Mentor Text- Millions, Billions, Trillions

Happy Sunday!  I am enjoying my time with family in Boston!  Today, my sister, Sarah, and her husband, Steven, ran the Boston half marathon.  It was Sarah's fifth or sixth half marathon and Steven's first.  Steven is unsure if he will do another one, he may just be Sarah's biggest cheerleader!

Watching them run makes me want to get out and start running again.  I wish time would allow!  If I did not need sleep, I could totally do it!

I am linking up with the wonderful Amanda and Stacia from Collaboration Cuties for their mentor text linky party!  This week we are talking about math books!  I love using picture books in math, they provide another way for students to see and understand the math concepts.  Today, the book I want to highlight is Millions, Billions, and Trillions:Understanding Big Numbers by David A. Adler.

Amazon description:  What does a million look like? A billion? A trillion? These huge numbers are hard to visualize. This book explains quantities in terms children can understand. For example, one million dollars could buy two full pizzas a day for more than sixty-eight years, it would take the heads of ten thousand people together to have one billion hairs.

I really loved this book because it gave some great examples of these big numbers that kids sometimes have a hard time grasping.  It also went in order from smallest to greatest so the kids could see it the numbers growing and getting bigger.  It is a great addition to any place value or number sense unit of study!

Teachers Pay Teachers is having a surprise sale and I have joined in the fun.  My entire store is 10% off and if you use the code FB100K you can get an additional 10% off!  It is such a deal!  Make sure you check it out!

Sparking Student Motivation...Decorating their space, plus a sale!

Happy Saturday!  I am on my way to Springfield, MA to meet my sister and her cross country team.  They have a meet and my mom and I are driving up to support them!  My sister, Sarah, coaches girls cross country at Gordon College.  It feels like yesterday, I was watching her run cross country in high school!

I could not forget to link up with Joanne from Head Over Heals for Teaching.  Today is her Sparking Student Motivation weekly linky!

My room is a bit different in the set up.  I have these partition desks built into the wall on one and a half sides of my room.  

When I first found out I was going to have these offices, I was not to excited.  They take up a lot of wall space and I didn't think I was going to be able to use them.  Well, I had a bright idea one day in the car driving from school to home (I drive an hour and a half one way!)...I would use them as the students' cubbies.  They can put their jackets and back packs in there along with extra books and supplies!!! I am so smart!  I shared my idea with the other teacher who has them and she loved it!  So that is what part of them are used for.  I decided since my students are in fifth grade I would give them the opportunity to decorate them, like a locker, which they will get in middle school.   They jumped on the idea.  Many students brought in family pictures or pet pictures to hang in their cubby.  A few kids put pictures of their favorite sports team.  This was something that didn't take a lot of time and doesn't distract them from their work.  They feel ownership of their cubby now and they loved showing me all of their pictures!

One student decided he didn't want to decorate his cubby and instead decorated his desk...with Christmas lights!  They run on battery and he was told he could keep them in his desk if they do not become a distraction to him!  When I first saw them, I just had to laugh!!

Do you let the students decorate anything and make it their own?  I would love to know your ideas!

Teachers Pay Teachers is having a FLASH sale...I am putting my entire store on sale for 10% off through Monday night!  You can get an extra 10% off by using the code: FB100K! Enjoy!

Five for Friday!!!

I am so excited it is Friday!  This week has been another long one, that did pick up pace towards the end of the week!  I am excited to be linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for their Five for Friday.

Did you notice anything new about my blog????  I got a new blog design!!!!!  Megan from Bird in Hand did an amazing job...better than I even imagined.  I choose one of her build your own blog designs...they give you lots of choices for a great price.  If you need a blogging update...I give her two thumbs up!

Last week-end I had the opportunity to go on a church women's retreat.  It was an amazing time away of hearing God's word and spending time with friends.  We ventured up to Camp-of-the-Woods in Speculator, NY.  It was breath taking...the leaves were at their peak!  The week-end focus around Psalm 121.  It was amazing how we all heard the same message, but God talked to each one of us individually.

The stage decorations.

Saturday night Bon fire by the lake!

A beautiful fall tree.

This week, we also had an in school field trip.  The Creation Museum came to our school.  The kids really enjoyed it and learned a lot.  I was very excited that it fit right into what we were just studying in science on fossils and dinosaurs.  (I love when stuff like that happens).  The kids got to see and touch some amazing fossils.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to explore a possible field trip destination.  World of Wings in Teaneck, NJ had a teacher night for teachers in grades K-5th.  A few teacher and I headed out to explore this place.  Well, they treated us like royalty.  They fed us amazing food and took us on an amazing tour of all they have to offer.  It was night and most of the butterflies were sleeping, but it was still so beautiful to see them each so unique.  World of Wings offers many great programs for all different ages.  If you are in the North Jersey area, you make want to check it out.  

One of the sleeping butterflies!

They even had a photo spot!

Last week I had a giveaway for three teachers to win three items from my Teachers Pay Teachers store.  I am proud to announce that I have three winners...Diane from Fifth in the Middle, Andrea L. and Bethany from Hunter's Teaching Tales.  Congrats to the winners!

Well, I am off to go pack for a three day week-end in Boston.  My sister and brother-in-law are running the Boston half marathon on Sunday.  I am excited to spend time with family and relax.  Hopefully I will be able to find time to grade a huge stack of papers that have piled up over the last week and a half!  Have a great night!

Currently....and a giveaway!

We made it to October!!!  I don't know if any other teachers felt that September was a very LONG month!  Two weeks into school and I felt like I had been teaching for two months!  But, we have finally hit October and I am very happy to be here!

Today, I am linking up with Farley and her monthly Currently!

