Title I Night

I hope everyone's Easter was fantastic! I'm on break right now and away from the computer for the most part. But I wanted to share about the activities we did for Title I Night last week.

Last Thursday, we had Title I "Night" at our school. In the past, we've always had trouble getting parents to bring their kids back out and participate (even when we invited a local author to come in the Fall, we only had 6-10 kids from our programs. Fortunately we opened that night up to the entire school and had a decent turn-out) So our K-2 specialist and I sat down and started brainstorming ways to get the attendance we desired. She had the idea of doing our activities immediately after school and then intentionally running the event past the time when activity buses leave so the parents had to come pick up their kids and meet with us, even if it was just quickly.

We sent out permission slips and ended up with the highest turn-out we've ever had (at least as far as we know of)! I had 13 of my 26 students participate and two more who tried to call their parents and stay the day of - I didn't let them because I didn't have enough supplies for them. Plus it was at the VERY end of the day. K-2 ended up with eighteen students, and we were able to talk to ALL of their parents!

Students were encouraged to dress as their favorite book character and bring pillows, blankets and sleeping bags to "read under the stars".

Here's Cinderella!

We started with some Easter eggs. Inside the eggs, I put the names of a few popular book characters (Pete the Cat, Harry Potter, etc.). 

Students chose an egg and then had to give a few clues to the rest of the group. The group could ask yes or no questions to figure out more. When they guessed correctly, they came up and chose another egg. They had a lot of fun with this activity, and it was a simple, fun way to add some eggs to our evening! I believe with the younger kids, they had sight words in the eggs that the students had to read. I wanted to adapt it to something a little more difficult since I have grades 3-5.

Then I split students into grade levels (which I needed because there were HUGE differences in maturity levels even from 3rd to 4th), and they rotated between a craft with me (keep reading for more on that), "reading under the stars", or playing this Fact and Opinion game they love on my Promethean board. The winner of that game from each grade level got to pick a book to take home for free. Our K-2 teacher was much nicer and bought a book for each child who came, but mine were happy enough with one winner from each grade level!

Moving on to the craft because this was my favorite part of the evening: I was browsing Pinterest last week for a perfect little Easter snack that they would have to assemble using some directions. Then I came across this:

Isn't it just the cutest? I knew I HAD to do it with my kids! So I adapted the recipe to make it work for me. Then I went and bought all of the supplies. I almost wish that I hadn't included a picture or title in the recipe because then they would have had to actually read all of it to know what to do. But there was at least some reading required to clear up any confusions they had because I WOULD NOT tell them what to do if they asked. They had to read the recipe first to see if it said (and it almost always did). Here's a picture of how my Bunny Buggies turned out. I'm so proud of them!

My cute little bunny buggy ahead of time

All set up ready for them to come (I couldn't find the Bunny Peeps when I went shopping)

Some of my kids finished with their craft, ready to eat it!

And if you want the recipe to use for next year, grab your copy here:

Yes, I changed the name. I liked the flow of "Bunny Buggy" more than "Easter Bunny Racecars". I like alliteration.

After centers, I found this adorable Reader's Theater for 11 students (I was supposed to have 11 when I planned activities, then two more turned in their slips last minute) with The Frog Prince Continued by Jon Scieska. We had a lot of fun with this, and I would love to practice it with a group and let them actually perform it. It was so cute!

At around 5:30, I put in Horton Hears a Who for the students to watch quietly as I began to meet with parents. I found the movie for $4 at Target. Score!

I found this wonderful resource to give to the parents, courtesy of Carrie from A First Grade Teacher's Passions and Obsessions. It even shows where students should be for their grade level at the end of each marking period. This was a great visual to give to my parents and really highlighted the growth that each child has made!

It was a busy evening, but it was a lot of fun and much more successful. Plus we were done just after 6, and I was able to see my son before he went to bed! I think this will be a new tradition (with a few tweaks) for our Title I Night!

Earth Day fun

Today was day two of the writing SOL for 5th grade at our school, and I was helping monitor the bathrooms since we can only have one boy or girl in the bathroom at a time during testing. At least I had a laptop to work on today (or browse blogs, Pinterest, and TPT - hey, it's professional development) because this was the long part! I don't know how writing tests go in other states, but Virginia has a multiple choice section (we did that yesterday) and then a writing prompt. This year, it's ALL online, so they had to type their prompt, which didn't take quite as long as I thought it would. By lunch at 12:15, the two classes that I was monitoring were mostly done. I had a chance to start my Earth Day mystery, and I was able to finish it during planning before I got my one afternoon group. All the others were cancelled today because of testing.

