So everything was going smashingly well at school when I was blind sided with a announcement... I am not a 2nd grade teacher! I taught 2nd grade four years ago, but 5th grade was my love and passion.

Although this was not the news I was expecting on a Wednesday afternoon, I am actually getting very excited.... MINUS the fact I have 3 days to set up a new classroom.

Updates to come!

P.S. All advice is welcome!

I know I just hit submit on my last post, but OH MY GOODNESS! Netflix has Season 3 of White Collar on instant streaming. I am SUPER EXCITED!!!

The kiddos came back on Wednesday and I already feel like I am a week behind. This year is going to be an exciting year. Our grade level has decided to stay departmentalized so I am going to be teaching just Science and Social Studies. This is SUPER exciting for me. I really enjoy these tow subjects, so to be able to teach these two all day AND incorporate literature... I am sold!

The first few days have been tricky though! I am soooooooo NOT use to

ALL

THIS

TIME.

I really should not write that down because I know in a month those words will come back to haunt me! But seriously, 45 minutes of each subject is a lot of time compared to the 25ish I had last year.

Well, in the mean time I made a great timeline for our Social Studies curriculum.  It was overwhelming. It its completion, it is 48 pages and spans over 140 of historical events. Please check it out if you are interested.

where have all the cowboys gone

Ok, so not really the cowboys, but my summer... where did my summer go?!?!?!?!

I report back to school in 7 days! YES, a week from today I will be sitting in my school hearing about all of the wonderful changes that will take place for the 2012-2013 school year BUT

~what about all the time I want to spend with my son!

~all of the projects I did not get done at home!!

~what about that last beach trip I want to take!!!

I guess all good things must come to an end to make way for new great things!?!?!?!



So, last thought before I go switch my laundry and finish my last paper for my summer semester...

I got this new A-M-A-Z-I-N-G bracelet yesterday at a Market Show in Atlanta.

The artist is Amy Labbe. She is amazing! I even got to meet her!

Check out her stuff! I am sure you will fall in love, just like I have!


P.S. I am working on some great flash card on all of my 5th grade Social Studies content, 1865-Present. I should post all of them to my TpT store by the end of the week.

Oh how I LOVED Spring Break!!

Well now that is out of the way, comes the dreadful cram session before the state's tests! I am working on some things, so check back VERY soon!

Linky Party

There is a great upper grades link party going on. Check it out!

Character Clerihews... Character Cleri-what?

Another crazy week almost in the books. This week we began our poetry unit. I love poetry because it makes my kids think and they lack that ability some times... LOL

Anyways, I stumbled across an AMAZING poem this week. It was from a Mailbox magazine... I will get this information for you tomorrow. Well, the poem is called a Character Clerihew. Have you EVER heard of this?!?!?!

Well... just the title was enough of a hook for my kids, but the cross curricular connections is what sealed the deal for me. The poem is biographical, and being a social studies teacher as well, made the "characters" from our state standards (me 1 v. ccgps 0).

So here is the format:

Line 1 the name of the person

Line 2 rhymes with line one

Line 3 and Line 4 rhyme

Here is the example Mailbox came up with:

Abraham Lincoln

did a lot of thinkin'

he thought slavery was wrong

and thought freedom should be everyone's song

AH-MAZING RIGHT!

Well, when my students brought in their work, I was speechless...

I will get pictures tomorrow, but here are some I remember off the top of my head:

Rosa Parks

could make some sparks

if you asked her to move on the bus

she would start up a fuss.

Hirohito

needed a veto

he was the emperor of Japan

and he got a tan <---- This one is from one of my FOCUS students who has a GREAT sense of humor!

Let me know if you try this in your class!