Mardi Gras Books to Share in your Classroom

It's Fat Tuesday friends!

We have been living large here since Mardi Gras began after Twelfth Night, and today our celebrations come to an end.  This is our second season of Mardi Gras, and honestly, we love every minute of it.  The colors, the floats, the bands, the beads, the moon pies, the general happiness.  I loved celebrating Mardi Gras in my classroom last week.  Of course we had to keep it real, and actually work.  It was not a day of pure sloth, but we had a great time wearing beads, playing math games <gasp> and enjoying our Mardi Gras music from Pandora. You can read about our Mardi Gras Celebration and the centers I used to learn history and practice math skills {HERE}.

I wanted to share few awesome books that are great for the Mardi Gras season that you may want to check out: (Links to these will take you to Amazon).

These three are great for younger children.  They are very easy reads for my sixth graders, but the time of year is so festive, they deserve a quick 10 minute read during SSR.


I've introduced a few to the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys Series Classics.  These have been popular this month.


This book is also a mystery, and my librarian couldn't keep it in the library because it is about Mardi Gras in Mobile AL... our area!!  She wants to be sure to order multiple copies, and I've added it to my list of book purchases as well.


Finally, I wanted to share just a few pictures with you of our Mardi Gras season.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!  I would love to hear if you celebrate Mardi Gras in your classroom!  Don't forget, my Mardi Gras Math Centers are on sale through the end of today! Grab them up to celebrate during the month of February!!

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Teacher Week: Five Fun Facts about Me!

Hi friends!  With classroom routines starting to settle into place, I wanted to try and get in a little more blogging.  I love being able to connect and learn from other teachers.  I'm linking up with the girls at BlogHoppin to this week.  Today I'm sharing Five Fun Facts About Me

#1:  I'm a New Yorker living in the sweet South.  I was born and raised in Upstate New York, and I'm currently learning a little Southern culture in my sweet home of Alabama.  I'll admit, I'm not 100% sold on all things southern.. I mean I still think my teeth will crack from all the sugar in the tea, but I will admit I do love the weather.  This time of year I miss the NY apples, and the State Fair, but I do love that it's still 90 degrees every day and I don't have to worry about finding a winter coat! The picture below is from Mardi Gras 2015.  I'll take shorts and short sleeves in February any day!

#2: Converse sneakers are a little bit of an obsession.  I have pairs of black, blue, red, brown and purple.  Gray will be my next pair.  I'm hoping I get them for my birthday.

#3:  This is my 22nd year of teaching. I've spent 16 years teaching sixth grade, and I love this age group.  They are finding their sense of humor, beginning to understand puns, but still haven't become jadded and snarky.  I mean how can you not love these faces!

#4:  I have a bit of an obsession with The Tonight Dough ice cream.  If you have read any previous posts, you may have known this already.  One night in a moment of weakness my daughter and I scoured the local Walmart and bought out all they had.  I'll be eating it for weeks!

#5:  I'm shy and quiet until you get to know me.  I love to read books and listen to all kinds of music.  My family is really into music, my husband being an Assistant Director of Bands, my daughter the principal chair tuba player in her Wind Ensemble, and my son, principal bass chair in the Mobile Youth Symphony Orchestra.  ME?   I used to play the saxophone, and the drums, but now I'm content to clap and cheer from my seat. 

Thanks for letting me share a little about me!  Have an amazing Monday!!!

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Five for Friday: Almost Back to School!

Hello friends!  Can you believe people are already heading back to school?  I start back with a week of teacher professional development on Monday, but my own kids start classes.  I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs for a little week in review.

1)  First off, have you entered this AWESOME GIVEAWAY yet?  There are only a few short hours left to enter to win the Kindle Fire!  There are so many great books out there.  You can go {HERE} to read about a great Back to School book and enter!

2) With Back to School looming, I took my kids to visit my Seester and enjoy a day or two at the beach.  It rained for 4 days... BUT on the last full day we managed to sneak in a little beach time!

