Five For Friday Linky August 29


It's time to link up for another...

Five for Friday is a weekly teacher linky party where you post five random things from today or this past week on your blog.



I officially finished the last 20 pages for my summer reading assignment. Lucy Calkins really has me thinking about the way that I teach writing. I'm definitely going to approach writing a bit differently this year and I'm excited to see the results. This book was a little repetitive, and it has a lot of information. I thought I'd finish it quickly, but it took me awhile to get through it, because all of these wonderful ideas kept popping in to my head. I had about 10 pages of notes by the time I finished! 



My summer has been all about organization. How happy was I to find this amazing blogging/TpT sales/Pinterest/everything a teacher blogger can dream of Blog Post, Giveaway, and Linky Planner and Organizer? Let's just say that I LOVE it and it's one of my favorite purchases of the summer! Now I'm not only organized for teaching, I'm organized for blogging too! 





Open House was a great success! I love being in a district where so many parents take the time to come in. I can already tell that my group of 27 students are going to be awesome! Each student had a welcome bag on their desk, with my annual goodie bag Welcome Poem, which got a lot of revisions this year.
The welcome poem can be downloaded for free here: Welcome Poem for a Bag of Treats




My "Parent Vitamins" were a big hit! 


I saw a version of this on Pinterest, and I loved it, but it only led me to a picture file so even after a google search, I still have no idea who the original creator is. I loved the idea, I just had to change up a bit. I put two fun packs of M&M's in each one - that way each parent could have one! On the other side of the bag, I made matching messages that were meant to put parents at ease. They loved it! 



If you want to grab my version of parent vitamins, you can download it here: Parent Vitamins




Student desks are ready for the first day with my wonderful new students on Tuesday! I spent all day yesterday getting everything ready for the first day. That meant cleaning up from Open House, organizing all of the papers that I was handed during open house, copying the papers I need to make our first day a success, and making sure everything in the room is organized and ready to go. I can officially say that I am ready for the first day, which means that I get to enjoy my four-day weekend starting NOW! It also means that there will be a classroom reveal this weekend so stay tuned!  

This is the note on the desk: It's available with the Welcome Poem here: First Day Welcome Note for Supplies



Wishing everyone a fabulous Labor Day weekend! For those who have already started, I hope your year is off to a great start. For those who start on Tuesday with me, let's all work hard to make this our best first day EVER! 










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8 comments

  1. I love the parent vitamins! So cute and clever! :)

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    1. Thank you! I just fixed the file so that it doesn't say Mrs. Ostrander on the top part so if you downloaded it, please be sure to grab it again!

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  2. Lucy Calkin's and the TC team are the best. I've been to their week long seminars in NYC and you get SO many ideas. Love the parent vitamin idea, too. Thanks. Kathleen
    Kidpeople Classroom

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    1. Thank you! I just fixed the file so that it doesn't say Mrs. Ostrander on the top part so if you downloaded it, please be sure to grab it again! I would love to attend one of their week-long seminars. I'm already so inspired, I can't imagine how many wonderful ideas would come my way after a week! :-)

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    2. I bought the blogging binder this summer too and I am LOVIN' it! Totally helping me keep on track. Enjoy the long weekend. :)

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  3. I love all of your goodies from Open House! Enjoy your long weekend and have a great first day!

    Blessings,
    Sarah
    smbhankinson@gmail.com
    Learning is for Superstars
    follow on Facebook

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    1. Thank you, Sarah! I hope that you enjoy your weekend too!

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  4. This is my first year implementing the Lucy Calkins Units of Study... you're right- there is a lot of repetition in that book! The Teacher's College came to train us in it, and they basically told us that the bolded part in the Units are the only "must hit" sections. I think I'm going to love it once I get it down...but it's a lot right now!! :-) Good luck!

    Real Teachers Learn

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