Dogzilla and Kat Kong - Mentor Text Linky

The Collaboration Cuties have a great linky about mentor text ideas and lessons! What a great linky! I have gotten so many wonderful ideas.

Today, I'm sharing....Dogzilla and Kat Kong by Dav Pilkey. 

The Scientific Mishap!

I love starting the year with this writing activity. It goes right along with reviewing the scientific process/method. We review the vocabulary using a scientific method flip book I created. Students must incorporate the vocabulary in the writing.

Hysterical!

Mousopolis is having the very First Annual Barbecue Cook-Off. Dogzilla is awakened by the yummy aroma of barbecue sauce!  As Dogzilla's horrible doggy breath fills the streets, 

the residents of Mousopolis must run for their lives. 

Can they get rid of that big stinky dog before it's too late?

The website, The Writing Fix, has the entire lesson.

• Lesson  and 6 Traits Overview
• Student Instructions
• Teacher Instructions and Lesson Resources
• Student writing samples

There is even an interactive part for students that might need some ideas!

Over at TpT store is the scientific method flip book I created. I have my students work in pairs to complete the flip book.  Then, they paste it in their science notebook.

Head over to discover many other "Must Read" mentor texts and 

how teachers are using them in their classroom!

Five for Friday!

Linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching! 

1) Changed out my plate. Super cute flip flop ribbon!

2)Phil and Rebecca

There are 2 squirrels, one in our tree, one in our neighbor's tree! My daughter has named them...Phil and Rebecca! They are always there! We leave for school...there they are! We come home from school...there they are! Grocery store, Walmart, out to dinner...there they are!

I opened up the door to take their picture and sure enough, there they were, each in their own tree! 

I decided my daughter needs to write a book about Phil and Rebecca. 

Off to Target we went to find the perfect journal for writing her story! 

3) My daughter got her journal and I got...

24 fabulous ~ super cute ~ fun-colored ~ some sparkly ~ some not ~ gel pens!

4) I'm so excited! I don't even know where to start! Sensory overload...and I haven't even attend a session yet...just trying to plan!

5) Seriously?!!! How cute are these! 

I don't know if you have a Sam Moon around you...but...we just got one! These super cute trendy pieces of jewelry cost less than $25! (My daughter did a bit of merchandising with the zebra print! On white poster board didn't work for her!)

Happy Friday!

I Don't Do Sad!

We have the most fabulous librarian ever!!!  I must also mention, she is sooo funny! 

The last week of school she sent that email out to the faculty...

My response to her...

(It was a quick email!)

Since, I had to take my projector remote to our librarian before I could check out, I checked in about the books.
I love her enthusiasm! As we walked around the shelf, she would pull a book and gush about it...

Librarian: You will love this book!
Me: Is it sad?
Librarian: Well...it has such a good message!
Me: I don't do sad!
In the pile it went.
Really?!!

Grabbing another book...
Librarian: This is such a good book!
Me: Is it sad?
Librarian: Just a few parts.
Me: I don't do sad!!!!
In the pile it went!

We found several other ones that apparently are not sad!
So the passive aggressive person in me came out.
Fine, I'll take your sad books but, it doesn't mean I have to read them!

Here is my collection, right by my pool where I plan to read them, all except the sad ones...maybe!

Ok, some of you might be asking...why not the sad ones?
I have friends ask me to go see a move with them. My first question...is it sad? Or, they might tell me I need to read a particular book. Is it sad? No, thanks!
I love mystery, romance, drama...just not the sad ones.

Reason #1: I think it's because I've had enough sadness in my life. I would much rather read the books that are happy! Yes, I might be missing out a really great book or movie with a great message, but guess what? There is always a book out there that is happy, humorous and has a really good message!

Reason #2: I'm not a pretty crier! Seriously! I get all red and blotchy! Not red and blotchy for a few minutes...red and blotchy for the longest time!!!

My summer reading begins with happy!

I'm Back!

Wow! Talk about feeling disconnected!

It started with powering down all electronics 2 1/2 weeks ago when we went on a cruise. I'll be honest, I wasn't sure I could do it! 7 days with no school email, no regular email, no keeping up with Facebook, no checking in on blog posts, no Five for Friday!!!!!

The cruise was fantastic! Royal Caribbean, sailing on the Allure, the largest ship in the world! It was my in-laws' 50th wedding anniversary celebration! My husband's whole entire side of the family on the boat! It was unbelievable. Rock walls, zip lines, surfing, putt-putt, carousel, casino, ice rink, shows every night, Central Park, yummy food and even....wait for it...Starbucks. A floating island

Nassau, St. Thomas and St. Maarten!

The cousins in matching bathing suits! (Just one missing!)

