Books, Beaches, and Summer

Hi Everyone!  I'm super excited to be participating in this blog hop with my fellow California bloggers.  Be sure to hit up each one and like their blog to be entered to win a one of four $25 gift cards to Teachers Pay Teachers!!!  Pffftttt - that's right! You read that correctly - $25 can be yours just for going around and liking each blog and while you're at it - collecting some fabulous freebies.  Well worth the effort in my opinion. :-)  Especially since the Teacher Pay Teacher sale is going on when the winners will be announced.

I don't know about you, but I've been enjoying this summer and catching up on some reading. From pleasure reading to professional development, I've been getting it all covered.....in between running after my little ones of course.

My current book that I'm reading for school is called, What's Under Your Cape? and it's by a fellow blogger, Barbara Gruener.  So far, I'm loving it!  It's all about building character within your students.

I'm also enjoying 32 Third Graders and One Class Bunny by Phillip Done.  I've read this one before, but it's always fun to read again.  So many funny stories I can relate to.

In addition to those books, I have a few more that I like to keep by my bedside.  :-)  Of course, with all those, I have to have a way to keep my place as I switch between each one.  So I created these cute little beach themed book marks and I'm happy to share them with you all.

Print out a class set and hand them out to your students!  You can get them here.

Now it's time to Surf On!  Head on over to Miss Kindergarten featuring my bloggy friend, Hadar.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

FREEBIE Floor Plan Fun Activity

Today I did a great little activity that I created for my kids for our review

math stations.  It was designed to have students practice finding area and perimeter in a simple format. And the best part about this?  I made it FREE for you to grab for your class too!

In a nutshell, the idea is for students to create seven rooms for their house floor plan.  Each room has a specific color attached to it, which is there to let students know what color they should draw the room on the graph paper.  In order to determine the dimensions of each room, the students draw chips.  I got these chips from an old board game, Rummikub, which I didn't have all the pieces for, but in typical teacher fashion I couldn't bear to throw it out in case I needed them for something.  Well thank goodness for my teacher hoarding intuition. I now found a reason to use them.  However, if you don't have a set of these chips you can easily use those fancy dice that have numbers that range higher than 6 or even a set of playing cards and you pull out two sets of numbers 2-10.  Worse case scenario, you can print out the set of cards I provide in here. I just like to save paper where I can. :-)

The students choose two of the numbers randomly and put them down for the dimensions of that particular room.  After doing that, they find the perimeter and area of the room as well.  (Sometimes that room dimensions don't necessarily make sense, for example a kitchen that is 2x2 ft but this provides a great extension activity for students to identify and discuss which ones are and aren't realistic.

After that, they draw the floor plan using the dimensions they had picked for each room on the graph paper.  Inside the rooms, they write the dimensions as well.  I tell students I want them to logically think about the layout of the house and try to create it as realistically as possible.

This activity is quick but a great review for area and perimeter.  It took about 25 minutes for them to complete from start to finish.

Head on over to my TpT store and pick up your copy.  Please don't forget to leave me some feedback love. :-) I hope you enjoy it!

Katie

New Year Resolutions and a Freebie

Happy 2014!!  I simply cannot believe another year has passed.  I'm looking forward to all that this upcoming year has to offer and have already begun making plans. 

I'm a firm believer in making goals (ones that I really PLAN on keeping).  So I decided to link up with Jessica from First Grade Nest.  So let's get started!

 

In addition to those up above here are some more. :-)

I have been wanting to update my blog look for a long time.  So this is the year that I am taking the plunge and have begun working with someone to give my blog a whole new look. I'm excited to see what comes out of it all and look forward to sharing it with you guys!

 

Start to create at least one freebie each month to share with everyone.  I often create stuff for my classroom....now it's just a matter of taking it to the next step and providing it online. :-)

 

In addition to the ones I listed up top, my other personal goal is to spend more quality time with my two daughters. My oldest is turning three this year and I'm in complete shock over it! Time just goes by so very fast so I really need to slow down and enjoy them now.   We have even planned our first Disneyland trip for the end of January with the girls. 

 

Doing laundry!!!  Haha - okay that one isn't happening. I would like to give up spending too much time getting ready. So tomorrow I am going to CHOP my hair off to make it an easier do. I'm pretty excited about it!

  

I would REALLY like to have one of my products featured in the TpT newsletter. So I'm going to concentrate on continuing to create great products and working on making that happen.

And those my friends are the goals I am working on this year.  As I mentioned above, one of my goals was to provide some more freebies to all of you.  Every year, I have my students review the prior year and concentrate on a few goals they have for the new year.  Here is a little New Year Pennant Banner I created.  You have a selection of different colors to choose from.  I hope you and your students enjoy this project!!  If you do, please don't forget to leave some feedback on TpT. :-)

And finally, I'm always looking to find new blogs to read and follow.  If you are like me, you know we learn best from each other.  So I'm linking up with Jennifer from Simply Kinder.  Head on over there to find some new great blogs. 

 

Happy New Year!  And be sure to back soon to see my new blog image. :-)