November... December... and Hello 2014!

I have really been lame about the updating- Sorry! Here's a quick run through of what my holiday season at home and school has looked like... (PICTURE HEAVY!)

~SCHOOL~
I had SO much fun with Elf on the Shelf this year...
Our Elf, who we named Jingle Jack, came bearing gifts and treats. It was great fun!

But then we has some behavior issues....

Our beloved "JJ" did return a few days later, however he was touched one day by a student (thankfully the Dept. of Elf Surveillance sent magic dust to restore his health) and I basically became too busy to snap pics of his cuteness... 

Anyway, we had ugly Christmas Sweater Day at school. Check out this ugliness!

~HOME~
I did not get my fill of ugly sweaters, however, so we threw an Ugly Sweater Holiday party at our casa!
We had an Ugly Sweater Contest, Christmas Trivia, a Hot Chocolate Bar, and a photo area complete with props! GREAT FUN!

That was not all of the festive dress up... We and a few friends of ours participated in our town's annual "Santa's Night Out" where it's common to dress up like Santa. Since we like to be different, we chose to dress like snow-women!

My boys and I decorated a TON of homemade Christmas Cookies (my oldest made a gingerbread poop cookie) and I've been eating them for days now... Perfect companion for my coffee!

 And just yesterday, my baby boy turned 11!!!!! His birthday was a lot of fun. He is truly and angel - both my boys are. I am so blessed!!

Now that all these fabulous festivities are over, I'm going to sit back, relax and enjoy the start of a New Year... And by "sit back" and "relax", I mean redo our bedroom. :)

To celebrate the upcoming year, I'm hosting a sale in my TPT store!! I'm offering 20% off my Rockin' Math Journals and Rockin' Math Journals Basic Set Up! Plus, the first 5 to puchase (according to my TPT sales log) will get an Area and Perimeter Zoo pack for FREE! Be sure to visit my store Jan. 1 - 4 to start your 2014 math instruction off with a BANG!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Katie-Texas

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
<3 Katie

PUMPKIN MATH!!!

A few posts ago, I posted about my Pumpkin Math packet, sold in my TPT store.

The day before Halloween, this AWESOME, AWESOME Pumpkin Math day happened. The kids were UBER engaged, and we covered SO many math and science topics I had planned *AND* that I hadn't planned. Everything came together so wonderfully it was mind blowing. Truly an awesome day, and I thank God for giving me the idea for this! I will do this year after year. Seriously, look at these pics!! I just wish you could see their sweet smiles!

 

Let me just run through the topics covered within the hour it takes to complete this activity: estimation, weight, mass, expanded notation, adding with decimals, distance, circumference, radius, height, conversions, buoyancy, parts of the scientific process... I'm sure there's more but that's what I can remember for now. After we completed all of our awesome math and science activities, I read How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin by Margaret McNamara (which told us why some pumpkins weigh more than others even though they may look small AND what the lines on a pumpkin tell us) and we cut into our pumpkins and harvested the seeds. The whole day was amazing and completely hands on.

Thank you Lord for pumpkins and a successful and engaged learning day!!

Rockin' Math: Tenths, Hundredths and Fractions

I have to share this rockin' activity inspired by an awesome math teacher and blogger, To The Square Inch. In fourth grade, we learn about tenths and hundredths. It's a hard one for kids to get! Once we understand these place values, we turn them into fractions and put tenths on numberlines.... It's a lot. For students AND teacher.... Anyway, I saw this activity a few years ago on Pinterest and tweeked it for my kiddos since it originally had the students working with percents and fractions. It's now our "Hundredths Design Square".

First, the students color a square hundredths model using four different colors. Then they count the colored squares and record each color as a decimal. After that, they turn it into a fraction. The kids LOVE IT! And it sure is fun! Check out these awesome designs!

Fall, Pumpkin Math, Student Rewards and FREEEEEEEBIES!

Happy Fall, Y'all!

Nothing says Fall more than pumpkins, and one of my friends at work was telling me how she roasts pumpkin seeds for her class every year. I LOVED the idea and decided I would do that for my class this year... AFTER we did lots'a learning with pumpkins! That birthed my Pumpkin Math Activity Book. Students will measure their pumpkin's weight, find their pumpkin's height, circumference and radius, see how far their pumkin can roll then measure the distance, and test for buoyancy! THEN we will harvest the seeds! WOOHOO! Want a copy? Go get it HERE in my TPT store!

In other news, I was home sick this week (boo), and since I cannot sit in bed for more than a day, I created student reward cards using QR codes. In my class, students earn Bingo Dots for good behavior (they keep a little paper on their desk that I stamp). They can get Bingo Dots for sitting quietly, turning in their homework, getting paper signed, helping friends, helping me, etc. THEY. LOVE. BINGO. DOTS. The more Bingo Dots they earn, the better the prizes they can get. One of the prizes is a Lottery Ticket - some of you may have seen them on Pinterest, you print out a reward, cover it with tape, then paint over it with a mixture of silver craft paint and dish soap. Kids serioussssssssssly go crazy for them, HOWEVER, I was sick of painting the dang things! So since my class has a huge love for QR codes, I thought I'd go that route. Just print and scan. Easy as pie! Want a copy? Get it HERE in my TPT store!

Now... Want these for FREE? The first TEN people to follow my blog (if you don't already) post about my products on YOUR blog* AND pin them gets 'em! Just post the links below along with your email address. :) *If you don't have a blog, no worries, just pin 'em! 

