Hello readers! This is the first time I am linking up with Oh Boy Fourth Grade with the monthly "Currently" posts. I love these little writing starters. I use them in my journal all the time! So why not blog with it? ;)
LISTENING: My husband and I are becoming fans of the popular game League of Legends which has a HUGE fan base and actual paid professionals who play. LCS stands for League Champion Series which has been going on for several days now. We have it playing in the background pretty much all evening...
LOVING: This weather is just SO gorgeous! It is about 78 degrees right now, sunny, breezy, just perfection. It was a little chilly getting to school this morning, but it warmed up around 9:00!
THINKING: I am just down right sleepy. I don't want to say tired because I don't feel exhausted. I just finished Spring Break for crying out loud! But I am warm now instead of freezing and the warmth and my comfy "at-home" clothes just make me want to go to sleep and stay that way for a while.
WANTING: As mentioned above, LCS is playing the background which makes me want to log on and get playing!
NEEDING: I am doing the "Me on the Map" activity with the construction paper circles tomorrow and I NEED to make the model for the students to go by... but I just really don't want to right now!
HOURS AND LAST DAY: This is an interesting answer for me as I am a student teacher right now in my FINAL internship! My last day as a college student is April 25th, therefore I will no longer be required to be in the classroom. This will give me time to focus on teaching my theater classes and get ready for my summer jobs, but it is not the last day. The last day of school in my county is June 4th!
What is your "April Currently?" Check out others at Oh Boy Fourth Grade and link up too!
Is it strange that I can get a Five for Friday post this early?? I think so! But Spring Break makes wonderful things happen. ;P
First of all, this is my last day of Spring Break! I had huge plans to get a whole lot done, but it didn't really pan out. I still feel incredibly behind. My mistake was that I planned too much and didn't account for my need to actually take a break. I still have the weekend to get my act together and start on Monday fresh.
This is pretty much how I feel.
Although I didn't get as much done as I had originally hoped, I will say that I got to spend more time with my husband when he got home from work. If you've read some of my previous posts about him, he is a YouTuber and HUGE gamer. I had posted a couple of times about a few videos I am in on YouTube and I feel so flattered that I actually have a few fans! Hehe.
We have some exciting news! Ryan was contacted by a viewer of his YouTube channel and his Twitch stream and is making... wait for it.... shirts. They are making.... shirts! Brutall (his gaming internet personality) shirts! How crazy is that??
Here's the video. I'm in it!
And then I did another video! My series on his channel is about how to incorporate a time consuming hobby into a relationship. This one is about how its okay to branch out on your own and to not just do something together for the sake of doing something together. It makes more sense in the video, so check it out and subscribe to his channel for more.
FREEBIE ALERT BELOW
So even though I just got done saying that I didn't get much done this week, I did manage to get a new product finished! I seriously feel like I've been working on this things for MONTHS. It took much longer than expected but I'm happy with the results!
These are "Prop Stories" which I use a lot in my theater classes for the younger groups. Essentially I read, and the kids wait to hear their "name" and hold up a prop. It is AMAZING for listening skills. I mean, you could hear a pin drop while they wait for their part to come up. I had also created shorter versions for small groups which they of course love because one student reads and the others hold up their prop at the right time. They will re-read and re-read and re-read over and over again so they can all take turns at each part. It has been very successful for me so I hope you can say the same.
Here are some shots of the product and click HERE for a FREEBIE of it exclusive to my blog readers!!!
Click any of the images above to go to the full download or click HERE.
If you haven't heard, I have a linky going on! Next week is National Week of the Ocean so link up your Under the Sea posts and products. HERE's the link!
I LOVE Under the Sea stuff!
My product in the link is another Reader's Theater (so now you know my favorite things...).
One nice thing about being off the last week is I was able to cook lots of good recipes for my husband and myself. We are terrible about fast food, so it was nice to take a step back and make a few home cooked meals. We are trying to get back on track and I think we did a great job this week towards that.
Check out what we've eaten this week by clicking the links. The links direct you to some of my absolute FAVORITE recipe blogs!
What. A. Week. I can't believe I've let it go over a week without a solid post! It's ALMOST Spring Break and I am SOOOO ready. Unfortunately my kiddos are ready, too, and it is much harder to get them to focus right now. I have been coming home utterly exhausted everyday! So, yesterday, I took a much needed relaxing day. I didn't get out of my PJs and I played video games with my husband all day! In case you are a gaming fan like me, I have been playing a bit of League of Legends lately and it is TOUGH! I have only been playing for maybe 3 days and it is definitely addicting. I want to just keep playing and playing!
