Wordless Wednesday

I was catching up on Bloglovin and found another linky party. I'm participating in my first Wordless Wednesday over at Sugar and Spice.

I'm fortunate to work with a great team of second grade teachers. We show support and back each other up when needed. Love this team! 

The Final Countdown

I feel horrible for not blogging more lately! Every year I forget how much can happen between the end of March through the end of May. This afternoon I was able to see more light at the end of the tunnel when I switched our calendar.

What happened to this school year?! I feel like there's still so much to teach and do with my minis with only five weeks left. 

There's been lots going on I've been intending to blog about, but time seems to have just got away from me.I'll share a couple of exciting things that's been happening in and out the classroom.

Earlier this month students displayed some amazing work with our landmarks project. Seeing those landmarks always gives me the travel bug to visit new and familiar places. 

Peek-a-boo!

Yellowstone National Park

One of my favorites every year; the Golden Gate Bridge.

Meet Sasha our new guinea pig! A student of mine last year ended up being allergic to Sasha, so she joined our class a few weeks ago. She's oh so sweet and cuddly. Sasha must love science and math; this is when she is most vocal.

To celebreate National Poetry Month, we've been in a poetry creating frame of mind. I've been impressed with the quality of writing and attention to detail the minis have shown lately.To create these spring acrostic poems, we integrated a little technology with Read Write Think.

 

I don't post many personal things, but last week I reached a milestone. I celebrated my two year anniversary with Crossfit!

Crossfit has been one of the most challenging and rewarding things I've done for myself. I won't even lie to y'all some days I just want to quit and go home to sit and eat. Two years ago I would've never imagined the positive changes I'd make. 

Hopefully I'll get a chance to blog more next week!

April Currently

I'm baaaack! I had to dust the cobwebs off my dashboard, folks! Sometimes school and personal life can be pure chaos as y'all well know. There's a hundred things I feel I need to get accomplished. I'm determined to get back into the blogging world and catch up on what I missed. 

To get back into the swing of things, I'm linking up with Farley for April Currently. Here we go...

Listening- My annoying neighbor has decided now is a perfect time to BLAST music. I'm seriously tempted to call and make a noise complaint. As the Southern expression goes, some people just weren't raised right. It doesn't help that she comes across as a witchy, cold personality. Bleh.

Loving- Today I got back from my first trip to NYC! I had such an amazing time even if the weather wasn't quite warm enough for me. I'll definitely visit again. The food, shopping, sights, fast pace, and interesting people made for a great trip. 

The Empire State Building is a must do! Even if it's a cold day, you can't get an experience or views like this anywhere else. 

My inner child couldn't resist playing the big piano at FAO Schwartz.

My advice for any first time NYC visitors? Carry a brush and hand sanitizer! 

The frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity 3 can't be missed! 

Thinking- Yes I need to eat dinner, but I also need to finish a blog post from last month. I need to finish my Liebster Award post. I am normally not this behind, but as I said earlier it's been busy busy busy. 

Wanting- I finally braved the light rain and got my suitcase out of the car. Thankfully my team plans together, so I just need to type science plans and save. Too bad I don't have a magic wand that will do everything for me.

Needing- It's the time of year when all teachers feel like there's not enough sleep to catch up on. Can I get an amen??

Hours and Last Day- Contract hours for teachers are from 7:30 to 3:30. Pshh those hours don't do a thing. My goal is to get to school everyday by 7:15 so I can do minor housekeeping things. My goal is to leave everday by 4:40 so I make it to Crossfit on time; sometimes this works out sometimes it doesn't. 

Our last school day with students is now June 6th. Thanks to the crazy winter we've had we'll be using all bad weather makeup days this year. 

Five for Friday

TGIF!!! I thought 3:00 would never get here today. I planned on sharing last week, but my laptop cord going crazy on me combined with days that went on forever put me behind. Here's a quick Five for Friday post on what's been happening in second grade. 

 I ran across this idea on Pinterest for a student shout out box. We have something similar at our school that staff does already. On Friday I pull 5-6 shout outs to read. The student receiving the shout out gets a second grade buck.

Earlier this month, we created heart animals for our bulletin board this month.

Another one of my February faves is our Famous Black American Project. I've always impressed with the quality of work students put into this.

 Be still my techie-loving heart! This mini blew it out of the park by including QR codes on his poster.

A 3rd grade teacher friend of mine, made me a new doorstop for my birthday last week! The previous one I had didn't last long. I love that it's not cupcake themed but still matches the classroom. 

When one of the minis has a birthday, they get this special chair cover. A coworker found this for me at a Dollar Tree a couple of years ago. 



100th Day of School!

Despite the cold weather, today ROCKED! The 100th day of school is one of my favorite days hands down. It's a close second only to pajama day. I came to school armed and ready in my blinged out 100th day shirt and breakfast in hand. Part of me expected out of control craziness, but I was pleasantly surprised. Today was honestly a perfect day of learning and laughing. Here's a peek into the second grade greatness today.
Last year I had an aide who graciously stayed one day after school and made this. Thankfully it held up for use again this year. I searched high and low for the 100 cut outs but haven't been able to find them since last year; now I regret not buying more when I had the chance.

There were a total of 9 rotating stations. 

Up first was 100 drops of water. We made it all day with no spills, yay! Get your own copy of this freebie from Sarah's First Grade Snippets.

One of the favorites today was building a 100 cup structure. The minis really got into this one. It was interesting to see some of the strategies used. 

Timber!

They finally got a sturdy cup structure.

Some kids have huge hopes and dreams for $100, while others are already thinking of the future ahead.

Future financial advisor? :)

What we thought would just be a dusting of snow started picking up speed the closer we got to lunch and recess. We took a break in our activities to go outside and get a closer look at the snow. Trust me, this was more than enough snow by Texan standards. Brrr!

No 100th day celebration would be complete without glasses! I originally wanted the 100 cut outs that were used in the door decoration, but ran across these Scholastic ones on Pinterest. You can't beat free!

I introduced a QR code scavenger hunt. There were 10 clues which asked students to name 10 specific things based on what number they were on. The station worked, but I'm considering cutting down on the clues for next year so students can finish everything.

100 girl names and 100 boy names

What do you think you'll look like when your 100 years old? This mini plans on staying in shape and still rock a bikini!

Flip a coin 100 times

The bean flip activity is another freebie I found last year on TPT. 

Due to the weather, lots of kiddos at school starting going home early. At the end of the day I had only 13 minis left in class. I may or may not have busted out my song and dance moves to Kidz Bop radio with them the last 30 minutes of the day, just saying...

This sunshine loving, wanna be flip flop wearing girl will be praying for a snow day tomorrow. My eyes are glued to the news and Twitter for updates. It seems we're all stuck in a never ending cycle of cold. Stay warm everyone!