April Currently!

Seriously- I swear this year is just flying by! It's already April!!! 

I'm linking up with Farley for her monthly Currently :)

Listening: The Voice. I haven't been keeping up much. It pretty much serves as background noise :P 

Loving: That I get to head into town for a happy hour. Well..first I have a dentist appointment (which I'm not loving) but after I'm meeting a fellow teacher friend from Washington. Her class and I were pen pals last year!! :)

Thinking: I need to be lesson planning for tomorrow instead of doing this (and eating a slice of strawberry shortcake!) 

Wanting: To hit up the beach! I don't even remember the last time I've been in the ocean…which is really sad since I live on an island :/ lol I am so white it's kinda scary!

Needing: To get some rest!! I've been having a difficult sleeping at night bc I have so many things running through my mind. 

Yep-that's me! 

I wake up at 4am every day since I head to work early. I have to leave my house BY 5:05 or else I will be caught in some traffic. I'd rather avoid all the traffic and go early because while sitting in traffic I just think of all the time I'm wasting :/ I haven't been getting much rest and have been getting really bad headaches lately! I hope to be in bed by 9PM tonight! 

Hours: ohhh yeah. You read that right. I actually arrive to work anywhere between 5:15-5:45. I like going in early because I am much more productive. For me, at the ending of the day I'm so exhausted that I don't get anything done. Plus I feel like there are a ton of distractions and I always get caught talking to people :P I usually leave work anywhere from 2:15-2:30. 

Students finish school on May 29 but for the first time in a few years…teachers actually have an extra day to get their rooms packed up and cleaned :) Can't wait till May 30!!! 

Head on over to Farley's blog and link up!! 

Have a great week! :)

Spring Break Recap!

Today is officially the very last day of Spring Break for us here in Hawaii. I am pretty sad about heading back to work..It sure was nice having time to relax and take care of wedding stuff!

Over the break, my mom came to visit and stayed for about a week. It was so awesome to have her around. She took care of my dog, cooked and cleaned for us AND helped me bang out all of my wedding invites! 

I was feeling pretty stressed about wedding stuff but got a lot done and am feeling WAY better right about now. 

My break consisted of mass producing our wedding invites. 

Cutting, gluing, edging, glittering, labeling, checking off names……

Here are the little corners that I individually glued on each invitation..

Our RSVP cards.

My biggest tip for you when doing RSVP cards are to number each card (just in case they don't write their name on the line when they return it) and to write in the number of seats you are reserving. You'd think that people would get it by how the outter envelope is addressed..but you'd be surprised!

I also did a ton of ordering from Amazon. I really wanted to find my vases locally but I felt like I was beginning to run out of time. I actually ended up finding a great deal online so ordered these vases. 

Even with the cost of shipping, they come out to about $6.25/vase. Way cheaper than I would've been able to find here.


I also ordered these waterproof LED lights. I plan to put them down at the bottom of the vase, and then fill them with water beads. It will be filled with an orchid plant and curly willow. 

My dad also came in for the weekend to hang out. We headed to Disney's Aulani Resort for Happy Hour!

The ambiance at this place was so beautiful and relaxing! Not to mention the soothing Hawaiian Music! 

I also got to spend a lot of time with my fur baby! It was so nice to be home with her all day :) Here she is watching TV. Yup- my dog likes to watch Animal Planet. Her favorite show is Too Cute. She will literally sit in front of the TV like that, wag her tail, whine, and be totally engaged from start to ending!  

Last but not least, I had to squeeze in some work time. I whipped out the last of my Morning Math Packs….You can pick May up here

I've also bundled all of my morning math packs into 2 separate bundles to save you some money!

Bundle 1 contains all of the morning math you'll need for the first half of your school year. 

Bundle 2 are all to be used during the second half of the year.

Both of these bundles are valued at $15.00 but will be on sale in my TpT store for only $10.00 for the rest of today.

If you have already purchased my morning math packs from Aug-April Email me with your TpT info. and I will send you May for free :)

We got new computers at school right before the break so I also spent some time going through my work computer. I have a TON of files that I need to redo, so you can be expecting a ton of new products from me in the near future.

Yesterday I had time time to work on these:

You can also pick that up in my TpT shop! 

Now I'm off to finish planning for the day, finish stuffing envelopes then head out to do some grocery shopping! 

Have a great week!

Five for Friday

Happy Aloha Friday Friends!
I must say that it is a very happy Friday for me because I can officially say that I am on SPRING BREAK!! I thought this time would never come but I am definitely looking forward to some relaxation time, sleeping in, and of course- wedding planning! Time is ticking and I am officially at my 3 month mark. Yikes!
Today I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for:

Let's get to it!

We have been busy prepping for state testing but the kids still need to have fun!! Here are 2 of their favorite 'hands on' assignments they were working on this week… 

I purchase Easter Eggs after they go on sale. I then go and write fractions on them and the kids need to find it's matching pair. They do the math on their white boards to check to see if they truly are equivalent! 

This is another class favorite: Multiplication Snow Ball War! It's a quick paced game where students can practice their fact fluency. 

This week we just finished up reading Third Grade Angels

My kids absolutely LOVED this book and would beg me every day to read it aloud to them. This will definitely become our new class read aloud every year!! 

We also started Fourth Grade Rats today…I was begged to read this book to them.

Here are both books on Amazon if you're interested. In all honesty, I have never been BEGGED so much to read to my kids. I absolutely love it- what teacher wouldn't, right?! 

