Back to School in a Flash: Curriculum Fave's

I'm excited to join up with Ramona from Ramona Recommends, Layla from Fancy Free in 4th, and Jamie from a Not so Wimpy Teacher for this month's linky party:  Back to School in a Flash!  This week is Camera Roll #1 and we will focus on my Teacher Faves, yay!

Curriculum Fave #1:  Something I've created
Sadly I haven't gotten into the market of TPT yet, so these products aren't for sale, but my favorite are my Science notes & labs I created last year.  I designed one lab per week, on Thursdays, and always aligned it with my topics!  I had so many parents tell me that most days were torture getting their kids out of bed or to school, but they couldn't wait to come on Thursday for experiment day!

This year I won't be teaching Science due to the way we're departmentalizing :(  However, I am still going to do at least one experiment per month, and tie it more into Reading and Writing.  Each month I will blog about our experiments, but here is a sneak peek at some pictures last year from two of my favorite experiments!

Balloon Challenge:  Students must work together to suspend a helium balloon in mid-air with their given materials.

Marshmallow challenge:  Build the tallest tower that can hold a marshmallow without crumbling.

Curriculum Fave #2:  Product I use every Year
I am in love with "Paragraph of the Week" by Teaching in Room 6.   This will be my third year using this product, and I can't tell you how helpful it is for my students!  They thrive on the routine of the writing each week, it doesn't take too long to complete daily, and the prompts are extremely engaging.  I have always been great (sorry how conceited that sounds) at Math and Science, but Writing has never been as "fun" for me, therefore it's harder to teach.  This product helps take the guesswork out of Writing, and provides both the students and I a high-quality base to then climb even further!

Fave #3:  Product on my Wish List
I don't know about you, but sometimes TPT products can be hit-or-miss on the quality of the product and resources.  Therefore, once I find a teacher-author I like, I try to stay loyal to his/her store.  So, a couple of years ago I found Kristine Nannini's products, and I LOVE her!!!

My newest obsession and wish list item is Color-by-Number for Big Kids, 4th Grade Common Core Math.  I'll admit, I'm still a big kid myself and love to color and doodle during my free time!  I have this item in my cart ready for the TPT's Back to School sale starting tomorrow, woohoo!!!

That's all for today folks, join me next week for the Student Engagement issue of Back to School in a Flash!

Teacher Faves #1

I'm excited to join up with Ramona from Ramona Recommends, Layla from Fancy Free in 4th, and Jamie from a Not so Wimpy Teacher for this month's linky party:  Back to School in a Flash!  This week is Camera Roll #1 and we will focus on my Teacher Faves, yay!

Fave #1:  My Planner
In the past two years, I splurged on an Erin Condren planner, and while I loved it there were a lot of unused pages and the size was just a bit too big for my comfort.  This year I decided to opt for a Plum Paper planner, and so far I'm loving it! Here are several pictures & captions explaining why I like it so much!!  (I take terrible phone pics, sorry in advance!)

My two favorite colors, green & pink!  The green is much more vibrant than this picture shows.

Monthly Spread, very similar to EC.

One of my favorite parts is that I got to select what subjects to have pre-typed in the planner and in what order, this little thing will save so much time!  Also, the dates are pre-populated as well.

I opted to add 1 double-sided checklist page to every month.   I have an online gradebook, so I plan to use these for my standards I teach each month to keep track of student progress:  Reading/ELA on front, Math on back.

Parent contact lists, I think I'll have the parents write info on a label, and stick them in here.

I like that my parent communication form is in my binder as well, makes documentation all in one place!

Professional Development page, this may be simple, but I'm soooo glad they've included it!  In my district, we put in all of our hours at the end of the year, and it's hard to remember what dates & for how long we met 10-12 months ago.  This & the parent contact page will be great for documentation at end of year.

A personal goal is to track my fitness better, so I paid a bit extra to have fitness pages put in my planner.  This is the generic page for the whole year (beg / end)

There are 12 of these pages, one per month.

Also 12 of these.

Notes, you can see I've got a few blog posts to think about!

I <3 stickers!!!

Folder.  The only bad part about these is due to the smaller size of the planner, papers would have to be folded before they can fit in here.  You maybe can tell, I tore out my pencil pouch from my old EC planner, put in extra / unused stickers, and placed it in the folder - yay for upcycling!

Size comparison, to my favorite book series.

Thickness comparison.

Fave #2:  Pens, Pencils, and Markers
My name is Amber, and I've got a serious addiction to writing utensils:  especially Flair pens & Sharpies... it's a disease I tell ya.  Here are just the ones I have here at my house, I have at least this many also at school.  I will say in my defense, I never pay full price, I stock up during BTS and other sales to last me all year + some.

Fave #3:  Cowboy girl Boots
My third favorite thing, are my cowgirl boots that I purchased last Spring, I am in LOVE with these boots!  They're super comfortable, go well with jeans and dresses, and the design is cute without being too gaudy.

Fave #4:  Tennessee VOLS
Last, but not least, are my Tennessee Volunteers!  I go to at least 1 football, basketball, and LadyVol game each year, but football is far & away my favorite.  This picture always puts a smile on my face, it's our mascot Smokey (blue-tick hounddog) on a very, very cold day snuggled up in his coonskin cap and orange blanket!  I dare you not to smile at this pic :)

Thanks for stopping by, let me know if you have any questions or if any of these favorites are yours too!