Five For Friday #fbf style

For this week's Five for Friday I'm doing a #fbf to a Five for Friday I did 2 years ago! Something that has become widely known in the teacher community is the growth vs. fixed mindset. I introduced this concept to my GT students back in 2013. To say they weren't so excited about embracing this new way of thinking was an understatement. I was so proud of how open they were to change the way they were thinking. Read below to hear about it!

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I apologize for my blogging absence! But Five for Friday is such a great way to let you in on what's been going on!

Since my title 1 position doesn't start until October, I have taken on a GT (gifted and talented) position until then and I am LOVING it! Hanging with small groups all week and getting to work across the grade levels! I haven't taught the older kids in a few years, but oh my goodness! I have missed them! I really do love the older ones!

#1 Here's a look in my new classroom! I had to decorate an entire class in 1 week! The room was bare! And apparently I had enough border to decorate an entire classroom without having to buy any. Can you say border hoarder?

 This is my favorite part of the entire room! And the kids LOVED seeing their names this week as they entered the classroom for the first time. I loved how they reacted when they walked in. They said the room was so fun and inviting! From the mouth of babes.

#2 I work with grades 1-5 and pull each of my grade levels once a week and this week was the 1st week for them to be pulled. We read the book "My Fantastic Elastic Brain". Such a fun book that talks about how the brain works and that it's ok to make mistakes because it's training your brain!

#3 We spent time talking about how this class would be a place to challenge ourselves. If we can't do something, we just can't do it "yet". Yet is a big word in our GT program! We want to have a growth mindset, not a fixed mindset! I introduced the word mindset and we talked about the M standing for motivation.

Then in the upper grades the students had to make up a skit showing what motivation was. The skits were hilarious! Then they had to come up with a symbol for motivation. Here are a few.

Then I took all of their symbols and displayed them on our mindset board. We will make our way through the whole word throughout the year.

Check out my "Change Your Mindset" unit in my TpT store if you'd like to implement to growth vs. fixed mindset in your classroom!

#4 And of course I've been working on some fun fall activities for all of you!

 My firsties LOVE doing this activity and it's a great way to teach or review ordinal numbers in word and number form!

#5 And last but not least, I finally got my silhouette portrait that I won from Hope's from Second Grade Shenangians giveaway! Now to learn how to use the darn thing!

And to leave you with a little humor... Are you ready for some football?!?!

A Camping We Will Go

I don't know about you, but with the last few weeks of school, I want something fun, interactive, and low prep to keep my students engaged! So a few years ago I put together a fun camping unit that covers summer safety!

My students love this unit EVERY year! They get to bring in sleeping bags, we have a real live tent in our classroom, and we get to make s'mores!

I don't think it can get any better!

We started off the week brainstorming what we know about camping and then we come up with camp names for ourselves. The name has to describe something about themselves or something they enjoy doing. The names they come up with are so funny. One year, one of my lovies named herself "toothless wonder" HA!

Here are some of the things we learn about during camp week. Sun Safety, Swim Safety, Bike Safety, Campfire Safety. We also do hiking safety, but I forgot to take a picture of that. Opps!

We brainstorm ways we could get hurt during the summer and what we would need to make sure we could take care of any boo boos. We learned about first aid and made our own first aid kits.

And let me tell you!!! These babes are making connections left and right! They have so much to connect to in this unit! That's part of why they are so engaged!

And the best part of the week is writing our "how to make s'mores". They work so hard on these books and can't wait to eat their s'mores. For one of the steps, one of my sweeties asked if in their book should they write "next, roast the marshmallow over the fire" or "next, put the s'more in the microwave". Since that's how we made ours :) Haha. 

Some of the other 1st grade classes actually put their entire s'more in aluminum foil and put it outside in the sun for the day. It actually worked! Try it!

Want to try out this amazingly fun unit? Head over to Educents where you can purchase this unit AND get my "End of the Year" Character Quality awards too! It's a great deal!

What fun themed units do you like to do at the end of the year? Are you going to add camping to the list? I sure hope so!

Educents Launch {giveaway}

Have you heard the news!?  Educents is opening their MARKETPLACE!  What does that mean?  That means that besides the already AMAZING deals they offer on a daily basis, you can now purchase items from sellers stores, also on a daily basis!  WHAT!?  That’s right!  Over 500 sellers have already created stores in the Educents Marketplace, so you are sure to find some money-saving deals anytime you need them!To LAUNCH the site, several of the sellers are joining in to bring you a sneak peek at a FREE product offered in their new sale, as well as hosting a giveaway for $50 worth of Edubucks (money to spend on the site).  You can buy a LOT of educational materials with that kind of money!  And, there are several groups of bloggers who are joining the LAUNCH, which means multiple ways to enter.

click picture to be taken to my Educents store

Here is a little information about my FREEBIE.   It is an item that will save you at the beginning of the year. It's student information forms that allow you to get to know your students a little better! I've also blogged here how I house my forms. I promise they will save you lots of time!

