Sentence Stems for Science and Math {Freebie!}

Hey friends!!

I know I haven't posted in over a week...eek! Sorry! I've been swamped! I know y'all probably are too with it being the BUSIEST time of the year for teachers...crazy crazy! I'm very busy working every free second I get on fulfilling requests from different teachers and also working on packets I've been putting together for weeks. 

My biggest packet is a science notebook unit for second graders in Texas. Sorry Common Core friends, not that I don't love you, but poor Texas teachers kind of feel left out since we don't do Common Core. We have the TEKS, which are fine, they work just as well...they are just different. You know us Texans...we have to stand out! ;)

When I moved to second a few years ago, I was a little disappointed in my district's science curriculum...it was well...just not great. I found a ton of resources on TpT of course, but they didn't always exactly match the TEKS standard so I would have to tweak things to make them "Texas Style". Well...in light of all this, I decided to combine everything I've made and done with my students' science notebooks into a huge resource for other Texas teachers looking for some fun, engaging stuff to do during science. It's taking me a LONG time to get it all together. I mean a LONG time...just so much to put in there. But it's going to be amazing, I'm very excited. :)

Anyways I thought these little "sharing stems" as I'm calling them would be a great freebie for y'all since I've been MIA the last week. These stems can be used when students are sharing what they've learned during science investigations or in math activities. Here's a pic of the stems run on cardstock and kept together with a brass fastener. To make them more kid friendly I called them "Sharing Stems". 

To keep them in science notebooks I created little pockets that the kids can label. Above the pocket I have an "I can" statement with the TEKS. You can pick the file up here.

Ok back to work. I hope everyone had a fabulous Monday! :)

Free and Editable Teacher Binder Cover Pages!

Hey friends! I've been quite the busy bee. Jackson's getting baptized next weekend and I've been searching for the perfect outfit and shoes. Shoes are so hard to find for this guy, he has the fattest feet! But I love them of course! :)

I've also been working on fulfilling requests from my teacher friends. My former co-teacher asked for some binder pages with polka dots and primary colors so this is what I came up with. I made two versions so she could pick the ones she wanted:

I also just found out how I can make these editable on Power Point so that you can use them however you want! Yay!! You can pick them up with Google Docs here or from my TPT store here. Happy teaching!

Teachers on Pinterest!

My best friend sent me this link to a great article on Pinterest about teachers. Of course we know that teachers love to pin. I pin educational stuff all the time. This article takes you to the official Pinterest board for teachers. They have pins organized by grade and subject. I'm going to head over and start repinning now! 

Also, to all you fellow teacher-preneurs out there...has anyone heard of a site called Tools for School? I received an email invitation to sell my products on their site but I really know nothing about it. If you're familiar with that site, I'd love to hear feedback! Thanks!!

Monday Made It Freebie!

Hey Friends!!! I looooooooooooooved all the love I got for my last post about our engagement story. You guys rock for leaving such sweet comments! ;) We had a great anniversary and we have a couple's massage schedule very soon. I'm SO looking forward to that!!

Ok so I had a lot of friends asking me for different versions of the birthday pencil toppers I made last week. So I went ahead and added a few different variations. You can print and make all of them or just print the ones that match your theme and style. 

We have....

cowboy...

AND...

mustache...

AND

sweets...

AND...

the superheros from last week. 

And a little "how to" for ya!

You can download the file here from google docs. Make sure to head back to Fourth Grade Frolics to check out all the "made its". Ok I'm off to bed!! Hope y'all can use these, night!

FIVE for Friday...an engagement story! ;)

Hey Y'all! I'm going to make this a short {but oh so sweet} post. I'm actually going to cheat a little bit too. Today marks the 5th anniversary for the Mister and me!! (Me...not I...right? I always mix that up!) Now, most of y'all know I moved and am currently decorating my home and finding places for things. Well I came across a box of pictures from college. In one of the boxes I found pictures from the day my husband proposed to me! It's actually a really interesting story. I know y'all want to hear it, right? Who doesn't love engagement stories!?

