Blog – Page 14

Five for Friday (on Friday!!!)

July 18, 2014 by Sarah Plum(itallo) 5 Comments

… could it be? I’m actually posting the Five for Friday on Friday?! What is this sorcery?! It looks like I’m doing a wee bit better at this whole consistency bit.

So. Five. for Friday!

Ugh. Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhh. This was my afternoon. Teaching summer school usually has one great perk for me: leaving before rush-hour traffic! Well, not today. Today, when I left at my usual 1 o’clock, I was met with a twenty-five MILE back-up. So I took every backroad known to man. My 35-ish mile commute took me an hour and forty-five minutes even still. But, it’s Friday, and I’m home now! And only have one. more. week. to go!

I’ve been working on updating my yearly planner… and it has turned into a HUGE undertaking. We’re talking going from your average planner (calendar, blank weekly pages, yearly overview, variety of covers), to all of that, PLUS, gradebooks, rosters, alert pages, information pages, data, etc. and so forth. I am SO excited about this update because it is something I pieced together over the course of the year based on my own needs, and I just know it’ll really benefit all of you, too! Look for it this weekend on TpT.

I’ve started my back-to-school shopping… not in earnest, though. Just more leisurely. That is, until, I happened upon the newest limited edition Mr. Sketch markers in the B2S aisle. Okay, let me first disclose that I’m not a Mr. Sketch fan. I know, stop the world. I’m partial to Scentos if I *have* to have a scented marker, but I really just like plain-ole fine-line Crayola. Anywho, I thought let me try these out — I love the movies, and how bad could these be? Well. Let me just tell you. Nacho cheese is LITERALLY the worst smell I’ve ever smelled. Even after being a teacher and a Mom to two (sometimes) smelly boys. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT go smell it. Ever. I already did for you, and it’s awful.

No picture here, but there will be this time next week! One of my favorite people in the whole wide world is coming to visit me — my cousin and kindred spirit, Rudi. You see, Rudi and I are four years apart, have seen each other less than 10 times in our lives, live on opposite coasts, and yet she means the world to me. She is my firstborn’s godmother and the most incredible human being. I can’t explain how I feel so close to her despite the limited time we’ve spent together, but it just is — do you have a friend or family member like that? I hope you do, because it’s such a special bond. Expect LOTS of picture spam on Instagram of our visit!

This might be the most exciting news I’ve heard in a while. I’m anxious to see how many children’s books are available, because can you imagine what this could mean for us as teachers? We could have a virtually unlimited library of read-alouds at our disposal, without worrying about where to store them or whether we can afford yet another Llama Llama book (and the answer is always). Will you sign-up?

I’m allergic to dust.

July 15, 2014 by Sarah Plum(itallo) 3 Comments

It’s a good thing blogs can’t collect dust, because I’m allergic and this one would be covered. I think by now we’ve established that my time management skills outside of my classroom leave a little to be desired!

I was so busy this year fulfilling my many roles that every time I sat down to blog {or finish one of the nine million projects I have for TpT} I fell asleep. No joke — life with a newborn while commuting, teaching, being a team leader, and creating meant several times a week I’d fall asleep in my office!

Luckily it’s summer, and while I’m still teaching {first time doing summer school and I *puffy heart* love it!}, I’m getting back into the groove of being a better blogger!

If you follow me over on Instagram {if you don’t, you SHOULD! I do things like smell new scents of Mr. Sketch markers so you don’t have to!} you’ve probably seen a few of these, but if you haven’t, this was the 2013-2014 school year in a nutshell!

I started the year off with a new alphabet {soon to be in my store — see, yet another project I never posted!} and a still-color-filled room. I even managed to paint my focus wall Oz-green. I somehow did not take a picture. D’oh.

My little guys kept growing and I started missing them like crazy. TMI-alert: I also spent WAY too much time in my classroom bathroom pumping. I think I calculated I spent 90+ hours this school year doing that (not during my contract time).

I won the Red Ribbon Week door decorating contest and got my class a pizza party. And yes, I agree that drugs are despicable, unless they are in fact for a TERRIBLE kidney infection and kidney stones. Then they, and nearly a week off, are SO. TOTALLY. NECESSARY, y’all.

LOTS of math anchor charts were made, and my students came to learn the only way I can remember inequalities (pictured above, right). I don’t know why the alligator thing never worked for me, but it didn’t. Even as an adult if I don’t do the 2 point/1 point method I can’t figure out the inequality. #teacherfail? Maybe.

Christmas Break came and I had never been so thankful in my life. OMG, y’all. The weeks before Christmas were trying enough, but my room flooded with, um, septic materials *gag* and I lost my classroom rugs. *HUGE SADFACE HERE* Those two Christmas cuties and TONS of NY pastries (love our yearly trip to visit family in LI) was TOTALLLLLLY worth the wait and made up for that stinkin’ (literally) flood.

So another reason I never got my resources uploaded, like that “All About Me” book pictured, was because of that little dude. I mean, REALLY. Seriously people, look. at. that. face. Every moment I didn’t *have* to be doing something for school I was doing something with that guy and his older brother. Because really. Look at him!

Oh, did I not mention the Polar Vortex and the million snow days? Including the one on Valentine’s Day (when I received that BEAUTIFUL and totally appropriate mug)? Yeah. Our pacing guide this year was trashed a thousand times over because between the VORTEX. OF. DOOM. and snow. and ice. And more snow. And more ice. We were out of school a total of TWELVE days. TWELVE. Plus TONS of delays. This meant we reduced recess (UGH), added 10 minutes to the school day (DOUBLE UGH), and extended the school year (TRIPLE UGH). The days were nice while they were happening, but… never again. #seriouslynoway

Speaking of days off… Spring Break was spent at the beach, the first time in almost a decade. I live so close, but it’s cost prohibitive to go for a vacation. Because it was the off-season we got a GREAT deal. Love Ocean City. Love it so much. #alsogainedliketwentypounds

We learned about Famous Americans, I got to teach about my favorite person ever (well, one of them — Ms. Susan B.!), and yet again I failed to upload this to TpT. Do you sense a recurring theme? Soon. It’ll be there soon.

After Spring Break we buckled down, did LOTS of opinion writing and started one of my favorite (okay, who am I kidding, they’re all my favorite) social studies units — Native Americans! Pictured are even more things I never uploaded or shared. Go figure, y’all!

Oh, and there was that time when we went to a giant Easter party on the White House lawn. Because clearly, that’s just what you do when you are a teacher! (Our school system was granted some tickets thanks to the generous staff at the White House, and it was the BEST EXPERIENCE EVER. Yes, we waited in line for eons, but everything was well organized, we got healthy snacks, met a ton of William’s favorite characters, and I got to see Mrs. Obama’s garden and bee-hive, which was totally my student’s favorite when I reported back the next morning!)

Behold, the best part of the year. LIFE CYCLE time, y’all! Again, an even larger plethora of things I didn’t upload! But seriously — nothing brings me joy like the discovery and investigation in this unit. This year we saved some of our science/grade level money to purchase monarchs and I might’ve totally jumped up and down when they were delivered (flown overnight from Florida). My kids were OBSESSED, and um, so was I. I look forward to this next year already — I’m thinking more monarchs this time and maybe some black swallowtails, too!

We closed out the year with LOTS of place value practice in math and Ancient Civilizations (oh look, look at that… more un-uploaded units!). The kids were GLUED to learning everything they could about Egypt and China, especially mummies. We totally geeked out and might’ve co-opted our entire language arts blocks to anything related to the two civilizations. Um, that’s cross-curricular learning, right? 😉

Since school let out I’ve been spending some quality time with these dudes, teaching summer school (I know, I know — I just don’t know how to quit working!), and updating my yearly teacher planner. That should be done by the end of the week, and then it’s on to uploading the other nine million things I created this year but never had time to package!

That, ladies and gents, is how to fit an entire year into one blog post.

I’ve got mad skills!

A little bit of this, a little bit of that…

August 17, 2013 by Sarah Plum(itallo) 1 Comment

First things first — have y’all heard? I’m sure you haven’t, because clearly, I’m so ahead of the game and everything. A little birdie told me there’s a GIGANTIC back-to-school sale coming this Sunday…

I’m so excited, y’all. SO EXCITED. I have about a million things I need to move from my wishlist to my cart, and I can’t wait!

I’m also excited to be *participating* in this sale — with all of my newly revamped items (go to your purchases and check for updates!) and my newest item, my Marvelous Math Meeting (blog post coming Sunday about this amazingness I’m super excited about).

Now, time to disclose my whereabouts these past several days…

I’ve been tackling this:

Ugh, I am having heart palpitations just looking at it. I still have the better part of 10 days until Open House to fix it, but STILL! Would you look at that mess? Empty bulletin boards? No order?

I’ve been doing a lot of this:

Not pictured: IKEA. My wallet is hurting. HUR-TING.

And this happened:

Ugh. At all times to go kaput, it chooses back-to-school when I need it the most! This isn’t the first Canon to die on me way too early, so this happened:

And. I. Love. It. LOVE LOVE LOVE. It is such a powerhouse (HELLO multiple trays!) and the print quality is superb. Love.

But most importantly, I’ve been trying to spend some time with these guys:

We spent the whole day together today, and I didn’t go into school. I needed to just focus on them, and my husband, and how much I’m going to miss our time as a family of four — which we’ve just started getting used to! Le sigh. Say a prayer for me to get through next week being away full days; both Henry (he’s not even three months!) and I are having some separation issues!

I’ll leave you with this mighty cool video of our impromptu evening adventure — plane watching at National Airport! You can hear my not-so-little aviator excited as all get-out in the background.