I am "Brutemanda" which is a play on my husband's gaming pen name "Brutall." In case you are interested, here is my husband's awesome YouTube channel: BrutallStatic. He is also always gaming on Twitch which is a streaming site. You can sometimes log in and watch me play as well, so check it out: Twitch, BrutallStatic. In addition to taking a relax day, I did finish up a few TpT projects, including a freebie I'm posting for you, my readers! Here it is! I hope you enjoy it. I have been using it a lot in my Buddy Reading center for practice finding the main idea. :) CLICK HERE or click the IMAGE below.
Wish me luck on my last week before Spring Break and if your's happens to fall on the same week as mine, have a safe and relaxing break! <3
This week was a strange one from the get go. First off it was a 4 day week. I was happy to take the 3 day weekend last week but 4 day weeks are so weird! The kids don't ever seem to get into the swing of things with that extra day off and to be honest, this week, I had issues with it as well. I started feeling ill last Friday night and I knew it was just my allergies. However, my allergies sparked a full fledged TERRIBLE ear infection...
I have seriously not had an ear infection since I was a child! Now I know why babies and kids cry all day and night when they have these things! THEY HURT. And all week my left ear has been all stopped up making noise very different and anyone who has stepped into a Kindergarten class knows that there is noise sometimes. Oh man. Was I irritable. So it was a rough week for everyone. :(
Yeah..... Don't ever look at Web MD. I get so paranoid. I just have an ear infection but before I went to the doctor I was worried it was SO much worse! Haha. Just. Don't.
Even though this week was WEIRD, we had really successful centers! I have been doing something different for centers and this week was Week 3. I can kick myself because I don't have any good pictures! I will take them on Monday and share them more often because they are working well with this group!
But basically the kiddos are making independent center choices and must get certain things done by the end of the week. Last week I only had 6 kids finish their whole center checklist and this week I had 11! We are getting there!!
This center was a great one. We have this carousel picture frame thing my supervising teacher found at a garage sale and we use it for our spelling center. One kid on each side, one word on each side of the frame! Easy setup, too! They are using the Super Spelling sheet I created as a freebie. Students write their words in pencil, colored pencil and markers. Just adding in that extra feature of writing in something other than pencil made this center so much more enjoyable for the kids... even though they were doing MORE work and getting even MORE practice. Win for teacher!
Interesting story for you: my husband is a YouTuber and a HUGE video gamer. His YouTube channel is about gaming generally, but he has some video series of just life experiences and advice. He's very passionate about this videos and I'm so proud of him! He really dedicates a lot of time to it, but it hasn't gotten in the way of our time together or his job... both of which are important hehe.
Well, one of his video series is called "Life of a Guild Leader" which is really just about him. Sounds boring, but he's got pretty awesome insights and his videos make you think! I'm biased, but I think they rock!
Well, we had the idea to make a spin-off of "Life of a Guild Leader" and called it "Wife of a Guild Leader." Yeah. That's me. This video series is about how to incorporate a very consuming hobby (video games) into a relationship. A lot of non-gamers look down upon gaming as a hobby, but really... it's just another hobby! As long as it doesn't turn into an addiction or replace social interaction, let your spouse have their "me" time and do your thing while they're at it!
Anyway, here's the video to prove it. I feel like s STAR.
There I am! There I am! I made him change my wifey font to something cuter and change the boring white background he normally has to pink. He was pretty nice about it all!
If you want the whole experience, here's hubby's channel: BrutallStatic
I found this idea on Pinterest called the "I'm Done Cup." I'm sure a lot of teachers have something similar, but basically I have different tasks written on a popsicle stick. That's it! Simple as that! When a quick student finishes their work and I don't have something for them or there's not enough time for them to move to something else, I send them to the "I'm Done Cup." The tasks on them are things they already do, I swear. Like "Rainbow write your spelling words" is one of them... and they get so excited because it is on a stick.....
Anyway, one of them was "Write a litter to Mrs. Smith." This is what I received this week:
Translation: "I like Mrs. Smith because you make the best and fun centers."
<3
They like me. They really like me!
Get your leprechaun on! I have a new product and it's super sweet. Check it out and start getting ready for St. Patrick's Day, ya'll! Click the pictures.
Have a great and RELAXING weekend. I know I need it this week...