3)  While at the beach I finished this great book:  The Copernicus Legacy: The Forbidden Stone

 

I picked this book up at the library and loved it from the start.  It's kind of like a kids version of The Da Vinci Code.  A group of kids are off on an adventure around the world using clues from Copernicus' diary and an ancient map. I'm going to order it for my classroom and share it when I get back to school. 

4) Of course, I did some shopping with my Seester.. because I hate shopping and I don't go very often.  She helps me to update my wardrobe.  I got this fabulous shirt from her by Lilly Pulitzer... SHHH don't tell her.. I really SHOPPED in her closet.. it's a Braylen shirt and the print is called Palm Reader.

5)  Finally, I must admit, I may have a leeeetle problem with my favorite ice cream.  Have you tried The Tonight Dough from Ben and Jerry's?  It has become my all time favorite, but it is limited edition.  What's a girl to do?  Buy out the whole store of what's left of course! #dontjudge

Thanks again to Doodle Bugs for hosting this great linky!  How are you spending you last week or weeks before school begins?  Eating ice cream I hope!!

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Last Week of School: Championships, Mean Absolute Deviation and Go Noodle

Friday was my last day of school with students!

I wanted to share a little of why I've been a little busy lately:

1)  My daughter and her high school softball team won the state championship in softball last week.  STATE CHAMPIONSHIP my friends, STATE CHAMPIONSHIP!  I am so proud of her!  She is just a freshman, so we are really honored that she was asked to move up to Varsity for play-offs.  The coaching staff is amazing, and these were a great group of girls. I can't wait to see what 3 more years will bring us!  If you need a tax write off and want to help this team, you can go {HERE} to GO FUND ME and make a donation to the team.  We are trying to fund raise championship rings for the girls!  

2)  We spent time early in the week finishing up our Statistics Unit by completing a lab.  I needed to keep my Smarties engaged and occupied.  Last week we flew paper airplanes.  Instead of measuring how far they flew, I had students design them to see how long they would last in the air, and we measured the time in seconds.  This week we did a second lab to reinforce mean absolute deviation and interquartile range.  I had students long jump, and we measured the distance in feet and inches. I had students convert to all inches and then find the mean, mean absolute deviation, create a box and whisker plot, and then find the interquartile range.  My Smarties were so good!  We had a great time enjoying the sunshine.  If you teach these topics, you may want to pick up the printable worksheets to do both the airplane and long jump lab.  You can grab them for just $1.00 in my TpT store.

3)  We also finished up our Chasing Vermeer mystery unit.  There are so many great clues about mysteries in this story.  The secret codes they have to decipher really kept them on their toes, and they loved playing with the pentaminoes.  I'm really happy with the way their character analysis posters came out! Please excuse the bottom the cabinet in this picture.. there were three days of school left people. :)

The author just came out with a new book using the main characters, Calder and Petra.  Pieces and Players is a great mystery using PRIME NUMBERS!  Love it!  Add it to your summer reading list.  I know you'll enjoy the math/literature connection.

4)  We had a great time on our last day of school with a little Go Noodle!  My class loves the Ice Cream and Guacamole song.  

5) To leave you on a personal note, my son also has had amazing accomplishments this week.  He was asked to be part of the Junior Honor Society, and was then awarded honors for the highest ELA average in the 7th grade.  I'm one proud momma!

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December Review: Camellia Bowl and the Dr. Who Geek in Me

Happy Holidays!  I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.

December has been a crazy month!  I'm guessing you can figure that out by my lack of posting.
My Smarties were busy with all kinds of fun and celebrations this year.  We start band in sixth grade, so this year was extra special with their first concert.  They wanted to perform for their peers so we did an impromptu concert in our quad.  I got to play band conductor... good thing I married one, and somewhat know what I'm doing... NOT!

