The Past, Present and Future-Making Timelines

Aloha Friends!  I am enjoying my 3 day weekend and loving an extra day to catch up and lounge around. I am having a BBQ with some friends this evening to celebrate my birthday (a little late) and to enjoy our beautiful weather that we have been having!!


I went for a long walk this morning with my hubby and my new phone that I got for my birthday :)

I had intended on getting my very first iPhone.  Everyone loves their iPhones.  I ended up getting the Galaxy S5!

I love the camera and it has this fun little feature to take a selfie and a picture at the same time!  It also has a pedometer that automatically counts my steps wherever I go.  I think it's like a FitBit.


It's also water resistant which is great since I plan to walk/jog with it and we are at the beach a lot. It is amazing what phones can do these days.  It's like carrying around a mini computer in your pocket.

Which brings me to the topic of this post!  Phones?  Nope!


Our class started learning about the Past, Present and Future this week.  We talked about how things change over time. (Just like our phones)

We started the week with our Birthday Timeline.


We also learned about inflectional endings -ed/ing in our reading series and how a verb can change to show past, or present.


Click on the picture to grab this freebie in Google Docs.

We started our interactive notebooks and had a lesson on what history means.


We will continue with learning about modern times and the future.  We are also going to be creating our own timelines.  I have shared before how I have students make Personal Timelines.


This is a template from Really Good Stuff that I had used previously.

This year I made a template for my students to use.  I am sending home a letter to parents asking them to help their child write about what they could do at each stage of their life.  I am also asking  them to bring in pictures at each age of their lives (if they have them).



Students will glue in their pictures and write about each year.  If they don't have pictures they will just draw themselves.  I plan to also have them write the year at the top of each picture. I am going to hang them up in our classroom, but they can also place them right into their notebooks.



These always turn out really cute!  I can't wait to share our finished products.

If you are interested in checking out my Timeline Unit it is available in my TpT store.


Thanks so much for popping in. I am off to prepare for my future events.  
Enjoy your long weekend!!



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A Little Birthday Fun

Aloha friends!  I wanted to share some fun that we had this week in class.

We started the week making a timeline of our birthdays.  I gave each child a paper cupcake and they colored it in and wrote their name and birthday on it (some needed a little help).

Then we rearranged the months of the year and put them in order of when we started the school year.


The students then got together by their months and had to decide who's birthday came first to put up on the timeline.


Then we taped them up in order for each month.  We talked about our results and made a graph.



It was simple, fun and got everyone moving around.

My birthday happened to be this week, so I had another activity planned.  Each year I have my students play a fun little guessing game.


I call them up one at a time and have them write down how old they think I am.  I tell them it's a secret and they can't tell anyone.  I also give a prize for the person who is the closest.

I always get a huge range of answers!


I honestly am glad that I am not 8 years old, but I can see how I act like it most days!!


I really am flattered at all the 20-30 year old guesses :)


 Can you see the last one!??  Yup, this lady is 332 years old!  This little pumpkin is going to need some extra practice with number sense.

No one guessed that I was 46, and I was happy to have only 3 guesses that were older than what I really am!

I always end the activity with a little birthday treat that I bring for everyone and we all giggle at the silly answers.

If you would like a copy of the Birthday Guessing Game, just click here to download.  {HERE}
The Birthday Timeline is available in my TpT store.

I can't believe that I am 46 this year!  Where has the time gone?   I have been teaching for 24 years?!!  I honestly can't think of another job that I would enjoy doing for that many years.

Each year always holds new challenges, whether it be with students, parents, administration, colleagues or curriculum. But, each year also brings great joys in the form of delighted faces, warm hugs and growing minds.

I look forward to the challenges and rewards that lie ahead.


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What We Have Been Up To

Aloha friends!!  I have been meaning to write this post for a few weeks, but going back to school has kept me incredibly busy!!

I don't have a major classroom reveal, it's pretty much the same as last year.
(see last year's post here)


I have added a math focus board this year.
(Excuse the mess!)


We started off our first week with practicing our routines and getting used to being back in school.

We did a fun science experiment to get my kiddos predicting and observing.


We drew a dot on a piece of paper towel with a black Crayola marker.  I told them we were going to dip it into some water and they had to predict what would happen.





They had fun seeing the black dot move up the paper and discovered that black ink is made up of different colors!

We also had our first cooking project.

I always start the year with our fruit salad recipe.  But this year it was cancelled our first week due to hurricane Iselle.  I rescheduled for the following week and most kids forgot to bring a fruit, since the first week I had sent home a note, and the following week I didn't.  We still had some kids bring in fruit, so they prepared what we had and we all shared.




They started their new cookbooks too.

I take  about 10 pieces of 9x12 construction paper and bind it together.  We glued on a cover and then they add their recipes inside.



While a few students at a time are cutting up the fruit and preparing, students at their seats worked on their cookbooks and then did a fruit word search.  

The cover and recipe are a freebie in Google Docs. You can click on the pictures to download them.  The word search is from my Hawaii pack.

The second week we started our Morning work which includes doing a word problem each morning.
I created this template on my math focus board out of washi tape, to match what was on their papers.


I walked them through each part step by step for the whole week.  We filled in our chart on the board and then they did it on their own papers.




I really stressed that their explanation should tell how they knew what to do and to tell the answer.  I have a handful of students that already have it down!! I am really happy with their progress.

This last week we started math rotations.  It is similar to last years rotations, but slightly different.  I will share out next week. 

I hope your back to school has gone smoothly and your class is shaping up for a great year!!  I am loving the mix of sweet kiddos this year!!




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Wordless Wednesday


Click on the pics to take you to my TpT shop!

















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