day was last Thursday. Our district tacked on two PD days tomorrow and Tuesday, so I’ll be home free after that. Although I miss my students, I am excited to get a break and do a few things like…

1. Go to a nice beach: I live near the coast but the beaches here are not as pretty as the picture above of a beach in Florida. I went to Panama City Beach years ago and I loved being near the beach. I need my husband to take me…like, right now!

2. Try out my Pinterest recipes: I have pinned so many delicious recipes on Pinterest but I can never find the time (except maybe on weekends) to try them. My goal is to try a new recipe every other week. My mom loves to try new recipes too so she’ll be my advisor and guinea pig.

3. Go to the movies: Life with a baby, work, and a husband with a busy work schedule leaves little room for going out on dates…(aww, insert sad face here). I just told my husband that he needs to take me on a few dates. We love going to the movies, so I’m hoping that since one of us has slowed down a bit we can visit this place a little more often.

4. Work on TpT products: This is a big one for me because I have so many ideas that I started, but haven’t been able to finish. I want to crank out these products to get teachers ready for the new school year.

5. Have a successful kids camp: This year, I will be trying (again) to teach a few classes at our local college.Every year, they hold a kids college where kids can take classes on a variety of leisure subjects (cooking, dance) and also school subjects. I tried at another college last year, but it didn’t quite work out. I’m teaching a kindergarten readiness class, an iPad class, and a reader’s theatre class. I’m excited, but nervous.

6. Sleep in: I mean, this is pretty self-explanatory. And yes, I do plan on sleeping just like a baby!

7. Spend more time with my baby: He’s growing up so fast! He’ll be two in a few months. He loves being out and about, so we’ll spend some mommy-son time together throughout the summer. Aww, that’s him as a newborn. Look at his little toes!

8. Work out more: I have been on-again and off-again with working out. This summer I will have more time to devote to working out on my elliptical in my home. I have also used My Fitness Pal with much success, but if I’m going to be cooking my Pinterest recipes I’ll have to throw that out of the window. I think the main thing is that I need daily exercise of some sort to keep the weight off. Also, I can have the occasionally unhealthy meal, as long as it’s not every day.

9. Visit with my peeps: This is a picture of my mom and my best friend during my bridal photo shoot a few years ago. My mom and I stay in the same area, and she and I like to do lunch dates anytime that I have inservice days or days of while school is going on. Now that summer is here, we can have more lunch dates together. The other person in this picture is my best friend. She moved two hours away last year, and I miss her. I hope that we can have a girls weekend this summer.

10. Spend more time with my husband: I saved the best for last. As I mentioned before, we are both super busy all the time, and I just want us to have more “us” time while I’m off this summer.

Those are my top ten things I want to do this summer. Make sure you check out my TpT store tomorrow. My entire store will be on sale to celebrate Memorial Day!

Pin Up Thursdays Linky Party (May 22)

Pin Up Thursdays is a weekly linky party where you share four interesting educational finds from Pinterest. If you need help getting your party on, click HERE! Now, party animals…find your pins, blog about it, grab my buttons, and link back up here on my blog. What is so interesting about Kool-Aid, popsicle sticks, guided reading, and writing folders? View my pins from the week to see…

The school year ended for me today, but I still love this end of the year idea. I like ideas tied to food items. There’s always clever wording that you can add to your message, and kids always love something to eat or drink!

This would be a great beginning of the year activity for lower elementary grades. It is simple yet engaging.

This pin was described as an idea for a guided reading/small group table. After exploring Mel’s post about this picture, I found out how she uses it. Check out her post here.

I use a larger version of this in my writing center, but I like the idea of having several individual writing folders. What pins have you found this week? Share your thoughts about my Pin Up Thursdays pins in the comments and make sure to link up with your blog post below!

An InLinkz Link-up

Today, In My Classroom: The Quietest Pencil Sharpener Tested

I finally got the chance to test out the Quietest Classroom Pencil Sharpener and I must say that it did not disappoint!

I received this nice little box in the mail with my contents securely placed inside.

Hello, there pencil sharpener! A clamp to secure the sharpener was also included in the box.

Here’s the back view.

I brought it to my classroom to test it out.

Here is the official “testing” of the pencil sharpener. After viewing pictures online, I realized I totally did this part wrong. You are supposed to pull the metal section out from the entire pencil sharpener, and not keep it in like I did. It still worked perfectly, but it probably took me longer to sharpen this pencil.

And voila!

I can not refute the claims that this is the quietest classroom pencil. It sharpened very smoothly and with no noise. I have an extremely loud electric sharpener that I use to sharpen pencils each day, but I will leave this one out for my kids to use during the day if they need it. If you’d like your own pencil sharpener, visit Classroom Friendly Supplies!

Pin Up Thursdays Linky Party (May 15)

Pin Up Thursdays is a weekly linky party where you share four interesting educational finds from Pinterest. If you need help getting your party on, click HERE! Now, party animals…find your pins, blog about it, grab my buttons, and link back up here on my blog. What is so interesting about organization ideas, storage solutions, and summer? View my pins from the week to see…

My goal next year is to utilize anchor charts more. I made a few this year, but not as many as I’d like. For one, there wasn’t much extra space to hang them. Secondly, I didn’t have any extra storage. This idea of storing anchor charts in a trash bin is definitely a good solution.

I am four and a half days away from my students’ last day of school. They would love walking in and out of the door way on the last day of school with these decorations! All you need are streamers, balloons, and a sign!

I recently made a note in my phone that reads “have organization bins and places for EVERYTHING next year.” I love how organized this teacher’s room is. I’ve gotta do this or something similar for sure.

This is another cute but simple end of the year activity. Students draw what they see themselves doing this summer. Very cute!

What pins have you found this week? Share your thoughts about my Pin Up Thursdays pins in the comments and make sure to link up with your blog post below!

An InLinkz Link-up

Pin Up Thursdays Linky Party (May 8)

Pin Up Thursdays is a weekly linky party where you share four interesting educational finds from Pinterest. If you need help getting your party on, click HERE! Now, party animals…find your pins, blog about it, grab my buttons, and link back up here on my blog. What is so interesting about Mother’s Day, candy bars, Skin Shield, and dice? View my pins from the week…

If you’re still looking for a Mother’s Day activity to do with your students, here’s a pretty easy (teacher prep-wise) craft to do. It’s a flipbook that students can complete to tell why they love their moms…aww…What craft did your students do or what activity will they do for Mother’s Day?

I can never pass up creative ways to help my students with their comprehension and retell. This can be done independently, with a partner, or with a small group. I would love to even have this as a bookmark! What do your students use to aid them in retell?

Isn’t this the cutest thing ever! Our school has an awards day, but we only announce certain things like honor/banner roll, most improved, etc. I always do class awards after awards day because I have special awards for each student. I love this idea of setting up a “red carpet” and letting the students walk the carpet as they receive their awards. I also love the candy bar awards.

When I first saw on Pinterest, I was very amazed. It is a temporary tattoo that you draw on a child’s arm. I assume that applying the Skin Shield (I have never heard of this!!) prevents the writing from coming off in water. This would be useful for field trips, but I’m not so sure about writing on my students’ arms. It is clever nonetheless. What do you think?

What pins have you found this week? Share your thoughts about my Pin Up Thursdays pins in the comments and make sure to link up with your blog post below!

I also want to say congrats to Tiffany and Sarah for winning the giveaway from earlier this week!

An InLinkz Link-up