We've Gone to the Dogs!! {Five for Friday}

Ahhh....the Friday before Spring Break AND a half day for the kiddos means a pretty nice day for me!! Time to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching and show y'all what I've been up to this week! 

Before we get to the dogs let's talk sharks!! I was lucky enough to get a class set of Wonderful World of Sharks published by Disney. I've been hanging on to them for several months just waiting for the time to be right and what better time than the week before break? 

This little mini-unit will definitely carry over into the week we get back, but it'll make a good transition and the kids are really enjoying it. We are brushing up on our nonfiction skills! 

That unit will have to be extended because we had ANOTHER snow day on Wednesday!!! It snowed off and on all day Tuesday, but never really did stick. That changed on Tuesday night and we got a very unexpected, but appreciated, snow day!

This picture was taken at 6:30 in the evening and it was like a total white out outside!! Crazy!! 

We children's author David Sargent, Jr. visit our school yesterday and he brought the stars of his books with him!! He had four doggies with him and he chose teachers from the audience to help hold them. Of course I was all over that! I mean who could resist this cute little guy? 

Trick dog!! The kids went wild over this. 

I made a stop by the library yesterday afternoon to pick up some books for Spring Break reading next week. I read the first book in the Inn BoonsBoro series during the snow day Wednesday, so I thought I'd finish out the trilogy. 

St. Patrick's Day and Classroom Visitors {Five for Friday}

What time is it?? Five for Friday time!! And thank goodness it is Friday. It has been another crazy week, but only one more week to go until Spring Break!!! I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to share some things from my week! 

It wouldn't be a post this week without a little St. Patrick's Day fun!! My kids were so excited to try their hand at drawing these Leprechauns from Art for Kids. 

I started doing an hour of after school tutoring 2 days a week last week. During one of our sessions this week I broke out the really old ABCD cards to use with this test prep workbook. It was like I'd brought out gold!! They thought this was the coolest thing ever and were so secretive while making their picks!! I love a simple idea that gets the job done. One day I'll update those cards...maybe...

Okay, ignore the cubby junk in this picture and check out all those fun "artifakes." Our 4th graders had a visit from the Jamestown/Yorktown Foundation this week and these are all the goodies our storyteller used. The props and the enthusiasm of the presenter bring history to life in a way most of my students have never experienced. We live about 8 hours away from Jamestown, so  a trip to the museum isn't possible but this a great way for the kids to get a little taste of it! 

We also had a visit from our 4H extension agent today. Told ya it was a crazy week around here!! This visit was all about biomes and the kids got to graph animal crackers based on which biome they belong to. They loved it!!! 

There was no better way to start the weekend than to come home and find my husband riding for the first time this season!!! I was so excited to see him back on BJ and getting ready for show season. The dog was super excited too. He ran circles around the horse when he first got saddled up!

I hope you enjoy our weekend!! 

Vera Bradley Large Laptop Tote {Tried it Tuesday}

I tried a new teacher tote bag, so I'm linking up with Holly from Fourth Grade Flipper to give you the scoop! 

It's no secret I'm addicted to bags. I guess eBay knows too because they are always sending me emails with bag deals. Oops! A couple weeks ago I got an email advertising up to 60% off Vera Bradley. Sign up me for that kinda deal! 

I had to check it out even though I didn't really need anything. And then I found this laptop tote that I fell in love with and I just couldn't resist! 

The laptop sleeve is very cushiony and it's in the middle of the bag. That is my favorite thing about the bag because it divides it into three sections. That gives me a place for my planner, pens, make up case, and wallet on one side and then my school stuff on the other with room left to spare. 

What I love:

hard, flat bottom (it stands up on it's own without anything in it) 

zipper pocket on the outside

slide pocket on the outside

slide pocket on the inside

3 sections on the inside

nice padding for the laptop 

the color!!

What is your favorite teacher bag? 

March Edition {Monday Made It}

It's my favorite time of the month - Monday Made It!! The linky always helps make Monday a little easier!! 

I finally got around to making some of those adorable trackers I've seen on a lot of other blogs. 

There are now known as "the eyeballs" in my class and students ask for them all the time! Yay!! 

I even made up a few with shamrocks for small groups. 

I finally dusted off the sewing machine and whipped up this cute little zipper pouch. 

It was the first time I had successfully sewn in a zipper. I have a collection of somewhat "interesting" bags with zippers..haha!! 

Read Across America Celebrations {Five for Friday}

Anyone else thinking this has been a super long week? We even had a snow day yesterday Thursday and it's still feeling like a long week! The week was so long that I started this on Thursday and didn't get it posted until Saturday!! 

Our school really goes all out for Reading Month so I wanted to share some pictures of the fantastic decorations our teachers have come up with this year. 

We always follow along with the official theme and this year's was, "Let Reading Take You Around the World." Each section of the building was assigned a continent and we used that to create decorations in our hallways to get our students excited about reading!

Antartica 

All the decorations are fantastic, but this is one of my favorites. Who could resist standing beside the penguins to see how you measure up? In fact, while I was taking this picture a 1st graders walked by and said, "Hey, look I'm taller than this one!" 

Our resource teachers had Europe. This hasn't been helping my Spring fever any!! 

Kindergarten was assigned North America. 

My 4th grade team got Australia. 

To decorate our hallway and doors we each took one of the 6 states, so here is a peek at my door. 

Those are only just a few pictures I got when I took a mini break during planning on day this week. Everyone has done such a fantastic job and our students love getting to see all information about all the different countries on display. 

I didn't get to take pictures from every grade level and not everyone is finished with their decorations, so I may post a few more pictures as more things go up. 

Looking for a giveaway? I'm helping Carrie from Anchored in 3rd Grade celebrate 1,000 Instragram followers!! She has some great prizes, so head on over and check it out! 

I hope you have a great weekend!