Ok so I was in my senior year at UT in Austin and my husband was a senior at a&m in College Station. I was doing my final semester of student teaching and I lived very far from the school I was teaching at. So every morning I'd call him while I was driving the 45 minutes to my school, he kept me awake! :)

Well this morning, it was October 12th...I think...eek! I don't remember the exact day! Anyways, I called him and he didn't answer. I called again, no answer. I assumed he was just asleep and would text me later. In the mornings at our school, all classes met in the cafeteria for morning announcements and the pledges and such. I was sitting along the wall with my fellow student teachers and our CTs (cooperating teachers). The principal goes up to the podium and says, "We have a special visitor with us today." I have no idea what's going on...then I see my hubby walk out from behind the curtains. I immediately started crying! I knew what he was going to do. It was so cool! These are pictures of pictures...sorry, they are the only ones I have!

So he starts asking, "Does anyone know where Miss Shirley is??" And all my kids get excited and point to me. I go up to the stage and he gives a speech about how he has known me since he was 11 and honestly I can't even remember all the details I was in such shock. Then he got down on one knee and proposed! It was so cute! The whole school cheered!! There were moms and teachers crying...it was so hilarious. 

Then all my students ran back to the class (these were first graders at the time) yelling, "Miss Shirley got married! Miss Shirley got married!" Haha! I'll never forget that, ever. It was such a great way to propose. We were married the following August and we've lived happily ever after since. 

I figured that would be my "five" for Friday...five fabulous years! Enjoy the weekend friends!

Science Safety Rules Booklet

Hey friends! Today I was searching through some old files and found a cute booklet I used with my second graders last year. At the beginning of the year we always read Officer Buckle and Gloria to start out our science lessons. The kids LOVE this book, if you haven't read it yet, you need to!

After reading this book we talk about the importance of safety. It's a great way to begin discussions about safe practices in the classroom and the science lab. As a class, we would come up with a list of safety rules. Then my students would write them down in their safety booklets. 

Here's an example:

I would run the cover page on yellow paper and the rest on plain white. The kids would write our rules first, cut out and I would help them staple on the top. These booklets were made small for two reasons: 1. to save paper and 2. to be able to stick them in their science notebooks. We put pretty much everything in their science notebooks!

This booklet takes them a little while too, so it's nice for the beginning of the year when you are still catching your breath. I would use this booklet with 2nd, 3rd, 4th or 5th graders. It might be too small for the younger ones to write on and too difficult for them to cut out.

You can pick up the file in Google Docs here or at my TPT store here. If you end up using it, I would love to hear about it!! Have a great Wednesday!

"Super" Birthday Pencil Toppers Freebie!

Hi Friends! I was working on a superhero packet for a teacher and thought the clip art I bought would be perfect for birthday gifts! So I made up these cute pencil toppers that say, "Have a SUPER birthday!" These are great to make at the beginning of the year, store away and pass out on a student's birthday. Who doesn't love a brand new, shiny pencil with an awesome birthday message on top!?

You can grab the file here from Google Docs or here from my TPT store. Have a fabulous Tuesday! 

Monday Made It: Pretty Pretty Goal Board

Hey Friends!! Let me just start this blog post by saying I am NOT Little Miss Crafty or DIY. But...lucky for me, they have some amazing stuff at craft stores nowadays. If you follow my blog you know I'm in a new home and decorating slowly, a room at a time. We moved from a 1200 sq foot home to almost 3,000 sq feet. BIG difference! We realized quickly how we had so much old stuff from college that we really needed to buy new furnishings for our "big boy" house. I quickly realized how expensive it can be to refurnish and decorate a 3,000 sq foot home! EEK! So...we're taking it slow, one room at a time.

My living, kitchen and baby's room are pretty much finished. I am now working on the office. I posted a pic a few months ago of that office chaos...not pretty. It's slowly coming together. The first thing I wanted to put up on my huge, empty wall (see pic) is a board with my goals.

I'm a huge 7 habits fan/Tony Robbins fan. I really try to set goals for myself: personal, health and professional goals. I feel like it really helps motivate me and push me to be a better, more well rounded person. I started doing it in my classroom since our school is a 7 habits school and I have brought it home to my new "job". I made little calendars for myself with my goals and my plan of action for each goal. See below...

But I needed somewhere to put these goals. And I wanted something PRETTY! Pretty matters, right?! I asked my friend Hannah to come with me and we took a trip to Hobby Lobby. I LOVE THAT PLACE! They have the cutest decor items and most of the time things are 50% off. Woo hoo! Here's what I found...

Perfect!! But not quite "pretty" enough. I wasn't sure how I wanted to decorate this but I knew I wanted it to say "Goals" somewhere. This is going to be the focal point of my blank wall and  I want to look at it all the time to motivate me. I found a great coupon for Joann crafts this Sunday and hopped on over there to see what I could find to add some pretty to my board.

