Five For Friday: May the 4th Be With You and a Contest!

This week is a week of appreciation for teachers everywhere! Gifts, flowers, cool drinks,  and special lunches abound!  But it is also the week that I look forward to all year-because of International Star Wars Day on May 4th!  Here's the quick lowdown on how to have a GREAT May the 4th Be With You!    

Wear an awesome Star Wars shirt!  This is a must because it signals to all the Star Wars fans in the building that you know exactly what day it is!  Before I hit the front door I was told, twice, May the 4th Be With You!  While walking around the halls in the morning I was greeted with this same phrase over and over!  Whenever and wherever I went, we were one with The Force because of my shirt (we are a uniform school).  

Get some really great music going!  I found this gem on YouTube! One hour of musical greatness!  And, honestly, the kids really enjoyed listening to it-for real!  

Get some great curriculum activities.  There is no reason you can't jazz your curriculum up with real activities tied to a Star Wars theme.  I made the paper on the left as their math warm-up.  They still worked on their math projects for area and perimeter.  The picture on the right is a Webquest I found on TpT by Mrs. Tech.  It was simple and easy, but best of all, I could use it as a close read.  This activity actually gave me a good idea of how to start using my Kindles in a variety of ways!  

Play a great game!  This is one I thought up last year and just adjusted for this year.  It is a Jeopardy style game.  However, the idea is based on subtracting points instead of gaining points so that the Wookie can win!  They LOVED it!  (Due to copyright, I cannot post this online. )

Make some great Star Wars themed treats!  The first one is a tie fighter.  Super simple-Chocolate Graham Crackers, a marshmallow, and some frosting.  Simply put frosting on the end of the marshmallow and put the Graham Crackers on!  Super simple!  For the light sabers you buy rod pretzels and food coloring.  There is enough frosting left to then color it. Frost the pretzel rods and enjoy!  YUM!  

So, as you can see, this is an easy and fun way to celebrate International Star Wars Day!  Now, onto how we will appreciate you!  Teacher's Appreciation was or will be celebrated over the course of these two weeks!  I've joined with 9 other Teacher-Authors to celebrate YOU!  

Teachers truly do light the way!  So, click on the Rafflecopter and follow all 10 Teacher-Authors on their TpT store to have a chance to win a $50 TpT Gift Card!  It's that easy!  The contest is open from May 5th - May 7th, with the winner announced on Monday, May 8th!  Thanks for all you do!  

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It's All About The LOVE!

I'm SUPER excited to be teaming up with a number of Teacher Authors to celebrate Setting the Standard's 1,000 Follower Giveaway!  We all just LOVE followers, and, even more, sharing great things with you!  So, let's take a look at how my class will be celebrating Valentine's Day this year!  

My class LOVES Scoot!  We've played it often.  As we have moved past division, I want to keep reinforcing this concept with them to keep the skill fresh.  

This Valentines Day Division Scoot is the perfect product to play with them!  I made sure that I put all types of division problems in the Scoot to cover all the different ways that students are responsible to understand this standard. It is a black and white design, so all you have to do is print and go!  I know they are just going to love playing Scoot and this will keep their excitement in the morning to a minimum.  

For Language Arts time, we will be using some articles that I created for a writing project I've made.  We honestly are in the middle of a big writing project on snow globes, so we just can't jump over and add a Valentine one.  So I had to think a little differently!  The articles are great in themselves, so I thought, "Why not!"  I can use them to address all kinds of standards!  The newspaper article is descriptive in nature.  I will be starting with that and we will be pulling it apart to discover the elements that make it descriptive.  This is Standard 8 and it really kicks up the understanding of text structure in 3rd grade.  We've taken lots of time to talk about how these structures work and identified them by name, but it is time to take it to print!  I'm super excited about this!  I can't wait to see how their hard work will pay off!  Here is a freebie you can grab over at my Google account for Compare and Contrasting Text Structure!  Read more about text structure on my blog too!  

As our party gets closer, their excitement will grow.  I've found a fabulous freebie to use with my kids!  It's called The Heart Building Challenge and I found it on Pinterest!  This will take a little bit of work on my part since I don't have Leggos in my class.  A simple email to parents will solve that problem!  Once I get the baggies of Leggos, I will work to set up teams that I find to be equal in abilities.  This will be key!  I am thinking of having them in 2 person teams since this will be a whole class event instead of 
Here's a video from Mrs. Beers to show you the low-down!  I think they will LOVE this!  

