Ginger Snaps

Fall Sale and some flipcharts!

I'm a little late to the party, but I thought I would throw a little 20% off sale to celebrate the beginning of FALL!!

(Thank You to Traci from Dragonflies in First, for the cute graphic)

It will run in both shops until Tuesday night!

Also, I uploaded all of my SC Explorers and Native Americans flipcharts to my dropbox for those of you SC teachers out there! Just click the picture to head over and download them all!

I will be back later, HOPEFULLY, with more. I still haven't had time to work on my new unit. =( Bare with me!!

Landform Flipbook

So, I have to vent for a second. I don't EVER post about my personal life, but I am feeling the need for some bloggy friend support. I have been staying at work SUPER late since school has started this year. I didn't leave the building until 6:30 today and 6:45 yesterday and then I come home and I STILL have stuff to do!

My significant other normally travels every week and is home on the weekends. He just recently stopped traveling a few weeks ago and his next work project is located in our own town so he's been home. It is always kind of an adjustment when he is home all the time because he is a VERY active person and enjoys going out and doing things on a regular basis during the week and I just can't keep up sometimes. I, on the other hand, have been swamped with things for school and so I am often doing work on my computer when he gets home.

He essentially told me last week that he wasn't happy. It think it mainly comes down to how much time I have been spending doing my work. There are some other things, but this is the major problem. I have been trying REALLY hard to get everything done at school so I don't have to bring anything home, but I just can't seem to get it all done. And to top it all off, I am flippin' exhausted after my BUSY 12 hour day. I have vowed to try harder to do more things with him and around the house instead of coming home and working every day, but I still don't know that I will be able to do this all the time because of everything I need to do and how tired I am from my day. So, I guess I just need your advice...How do you balance it all and have a life?? Seriously...what's your secret?!

Anyway, on to the goods! I posted yesterday about my landforms flipbook we made in class this week!

Remember, these cute things!? The students finished making theirs today and I totally forgot to take pictures of them!

Click HERE to download your free file!

Also, I am in the brainstorming phase of my new Halloween unit and Lord knows when I'll be able to sit down and ACTUALLY work on that with everything else going on in my life right now, but just know, IT will happen sometime before mid October! =)

My idea is "Boo in the Zoo: An Animal Themed Halloween Unit." I want to incorporate ELA, Math, and Science all in one.

Here are some things I'm thinking:

* Animal Research (Bats, Owls, Cats, Spiders, and other creepies)

* Spooky and Weird Animal Adaptations

* Habitats Trick or Treat (Students would pretend they were going Trick or Treating in each habitat and draw or write things they would find there to add to their Trick or Treat bag) I know it sounds crazy, but I'm still in the thinking phase! =)

* Bewitching Words (Students would pick and animal and write describing words)

* Monstrous Metaphors & Spooktacular Similes (Animal related of course!)

That's all I've got so far! What do you guys think?

Any requests or suggestions of things you would like to see included? I'd love your ideas!

Landforms Flipbook Activity

This week in Science we have been learning about Earth's Land Features. All week we took notes, learned hand gestures, and watched a video, and then we made a landform flipbook. I have to say, it came out SOOOO cute!! I got the idea from an AIMS lesson and adapted it for the SC landforms. Here is what it looks like completed!

And here it is in action!

You can download it HERE!

Carolina Blogger Meet Up

We had the BEST time Saturday at the Carolina Blogger meet up in Columbia! We met up at California Dreaming and chatted it up for a few hours! It was so great to finally put blog names with faces! HAHA I was like, "Oh, that's Elizabeth from Fun in Room 4B!" These girls were so awesome! I am sad we couldn't spend more time together, but I did stay the night with a few of the girls and it was well worth the trip!

Prepare for blogger meet up picture OVERLOAD!

It was so much fun ya'll!!

Please go check out all of these awesome ladies and their blogs!
Autumn, Ashley, and Tammy from Fanatical in First Grade
Kim will have a blog coming soon!
Elizabeth from Fun in 4B
Gretchen from Always a Lesson
Hope from 2nd Grade Shenanigans
Dana from 3rd Grade Gridiron
Shasta from The Loop
Heather and Juli from Simple In Second
Amanda from Teaching Maddeness
Amber from Adventures of a Third Grade Teacher
Rachel from The Tattooed Teacher
Elisabeth from Twins, Teaching and Tacos
Rebecca from Landing in K
Natalie from Teachery Tidbits
Lacie from Polka Dots & Pencils

Anyway, I have had kind of rough week in my personal life, so I haven't had the time to devote to my post blog this week, but I am so excited to share my new landform flipbook tomorrow! I forgot to take a picture of it before I left school since I was there until 6:45!!! WHAT!? I know...

Substitute Writing Idea and a Math Game

So, we have to turn in three days of sub plans each year and I have been working on gathering my lessons for my this because it's due Friday! I recalled a blog post I saw earlier this year about where your missing teacher has gone and I was inspired to make my own to cater to upper grades too!

I snagged the idea from Cara Carroll at "First Grade Parade." Click HERE to see her adorable post about her writing activity! I asked if she would mind if I did my own little spin on it and of course she said, yes! But, she said she saw the idea somewhere on Pinterest! If this was your original idea, please let me know and I will add you to this post!

Anyway, here is my version with both primary and upper grades writing pages! In the first one, students write a few sentences about why they think their teacher is out and draw a picture to go with it!

Then, I came up with this one all on my own! I was creating the first one and I was inspired to turn it into a newspaper article! Anytime the students can pretend to be someone else, I think it really gets them thinking and their ideas flowing!

Click HERE to download your free copy!

Here are some other great substitute resources!

Rachelle, from What the Teacher Wants has a great download called the Substitute Teacher Survival Kit, which I proudly own! Just click the picture below to go grab yourself a copy!