Super Saturday and Super Giveaways

I know it is a little late in the day for most of you on the mainland, but I'm just sitting down after a busy Saturday.  It was one of those beautiful, sunny breezy days that makes me so happy:)
I was able to get in a nice 4 mile run, finish up my report cards, and then enjoy a
beautiful evening surf session.  It's been a few weeks since we have had good weather
and good waves:)

Now on to the fun stuff!!    

Krista at Second Grade SuperKids is having a giveaway. 
She has reached over 100 followers and has some fantastic items to give away!!
Surf on over and check out her great blog and giveaway.





As many of you may know it is also TBA's birthday celebration.  They are planning all kinds of fun activities for the week and they have a super giveaway going on.  I am really hoping I win this one!!!
I am pretty sure we are all TBA members, but if your not you need to be.  It has been such
a great resource for me to get started as a blogger.

Stop by and check out all the fun and enter their giveaway.




0

Almost Friday and a Linky Party!!

Does it ever seem to you that when you have a short week it seems even longer? I love my 3 day weekends, but I tend to come back to play catch up!! This is report card week and it always makes for longer days!!
                                                                    
On a brighter note Tara over at 4th Grade Frolics is having a really fun linky party.  Looky in my Lunchbox linky:) It's fun to see what everyone else is eating for lunch and how much or little time they all have.  These days I generally eat lunch in my classroom.  I'm always so busy finshing up little items here and there.  But I really do miss eating with other teachers in the teacher's lounge.  It's nice to share recipes and swap stories and not think about school for at least 15 minutes.

So here is my lunch today.

 I have a cute little lunch bag that a student gave me for Christmas:) I generally have leftovers and today is Bowtie Pasta with Parmesan cheese, hummus and cucumbers, and watermelon.  I always bring extra fruit to snack on throughout the day.  My other staple is my waterbottle.  I fill it sometimes 2 or 3 times depending on the weather.

My whole class received these waterbottles from The Kokua Foundation which is a non-profit organization to support environmental education in Hawaii's schools.  They also come in once a month and present great nutrition lessons to all the second grade classes.  So needless to say I do my best in helping to promote a healthy lifestyle and environment to my kids.

My lunch is at 11:00-11:45 when I don't have recess duty. Otherwise I am outside those last 15 minutes. I am pretty spoiled having this block of time for lunch. I actually do a lot of planning and now blogging during this time, lol!!

I look forward to seeing what everyone else is doing for lunch today, and don't forget to link up and check out Tara's great giveway and super cute blog!!

6

50 Followers, Freebie and Warrior Weekend!!

Wow, I can't believe I have over 50 followers!! Thank you all so much! I have gained so many great ideas and great Freebies for me to use in class.  I'm not fantastic at creating new things, I just don't seem to have the time, but I do have something fun for you.


Each week we have Hawaiian Studies. We have a wonderful Kumu (teacher) who comes in and teaches about the Hawaiian culture to our class. She is an amazing talent, she sings, plays the Ukulele and speaks Hawaiian.  I have been creating little mini-books to put in my class library so the students can practice what she teaches them. I wanted to give the others I have created as Freebies, but they contain artwork that I am not liscensed to give away.  Go to my TpT store and download this new one I Can Speak In Hawaiian. Let me know what you think and if it is useful.

Classroom Freebies Manic Monday


Another reason that I am not able to create all of these amazing things that others seem to be doing is that I can't seem to sit still long enough!! I love being involved in lots of running events and races. So when I heard the Warrior Dash was coming to Hawaii I signed up right away!! I convinced the old ball and chain to do it with me and another teacher/surfer friend of mine.  If you don't know what this is it's a 3 mile race through all kinds of obstacles. Climbing, ropes, balance beams, trudging through a swampy marsh, jumping over a fire pit and of course crawling under barbed wire through a mud pit!! We had a blast!!



Before





After!!

Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend as well!!
16

Top Ten Awards and a 3 Day Weekend!!

Well it's Friday after a long week and I finally have a minute to get back into blog land.

  So I received the Top Ten Award Last week from Laura over at Ms. Castro's 2nd Grade  and would like to pass it on to some blogs I found through the Linky Party over at Kindergarten Lifestyle.  I tried to find a some new blogs that have not received this award yet, but some may already have it.  Either way every blogger needs a little Aloha for the hard work we know they are all doing.

Top 10 TBA











Don't forget ladies to grab this award, display it proudly and pass it on to 10 more
fellow bloggers that you enjoy following.


Well I'm off to enjoy my lovely 3 day weekend.


12

Back To School

Well I am back to school from a nice mellow break, and I am exhausted!! It's only Wednesday! I guess I got used to sleeping in until 7:30 every morning. 

I have received lots of new followers over the past few days and I am completely amazed!! I received this Top Ten award from Laura over at Mrs. Castro's 2nd Grade...Spanglish Style.


Top 10 TBA


 Thank you so much!!  It is so nice to make great connections and have people stop by and check out my little blog.   I will pass this on to some deserving blogs when I get a bit more time:).

