Weekly Recap {Jan 22- Jan 25}

I hope everyone had a nice short week. I definitely had a very short week. Tuesday was the 100th day. As you guys already know I was at jury duty so I left a few things for my students to work on while I was gone. The most exciting thing was their 100 years old writing. We brainstormed on the Friday before. Then they completed the writing on Tuesday while I was gone. When I returned on Wednesday, they made the art project.

I didn't make my students a template to follow since I didn't have too much time to prep for this activity. I basically just modeled it for them, gave them construction paper, and just let them go.

This one was my favorite. She even drew glasses with a little chain. She came up with the idea all on her own. Who would have though!?

I also got around to putting up our snow globe writing. I bought all of the materials for adding the fake snow and plastic plates, but due to time I left that part out. I still think they came out really cute.

We finally wrapped up our study on penguins. My students were extremely sad to see this unit end. It is a favorite of my students every year. 

We even used Deanna Jump's idea of trying to walk like a penguin with an egg on the top of your feet. The kids had a lot of fun with that one. Especially when the egg fell and they had to get it back on top of their feet without using their hands.

Some more happy mail came for our classroom from Donors Choose. We got some new books for read alouds. My students are looking forward to some future author studies.

Last, but not least, I would like to share with your our amazing new carpet. Again, from Donors Choose. I have been wanting a classroom carpet ever since I started teaching 5 years ago. Now I finally have one and I love it. Eventually I would like my whole classroom to follow this color scheme. One step at a time.

I am linking up over at...

Donors Choose for Teachers

If you've been teaching for a while, you know how much money you have invested into your own classroom. During my first year of teaching I was going out every weekend and shopping for my classroom. I ended up taking a lot of my money and investing it back into my classroom. At the time I thought I was doing a good thing. I realized that I was spending money on things that I could be getting for free. In this blog post, I will explain how I've gotten $7000 worth of resources and supplies for my classroom for little to no money at all!!

I'm sure most of you have heard about Donors Choose. Some of you may use it religiously like I do. Others may have an account, but never submit a grant. Some of you may have never heard of it at all. I have gone ahead and created a video explaining Donors Choose and how it works. In this video I walk you through the process of creating your own project.


Once you start using Donors Choose, you will realize what a great resource it is for us as teachers. The best part is when the students actually get the materials and resources in their hands. I love taking pictures of them using the donations. Part of the thank you package is writing thank you letters to your donors. I have gone ahead and created a file that includes three different templates for you to use. You can find that file by clicking here.

This file is not only great for creating thank you letters for Donors Choose projects, but they can also be used for general thank you letters. If you have any questions regarding DonorsChoose.org please feel free to contact me. You can find my information in the contact section of my website.