School is...... OVAAAAH!! Welcome Summer!!!! Five for Friday AND My Birthday TPT SALE!!!!

More info at the end of this post :)

Hello Friends.

Yes, you read it right! I am officially on summer break as of today!! WOOOHOOOO!!!! Things have been so busy over here that I haven't even gotten a chance to post all the fun that we've been having in class. Yesterday was the last day for students and I was starting to get a bit emotional. I had a great group of kids this year... with a few difficult ones sprinkled in between, but they grew on me. I usually line them up before we walk out the door on the last day and give them my little speech of how proud I am of them and how much they've grown, etc. I ended it with, "When you walk out these doors, you will no longer beeeee...... (dah dah daahhhhh) a 2nd grader anymore!" Then I proceeded to walk them out, me all emotional inside. I was expecting to see them all emotional, too but when we walked out and I turned around, my boys were like in their own little world, just playing around CRAZILY in line and not even caring about the amazing award winning emotional speech I just gave. C'MON PEOPLE!!! The movie in my mind of how the kids were suppose to walk out.....all in tears, wailing...... holding onto my legs, begging me to keep them did not play out exactly like that. Well... ok , not AT ALL like that. It was fine though because I can always count on my girls to fill my emotional bucket of how they'll miss me and how they'll be back to help me next year. One of my sweet girls even got a little emotional with me. Ahhhhh... I knew I loved her for a reason. :)

I am combining this with my Five for Friday with Doodlebug. Except I'm gonna break some rules since I'm crazy like that. I've listed not 5...BUT 7... yes, I said SEVEN things that has happened in these past couple weeks. Yup... that's me... rule breaker.  I just love living on the edge!  <----- really though.... I just have some major catching up to do with my blogging and I don't get out much.






1. Open House was only 2 weeks before school ended. Here are some snapshots of the night.

We had a great turnout. Our room was packed!

We read "Moses goes to a Concert" and took pictures of our hands signing the alphabet. 

These line of symmetry projects came out great!

This was another crowded station. Math facts timed tests are big in my classroom. Here, we have students timing their parents on their math facts and even competing with them!

Love these students! They are quiet and so well behaved! 

This Puzzling Letters activity was a fun one. Students write their parents a letter and cut it into a puzzle. Parents try to read the special message by putting it together on Open House. 

Our Estimation Station was a hit! The child who guessed the closest gets that WHOLE jar of candy home! That's my thing.... sugar them up then send'em home! :)

Parents loved solving their child's math story problem.

Making invitations for their family to come to Open House

All these activities (and more) are from my TPT store. It comes with all the templates, step by step instructions, and pictures of the finished project. You can pick one up here. 

19 Creative Open House Activities Pack

 2. We had been working so much these past few weeks that we were in need of a brain break. Here is a picture of our class dressed for the Baldwin (Harlem) Shake. You can see the actual video in our previous posts.

3.  On the last week of school we worked on my End of the Year Bundle. We had memory books, letters to write to our future students in the class and to their future teacher, measuring activities to compare our growth from the beginning of the year till now, and some reflecting over the past 10 months. It was neat to see what their favorites were and how much they've changed. 

They measured themselves with the yellow yarn at the beginning of the year. The green yarn is how tall they are now 10 months later. They then measured the 2 lengths with a measuring tape and recorded their lengths. We put these yarns in a ziplock bag and stapled it inside their memory book. 

They loved to see how much they've grown!

Hand print made in the beginning of the year.

Comparing their handprints now. 

I keep these and hand them out to my new batch of students in the beginning of the year. 

Letters to their future teacher. I'm planning on giving this letter to their teacher once we get started next year. 

4. On the last day of school, we wore pajamas and we had a movie/board games day. We also made forts.

some played Monopoly in their fort

Boy's fort

Girl's fort

5. We had about 30 more minutes until school was out and so we had our crazy dance party.  Kids did the conga line and then we made two rows and had kids go down the middle. This is my awesome job sharing partner dancing with one of our boys. 

Ok, I know that it doesn't look CUH-RAY-ZEE here, but trust me, it got there. I mean, they almost called the cops on us. 

6. After we danced I needed the kids to calm their bodies down so we played Dead Fish. This is one of my favorite games at home and it works so well with my active boys. I've even had my younger son fall asleep once while playing. Hee hee. Students lay down in a comfortable position and whoever moves it out. 