I am in the middle of report cards and trying to catch up with things that piled up over Spring Break!!  I just had to share a funny thing that happened today as I was teaching my math lesson.

 I wish I had a camera handy, but you will just have to get an idea from this borrowed photo.  Anyway as I was teaching, the kids all gasped and started pointing. I figured it was a bee.  We have these large black carpenter bees that fly through my classroom daily.   It doesn't really get too hot or too cold so we have louvres on our windows with no screens.  Critters, birds and insects crawl in through the windows all the time.  Well I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and it was a Cane Spider.  These are very large fast moving spiders that will jump if you spook them and of course this one was moving quickly across my whiteboard. ( Anyone ever see Arachnaphobia?)

Well I was so proud that I didn't jump, scream or run!! I backed up and said "It's fine he's just lost".  Well he decided to crawl right onto my diagram of the clock I had drawn and just sit there!!  The kids were waiting for me to freak out.  So I told them he had been watching my lesson and really wanted to learn about time too!! They thought this was hilarious.  Finally the little bugger ran off and hid behind one of my posters.  I think I earned a few brownie points from my students, especially my boys!!

Here's a link to learn more about these critters if your interested;)
So whenever you get jealous that I live in Hawaii remember the lovely guests that I encounter daily as I open up my closets, doors, books, boxes....


3

Linky Party!!

I am loving these linky parties! So much fun to see all the bloggers out there!!
Michelle over at Teach123 is having a New Teacher Tips Linky.

She is asking veteran teachers to give some tips that new teachers might benefit from.
So here are a few simple ones that you may not think about
when your in a frenzy to make your classroom perfect and find
that perfect lesson.

Check out Michelle's page for lots more ideas!!


11

The Important Book

So I know I'm on Spring Break, but our weather here has not been very fabulous. Too windy and rainy to surf:(  Anyone who knows me can attest to the fact that I am a Surfaholic, lol!  Anyway just wanted to share a cute writing activity that I did recently.  I used this simple book by Margaret Wise Browning to discuss adjectives and the use of commas in writing.



The simple straightforward verse makes it simple for any writer to follow the pattern in their own writing.  So I had the students choose something that they knew alot about and write their own important story.  They really enjoyed writing these, and even my reluctant writers came up with really cute entries.










 This is an easily adaptable lesson for K-2, and was perfect for my ELL learners to find the right words to describe.  Many of my higher level students asked if they could write another one!  This will make a great class book for our classroom library.

Oh and I forgot to mention the great linky party over at Kindergarten Lifestyle.
Head on over and link up:)



10

Spring Break!!

Well I am officially on Spring Break starting today. Why on a Friday?  We have had Furlough Days here in Hawaii for the last few years. However they are not called Furlough days anymore, they call them "DLWOP" days. The first time I saw this new acronym I asked a co-worker " What is a Dill Whop Day??!!" She laughed and told me it stood for Directed Leave Without Pay.  So I am spending my Dill Whop day catching up on some blogger awards.

I know some of these bloggers have received this award before but I just wanted to share a few of my favorites and and all of their great ideas and hard work.  I think everyone deserves this award!!






















Check out these great blogs!!

Remember to pass the award on to all your favorite blogs as well!!



17

Permission to Pin

Being a newbie teacher to blogland there is so much out there and I am always stumbling onto a new idea or information from all of my blogstalking.  However it all started from joining Pinterest about 6 months ago.  I had no idea there was such an amazing community of teachers sharing and creating.
I started pinning great ideas and using them in my class.  Well I just read Laura Candler's Permission To Pin post and am granting everyone my permission to pin away!!



Check out Laura's blog and get your own permission to pin button!!




0

Monday, Monday

Well it's been raining cats and dogs here and was one of those crazy inside days!!
Our week is a bit more crazy because it is spirit week at our school. Fun and exciting activities schoolwide. Today was PJ day which was great for my daughters and I to just roll out of bed and head to school!

I just wanted to thank Emily from Second  Grade Silliness for this great award.


As a newbie blogger it's wonderful to receive!

Stop by and check out her great blog. I love her alphabet entries, freebies and great ideas!!




It is so difficult to pass this award on to 15 others. There are so many great blogs out there!! I will save this for later in the week.


7

Lorax Lovers

What a fun day we had celebrating our beloved Dr. Seuss!  The kids were so excited about the new Lorax movie coming out, that we focused mainly on this book.  Thank you to Mel D. from Suesstastic for her wonderful ideas and freebies which the kids loved.  Thank you also to Rachel from Sub Hub for her great Lorax mustaches.  The kids all left wearing these home today.
We tied our lesson into conserving our local environment here in Hawaii and the kids wrote some great ideas.



We also graphed our favorite books and the kids did an amazing job with their creativity and illustrations.


We were thankful for our Army partners from nearby Schofield Barracks for coming and reading Dr. Seuss to each class in our school. Then they donated all of the books that they brought to our school library! Mahalo to our great service men and women.
My class thoroughly enjoyed the day and I am exhausted, but thankful for all the wonderful inspiration I was given from the amazing teachers out there!!


11
Back to Top