Hello Sunshine {Freebie Included!}

I’m blogging over at Hello Sunshine today!  Be sure to hop on over to read all about how we are spreading positivity on our campus and grab the FREEBIE!

Spring Is In The Air

Today is the first linky party over at Hello Sunshine and I am so excited to be joining!





Spring also means Earth Day, and learning about Earth’s ecosystems is a great way to celebrate.  One of my favorite science units in third grade is Ecosystems and Animal Adaptations.  After learning about the various ecosystems and learning all about adaptations, we end the unit with one of my all time favorite projects….ecosystem creatures!


Download the PDF with clickable links by clicking on the picture and read all about our ecosystem creatures!



 

Join us over at Hello Sunshine and link up your ideas for spring! 

Testing

We finished testing today!  3 days of stress, some tears (from kiddos and from me…their teacher!), and a whole lot of encouraging notes and treats and testing is finally finished!


We started testing Monday.  Everyone was so excited to come in and see the notes from home and treats from the teacher!






You can read about the letter I send home to prep parents for testing HERE!
Testing took pretty much all morning each day.  In the afternoons we had our “specials,” time which only left about an hour and a half to two hours each day.  We spent that time catching up on our Human Body books in science and working on our fraction animals.

This little piggy is just plain adorable!

How cute is this work in progress bunny!

It was a “whale,” of a few days of testing!

Today, I turned in my testing materials for the final time and then we celebrated!

I’m so excited that testing is finally over.  I can’t wait to get back to “real,” teaching!  Coming up on the agenda for the next few weeks:

1.  Cursive handwriting!

2.  Our annual National Monuments and Memorials project

3.  Project based learning in math

What are you excited to get back to teaching?  I’d love to hear your ideas!  Comment and share what you will be doing to finish out the year!

Hello Sunshine Blog Launch and HUGE Giveaways!

Here in Arizona, the sun shines 296 days a year.  A few months ago, some Arizona teachers got together and decided that we had enough sunny days to share with you all!  These women are some of the most creative and inspiring women I have met and I was so blessed to have the opportunity to be part of this collaboration.





Our hope is to share our love of teaching, some creative ideas, and a whole lot of sunshine!  Today is the big launch of our new blog, Hello Sunshine and we are having a HUGE giveaway that you will not want to miss!  The grand prize is a $100 gift certificate to TpT!

In addition to the big giveaway, each of the Hello Sunshine bloggers is having their own giveaway on their own blog.  Be sure to enter my giveaway to win $10 to spend in my TpT store and a $10 Amazon gift card.  Then, hop on over to my friend Caitlin’s blog The Kinder Garden to enter her giveaway!






a Rafflecopter giveaway




We can't wait to share the sunshine with you!

Parent Test Prep

We spend weeks getting our kiddos ready for testing season, but there is often one part of the education team that is overlooked when it comes to preparation.  The parents.  We spend a crazy amount of time in our classroom talking about how if I’ve done my job all year, and the students have done their job all year we should be ready.  We talk about the numerous ways they can and should be preparing at home; getting a good night’s sleep, eating a healthy brain-powering breakfast, and packing a healthy snack on testing days. 

Each year I send home a Parent Test Prep letter with general testing tips and things that I ask the parents to do to help us be ready.  I attach an envelope with 3 die-cut shapes inside.  I ask the parents to write a positive, encouraging note to their child, one for each day of testing.  They seal the notes in the envelope and return them to school in their child’s folder.  Each testing morning, I leave a note from home on each kiddos desk.  Occasionally, I have a student who does not bring an envelope back.  For those students, I write a note and will have my principal or other “well-known,” adults on campus write a note.  I usually have a great response from students and parents and many students have held on to their notes in a special place!

I posted a picture today while I was prepping my letter to go home and was asked by several teachers to share.

I made an editable version too so that you can change it to fit your classroom.

You can grab a copy of my letter and the editable version by clicking HERE!

I hope you find them useful and I hope that you have a stress free testing season!

Currently April

April….already!  This is going to be a good month for our family with so much to look forward to!

I’m linking up with the amazing, one of a kind, Farley to share what I’m doing currently!

Listening:  To The Amazing Race from last night.  Now that my New Kid has been sent home it’s not quite the same, but I still love watching the different personalities take on these challenges!

Loving:  Easter weekend!  This year our church is holding Easter service in the Cardinal’s football stadium!  They are expecting over 50,000 people.  That’s a lot of people celebrating Jesus and I am so excited!  After that, we will go to our family celebration.  It is so great to see ALL of the cousins playing games together and having fun!

Thinking:  I can’t believe we have one more week and then we start our state testing.  I’m nervous since this is our first year with our new assessment, but I can’t wait to get it over with and get back to “real,” teaching!

Wanting:  I think I’ve had this on a Currently before.  I really want a pair of Kendras.  I have my big awards dinner coming up this month.  I already have a dress that I plan on wearing, so since I don’t have to buy a new dress I think I can justify new earrings to go with it….right?!? Someone please talk me into!!!! I’m terrible at spending money on myself!

Needing:  I need to start planning what we are going to do to celebrate my husband’s birthday!

EGGSplain your name:  I am The Blessed Teacher because I truly feel blessed in life.  I know that I would not be where I am today, living the life I live, without the love and grace of my Savior, Jesus!

I can’t wait to head on over to Farley’s blog and see what everyone else is currently up to!