After recess we will celebrate our Valentine's Day with a brief party that includes the exchanging of Valentine cards!  This will be perfect because our reading from earlier in the day will share some of the history of Valentine's Day cards.  I plan on giving this cutie as a card/homework pass/brag tag!  You can grab it as a FREEBIE in my store!  

 

  

  

Now for the GIVEAWAY!  How cool would it be to win that cute shirt and a $30 TARGET card!  Now that's sharing the LOVE!  Fill out the Rafflecopter below and then move on to the next great Teacher Author who is sharing the LOVE- Big Ideas for Little Hands!  

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Welcome to the HOP!

Hello everyone and welcome to the HOP!  I'm so happy to be the first stop on Conversations From The Classroom's very first HOP celebrations!  So, since you are here, I'd like to share a little bit about myself!  

The Best Days

I'm a wife, a mom, and a full time teacher!  I've been teaching for 24 years in the same county.  I have been at two different schools within this system.  I currently teach 3rd grade, but have taught 1st-5th in self-contained classrooms and I spent two years in my schools Science Lab, teaching all grades for one period a day!  That was a great time to really practice those science inquiry skills on a daily basis. 

I also enjoy photography!  One of the greatest times I've had taking pictures had to be when my oldest son and I went on a mission trip to Denver.  We visited The Garden of the Gods and the Olympic Center before heading home.  Here's a few cool pics!  

Without a doubt, that mission trip was one of the most amazing times I've ever had learning about the world around me.  I learned what homelessness really is, how people are still people and loving them is key!  Here's a lovely lady I met.  She is Sioux and she opened my eyes to the truth about Reservation life.  I now long to go to a Reservation to work with people there!  

Teaching is so important to me, and it has opened up my life to so many ideas, thoughts, and emotions as a person.  It also makes my creative juices flow!  So, before I get to me giveaway, here's one more thing about me!  I LOVE to sew!  I learned when I was 14 years old and still love to create my own clothing!  Here's an outfit I made.  I made the shirt last year and the skirt this past summer.  I fell in love with that butterfly fabric!  It encompasses so much about me-color, nature, and fun!  

Now to the GIVEAWAY!!  WHOOT!  I have picked three products to giveaway.  I feel they show off my creative side!  The first two are writing based-one primary and one intermediate!  I have also picked one of my literature based products-Reading Response Pages: Any Book Literacy Pages Exploring Character Development!  Here's how this will work. Simply reply below with YOUR EMAIL and primary OR intermediate in the comment.  You can comment in any additional way you like!  

  

I will pick three winners from the comments below.  Please note, due to Blogger issue, I can't reply to any comments, so, email is the only way I can contact you!  :)  While your here, be sure to follow me by clicking the Follower button in the bar below or on Blog Lovin' or any of the other Social Media sources!  Winner announced on February 3rd!  (And you can all win because I'm having a sale too!)

Now, HOP on over to our next stop, ZIPPADEE ZAZZ!  Don't stop until you make your way all the way back to my blog!  That way you will know you have completed the HOP!  

Why Every Teacher Should be Wearing LuLaRoe!

Hangin’ out today because I’m off due to Hurricane Matthew.  I figured today would be a great day for a 5 For Friday post.  I figured I would talk about IT!  Have you heard about IT yet?  Have you tried IT yet?  If you haven’t, this is your chance to win IT!!!  IT is LuLaRoe!  LuLaRoe is a clothing line developed by a woman who was raised in a household that valued self-sewn clothing.  A family who was looking for quality clothing that didn’t break the bank.  She was also looking for a way to help working  women who had too much to handle to constantly go shopping to look for those deals.  Within all of this, an idea grew to a business which grew into a brilliant ray of sunshine in many women’s  (and now men’s) lives!  Here we go with the 5 reasons you should be wearing LuLaRoe! 

                                                   QUALITY!  

As you may know, I sew.  Honestly, I don’t pay lots of money for clothing unless the quality is there.  I know what to look for after years of doing this myself.  The thing about LuLaRoe-this is TOP QUALITY for a very valuable price.  Let’s break this down.  Most really quality knit material runs about $12.99+ a YARD!  There are at least two yards in a pair of leggings, due to length.  That is $25.00 a pair if I were to try and make them myself.  Guess what you pay-$25.00 a pair!  Simply doing that math show’s the level of commitment to their price line.  Yes, they are making them for slightly less, but probably not a ton less! 