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I used graphics from Krista's store, Creative Clips. Her Earth day pack (and others for that matter) are so cute and colorful. She's become one of my new favorites!

Only two more days before Spring Break is here. I cannot wait!! This girl is ready to sleep in and relax some (although I'll still be doing Insanity for another 40-something days, unless I decide to be a quitter at 30. I'm on day 19 right now, and this waking up at 4:30 to do intense workout is killing me).

Giveaways galore

Thank God it's Saturday! This week seemed to last forever, and we still have one more week to go before Spring Break. I've heard that some people get two weeks for break. How does this work? Are you year-round school, or do you just work in an amazing district? I'm very jealous!

When we come back for break, it's time for benchmarks. We'll also only have 5-6 weeks left before the SOLs (EEK!). I need to hit the ground running with test prep for my kiddos!

I had to blog about this and let you know about this AMAZING giveaway! If you're like me and have become obsessed with buying clipart, you HAVE to check this out. Pretty much all the big name clipart people are giving things away here. I've entered every way possible and would be floored if I got lucky enough to win!



Then head over to Lisa's blog for her giveaway (tons of TPT gift cards and other stuff) that could buy some of the clipart you want if you don't happen to win Tori's. Or if you're SUPER lucky, you could share it with me just buy a TON of extra stuff!


Tracey just hit 300 followers today, and who doesn't love gift cards?

Brittany is celebrating 200 followers, and there are some fantastic prizes, including more free clipart!

And finally, a 100 follower giveaway with a $25 gift card. Go check out Literacy Spark!

Oh, make sure you check out yesterday's post to see my lie and new Spring literacy centers I posted yesterday. They're adorable. Plus there's only one week left for my Lucky 7 linky party. If you haven't already linked up, go do it! It's a great way to reflect on what you're blessed to have.

I've been cleaning all morning (trying to have things ready for us to go out of town next weekend), and now I'm just waiting for little man to wake up from his nap so we can do something!

The truth is...

Alright, I had a lot of fun reading everyone's truths and lies and can't wait to see how many I actually got right. I was surprised and amused that EVERYONE got my lie wrong. However, to be fair, I was a little tricky and only gave a half lie. 

• I did want to teach math (although I've always loved working with little kids) and I WAS failing my first college level math class before I dropped it. The problem was that I had only taken up to Trig in high school and tested in for college Calculus. There's a HUGE gap between the two. I cried. But my brother (who's 8 years younger than me) also told me that if I taught high school, he would never be able to listen to me. So maybe it was God's way of showing me I wasn't cut out to teach them. Instead I work with the high school girls at church, and it's the perfect balance!
• Yes, I did want to be a preacher's wife, and yes, Steven was a deacon at our church. This is his year off, but he'll probably be back on soon. We go to a very small church, so the rotations are kind of tight.
• I actually started teaching myself to sing alto in ELEMENTARY school, not middle school. (Sorry, maybe I was being unfair but I wanted to keep people guessing!) My best friend was the music minister's daughter, and we were probably in 3rd grade learning how to sing it. It kept us entertained!

In other news, I finished my Spring Literacy Centers yesterday and had two wonderful ladies review them for me last night. You can find them at both stores now. Enjoy!

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My first Five for Friday and a FREEBIE!

This is a busy, yet fun time of year, so this post is going to be full of information! With that, I figured it was the perfect time to join in Doodle Bug's Five for Friday, especially when I realized I already had 4 things!

1. We always have reading month during the month of March, and this year's theme is Where the Wild Things Are. I love that little book!

We always have a door decoration contest, so I was trying to think of the best way to decorate my door. My favorite saying from the book is "I'll eat you up, I love you so", and I thought it would be cute to do something related to that. Here's what I finally came up with:

And I surprised myself with my artistic talent. I hand-drew this big guy. It took me a LONG time though!

Then I decided it would be cute to do tally marks for the books read "eaten" in my class.

Since I'm mostly push-in, we are shooting for 100 books (already at 33) in 3 weeks. If the school as a whole reads 40,000 books in 3 weeks, each grade will have a "wild rumpus". I'm not exactly sure what that will entail, but the kids are excited!

2. Since today was the last day before St. Patrick's Day, we did my Lucky Seven craft (how funny that I ended up having 7 kids complete it!). I thought they turned out pretty cute for the most part! Some of my kids are just going to throw something together no matter what, and I guess I just have to accept that.

You can get that craft at my TN or TPT store for $3 if you still want to do some St. Patty's Day activities next Monday. Don't forget to join my Lucky Seven linky as well. I'm up to 5 link-ups and hope some more of you will join in!