This girl looks so scary.... but she was GOOOOOOD. She stayed like that the WHOLE time. Creepy, huh? LOL

7. We had about 15 more minutes left of 2nd grade and I wanted to do these awards right before they left.  I got these candy awards from Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits for FREE!!!! I LOOOOVE Free!!! I wrote up a description of why they were getting the award and added their picture to it. Then I put both papers back to back in a plastic sheet protector so that when they turned their award over, they could read and remember what I said about them. I also got them the BIG candy treats. They LOVED it and I had SO much fun announcing each award recipient.

We rolled out the red butcher paper carpet and each student got to walk down  the "carpet" while others cheered and gave them high fives. Another of  Tunstall's great ideas!!

(drum roll pleeeease...)

AND NOOOOW...... It's just not ANY sale.... it's my BIRTHDAY sale!!!! Today is my birthday and we are getting ready to go camping at the beach... you know... since I'm on SUMMER VACATION  and all!! We've never gotten out of school before my birthday before so this is great!  Anyhow, I like gifts and I figured you do, too.  So I'm throwing a 20% off  my TPT store! This includes the Open House Activities Pack and End of the Year Bundle that you just read about.

I stole borrowed this image  from Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits. I'm right there with you Reagan Tunstall... right there with you. 

Off to pack up for camping and enjoy the weekend. Thanks friend for visiting!

Blessings,

Angela Linzay

What in the world???

That is the best way I can describe these past few days.... and it's only TUESDAY!!! There are a couple of things that are making me (and my class) a little crazy this time of year.

1. I don't know about the weather elsewhere but last week in So Cal it was hot and sunny. Kids were swimming and playing in the backyard. This week?? Dark clouds rolled in and it was raining.... HARD!  Today was cold and overcast, too. This weather makes my students and me a little loopy. They were a little restless today and I can't blame them.

2. Can you take a guess as to what this is?  YUP!! It's CRUNCH TIME!!! Open House is in 2 days and we are taking our district writing assessment tomorrow. So in all the hustle and bustle of last minute "Hurry-up-and-just-trace-color-cut-and oh honey, don't forget to be neat" madness, I had to do some last minute prepping for the test. I hope all the other teachers will be nice when grading my student's writing. I think I'm gonna bring them some chocolate. I mean, I could be bought with chocolate. I'm just saying.....

3. I feel like I'm running on a hamster wheel right now and someone needs to pull me off. Tomorrow is my last "real" day of teaching. I job share and work Mon-Wed. Next week I'm at a Thinking Maps training for those 3 days and then the following week is our last week of school. WHAT???!! How did that happen?? I'm trying to get last minute testing done, cums, report cards, clean up the room, organize, plan parties...ahhhhh!!!!  Someone get me off this wheel. My head is definitely spinning.

4. The GOOD thing about today is the Instagram fun I've been having.  To join in on the party, look below:

I seriously have met some amazing teachers already and today was my first day! They welcomed this newbie  with sweet comments and "likes" on my pictures. Awwww.... I feel so special. :) I am really excited to be here in this community and have already seen SO many amazing things that teachers from all over are doing. I am truly inspired.


 My classroom has been working out of my  Open House Activities Pack this week....which is on sale TODAY and TOMORROW only. It comes complete with templates and practically does everything itself! OK, not really... but it's pretty great. It has step by step instructions with pictures and templates for everything. Plus, there are 19 fun activities. Here are just a few:

Ok. Don't judge me and my homemade sign! Desperate situations call for desperate measures. Remember?? CRUNCH TIME here!!

  She may be 100 yrs old but she's dangerous! She'll literally eat you alive! You DO NOT want to meet her in a dark alley.... EVER!!!

LOVE LOVE their Mystery Math Stories! It's great for common core!

Some of my sweet friends making Open House invitations for their parents.

Seriously, hold onto your horses... check out my sweet artist doing the line of symmetry project.

WOW!!!  Isn't she AMAZING!!!

                                         
This goes on the back of their line of symmetry project. We read a couple of books and then talked about things that we love about ourselves. I love #7 - "I'm good at eating."  Me, too, my friend. Me, too. :)

I LOVE how my silhouette project came out. I have a EASY peasy lemon squeezy tutorial for that in the packet. NO tracing, NO tired arms. Just 6 short steps and VOILA!

These are just a couple pictures of my kiddos reading. It seriously makes my heart happy! I love when they are just sprawled out around the room reading. :) Reading IS relaxing and pleasurable and if I want them to grow up loving print, then they have to know this.


Hoping your week isn't as crazy as mine, Friend.

Angela Linzay