WINNING!

This post is not dedicated to Charlie Sheen.

I am, however, joining Matt and Jeanette for their linky called

Win, Loss, and a Thing of Cost!

 

The WIN:

My teacher book club group is reading this book for the month of July:

I went to the author's website to learn more about her and the book, and on a whim, e-mailed her about skyping with us during our meeting next week.  Well, she responded within a day saying she was able to work into her schedule!

We are all so excited.  The author is Leigh Newman, and the story is engaging.

 

The LOSS:

Bug bites

(As in the loss of smooth, non-itchy skin)

I golfed twice in the last few days, and came home with multiple mosquito bites.

Can't. Stop. Scratching.

 

A THING OF COST:

I found this at Target yesterday after seeing one posted on Instagram:

I love the chevron, and the walls in my classroom are a mauve color, so I think I've found a color scheme for the coming school year.  It was on sale for $8.99 which is still pricey for a desk pad, but I couldn't resist.  They have other chevron desk accessories, too.

 

You can be a WINNER in this giveaway that I am a part of:

Check out Primarily Speaking and Bright Concepts 4 Teachers for some fantastic prizes!

Sunday Smorgasboard and Another Giveaway!

Don't you just love Sundays in Summer?  I go to school almost every Sunday during the school year, and I'm just so appreciative of having this day free of thoughts about "what I have to get ready for tomorrow".

 

It's been a fun holiday week here in the Little Apple.  I am joining up with Michelle at Fabulous in First for her Sunday Smorgasboard linky.

 

On the Fourth of July I went out boating with some friends to watch the fireworks.  I got some great pics while the sun was setting, and during the actual show.

 

 

 

Yesterday I met up with a college roommate and her family at Summerfest in Milwaukee.  If you're not familiar with Summerfest, it's been called the largest music festival in the U.S.  There are multiple big name bands playing at one time, and the food, entertainment, and people watching are second to none. 

We were lucky enough to see John Mayer!

My friend's daugher (my goddaughter) jumped at the chance to try zip lining!

They had a kids stage called "U B the Star".  I don't know this girl but she just looked so darn cute up there!  She should have done back up for John!

 

Summerfest is held right along the Milwaukee Lakefront.  It's hard to see in this photo, but that's the Art Museum, where they once held auditions for American Idol.  It's really a beautiful setting, and the weather was perfect.

 

The festival grounds at night (and the city in the background) as we were leaving the John Mayer concert.

 

I'm also joing up with Leah at Learning 4 Keeps for her 500 Follower Giveaway.  Check out her blog for LOTS of great prizes!

 

Friday Freebie - Back to School Read Aloud, and Favorite Pins Friday

Happy Fifth of July!

Hope you all had an enjoyable holiday and are ready to be back checking out the blogs.

 I am honored to be guest blogging today over at Tonya's Treats for Teachers as a part of her

 Friday Freebie weekly event.

 Are you looking for the perfect back-to-school read aloud?  Well look no further, because School Days According to Humphrey is that book!

I love all kinds of literature, and stumbled across the Humphrey series of books by Betty Birney while visiting Barnes & Noble about a year ago.

The main character (Humphrey, the hamster) struggles with adjusting to new classmates at the beginning of the school year. The new classmates represent a wide variety of personalities, just like your average present day classroom.

 I created a PowerPoint presentation to introduce each of the chapters in this book, and it can be yours for free at my TpT store.  I posted this new item to my store on Monday, and within 24 hours it had been awarded a FOUR rating!

 

The PowerPoint slides in this product introduce each chapter of this inviting book, as well as Humphrey's Rules for School. Also included is a reflection booklet for students to respond to each chapter in the book.

 

I have projected the slides from the PowerPoint on my Interactive WhiteBoard as I read the chapters aloud.  The book could also be used for small group guided reading activities.
Betty Birney, the author, has given permission to use photos from her teacher-friendly website (http://www.bettybirney.com) in the PowerPoint.

