Choice Menus

Who doesn't love choices? I'll take the tart frozen yogurt with strawberries, kiwi, raspberries, and yogurt chips, please! Oh heck, why not throw a frosted animal cracker on there while you're at it - it's too healthy as it is now! You know you have done this; half the reason why we love those frozen yogurt self serve places is because of all of the choices! Kids are the same way too, the more choices you give them, the better off everyone is! 

This idea came to me via a professional development that one of our instructional coaches presented to us.  I did this for our state testing writing part to help out the Language Arts teacher. In order to cover as much material for them as possible, I had them choose a variety of tasks to complete while I conferenced with students about their writing. Normally I would do this more as a "fast finisher" activity or for those gifted students who need more stimulation. :)

I filled out the following form with activities that I wanted them to complete.  I assigned how many I wanted them to complete and what day I wanted it done by.  The link to download this template is at the bottom of the post.

Then I created a system so that the papers were organized and easily accessible for my students. I have these cubbies in my classroom which are nifty, but kind of useless in middle school. Finally it hit me that I could be using them for this instead of just textbook storage!! Duh!

If you don't have nifty difty cubbies, you could always use plastic trays to organize the assignments.

I made signs for the different menu options as well as numbers for the different assignments within those categories. I also laminated these signs because they are in a heavy traffic zone.

This has been a great tool in my classroom and I hope it can be in yours as well. You can really customize it to any subject area or ability level!

Want to download the free goodies???

Click the pictures below to download the TWO different freebies!

Let me know if you plan on using these and how it works out in your classroom. Enjoy!

Currently May

It's MAY!!!! That means that I only have 16 more school days left of school until summer break!!! Let's take a moment to appreciate that...

OK, I'm done with my small party for one celebration.  

LISTENING: My husband is watching Game of Thrones so really it's background noise for me. I hear great things about Game of Thrones and I really have tried to watch it, but I think since I wasn't fully invested when it started, it's just all over for me. Every time I try to watch it, this is what it sounds like: "Wait, who is that?" "Is that his brother?" "Wait, which family does she belong to?" "Why does she have dragons?"  Too many characters for me to keep track of, but of course it might help if I have seen every episode and not 8.3% of them.

LOVING: We had a family night tonight; I was pretty sure that no one was going to show up and a TON of families did! It might have been because we served food, but I like to think it was because they wanted to see our historical posters and were chompin' at the bit to play our math station games. ;)

THINKING:  That I am so excited that tomorrow is Friday!!! Who's with me?? Not to mention that on Saturday, I am going to a really exciting event called Junk in the Trunk Vintage Market that I am so pumped for.  Anyone else from Phoenix going to that?

WANTING:  Ice cream...  I love love love Jeni's Ice Cream. It is expensive, but so good.  My favorite flavor is the Brown Butter Almond Brittle. Holy cow, no joke, you guys have to try it.

NEEDING:  I have to leave for school pretty early from my house (around 6:30 AM) so in order to get as much sleep as any normal lazy person needs like myself, I have to do everything the night before. Get the coffee ready to go, pack my lunch and breakfast, etc.  It's kind of a pain, but I would rather do it the night before than be in a panic the next morning.

SURPRISE: Who doesn't love freebies? If any of you do socratic seminars in your classroom you have got to check out Lisa Tilmon's Socratic Seminar Circles Numbers. They are awesome and have helped so much with organizing my students.  Thanks Lisa!!!

Don't forget to link up to Farley's Currently to complete your own!

A Year of Sundays

I can't believe that Chelsea and I have been doing this project since February and it is almost May! Remember, this photography project got started because Chelsea from 5th Grade Wit and Whimsy and I both shared a love for photography. We both love to capture small moments that get easily overlooked otherwise.  We never discuss the photographs ahead of time and our only guidelines is that it has to be taken on a Sunday.  I love this project because as I am looking through our older pictures, I know exactly what I was doing that day even though it was months ago.  If I wasn't taking pictures, I would lose many of these memories just due to our daily grind and distractions. My pictures are always on the left and Chelsea's are always on the right. :)

Sunday, April 13th:

Donuts and Poppies

Sunday, April 20th:

Easter Eggs and Frozen Yogurt

Sunday, April 27th:

Sneaky Bird and Doggie Blanket

End of the Day Clean Up Routine

Because of budget cuts, our janitorial staff has been significantly downsized. We went months without getting vacuumed and we still to this day have to put our trashcans in the hallway so that the junior high students can come around to empty our trash during the school day. My teammates and I decided to come up with a system so that even though we weren't getting regular cleanings, our rooms weren't complete disaster zones.

ENTER the stickers.

I have seen these stickers floating around bloggy land for a while now and had never used them in my classroom.
We put an even amount of colored labels on all of the desks and then covered them with packing tape so they wouldn't get torn off or mangled.

Every color was assigned an end of the day job. We thought about the places that accumulate the most mess around the room and decided on the following tasks: straighten the desks, pick up trash off the floor, clean/wipe down the counters (including the larger small group table) and cubbies, and wipe down the desks with sanitizing wipes.

