Five for Friday!

We are joining up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for the Five for Friday Linky Party!! 

First of all….can you believe - 

Well…it already is May.  We just have to get thru May and June and then we are outttttt for summerrrrrrrrrr!!!! And actually April 30th is one of my favorite dates because I can use the cutie JT to say it's gonna be MAY! ha!!!!

I loved sharing #teachersshare 10 things about on us on our Instagram page (@knjkreations) earlier this week!  And I found the cutest picture of the 3 of us from Lisa's wedding over at Sparkling in Self Contained.  

Here we have the fabulous Natalie of KNJ in action teaching Improper Fractions --> Mixed Numbers!  I was lucky enough today to jump in and teach them Mixed Numbers --> Improper Fractions as she and her coteacher got called down for a meeting.  And no, I did NOT get a snapshot of myself today!

The entire school participated in a Mission: Possible kindness project and we made a bulletin board with every student's hand with a message of kindness.  Here is a student from Kristen's of KNJ fourth grade class.  They really do know!! 

Totally not teacher related but while I'm here at work my baby is with his amazing godmother at the park enjoying this FINALLY oh so beautiful day.  I just had to share him with all our teacher friends!!!

Why don't you head on over to Sparkling in Self Contained and visit Lisa & Becka…i know they couldn't wait to blog their Five for Friday, either!!! 

Hope everyone has a Fabulous Friday!!!!

#iteach345 Stress Free Giveaway!

We are joining #iteach345 to give you some helpful end of year, stress free tips…and a GIVEAWAY to make the EOY a bit stress free too with an end of year activity that can be used in just about any grade!!! We all know how hectic and exhausting the end of the school year can be!  Heck, we are already counting down the days and it's only still April!!! (We go until JUNE!!!!!). 

Here are a few tips that help us survive!!! 

K doesn't really drink coffee but N and J - well…we basically survive on iced coffee!!!! to make it just a wee bit healthier i've weaned from half and half to skim milk and the transition hasn't been too bad!!! (Remember, almost summer!!!!)

BE. PREPARED. 
it is soooo easy to start to slack and let lessons go towards the end of the year.  We are just as burnt out as the students are! But being prepared helps keep you stress-free.  I try to leave a nice, neat pile in the middle of my desk with the materials needed for the next day. This way, if it's a surprisingly warm day it's easier to call out and go to the beach since everything is ready!!! I can come in a few minutes later since everything is prepared for the day and ready to go!! 
*Also, watching fun classic Disney movies (like The Lion King) is always a way to destress!!!

and finally, simply: 

We do what we do because we love it.  Sometimes it is really hard. Sometimes really stressful. Some days you cry…most we laugh.  But in the end we do it for the passion and love for our "kids"…

And here to relieve some stress!! Enter to win this Classroom Decor pack to have you just one step closer to being prepared for the BEGINNING of the school year!!!! Just share our link to your twitter, Facebook, or Instagram (@knjkreations) with the hashtag #iteach345…copy it in the comments below…and give us your email for a chance to win!!!!

Classroom Decor Pack

Keep on Teachin'!

we're baaaaack!!!

Hello friends!!
Can you say, "It's been a while"?!!!! I just realized that our last blog post was back in FEBRUARY!!! Well, needless to say the school year was super hectic for all of us.  Changes in evaluations and teaching standards had us revamping so many of our lessons and kept us super busy.  Things are still crazy and expectations are HIGH! for both teachers AND students!   Here in NJ, teachers are trying to prep for the PARCC exam and meet all the common core standards in classrooms to really prepare the kiddos.  Sometimes we've found that our math textbooks don't quite reach the goals of the standard.  So while we are continuing to give the "chapter tests", we are also trying assessments directed at the standard.  This way, we can see if the students really do understand the standard and if THEY know what they are expected to know.  It's a quick, to the point assessment with a writing to explain, too!! Here is an assessment for 5th grade OA.A.1.

5.OA.A.1

Check it out, let us know what you think. (it's FREE!!!!) and please give us some feedback?  Would you use something like this for each standard in your classroom?  Would you like to see this for other grades?


In the meantime, its back to lesson planning for K & N…for J - I'm back to working on assessments and working on being a new mommy!! Just look at this peanut!

Snow? What snow?! **GIVEAWAY**

Well, hello there! Boy, has it been a while!  Today is President's Day and our 4 day weekend turned into a 5 day weekend because of……can you guess???…..SNOW!  

We are covered in many inches of snow and have used up 5 of our snow days already.  I feel like we haven't had a full week of teaching in all of 2014!! Here we are wanting to teach and needing to get our little crew ready for state testing in MAY (so much closer than you think!) and it seems like we can't get started.  Of course, we start working hard in September but once January comes around we're asking ourselves: What have we not gotten to yet?  But we just haven't been able to get there! Even our beaches are snow covered - check out me and Mr. B going for a stroll on the beach - what made me think it could be warmer there?! (aaah wishful thinking)

even our furry friends are seeking comfort and warmth in our jackets!!!!