We also somehow managed to get a free Sunday, AND it also happened to be Tuba Christmas in NOLA! We did a quick road trip so my "24" could play in Jackson Square.  Check out this fun video.

Of course, the day would not be complete without a trip to Cafe Du Monde for coffee and beignets.

We started our Christmas vacation with a weekend trip to the inaugural Camellia Bowl in Montgomery.  It was a rainy parade and pep rally, but it didn't stop me from scooping up these awesome Post-It Notes that they were throwing out in the parade.  Once a teacher, always a teacher.

The Camellia Bowl was a great time.  That is a nice perk to my hubby's new job.  Go Jags!
I loved this show because I am a big Dr. Who Fan.  My hubs wrote the Tardis onto the field.  It appears, disappears and then appears again.  Very Cool.

Check out their halftime Sci Fi Show opener:

Event though it was a tough loss, the game was really exciting, and I know our  Jags will be pumped for next year.

 I'm looking forward to spending a little time with friends and family over the next few weeks off.  I've got to catch up some blog reading, and blogging in general.

How do plan to spend your vacation?

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Five for "Fraterday": Pickle Pops and ALS challenge

I guess showing up late to the party is better than not showing up at all!  Happy LONG weekend my friends!  We've been in school for two weeks, but I'm thinking of my Yankee friends this weekend who are just getting ready to go back to school!  I can't wait to see all those beautiful classrooms!
I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs, for a little rewind of my week as I try to get back into the blogging swing of things:

1)  How can you beat this beautiful sunrise that I get to experience every day on my way to work!  I have to drive over the causeway and across the bay, and I have found that I am really enjoying the quiet.

I like listening to audiobooks, so in the morning I try to listen to something that is educational or motivating.  Right now I'm listening to Ron Clark's book:  The End of Molasses Classes.  In the afternoon, I like listening something non educational..LOL so it's George Martin's A Feast for Crows (Game of Thrones).  If you have any suggestions for future audiobooks, leave me a comment, I'm almost done with both of these!

2:  I am loving my class!   This is the 16th year I will be teaching sixth grade, but the first time I have been in a self-contained classroom.  My class is coming together and I think it will be a great year.  They have never worked with interactive notebooks before, so I'm loving introducing them to this new experience and teaching them how to use the notebooks to study.

3.  We are still adjusting to all things new in the South.  My daughter found a travel softball team to continue playing in, and we recently had our first tournament.. the average temperature was 105 degrees!  YIKES!  We played four games that day!  This was new to us.  Usually if the heat index is above 90 things are cancelled.

I can't wait for her to get her"24" jersey numbers, but I am not looking forward to scrubbing the red clay dirt out of those white pants!  We also learned about these beauties... do you know what this is?

It's called a Pickle Pop, and it's frozen pickle juice.. I'm totally thinking YUCK YUCK YUCK!

I guess they are pretty popular down here at tournaments.  The concession stands sell the big dill pickles and then freeze and sell the juice.  Apparently they help to prevent stomach and leg cramps from the heat.  I'm not sure if I'll be able to get my rock star catcher to try one, but we'll see.

4.  I rounded out the school week with a school ALS challenge.  

Our school was challenged by another elementary  school in the area to raise money and face the ice bucket. Of course I chided my class that they could not raise enough $$ to put us in the top three.  And of course, like every good sixth grader, they met the challenge.  We came in second and brought in almost $75.00 which is a lot for my little community.  I faced the ice on Friday afternoon.  

5.  Last, but certainly not LEAST, my Little Man made the Mobile Youth Symphony Orchestra!  This group is based on audition and they usually take students in grades 8-12.  Being a seventh grader we weren't sure, but wanted to give him the opportunity to try because his school doesn't have an orchestra and he has to play bass within his school band.  HE MADE IT!  WOOT WOOT!  I'm so proud of him! (He's the bass player in yellow)

Did you have an awesome week?  Are you ready to go back to school?  Enjoy the last weekend of summer!

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