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!

Mother's Day!

 I have no problem telling you that I have stolen this idea from a teacher on my grade level. Ok, she gave me the "go ahead" to steal it. Literally, can be done in minutes!

She has really great ideas!

Water colors and haiku poems for Mother's Day!

Trinity Award, HEB and Soledad O'Brien!

I'm not going to lie...since Wednesday I... 

have wanted to vomit, 

was sweating like I didn't put deodorant on and let me tell you, I reapplied many times...(not gonna tell ya what kind b/c wouldn't be a good advertisement),

thought I would pass out, 

had shaking hands, 

had cotton mouth, and

wanted to cry!

Last Wednesday, I attended the Trinity Prize for Excellence award ceremony.  I was a finalist and I won! All of those things listed above are just a few of the things my body was going through until Rebecca Mieliwoski spoke. She is amazing! She is funny! She is real! She started speaking and a calm came over me! I really can't explain it...except that she spoke my language...kids. 

I am extremely grateful to Trinity University. They have an exceptional education program.

(Pictured below: My principal, me, and my superintendent)

Rinse, Repeat and do all over again on Thursday and Friday!

Yes, all over again for the... 

The H-E-B Excellence in Education Awards. Right after the Trinity awards, we left San Antonio to travel to Austin. I was nominated by colleagues for the Leadership category. I was 1 of 5 finalists in the state of Texas. Thursday, I had a 40 minute interview with a superintendent, a woman from Pearson and a college professor. They put me at ease as I talked about kids and what I do in the leadership capacity for my campus and our district.

The announcement didn't come until Friday night! Talk about nerves...Hence my 5 am post the other day.

Sooo, Thursday evening, in a regular Texas fashion...there was a BBQ for the finalists...even with armadillo races! Let's just say...mine won! (Ignore my creepy eyes...I couldn't "red-eye correct them!)

Friday night!
Think, Golden Globes for teachers!
I won in my category! $10,000 for my school! Not only that, I had to make a thank-you speech in front of 800+ people.

Family, friends, superintendent, admin from district office and my wonderful principal were in attendance.
Soledad O'Brien was the guest speaker! Amazing!!!!! She has a heart breaking yet inspiration story.

The money will go toward an outdoor learning environment for our school.
I am so appreciative for all that Mr. Butt had done for education. He has given away $6.5 million dollars to teachers and school districts!

May ~~ Currently!

Another fun Currently with Farley!

It's 6:24 am Friday. I have been up since 3:20 rehashing all the questions I was asked yesterday...

Did I answer that completely?

Did I really say that...?

Why didn't I say....?

Should I have included...?

Awww, man I forgot to tell them about...! 

One of the judges (there were 3- the superintendent from Victoria, a nice lady from Pearson, and a Professor from Brownsville) said we would do this, but to be confident in what we shared. Who knew it would start at 3:20 am?!!! Uggg!

I finally had to come down to the hotel lobby at 5:40, so as to not disturb my husband as I flopped to one side then another, outwardly groaned as I thought about an answer  I had shared, and finally thought...the May Currently is up and I will probably be #one billion, but much more fun than agonizing over what is now out of my control! :-)

So...I will wait patiently all day today for the evening award ceremony announcing the HEB Excellence in Education Award in the Leadership category and the Lifetime Achievement category which my dearest friend is a nominee for! 

Party on with Farley! 

P.S. (Just giving you a head's up...I'm gonna do the no-no and post twice today! Can't pass up the Five for Friday!)