Anyway!!! with all our snow days we've been able to create our latest: SNOW DAY MULTIPLICATION for 4th grade!

You'll find word problems and task cards that ask students to estimate, use arrays, use area models, and solve using both the expanded algorithm and the standard algorithm!!! perfect for when we get back to school after snow!! Can you believe we are supposed to get MORE SNOW tomorrow?! If we have another snow day, the KNJ teachers are going to go CRAZYYYYY!!!!

Are you interested in winning our Snow Day Multiplication pack?  There are 80 problems in the whole pack!  If we have at least 10 entries, we will give it away to a lucky winner.  But please share with us - have YOU had snow? or are you somewhere warm…and sunny…with palm trees…driving with open windows…oh, summer - where art thou?!

A Peek Into My Classroom & A Sale!

Well now that we have been back at school for a month (exactly a month today!) I finally got around to taking some pictures of things in my classroom to share. I also have lots of cute project pictures to put up in upcoming blog posts, so be sure to check back soon :) 

Here is one view of my classroom! This was the day before the kids started, pretty late in the afternoon after setting it all up. It's pretty shadowy, but what I love about my room is its bright yellow color. it's so cheery! 

Here are some other things I love in my classroom. This is our Goal Board. I created this myself! We come up with a goal, and each time we accomplish it, the football moves 10 yards. When we reach the goal, we earn the reward. As you can see, we are almost at our goal of a no homework night for everyone bringing in all parts of their homework! 

Keeping with the football theme, this is a Writing Goals chart I made. These are some goals we are starting off with, and I have about 20 other sheets of interchangeable goals.  Each child has a football clip to attach to their goal. They have a sheet they color in when they show me progress towards their goal also. 

One last thing to share is our behavior board. We have a classroom number that we move up for excellent class behavior and listening, and that can move down for not following directions, being too noisy, etc. It starts at 10 each day. We move 1 space for being above an 8 and 2 spaces for being above a 10. They can also earn bonus spaces for good behavior during drills or assemblies.  There are different milestones to earn rewards! 

I have more pictures I will post soon! Thanks for taking a look around :) 

Also, check out our Teachers Pay Teachers store for our Novel Unit Sale. All of our novel units are on sale for $6.00. Click on the link to visit our store! 

KNJ Kreations TPT Store

Full Swing and a Giveaway!

Fall is officially here (although in Jersey we are experiencing Aug-tober with this heat!!!) and school is officially in full swing!  The KNJ team has just been Educating, Educating, Educating, - OH! AND...working around crazy schedules like Back to School Night, Picture Day, the Zumba assembly (super fun!), the book fair.....etc.  It's always something at school, isn't it?  We haven't blogged in a while because of the back to school routine but now that everything is back in routine we'll be back to blogging!! Look out in the next few weeks as we blog pics of our classrooms and about some things going on in our rooms!  And since fall is here, check out this cute 3rd/4th grade activity to practice multiplication and division fact families!!  Comment below and one lucky winner will win our Candy Corn Fact Families product!!! 

Candy Corn Fact Families

Have a great weekend!!

last minute...

Well, it is Labor Day today but it doesn't really feel like a holiday! Tomorrow we have our last chance to make sure our classrooms are ready for B2S next Monday and i got NO sleep thinking of all the last minute details.  

• Shoot! I never numbered their baskets!...
• Should I re-make my VOICES (from 6+1 Traits of Writing) mini posters to match my "ice cream colors" theme?....
• OH NO! i need to get recipe cards for our "Recipe to Success" bulletin board....
• BULLETIN BOARD! WE STILL DIDN'T DO OUR 4TH GRADE BULLETIN BOARD!!!!...
• i have two horseshoe tables - and i still haven't decided which one i'm going to use as my "spot" (read THIS about how we got rid of our desks....what the @*&# were we thinking????)
• must finish painting the bookshelf (i'll post before & after pics after i the husband finishes it!)
• WHEN can i do this awesome Picture of the Day that Jen Jones from Hello Literacy does? i really think it'll help students with so many reading skills!
• i still have nowhere to put my calendar!!....is that realllllllly necessary?!

yikes...my list is a liiiiitle longer than i realized and i am about to go into panic mode!

but before i go, i'm hoping i'm not the only one that still has a "TO-DO" list before going back to school. (or are you back and realized you STILL have a list!?) so to maybe give you a little help, here is a FREEBIE of the numbers i will be using for each student's basket.  I will have 22 4th graders in my class this year but i numbered up to 36 - i really hope you don't have more than 36 students! You can also use the numbers for calendar or for whatever you choose.  but PLEASEEEEE tell me i'm not the only one struggling wiht last minute back to school stuff!! 

Click Here for numbers!

AND NOW....off to make pancakes then go to the outlets to maybe buy some shoes!!! 

^Who said i'm procrastinating.....^