The reflection booklet supports CCSS for ELA. Additionally, the concepts of cooperation and responsibility presented in this book support PBIS strategies. 

I hope you are able to use this in your classroom in the coming year!

Check out Tonya 's blog for more Friday Freebies and info about how you could guest blog on her site.

 

Next, I joining First Grade Parade for a Favorite Pins Friday Linky.

 

A pin I found really helpful this week was from Creative Lesson Cafe.

She posted a list of Kid Friendly Fonts:

I have already used one in a project I am working on.  She has links to all the sources for these fonts!

 

The other cool item I pinned is from the Today Show's Deal and Steals. 

I thought these pillows were so cute, and they are still on sale for $24.99.

Use the code TODAYPILLOW to get into their site, and click here to get the discount on the pillows.

 

 

Workshop Wednesday - Winning Words

I am joining Ideas by Jivey for her Workshop Wednesday on writing.

Two summers ago a group of colleagues and I did a book study on this book:

I found so many great ideas for improving my students' writing, as well as my own writing.

One of the ideas suggested in the book is to post sentences with unique word choices from great mentor texts.  I prepared an anchor chart for this at the beginning of the school year, but had an AHA moment on the first day of school.

The students did a simple writing piece, and when one student shared his work (which included great word choices) I thought, "Why don't I post sentences from the students that could serve as model work?"

This chart is from last school year.  When I first started posting sentences with winning words, I would also label the sentences with the initials of the student who wrote it.  In any case, the students are so proud to have their work posted for everyone to see.  It really is a motivator, especially for reluctant writers.

The other students also use this chart to improve their own writing.  I underline the parts of the sentence that are "winning words" and others use those parts in their own way in their work.

I still include super sentences from actual mentor texts, and this supports the idea that students are really authors, just like those people who have published work.

Just wanted to share a letter that one of my students wrote to a future third grader during the last week of school.  I was so proud of how well my my learners did with paragraphing and using voice (aka winning words). 

Hope you'll add your ideas to Workshop Wednesday!

July Currently, Goals, and Winner!

Happy July!

I was holding off on doing my Currently until it was actually July 1.  Somehow I just didn't want June to end - I'm sure you catch my drift.  Be sure to check out the multitude of bloggers who have joined up with Farley this month!

 

One of things I like best about summer is watching the morning shows and catching up on the latest trends, gossip, etc.  I don't tune in everyday, but it's nice every few days.

 

OMG - we are talking sunny days in the mid 70s - perfect weather!

 

I've been spending what seems like too much time on the computer working on projects and blog stalking.  And the scale is showing it - ruh, roh!

 

Because the weather is so nice my goal is to spend the day working on planting more flowers in pots and in the yard.  Luckily many plants are on sale because it's late in the season (but the selection may not be the best).

 

I think I need to make a schedule of linkies so I can be a better blogger. 

 

I have learned so much from the video tutorials people have put out - I've now learned to pin them so I don't forget where they've come from.  It's also been helpful to connect multiple times to blogs you really like.

 

I'm also joing up with Jess at Iheartrecess for this month's goals linky:

 

 

Most of this may be self-explanatory but there is a great class at my workout place called Body Flow that I went to last summer, and I have been wanting to go again. Definitely want to hit it in July.

 

Thanks to all of you who are following me on BlogLovin or on Google Connect!  The winner of my $10 gift card from Lakeshore Learning is...

Jennifer from Owl Things First!

 

I may be back later today with my Monday Made It.  :)

Five for Friday - Last Few Hours of Giveaway

Hope your weekend is going well!  My BlogLovin giveaway is running for a few more hours.  You still have a chance to win a Lakeshore Learning gift card if you follow me on BlogLovin.  Scroll down to enter.  :)

You may have heard that Doodle Bugs' Five for Friday is going on hiatus until August.  So here is my last entry until then:

1.

Last weekend I had two graduation parties to attend, and one was for a good friend's son.  Here is a pic of the "women's room" later in the eveing - we all ended up in the living room after the bugs got bad outside.

