When at first you don't succeed...

What have I been up to?

I'm making my own Welcome sign for my classroom.  I had mild expectations for this... mostly because I thought making an ombre sign would be easy... it isn't hard to tell that it doesn't really look all that ombre though.  Whoops!

This one is confusing for everyone who doesn't see my vision (I'm assuming none of you have been inside my head recently to know my vision).  

Do I have money on the mind?  

Maybe the letters are in the wrong order?

Pretty sure for middle school camp we had something called the "Omal" award... why omal?  It was lamo spelt backwards... 

We gain access to the school on the 18th for the first time all summer.  You'll just have to wait until then to see this vision.

Today is a civic holiday in Canada.  For me this means a family gathering in the park. 

I was to bring some kind of baking (my mom said cookies and naturally I choose to not make cookies) so I'm making homemade Twix bars.  The only problem?  I realized at around 8:30 last night that I didn't have enough caramels to make it.  Not sure when stores open today but I figure it I walk to one around 11 even if it doesn't open until noon I'll only look like the lady desperate for her next caramel fix for half an hour or so... or I'll just show up to the gathering with just this... 

Other things:

-  I finished the writing folders a while ago (I still need to test this permanent marker being able to be removed with nail polish remover before I decide what to do with the names)

-  I've been dreaming up ways to make my math class more exciting.  I found some interesting stuff on interactive math journals that I want to try.  I wasn't sure on the price but it has good reviews on Teachers Pay Teachers... plus I heard it through the grapevine that there is a 20% off sale on Teachers Pay Teachers today and tomorrow so I loaded up my wish list and I'm ready to do some purchasing!

-  Since I'm teaching a split class I can choose between the 2 grades what I want to teach for Science... I based my decision on what the teachers taught last year and picked my 4 units... I'm excited!

-  I found some fun activities to do for the first week or so of school - math pendants, science experiment (if only I could find some sodium polyacrylate at a reasonable price!... I think I'm going to try getting it straight out of a diaper), bio poems, and group work challenge.

-  I received some other stuff on getting your students for group work in the first 20 days of school.. just little activities for them to do each day that I think I'm going to work through

-  I've started collecting picture frames for my classroom... I want to frame our classroom rules (one rule/frame) and then put some frames up on the bulletin board permanently for student work to go in.  So far I have 4 so I'm looking for about 10 more for the bulletin board alone...

- I made a template for my classroom newsletter

-  I've come up with a really great idea for every classroom party I have this year.  I'm excited and I think it will be right up a class of grade 5's and 6's alley.  

Speaking of classroom parties... when do you have all of yours?  

Here's my tentative thoughts...

-  Fall (Halloween is taboo where I am)

-  Christmas

-  Valentine's Day

-  Spring Break

(the reason why end of the year isn't on the list is because we do whole school stuff at the end of the year)

Oh, and I fixed my Welcome sign

When at first you don't succeed... 

try, try again!

The first time I took turquoise paint and added white... I found it to work much better by using white paint and adding in the turquoise.  

Stay tuned to see if I remedied the Twix situation...