Friday Flashback and Five for Friday

IT'S FRIDAY!!!!!!!!  That means I'm linking up with Doodlebugs Teaching for Five for Friday and Teaching Maddeness for Friday Flashback!

1. Last night was Basket Night/Book Fair and it was a HUGE success!  There was a great turn out and lots of my students were able to attend.  My room moms are the best and created a Harry Potter basket for our classroom!  We all donated a little something to it and our fantastic art teacher and librarian donated books 1-7 so it turned out to be a huge hit!

2. The author of Dragon Run, Pat Matthews, was also at our Book Fair to sign copies of his book.  My teammate and I snagged a picture and signed copy before we had to announce the raffle winners for the baskets!  All in all, a  pretty great night!

3. Well I finally did it.  I created a Facebook page for Teaching with a Touch of Twang!  I would love for you to click the link below to become a fan and follow me on Facebook.  There I will post things from my blog, ideas and giveaways from my blogging buddies, websites and other special giveaways!

4. I have also decided to join the Instagram craze!  My username is... you guessed it - teachingwithatouchoftwang.  What the Teacher Wants and Apples and ABC's have collaborated together and created #teachertalktuesday.  Every Tuesday I (and many other amazing teachers) will post one picture from our school day.  I have already started following some of my fellow blogging buddies and am already getting so many ideas for next year!  If you already have Instagram leave your username in the comments section, I would love to follow you as well!  Don't forget to link up by clicking the picture below.

5. This last one literally happened in the last hour of the school day.  My media specialist came to me with an offer from Scholastic that we couldn't pass up.  They are offering certain schools a chance to participate in a pilot program called QR Booktalks.  They send you a box of not yet published books and your students have a short amount of time to read one and create a "book teaser trailer" by writing a short summary and recording a book teaser trailer on camera.  We had to write a "pick us" letter and get it delivered by 3:00 PM today because there are three schools in the running and only two can participate.  Fingers crossed that we get picked!

Don't forget to link up your ideas for May's Monthly Market: Cinco de Mayo, Mother's Day, and the End of the Year and enter my 200 Follower Giveaway (open till May 5th).  You have all month to add your ideas and check out what other people are doing as well!

 

Check out Doodlebugs Teaching and Teaching Maddeness and link up your week in review.  Happy weekend y'all!

Basket Bonanza and Mother's Day

Tonight was our school's second annual Basket Bonanza and it was a smashing success!  A lot of my kiddos showed up to volunteer and I got to put my raffle tickets in for a lot of great baskets.  I even put in for two free round trip Jet Blue tickets (fingers crossed, Mr. S and I could use them for the honeymoon)!  I had to leave early so I'm not sure if I won yet, but I sure hope so.  There were some amazing creations there and lots of great gifts ideas for the holidays this year!  Our class voted on the theme Mother's Day for our basket and here is what we came up with...

• Best Mom coffee mug
• $10 Dunkin Donuts gift card (for breakfast in bed)
• Two tabloid magazines
• Bubble bath and lotion
• Back massager
• Ghiradelli chocolate
• Paint Your Own Plate Kit
• Three blank Mother's Day Coupons
• Mother's Day card

The lovely ladies of the PTA and front office wrapped it in cellophane and made it look worth a million bucks!  Gotta love cellophane :o) 

Speaking of Mother's Day, we just finished our Mother's Day projects and I am VERY pleased with how they turned out!  Since they are in fifth grade I wanted to something that they didn't think was too "babyish."  So what do all teachers do when they are in a creative bind... go to Pinterest!  I found the front cover from Martha Stewart and I created the back on Phrint Shop. 

(At the bottom, students write their name next to Published By, but I shaded it out here for privacy purposes)




On the top is the Author's Spotlight where we included a recent picture of the student, their name, age, height, favorite color, favorite subject in school, favorite TV show or movie, favorite book, favorite food, and what they want to be when they grow up.  Along the bottom right are three coupons for mom: one free hug, an uninterrupted nap, and breakfast in bed.  The kids all voted that those were acceptable and probable coupons, haha.  The bottom left is a Mother's Day BioPoem that the kids wrote from their point of view of their mother.  It was really funny and interesting to see how some of these kids see their mom.  Kind of makes you wonder what they think about you???  Tomorrow we will wrap them in our big envelopes so they can take them home this weekend for Mother's Day!

Sabra