Time Capsule Cont'

Last night I blogged about the time capsule project my students are working on. First thing this morning they asked if they were going to work on them. They're so excited about this project. I took a few pictures today: 

This is a picture of the brown envelopes they are decorating as their time capsules. 

This is the picture of the stationery we made. Last names are blurred out for obvious reasons. I also gave them each a copy of our class list so they can cross names off as they write letters to classmates. 

And finally, here is an example of a letter written to a classmate. Is this not precious? 

Time Capsule

Back to work today after an 8 day Caribbean cruise (St. Thomas, Antigua, Tortola, and Nassau)! It was gorgeous, relaxing, and I got to kiss a dolphin ;)

Many of you are ending your year, but here in New York we go until the end of June so my class will be working on their final project of the year. Since I had most of my class twice (once in kindergarten and now again in second) they have a super special place in my heart and we've had a lot of great memories together. These kiddos will all hopefully graduate high school in 1 decade so we are creating time capsules. They are decorating large brown envelopes and   their capsules will include letters from their classmates, pictures from this year and kindergarten, work that they are proud of, a note from me, and a letter from their parents/siblings. I cannot even begin to tell you how EXCITED my kids are for this project. 

I'll include pictures as we go but today we started by making personalized class stationery that will be used to write letters. I'll take a picture of mine tomorrow, but I got the general idea from this Pinterest photo. I only have 12 students so each day for the next 11 days each student will write a letter to a different classmate to include in the time capsule

This is the letter I'm sending home to include the parents in this project. 

Has anyone ever done a project like this? I'm really excited. I love looking at stuff I did in elementary school so I'm hoping this becomes memorable to the students one day. I'll post more about it as we work on it. 

So far we have about 6 of us!!! Don't miss out, RSVP :D

Teacher Appreciation Week :)

Teacher Appreciation week begins tomorrow! I appreciate all the hard working, talented teachers out there that produce and share amazingly creative products and ideas. I too am participating in the TpT appreciation sale, so be sure to check it out! Happy shopping. I know I can't wait to purchase the goodies on my wishlist. :D Have a great week and I hope your school does something super special for all you hardworking teachers! So check out my store and stock up on goodies for next year. 

Apostrophe Showers.......

It's almost May and it's Sooo cold here in NY! Waiting for those May flowers :) I've always gotten a lot of emails about my "Apostrophe Showers" bulletin board, so this time around, I saved the template so I can share it. Uploading onto TpT is so much easier than dealing with Google Documents, so you can download the freebie here. If you can't see it that well the contraction goes on the flower (don't) and the parts of the contraction go on the leaves (do not).

I'm telling ya, it's been an exhausting year. I'm now in the process of apply for jobs and that's so much work and emotionally draining, especially when you don't even get called for an interview :/ Don't forget about the Capital Region blogger's meet up next month! 

On another note, I found out last week that I will be giving the IOWA test in 2 weeks. Hello, short notice! Does anyone have any experience with this test? Any advice? Resource book suggestions? I'm meeting Love to Teach at our local teacher store today so we can look at some resources together and hopefully find something suitable for our kiddos :x

** Capital Region Blogger Gathering **

So my buddies, Little Literacy Learners and Love to Teach, and I have been discussing how jealous we are of all the blogger gatherings across the state. We've decided to host our own in the Capital Region! We haven't decided an exact location yet because we want to know how many people would be interested first. You can RSVP via email or comment here. Please share this post or invitation to spread the word! Look forward to gabbing with you all!

Help Wanted

I'm watching Starsky and Hutch, drinking Diet Pepsi, and doing report cards when I realized, wow, I've really neglected my blog this year. 

It's been a crazy year! Last week I presented a literacy workshop and I think it went really well. I discussed what a literacy rich environment looks like, how to conference 1:1 with your students, and our district assessment requirements. 

I also put my resignation in about a month ago. If you know of any districts (preferable public school) in the Albany, NY region hiring for next year, I'm on the market. I am struggling with the thought of not having my own classroom next year, but it's time to move on. 

So last week we finished my matter unit and one of my cutie pies wrote this on her test: 

The arrow says "I couldn't think of anything else!!" This was definitely the highlight of my week. I'm still laughing about it. 

On Friday I played a little April Fools trick on my students since it fell on a Sunday this year. I gave them a spelling test and most of them didn't even notice until the very end that it said something vertically: 

They thought this was hysterical!! It says "there really is no spelling test today. April fools ha ha ha"

We also made ice cream on Friday for our snazzy snack and end of our matter unit celebration. The recipe can be found here. It was so much fun and it was actually really tasty. It was made in a Ziploc bag and they just ate it right out of the bag. It shows a chemical change. 

My friend Laura over at Love To Teach does a weekly blog post about freebies that she finds. I like this idea and I want to share a couple of my finds last night. 

This first freebie is data binder materials. This must be very time consuming BUT I can definitely see this making me a better and more accountable teacher. There will also be no surprises when report cards come around. 

This next freebie is a poetry unit. I hate poetry :( I'm just glad April is a short month and I only have to teach it for 2 weeks. Hopefully this freebie makes it go a little more smooth for me. 

Have a great week!! Since I teach at a Catholic school we don't have school Thursday, Friday, or the following week. I plan on working on a magnet unit so if there is anything you would like to see in it, let me know :)