3. Today, I decided I needed to go ahead and put together my Easter craft. I went really simple, but it's what I wanted to do for this one. Click the picture or links below to pick this up for FREE!

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4. I am trying to finish up my Spring Literacy Centers. The clip art has been changed out (I used Krista's Creative Clips this time and LOVE her stuff!), but I still need to work on changing everything from St. Patty's Day theme to spring in general. Keep an eye out for it soon, though! I'm hoping to have it finished by next week.

5. This is my 100th post! I can't believe that I've had 100 hopefully useful things to say since I started this blog back in August. I feel like I'm growing so much as a blogger, TPT seller, and, most importantly, a teacher. You guys help with that so much!

Is anyone doing anything fun for St. Patty's Day this weekend? Steven and I had talked about doing a little party at our house, but we just haven't gotten anything together. Maybe we'll work something out and have a few people over, but he has grad school work to do (6 more weeks!) and never has free time. We'll see. Hopefully we can at least do something!

My Lucky Seven

I'm finally doing it! I've wanted to host my own linky party for a while now, and the time has finally come. For those of you who have followed me for a little while, you may already know that I LOVE St. Patrick's Day almost as much as Christmas. It's just a really fun holiday to me! So I created a linky for the entire month of March. I hope you'll join in!

Graphics from www.mycutegraphics.com

The rules to this linky are simple. List 7 things in your life that you are "lucky" or blessed to have. Then please copy the button and link back to this post! Oh, and let's do the rule of 3. Comment on the two people who post before you and one after so we can meet new people!

Here are my seven:

My husband, Steven

This picture is from a wedding we were in a few years ago, but I love it!

My husband has become my best friend, and he really is AMAZING! He takes care of me, showers me with love, stands up to me when needed (I AM stubborn, so I need this a lot), and is a wonderful daddy! I couldn't have been any luckier when finding the man I want to spend the rest of my life with!

Keagan

Christmas 2012

This little goober has only been a part of my life for a short time, but he has become my pride and joy! He melts my heart and makes me want to pull out my hair at the same time. Having a child really is a great way to have even a glimpse of the love that God has for us - that unconditional, I-love-you-even-when-you-poop-all-over-me-and-my-last-clean-pair-of-pants kind of love! And yes, that did happen shortly after I brought him home from the hospital.

My family

Thanksgiving 2012

I don't get to see my family too often because they live in GA (and my sister in MS), but they are the people who helped shape me into the woman I am today. I'm doubly blessed though, because Steven's family has accepted me as one of them, and I really am proud to be a Dalton!

My in-laws

My sister-in-law's wedding a few years ago

I hear so many horror stories about in-laws, but honestly I can't say one negative thing about mine! I truly feel like I'm a daughter. Steven even jokes that if something went wrong, they're more likely to take my side! Becky and Steven's parents have especially done so much for us, taking care of Keagan, helping with errands, and spoiling our child ROTTEN! They're the best!

My small group

Halloween 2012 with most of the kids from our group

It's been great to be a part of a group who are all in about the same phase in life. We had babies within months of each other and are now raising small children together. There are four couples, and we are finally beginning to add adults (we think they were scared to join because they might get pregnant ;-). These couples have become some great friends, and I really enjoy spending time with them each week. I'm even sad when I have to skip out of group.

My job and coworkers

A few of the girls hanging out to celebrate the weekend

I've worked at the same school since I graduated, and I can honestly say that the majority of the time I'm very happy there! I have a principal that lets us try new things to see what works (this year, we went almost entirely to CAFE and Daily 5, and we were encouraged to basically throw out the basals!), and I have some pretty awesome coworkers, too! These girls are great teachers who would all fit right into this whole blogging community (a few of them are blog stalkers already), and they've got amazing ideas! I love that they inspire me to be a better teacher!

My God and faith in Him

I stole this picture from a girl at our church. She's a GREAT photographer!

I wouldn't call this luck by any means, but really none of it is. I was blessed to be raised in a strong Christian family and given good Christian friends along the way to help me grow. With that, God has continued to protect me in every way. I've never really been in need for anything. Good health (rarely visit the doctor), enough money to make ends meet (although college was pretty tight), a safe place to live, etc. I know that being a Christian doesn't necessarily mean that everything will go well for me. I mean, look at Job in the Bible. Still, God has chosen to bless me beyond measure! Too often I forget to thank him for that.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my lucky seven, and PLEASE pass this along to your friends! I'd love to have a good turn out for my first linky party!