Five for Friday (A Little Delayed) and I'm A WINNER!!!

I am so excited to be sharing my first Five for Friday...even if it is Sunday! It won't be very educational because this is my last day of spring break. BOO!! I am trying very hard not to throw a small HUGE tantrum right now! It  wouldn't be so bad if our last day of school wasn't June 26 and just in case you're wondering, that's 9 weeks and 3 days or 47 days...YIKES! Alright, I must stop complaining, no one needs to hear it, so without further ado I join Doodle Bugs Teaching Five for Friday linky!

1. I know I have already posted about living in Massachusetts, but here I go again. What a week it's been. Like everyone else in the area has said, being on vacation we were glued to our tv's. I will be interested to see if my kiddos have questions/comments tomorrow. If this had to happen, I am grateful (not sure I can think of an appropriate word to use here) that it was over vacation. I can't imagine sitting in school wondering what was going on and having to address it daily with the kids, especially when we didn't have answers ourselves. This is one of my favorite inspirational posts from the past week. 

2. I received a very thoughtful and so-very-appropriate birthday gift from one of my best friends. She knows how much I LOVE the beach and that two of my favorite accessories are flip-flops and sunglasses, so here it is:

3. I have spent the last year or so contemplating getting my hair cut, short; short for me anyway. In the past couple of months I have decided that I really needed to do this, so I called my friend (she's an AMAZING hairdresser) and made an appointment. She was just as excited as I was when I told her what I wanted to do. So here is the before and after!

4. I am being a terrible blogger right now, my excuse is that I'm new, and not giving credit to the people who gave me this idea. I saw two separate posts, I think in blogs, not on Pinterest, over the past week or so and now I can't find them again to credit their creators. One post was about finding lapdesks at Michael's for $5 and using them for literacy centers. The other was having a special desk with brand new supplies for well-behaved kiddos to sit at. I combined these ideas to create these lapdesks for my kiddos to sit at when they are being especially good. Each desk has a different quote on the top and the both say "STAR STUDENT" "SMART STUDENT" on either side. The kiddos love to sit on the floor and this way I will be able to accomodate two of them at once. If you are the creator of one of the other ideas, please remind me and I will give you create by linking to your post!

5. I found these little cuties at Michael's as well and cannot wait to find a way to use them with my kiddos! 

Finally, and most exciting of all, I won my very first giveaway! Upon waking up this morning, I got right up and started my very productive last day of break I rolled over, grabbed my phone, and checked Facebook. Much to my surprise, Theresa and Robyn from Pinkadots Elementary had posted their winner for the 100 Follower Giveaway...and the winner was yours truly! I cannot tell you how excited I was/am to win my first giveaway! And what a giveaway this is...I am loving receiving all of the emails from the amazing contributors sharing their TpT products with me. I will write more about them later as I begin using my TERRIFIC new products! If you haven't been over to Pinkadots Elementary, you should check it out now, Theresa and Robyn are wonderful! Thanks again ladies! 

BOSTON....and Made It Monday with a freebie

I don't know where to even begin tonight. I can link up with Tara's Made It Monday for the first time and share my first freebie, but I completed all of this while watching the coverage of the explosions at the Boston Marathon. I live in Massachusetts, a couple of hours from Boston, and have always thought about going to the marathon. I have friends and family that live and work in Boston, friends and family that were in Boston for the marathon, and friends that were in Boston at the Red Sox game. One of my cousins lives very close to the marathon route (thankfully she is close to the beginning), a cousin that works in the Prudential Center in Copley Square, a cousin that usually runs the marathon, and cousins who were in the city with their darling kiddos! Luckily all of those people are okay, but how scary?! What should have been a fun and exciting Patriots Day and Marathon Monday in Boston turned out so terribly tragic. My thoughts are, have been, and will be in Boston. <3

As I said, while watching the marathon coverage I was working on my Brain Bug creation. I cannot even name all of the pinners and bloggers that inspired me to come up with this idea. I have seen so many great motivational ideas for standardized testing and some very cute "love bug" ideas; I decided to combine all of these ideas to make my own little creation. Thank you all for the inspiration!

I used foam hearts to make the feet, fairly large pompoms for the bodies, googly eyes, pipe cleaners cut in half for the antennas, and mini pompoms on the antennas. I purchased all of my supplies at ACMoore and used my handy dandy hot glue gun to put them together! I can't wait to give these little guys to my kiddos!

Here are my Brain Bugs motivational cards

For more Made It Monday fun check out Tara's blog 4th Grade Frolics. It's worth your while!

Student Motivation, Getting Acquainted, and Another Great Giveaway!

Good morning and Happy Marathon Monday! Hmmm, nevermind the student motivation, I should be having everyone post motivating ways to get me to the gym...people are running 26.2 miles today and I'm trying to force myself out of this chair to go spend 26 minutes on the elliptical.

Ok, now back to the real reason I am posting, I am linking up with Head Over Heels For Teaching's Spark Student Motivation Saturday Linky! Coming back from Easter weekend and the end of our state ELA testing, I wanted to try to motivate my kiddos to complete some chapter books (the way they abandon books just kills me)! I came up with a "Carnival Day" idea. We are in school until June 26th this year, so I figured having a little fun during the last week wouldn't hurt. For every book that the students complete from now until the middle of June, they are able to earn a "ticket" for Carnival Day. Upon completing the book, they also have to complete a short Bloom's Book Review. I have this saved on my computer at school, but I just typed up a few general questions at each level and the kiddos have to answer three questions, each from a different level...nothing too crazy! They are aware that my events are not set-in-stone yet, we are waiting to see how many participants there are, but many of my ideas are pinned on my School's Out for Summer board. 

I also use ClassDoJo in my classroom and the students can redeem their points for coupons. I have decided to add Carnival Day tickets as a coupon that points can be redeemed for. I hope that most of my kiddos will somehow get to participate in these events! I just created a poster that is being printed at Walgreens that I plan to hang up after break to remind the kiddos of the fun they can expect from Carnival Day. 

Next, I am excited to be linking up with Flying Into First Grade's Let's Get Acquainted Linky Party! 

Latoya's fun Linky this week is: 

TOPIC - Skittles Game

Here is the code:

Red- Favorite Ice Cream Flavor

Orange- Favorite Memory from College

Yellow- Favorite Sports Team

Green- Favorite Fast Food Place

Purple- Wild Card(Tell anything about yourself)

Red- Favorite Ice Cream Flavor - Currently, my favorite would have to Friendly's Rockin' Poppin' Cotton Candy! 

Orange- Favorite Memory from College - Senior Year 5 of my friends and I went on a cruise to Key West and Grand Caymen. We drove from MA to SC, cruised, and drove home! We had the best time! 

Yellow- Favorite Sports Team - I am YANKEES fan! The only one in my family...and amongst MOST of my friends. 

Green- Favorite Fast Food Place - I suppose I would have to say Dunkin Donuts. I am not a huge fan of donuts, but I'll take all the iced coffee bagels I can get! :o)

Purple- Wild Card(Tell anything about yourself) - I joined the gym for the first time since college over February break and I went about 5 times. It is now April break and I MUST go back! Hopefully if I tell all of you that I am going to the gym, I will really go, because I can't lie!

I am so sorry about this marathon post (although I guess it is appropriate on Marathon Monday)! Finally, I want to share Ideas By Jivey's great giveaway with you! Everyone's giveaways just amaze me! This one is jam-packed awesome goodies! Head over and check it out for yourself!