AGAIN, HAPPY FALL Y'ALL!
-Katie

Decimals, iPads, QR Codes, Oh My!

My students have been working their tails off learning about tenths and hundredths, so I wanted to reward them with a fun review!!

Thanks to Kristen Kennedy and her AWESOME Doggie Decimal task cards, my students identified, compared, and ordered decimals and wrote them as fractions! The task cards had QR codes, so we brought out the iPads and the kiddos checked their answers! IT WAS A HUGE SUCCESS! My students were practically *begging* for more task cards!

Check out these awesome pics of my little learners!

New TPT Goodies from me means FREEBIES for you!

I've added several new items to my TPT store.

Halloween is approaching, and I like to make sure we learn AND have fun on that day. So I made a Halloween activity pack which includes candy graphing, Halloween Categories, a Pumpkin Glyph, Witches Brew recipe page, a maze AND a Halloween Pennant Craftivity! Also included is a teacher printable so you can treat your students to "ghost poop" (marshmallows). Want a free one? I'll tell you how... but not yet! :)

I also have two Math Journal sets for purchase. One includes two Cover Pages (hundreds board OR multiplication chart), a Table of Contents, ons of objective specific templates with instructions AND blank templates for you to personalize your own entries.

If you don't need all of the objective specific templates, no worries! I have a Basic Set-Up as well that includes both Cover Pages, a Table of Contents page, a Math About Me page and all of the blank templates from my full pack.

My Skeleton Symmetry set isn't new, but since it's season appropriate and AWESOME I want to post about it!

NOW. Time for freebie info. Want a FREE Halloween Activity pack, Math Journal set AND a Skeleton Symmetry set? All you have to do follow my blog and post about this awesomeness on YOUR blog. Don't have a blog, no worries, become a follower and PIN IT! Just comment with the link  to your post below and I'll hook up the first five peeps!

-xo-
Katie

Catch Up and a SALE

So I've survived the first two weeks of school! Yay! My sweet students are already into the groove of things which is AWESOME. I'm so happy to already have routines set up and running well. We were  doing work by Day 2!

Here's a look at my finished classroom (before students!). I'm not working with as much space as I had the previous two years, but I think everything fit quite well.

Thank God for contact paper! I had an orange set of cabinets, a set of brown laminate, and a set of yellow.... UM, NO. So I bought a ton of black contact paper, covered them, and finished it off with my favorite rainbow leopard border. WOOT.

These awesome measurement cards are from LoneStar Learning. LOVE THEM!!!

 Here's my soon-to-be-fabulous math word wall! Math vocab cards by Blair Turner - get them HERE! 

The only area I had trouble finding room for was my library... It kinda sticks out but oh well-- It bothers me but not the kiddos! 

Here are the first day of school gifts for my class and team! 

I've posted some new goodies in my TPT store and guess what... EVERYTHING IS ON SALE! The sale starts tomorrow, Sept. 9, and will run until Sept. 12. 15% off everything!! 

Let's Talk About Me Monday

Happy Teacher Week! I'm joining Blog Hoppin's Linky Party and sharing ten fun things about me.

1) I have two AMAZING boys who rock my world. One is going into 8th grade and the other 5th. I had my children VERY young - in fact I was still in high school when I had my first. My boys changed my life for the better- I am who I am today because of them!

2) I have ELEVEN tattoos. My favorites include a cupcake on my finger (see #9), a bible verse (written in Greek) on my wrist (Matthew 6:34 - LOOK IT UP!), my boy's initials on my shoulder blades and my wedding bouquet on my left arm.

3) I was born on Halloween. ROCKIN' RIGHT?! I absolutely love that holiday and I LOVE to dress up!

4) My love for dressing up does not stop at Halloween though - it flows over to Christmas and other events, like my sister's Jersey Shore birthday!

5) The sweet man in the above Jersey Shore pic - maroon bandana - passed away on May 31st. Robert Garner was a Houston firefighter, and lost his life in a horrible call. He is missed by SO MANY!  I am a better person because I knew him!!

6) I have two dogs and two cats. We used to have a monkey, too. I kid you not. Her name is Matilda and she now lives in a sanctuary in San Antonio, TX. She now has monkey friends! Yay!

7) If I was stranded on an abandoned island, I could live off of broccoli cheese soup and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. All food groups are there - veggies, dairy, protein and fruit.

8) I am 100% addicted to any and all Real Housewives of _____. I know, it's trash TV. But I. Don't. Care.

9) During college and student teaching, I baked on the side. Check out my goodies on my Facebook page - KJ's Bakeshop!

10) I could not live without my Swiffer Sweeper Vac. Like I said above, I have two dogs and two cats. This means uber amounts of animal hair on my beautiful wood floors. My hubby told me the other day that I can handle crazy amounts of stress, but not a non-charging Sweeper Vac... It's true. I even Swiffer during parties!!

THE END!

I {heart} Contact Paper!

I have two beautiful cabinets in my new classroom- One is bright orange and the other is wood laminate... I'm kidding when I say they're beautiful. I decided they needed to be covered IMMEDIATELY.  So I bought black contact paper (which doubles as a chalk board!!!) and covered those puppies. Add my ABSOLUTELY FAVORITE BORDER IN THE WHOLE WORLD and you  get......

 +  = 

A - W - E - S - O - M - E - N - E - S - S!!!!