First Impressions

Today I went to sign my contract, as well as all the paperwork that comes along with getting a new job (health insurance, background check, retirement, IRS papers, etc. etc.). I signed my name so many times that my hand started to hurt (People, it is not a short name. When I get to the end of my last name, it's all scribbled because I'm fed up with writing it!)! I also stopped by my new school to meet with my mentor, the secretaries and get a tour (what we could...they started waxing the floors, so we couldn't go in certain areas.) What does one wear when wanting to make a good impression? I'll show you! :)

 I wore it with the sweater for most of the day, and took it off in the afternoon. I practically live in my denim skirt in the summer, because it's long enough to be warm when it's cooler, and short enough to be cool when it's warmer!

Sweater and shoes: Target
Shirt, tank and skirt: Old Navy
(Please, please, please ignore the mess on the floor...I'm currently living with my parents, and spend most of my time in one room, and since I have all my teaching stuff plus my grad school stuff, plus all my other stuff, it gets a little crowded!)

Since I happened to be at the school, I took some pictures of my classroom. Would you like to see it?


Yes?

Okay!

Oh, one things I should mention...that I got really excited about...see if you can find it! :)

People, I have a SMARTBOARD!!! :D (Did you see it?! It's in the first picture!) Apparently, one teacher in each grade has a SmartBoard, and I'm the lucky one who is moving into that room.

 Excuse the mess, the other teacher is still moving her things out (she took a Tier 2 teaching position in the school, like a push-in teacher). The classroom is HUGE! The best part (which I'm still shocked at)....I have 16, no make that 14 (two say they are moving) kids! How unbelievable is that! I've always had around 20 or more, so this will feel really small!

Well, I think that's enough for today...I have more to tell you, but I think it can wait for tomorrow. :)

Don't forget to enter my giveaway!

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn

Monday Made It

Hello Bloggy Friends! Don't forget to enter my End of School Year Celebration Giveaway here. My sister graduated from high school yesterday, and we had a day filled with family and celebration. Tomorrow or Wednesday, I'll catch up on some outfit posts :) (Tomorrow I go and sign all the paperwork for my new job, and check out the area to find out where I want to live, which could possibly take all day. I'm also hoping to stop by my new school and check it out and hopefully unload some stuff!)

Now, for the regularly scheduled part of Mondays...Tara's Monday Made It.

Now, these are still a work in progress, but I just need to glue everything down. This Monday I am working on....Math File Folder games! My early finishers can always use more practice with their math and reading skills, and most of these math games are ones that can be played by themselves or with 1 other friend. I got the games from this book:

Here are some of the games I have made so far...

Gopher Golf: Students practice mixed computational skills (addition and subtraction) by chasing the gopher from hole to hole solving the problems.

Creepy Crawly Fractions: Students practice their fraction equivalents. Students spin the spinner and have to move their crawly to the crawly that has the nearest equivalent fraction to what they spun.

Reminder Raccoon: Students practice dividing numbers with reminders. You move one space each time and spin the spinner to find out what number you are going to divide by.

 Linkopolis: Students use logical thinking, and graphing to link all the landmarks together. However,one road can't cross another, roads can't pass through landmarks, and no landmark can have more than 3 roads going to/from it! (Think the dot box game)

Don't forget to enter my giveaway!
Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn

End of School Year Celebration Giveaway

Yay! School is over :) In honor of making it through the school year, I am hosting my first giveaway! The winner will win a $25 gift card to Amazon (one of the best places EVER!). a Rafflecopter giveaway

Use the Rafflecopter to enter and I will draw a winner on Saturday, June 23rd.

Also in honor of the end of the year, I have updated my blog design (Check for it later today or tomorrow)! I have been changing little things here and there throughout the week for my new design. The blog background winner was A! (I'll probably use C at some point during the summer, so those of you that voted for it will get to see it too!)

Thank you so much for helping me choose a new background! Now, go enter to for your chance to win the Amazon gift card! (FYI, Amazon has no idea that I'm doing this or who I am...well they might know that, I do spend an awful lot of money there ;)

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn

Blue and Green

Only 1 day left! Today we had our Wax Museum. Students did research on an important figure and wrote a report, speech, and dressed up to present their information. Since we have four 4th grade classes, each of us took a region (tying it in with Social Studies...how's that for cross curricular! :). I had the Southeast region, so I had a couple of Abraham Lincolns, Helen Kellers and more! They did such an awesome job with it!