These jobs are easily changeable to whatever the needs are for your classroom.

A few minutes before the bell rings, I have the students start their clean up procedure. It is done quickly and quietly and every one has a job to do. It took a lot of training to get them to the point that they would be able to do this without constant reminders and supervision.  I have to be honest though that when a guest teacher is in my classroom, it doesn't go quite so smoothly...

As the year has progressed I have created some "special" jobs for my students who have difficulties, ummm, following directions to put it mildly.  You know little Jumpin' Johnny or Busy Betsy, you get the picture, just give them a job to do and keep it consistent (like wiping down the sink or erasing the learning targets, something, ANYTHING).

I absolutely love this routine! Not only does it give a structured, consistent ending to our day everyday but it also helps our classroom stay spankin' clean!

Here's a little freebie...

I made a little sign for my classroom so that the students will always know what their job is especially if we switch seats. We made little nicknames for each of the jobs so please don't judge our attempt at creativity.

Click here to download. :)

You can use these stickers for soooo much more too! Cooperative learning groups, accountability purposes by calling on a "color" to answer a question... the sky's the limit!

Do you have an end of the day cleaning routine? If you do, I would love to hear about it. Enjoy the freebie!

Five for Friday

I am so so SO happy it is Friday! This week felt so long and I am pretty sure all weeks will until the end of school. Only 20 more school days left, people!

***Side Note: To be honest, this group that I have this year is so wonderful. They are my little sugar plums. I will probably be crying buckets on the last day of school.

Here are my top 5 from this week:::::

1.  WAFFLES
George and I ate at a waffle food truck last night. It was incredible. I can not even tell you all how amazing it is. I try not to eat sweets that often so this was in pretty rare form for me and I was definitely going to document it.  George got something called the Scoop and I got something called the Mellow.  If any of you live in Phoenix, you have to check out the Waffle Crush food truck.

2.  GALLERY WALL
I finally put up my gallery wall in my living room. It's not done yet; I still have a few more things to hang, but I am so happy that these frames are on the wall finally and not on the *ahem* floor collecting dust.

3.  NEW SHOES
I went DSW and fell in love.  These shoes are perfect and make me smile! They don't make my feet smile yet though, but they'll come around.

4.  DISTRICT TESTING
We finished up our Reading AZAC tests this week and our kids rocked it! We take ours on the computers so the kids can see their score immediately which is a huge motivator for them. I love seeing how excited they get and celebrating with them. One kid almost moved me to tears he was so happy with himself and his progress.

5.  WEEKEND
I get to hang out with these cutie pies all weekend and nothing is better than that. :)

Be sure to link up with Doodle Bug's Teaching Blog to blog about your Five for Friday!

State Testing Bulletin Board Idea

Don't you just love state testing?? The stress, the pressure, ah, just exhilarating! We just finished up our state testing a week ago and I am SOO glad it is over.
This is a little bulletin board that we whipped up last year and reused this year.  It looked a lot cuter last year because it got a little torn while being stored (note the sad little plate corner on the bottom left hand side).
You could easily recreate this, all you need is some butcher paper, die cut letters, aluminum foil, cotton batting, and some will power.

This has also been hung crookedly. Look past all of the imperfections. :)  Our parent volunteer made this for us last year and I love how huge it is. The kids were so excited to see it up and some of them had remembered it from last year.

On the fork is our team's last names which I thought was such a cute touch.

The cotton batting is just glued on to the butcher paper for a 3D effect of the whipped cream.

Last year, we made sprinkles and had each kid write a test taking strategy on one. So in the end, the top of the cake, whipped cream, and plate were all covered with words of wisdom. Some examples were like "eat a healthy breakfast the morning of the test" or "skip a question if you are stuck and come back to it later". It was really cute. I wish we had the time this year to have done that so I could have a picture for you.

Below is a template you can use for the sprinkles, however, I would recommend cutting them out of a cutting machine (like a Cricut or a Silhouette Cameo) other wise you (or your students) might be cutting for days depending on how many students you have. They are pretty big "sprinkles" but you have to remember that your cake should be HUGE! The bigger the better!

Click here to download the free sprinkles template.

What do you do to motivate your students for state testing? I hope you all can use and enjoy this idea!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! We are getting ready to celebrate all day long with our family and friends.  Since George's parents are divorced, we often have two different celebrations every holiday. My parents live in Texas otherwise we would be having three today! That's a whole lotta food (not that I'm complaining...).

I was in charge of desserts for the first stop on our Easter food bonanza. Here's what I made...

Frozen Key Lime Pie - find the recipe here. My limes look a little gross since they have been in the freezer. I will probably replace those with fresh limes when we leave.

Salted Caramel Chocolate Cupcakes - find the recipe here. I used a German Chocolate cake box mix for the actual cake part because I made homemade caramel sauce. I had to cut myself a break somewhere! I hope Martha Stewart doesn't read this.

I hope everyone has a fabulous day filled with love and happiness!