After you check out my Educents store (and FREEBIE), be sure to check out some of the other stores listed below too.  And, of course, make sure to enter for your chance to win $50 in Educents credits too.

Have fun!

Educents Marketplace $50 in Edubucks Giveaway #10 - Kinder & First Grade Stores

Want to win ANY item from my store? Comment below that you followed my store and what item you'd like and I will pick someone a week from now on April 9. Good luck!

Come On Over

As many of you know, I am staying home this year with my daughter, Raegan Phair. She is already 7 months old today. I can't believe how quickly she is growing up!

I try my best to continue blogging here with educational posts, but for now, most of my posts are over at my personal blog, The Mrs. & Co.

And if you have kids, make sure you head over and follow my blog, because I am giving away a pair of Freshly Picked moccasins for my birthday starting on Monday, March 2.

If you won, what color would you get for your babe?

You've Got The "Write" Stuff, Baby! {giveaway}

Hi there friends!!  If y'all are anything like us then you are stoked about NKOTB being on tour right now! #ThrowbackGroupie  A few of my favorite blogging friends got together and we are super pumped to be hosting the "You Got the 'Write' Stuf, Baby!" writing resource giveaway in honor of these yummy guys and... 

our sweet little "new kids on the block!"  All of our precious families have recently grown (or are growing...Abby!) and we wanted to give away a few of our favorite writing resources to celebrate!! 

Check out what each of us are giving away below... 

(Click on our pics to visit our blogs and click on our babies to visit our resource in our TPT store)

Click below for 8 chances to win our "You Got the 'Write' Stuff" Bundle!!  The winner will be announced Sunday evening!!  Good luck sweet friends!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Classroom Loves Linky

Today I am linking up with Primary Powers to discuss things "Classroom Loves".

First off I'll talk about what "I Love". I seriously can't get enough of these markers. Is it the smell? Is it the amazing, beautiful colors? I don't know, but they are my favorite. These could honestly go under "They Love" too because my student's LOVE when I let them smell the markers. I have caught them a few times with their noses against the anchor charts we make :)

Next up is something "they love". My students love using their "writer's eyes". I have a class set of 3D glasses with the lenses popped out. I teach my students what it means to look at their writing with "writer's eyes" at the beginning of the year and they get to use their glasses during independent writing time. It really helps them stay focused to!

One of my students favorite activities for Valentine's is my "Candy Measurement" activity and I love it because they get to practice measuring in such a fun way!

Come on over and link up on Primary Powers blog and read about other "Classroom Loves".

Classroom Organization Blog Hop

Hello friends! So glad you have stopped by in the organization blog hop hosted by Primary Powers!

For me, organization comes naturally. Clutter drives me crazy and my classroom is always put together neatly! I will say that I am the envy of most of the teachers in my hallway :)

So today I want to share with you how I keep my student's information and parent communication organized.

Pretty much everything in my classroom is organized in a binder.

 See, I wasn't joking!

This is actually my favorite binder because it acts as TWO binders! One cover on each side of the binder. Did I trick ya?

Here's what it looks like on the inside. I always like to have their t-shirt sizes at the front of the binder because we are always needing it. Either for field day shirts, grade level shirts, and more! And it can serve as a class list as well!

After that page, I have all of my students numbers in a colored tab. This way I can use the binder year after year and not have to replace the tabs with different names each year.

Then behind each tab you will first find my student information sheet that I have the parents fill out at Meet the Teacher night the Thursday before school starts. I love reading over these at the beginning of the year so that I can get to know my students a little more. My favorite part is at the bottom it asks the parents to write an endearing story about their child on the back. It's a blast reading through them!

After that I put notebook paper for me to document conversations that I have with parents that need to be documented. THIS, my friends, is GOLD! When you need the documentation, it's right there! Also, don't wait to write it down. Write it as soon as the conversation is over if it's in person and if it's on the phone, write as you talk!

You can also use this page for parent communication. 

This is also where I house all of my volunteer information. I send home my volunteer sheet at Meet the Teacher night as well. I also print off my volunteer schedule so I can reference it easily.

AND the best part about this binder is when we go on a field trip, I just grab it and we go! It has all of my students information (allegies, parents numbers, etc) that I might need on a field trip.

I hope that you can use these at the beginning of next year, or maybe even put your binder together now!

Want the information pages for free?!

Click on the picture below!

Want the "Student Information" and "Parent Communication" Binder covers for free?!

Click on the sample picture below!

Want MORE binder covers to keep you organized the whole year?

Get them here!

Ready to see some more organizational tips? Hope on over to Creative Lesson Cafe to see what Jeannine has up her sleeve!