Our room was on the left side. We could watch the water shows every night or see the basketball games played on the big screen! Do you see the carousel?!!!

The only rugged thing...coming home! A bit long, due to a change in our original flight plan. It was really 12:15 am getting home. Needless to say, we got to know the flight crew pretty well!

I did wake up the next morning think...aww man, I have to make my own coffee!

Back to reality!

School the next day!

Last 4 days of school!

Monday, my students earned Fort Day while I was gone! I wish I had pics, but I was too consumed with getting CUM folders completed and report cards stuffed!

Tuesday, my daughter graduated from her 2 year dyslexia program, I had a final site based meeting and we rolled into my daughter's final game for softball...would they go on to city?

Yep! 

Thursday, fifth grade graduation and pool party! Some fabulous moms created this "Teacher Cabana" for us! Yummy snacks and a fabulous lunch! How cute is this?!!!

Not to mention the end of year faculty party at our house! Got home from cruise in time to dust and shove dirty clothes and luggage in the closets! We had the coolest thing! A hot dog cart! Then of course...many had to stay to watch the Spurs game! Late night!

Friday, final day of school! Meeting with the Associate Superintendent of Finances to go over the beginning of our outdoor learning environment, cleaning room, saying goodbye and a fabulous lunch from our PTO!

Whew! Talk about a whirlwind last 2 weeks!

So...what have I been doing this week? Some of you may remember that I was award, Teacher of the Year for my district, well apparently it goes on to state! I've been working on more essays. Turned them in today! (This has been an unbelievable reflection process!)

Wahoo! Summer, here I come!

Five for Friday!

I love Friday! 

One of my all time favorite activities! 

As we are learning about the Civil War, we have been reading Freedom Crossing. 

Perfect fit!

We started Hands on Equations! I love using these manipulatives! 

We build it, draw it, write it and check it!

Too much fun! Only one survived!

Last weekend my brother, sister-in-law and niece (they live in Connecticut) were in town ...well close...Austin. I made 2 trips to Austin last weekend to see them. My sister-in-law's sister was graduating from UT. They had a graduation party on a really cool double decker boat! 

It was soooo much fun! The boat up close was the party boat next to us. DJ on the boat. The boat behind it was like ours only we had an enclosed slide! Great weekend! 

Ready for another great weekend!

Join Doodle Bugs Teaching for her Five for Friday linky!

Five for Friday!

24, 31 and 7... no...not some of the lotto numbers I'm picking tonight! Or are they?!!! 

Those are dates for each Friday left! 

Wahoo! 

Review, review, review! It seems with the fleeting days of the year... comes fleeting writing skills. My students have reverted back to first grade sentences - no offense first grade! 

Time for Super Sentences!!!

During Teacher Appreciation Week...there were some really great give-aways! This was one of them!

Laura Candler's...

It's a Scholastic kinda week!

Scholastic Book Fair! Love it! 

I got new books! 

Scholastic-Underground Railroad.  What a great interactive website about the Underground Railroad! It has sheets to help guide students through the site by asking them questions. 

Nice surprise today...a student had t-shirts made for everyone in our class! 

The picture is our class photo! 

First game of the playoffs! We won!

Neon Trees Rock!

Have a great weekend!

Five for Friday!

Five for Friday! Wahoo! 

Not just 5 pictures this week, but ... 5 pounds after all the yummy stuff from students!

We have had fun reading a variety of fairy tales. Students completed a characteristics of fairy tales chart and then selected two projects from Differentiated Tales Choice Board from 

Teaching with a Mountain View. 

For RTI, we divide our students into small group intervention and large group enrichment. This time I had a large group. We continued with adaptations, plant adaptations, specifically...Carnivorous Plants!

We watched a Discovery Education video. Then, students completed the super cute creativity from Teach n' Texas! Students were botanists that discovered a new carnivorous plant...and 

designed a seed packet!

They loved this!

Target Dollar Section!!!!! Love it! I found these coupon holders. They are perfect for my task cards!

Also saw them at Walmart, but not these cute colors.

Having tons of fun with order of operations! My students are really catching on. I'm impressed that they are actually writing down every step. Usually, it's painful trying to get them to write down the steps. I used the Dad's Worksheets to get my problems. Then, it was bowling time. I put students into groups and they had to work the problem. If their team got the problem right, they sent a representative up to bowl! The number of pins knocked down = the number of points.

My fun goodies for the week!

(Ummm, yes, that is a chocolate dipped Twinkie!)

For teacher appreciation week, my daughter and I made wreaths for her teachers. This was my first attempt at the mesh wreaths. Pretty fun and easy. My daughter and I watched a You Tube video on how to create the wreath. We were cracking up! The lady told us to "floof it" and "don't be gentle, you tell it where you want it to go."

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week to all!