Five For Friday!

This week I discovered Blogilates. If you are a Pilates/Yoga fan then you need to head over and check this out. 

Getting to the gym is next to IMPOSSIBLE with 4 kiddos. By the time I get them to basketball, swimming, dance, etc. I've missed my class. Blogilates lets me do a different workout everyday on my schedule. I've done days 1-5 and let me tell you I'm feeling it! Seriously feeling it. Wanting to roll around my room because walking was painful feeling it.  I better have one fantastic booty after all this. I have high hopes about his and I think it's going to be worth it! Added bonus: It's free! 

This week Michelle and I were approved to attend the SDE Reading, Writing, Math & More conference in New Orleans! 

I'm so excited to see Amanda Nickerson from One Extra Degree!! I'm also signed up for some PBL training and iPads in the classroom. I feel that if I'm going to be teaching 4th next year I need to be on top of things. It's going to be an amazing conference and I can't wait!! 

My dear friend Jena from Sew Much Music  made this amazing Dump Cake the other night. You MUST try it. Trust me. You will fall in love too. 

1 can of crushed Pineapple - 20 oz

1 can of Cherry Pie Filling - 21 oz

1 box of Yellow Cake Mix

1 stick of butter

Pecans - Optional but highly recommended. 

Preheat oven to 350°

Dump the pineapples into a 9X13 pan. Spread to coat bottom of the pan. 

Dump the cherries evenly on top of the pineapple. 

Sprinkle the cake mix on top of your mixture. Sprinkle around evenly. 

Spread Pecans on top of your mixture to your liking. 

Thinly slice your butter and lay evenly on top of your mixture. Be sure to get butter in the corners. 

Bake for 45-50 minutes until golden brown. 

Let cool until warm. Top with vanilla ice cream and Voila!!! Enjoy my friends! 

During Accelerated Math this week I realized my kiddos have forgotten their Doubles Facts. Math Facts in a Flash does not have a Doubles level so I created my own flash cards and we will begin reviewing them this week! Stay tuned to my TPT store for the set. Next up Multiplication! 

I won the Baking Basket put together by 2nd grade at our Spring Fling last night. It was pumped to win! Today Leah and I made the Watermelon Cupcakes complete with Watermelon icing that we found inside. Leah liked them...Mommy made Dump Cake instead. :) 

See you next week!!! 

-Tracy

Keynote '09 vs '13

Recently my beloved Macbook started acting wonky. It would freeze up constantly and would lock up if I tried to download anything. Working in Keynote or Pages was impossible because the spinning wheel of death would pop up every time. I was beginning to sound like Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz from Phinieas and Ferb, "Curse you Spinning Wheel!!". 

I finally gave in and turned my Mac over to the IT guys at school. 2 days later it was returned and working beautifully. Except I was in for a big surprise. Gone was my beloved Keynote '09 and instead was the new version. 

I opened up the new version and WTH!!!! The Inspector button was gone! 

My reaction was not pretty my friends. I started texting my brother, the IT guy, asking how the heck I could get the old version back. I could get it back, but the iWork 13 was the default so it kept trying to convert. If I was working in the '09 version and then tried clicking on another Keynote document it would cause '09 to crash and '13 to open up. I lost an almost completed project over this and I was MAD. Luckily I had taken Screen Shots to create the Cover Page with so I was able to recreate the Bee Themed Sticker Charts. Don't you just love this clip art!!! 

I was in panic mode. I loved the old Keynote! I relied on Inspector. I knew the ins and outs and could easily make worksheets, sticker charts, cute NWF games, and more. I was not going to embrace '13. 

But yesterday I forced myself to use it. And while it took me awhile. I realized that the new version does have the Inspector features. They are just in different places. 

Once you place a shape or clip art, your top right menu bar changes. You will see Style, Text, and Arrange. Here is where you will find the Inspector features. The only thing I haven't found yet.....the ability to be on an object and by using 2 fingers be able to change the angle. If you try to do it. You will start zooming in and out on your page. 

One new feature that I do like is they moved the zoom to the top of the page. This makes it much easier for me to work on projects and switch between 75% so I can see the whole screen or 200% if I need to zoom in and work on a specific part of my project. 

iWork13 has forced me to embrace the new Keynote. I'll be the first to admit I wasn't happy about it, but I'm not in panic mode now either. So if you find yourself with the new version and are having trouble feel free to email me or leave a comment and I'll be glad to help! 

-Tracy 

Peep, Peep! I Hear a Sale!

Have you heard the news? Several Teacher Pay Teacher sellers are having a sale! The sale begins Easter morning and runs through Sunday at midnight. Participating sellers will have their stores marked down 20%. No discount code required. 

Mrs. South's Store

Mrs. Moon's Store

So fill up your Easter baskets ahead of time and then come back on Sunday and grab these great deals!

We can't wait to purchase U-Know cards from Fun-in-5th Grade

Jena Hudson @ Sew Much Music has the cutest "Lots of Spring" bundle filled with digital papers, frames, banners and more. 

Here are a few items you may want to look out for in our stores: 

4th Grade Common Core Vocab Cards

Super Heroes Data Wall

Don't forget to hop over for the sale on Sunday morning! Happy Easter!!! 

Exciting Times!

Mrs. South here....

I am delighted to officially announce that I am moving to 4th grade next year! I will be teaching 4th grade with Mrs. Moon. I can't tell you how exciting it is to know that I'm going to be teaching side by side with my best friend. Instead of planning together and adapting to meet our grade level standards we will now be planning for the same lessons!

Having taught preschool, kindergarten, first, and second it's a little scary to be jumping to 4th.

For one, they are bigger than me. If I'm wearing the right kind of shoes I'm 5'3". Looks like Michelle will finally get me to embrace heels.

I'm thinking these would be a fantastic start to my collection.

I have spent the last 3 years teaching phonics, fluency, and getting my students to be strong readers. Jumping grade levels to 4th will be a big jump for me. I'm hoping to attend the Reading, Writing, Math and More  conference this summer to help me prepare and get my mind into 4th grade mode. Is anyone else attending?

Moving to 4th grade means I will be moving classrooms for the 4th time! I know it's crazy but I'm looking forward to this. I'm hoping to paint and to do a new classroom theme. I've been busy working on creating Super Hero themed items. I have a few more items on my To-Do list but then I will be set. 

As for painting, I'm thinking of bright colors that make all my Super Heros pop. Hopefully I'll know what room I'm moving into early in the summer so that I can get things sorted instead of running around like a crazy person in August. 

I have 40 days left in second grade...then the Dynamic Duo will be the 4th Grade Dynamic Duo. I'm thinking we need t-shirts or costumes. 

Stay tuned!