MATERIAL! 

It is like butter!  I am not kidding you!  The level of quality of the material allows it to be soft to the touch and   thick to cover! This is the real deal!  You don’t have to worry about skin showing through on leggings.  That’s the nicest part!  You are covered all the time!  And, like butter!  I’m not kidding!  They are the softest clothes I’ve every owned!

VARIETY!  

These are most of the leggings I own personally!  That's variety!  

LuLaRoe limits their items per material type!  I only have one pair of leggings that I’ve ever seen anyone else wearing.  That is because the company was still in the taking off stage and there were less people buying.  It is this pair of leggings. 

Notice my top, that is my PERFECT TEE!  The wind is blowing a bit, so it is swinging out.  Otherwise, I LOVE this top!  So, another way you can add variety is mixing patterns!  I’ve always been on the conservative side,  so mixing patterns was not easy for me!  But, I LOVE this variety!   And, that’s not all for variety!  There are so many wonderful styles and I haven’t even tried them all yet!   I haven’t even tried more than leggings, the tops, and my maxi’s (which I LOVE)!  Yet, the variety is there with dresses and skirts of all types!  And, with more variety choices, you can dress them up or dress them down!  Here’s an example of a dress-up leggings look. 

I have also worn my tiger ones with a red urma to football games at my son’s high school! My fun, swirly multi-colored leggings I’ve worn with my BB-8 t-shirt!  Anything goes! 

EASE OF SHOPPING!  

This is completely TRUE!  You can shop from the comfort of your own home, literally!  The consultants  post their products on their Facebook accounts.  There are many kinds of consultants, but I have to say, my main consultant, Emily Goodyear is the BEST!  Her site is super easy to use. You just enter her store, click on photos, got to albums, and there is all of the information you need!  She organizes her items in these albums by type-leggings, Nicole dresses, Sarah tunics, etc.   Once you are in the album, you can click on your size range and see what she has.  If you see something you LOVE, you type SOLD and your email.  She will send you an invoice to purchase and then send it right to your house!  AWESOME!  You can also host parties on your own personal Facebook or even at your house, if your consultant is close!  There are Open Houses where consultants open their homes so you can browse their stock!  This is all super exciting and super fun!  And, you look great too!

COMFORT!  

And I mean COMFORT!  Between the awesome fabric and the terrific style you might as well be wearing your pajamas to work!  I’m serious!  I look forward to Wednesday or Thursdays when I wear these outfits to school because I feel so relaxed and comfortable, like pajamas at home.  Yet, it doesn’t appear that way at all!  I look great!  Yet, totally comfortable! 

So, now you know about IT!  If you haven’t had a chance to experience LuLaRoe, here’s your chance!  Use the Rafflecopter below to enter the chance to win a FREE pair of leggings!  You need to use the sizing chart below to determine which size leggings you want to try for.  Then, enter the contest on that size!  Both sizes offer the same exact chance to win, so you don’t need to complete both Raffelcopters, only one!  I will then email the winner to get your address!   I will then send you your free pair of leggings!

**VERY IMPORTANT-YOU MUST LEAVE YOUR EMAIL ON MY FACEBOOK POST ABOUT THIS BLOG POST SO I CAN CONTACT YOU IF YOU WIN!**

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This contest is open to all.  These leggings are a random pair and will not be exchangeable for any reason.  If you do not provide your email address as directed in the blog post, there will be no way to contact you to mail you the prize.  Please be sure to do provide your email on The Best Days post on her Facebook account.  LuLaRoe Emily Goodyear VIP and The Best Days are not responsible for lost or damaged products in connection with this contest.   

T-A-G, You're It!

Welcome to T-A-G Day!  T-A-G stands for TEACHER AUTHOR GIVEAWAY!   I have paired up with 12 other Teacher Authors in grades 3-6 to give away some really great goodies!  All you have to do is complete the Rafflecopter below to get one of the great prizes!  Be sure you hit the contest up NOW.  The ending time is Monday, September 26th at 12 a.m.   All winners will be emailed!  There are some great products being given away so make sure to click all of the Rafflecopter entries!  

My product is 

I just LOVE this product!  My students soared toward truly understanding characters by using these practice pages.  This product specifically speaks to character development.  The exciting part is, it also helps the students understand theme!  It leads them right to it!  

So, be sure to enter the contest by completing the Rafflecopter below.  And, hit up all the other amazing Teacher Authors too!

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Thanks for Entering!