Tomorrow is Step-Up day, and since I'm in a different district next year, I get to sit in the teacher's lounge for an hour and a half and do my folders and put my feet up :). It's a full school day (boo!), so we'll probably spent the rest of the day watching movies.


is having a 400 follower giveaway with your choice of an Amazon or Target gift card. Go check it out!

Today's Outfit:

Top & Skirt: NY & Co
Tank: Target
Shoes: Payless




Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn

Monday Made It and Freebies

 It's hard to believe that another Monday has come around...and its my last Monday with my students! I have really loved working with this class and most of them are wonderful...but I need a break. They are so done with school and each other that they are sucking out all of my energy!

For my Monday Made It this week I made binder covers! I use binders to organize all of my worksheets and resources (I'll share how I do that later in the summer!), but have not had any binder covers. I can tall what they are by the color and size, but I thought they would look better with the covers. I used  free frames from the 3 am Teacher and the font came from Kevin and Amanda.  

 

 










You can grab the set here (there are a few more included). I even made the binder side covers (they will fit a 1.5 inch binder).  I hope you enjoyed my Monday Made It!

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn

Field Day

Friday was field day for us, so we spent most of the day outside (and I have the sunburn to prove it!). I'm usually more of an indoor person (hence the getting sunburned after putting SPF 50 on before going to work), and I'm not the biggest fan of field day person. However, our gym teacher did such a wonderful job with it that I didn't actually mind it! (meaning the teachers didn't really have to do anything and parent volunteers ran everything! :)

Two class went around to the stations together (5th grade was on a field trip to have field day with all the 5th grades in the district before they move up to middle school), with 9 stations. Each class was divided into two teams, so they could either compete with each other, or against the other class that they went around with. We ended the day with grade level tug of wars (which the 5th came back for and which my class lost...). The winning 5th grade team then took on the teachers...that was an easy win for us! Then everyone got a Popsicle and it was time to go home!

In celebration of school ending Amber of Adventures of a Third Grade Teacher is having a TPT and TN sale until Wednesday, and she is also having a giveaway for $25 worth of stuff from her store! Go on over and check it out.

I still have 5 days left of craziness (+ 1 teacher day that we have to come back on Monday for), so lets hope that I make it through!

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn

Interesting Interviews

This Monday we had a Reading/Math Share for our staff meeting (with prizes!). We were instructed to come with an activity/something to do to show and explain to our peers. 1st, 3rd and 5th were sitting at tables while 2nd and 4th walked around to 'see' all of the ideas. After about 15-20 minutes, we switched.

I wanted to share with y'all what I shared with my co-workers (we're all peers, right?). The 3rd and 5th grade teachers were really excited about my idea, and asked for the template so they could use it in their classrooms! (Which makes me feel really good since this was my first and last year at this school, and makes me feel better about myself as a teacher)

What I shared was a way to do character interviews. It's a really good way for students to think about character traits, summarizing, inferencing. The finished product looks like this:

What you do is read a story (or have the kids read a story) (this is the one I read for the example...it's a very cute story!)

Have the students pick a character from their story. They are to 'interview' their character, asking them questions about their feelings, experiences, etc. They then have to answer the questions the way they think the character will answer the questions based on the meaning they gain from the story. Here's the kicker...they only have 4 questions!

They make a foldable and they have 4 panels to ask and answer their questions. The questions go on the outside of each flap, and the answers go on the inside of each flap.

In the center of the foldable (the part they glue down to the back paper) they draw a picture of the character they interviewed.

The kids really enjoy doing this because it is like an arts-n-crafts activity, but they still get to show their learning. You might have to be careful though...some kids get really involved with the drawing and forget about the 'interviewing'!

We did this after we finished our fairy tale unit, and I had the kids pick their favorite fairy tale character. They did such an excellent job on them and some of their questions were really creative and in-depth.

I got this idea from this book, which I HIGHLY recommend for any and all teachers. Mine in the 4-6 version, but they also have a 2-3 version as well.

This was one of my first purchases after finding out I was teaching 4th grade (most of my experience and books are in the K-1 grades), and well worth the price ($18.99 through Amazon, and I think that you get also get it through Teacher's Express (watch for their Dollar Deals!)).  The book also has some recommendations how on to use this foldable in different content areas as well. I hope you found this helpful!

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn