It’s science.

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!

It’s Monday!

July 23, 2012 by Sarah Plum(itallo) 11 Comments

Who would’ve thought Monday would become my favorite day of the week? It totally has! I look forward to Monday Made It alllllllll week long — both because I’m excited to share my hard work, but also because I am so inspired by what everyone else creates!

Mr. Plum and I took our little guy on an adventure this weekend to see the Stephen F. Udvar-Hazy Center, a part of the National Air and Space Museum. William has a *tiny* obsession with space (and by tiny, I mean massive) and we couldn’t resist the opportunity to let him see the shuttle Discovery in person.

Let me just tell you… I teared up. We’ve been over my propensity to tear-up before, but oh my word, y’all. The nerd in me was not prepared for the sight of that spacecraft and the opportunity to see her up close. To see that, no, her surface is not shiny, and oh? that’s a stencil?!

Those types of moments are the moments we want our students to have. Those moments of complete awe and wonder. Those moments of discovery.

Which led me to this:

I took more than 150 photos while we were at the Hazy Center, and when I got to this one while reviewing them on my computer I just stopped. And then I thought, “this has to be in my classroom.” I jokingly turned to my husband and said, “hey — Discovery: it’s not just for astronauts.”

As soon as the words left my mouth my eyes got all wide and my brain did that thing where I just had to make this poster before I did anything else. And then I thought of all of you — and thought maybe, just maybe, there’d be someone out there that would want this in their classroom too.

This file is large enough to print as a 16×20 poster (I’m picking mine up at Costco this afternoon!!!), and comes with a release in the .zip file for you to do so without any hassle. I’ve uploaded it to my TPT store; you can either click here or on the image to go and download it!

To sweeten this Monday Made It, I would like to giveaway a printed 16×20 poster of this to one lucky follower. Simply enter the Rafflecopter below, and I’ll choose a winner on Friday!

I’m also planning on participating in TBA’s Freebie Friday this week in which I’m going to put together a pack of images of the space shuttle and other Smithsonian highlights I took that you can utilize for classroom use. (I actually went to art school briefly for photography, but that’s a story for another day!) So follow me and check back so that you don’t miss it!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Monday (Almost Didn’t) Made It!

July 3, 2012 by Sarah Plum(itallo) 14 Comments

During my student-teaching internship this spring I made a lot of resources. And when I say a lot, I mean a lot. I don’t know why I thought it’d be a good idea to literally re-invent the wheel during internship, especially during an internship that my husband was also completing, while having a 2.5 year old, and commuting 90 minutes each way (totally serious — it happened). But I did!

This meant a lack of sleep for the months between December and May, but it has yielded great satisfaction since — especially in preparing for my own classroom and curriculum! One of my more lackluster projects was posters for the basic science process skills. Yes, folks, they were sad.

Check out all that white space and Microsoft clipart!

In searching for something else on Google Drive (P.S. thank you Google for that, it is a lifesaver!) I came across the original files and decided they needed a makeover immediately. And most importantly? This needed to be like Skittles (taste the rainbow) exploded all over them. What’s better than science? Bright, colorful science that makes you smile.

Thanks to some clipart from some of my favorite people on the internet (check them out on the sidebar), I made over my process skills posters in a very Oz-like fashion.

Oh yes… much, much better.

But that wasn’t enough for me on what is now my first Monday (oh my word, it’s 10:20pm!) Made It. I decided to print them (thank you, Canon) and laminate them (thank you, Scotch) and hang them (thank you Staples). And in doing so, I discovered a little shortcut to hole-punching accurately that I’m sure all of you pros already know!

Reinforcers. Yep.

All I did was measure where I wanted to make my initial punches, put the sticky reinforcers down, and then guide the hole punch right over it. It made it so easy to create a template to do all of the other posters with, and in literally ten minutes I had this:

Bam! Instant science-happiness.
(Excuse the poor camera work. There’s not enough light!)

So, it’s Monday. And I made it.

Would you like these posters for your classroom? Head on over to my TPT store and snag yourself a copy! (Sidenote: I’m totally doing a happy dance in my office chair because, yes, after three years of admiring everyone else’s work, I listed something of my own!)