Low and behold they make punch out buntings and letters in premade packs!! Perfect for what I needed. This packet was by a company called Heidi Grace. I got both packs on sale, thank you very much! I also bought some ribbon and cute mini clothespins. My office colors are going to be white/orange/cream/browns, like a brighter version of fall. (This color scheme stems from the fact that I am a University of Texas grad and have many longhorn frames/paintings/etc that I'd like to put up, and my husband is an A&M grad. He has many maroon items...so I figured fall hues would work in there but added white to make it happy and bright. So our office is actually our office/college memories room!) :)

Here's a pic of my loot from Joanns...

I punched out some buntings and the letters were actually stickers to my delightful surprise. I didn't read the package thoroughly but was pleasantly surprised I wouldn't have to punch out or glue. Yay!

Then I laced some ribbon through the holes at the top and use clothespins to hang it on the top of the board. To get the clothespins to stick I actually used double sided tape. How awesome is that? This way I can move things around if I need to and won't mess up the board.

Once the banner was hung, I added three little clothespins and taped on three little flowers that came with the set. Presh!! Here's a pic of the board with my goals on it.

I did have to shrink my goal pages down a little bit to get them to fit, but it worked out well! Now I just need to get the hubby to hang it up for me. Next week I'm hoping to have that whole blank wall decorated. What do y'all think of my board? ;) 

Five For Friday!! (MAJOR NEWS!)

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday! It's ridiculously crazy how fast time flies, seriously, I cannot believe it's the weekend again! Alright, here we go...

1. This is probably the biggest event that happened this week. I donated my hair to Locks of Love! I've done this 2 other times. I'm fortunate enough to have the kind of hair that grows like a weed...here it is at the hair stylists'. It's wavy because I let it air dry. I can make it super straight just by blow drying it. It's so long that it just got so darn heavy and my son LOVES to pull it!! Ouch!!

Here's all the hair she cut off!

And here's my hair now!! Ahh!!

I am really happy with it. I think it looks nice and fresh! And I love donating it to such a great cause.

2. I found a great Mother's Day Out program for little Jackson. If you follow my blog you know I recently resigned to stay home with my 10 month old. I work online still but that is kind of hard to do with a baby boy crawling/walking everywhere!! So I'm looking forward to him going and socializing for a few hours twice a week and giving me some solid work time!

3.  Speaking of my little booger...he also learned how to hold his own sippy cup this week... *Tear* He's growing so fast. 

4. I started reading an awesome book about time management. I got so frustrated when the school year ended and I started my "new job" of being a staying at home/teacher-preneur/homemaker and I couldn't do it all! I got so upset because I thought it would be so easy...and well, it's not!!! There's always so much to do and my to do lists just seem to pile up one on the other. So far, this book has really helped me put things into perspective. It's called There's Not Enough Time and Other Lies We Tell Ourselves by Jill Farmer.

I'm not making money off Amazon I promise, it's just a great book! If you struggle with "getting it all done" you should take some time to read it!

5. I met my professional goal for the month! I set a monthly goal to work so many hours and to increase my earnings by 100% and I totally did it!! I'm super proud of that. I'm currently looking for a way to post my monthly goals in a cute way in my new office. My best teacher friend Hannah is coming over to help me brainstorm tomorrow. I'm thinking some kind of corkboard with a frame around it so I can pin papers and take them off...but can you spray paint corkboard??? Hmmm I should go perusing through Pinterest, I'm sure I'll find something. If you are one of those amazing crafty types, send me some idea shoutouts!! ;)

Night Y'all!

Chevron 120 Charts Freebie!

Hey Y'all!! Last year my school went through some trainings over the new math TEKS that Texas put out last year. I know most of y'all do Common Core, but Texas has their own standards. I know I talk about that a lot! So if you follow me, you know this already. 

Anywho, last year we learned that in kinder, first and second the magic number was no longer 100 (as far as composing and decomposing numbers) it was 120. They found that many kids were able to count to 100 but had no idea where to go after that and we needed our kids to have a better understanding of place value beyond 100. 

Last year I made some cute 100s chart with stripes and polka dots, but to keep up with the times I've updated my charts to 120 and added the pattern of the summer {CHEVRON!!} to the background. :) 

You can download them from Google Docs here or grab them from my TPT store here. How do y'all use the 120s chart in your classroom??