 

Today we had our School Talent Show! It amazes me at all the Talent that is packed in these tiny little bodies. It's kind of sad that some of these talents go unnoticed in the classroom…I'm just glad they had the chance to shine today!

My students have been working hard to collect and bring in plastic bottle caps. They filled this container once and are working on filling it a second time. 

Our school is taking part in the Kokua Hawaii Foundation Bottle Cap Challenge. We are currently competing against 50+ schools to see who can raise the most plastic caps to be recycled. The winning school will get a FREE concert by JACK JOHNSON! I think teachers are a little  more excited about this than the students :P lol. He is the co founder of this company!! 

You can check them out here..

The kids have been busy designing educational games they would like me to create for them over the break. They are required to write out the skill, number of players, directions, and rough sketches of what they envision their games to look like. They are so excited..but I think I'm even more excited to see what they come up with!!

Have a great weekend!!

Grade 3 End of Year Math Assessment Pack and an INSTA-GIVEAWAY!

Hi Everyone!

Just a quick post to pop in and share something that I've been working on. Since the year is slowly coming to a close, I decided to create an assessment that I could use to see where my 3rd graders were and find out what they do and do not know based off of CCSS. 

I created this assessment pack with the intent to assess my kids on each domain. Each test presents the children with several opportunities to demonstrate their knowledge for each standard. All Grade 3 CCSS standards are included in this pack…

Head to my TPT store to check it out- I also have a preview file that you can download if you'd like to see a sampling of what's included. 

I'm currently giving away a FREE copy on my instagram! Head on over to enter. I will be choosing a winner on Wednesday 3/12 at 8 PM Hawaii Time. 

Bright Idea Hop: Expanding Your Class Library {On a Teacher Budget}

I'm linking up with a TON of AMAZING bloggers today to share with you some of our Brightest Ideas. Our hopes are that these ideas will help to make your life as a teacher a little easier…

Today, I'll be sharing easy and cheap ways that you can expand your classroom library. If you're a beginning teacher starting off with a small library or even a veteran teacher with a pretty good-sized library, I feel that you can never own too many books! 

Using the tips I'm about to share with you today…my class library currently has over 1,000 books (all collected within a 3 year period).

Garage Sales have been the BEST place for me to find gently used, up to date, and CHEAP books. Craigslist makes it easy because I didn't have to drive around and around trying to find garage/rummage sales that had children books. All I needed to do was look under the garage sale category then type in key words I was searching for such as 'Children Books' or 'Chapter Books'. 

I found that by heading to neighborhoods that were in the 'upper class' areas I got books that were in perfect condition, pretty brand new and really cheap! I've purchased books for as cheap as 5 cents a book. The most I've paid at garage sales have been 50 cents a book. 

Also, going to rummage sales that are raising money for children sport teams, or churches have also been good. There are usually a ton of books going for really cheap! 

I scored the entire Magic Tree House Series at a Baseball Rummage Sale….

and Diary of a Wimpy Kid Books (hard cover) for 50 cents each!! 

Hand out Scholastic Book orders and allow students time to look through and circle the book that they would be interested in reading. This is beneficial for three reasons:

1. You get a better idea of the type of books your students are interested in. I like to order books that my students suggest so I know that they will be reading them. It also makes them extra excited about reading! I use my points to purchase these books. 
2. Since the kids are taking the time to look through and circle the books, they are more likely to go home and ask their parents if they can order some of them. I definitely get way more orders when I allow the kids to preview them before taking them home. 
3. The more orders you get, the more points you rack up. I rarely ever spend my own money on books from Scholastic and only use points. 

Encourage your students and parents to order their Scholastic Books online! This is a win-win for everyone because the student is able to get a free book coupon and the class does as well. You'd be surprised at how quickly you can rack up free book coupons! 

Create donation plaques for your class library and encourage students to donate the books that they no longer read! Students love the idea that YOUR future students for years to come will get to enjoy the books they donated. They also like the recognition!

 Students love to bring in their old books that they are done reading to donate to our class library. These cute and fun plaques have definitely bumped up the number of donations I've received. The kids love being able to write their names on the plaques…even more, they love the idea that it will be in my class library for as long as I am teaching and that all their friends, cousins, siblings, etc will know that THEY donated the book :) 

And my last tip for the day is to check your local library. I've found some really new books (that were in the Scholastic Book Orders) at the library for only 25cents! 

Thank you SO MUCH for stopping by to visit my blog today! I had so much fun putting this post together and can't wait to share my next bright idea with you! Make sure you don't miss it by following me via Blog Lovin', Facebook, or Instagram! 

If you're interested in the library labels that I used to organize my classroom library to make books easy for students to book shop, you can find them here!

Next up on this hop is Randi from Teach it With Class. Head on over to her blog where you can learn about Teaching Key Words for Math Problems!  

An InLinkz Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up

BRIGHTEN your Life!!

Hi Friends!!

Ever feel this way?? 

There will be a HUGE Bright Ideas Hop and YOU are invited!! 

WHO: TONS of teachers/bloggers around the world. 

WHAT: Teacher tested and approved ideas being shared..

WHEN: Stay tuned…Very soon!

WHERE: HERE!

WHY: We are sharing some of our brightest ideas in hopes to make your life as a teacher just a little easier :) 

Be sure to follow me on BlogLovin', Instagram, or Facebook to get an update when this is going LIVE!