Listening- I wrote my currently this morning when I got to school.  My classroom was nice a quiet and I was just enjoying the silence because soon fourteen amazing fifth graders would come bouncing in and ready to learn. (I started writing this blog post this morning!)

Loving- I love fall.  It is my favorite time of the year.  I love the smells, the leaves changing, the fall baking!  Everything fall I am loving!

Thinking-  I am taking Friday off to attend a women's retreat with my church.  I am excited for a week-end away, but not looking forward to writing sub plans.  I tend to be very detailed in my sub plans and they end up pages long!

Wanting- I am heading up to Camp of the Woods in Speculator, NY this week-end.  I know the colors will be amazing up there.  I am excited for a week-end of relaxation and studying God's word.

Needing- SLEEP! No explanation needed!

Treat-  I made these yummy Oatmeal Apple Pie Bars this week-end.  They are amazing.  You can catch the recipe HERE.

Another treat for you!  I have had a Teacher Pay Teachers store for a few months.  I don't have many products, but I have some and I hope to add more as time allows.  I was very excited to have sold 100 items!  I know it is not a major milestone, but I was pretty excited about it!  I have put together a small giveaway for three people to win three items each from my store!  I hope you will enter!  

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good Luck!  Well, I am off to get some work done...maybe those sub plans!

Have a great night!

Rosie

Mentor Text- The Legend of Spookly the Square Pumpkin

I have been a bad blogger...school and life have consumed my life and I have not been able to sit and write a blog in a while.  I think of all these good ideas, but it usually it is when I am in my car driving back and forth to school.  This year I am having a huge commute to school each day, which hasn't been terrible, but some of my car time would be blogging time normally.  Please forgive me for maybe not as many blog posts.  I am hoping to break 200 followers very soon because I have an awesome giveaway that I have been waiting to do...I only need 8 more followers!

Today, I am linking up with the fabulous girls at Collaboration Cuties for their weekly Mentor Text linky party.  If you have not checked this out yet, you should.  I find some many great books that I did not know about before or have forgotten about. They have this party each Sunday and it is fabulous!!!  This week their theme is October books, fall or Halloween.  I teach in a Christian school so we do not celebrate Halloween.  I like to do a bunch of fall activities with the students.  I usually have a pumpkin day where we do many different activities with pumpkins and math.  

We guess how many seeds are in a pumpkin.  Then we dig in and see how many there actually are.  The students are always surprised at how many seeds are in a pumpkin.

The students work in groups to put the seeds in groups of ten.

Some students didn't want to touch the actual stuff inside so they used gloves!

We guessed how many were in this small pumpkin and the students were amazed that there were over 100 seeds inside this little pumpkin.

Some groups were neater than others with their grouping!

After we complete a bunch of math activity, I always read The Legend of Spookly the Square Pumpkin by Joe Troiano.  I use this story to talk about how God made us all different.  We should not look at peoples outward appearance, but look at their heart.  We then usually draw our own Spookly pumpkin and write about how God made us each different.

Description from Barnes & Nobles.com: 

One day in the pumpkin patch
the strangest little pumpkin hatched....

Spookley the Pumpkin was different. All the other pumpkins teased him, until Spookley proved that being different can save the day!

I also found a fantastic video of the book on youtube.  

Check out this very inspiring book!  Well, I am off to do some fall baking and finish some school work for the week!  

Rosie

Monday Made It with a Freebie!

I have to confess...I had this post done on Sunday except for the pictures, which I needed to take yesterday.  Our Internet at school was crazy, I was over whelmed yesterday and we had open house.  I am sorry this is a day late!

It has been a while since I linked up to Monday Made It!  I have made things, but have either thought they were not worthy to link up or they were pretty boring.  Today, I feel my item is worthy of Monday Made It!  Head over to see Tara and check out some fun things others have made! 

I love wreaths...all kinds.  I like to have a different one for each season hanging on my front door.  I feel like they are very welcoming to visitors.  I had seen ones on pinterest that were teacher related.  So I had to try and make one!  I bought a flat wreath form from Michaels for $2 and a few boxes of crayons from Target.  I used the Up & Up crayons because I had a coupon, so I believe they were free and I like the polka dots on them.  (You can score the Up and Up crayons for 22 cents a box right now at Target).  I got my trusty hot glue gun and went to work gluing all of the crayons around the edge.  It didn't take me long.  Before I glued the last few down, I glued some ribbon to the form so I could hang the wreath on the door.  I added an owl to the top and voila!  It now hangs nicely on the front of my classroom door to welcome all of my students!

Tonight Last Night was open house to I made these cute tags to go with apples I bought for the parents.  I plan on placing one on each child's desk.  You can pick these up as a freebie at my TpT store!

A desk already for the parent!

I am off to write some lesson plans and grade my first homework assignment!  Then to bed...5 am comes to early!

Rosie

Mentor Text- Great Estimations

Happy Sunday!  I hope you have had a fabulous weekend.  We got a small glimpse of fall weather yesterday, which was very nice.  Today it was a bit warmer and it is supposed to get warmer throughout the week.  As I was trying to figure out outfits for the week, I was wishing it was a bit cooler.  I enjoy my colder weather clothes better!  Today, I am linking up with Collaboration Cuties for their weekly mentor text linky party.  This week the subject is math books!

The book I chose, I will actually be using in class tomorrow.  I am talking about benchmark numbers and this books gives great examples using items that we very rarely ever count out, like rice or Cheerios.   The book will show one page of 100 pieces of rice and then school a page and ask the readers to estimate how many pieces are on a full page.  I do have some kids who want to try and count, but they tend to loose patience after a few minutes.  This books gives students real like items to estimate. 

Check out all of the other great books people write about and maybe link up one of your own Mentor Texts!

Rosie