That's me in the chair on the far right! 

2.

I took a class on Hmong History and Perspective on Tuesday.  The class was offered by UW-Madison but held in my city.  The even better part was that it was only $45 and you got a credit, and there was NO follow-up assignment. Oh - we learned a lot about the Hmong culture,too.

3.

This bad boy is finally in the hands of somebody who can really appreciate him.

I sold it for $30 on craigslist to a guy who seemed overjoyed to get it.  I asked him what he was going to do with it, and he said he was collecting vintage computers for a"museum".  That was probably code for - "I'm going to clean it up and sell it for 10X what I paid you".

4.

I subbed for summer school on Thursday.  The first class had 9 kids, and the other 2 had almost 15.  Most of the classtime was spent reading - what a different feel than during the school year.

5.

I went to a friend's cottage for a few days at the end of the week. It was so peaceful.

We had a pretty intense domino tournament!

It may not look too intense in this pic, but I tell you it was!

Hope you had a great week!

Remember to follow me on BlogLovin and enter the giveaway down below.

Thanks!

 

 

BlogLovin Bandwagon on the Move- Lakeshore Learning Giveaway!

Hi All -

I am jumping in with everybody to get the ball rolling on the BlogLovin movement. I am joining Collaboration Cuties (and many others!) for this super excellent linky!

 

You have probably heard by now that Google Reader is going away on July 1st. Well, Google Reader may be going away, but I don't want YOU to go away, so I hope that you will consider following blogs through bloglovin!  I know that change is hard...so thought I might sweeten it up for you a little bit!

I am doing a giveaway for all of my fabulous followers that take the leap and switch over to bloglovin. You may have already switched over! In that case, this will be an easy entry!

Lakeshore Learning has lots of creative products available in their stores and online!

Check out their site here.

If you have not yet switched or are not following my blog through bloglovin, then there are a few easy steps to follow. You can go to my sidebar (that's the column on the right over there that shows my followers) and you can click the button that says Follow this Blog with bloglovin. Or, you can go into the Rafflecopter below and click the link in the first entry, and that will take you to my blog on bloglovin.

You will need to set up an account with bloglovin so that you can follow me. Please be sure to leave your bloglovin username in the Rafflecopter entry.

If you want to go ahead and move all of the blogs you follow from Google over, you can go to this link and it will take you through the super easy steps. BUT, please go to my bloglovin link and make sure that you are following me through bloglovin. To be sure, make sure that the blue button at the top of our bloglovin page has been clicked (it should be gray with the word following- if it's blue, please click it to follow!)

 

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway


<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/5552939/?claim=cbtptpsu873">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Five for Friday - Door County

Happy Friday Blog Friends!  I returned yesterday from a sweet getaway to Door County, WI.  If you look at a map of the state of Wisconsin, Door County is the peninsula in the "thumb" of the map.  The entire peninsula is made up of about 10 small towns that cater to tourists during the summer and fall months.  I've heard it called the Cape Cod of the Midwest, and it truly is a quaint destination.

 

I went with two of my closest friends and their mom, who is like a surrogate mother to me.  She is a great traveling companion because she is always eager to join in on whatever we choose to do.

1.

We stayed at a Bed & Breakfast that had a grand piano in the front sitting room.  We met a young doctor and his wife the first night, and they played the piano while we chatted.

 

Here is a pic of the breakfast area, and also one of my yummy breakfasts.

 

 

2.

There were plenty of boutiques and shops all around our hotel, which was in the town of Fish Creek.  One morning I spied a dog waiting for his wife owner to return from shopping.  The view cracked me up!

 

3.

We visited some art galleries.  This one also had a unique sculpture garden.  The sculptures were selling for up to $12,000 -  a bit steep for a teacher's salary - ha!

 

 

4.

We saw two different plays at a theater in the woods. They were both so funny, with lots of references to Wisconsin, and especially to the Green Bay Packers.

 

5.

Just being by the water is so relaxing. The weather was perfect.